The rot started (imho) when they started brewing Stella in the UK. Then they changed the % and everyone else seems to have followed. Boycott foreign beers brewed in the UK!!!
I don’t buy any so called European lager that’s brewed in the UK. It’s always completely different & always much worse than the real thing. After all the main ingredients is water & how can it taste the same when they take some alcohol out of it & use water from the UK. Anything brewed here under the guise of their European style is generally rotten. 👍
Staro used to be my no1 fave! Then it got uk brewed (I didn't realise this for ages) thinking my taste buds must of changed, I have no idea what it is anymore. Its like buying fake goods. I spend all my time looking at labels at the supermarket now!
Same mate, i couldn't understand why this beer i loved for so long wasnt doing it for me know more. Kept going back to it and kept feeling disappointed and gave up eventually. Was only through watching this channel i found out it was getting brewed in the uk.
Sorry to swear BUT this is Absolutely Fecking Fantastic news! Wonderful just wonderful. Lidl should make a big deal about this and should shame other supermarkets for not doing this. Not long back from Spain and to drink the Spanish Estrella was magnificent as well as other Real Spanish Beers! I have A Lidl at the end of my street going with a shopping trolley and filling it full of Prague version Staropramen for this weekends beer sessions!
There are still a few lagers available in British Supermarkets/shops that are brewed in their originating countries, I wouldn’t say this is something to scream from the rooftops
It’s like listening to a song with crappy headphones, you don’t realise what you’re missing till you put some good ones on and you think; how did I put up with the bad ones for so long..!
case of 20 500ml bottles delivered to the door in Germany for 18 euros! That's when it's not on special offer. I knew I made the right decision leaving the uk in 2012
@thedoc1210 uk breweries incorporates razor thin profit margin and mushroom tech. Well mushroom tech, keeping drinkers in the dark and serving them shit
@@johnnymcandrew a well known weißbier producer in Munich once sent me a free crate of 20 when I reported to them about a bottle that Tesco had delivered to me that was only partially filled! Just shows how much profit they are making at German prices to be able to do that!
To be honest years ago I bought this lager and really enjoyed it because it was unique tasting. A year or so ago I bought a crate and felt it wasn't that good. I did not realise they had started brewing it in the UK and that would explain it.
Went off uk lagers for 15 years. I thought I was allergic! Gaseous, bad tastes bad feel. No lift at all. 1. Found your channel 2. Found German purity-law works of art. They're all so yummy. 2. Love Beer again. I was trapped in the hustle (like most) and I was not seeing genuine works for all the farty-fakes.
We could do with the penny dropping to the whole nation, a total boycott of brewed under license. But with Carling drinkers etc this is never going to happen. For lager style it has to be Czech or German. I can get imported Stella which is better than ours at reasonable rates but I tend to stick to Urqell deals in Asda so much better. The only UK supermarket lager worth a look in is Camden Hells in the can, it's really not bad at all and cheap v imports. The only one I'll drink from our poor lager offerings!
@@GavJ_81 ❤your view. I think clever MARKETING could break uk farty shit. Imagine if a Advertising firm working on behalf of all German purity law beer did a running ad of laughing Germans, with quote after quote of truth about why our beer is laughably bad.
Lidl sell that Palenbacher ( forgive me for mutilating the name) I thought safe pair of German hands on this. Brewed in France. What is this world coming to ?
I did my own comparison tonight after seeing this video and managed to get some in my local Lidl.....I cannot believe the difference , its a completely different beer. Noticed that Uk Staropramen has a slight aroma of burnt toast and the imported beer is so clean smelling. The Lidl beer is so so good........brilliant video Simon!!
What an eye opener. In my ignorance I assumed that Tesco Staropramen was Czech brewed because of all the labelling, and because it is superior to almost anything else you can buy. Price wise the Lidl version is marginally cheaper per unit volume. My nearest Tesco is 5 miles away, my nearest Lidl 15 miles, so factoring in petrol costs it is a no brainer. However if my peregrinations take me past Lidl I will pop in and check it out.
I live in Croatia for six months of the year. I drink Starro as my beer of choice and I get a crate of 20 X500ml for £12 a case plus on most days I get a fee glass or a free “Krug” when I replace the crate Tesco Staro when I drink it over there tastes like pencil sharpenings and where as Staro in Croatia tastes like mothers milk
My wife works on the street where they brew Staropramen - oldspring! Amazing aromas wafting around the street. It's always a pleasure to meet her after work.
I went to the Pilsner Urquel brewery tour many moons back. If I remember correctly, Pilsner Urquel is their premium beer & Staropramen is the non premium beer.
I can remember when the UK brewed stuff first appeared. I used to buy Staropramen when it was still imported then one day it didn't taste as good. I looked at the bottle and saw it was now UK brewed. It was different enough I could actually tell. I haven't bought UK brewed Staropramen since.
I came back from the US having sampled Sam Adams' Boston Ale in Boston and then found some one selling it it the UK. Consider my surprise -it was a totally different beer, brewed in the UK of course. The policy has always seemed to be keep the Branding and produce any old crap in the UK. No one will notice.
@@nickbrough8335 Yep. I tend to avoid all "brewed in UK" versions of beers from other countries. I recently had some UK brewed Stella that wasn't too bad though. What with Simon having some good things to say about UK Staropramen and my Stella experience I live in hope that we might turn a corner, at least with the more premium beers.
@@AndyFraserA My experience. I used to look out for it, if I ever bought bottled lager (very rare, needs to be hot and sunny!). Then, several years ago, I had a four pack and it was just awful. Musty, stale, lightly skunked - completely dominating the syrupy decocted wort and hop taste. Looked at the bottle and could see what they'd done. Brewed in the UK. Our water isn't suitable - hard Midland water v soft Moravian water. Doesnt matter how you "chemically treat it" with gypsum or whatever - if 95% of the product is different, it's never going to be the same.
