Heineken Export & Irish beer

Peanut

Above is a bottle of Heineken export, you won't find it in your local supermarket but you may find it in the local off-license. Compared to 'regular' Heineken, it has a slightly different bottle, a red 'Imported' label at the top, and is 5% vol.

It also tastes about 10 times better than that other muck sold in a similar bottle, and brewed in Ireland.

So WHY is it that most Irish brewed beer is utter cr*p?
You would think given our brewing heritage that we could do even a little bit better.

Is it that people's taste buds have been completely obliterated by years of smoking and Guinness drinking, passed down in the genetic heritage of the inhabitants of the island?

No wonder imported beers have gained such a market in the past few years - if you don't drink Guinness the main alternatives are about as pleasant as swimming through treacle in your underpants (maybe not that pleasant )

I don't think I'm being snobby here & I know taste is subjective to an extent, but I really think the quality is pretty low. I suspect the raw materials - hops imported, left in storage for how long? low grade barley malt, or perhaps fast-track production systems..?

Civilian_Target

TBH - I think Irish Heineken tastes fine - the export tastes different but not any worse IMHO. UK Heineken used to be brewed by interbrew and it was muck (all UK heineken's imported now, so it's just really expensive...)

kenmc

Did the heineken brewery tour in Amsterdam a couple of years ago, and the beer there was delicious, in fact was very nice all over Netherlands. Not a big fan of it here to be honest, would certainly never order it in a pub, and would only last resort to it in an offie, and only in bottles at that.

dubmick

Yeah, Heineken in Holland is lovely and is called Heineken Pills, also comes in a brown bottle. Only about €10 for a crate too!

Wouldn't drink Heineken here at all.

moshpit77

dubmick wrote:

Yeah, Heineken in Holland is lovely and is called Heineken Pills, also comes in a brown bottle. Only about €10 for a crate too!

Wouldn't drink Heineken here at all.

Heineken bottles sold here are all brewed in Holland. I'm drinking one right now, it says 'brewed and bottled by heineken b.v. amsterdam holland'. Heineken draft, however, is brewed in Cork

Heineken Pils is obviously a totally different drink. It's a Pilsener lager

I challenge anybody to show me a Heineken bottle which has been brewed in Ireland

dubmick

Despite not reading like it, I do know that pilsener is a different drink. Pity you can't get it over here.

Blub2k4

Pilsener is what the Czechs/Germans call lager, Pils here is associated with only a few drinks such as Satzenbrau, whereas any lager based on the Czech original is a pils, Heineken is the same. Pilsener works better on the label for continental Europe. They are one and the same beer.

noby

Blub2k4 wrote:

Pilsener is what the Czechs/Germans call lager, Pils here is associated with only a few drinks such as Satzenbrau, whereas any lager based on the Czech original is a pils, Heineken is the same. Pilsener works better on the label for continental Europe. They are one and the same beer.

I cannot speak for the Heineken, they may well be one and the same, but to say Pils is what the Czechs/Germans call lager is a bit mis-leading

Pilsner/Pilsener/Pils falls under a different category than Lager. It has more of a spicy hop presence (traditionally saaz hops in Chech)
The Wiki link above explains it simply. http://www.bjcp.org goes into more detail.
There is a difference between the German and Chech varieties, and I guess they fall under a sub-category of 'Lager', but they're not one and the same.

If you want to go back to the origin, Pilsener is beer that was brewed in Pilsen in the Chech republic, the same as Budweiser is beer that was brewed in Budweis. The style got copied, and the name stuck. The Germans make their variation of the same style.
'm sure the lines of dsitinction got muddied when big brewers, like Heineken, eased back on the hop addition to mass market it, and it basically became lager under a different name.

rubadub

Yeah largering is a term for beer storage/maturation. Pilsner is brewed until almost all of the sugars have fermented out leaving a beer which is dry and usually a bit higher in %.
Miller relased a cheap "pilsner" here, it was called miller lite elsewhere. fewer calories since all the sugars were fermented out, it was only 4.2%. It was called pilsner here because they knew no Irish man would be seen dead drinking a lite "I'm a lady" beer.

I think you could have a pilsner which is subsequently "lagered". not sure which name would supercede, if there are actual rules.

Blub2k4

Lager is the german term for storage.
I think my original comment was pointing out the fact that the heineken is Pils here and in Holland, the exact mechanics of the difference are not present in the heineken pils vs heineken lager idea here, it is a marketing decision based on the target market.