News and Rumors – Page 6

More on Vitamin C in Beer

On April 3, 2008

A post here on the use of E300, sometimes called vitamin C, as a preservative in Czech beer got a bit of attention and a few comments, also bringing up an interesting question or two. Specifically: would vitamin C continue to exist unaffected in the presence of alcohol? And is this E300 the selfsame ascorbic acid many of us take as a nutritional supplement? If not, does it have similar health benefits?

The answers, apparently, are: Yes, No, and Probably not.

To find out, I contacted Dr. Victoria Drake at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. In an email interview, Dr. Drake emphasized repeatedly that we should not recommend that people drink beer for the vitamin C. (Everyone clear on that?) In addition, she offered a few clarifications on the use of ascorbic acid as a food preservative.

Get Ready for the Czech Beer Festival 23.5–1.6

By Evan Rail

On April 1, 2008

In Beer Travel, News and Rumors

Around the Czech Republic, pivní slavnosti — beer festivals — regularly bring big crowds to brewery grounds, city halls and convention centers. And yet they often have a few problems: the ones in Prague usually only serve one kind of beer. The ones on brewery grounds usually serve their brews only, and only in cheap plastic cups. And the festivals with a variety of beers usually take place in remote locations.

Enter the Czech Beer Festival, set for its maiden voyage this spring. Taking place May 23 through June 1, the Czech Beer Festival will bring in beer from a variety of producers to vast tents set up at Prague’s Výstaviště exhibition grounds, the same place that held Prague’s Christmas Beer Markets, only in a slightly different area and on a much, much larger scale. As in: employing more than 200 servers. Some 100,000 custom-designed beer tokens, produced expressly for the festival by the Czech mint and together weighing over 1,000 kilos — more than a long ton — will be put into circulation. There will be seating for at least 10,000 guests, as well as plenty of standing room under the trees. At any given time, two large bulls will be roasting on spits. And there will even be a beer for dogs.

“We want to create something like Oktoberfest,” said Jan Hübner, the festival’s organizer. “Only with Czech beer.”

Why Foreign Ownership of Local Breweries Matters

By Evan Rail

On March 27, 2008

In News and Rumors

Following up on yesterday’s news about Heineken’s purchase of the Drinks Union brewery group, I did some back-of-the-beermat math to try to explain why it matters if local breweries aren’t locally owned. Here’s what I came up with:

128 million dollars.

That’s a quick estimate for the amount of money that is leaving the Czech Republic every year, simply due to foreign ownership of local breweries. That is to say that the Czech Republic — a transitional economy just 18 years removed from communism — is sending countries like Holland — one of the wealthiest nations in the world — an amount akin to $128 million every year.

Here’s how I came up with that figure.

Heineken Drives On Deep Into the Czech Market

By Evan Rail

On March 26, 2008

In News and Rumors

Heineken announced yesterday that it is taking over the four great brands of the Czech Republic’s Drinks Union brewery group (Zlatopramen, Velké Březno, Louny and Kutná Hora), which have an overall market share of 4%. The takeover will make Heineken the third-largest player in the Czech market after SAB-Miller and InBev, bumping Budvar to fourth place.

It’s not exactly a surprise — news of the proposed sale was floated last autumn — but it still caused ripples across the small pond of the beer world: within a few hours I was contacted by friends at CAMRA about the purchase, and EBCU members apparently all got the message via email. Back here at home, Pivní deník reported the story, posing some interesting questions.

To paraphrase: If Heineken decides to close some of its newly acquired breweries in the name of streamlining and efficiency, who will be the first? Louny, which is closest to Krušovice, which already has plenty of unused brewing capacity? Or Kutná Hora, which Drinks Union doesn’t actually own but only rents from the town? Or one of the twinned breweries of Zlatopramen and Velké Březno? Would two breweries in the same town really survive a takeover by such a major international brewing group?

Traditional Czech Beer Vessels and Thoughts on Beer Culture

By Evan Rail

On March 25, 2008

In Beer Tastings, News and Rumors

In the Czech lands, the typical serving unit for beer is a půllitr, a half-liter glass just a nudge beyond an American pint in volume and weighing in around .88 imperial pints. That is the normal beer for grown-ups, while our most common small portion is .3 liters, or just a hair over a British half. Occasionally you might see a one-liter vessel called a tuplák, much like the Maß served in Munich at Starkbierzeit. Some brewpubs serve their beer in meager .25- and .4-liter portions, and some, like Brno’s Pegas, offer a standard portion of .6 liters (over 20 U.S. ounces).

But regardless of size, Czech beer is generally served in just one material: glass. Of course it wasn’t always this way. In historical terms the traditional Czech vessel was not the see-through půllitr, but rather the korbel (above), usually made out of clay.

E300 in Czech Beer

By Evan Rail

On March 20, 2008

In News and Rumors

There have been a couple of comments about the widespread use of E300 in Czech beer, both here (in a comment from Max Bahnson on the post about Czech beer as a protected name) and from David over at Beer Oh Beer (where Max again casts his vote against it). Nothing more than ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C, E300 is added as a preservative as well as to prevent the development of haze in beer.