You absolutely right and nailed the issue here! I'm a biggest fan of Staropramen, living in Finland. I've wondered the very same thing comparing two brewery's licensed versions of the lager. And my decision and delusions were exactly the same as yours, even not having possibility to do tasting face to face for both versions simultaneously. My toughts being the same, they taste very much different to each other! The Estonian brew were very bright, hoppy and crispy checkish lager, instead the Finnish brewery lager was a typical dull and straight standard lager. I mean the real Staropramen I can taste eyes closed, but the Finnish license I cannot say is it local main or Velkopopovic or Foster's even! It's a shame, but it's obvious you'll have to travel to the fond to get the real thing, the label itself won't be any quarantine for the real quality😢
We drank draught Staropraimen one snowy afternoon in a bar nicely off the tourist route in Prague a few years back, the barman marked a beer mat for how many pints we’d drunk, it was a great afternoon and the bill came to just over the equivalent of £10. You never forget days like those.
Last time I was in Lidl the Staropramen said it was brewed in UK. That's why I bought the Budvar instead. Do you think these British brewed 'continental' beers are the same beer put into different bottles? The breweries in Burton don't use the natural ground water any more, nor have they for a long time. Originally, it had a high gypsum content, but whatever water they use now is treated.
Will be getting some of these. Birra Morretti is another beer that they ruined brewing it in the UK. They want you to slowly forget how good the real thing is, but no hiding it when both are available to compare 🍺
My experience living and working in Prague is that generally speaking Czechs don’t highly rate it and indeed neither do I. Pilsner Urquell and Kozel tend to be more esteemed with the Staropramen being more a tourist choice. The tank Pilsner Urquell is one of the great pleasures of that beautiful city.
If you ever go to Camden Town in London, go to a pub called The World's End. They have draught Staropramen delivered directly to them from the brewery in Czech Republic and it's awesome! They serve it from a huge metal tank that the bar is built around.
Thanks for the fantastic tip. Just been to Lidl and there on the shelf was plenty of the real Czech Staropramen at £1.79 a bottle. However, not only that - they also had the real deal Czech Budvar at £1.75 for a 330ml bottle. Came out with 4 bottles of each and a big grin on my face.
Used to get the 'original' Staropramen on keg in Bass pubs in the mid nineties when it was imported. I'm sure it was stronger than 5% ABV. The aroma of the original back then had quite strong overtones of banana on the nose, presumably due to the yeast they used. It was really good back then but you couldn't drink more than two or three without getting quite drunk! I'll have to get to Lidl and compare the imported stuff with how I remember a pint of 'Star' from 25 years ago......
I always thought the Staropramen i drank in Prague was incomparable to the Staropramen over here, despite still drinking it here since. This video explains a lot for me!
Great tip Simon. Bought a couple of bottles today from Lidl and decided to try them whilst I watched Georgia beat Portugal in the Euros. The irony is the Czechs got knocked out in the other game against Turkiye. So, the Czechs go home to drink their wonderful Staropramen and we have to carry on watching boring England while the uninitiated continue drinking Burton Staropramen or worse Madri
Never forgave Burton brewery after buying Mansfield brewery they then demolished it and brewed Mansfield ale in Burton they massacred the taste it went from having a lovely nutty flavour to tasting Metallic and tasteless
Here in Cork, Ireland, WE used to have to good local Beers, Beamish and Murphys. Then Beamish was bought by Heineken and quality dropped, so I switched to Murphys. Then Heineken bought Murphys, too, and shuttered the Murphys brewery and brewed Murphys in the Former Beamish brewery and Murphys took an even greater hit. Think about going from craft beer to the usual tasteless industrial plonk.
Many thanks for this. Just picked some up and it's now a new favourite. Less malty than Budv and no where near the hop zing of Urquell. A nice balance point between the two when you don't want those two extremes. I thought I stopped liking Star a while ago but turns out it was just the uk version.
I've just been to LIDL to stock up, said £1.99 on shelf went through at £1.79. Thoughts? Much hoppier aroma, and such a smooth aftertaste, I can 100% tell the difference and i'll be going LIDL for the foreseeable to keep this in the beer fridge! Great find.
After watching this, went to Lidl and got a few bottles of the imported, had a UK bottle left in the fridge and compared them. Absolutely night and day! Hoping Lidl keep the genuine Czech version in stock from now on! Thanks for the heads up, Simon.👌
Czech here, I used to live in Prague and now in London... I really miss Czech beer thanks for the tip :) Staropramen or Budvar is usually got a bad name in CZ because they are large breweries and people like usually the smaller ones - but try to live abroad and they taste like best beer ever :)
I saw a box of 330ml Staropramen in Lidl here in Ireland. Brewed in the UK. So we're proabably paying duty to import UK Staropramen into the EU instead of getting the Czech stuff from within the EU.
Never really rated Staropramen, even when it was the real thing...always found it a bit too dry...Pilsner Urquell every day of the week though...but I'll try a bottle.
I’m from the UK but have lived in Prague for the last 4 years. Most people here aren’t keen on Staropramen at all. They much prefer Pilsner Urquell which is usually significantly more expensive and tastes far better than Staropramen.
Staropramen is the only UK brewed European lager I really like. Whilst in Lidl, I'll definitely pick some up (especially as it's £1 a bottle cheaper-and probably better too)
Went to LIDL last night to get some, they never had any in stock but they did have Czech brewed Budvar so I got them instead and thoroughly enjoyed them
In May I went to Prague for a concert, and had a pint of Pilsner Urquell in Luton airport, because. It was pretty good. Once I had settled into the hotel I went into the nearby cafe and had a couple of PU. It was very different. Czech PU was amazing. I don't know the right terms, but the words I'd use are lighter and fresher.
The main problem brewing under licence (anywhere, not just U.K.) is that the water is different. So they have to try and change other things to country balance that. You are better off buying a U.K. beer, like Korev, for example.
