How is beer in other Countries?

[MoVo]

Hey Guys,

 

I always wondered what is beer like in other regions of the world (The US etc.). How expensive or inexpensive is beer and how much is in a bottle? 

Here in Germany, especially in Bavaria, we're usually drinking our "Seidla" (0.5 liters) or our Maß (1 liter). 

[greaves1111]

The commercial American beer is crap, lol. For someone who isn't from here, I guess it's something you should try once if you like sampling different kinds of beers, but it isn't anything special. There are alot of good micro brews around the country though.

 

I'm a big fan of the Hefeweizen! Good job, Germany!

[Misanthrope]

Beer here in Mexico is often literally cheaper than water. You can get a beer for like 80 cents USD in bars and if you buy at a convenience store you can find them on sale for as little as 50 cents USD.

 

Yesterday I was trying a Mexican microbrew called Minerva: It was an imperial stout and was very tasty. Not quite as overwhelming as other stouts yet very flavourful and easy to drink.

[kokobash]

Well here in Philippines almost everyone here drinks San Miguel products. Even a lot of foreigners like it.

[rhyseyness]

Englishman here.

We love our beer.

We have it in pints (about 570ml).

In a pub "down South" (near London) you'd expect to pay £3-6 a pint.

Up North it's about half that.

In shops we have bottles or cans of varying sizes which are less expensive.

[Volbet]

Beer in Denmark is really cheap, especially when compared to the overall price level.

If you just want to get drunk, you buy 0,5L cans of beer for ¢40 - ¢50 a piece. And you get ¢15 back when you return the can to the store for recycling.

There's a reason why Denmark is known as the drunken cousin of the Nordic countries. 

 

However, if you want to go out it can cost a pretty penny. A 0.5L mug of cheap Carlsberg can run anywhere from $4 to $10. Atleast in Copenhagen.

 

The overall quality is OK, I guess. Most large supermarkets will have a pretty good selection of cheap swill and more expensive (and more tasty) craft beers.

And there are a lot of bars and taverns that specialize in microbrews from around the world. 

 

The bottle and can sizes will vary a lot. They can be anywhere from 0.25L up to 1.5L.

 

My favorite locally brewed beer is called ´Blå Chimpanse´ (eng. Blue Chimpanzee) by Bryggeriet Skands. Despite the dumb name it's a really good, dark and strong (6,5% Vol.) Beligian ale, and it's not too sweet which is a big plus in my book. 

But it's also somewhat expensive at $10 for a 0,5L bottle. But it sometimes goes on sale for around $5.

They also make a spiced moastery ale, which is also pretty good. But it's a bit too ´filling´ for my taste.  

[NavyCuda]

Canadian beer!  Sleemans Honey Brown is a fantastic choice.

[tlink]

we have heineken but its considered crap here mostly. hertog jan has my preference, usually comes in bottles or in a glass. there are like a million different variations. i also love some amstel radler (its made by heineken though), its like what ice tea is to the soft drinks but then for beer, not very beery but more lemonade. our beer culture is pretty okay, not as good as our Belgium and German neighbors though.

hertog jan cost per bottle: €0,64 cost per liter: € 2,49 amstel radler cost per bottle: € 0,61 cost per liter € 2,26

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, NavyCuda said:

Canadian beer!  Sleemans Honey Brown is a fantastic choice.

It's a shame that Sleemans is owned by a Japanese multi-national brewery.

 

Moosehead is the largest Canadian Owned brewery left in Canada.

 

I'm personally not a huge fan of Sleemans. They have some decent stuff, but I don't like strong beers. Just not my thing. Moosehead is pretty good. My go-to is Coors Light (Call it whatever you want, I enjoy the smooth light flavour, especially ice cold).

 

For those saying "Commercial American beer is crap" *cough* @greaves1111 *cough*, there are dozens of brands of Commercial American beer. Lots of different flavours and varieties. These blanket statements are totally worthless. There are some excellent Microbrews - but guess what, there's a lot of shit Microbrew too.

[flowalex]

So depending on the brand (Minnesota only for my experience) it can vary a lot, since I am only 20 I can't legally drink yet, but I have worked at places that sell beer and it varies widely, so the best I can give you is for one brand 4 16 floz (about half a liter) cans is 8 USD.   

[NavyCuda]

I have a soft spot for Pabst Blue Ribbon.

