catapult magazine

“Beer is proof that God exists, and that He wants us to be happy.”

-Ben Franklin

I’ve always thought Heineken to be a bit overrated. And there are so many good brews over there, it’d be a pity to be there and go after a beer you can pick up at the 7-11 on the corner.

It’s like eating Taco Bell in Mexico.

Or, by my husband’s rule of thumb – don’t buy or eat anything while you’re out or traveling that you could very well do/eat/have at home. For example, you go to an Italian restaurant, you don’t order pasta. You go to Holland, the last thing you order is Heineken. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Did I clarify your point, Norbert?

That and I don’t like Heineken all that much.

Adam, maybe your feelings of vulnerability and inferiority at your title are actually a result of what can be called “member envy” ??? or maybe not.

you know what i mean.

:)

Well, I don’t know if it’s Freudian, but it’s definitely a locker-room-ian thing. I just saw the Vagina Monologues last night, so I don’t think now is a good time for me to talk about it. (But you just wait til I’m a sophomore. I’m going to beat the crap out of all you freshmen during gym.)

Norb—That’s the whole point! If it came down to a bottled Heineken here in North America, or anywhere else, I suppose; I’d take a Bud (or God forbid . . a Coors Light?) before the Heineken. Same with Beck’s. It tastes terrible here. Bottling and shipping a bottle through various pressures and temperatures (ever had a beer after it’s been warmed up and then re-chilled?) can’t be good for the taste. Heineken ON TAP IN HOLLAND is still way up there in my book. Sure, there are great micros (mmm, Germany . . mmm, Belgium), and I’ll grant that there are a few better brews than Beck’s or Heineken, but I still maintain that just because you’ve had a few bottles of crappy imported doesn’t mean they’re not damn good beers, with centuries of tradition behind them.

The reason that micros are good is because you tend to buy them close to where they were brewed, usually in the very building. They’re fresh, not skunky. Having been to the Heineken brewery and a Bud brewery, I’d say that any bottled taste doesn’t do justice to the real thing. Drinking local is always your best bet.

Here’s my question about beer ( having just had a few, and a Mai Tai at a great Hawaiian restaurant). Why does beer invite such snobbery? Yes,wine does as well, but why these things?

Because people like to think they know a lot about them…

Adam, Adam, Adam. The point is not about imports and exports, the point is drinking the correct imported beer. The good ones will be a little bit harder to find. Heineken is a decent beer, but it is not the best that Holland has to offer. Beck’s isn’t really a German beer. They can’t even sell it over there because it doesn’t meet the purity law, so they peddle it in America as a “German brew”. It’s no more German than French toast is French.
When I’m in Germany I drink Ursbacher (impossible to find here), Franciskaner or Spaten (tough but not impossible to find). They are far superior than any main-stream imported beer. The next time you are in Europe, take a chance and pick a beer you can’t even pronounce. Just like American microbrews are 9 times out of 10 better than Miller or Coors, so are smaller, local beers in Europe (Germany and Belgium in particular).

I don’t know, Bridget, but I think it’s a combination of the fact that beer is somehow related to testosterone in society, and the fact that it’s always fun to know (or pretend like you know) more than the next guy.

Well, Norb, I’ve only had one (Ursbacher) of which you speak. But I can only speak for myself, and I’m not buying the elitist stuff about micros always being better. I still think that the bottling and shipping is what kills it, and micros are just as often good because of the locality as not. The further you get away from the source, the worse the beer. But this is based on what I’ve tasted, and, not having explored the inner recesses of the German underground, I must not know what I’m talking about.

Perhaps this is not about beer at all, but about Adam’s envy of Norb’s “Junior Member” status. Hmm?

i would agree with adam’s theory about shipping affecting taste. i’ve never tasted anything better than a guiness in dublin. the guiness here doesn’t compare.

of course, i’m speaking of a larger brewery again . . .