I remember fosters being imported in massive pint tins!.. bloody lovely,that is until uk started brewing it…all uk made lagers are chemically made.. not brewed
Tbh, Czechs got the hump with Staro when they were found to overproof and cut with water back to regular abv. You can't go past Budvar, Erquelle, Primator, Kozel or Matushka. Best pub in Prague -Zly Casy... beer Valhalla.
Good for Lidl. I just found out Kronenbourg and Fosters UK are the same. With the latter ABV being dialled down. Just shows how fecking lazy the brewers are. There taking us for mugs!
Kronenbourg in uk tastes nothing like it does in Alsace, it’s 1.3 euros for a 750ml bottle in the super markets, and you get 20 cents refund if you give the bottle back , the beer is delicious.
I have done this challenge after watching your video, and considering they are the same beer, they are actually like night and day, and the Czech beer wins hands down
Tried these myself after seeing this . I enjoyed the British brewed one and always have , but the real one is softer , cleaner, smoother, fresher and the thing I agree with is the hard water earthy comment . . After a few swigs it completely changes. Loads better . Hopefully Lidl will keep stocking this . Thank you for telling us about this . Cheers Simon 🍻👍🏻
Lidl should definitely make it a marketing point they import these big brand beers from the continent..... because the food has improved so much, if they keep up with the high quality beer, I'll shop there more
Ahh simon. Best beer news I've heard all year. Just come back from a top up aldi shop. So disappointing with their selection now. They seem to just want to copy famous macro brewers. Lidl, however, are doing something different. Importing genuine smaller, cheaper European brews of real quality. Please, please, please keep doing what you're doing lidl!!
Would you be able to recommend any to me please as I buy mine from aldi but been disappointed lately, been buying sainte etienne but it gives me reflux
@leehowson440 yeah that's not a great beer. Their perlenbacher pilsner is decent value, but you have to look out for their specials. They import , randomly I think, Perlenbacher premium pilsner. Octoberfest wheat beer and their Perlenbacher Helles, which came out at Xmas for about 2 weeks, was top top 👌 brew. And of course now imported staropramen. So just keep an eye out and watch the channel for updates !
A blinding glimpse of the obvious! How can you brew the (ostensibly)same beer in a different country with different water characteristics? It's ALWAYS BEEN IMPOSSIBLE but the brewers continue to kid us about it! Personally I think German beer brewed IN GERMANY under German purity laws is best!
I loved Staropramen when I went to Prague and I’m sure it used to all be imported when I started drinking it here. After a while though it started giving me a really bad head so I stopped drinking it. Maybe that’s when it became ‘Burtonised’! Anyway, another lover of ichnusa here, especially the non filtrata version. My local Italian restaurant imports it and I’d probably say it’s my favourite beer. Gorgeous stuff.
Lad is doing God's work. Not all heroes wear capes. Kim's favourite beer (Ichnusa) is also delicious. Has she tried Messina Cristalli De Sale? It's a lovely drop. Cheers 🍻
Messina....brewd by Heineken in Italy.....Stretti is brewed by the family that once owned the Messina brewery.....they sold it to Heineken then bought it back when production moved.....so now brew Stretti in the Messina brewery....in Messina...got it?
Oh they can, the problem is they are driven by profits over quality, because in this country most people don't care abotu quality and are happy to continue to drink slop
I brought a couple of these because that’s all they had left in Southend and WOW, they were delicious! Completely different from the UK version. I’m on a Lidl tour trying to stock up 😊 The imported 5.4% San Miguel is another one to search out, leagues apart from the UK offering😉
Did the same taste tonight after this video! Genuinely couldn’t believe the taste difference. The starburton one had this really bitter finish that hung around , much different mouth feel too
Even when there arent foreign beers on the regular alcohol shelves of Lidl. They regularly do special weeks of foods from Poland, Spain, Portugal, Greece etc during which they usually have an imported drink from those places too.
Had a taste test the weekend with the uk brewed Staropramen and imported with family and they were shocked its even allowed. The imported was so much better.
The UK version is anything BUT "perfectly balanced", it tastes more like someone has poured battery acid in it. I'll be off to Lidl tomorrow to get me some Czech Staropramen :)
I buy Staro from Lidl in Poland, bar code starts with 859, usually priced at 4.99 zloty a can, sometimes on sale for less. Have you seen the staro unfiltered? Here in Poland we get 2 types of unfiltered, one regular and one wheat beer unfiltered.
Spent a month in Germany studying and enjoyed draft Alt Bier (Ale), wheat beers and lagers. When I came back every beer had a very nasty chemical aftertaste. That faded after a while but wonder what the UK brewers are getting away with as the UK has no purity law?
No one should pay premium prices for uk brewed beer when you might aswell just have tenants or carlsberg. I think peroni is still Italian so ill drink that
I don’t really drink staropramen much, but I had it from Tesco s few weeks ago and thought it was average, then read the label to find out it’s uk brewed , which is always a disappointment. I picked up a staropramen today in Lidl, and , after the skunkiness goes, it’s a fantastic beer. Will definitely be buying more!
It's all about the water. I lived in Prague, and even the cheaper bohemian beers were good. You wouldn't expect a good Burton type ale to be brewed in Bohemia.
I picked a few of these up a couple of weeks back. Much nicer. Shame about the green bottles though. They were on the top shelf in my lidl which makes it worse. If they cotton on to people liking the imported one, they will probably put a stop to it.
@@jcarr5690 Paulaner helles from tesco is my go to lager & wheat beers my fave style. Heineken small cans Dutch brewed well decent & shockingly superior to the larger uk cans sold in sainsburys & same price would be great if Simon done comparison
I noticed this in ASDA the brewed in UK bottles! I was horrified. It was in very small print and hard to spot, I previously had an unusual headache from it and decided to investigate. Keep up the good work.
I have often wondered why the uk stuff isn't brewed in Scotland with the soft water. I know it's quite as simple as hard/soft but I think it's got to be more appropriate for larger.
