Real Czech Staropramen available in Lidl

[Bradgate]

Attention lager fans!

In recent years all the Staropramen stocked in UK supermarkets has been brewed in Burton on Trent. It’s not bad. In fact, it’s miles better than most of the ‘brewed in the UK’ versions of European lagers, eg Stella Artois, Birra Moretti, San Miguel etc etc. But it’s not the real thing. In particular, the bitterness profile is a bit too aggressive & metallic.

Now, real Czech Staropramen, brewed in Prague, is available in Lidl. The small print on the back of the bottle confirms that it’s the real thing. I’m currently enjoying a bottle and it’s delicious. This is how ‘lager’ is supposed to taste. It’s in 500ml bottles priced at £1.79.

Stock up & enjoy. Cheers!

[Ham_and_Jam]

Bradgate said:

Attention lager fans!

In recent years all the Staropramen stocked in UK supermarkets has been brewed in Burton on Trent. It’s not bad. In fact, it’s miles better than most of the ‘brewed in the UK’ versions of European lagers, eg Stella Artois, Birra Moretti, San Miguel etc etc. But it’s not the real thing. In particular, the bitterness profile is a bit too aggressive & metallic.

Now, real Czech Staropramen, brewed in Prague, is available in Lidl. The small print on the back of the bottle confirms that it’s the real thing. I’m currently enjoying a bottle and it’s delicious. This is how ‘lager’ is supposed to taste. It’s in 500ml bottles priced at £1.79.

Stock up & enjoy. Cheers!

This is my favourite beer!

Will head over and get some, cheers.

[NWTony]

Many years ago I worked for Bass in Birmingham and we used to import real Staropramen. It got shipped in via road tanker and when it arrived it was absolutely swimming with bacteria. It was filtered and sterilized and then bottled.

[nuyorican]

I keep forgetting to start a thread on fake lager. Thanks for reminding me!

I used to drink lager in the 90's. Becks, Stella etc. But got into real ale and never really drank it again unless on holiday. Until this summer that is, when I decided I fancied some nice crisp, ice-cold lager. But to my dismay, and to the detriment of my wallet after wasting lots of money on all the usual suspects, it's all gone rubbish! Pish!

It all 'looks' the same as old, but if you turn it round and look at the small-print you'll see the dreaded BREWED IN UK. The ABV will also be suspiciously low... Never mind, I thought, I'll buy Becks, that won't have been tampered with, will it? Purity laws and all? But no, that's fake too now!

So what happened? And why? Seems to be a lager-specific problem, you can buy cracking beer/ale that's brewed in the UK all day long.

Companies penny pinching and selling respected branding to pish manufacturers perhaps? Nanny state in action? Brexit? Are beers like Stella and Becks now inferior products in Belgium and Germany too? Or is it a UK thing?

So after lots of disappointing lager buying, I did find a quality lager which I'll share here.

Behold, M&S Belgian Lager. Fantastic stuff.

[Louis Balfour]

Bradgate said:

Attention lager fans!

In recent years all the Staropramen stocked in UK supermarkets has been brewed in Burton on Trent. It’s not bad. In fact, it’s miles better than most of the ‘brewed in the UK’ versions of European lagers, eg Stella Artois, Birra Moretti, San Miguel etc etc. But it’s not the real thing. In particular, the bitterness profile is a bit too aggressive & metallic.

Now, real Czech Staropramen, brewed in Prague, is available in Lidl. The small print on the back of the bottle confirms that it’s the real thing. I’m currently enjoying a bottle and it’s delicious. This is how ‘lager’ is supposed to taste. It’s in 500ml bottles priced at £1.79.

Stock up & enjoy. Cheers!

Every day a school day. I didn't know there was "genuine" Star.

I did notice that draft is a nicer drink than the bottled. Is the draft different again?

[ambuletz]

genuinely fed up with all the beers on sale these days. They've all been lowered to 5% or less, taste of nothing/taste all the same. Only decent options are to buy expensive belgian beers, or eastern european ones from the local off license. might pop into LIDL later and have a look. Anyone able to check if ALDI's ones are UK brewed or imported?

[Louis Balfour]

ambuletz said:

genuinely fed up with all the beers on sale these days. They've all been lowered to 5% or less, taste of nothing/taste all the same. Only decent options are to buy expensive belgian beers, or eastern european ones from the local off license. might pop into LIDL later and have a look. Anyone able to check if ALDI's ones are UK brewed or imported?

Try some Chouffe. Available for cheap in supermarkets now and IIRC about 8%.

[Bradgate]

ambuletz said:

genuinely fed up with all the beers on sale these days. They've all been lowered to 5% or less, taste of nothing/taste all the same. Only decent options are to buy expensive belgian beers, or eastern european ones from the local off license. might pop into LIDL later and have a look. Anyone able to check if ALDI's ones are UK brewed or imported?

I believe Aldi’s Steinhauser lager is brewed in Germany. Don’t know about the rest of their brands, though.

