In a crap pub, a bottle of Budvar is often the last refuge for the beer geek. Sadly, those little green bottles are almost always past their best — stale and flavourless.
It was nice this week to be reminded that it doesn’t always have to be that way with bottled lager, though, when Augustiner Lagerbier Hell (our beer of the week) transported us to Bavaria with one sip.
There were veritable hops, sweet malt and — hooray! — no off flavours.
It also helped that it was served in a nicely shaped and properly branded glass. That shouldn’t matter, but it does.
9 replies on “Un-skunked bottled lager”
Pray tell, where did you enjoy this?
P
Dare I say it but lagers flavoured with hop extracts will never be skunked.
“properly branded glass. That shouldn’t matter, but it does.”
Why feel guilty about enjoying beer in the right glass? I think it”s part of the experience and really should matter.
Ed — so, a compromise worth making? In this case, maybe.
Phil — the Pembury, Hackney Downs.
I was in Munich a fortnight ago. Wish I was still there!
I sell Budvar in the little green bottles, and I don’t think mine’s past its best. It’s just that Budvar (whisper it) isn’t as great as everyone thinks it is…
True, it’s not the best lager in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes it’s drinkable and sometimes it’s *really* rank.
I was delighted to find the Augustiner Dunkel in a specialist beer shop in Edinburgh, the other day. Sadly, it was heavily oxidised and not very pleasant.
Oh dear. Sorry to hear that, Geoff. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a good bottled dunkel, now I come to think of it.