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In early June, ASN co-publisher Jack Babin joined a group of writers and beer industry reps on a three-country visit to Europe. The trip was sponsored by Distinguished Brands International of Colorado.
Erdinger Flying through London, we arrived at Munich airport, a museum of stainless steel and modern glass — outrageously high tech. Our bus took us straight to our hotel in the town of Erdinger. In no time we were inside the Erdinger brewery, (largest producer of wheat beers in the world), having white sausage and fresh pretzels for lunch accompanied with of course, Erdinger beer. Who has jet lag? Not me!
Precision, following strict tradition and dedication to cause were the mantras at Erdinger. The owner, Mr. Brombach, was justifiably proud of the premium reputation of his beer and brewery. This man personifies German brewing traditions and protects them passionately. He took issue with the many German breweries who have sold to foreign companies and who are now "changing the beer being produced in Germany.
"It is sad Germans are losing their tradition of beer," he said. "German breweries should not deviate from the traditional styles...without tradition there is no future."
Our tour, conducted by technical director Peter Lieber, showcased the state of the art facility. Horizontal fermentation tanks, rather than vertical give the yeast — whose strain is a closely-guarded secret — more surface area to work with, resulting in a better tasting product. Walking past the bottling line raging at 170,000 bottles filled per hour, our next stop was a Star Wars-like inventory aging and control room which processes more than one million bottles per day. Pikantis, Champ, Kristall Klar, Leich are a few of the beers produced in this amazing facility. Although I am not a big fan of alcohol-free beer, I must say the Erdinger brand I sampled here was unequivocally the finest tasting I have ever had. Budvar/Czechvar After surviving a few passport problems in Prague a wild, two-hour ride through the night took us to the small town of Ceske Budejovice a town created in the 1250’s by the King of Bohemia. The town was granted the right to brew beer for the kingdom giving birth to the original Budweiser or Budvar brewery in the Czech Republic, not to be confused with Budweiser in the U.S. Budvar is exported to the U. S. under the name of Czechvar.
From wells 300 meters deep comes the very special water from which over 1.2 million hectoliters of Budvar beer is produced every year. More than half of the beer consumed in the Czech Republic is Budvar.
Our tour guide was the highly respected brewmaster Josef Tolar, who let us taste the nectar of the gods — brewers tea — right off the line, a most memorable and magical experience indeed! Quality of product and consistency reign supreme at Budvar. The beers, malty and creamy, are brewed with Moravian malt and Saaz hops. The wonderful lunch, followed by a tour of Ceske Krumlov, an old castle town in the Bohemian countryside, left me wanting to take my family there to show them the beauty of the people.
Budvar is a vibrant proud brewery exporting products to over 60 countries around the world.
Fullers A little tired and ragged, we pulled into London. A young, very confident, wonderfully full-of-English-swagger gentleman met us at the airport. It seemed everyone but myself knew him already. This was to be our main host Stamford Galsworthy, better known as Sammy, Fuller’s director of sales in the U.S.
I was impressed by the pride the Fuller’s gentlemen and women had when speaking of their beers; it is easy to see where the name London Pride comes from. While they run a very successful and quite serious business, the fun they seemed to have doing it was most noticeable.
The pleasure of watching first hand the very intelligent, quick- witted, cut-you-to-your-knees English humor was fabulous amongst the backdrop of a highly professional, very well run business. Fuller’s operates more than 250 pubs and hotels throughout London and the U.K.
We visited one of their more cherished establishments, a pub situated in the old Bank of England, perhaps the most elegant, ornate, impressive pub I have ever been in...and I have been in quite a few! We were enveloped in rich woods and marble from many years ago. During World War II the crown jewels were actually stored in the vaults in the basement.
After a dinner attended by surprise guest Michael Jackson, I was given the opportunity to tap a keg in the basement amazingly without making a mess of myself. I thought this evening could not be topped, but I was wrong.
On our last night in London, our English hosts topped off the visit by taking our entire group to the races at Kempton Park. When I think of horse racing I think of an overweight, balding guy chomping on an unlit cigar at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The Saturday evening races in England are altogether different. Upon exiting our bus I watched women and men elegantly dressed as though they were going to the finest event aboard the QE2 on New Year’s Eve — a strikingly beautiful and classy event. We were, of course, surrounded by Fuller’s products and a beautiful meal while watching the races. As they would say in England — Brilliant! Well Done!
Galsworthy said that while the domestic market is still performing well, there is an air of expectancy about the export department and specifically the U.S. to deliver some exciting numbers.
"We are already ahead of where we thought we would be 18 months ago and that keeps the tail wagging (so-to-speak)!" he said. "Directionally we are still lighting the fire under London Pride, now up 50 percent over the last 12 months, so we know we are doing something right. ESB continues to be an ever growing anchor brand for us; it allows us to be more innovative with a brand like Pride that should be everywhere and with the considerable investment we are proposing in the near future, it just might be!"
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