[MoVo]

5 minutes ago, flowalex said:

So depending on the brand (Minnesota only for my experience) it can vary a lot, since I am only 20 I can't legally drink yet, but I have worked at places that sell beer and it varies widely, so the best I can give you is for one brand 4 16 floz (about half a liter) cans is 8 USD.   

 

How old have you to be to be allowed to consume alcohol? In Germany, you have to be 16 to be allowed to drink beer, for everything else you have to bee 18.

[flowalex]

Just now, MoVo said:

How old have you to be to be allowed to consume alcohol? In Germany, you have to be 16 to be allowed to drink beer, for everything else you have to bee 18.

In the US, you have to be 21 to consume all alcohol legally in public, in someones own home parents can choose if they want to give alcohol in the homes to their children,  so my parents have let me have beer, whiskey, absinthe, and mint juleps.  And for serving it depends on the state, I know that in MN you  can server alcohol at 18, but I have heard that you have to be 21 in Illinois to serve it. 

[bob345]

In the us, the big brand beers suck pretty bad. There are quite a few microbreweries that are really good though. Those are usually pretty hard to come across though so i usually stick with imported beers.

[Thaldor]

In Finland you really don't want to buy beer for taste from any store other than Alko (Finnish beverage retailing monopoly). Just because stores can only sell max. 4.7 vol.% beverages that are not distilled. So, basicly only beer you get from stores is beer that has been watered down and even then you pay around 1€ for 0.33L can or bottle (0.33L is the standard size for small beer in Finland). Finnish beers are also usually light lagers with some special exceptions being some limited edition variants and Karhu. At bars the prices vary a lot from getting 0.5L glass for 4.5€ to getting 0.33L glass with 5-7€ and 0.5L few extra euros on that and these prices are for tap beers which usually are even Lapin Kulta or Karjala (which both are extremely light and crappy Finnish beers).

 

Small breweries have now in couple years started to come out since there has been a good growth in beer tasting around Finland. The biggest problem with small breweries in Finland has always been the law. If they make beer they even need to water it down and get some store sell them or they need to be able to provide a lot of it for Alko or they can get some bar sell their beer. Also bars can only sell beer if the customer consumes it in the bar, so, no retailing out of bars. But there has been some changes and now single Alkos can sell some products as their speciality so some small breweries can possible get their beers to their local Alko, but I haven't seen that happening. But there has been a lot of talking and trying to get the same right for breweries to sell their products right from the brewery as the Finnish wineries have, but that ain't gonna happen as long as Finnish politicans are as dumb as asses and follow our corrup... old boy network public health organizations (like THL) which would cladly see that stores couldn't sell anything stronger than water.

 

Our alcohol laws are quite the worst in the Europe, you need to be 18 years to buy anything and to get into to the bars and 20 years to buy beverages that have over 22 vol.% alcohol. Also stores can sell alcohol only between clock 9 and 21 and depending on when bars usually close between 2 and 4 in the night (night clubs and other places that gather younger people are usually later open).

[rmac52]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

It's a shame that Sleemans is owned by a Japanese multi-national brewery.

 

Moosehead is the largest Canadian Owned brewery left in Canada.

 

I'm personally not a huge fan of Sleemans. They have some decent stuff, but I don't like strong beers. Just not my thing. Moosehead is pretty good. My go-to is Coors Light (Call it whatever you want, I enjoy the smooth light flavour, especially ice cold).

 

For those saying "Commercial American beer is crap" *cough* @greaves1111 *cough*, there are dozens of brands of Commercial American beer. Lots of different flavours and varieties. These blanket statements are totally worthless. There are some excellent Microbrews - but guess what, there's a lot of shit Microbrew too.

The average large commercial american lager is crap.  I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.  Your Budweiser, miller, coors, etc.

I think you can find good beer just about everywhere.  I love me a good beer.  But sometimes as long as its cold and alcoholic I'm good.

There are a lot of micro brews available in my region that are fantastic.  I live near Boston.  That's in the US for anyone that doesn't know.  We also have a lot of companies that are big enough to not be micro brews but still great.  Things like Sam Adams, Dogfish head, Longtrail.

Its not that hard to make a decent beer.  And for that I'm grateful.

 

[Bouzoo]

3 hours ago, MoVo said:

 

Here in Germany, especially in Bavaria, we're usually drinking our "Seidla" (0.5 liters) or our Maß (1 liter). 