The only thing I can say in defense of the tesco one is that it's part of the 3 for £6 deal. I had the original Czech staropramen closer to when tesco started selling it, then made the mistake of buying the UK one not knowing it was UK brewed. I know I would 100% pay more for less and go with the Czech. Otherwise, Budweiser Budvar is a solid choice. If I want something darker I'll go for a UK beer.
I’ve never understood brewing in different countries it really makes a difference to the product every time. Also the lagers all end up tasting the same. It’s always noticeable when travelling abroad how much better it is in Spain, France, Belgium, Eastern Europe, etc
Saw this, went to local. No good. Drove 16 miles took all 11 off the shelf £1.79 got home and 3 burst at the cap. Gutted.😢 hope it's worth it when I get it to proper temperature. Cmon fridge...
A lager I remember from years which was originally imported from Switzerland. Hurlimann's, brewed with melted snow from the Alps and imported by Shepherd Neame until they began brewing it under licence in the UK. They claim they kept to the original recipie but it never tasted the same.
Great video, the hard burton water thing is a myth though now as they remove all the ions with reverse osmosis anthem add them back to suit what style of beer they are making 👍🏻
Great video aw always man, I’ve been telling all my mates to get down to Lidl and I’ve not got a bit of a hangover from sinking more than a few last night. Thanks for the info
I’m in the trade, one thing that will make you think very differently about British brewed beer styles like Stella etc. the big names like Peroni for example, they are generally brewed and fermented to finish at a higher abv before bottling. They are then watered down to 4.8abv as it is cheaper to brew a stronger beer and increase the volume and in turn decrease the alcohol to a specific level by adding water, no wonder imported Stella tastes NOTHING like the crap we get in the uk. Real shame.
@99ron30 You know I don’t think I’ve had beer from the Lake District but you’re right it make total sense to brew beer there. If they move those breweries from burton upon Trent our macro lagers should improve a fair bit without extra price.
There's a Premier shop in Barry (on the corner of Barry Road and Buttrills Road) who sell both UK- and Belgian-brewed barrels for BeerHawk/PerfectDraft machines.
Just had a bottle of the imported Staropramen, absolutely outstanding compared to the UK verison, one of the smoothest beers i've drank, off to lidl for some more 😂
don't know if you know this but czechs are extremely fussy about how you pour beer. No tilting of the glass just straight in from the top and it creates a lot of foam (more than half the glass) Then they wait a couple minutes for the head to go down and maybe even repeat the process before serving. Seriously, you have to wait a while for a beer in a pub.
The rot started (imho) when they started brewing Stella in the UK. Then they changed the % and everyone else seems to have followed. Boycott foreign beers brewed in the UK!!!
I do 😀 Fridge full of Budvar, Bitburger and Alhambra 1925
I already do ...always look on the label but there's not many left now.... Warsteiner and Bitburger to name a few....
hangover inducing chemical soup
the climate brigade would kick off again
Can't beat a Paulaner..some genuine stuff
Just look at the BARCODE starts with 50 it is from the UK , 859 is Czech
Good tips
500 or 509 is the UK identifying numbers at the beginning of the digits.
@@wiggygeorge523 all numbers from 500 to 509 are from the UK, so any number starting 50 is from the UK so he was right lol
I don’t buy any so called European lager that’s brewed in the UK. It’s always completely different & always much worse than the real thing. After all the main ingredients is water & how can it taste the same when they take some alcohol out of it & use water from the UK. Anything brewed here under the guise of their European style is generally rotten. 👍
Barcodes are going away soon, they will become QR codes. At least in my country. I'm from barcode (EAN) 87.
Staro used to be my no1 fave! Then it got uk brewed (I didn't realise this for ages) thinking my taste buds must of changed, I have no idea what it is anymore. Its like buying fake goods. I spend all my time looking at labels at the supermarket now!
Likewise
Same mate, i couldn't understand why this beer i loved for so long wasnt doing it for me know more. Kept going back to it and kept feeling disappointed and gave up eventually. Was only through watching this channel i found out it was getting brewed in the uk.
@@DavidB-py8nz It's not right is it! Like buying fake goods, yet we pay top money for it! Grrrr
@@philipharvey6720
@@philipharvey6720scammed we are
Sorry to swear BUT this is Absolutely Fecking Fantastic news! Wonderful just wonderful. Lidl should make a big deal about this and should shame other supermarkets for not doing this. Not long back from Spain and to drink the Spanish Estrella was magnificent as well as other Real Spanish Beers! I have A Lidl at the end of my street going with a shopping trolley and filling it full of Prague version Staropramen for this weekends beer sessions!
My local Waitrose (NW London) seems to stock Spanish larger more than anything else.
There are still a few lagers available in British Supermarkets/shops that are brewed in their originating countries, I wouldn’t say this is something to scream from the rooftops
I'm with you here, bro, this is amazing
But did you find it?
@@nickbrough8335 larger?
It’s like listening to a song with crappy headphones, you don’t realise what you’re missing till you put some good ones on and you think; how did I put up with the bad ones for so long..!
I f***ing love this man's passion 😂❤ the Michael Sheen of Lager!!
Copy that Cheers
£2.79 is outrageous. Fk Tesco & Asda for how much they charge for UK brewed "export" lager.
But you can get 3 of them for £6 from Tesco if you have a clubcard, so works out to £3.03 per litre
3euro a bottle in lidl Ireland today. The taste is sweet not malty. Tesco here do German and Austrian beer's for 2.75 euro on clubcard. Which is nice.
case of 20 500ml bottles delivered to the door in Germany for 18 euros! That's when it's not on special offer. I knew I made the right decision leaving the uk in 2012
@thedoc1210 uk breweries incorporates razor thin profit margin and mushroom tech. Well mushroom tech, keeping drinkers in the dark and serving them shit
@@johnnymcandrew a well known weißbier producer in Munich once sent me a free crate of 20 when I reported to them about a bottle that Tesco had delivered to me that was only partially filled! Just shows how much profit they are making at German prices to be able to do that!
