US Budweiser "beer"
Do they get the dogs to pee into each bottle individually or do they all pee into a big vat and its then poured into the bottles?
US brewer Anheuser-Busch has lost its attempt to register the word 'budweiser' as a trade mark for beer in the European Union. Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar has won the right to market its beers under the name. The Court of First Instance (CFI) of the EU has ruled in Budvar's favour after a number of decisions and appeals. …
Let's be honest, Budweiser, (the merkin one) has virtually no flavour at all, which is why youngsters drink it.
Budvar on the other hand does taste like lager.
Not that I drink lager mind.
Have you ever seen some-one under thirty with a pint of bitter in their hand?
Me meither! We're all doomed I tell ye, DOOMED!
'Budvar had submitted copies of adverts in Germany and Austria and invoices for customers in Germany and Austria for sales of the beer. The CFI agreed with the Board of Appeal "the evidence which Budvar produced was clearly sufficient to prove genuine use of the earlier international word mark 'Budweiser'".'
If they need any more evidence I remember (reasonably clearly) drinking it in Austria years ago in bottles clearly marked 'Budweiser' from Budvar....
To those of us who perfer the Euro-brew to the US version it means that Anheuser-Busch can't force a change of labelling on Budvar. O.K., it's easier to spot the better Bud on the shelves as they aren't in tiny bottles but I reckon it also means that A-B will find it harder to run an ad campaign aimed at running the real thing out of town.
(On the other hand why isn't it reported as a fight between two drug sellers to gain control over the main European market.)
I'm really sick of misrepresentation. The American stuff is rank, has no flavour and is like drinking pop.
What I want to see is legislation regarding place of origin. How can a beer brewed in a different country be called the same beer? Take Stella, "Belgium's Original Beer" emblazoned on the front and "Brewed in the UK" on the side. How does that work? The UK shite has a lower ABV content and tastes totally different to the original.
All marketing people should be hung.
Budvar "already had trade marks for that term in relation to beer for Germany, Austria, Benelux, France and Italy" [...there was a lot of backing and forthing before...] "Anheuser-Busch was therefore denied the right to an EU-wide trade mark, but the ruling will not affect the trade marks which it has in individual countries within the EU."
This article gave us the backs and forths, but didn't really make clear what the upshot of the decision is.
-Will Anheuser-Busch no longer be allowed to sell 'the US Budweiser' as "Budweiser" in Germany, Austria, Benelux, France and Italy?
-Or, does Anheuser-Busch have approved trademarks in those (and other) counties?
-If so, what is the real world purpose of the CFI / OHIM EU-wide decisions?
-Is it a case of: "From this point forth, you're better off going for a catch-all EU trademark from the CFI / OHIM, but if it's for something where you're already registered in seperate countries, then it's something the CFI / OHIM have no powers over"?
Budvar is brewed in a town known in Czech as České Budějovice and in German as Budweis. It is only just over the present German border and historically had a reasonably high German speaking population before the wars and when the brewery was founded. In the same way someone from Berlin is a Berliner, someone from Budweis to a German speaker is a Budweiser. It astounds me that Anheiser have ever got a trademark anywhere in Europe because of this.
As any good American could tell you though, they're easy to tell apart. One of them is one of the greatest beers in the world and the other is fizzy tasteless piss beloved by those too susceptible to advertising.
As an American, I applaud Budvar's efforts to make it harder for Anheuser-Busch to peddle their lager Over There. (I will say in the defense of American brewers that their lagers (the better ones) do work well with American summers (hot) and modern refrigeration. On a day when it is 90 F. in the shade, a Coors chilled almost to freezing can be quite refreshing).
Budvar is the one true king of beers. Well, of that style of lager anyway.
The Great Pretender tastes how I imagine fermented and filtered cat's piss would taste and should lose the right use the name "Budweiser" name globally in relation to the alcoholic lagered beverage.
If Americans want to find out what a proper lager should taste like, I think it is marketed as "Budstar" or something over there. Either that or check out your local micro-brewery.
All-in-all an excellent decision by the EU.
Budweiser and beer is purely accidental. Like all American beers, it is gnats pee. Budvar, on the other hand, does what it is supposed to, is brewed the correct way and with a strong enough aclohol content to enable it to be called beer.
