Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Lager Challenge - Intro, Updated*

After the success of the IPA Challenge (so the voices in my head tell me, anyway), I have decided to attempt a larger (and lager) challenge.  This time things will be different. With the IPAs I bought pretty much every one  I could find, which wasn't that many, both cheap(ish) and dear. The problem with that method, however, was that the IPAs that won both Round 1 and Round 2 were expensive and not readily available in Supermarkets or Off Licences.

For this competition I decided to remove both the top-end and bottom-end of the spectrum. No craft lagers and no cheap muck. I intend that every lager in competition be fairly easily found, most, I hope are available in Supermarkets, which is where I think most people are buying their beer these days.

The other big wrinkle is that I am going to do initial rounds by country. So far it looks like this:
Note: all priced Beers from Molloys and are 500ml bottles unless otherwise stated.

Germany - 8 Lagers. There appears to be more decent quality German lagers about then from other territories. I picked 6 "premium" lagers and decided round out  the 8 with a couple from Lidl to mix it up a bit. The eight purchased to date are:

Spaten 5.2% abv
Veltins Pilsener 4.8% abv  €2.99
Warsteiner 4.8% abv 
Kromabcher  4.8% €2.95 (Dunnes)
Beck's 4.8% abv  €1.75 (can)
Holsten Pils 5.0% abv  €1.75 (can, 440ml) 
Grafenwalder 5% abv €1.09 (can, Lidl)
Finkbrau 4.9% abv €0.75 (33cl, Lidl)


Czech Republic - 4 Lagers. Already selected and purchased. The usual suspects I guess, and one beer from Slovakia as follows:

Pilsner Urquell 4.4% abv  €2.99 
Zlaty Bazant  5.0% abv  €2.19  (Slovak)
Budweiser Budvar 5.0% abv  €2.49 
Staropramen 5.0% abv  €2.49

Poland - 4 lagers. All four decided on now... 

Lech 5.2% abv
Tyskie 5.6% abv €1.65 (Lidl)
Zywiec 5.8% abv €1.65 (can, Lidl)
Warka 5.7% abv €1.84 (can, Dunnes)

Netherlands - 4 Lagers. Three* definites so far. The last one might be a bit dodgy...

Heineken 5% abv
Grolsch 5% abv   €1.89 (can)
Bavaria 4.3% €1.39 (can, Tesco)
Dutch Gold  4% €?.?? (can)

The idea is that one winner from each group will be blind tasted, in an ultimate final. This may take a while, so please be patient...

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