To be honest years ago I bought this lager and really enjoyed it because it was unique tasting. A year or so ago I bought a crate and felt it wasn't that good. I did not realise they had started brewing it in the UK and that would explain it.
Czech here 🇨🇿. Staropramen is something you can drink as an adolescent. When you become a man, you drink Pilsner Urquell.
Imported?
Nah, Kozel ❤
Radegast
Bernard
Pilsner Urquell, fresh pulled in Prague, best beer I've ever tasted.
Went off uk lagers for 15 years. I thought I was allergic! Gaseous, bad tastes bad feel. No lift at all.
1. Found your channel
2. Found German purity-law works of art. They're all so yummy.
2. Love Beer again. I was trapped in the hustle (like most) and I was not seeing genuine works for all the farty-fakes.
Yes my man!! It was like a revelation to me too. I always look for imported lagers now.
Exactly the same happened to me. I thought I'd developed some sort of intolerance to lager/beer.
We could do with the penny dropping to the whole nation, a total boycott of brewed under license. But with Carling drinkers etc this is never going to happen. For lager style it has to be Czech or German. I can get imported Stella which is better than ours at reasonable rates but I tend to stick to Urqell deals in Asda so much better. The only UK supermarket lager worth a look in is Camden Hells in the can, it's really not bad at all and cheap v imports. The only one I'll drink from our poor lager offerings!
@@GavJ_81 ❤your view. I think clever MARKETING could break uk farty shit. Imagine if a Advertising firm working on behalf of all German purity law beer did a running ad of laughing Germans, with quote after quote of truth about why our beer is laughably bad.
Lidl sell that Palenbacher ( forgive me for mutilating the name) I thought safe pair of German hands on this. Brewed in France. What is this world coming to ?
I Just dont touch UK mass produced lagers.
My go to is Budvar brewed in 🇨🇿 12 cans Asda 330ml for 10, 83p a can
Same, was at a family gathering not long ago and we had corona I’m sure every bottle tasted different not in a good way
Budvar should only be brewed in Czech it’s supposed to be protected geographically
That's a good deal
The big 500 ml bottles of budvar from Asda are even better but the small tins are nice too !Bidvar just too drinkable tho lol
Get your bad self to the nearest Polski Sklep
You can also find many imported Central European lagers in the small Polish stores.
On this. Thanks for the heads up
Used to get German Becks from a Indian corner shop near me. Then they started selling the UK brew which was relatively much much worse...
Real Tyski from local Polish shop quality stuff
@paultowle7507 I'm in. So, a West Indian walks into a Polish shop.....
I did my own comparison tonight after seeing this video and managed to get some in my local Lidl.....I cannot believe the difference , its a completely different beer.
Noticed that Uk Staropramen has a slight aroma of burnt toast and the imported beer is so clean smelling. The Lidl beer is so so good........brilliant video Simon!!
What an eye opener. In my ignorance I assumed that Tesco Staropramen was Czech brewed because of all the labelling, and because it is superior to almost anything else you can buy. Price wise the Lidl version is marginally cheaper per unit volume. My nearest Tesco is 5 miles away, my nearest Lidl 15 miles, so factoring in petrol costs it is a no brainer. However if my peregrinations take me past Lidl I will pop in and check it out.
For those that are interested......Steinhausers back in my local Aldi, not tampered with still brewed in Germany, still 4.7% 😊
Disappeared from my Aldi.
I'll recheck.
@@paulmurray3086 Yes just got in i have two Aldi near me on Friday one had it in the other one on Sat.
I live in Croatia for six months of the year. I drink Starro as my beer of choice and I get a crate of 20 X500ml for £12 a case plus on most days I get a fee glass or a free “Krug” when I replace the crate Tesco Staro when I drink it over there tastes like pencil sharpenings and where as Staro in Croatia tastes like mothers milk
"Pencil Sharpenings" is now added to my tasting notes 😂
The fact they are happy to put their name on the UK version is beyond me
Because it's the same company?
@@cehaem2Not the same beer though
@@josephruff6412 I never said it was.
because muneh
It’s called money
Winds me up all this wonderful foreign beers and its brewed in Burton on Trent UK. :(
It should be illegal to mislead people like this.
I'm from Swadlincote so no surprise surprise.
Staropramen used to be one of my favourite lagers... until they brewed it in the UK! 🙄
My wife works on the street where they brew Staropramen - oldspring! Amazing aromas wafting around the street. It's always a pleasure to meet her after work.
When you said your wife works on the street I jumped to the wrong conclusion at first!
@@MarkSantaCruz Staropramen rearanged is Strap on Erma!! so who knows if she's called Erma!!
@@MarkSantaCruz It's not far off.
I went to the Pilsner Urquel brewery tour many moons back. If I remember correctly, Pilsner Urquel is their premium beer & Staropramen is the non premium beer.
Incorrect, beer smells like urine, spirits smell great, I could sniff a bottle of whiskey All day
I can remember when the UK brewed stuff first appeared. I used to buy Staropramen when it was still imported then one day it didn't taste as good. I looked at the bottle and saw it was now UK brewed. It was different enough I could actually tell. I haven't bought UK brewed Staropramen since.
That's my exact experience with Staropramen! Loved it then one day I thought "urgh". Read the label ; brewed in UK
I came back from the US having sampled Sam Adams' Boston Ale in Boston and then found some one selling it it the UK. Consider my surprise -it was a totally different beer, brewed in the UK of course. The policy has always seemed to be keep the Branding and produce any old crap in the UK. No one will notice.
@@nickbrough8335 Yep. I tend to avoid all "brewed in UK" versions of beers from other countries.
I recently had some UK brewed Stella that wasn't too bad though. What with Simon having some good things to say about UK Staropramen and my Stella experience I live in hope that we might turn a corner, at least with the more premium beers.
@@AndyFraserA My experience. I used to look out for it, if I ever bought bottled lager (very rare, needs to be hot and sunny!). Then, several years ago, I had a four pack and it was just awful. Musty, stale, lightly skunked - completely dominating the syrupy decocted wort and hop taste. Looked at the bottle and could see what they'd done. Brewed in the UK.
