Budweiser/Budvar

Let's start with some facts here. Budweiser is not as American as we may think. We are aware of the recent purchase of Budweiser by a Belgian brewing super giant but there's more. Budweiser actually started out as a Czechoslovakian brew. Then, the Budweiser that we know in the states came in and stole the Czechoslovakian recipe making a cheap knock off of the original Budweiser recipe. These two companies have had a lawsuit going back and forth for a long time now. The region of Czechoslovakia is now in the Czech Republic and they still lovingly call this beer Budvar.

The night and the situation I chose to have this beer in was simple. It was a Friday night in Prague, but I was not going out partying. The night before my friend Mariel and I had gone out to a pub crawl and we were quite hungover all day. Plus our Czech Koruns were running low and we were leaving the next day. We had a night in at the hostel where we made ourselves a broke man's version of mac & cheese. Pasta with cheese slices melted in. Delicious. We knew about Budvar and decided we wanted to try that before we left so we bought a 12 oz can each for 4.65 Korun, or somewhere around 30 cents U.S. As we sat in our hostel room and she told me some more about her family I reached over at a certain point and cracked that bad boy open. Let me tell you, definitely better than Budweiser. It wasn't amazing but it didn't taste like ass. It basically was a step up from Budweiser.

With this Lager you could taste the hops but there was much more of a noticeable malt influence. It didn't finish particularly smooth, didn't have an enjoyable aroma, didn't pair well with mac & cheese and was drank luke warm. It still did the trick though. I would recommend this as much as I would recommend a cold PBR. Mariel gives her approval as well. So we drank them down and in the middle of our talk we were interrupted by two Canadians walking into our shared room because they had just arrived. We talked with them for close to 30 minutes and then they left to get some food. We went to bed, woke up early, mobbed on some free breakfast, took one last walk through Prague and then I flew off to London (Typical Saturday for me really). That Budvar though, still has special spot in my memory.