Brewed under licence in the UK

[Zio Di Roma]

I had some Angelo Poretti in Naples and it tasted like nectar. I am drinking a bottle of it as I type and it tastes rubbish. It's the brewed in the UK version.

The same is true of other beers I have tried.

Is it a universal truth that beers brewed under licence in the UK don't taste as good as the originals?

[595Heaven]

Yes, in my experience

[PT1984]

Yep. Typically different strength too. Morrisons are good for beers at the moment. This lot was only £7.50. I was sozzled!



The Aldi /Lidl Rheinbacher Pilsner / Perlenbacher Pilsner are great too.

[borcy]

I think it's the different water here or perhaps different ingredients?

[Zio Di Roma]

PT1984 said:

Yep. Typically different strength too. Morrisons are good for beers at the moment. This lot was only £7.50. I was sozzled!



The Aldi /Lidl Rheinbacher Pilsner / Perlenbacher Pilsner are great too.

Chouffe is my all time fave. I THINK it is still brewed in Belgium. But I cannot drink it if I want to remain awake.

[BrabusMog]

Spanish San Miguel is delicious, the brewed in the UK stuff is not even close to tasting the same which is why I stick to Polish lager most of the time unless Peroni is on offer at Tesco.

[Zio Di Roma]

The consensus seems to be that Brewed under licence in the UK = not as good.

Why is it then that the originals are not imported?

[BrabusMog]

Some off licences do import stuff that isn't brewed in the UK, my local one gets the Spanish San Miguel in from time to time and most Polish stuff other than Tyskie and Lech which is brewed in the UK.

Edited as I'd had a couple of Perla's this evening

Edited by BrabusMog on Saturday 22 March 19:32

[a340driver]

Don't beers always taste better at home? I love the odd lager in Turkey but hate it at home.

Maybe it's the fact it's freezing and I'm hot?

Plus I'm not going for Turkey Teeth and head plantations.

[PT1984]

Zio Di Roma said:

The consensus seems to be that Brewed under licence in the UK = not as good.

Why is it then that the originals are not imported?

Is it not because of the tax. Higher ABV = more tax.

[fttm]

Water source makes a huge difference

[borcy]

Zio Di Roma said:

The consensus seems to be that Brewed under licence in the UK = not as good.

Why is it then that the originals are not imported?

Glass and water is pretty expensive to move long distances especially for something that is fairly low sale price.

[bristolracer]

Zio Di Roma said:

Why is it then that the originals are not imported?

Because you get very few bottles on a 40 ton lorry. It gets very expensive to transport the hundreds of thousands of bottles and cans that are consumed every week.
A lot of the wine we drink in this country is often bottled here but arrives in big plastic bags inside ships.
Far cheaper to make beer in the big big Burton on Trent beer factory and slap a fancy foreign label on it and charge a fancy price for glorified Carling black label.

Beer and wine are always better at their place of origin.

[Mont Blanc]

borcy said:

Zio Di Roma said:

The consensus seems to be that Brewed under licence in the UK = not as good.

Why is it then that the originals are not imported?

Glass and water is pretty expensive to move long distances especially for something that is fairly low sale price.

That would be my guess. Brewing and bottling it here is likely far more profitable than brewing it in Spain/Italy etc and moving vast quantities of it 1000-1500 miles.

But in answer to the original question, I would agree that 'brewed under licence' always results in a noticeably worse beer than the original.

[brightmotiv]

This vid sums it up: https://youtu.be/PkYLH5aW_VQ?si=Hj1yq1Xr-0UQT_ds

British brewed often means Burton on trent = hard water

[dickymint]

brightmotiv said:

This vid sums it up: https://youtu.be/PkYLH5aW_VQ?si=Hj1yq1Xr-0UQT_ds

British brewed often means Burton on trent = hard water

IF that were the case then the brewers would know about it and 'soften' their water to suit

[Silvanus]

dickymint said:

brightmotiv said:

This vid sums it up: https://youtu.be/PkYLH5aW_VQ?si=Hj1yq1Xr-0UQT_ds

British brewed often means Burton on trent = hard water

IF that were the case then the brewers would know about it and 'soften' their water to suit

Why bother, some of the brewed under license stuff are amongst the best selling beers in the UK. I think a lot of people wouldn't have a clue what they're drinking.

[dickymint]

Silvanus said:

dickymint said:

brightmotiv said:

This vid sums it up: https://youtu.be/PkYLH5aW_VQ?si=Hj1yq1Xr-0UQT_ds

British brewed often means Burton on trent = hard water

IF that were the case then the brewers would know about it and 'soften' their water to suit

Why bother, some of the brewed under license stuff are amongst the best selling beers in the UK. I think a lot of people wouldn't have a clue what they're drinking.

That’s sort of what I’m saying. It’s mostly a load a load of pretentious bks

[PhilAsia]

borcy said:

I think it's the different water here or perhaps different ingredients?

Along those lines... I was informed that many years ago, Carlsberg(?) built a factory here in Manila, but then closed it later after they found out that it was being used to make Tiger beer(?).

[LooneyTunes]

dickymint said:

brightmotiv said:

This vid sums it up: https://youtu.be/PkYLH5aW_VQ?si=Hj1yq1Xr-0UQT_ds

British brewed often means Burton on trent = hard water

IF that were the case then the brewers would know about it and 'soften' their water to suit

Water isn’t just about “hard” vs “soft”…

But I’d agree that “brewed in the UK” foreign beers aren’t necessarily great if you happen to like the originals (which a decent percentage of drinkers won’t actually have ever tried).