One thing I've learned from Germany, you can never, and I mean never, go wrong with Erdinger, Paulaner or Augustiner Edelstoff. Best thing to came out of Germany except Rammstein. 

 

2 hours ago, tlink said:

we have heineken but its considered crap here mostly. hertog jan has my preference, usually comes in bottles or in a glass. there are like a million different variations. i also love some amstel radler (its made by heineken though), its like what ice tea is to the soft drinks but then for beer, not very beery but more lemonade. our beer culture is pretty okay, not as good as our Belgium and German neighbors though.

 hertog jan cost per bottle: €0,64 cost per liter: € 2,49  amstel radler cost per bottle: € 0,61 cost per liter € 2,26

Tbh I've never found Amstel good, it's lacking a lot of flavour. Hertog Jan is one of the best I've ever tried, mind you only the dark one, the one that comes in a ceramic bottle which is heavy like hell. 0,5 L costed me almost 7 euros. 

 

I have a policy that if I go to a country, or someone goes to another country, a gift for me is a local beer, and I've been collecting empty bottles of beers I've tried. Not all but some specific beers. Most of them are in garbage since I don't want to take too much space with them. Luckily my gf likes good beer as well.

But not to talk about other countries because that would take too long, my country, probably like most, has some garbage and some good beers. Our most often ones, the big ones if you want, are nothing to write home about but it's the small ones, from smaller breweries, that are the real jewels. Stuff like Air Crafted Red Baron, Zmajsko Pivo, Ship Wrech, Dogma, Varionica, Fulir are just some of them and they're top notch. And there are many more. They are produced in small quantities so you may not be able to buy them always, but that means they'll be of highest quality every time. 

 

This is Currently In my room:

Mind you, they are in 2 rows and I switch 2 or 3 per month there, based on what I try. Can't have them all there. It looks more spectacular in person. 

 

 

 

 

[dalekphalm]

22 minutes ago, rmac52 said:

The average large commercial american lager is crap.  I'm pretty sure that's what he meant.  Your Budweiser, miller, coors, etc.

I think you can find good beer just about everywhere.  I love me a good beer.  But sometimes as long as its cold and alcoholic I'm good.

There are a lot of micro brews available in my region that are fantastic.  I live near Boston.  That's in the US for anyone that doesn't know.  We also have a lot of companies that are big enough to not be micro brews but still great.  Things like Sam Adams, Dogfish head, Longtrail.

Its not that hard to make a decent beer.  And for that I'm grateful.

 

Yes I know what he meant. And I disagree. In your examples, I love Coors Light. It's literally my favourite beer.

 

Just because some people prefer a different taste, does not mean the other tastes are crap. Beer has so many variations in flavour, taste, colour, thickness. There's a type of beer for everyone.

 

Budweiser is alright, but not my favourite. Lots of people love it though. My sisters husband LOVES Labbat Blue, for example. It's his favourite beer by far. Is he wrong? is Blue crap? No. Some people might not like it, but who cares>

 

I for example, hate dark beers, red beers, hoppy beers, etc. I like lighter flavours, smooth taste, creamy beers are good too.

 

It's all about personal preference my friend.

[MoVo]

20 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

One thing I've learned from Germany, you can never, and I mean never, go wrong with Erdinger, Paulaner or Augustiner Edelstoff. Best thing to came out of Germany except Rammstein. 

 

Tbh I've never found Amstel good, it's lacking a lot of flavour. Hertog Jan is one of the best I've ever tried, mind you only the dark one, the one that comes in a ceramic bottle which is heavy like hell. 0,5 L costed me almost 7 euros. 

 

I have a policy that if I go to a country, or someone goes to another country, a gift for me is a local beer, and I've been collecting empty bottles of beers I've tried. Not all but some specific beers. Most of them are in garbage since I don't want to take too much space with them. Luckily my gf likes good beer as well.

But not to talk about other countries because that would take too long, my country, probably like most, has some garbage and some good beers. Our most often ones, the big ones if you want, are nothing to write home about but it's the small ones, from smaller breweries, that are the real jewels. Stuff like Air Crafted Red Baron, Zmajsko Pivo, Ship Wrech, Dogma, Varionica, Fulir are just some of them and they're top notch. And there are many more. They are produced in small quantities so you may not be able to buy them always, but that means they'll be of highest quality every time. 