Our water isn't suitable - hard Midland water v soft Moravian water. Doesnt matter how you "chemically treat it" with gypsum or whatever - if 95% of the product is different, it's never going to be the same.
@@jujuUK68 It won't be Moravian water, though, as Prague is in Bohemia. Moravia is further east.
You absolutely right and nailed the issue here! I'm a biggest fan of Staropramen, living in Finland. I've wondered the very same thing comparing two brewery's licensed versions of the lager. And my decision and delusions were exactly the same as yours, even not having possibility to do tasting face to face for both versions simultaneously. My toughts being the same, they taste very much different to each other! The Estonian brew were very bright, hoppy and crispy checkish lager, instead the Finnish brewery lager was a typical dull and straight standard lager. I mean the real Staropramen I can taste eyes closed, but the Finnish license I cannot say is it local main or Velkopopovic or Foster's even! It's a shame, but it's obvious you'll have to travel to the fond to get the real thing, the label itself won't be any quarantine for the real quality😢
We drank draught Staropraimen one snowy afternoon in a bar nicely off the tourist route in Prague a few years back, the barman marked a beer mat for how many pints we’d drunk, it was a great afternoon and the bill came to just over the equivalent of £10. You never forget days like those.
Last time I was in Lidl the Staropramen said it was brewed in UK. That's why I bought the Budvar instead. Do you think these British brewed 'continental' beers are the same beer put into different bottles? The breweries in Burton don't use the natural ground water any more, nor have they for a long time. Originally, it had a high gypsum content, but whatever water they use now is treated.
Will be getting some of these. Birra Morretti is another beer that they ruined brewing it in the UK. They want you to slowly forget how good the real thing is, but no hiding it when both are available to compare 🍺
Peroni still brewed in Italy youth. Get after it
My experience living and working in Prague is that generally speaking Czechs don’t highly rate it and indeed neither do I. Pilsner Urquell and Kozel tend to be more esteemed with the Staropramen being more a tourist choice. The tank Pilsner Urquell is one of the great pleasures of that beautiful city.
Had a bar near my work with Kozel on tap pre-covid....£2.50 a pint in happy hour....
Sadly then Covid happened and they changed the beer...
If you ever go to Camden Town in London, go to a pub called The World's End. They have draught Staropramen delivered directly to them from the brewery in Czech Republic and it's awesome! They serve it from a huge metal tank that the bar is built around.
The World's End must hav improved since I left Kentish Town - never used to keep their beers properly so I Neva used it
Thanks for the fantastic tip. Just been to Lidl and there on the shelf was plenty of the real Czech Staropramen at £1.79 a bottle. However, not only that - they also had the real deal Czech Budvar at £1.75 for a 330ml bottle. Came out with 4 bottles of each and a big grin on my face.
B&m and home bargain do decent deals on budvar
Lidl sells 500ml Budvar, not 330ml. However cheaper at Home Bargains at £1.59.
Czech Budvar is my favourite.
Will definitely be buying this from Lidl. I always go for peroni as it's brewed in Italy and taste much nicer than most lagers
Brilliant honest response to what we are all being ripped off with thanks for the acknowledgement.
Used to get the 'original' Staropramen on keg in Bass pubs in the mid nineties when it was imported. I'm sure it was stronger than 5% ABV. The aroma of the original back then had quite strong overtones of banana on the nose, presumably due to the yeast they used. It was really good back then but you couldn't drink more than two or three without getting quite drunk! I'll have to get to Lidl and compare the imported stuff with how I remember a pint of 'Star' from 25 years ago......
Yes! Drank it in the late 90’s in Nottingham and my abiding memory is the aroma of bananas.
I always thought the Staropramen i drank in Prague was incomparable to the Staropramen over here, despite still drinking it here since. This video explains a lot for me!
Czech water is a big reason why Czech beer is so good. It can't be duplicated.
Great tip Simon. Bought a couple of bottles today from Lidl and decided to try them whilst I watched Georgia beat Portugal in the Euros. The irony is the Czechs got knocked out in the other game against Turkiye. So, the Czechs go home to drink their wonderful Staropramen and we have to carry on watching boring England while the uninitiated continue drinking Burton Staropramen or worse Madri
Never forgave Burton brewery after buying Mansfield brewery they then demolished it and brewed Mansfield ale in Burton they massacred the taste it went from having a lovely nutty flavour to tasting Metallic and tasteless
Wasn't it Wolverhampton & Dudley?
Sacrelidge
I dream of a pint of original Mansfield Bitter 😢
Here in Cork, Ireland, WE used to have to good local Beers, Beamish and Murphys. Then Beamish was bought by Heineken and quality dropped, so I switched to Murphys. Then Heineken bought Murphys, too, and shuttered the Murphys brewery and brewed Murphys in the Former Beamish brewery and Murphys took an even greater hit. Think about going from craft beer to the usual tasteless industrial plonk.
Not much matches Mansfield. What a crying shame.
Many thanks for this. Just picked some up and it's now a new favourite. Less malty than Budv and no where near the hop zing of Urquell. A nice balance point between the two when you don't want those two extremes. I thought I stopped liking Star a while ago but turns out it was just the uk version.
I've just been to LIDL to stock up, said £1.99 on shelf went through at £1.79. Thoughts? Much hoppier aroma, and such a smooth aftertaste, I can 100% tell the difference and i'll be going LIDL for the foreseeable to keep this in the beer fridge! Great find.
After watching this, went to Lidl and got a few bottles of the imported, had a UK bottle left in the fridge and compared them. Absolutely night and day! Hoping Lidl keep the genuine Czech version in stock from now on! Thanks for the heads up, Simon.👌
Czech here, I used to live in Prague and now in London... I really miss Czech beer thanks for the tip :) Staropramen or Budvar is usually got a bad name in CZ because they are large breweries and people like usually the smaller ones - but try to live abroad and they taste like best beer ever :)
I tried the Lidl Czech S last week and it was absolutely epic. Well done Lidl.
