Bavaria And Oranjeboom Origins

[RdeVjun]

Gooday folks,
this has perplexed me for some time- maybe someone can help me understand why "Bavaria" is brewed in The Netherlands and "Oranjeboom" is brewed in Germany? Purely from the names, I would've thought it'd be the other way around, its just ridiculous!

Maybe its just another sign of the times with many/most industrial eurolager brewers being held by a handful of giant multinationals (I'm guessing), a lot of the smaller brewery names also being held by the same firms, and probably even brewed in exactly the same breweries as the megas.

Please, feel free to discuss!

Edit: Spelling...

 

[jonocarroll]

The brand was originally brewed at the Oranjeboom Brewery in Rotterdam, but that closed in 1990 and production shifted to the Breda brewery. In 1995, the Breda brewery was sold to Interbrew. In 2004, it was closed by InBev, Interbrew's successor. Production was moved to the Dommelsch brewery where production techniques shifted and new ingredients were used.

Rotterdam is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands.

Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands.

Dommelsche Bierbrouwerij is a brewery in Dommelen (near Valkenswaard), the Netherlands which was founded in 1744. It is today owned by InBev.

Oranjeboom Brewed in Germany you say?

As for Bavaria, perhaps the founder just liked the name?

 

[RdeVjun]

Yep, sure is- Oranjeboom is now from Germany:

Crazy, huh? Looks to me like wikipedia is needing an update.
Bavaria:

I only drink it occasionally i) because its cheap and ii) for the nifty 660ml green crowntop bottles, but I've not got any with intact labels.

Now, I've always been very cynical when marketers get a hold of what was once a regionalised or local product and then bastardise it or completely uproot it to somewhere else but still rely on the old identifiably- specific locale to promote it. Its just not honest, but since when has marketing in today's commercial sense been even remotely honest? :lol: : most of them must think I came down in the last shower...

There's another whole issue that could be debated until the cows come home, as per what the EU has done with regional products such as champagne, burgundy etc. and that's not quite what I wanted to point out, rather the irony of such obvious locales being used to market products when in fact they come from somewhere completely different, and probably with ingredients from different regions yet again. There's a good chance the product we have now is only linked to the locale just in name alone, so its quite ironic.

Marketers, for mine, need to take a good hard long look at themselves- if Oranjeboom was actually drinkable, I'd struggle to buy it again based on the misleading marketing, but seeing as its pretty ordinary IMO, its just moot! So many eurolagers I've tried are pretty ordinary, but I'm just not a big lager fancier anyway: h34r: !

 

[Bribie G]

Bavaria has been the name of the company for over a hundred years, apparently most of the town of Lieshout works there. I don't mind it and reckon as a Euroswill it beats the hell out of BUL Heineken. They supply many of the supermarket brands in the Netherlands and when I went on a cycling tour many years ago I never bothered with the Expensive Heineken, Amstel or Grolsch I always headed for a supermarket and got their brand (brewed at Bavaria) for two thirds of the price and just as good.

However the other brand they supply to Liquorland - Hollandia - is pretty drastic, full of adjuncts I would reckon but still a nice hop aroma. However after a few stubbies the wheat or whatever they put in it becomes a bit drying on the tongue so they begin to taste a bit stale and cardboardy. The first couple are ok as a lawnmower.

Edit: Boddingtons of Manchester is now brewed in South Wales. That really sucks.
Mind you Darwin stubbies were brewed at Yatala south of Brisbane.

 

[jonocarroll]

Yep, sure is- Oranjeboom is now from Germany:

That looks like it says

"Beer. Packed For Oranjeboom Brewery, Breda, Holland. Brewed and Bottled in Germany."

which I would interpret as Brewed under Licence (BUL). Damned if I know what's up with that.

 

[RdeVjun]

Bavaria has been the name of the company for over a hundred years, apparently most of the town of Lieshout works there. I don't mind it and reckon as a Euroswill it beats the hell out of BUL Heineken. They supply many of the supermarket brands in the Netherlands and when I went on a cycling tour many years ago I never bothered with the Expensive Heineken, Amstel or Grolsch I always headed for a supermarket and got their brand (brewed at Bavaria) for two thirds of the price and just as good.

However the other brand they supply to Liquorland - Hollandia - is pretty drastic, full of adjuncts I would reckon but still a nice hop aroma. However after a few stubbies the wheat or whatever they put in it becomes a bit drying on the tongue so they begin to taste a bit stale and cardboardy. The first couple are ok as a lawnmower.