 

This is Currently In my room:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Mind you, they are in 2 rows and I switch 2 or 3 per month there, based on what I try. Can't have them all there. It looks more spectacular in person. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I personally don't really like Erdinger, Paulaner or Augstiner, these are some of the big commercial breweries. In the northern Bavaria (Franken) we have so much smaller local breweries with so many different kinds of beer, there is literally one for every taste. Here you never will run out of beer to taste

[Bouzoo]

Just now, MoVo said:

I personally don't really like Erdinger, Paulaner or Augstiner, these are some of the big commercial breweries. In the northern Bavaria (Franken) we have so much smaller local breweries with so many different kinds of beer, there is literally one for every taste. Here you never will run out of beer to taste

Why I like them is because they are only Imported, they don't give licence to local breweries to make their beer which was never good. I know what I'm getting, and if I can buy Heineken, Bavaria, some local garbage and Erdinger, guess which I'll pick. 

Out of big breweries, I'd go with these being some of my personal favorites. I think they're just great. Goes w/o saying they can't be compared with some small ones. 

[Mr.Meerkat]

1 hour ago, flowalex said:

In the US, you have to be 21 to consume all alcohol legally in public, in someones own home parents can choose if they want to give alcohol in the homes to their children,  so my parents have let me have beer, whiskey, absinthe, and mint juleps.  And for serving it depends on the state, I know that in MN you  can server alcohol at 18, but I have heard that you have to be 21 in Illinois to serve it. 

16 y/o to consume alcohol at a restaurant (or other places that have a "licence") as long as it's a 18 year old who bought it 

18 and above to buy

over 5, parents can give you alcohol to consume at home/other "private" places  

This is Britland by the way 

[MrTiC]

Im form belgium... so yeah, they changed the legal drinking age recently tough, 16 for beers and 18 for distilled alcohol like vodka, rum etc

 

Back in my day .. no age ristriction on beer whatsoever, hell we even got beer on school excursions when i was 10

[CBojorges]

5 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

Beer here in Mexico is often literally cheaper than water. You can get a beer for like 80 cents USD in bars and if you buy at a convenience store you can find them on sale for as little as 50 cents USD.

 

Yesterday I was trying a Mexican microbrew called Minerva: It was an imperial stout and was very tasty. Not quite as overwhelming as other stouts yet very flavourful and easy to drink.

The best Mexican beer I've tried was called red pig. I don't know what kind of beer it was but it looked like car oil.  I bought it on city market but haven't seen it again. 

 

Generally speaking I don't like Mexican beer. I almost always buy delirium nocturnum which is began, I think. 

[killcomic]

7 hours ago, MoVo said:

Hey Guys,

 

I always wondered what is beer like in other regions of the world (The US etc.). How expensive or inexpensive is beer and how much is in a bottle? 

Here in Germany, especially in Bavaria, we're usually drinking our "Seidla" (0.5 liters) or our Maß (1 liter). 

Beer in Australia is OK. Usually big brand names are kind of bleh (Toohey's, Victoria Bitter, XXXX), but the smaller breweries make some nice stuff (Mountain goat is excellent).

Individual 375ml bottles are about $4-$5.

You can get 500ml of Franziskaner for about $5.50-$6.00 per bottle. Not bad for the best beer in the world (in my opinion at least).

 

You can see pricing here: https://www.danmurphys.com.au/dm/home.jsp

[Security]

My experience with beer from specific countries:

 

Netherlands: We have some decent special beers and allot of variation.

Belgium: My fav. beer country with NL being second, so much good beer is made here.

Germany: I like the local beers, especially in the Köln area (I would say this is my #3 beer country). Also some very nice and fruity white beers are made here.

Czech Republic: Same as the German beers, they are good.

England: Hell no, they have no idea what a proper beer should be like... They have some acceptable beers (like Hobgoblin) but generally they are clueless.

USA: My experience is limited by what is sold over here but I still have to find the first one I actually finish, also I don't get this IPA craze as that is just nasty.

 

Over the years I also tried a couple of Asian beers (most being rice based) and they generally were drinkable but I wouldn't go out of my way to get them again.

 

Edit: My standard go to beer to drink is Grolsch Kanon which is a sweet and fruity beer with a high 11.6% alcohol percentage. It tends to live up to it's name when it hits you (kanon is Dutch for cannon).