Having sampled many brews from time living on the continent, i feel suitably qualified and shoudl they need me to act as an expert witness, I'm quite prepared to do so, having first gone on an all-expenses paid, six month fact-finding tour.
Seems to me the application could have been denied simply on the grounds that the US version can only be considered beer in some warped US definition. As a victim of the mass marketing kill off of the numerous small breweries in the eastern half of the US, I can only applaud this unexpected outburst of common sense on the part of the EU!
Mine's the one w/ the Saranac India Pale Ale in the pocket. ;-)
Who buys (yank) Budweiser in Europe?
The local Stag brewery in west London produces the stuff, and they used to go on occasional forays trying to give the stuff away in my local and others nearby.
They put free pints in front of you, without you having to ask, so there was no effort in getting one.
One sip, just to remind ourselves of how minging it is. Then back to paying for beer we want to drink.
Of course Anheuser-Busch can't get a trademark for beer under the Budweiser name they should also be done under trade description for referring to that rice based swill as beer in the first place.
The merkins can make beer, they just choose not to export it (Fat Tyre, Sierra, Red Tail...) The bland watery crap they export should not carry the honorific beer, nor indeed the name of the brewery that the useless twat who founded the co. was expelled from. </rant>
...in actual fact their revolting version is older than the Budweiser Budvar one, so it's not entirely unreasonable that they feel they have some claim to the name. That's the end of the fairness, though, 'cos they shouldn't be allowed to sell the muck at all, it's so bad. Oh, and in countries where Budvar has the trademark, A-B peddles their filth as "Bud".
Paris, 'cos she's got more taste than Bud.
What's happening here is that A-B, which is part of a huge conglomerate, goes to law on the slightest pretext and keeps appealing every nitpick for as long as it can. The lawyers' fees and court costs are money tied up until one side wins decisively and the loser has to pay both sides' costs. That's a drop in the bucket to A-B, a lot of money to Budvar. Also, it's a gamble: if A-B lose they can delay payment so as to spin the game out longer, but if Budvar lose it could bankrupt them.
So it's corporate bullying by A-B.
They ought to spell it as they pronounce it: "Badweiser". In the UK that'd attract more teenagers (it was MY idea!) but in Germany it'd imply the product's bathwater.
A-B can probably get a trademark on 3P which would be putrid panther piss of course.
For those who don't know, good US beer was killed off during our failed experiment with Prohibition and held down by the overbearing laws that were enacted when Prohibition was ended. Some semblance of sanity was restored in 1978 when homebrewing was legalized by the federal gubbermint so Billy Carter could make his stank beer legally. Giving people the ability to experiment and create decent beer without investing tons of money in a full-on brewery gave birth to the "microbrew" generation and finally budmilloor has some local competition. After a stumbling start through the 1980's finally the groundwork was laid for the economic juggernaut that powered the 1990's. True story, Jimmy Carter's greatest legacy powered the economy of many presidents after him and is the reason why Carter will ultimately go down in history as the second greatest president of the United States. He would have gotten the number one spot if it weren't for the whole Iran hostage debacle.
Budvar is known as Czechvar in the US. Fairly tasty, but we have some really remarkable craft brews over here now. For those of you who still think "All American beers taste like pi$$", you are badly out-of-date. Some of the best-tasting beers in the world are being made over here now. But we keep them all for ourselves! Bwahahaha! The craft beer aisle in my local liquor superstore is much larger than the import shelf.
Anheuser-Busch is actually now owned by the Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate InBev, so it technically isn't even American beer now. The largest 100% American-owned brewery in the US is now D.G. Yuengling & Sons of Pottsville, PA. (Also the oldest in the US.)
The reason American Bud tastes so bad is quite simple. Real beer has four ingredients - Malt, hops, water and yeast. The yeast turns the sugars in the malt into alcohol.
Malt (essentially roasted barley) adds flavour, body (in the form of non fermentable carbohydrates and soluble fibre) and sugar, and is expensive.
American Bud replaces most of the malt with rice. Rice doesn't taste of much, and has very little soluble fibre to give the "beer" body, and is cheap.
And, and this makes me laugh, they try and tell you this is a good thing!