They Ruined It!

[Tanga]

Hey!

About 7 years ago I lived in Japan for a bit. Got onto a great drop - Kiring Ichiban Shibori (roughly translated to 'first drip (coffee).' Damn that baby was good with the summer barbecues (the Japanese rival us for beer and barbecues).

Fast Forward 6-7 years.

I was checking out the impo.rted isle and came across it here. I blinked, I rechecked the label - Gold!

Or...not!

It tasted bad. Like metallic, might as well have bought west end (in a can even), bad. I am soooo dissapointed *cries* What happened?




EDIT: Ooops, Kirin Ichiban Shibori.

 

[remi]

?brewed under liscence? remi

 

[Tanga]

?brewed under liscence? remi

*goes to fetch bottle*

Yes. By Lion Nathan. But surely they'd use the same methods?

 

[Muggus]

*goes to fetch bottle*

Yes. By Lion Nathan. But surely they'd use the same methods?

Never trust anything with the "brewed on license" label. Even if they used the same methods, they may have substituted a certain ingredient for a cheaper substitute. I'm not 100% on what exactly the brewer has to do...i'm sure someone else can answer that for me...but they never turn out the same as the original!

 

[kevo]

My wife grabbed one of those in amongst a mixed 6 she got at dan's one day.

Pretty ordinary, imported price and brewed in Australia. :angry:

Avoid.

Kev

 

[mr brau]

Was once privy to a discussion between senior brewers for Lion Nathan and Fosters Group talking about brewing beers under license. Apparently the Heineken folks take brewing mediocre beer so seriously that they have a globetrotting auditing team who make sure that the licensees have parameters in place such as appropriate depth in fermentation vessels so as not to cause uncharacteristic esters, and other flavour anomolies - they are actually really well concerned about the global consistency. It was clear that the stella people aren't so concerned. Although Stella is actually one of the best beers produced in Victoria (AIBAs premiers award 2007). Whatever.

 

[tazman1967]

All BUL are rubbish....they cant be the same as the originals....different water,malts etc. Thats why I wont buy them.
Good to see that Stella Artois is now back in Belgian hands instead of CUB.
Buyer beware...there are still a few Aussie Stellas around..please read your labels.

 

[trevc]

I find it annoying that most restaurants/bars still label these BUL beers as "imported", then mark them up that much more. What a load of ****! It's very misleading and dishonest. The general public doesn't know any better, and pays accordingly.

 

[kook]

All BUL are rubbish....they cant be the same as the originals....different water,malts etc. Thats why I wont buy them.
Good to see that Stella Artois is now back in Belgian hands instead of CUB.
Buyer beware...there are still a few Aussie Stellas around..please read your labels.

Why can't they be the same as the original if they use the same water, malt, adjunct, hop and yeast spec? Many of the megabreweries filter all of the minerals out of their water then add minerals back to ensure consistency. Specs can be matched by maltsters, and hops are easy enough to transport along with yeast.

I mean there might be minor differences in things like fermenter geometry and batch size but these really are minor.


I'd steer clear of any Stella

 

[Adamt]

Most BUL's are accurate representations of their original products. Specifically, imported Heineken, Beck's and Stella taste so much different because of the mild skunking the bottles inevitably suffer during transport.

As far as the Kirin goes... I think Kirin got bought out by Annheuser-Busch in the last few years. Either this might be the issue or the have a separate export recipe.

 

[floppinab]

Specs can be matched by maltsters,

This is the killer for mine wrt BUL. There is no way in hell that Joe Whites or any other maltster are going to match a malt to something produced in Belgium, Germany, Holland or wherever. Apart from mimicking (sp?) the process what about the raw ingredients, the grains themselves............. not going to happen.

 

[Brewtus]

One of my favourite beers in Thailand was called Kloster. It said on the label 'Brew under strict German supervision'....You can only imagine what went on at the brewery.

 

[kook]

This is the killer for mine wrt BUL. There is no way in hell that Joe Whites or any other maltster are going to match a malt to something produced in Belgium, Germany, Holland or wherever. Apart from mimicking (sp?) the process what about the raw ingredients, the grains themselves............. not going to happen.

They can get pretty bloody close though! Raw grains can be quite different from season to season, regardless of variety. European brewers imported a lot of malt last year due to poor harvests. The beers themselves weren't discernibly different though.

The malting process can be manipulated to try and keep as much consistency as possible. The brewers and maltsters have invested a lot of money into perfecting this. Hence why they taste the same even if there is a bad growers season.

 

[tdh]

LOL

tdh

 

[HoppingMad]

Have to agree with tanga.

Kirin has been ruined. Was a darn nice drop when you could find the imported stuff around in the aisles but this BUL is plain rubbish and not up to par.
Carlsberg has gone the same way. The BUL version (I think out of malaysia of all places, but could be Newcastle can't remember) tastes like malty dishwater. How can they get what was so good so bad?

Have a feeling they're both Toohey's but one of them could be Carlton Special Beverages. Someone should tell these guys to lift. The real punters aren't fooled when corners are cut on the process.

Don't mind the CUB version of Stella, but saying that when you try it alongside a real belgian one the OZ stella tastes much sweeter and applely whereas the Belgian has a lighter drier edge. Is a good attempt but tastes like a different beer in many ways. <_<

Hopper.

 

[trevc]

I might be full of it, but I think the Heineken, Stella, Carlsberg, etc, all have that Aussie mass-produced taste happening. I just can't figure out what it is that gives them that common trait. Maybe they're sneaking some POR in there

 

[kook]

I might be full of it, but I think the Heineken, Stella, Carlsberg, etc, all have that Aussie mass-produced taste happening. I just can't figure out what it is that gives them that common trait. Maybe they're sneaking some POR in there

Sulphur?

 

[trevc]

Could that be it? and, why?

 

[reviled]

I might be full of it, but I think the Heineken, Stella, Carlsberg, etc, all have that Aussie mass-produced taste happening. I just can't figure out what it is that gives them that common trait. Maybe they're sneaking some POR in there

I agree with this and its the same over here with stella and heineken, the BUL ones in NZ are far more bitter than the Aussie ones, I actually preferred the aussie heineken, but the aussie stella, yuck :icon_vomit:

It must be the water? It is basically the main ingrediant after all...

 

[kook]

Could that be it? and, why?

Its a normal lager yeast by-product. I often seem to pick up excessive (for my tastes) sulphur in megalagers.

I'm purely speculating here, but I presume it is simply a case of trying to get the beer out as quickly as possible. Lagering helps for the sulphur to dissipate in my experience homebrewing. You'd think they would have worked out a way of speeding the process up, but maybe people like the smell and associate it with Lagers?

For me it reminds me of an eggy fart.