I can understand people might want their favorite beverage to include no food additives whatsoever, but I also appreciate the use of vitamin C in my beer instead of, say, E211, also known as sodium benzoate, a preservative believed to potentially damage mitochondrial DNA, cause premature aging and possibly even cause Parkinson’s disease. (E300 it is!)

In fact, quite a few Czech beer labels show E300 on the back, including some of the very best — the one above is from Herold’s absolutely outstanding Bohemian Black Lager. But how much E300 are brewers allowed to put in your favorite bottle? The answer might surprise you.

Czech Beer in Vietnam — Kinda

By Evan Rail

On March 19, 2008

In News and Rumors

Czech beer has inspired imitations, reproductions and outright ripoffs around the globe. There’s the world-wide use of the term Pilsner, which is only applied to one beer in the country of its birth. At least two beers from Anheuser-Busch have taken Czech names, only one of which is Budweiser. (Who’s quick enough to tell me the second?)

Way out in Utah there’s the Bohemian Brewery, founded by a family of Czech émigrés, which joins National Bohemia from Maryland, Bohemia from Mexico, and Sagres Bohemia from Portugal. And then there’s this.

More from Prague’s Salesian Beer Museum

By Evan Rail

On March 18, 2008

In Beer Travel, News and Rumors

Here are a few more photos from Prague’s Salesian Beer Museum, an “accidental” collection of more than 2,000 bottles, 4,000 beermats and the weird, beer-themed collectibles known as breweriana, many of which come from the Czech lands.

Looking through the shelves, I was struck by how much evidence these artifacts provide for the way people here once lived, as well as a contrast to the way we live now. One of the most interesting items in the collection is the advertising placard (above) for the Měšťanský pivovar na Královských Vinohradech, the brewery in the Vinohrady neighborhood which ran from 1893 to 1943, along with scores of other beer makers once working in the Czech capital. In a sign of changing priorities, the Vinohrady brewery has recently been converted into luxury apartments.

So we don’t need historic breweries — we need plush digs. But our old beer culture had at least one advantage: much better graphic design, as witnessed by the museum’s collection of unusual beermats.

Budweiser Budvar Privatization News

By Evan Rail

On March 13, 2008

In News and Rumors

There’s more news in the Budvar privatization saga: the Czech government’s tender for an adviser is now complete, with the contract going to the Prague law firm of Kříž & Bělina, as the Prague Daily Monitor reported yesterday, via Hospodářské noviny (subscription required). Kříž & Bělina will help the Czech government take the initial step toward privatization, that of turning Budvar into a joint-stock company.

Though the path forward remains unclear, we now know four of the parties stumbling down it: the Czech government, Budvar, Kříž & Bělina and, inevitably, Anheuser-Busch, described in the article as “considered the most serious bidder in the privatisation.” The article also takes a stab in the dark at Budvar’s worth, suggesting 1 billion dollars or perhaps even 1 billion euros.

Why so much? Well, it’s not what Budvar sells, currently just 1.25 million hectoliters of high-grade lager per year. It’s what Budvar’s regional rights to the name Budweiser might keep Anheuser-Busch from selling.

Slovak Beers: Steiger and Kaltenecker

By Evan Rail

On March 12, 2008

In Beer Tastings, News and Rumors

After the big breakup known as the Velvet Divorce, Slovak beers were rarely seen in this half of the former Czechoslovakia, and the old Czech prime minister once commented that Slovak brews weren’t even fit for cleaning teeth. So it seems meaningful that Slovak beers have started appearing in Prague recently, from Kaltenecker’s ginger and dark lagers at the Christmas Beer Markets to the bottles of Steiger popping up at Pivovarský klub.

These bottles, however, are not intended for Slovakia’s former federal partners here in the Czech Republic, but instead are designed to entice customers in the German-speaking markets. (Yes, that is a scratch-off bra and panties covering the model on Steiger’s “Premium Helles,” or světlý ležák to you and me. Lest you think that they’re playing upon Slavic stereotypes, not all of the labels feature blondes — there’s at least one redhead.)

Beer Culture

Stories about great beer from the countries that invented it.

Category: News and Rumors (Page 6 of 8)

More on Vitamin C in Beer

Get Ready for the Czech Beer Festival 23.5–1.6

Why Foreign Ownership of Local Breweries Matters

Heineken Drives On Deep Into the Czech Market

Traditional Czech Beer Vessels and Thoughts on Beer Culture

E300 in Czech Beer

Czech Beer in Vietnam — Kinda

More from Prague’s Salesian Beer Museum

Budweiser Budvar Privatization News

Slovak Beers: Steiger and Kaltenecker

You should read my newest Kindle Single, “The Meanings of Craft Beer.”

Get “Why Beer Matters,” the best-selling essay on the world’s best-loved beverage:

Buy “In Praise of Hangovers,” selected by Amazon as one of the best books of the year so far:

Pages

Tags

Other Blogs You Might Enjoy