Finding good lager in pubs can be difficult because most only stock a few heavily promoted brands and demand is driven by fashion & marketing. Madri, a UK brewed ‘Spanish’ brand which was invented by a big brewer’s marketing department a few years ago seems to be what everyone is drinking at the moment. It doesn’t even exist is Spain.

But I can still find excellent genuine Czech & German lager in supermarkets. Budvar & Pilsner Urquell are widely available. Sainsbury’s sell Warsteiner. Tesco stock Paulaner & Krombacher and I also saw some Bitburger there recently.

[RichFN2]

I remember when Lidl sold the Spanish brewed San Miguel for a very short period, 5.6% and much nicer than the our 5% version.

They current have the imported Super Bock beer for sale, 5.2% rather than our 4.7% version.

This was the best beer they have imported. 6% rich, malty and utterly fantastic

[s2kjock]

I haven't drunk much lager since I was a student many years ago, having moved on to real ales, but do now and again.

I find the best UK brewed lagers to be the ones produced by real ale independent brewers (at least in Scotland - I don't think I have tried many English independent brewery lagers)

For example, I recently bought a mixed pack of beers from these guys Speyside Brewery which came with their lager and it is very drinkable. Williams Bros from Alloa have a very decent lager too, and I think most the Scottish Brewers do at least one.

I was on a taproom crawl in Edinburgh yesterday and Campervan, Newbarns, and Moonwake all delivered on the lager/pils/kolsch front which is what my OH normally drinks while I tend to go for pale ales, stouts etc

[Mobile Chicane]

Lidl often have German-brewed beers in. Brewed under the 'purity laws'. They're decent.

[.:ian:.]

ambuletz said:

genuinely fed up with all the beers on sale these days. They've all been lowered to 5% or less, taste of nothing/taste all the same. Only decent options are to buy expensive belgian beers, or eastern european ones from the local off license. might pop into LIDL later and have a look. Anyone able to check if ALDI's ones are UK brewed or imported?

I accidentally bought some Brewdog Double Hazy, it was on offer but I didn't clock it was 7%, nor that it was £3.75 for a 440ml can

Still it was really nice.

[davidc1]

As above the marks and sparks offering is excellent. They do Belgian french German export and English. All are quality.

[Fast and Spurious]

Morrisons sell Westmalle Tripel, 4 bottles for £10.50, 33cl. It's the best.

[ambuletz]

Fast and Spurious said:

Morrisons sell Westmalle Tripel, 4 bottles for £10.50, 33cl. It's the best.

I do like tripels/beglian beers, duval etc.. the problem with them is they're just bleedin' expensive. There just doesn't seem to be a nice beer you can bulk buy. There used to be an interim time where the bottled stella was superior to the canned ones, so bulk buying these was worthit. now not so.

the ALDI steinhauser actually is quite nice. I used to really enjoy their rheinbacher, but they reduced the strength and it ended up tasting of nothing.

[Truckosaurus]

nuyorican said:

...So what happened? And why? Seems to be a lager-specific problem, you can buy cracking beer/ale that's brewed in the UK all day long....

I suspect that in the volume sector of the market there is little brand loyalty and sales will be driven a lot by price.

So, the big brewers will do everything to save costs - using cheaper ingredients, brewing locally to reduce transport costs, and watering down the beer to hit certain tax brackets.

As an example, the OP suggests the Staropramen sells at £1.79 compared to Lidls also selling 20x 300ml bottles of Budweiser for a tenner as a Euro football special offer.

[RichFN2]

Fast and Spurious said:

Morrisons sell Westmalle Tripel, 4 bottles for £10.50, 33cl. It's the best.

I had no idea, thanks for the heads

It's certainly my favourite tripel, and in my top 5 beers of all time

(WestVleteren 12 is probably number 1)

[sugerbear]

Truckosaurus said:

nuyorican said:

...So what happened? And why? Seems to be a lager-specific problem, you can buy cracking beer/ale that's brewed in the UK all day long....

I suspect that in the volume sector of the market there is little brand loyalty and sales will be driven a lot by price.

So, the big brewers will do everything to save costs - using cheaper ingredients, brewing locally to reduce transport costs, and watering down the beer to hit certain tax brackets.

As an example, the OP suggests the Staropramen sells at £1.79 compared to Lidls also selling 20x 300ml bottles of Budweiser for a tenner as a Euro football special offer.

If you have visited a modern brewery you will see that the equipment is pretty much standardised across every brewery. It then becomes a case of painting by numbers to get an approximation of another beer and plugging the numbers into the process. No need to worry about authenticity when you can save a shed load of transportation costs by brewing it on soil. Most lager / beer is just water (burtanisation of the water seems pretty standard as well, there is no regional variation),

[ambuletz]

The only thing that seems to have been relatively immune to the change is guiness/stout. What gives? I think next shop I might buy some of the stronger export stuff.

[bolidemichael]

Mobile Chicane said:

Lidl often have German-brewed beers in. Brewed under the 'purity laws'. They're decent.

I’m a big fan of ‘Helles’ beer and stock up when I find it or when I visit Germany.