Edit: Boddingtons of Manchester is now brewed in South Wales. That really sucks.
Mind you Darwin stubbies were brewed at Yatala south of Brisbane.

Absolutely BribieG- the Bavaria is actually reasonably drinkable, that should've been point iii), but the Hollandia is eventually a fairly unpleasant assault on the mouth, IMO.

Its pretty disappointing what the aggregation of many smaller brewers into larger companies and what their marketers have then done with some individual products. If only we knew half of what really went on we'd vote with our feet, so nowadays the cynic in me often has the last say. Maybe that why I got a tad obsessed with HBing? No, wait, am pretty sure its because so many commercial products, be it imported, BUL or local are just plain *****!

Cheers!

 

[geoffi]

When the Bavaria brand was first established, the name was probably chosen to associate the product with the Bavarian-style lager beers that were becoming popular. Now that every man and his dog brews this style more or less it might appear odd.

 

[Tony M]

This will be voted off topic, but in the eighties, I owned a Blaupunkt CD player made in Japan and a Sony television made in Western Germany!

 

[RdeVjun]

This will be voted off topic, but in the eighties, I owned a Blaupunkt CD player made in Japan and a Sony television made in Western Germany!

Oh, I don't think so TonyM, that sort of thing is just so de rigeur and run of the mill these days!

That's precisely the point too- our expectations, established from knowledge and understanding of a particular region, aren't being met by BUL or similarly- produced products that utilise some regional linkage to promote the product. For sure, many won't read the label or research the product in any great depth, so I'm sure marketing decisions are taken with this squarely in mind.

I say, support no brand name unless it supports you! In fact, that'll soon make an appearance in my sig block. Just let me see now... here we go! Ta- daa!

Ps. This gets it into some OT territory, speaking of brand names, it makes me laugh how football clubs cash in on supporters actually _paying_ to wear their club's sponsorship, by buying a jersey or simliar merchandise emblazened with sponsorship. I can't just understand it, why would you actually pay to wear advertising? Same goes for young testosterone- filled chaps with stuff all over their cars, are they being paid to do that? Don't think so, in fact its highly likely to be the reverse. The firms involved must be just rolling up laughing! Sure cracks me up.

 

[jonocarroll]

That's precisely the point too- our expectations, established from knowledge and understanding of a particular region, aren't being met by BUL or similarly- produced products that utilise some regional linkage to promote the product.

So, was your bottle of Oranjeboom different to one that wasn't BUL?

 

[RdeVjun]

So, was your bottle of Oranjeboom different to one that wasn't BUL?

No idea QB, and I'm not likely to find out. Maybe I'm missing your particular point, but what bothered me was that the bottle prominently displays (three times, no less) "Brouwerij de Oranjboom" which is evidently dutch, and when they carry on with "Since 1671", its going to occur to most folks that this is beer brewed in a dutch brewery and has been for a very long time. Great, I thought, I'll try that, maybe its something really special and not just another plain eurolager. Sadly, its fairly ordinary, if there's anything special about it then I missed it and I'm certainly not going back for more. (Have you any idea how much of a fun place Dan's is late on Saturday mornings? Its no quiet, cosy bottle shop and I'd already knocked back, as in rejected, a heap of british ales on account of use by date being weeks and days away, so I was getting a shade tired of looking at bottle labels.) Anyway, so, i) the marketers lost me when I discovered it is actually german/ BUL, and ii) its nothing to wet the bed over. Would I want to buy more? Don't think so. Either way, they lose.

Wouldn't you think, if marketers were such a clever bunch, that if BUL was so reliable and non- BUL product indistinguishable from it, that they'd exploit it to market a product? Like, 'hey, we have these unique ingredients/ processes/ skills/ equipment that they can be transported anywhere on the globe or even sourced locally and you'll get exactly the same result'? Doesn't happen much. Except maybe with fast food...

 

[mwd]

Anybody seen Bavaria lately?? Used to be stocked by Liqourland (Coles) stores, have not seen any for a long long time. Was quite nice when $10.00 for 3x600ml bottles. A good drinkable cheap beer.

I am spending way too much buying JS, Coopers large and LCPA.

Not been able to brew anything lately :icon_offtopic:

 

[Bribie G]

They don't import the big green 660 crown seal bottles any more, I have about 60 of them which I guard jealously - a full bottled batch of lager in 660s looks frign awesome. AFAIK the six packs are still around. Edit: I live in the street that backs onto Liqourland Barn here and we have a walkway straight into the carpark there - lucky I brew or I'd live there. I'll check tomorrow and report here.