Lived in Czech for two years, love love,there beers,👍.
One the loveliest beers. My personal opinion. I love it. Especially from a clean pub tap. Gorgeous pint
After I watch a video on UA-cam lately…I always end up dashing down to Lidl 😂
Ditto... Especially on annual leave and I not flown out.
I get ‘Zlaty Bazant’ from a local Slovak shop, fantastic drink. Everyone who tries it loves it, especially if they’re only used to British beers
By British beer, do you mean all the European label knockoffs?
I saw a box of 330ml Staropramen in Lidl here in Ireland. Brewed in the UK. So we're proabably paying duty to import UK Staropramen into the EU instead of getting the Czech stuff from within the EU.
Never really rated Staropramen, even when it was the real thing...always found it a bit too dry...Pilsner Urquell every day of the week though...but I'll try a bottle.
I’m from the UK but have lived in Prague for the last 4 years. Most people here aren’t keen on Staropramen at all. They much prefer Pilsner Urquell which is usually significantly more expensive and tastes far better than Staropramen.
Exactly. Staropramen Is one off worst Beer brewed in Czech rep.
Staropramen is the only UK brewed European lager I really like. Whilst in Lidl, I'll definitely pick some up (especially as it's £1 a bottle cheaper-and probably better too)
😱😱😱
Golly - I wasn't expecting that comment from you
Stumbled across 500ml bottle of Urquell in Home Bargains, gave my brother a try who was going through a Staro phase and he was like wow
Went to LIDL last night to get some, they never had any in stock but they did have Czech brewed Budvar so I got them instead and thoroughly enjoyed them
In May I went to Prague for a concert, and had a pint of Pilsner Urquell in Luton airport, because. It was pretty good.
Once I had settled into the hotel I went into the nearby cafe and had a couple of PU. It was very different. Czech PU was amazing. I don't know the right terms, but the words I'd use are lighter and fresher.
The main problem brewing under licence (anywhere, not just U.K.) is that the water is different. So they have to try and change other things to country balance that. You are better off buying a U.K. beer, like Korev, for example.
I remember fosters being imported in massive pint tins!.. bloody lovely,that is until uk started brewing it…all uk made lagers are chemically made.. not brewed
Tbh, Czechs got the hump with Staro when they were found to overproof and cut with water back to regular abv.
You can't go past Budvar, Erquelle, Primator, Kozel or Matushka.
Best pub in Prague -Zly Casy... beer Valhalla.
I live up in Shetland, all we have is Tesco and Co-op, gutted! Although Co-op have recently got imported Estrella Damm in and it is LOVELY
Good for Lidl. I just found out Kronenbourg and Fosters UK are the same. With the latter ABV being dialled down. Just shows how fecking lazy the brewers are. There taking us for mugs!
Kronenbourg in uk tastes nothing like it does in Alsace, it’s 1.3 euros for a 750ml bottle in the super markets, and you get 20 cents refund if you give the bottle back , the beer is delicious.
I have done this challenge after watching your video, and considering they are the same beer, they are actually like night and day, and the Czech beer wins hands down
Tried these myself after seeing this . I enjoyed the British brewed one and always have , but the real one is softer , cleaner, smoother, fresher and the thing I agree with is the hard water earthy comment . . After a few swigs it completely changes. Loads better . Hopefully Lidl will keep stocking this . Thank you for telling us about this . Cheers Simon 🍻👍🏻
Lidl should definitely make it a marketing point they import these big brand beers from the continent..... because the food has improved so much, if they keep up with the high quality beer, I'll shop there more
Ahh simon. Best beer news I've heard all year.
Just come back from a top up aldi shop. So disappointing with their selection now. They seem to just want to copy famous macro brewers. Lidl, however, are doing something different. Importing genuine smaller, cheaper European brews of real quality. Please, please, please keep doing what you're doing lidl!!
Would you be able to recommend any to me please as I buy mine from aldi but been disappointed lately, been buying sainte etienne but it gives me reflux
@leehowson440 yeah that's not a great beer.
Their perlenbacher pilsner is decent value, but you have to look out for their specials.
They import , randomly I think, Perlenbacher premium pilsner. Octoberfest wheat beer and their Perlenbacher Helles, which came out at Xmas for about 2 weeks, was top top 👌 brew. And of course now imported staropramen.
So just keep an eye out and watch the channel for updates !
@@robrn1975 noted 👍 thank you it's appreciated, I'll nip in at the weekend and sample a few or ten 😂
Cheers for the heads up.
I picked up the last bottle today in Bridgend Lidl, as it was right in the back hopefully it isn’t too skunked.
A blinding glimpse of the obvious! How can you brew the (ostensibly)same beer in a different country with different water characteristics? It's ALWAYS BEEN IMPOSSIBLE but the brewers continue to kid us about it! Personally I think German beer brewed IN GERMANY under German purity laws is best!
I loved Staropramen when I went to Prague and I’m sure it used to all be imported when I started drinking it here. After a while though it started giving me a really bad head so I stopped drinking it. Maybe that’s when it became ‘Burtonised’!
Anyway, another lover of ichnusa here, especially the non filtrata version. My local Italian restaurant imports it and I’d probably say it’s my favourite beer. Gorgeous stuff.
Lad is doing God's work. Not all heroes wear capes. Kim's favourite beer (Ichnusa) is also delicious. Has she tried Messina Cristalli De Sale? It's a lovely drop. Cheers 🍻
Messina....brewd by Heineken in Italy.....Stretti is brewed by the family that once owned the Messina brewery.....they sold it to Heineken then bought it back when production moved.....so now brew Stretti in the Messina brewery....in Messina...got it?
Simon I have always had the view that UK mainstream brewers cannot brew lager
Oh they can, the problem is they are driven by profits over quality, because in this country most people don't care abotu quality and are happy to continue to drink slop
Cos it's not a traditional British drink . Drink ale ,bitter, stout etc.
