Czechvar

[jhlurie]

Had some of this for the first time at the recent NJ eGullet gathering.  Jason Perlow and I spoke excitedly about it for almost 10 minutes... about how real Budweiser minus the evil aftertaste is actually pretty darn good.

[tommy]

well, it obviously has nothing to do with AB Budweiser, and it's probably doing it a disservice by even mentioning AB Budweiser!  umm, right?

i found it a bit floral, and very drinkable.  how does jason say it? bood VISE er.

[jhlurie]

i found it a bit floral, and very drinkable.  how does jason say it? bood VISE er.

Yes, but Jason can be a twit.  :D

[jhlurie]

At the China 46 meeting, we also had some of this:

...which glenn, who brought it, but reports elsewhere on this board not liking.  tommy called it "interesting, but not something i'd drink while eating", which I agree with in a way.  It's a really strong ale--11% alcohol--which apparently has to be called "barleywine" to be sold.  My thought was that it would go really well with BBQ, and not with the type of food that we were eating.  I drank most of mine during the course with the big bottomefeeder fish that nobody at our table ate, and isolated from the food actually enjoyed it.

I brought some of this:

It wasn't bad, although I'm not sure I'll be a repeat customer of this particular Sam Adams variant.  Maybe the Triple Bock next time, since it's ridiculous to fight over 3,000 bottles of the Millenium Beer.  :)

[Wilfrid]

I recall that a widely available bottled beer in the UK was Budweiser Budvar, made in Czechoslovakia, and with only the most remote historical connection to AB Bud.  Is this Czechvar stuff perhaps the same thing, with the name changed for US sales?

[jhlurie]

I recall that a widely available bottled beer in the UK was Budweiser Budvar, made in Czechoslovakia, and with only the most remote historical connection to AB Bud.  Is this Czechvar stuff perhaps the same thing, with the name changed for US sales?

Ah... you obviously missed the little "=" between the two pictures in the first post.

[Jason Perlow]

History (Czechvar Site)

History (Budweiser Budvar site)

Here's the history of Budweiser Budvar, aka Czechvar. Some interesting facts here regarding the original name of the beer and a american lawsuit in the 19th century betweeen Miller and Busch regarding the american use of the name Budweiser

[Jason Perlow]

Bud Super Strong. alcohol content: 7.2 % vol.

Boy I bet you'll never see that sucker in a superbowl commercial.

[jhlurie]

Here's the history of Budweiser Budvar, aka Czechvar. Some interesting facts here regarding the original name of the beer and a american lawsuit in the 19th century betweeen Miller and Busch regarding the american use of the name Budweiser

Well, at least it explains how you can be a Bohemian and still drink lots of beer. :)  But it doesn't really say why they feel compelled to call the American version Czechvar, now does it?  Of course merely not to be confused with CRAP might be reason enough.

(edit)

O.K.  Evil A-B obviously must have threatened them.    This article (click here) details the legal fight in Scandinavia, so I imagine the A-B wasn't any happier about them trying to use the name in the U.S.

[AdamLawrence]

The history of the battles between Anheuser-Busch and Budejovicky Budvar of Ceske Budejovice (pronounced che-ski boo-day-oh-vitz-ay) is long and painful.

Basically, it's a trademark dispute, but complicated by the fact that, although they've been brewing beer in Ceske Budejovice for many years longer than A-B, it was the latter (apparently) that first registered the Budweiser trademark. Adolphus Busch apparently adopted the name when he foudned his brewery. There has been a procession of lawsuits in different countries, with differing results. A-B has been trying to buy a stake in the Czech brewery for years, so far without success.

See http://www.american.edu/TED/budweis.htm for a detailed history of the dispute.

Czech beers are great; the Czechs basically invented the lagering process. I don't drink them much in the winter, but when it's hot I'll often have one because they take chilling better than most English ales. If you're not that familiar with them, try Pilsner Urquell (the original been from Plzen) or Staropramen as well.

cheers

Adam

[jhlurie]

Hey, some of the other food-related papers on related cases cited on that part of the AU site aren't bad either.  Gee, the first time I've been proud of being an alumnus. :)  The School of International Service at AU doesn't seem like a natural place for food discussion fodder, but there it is...

I like the ones on:

Feta Cheese (click here)

Basmati Rice (click here)

Mexican Miller Beer Confusion (click here)

that EU chocolate case.... (click here)

the knock-down of the German Beer Purity law (click here)

and the case on the purity of the word "Whiskey" (click here)

[Winot]

Re. Basmati rice

The first paragraph in the TED case study is legally incorrect.  The fact that someone has been granted a patent has nothing to do with what they can call the rice.  Neither will the patent enable the owner to prevent anyone doing what they could freely do before the patent was applied for (eg sell basmati rice).  Instead the patent probably protects a novel strain (I haven't read it in detail so can't comment).

Sorry for the pedantry but I'm a patent attorney and we get very hot under the collar at misrepresentation of the law in the media.

[Rail Paul]

Winot -

your distinction is between the patent on a strain of rice and the trademark used to name it? No?

Paul

[Winot]

Winot -

your distinction is between the patent on a strain of rice and the trademark used to name it? No?

Paul,

There is a distinction between those things, yes, but the key point here is that patents and trade marks are so-called "negative rights", in other words they give the proprietor the right to stop other people doing things (selling the invention/using the trade mark as the case may be).  

The TED report suggests that acquiring the patent has given the company the right to call its rice basmati.  That is not what a patent does.  Even if the company had obtained a trade mark registration for basmati (which would be unlikely as it is a generic term), the trade mark registration would not give them the right to name the rice basmati if in doing so they infringed third party rights.

Speculating somewhat, I suppose that the FDA (or whoever it is) might have its own rules about correct trade descriptions and that information included in the patent might have satisfied this body that the rice could properly be described as "basmati", but I doubt that the company would have had to obtain a patent to win this right.

[oraklet]

getting back to budweiser: funny to see how the budweiser story has changed with time. the version i heard was about a good guy and his bad brother...

now, budvar is an excellent beer. as are most czech beers, like staropramen, urquell, and the king of them all,

REGENT!

find it, drink it, enjoy it, and spread the gospel: regent rules.

[Rail Paul]

Regent's a good beer, Costco had it on sale in NJ last month for about $20.

Definitely rules, but so do Czechvar, etc...