My colleague and fellow beer blogger, Max the Pivní Filosof, alerts me to the goings-on in Prague this weekend past, during the Prague Food Festival, which he describes as “arguably the most important gastronomic event” in town. Seems beer was finally invited to join the show, although not in the form you might expect, such as Bernard, Černá Hora, Budweiser Budvar or even Pilsner Urquell.
No, the featured beer was none of those. In fact, the featured beer, although brewed under license in Prague, was not even Czech. I think you probably know where this is headed, don’t you? Yes, the featured beer was none other than that famed “Premium Belgian Lager,” Stella Artois!
This was, of course, the direct result of a lot of marketing dollars being thrown the festival’s way by Anheuser-Busch InBev, as noted in the comments to Max’s post. But as Max himself rightly points out, it is also plain evidence that the organizers truly don’t give a rat’s ass about beer, since it’s rather doubtful that the people behind such a prestigious event would welcome the prominent participation of, say, Blue Nun wine or McDonald’s.
At least ABIB brought along their Staropramen, too, so there was some Czech presence at the show.
Stephen, thanks for giving your view. One thing, though, as of last January, Staropramen doesn’t belong to AB-InBev anymore, they sold it to a Belgian investment group, along with a bunch of other Estearn European breweries, as I reported here.
Unfortunately, the new ownership hasn’t meant the local brands have improved, they are they same, and Stella is still brewed under license.
It should also be mentioned that the pseudo Belgian swill is nothing new here. When InBev took over Pivovary Staropramen they did some very good marketing and were able to push the brand into wannabe posh restaurants and the owners and not few drinkers really believed they were drinking a quality Belgian beer… It makes you want to cry sometimes.
I’m shocked I missed the Staropramen divestment, Max. Thanks for clarifying.