@@sisi2484 we had no choice when I started drinking!
@RichardCardy if average brit knew how many kinds of German beers there were they'd be bamboozled. It ain't all pilsner style beer
I brought a couple of these because that’s all they had left in Southend and WOW, they were delicious!
Completely different from the UK version.
I’m on a Lidl tour trying to stock up 😊
The imported 5.4% San Miguel is another one to search out, leagues apart from the UK offering😉
Saw this video & picked up a couple of bottles of staropramen from Lidl and I will say I'm impressed.
Did the same taste tonight after this video! Genuinely couldn’t believe the taste difference. The starburton one had this really bitter finish that hung around , much different mouth feel too
Even when there arent foreign beers on the regular alcohol shelves of Lidl. They regularly do special weeks of foods from Poland, Spain, Portugal, Greece etc during which they usually have an imported drink from those places too.
The matching Staropramen pint and half pint glasses are brilliant. I’ve got them but not at liberty to divulge where from…
Had a taste test the weekend with the uk brewed Staropramen and imported with family and they were shocked its even allowed. The imported was so much better.
The UK version is anything BUT "perfectly balanced", it tastes more like someone has poured battery acid in it. I'll be off to Lidl tomorrow to get me some Czech Staropramen :)
I buy Staro from Lidl in Poland, bar code starts with 859, usually priced at 4.99 zloty a can, sometimes on sale for less. Have you seen the staro unfiltered? Here in Poland we get 2 types of unfiltered, one regular and one wheat beer unfiltered.
Spent a month in Germany studying and enjoyed draft Alt Bier (Ale), wheat beers and lagers.
When I came back every beer had a very nasty chemical aftertaste.
That faded after a while but wonder what the UK brewers are getting away with as the UK has no purity law?
No one should pay premium prices for uk brewed beer when you might aswell just have tenants or carlsberg. I think peroni is still Italian so ill drink that
I don’t really drink staropramen much, but I had it from Tesco s few weeks ago and thought it was average, then read the label to find out it’s uk brewed , which is always a disappointment. I picked up a staropramen today in Lidl, and , after the skunkiness goes, it’s a fantastic beer. Will definitely be buying more!
hard water is for ale, not lager.
Budvar is so nice as the water is so soft.
Any decent North Wales lagers?
It's all about the water. I lived in Prague, and even the cheaper bohemian beers were good. You wouldn't expect a good Burton type ale to be brewed in Bohemia.
I picked a few of these up a couple of weeks back. Much nicer. Shame about the green bottles though. They were on the top shelf in my lidl which makes it worse. If they cotton on to people liking the imported one, they will probably put a stop to it.
Sainsburys small 33cl cans of Heineken are dutch brewed there 44cl cans are uk brewed massive difference...right iam off to lidl 👍
Only muppets drink heineken. I only drink German beers. Wake up and smell the hops
@@jcarr5690 Paulaner helles from tesco is my go to lager & wheat beers my fave style.
Heineken small cans Dutch brewed well decent & shockingly superior to the larger uk cans sold in sainsburys & same price would be great if Simon done comparison
@jcarr5690 why are you commenting on and watching a video on Czech beer if you only drink German
I noticed this in ASDA the brewed in UK bottles! I was horrified. It was in very small print and hard to spot, I previously had an unusual headache from it and decided to investigate. Keep up the good work.
I have often wondered why the uk stuff isn't brewed in Scotland with the soft water. I know it's quite as simple as hard/soft but I think it's got to be more appropriate for larger.
The only thing I can say in defense of the tesco one is that it's part of the 3 for £6 deal. I had the original Czech staropramen closer to when tesco started selling it, then made the mistake of buying the UK one not knowing it was UK brewed. I know I would 100% pay more for less and go with the Czech. Otherwise, Budweiser Budvar is a solid choice. If I want something darker I'll go for a UK beer.
I’ve never understood brewing in different countries it really makes a difference to the product every time. Also the lagers all end up tasting the same. It’s always noticeable when travelling abroad how much better it is in Spain, France, Belgium, Eastern Europe, etc
I've only just been to Asda and saw this on the shelf. Read the back and put it back.
Saw this, went to local. No good. Drove 16 miles took all 11 off the shelf £1.79 got home and 3 burst at the cap. Gutted.😢 hope it's worth it when I get it to proper temperature. Cmon fridge...
A lager I remember from years which was originally imported from Switzerland. Hurlimann's, brewed with melted snow from the Alps and imported by Shepherd Neame until they began brewing it under licence in the UK. They claim they kept to the original recipie but it never tasted the same.
Hi Simon which Lidl did you purchase the Czech brewed Staropramen from I’m struggling to find it only the uk version
Good to see a man enjoy his work!
Great video, the hard burton water thing is a myth though now as they remove all the ions with reverse osmosis anthem add them back to suit what style of beer they are making 👍🏻
Great video aw always man, I’ve been telling all my mates to get down to Lidl and I’ve not got a bit of a hangover from sinking more than a few last night. Thanks for the info
I’m in the trade, one thing that will make you think very differently about British brewed beer styles like Stella etc. the big names like Peroni for example, they are generally brewed and fermented to finish at a higher abv before bottling. They are then watered down to 4.8abv as it is cheaper to brew a stronger beer and increase the volume and in turn decrease the alcohol to a specific level by adding water, no wonder imported Stella tastes NOTHING like the crap we get in the uk. Real shame.
UK Stella: Is that how it becomes 'wife beater?'
Interestingly, none of the Czech largers we drink here are actually that popular in Prague ! (I visited last year and had an awesome time)
Uk brewed beers would probably taste better if they moved the brewery’s in northern England or Scotland where the waters soft.
I agree, lake district water would be my preference.
@99ron30
You know I don’t think I’ve had beer from the Lake District but you’re right it make total sense to brew beer there.
If they move those breweries from burton upon Trent our macro lagers should improve a fair bit without extra price.
There was a great Lager Brewery at Wrexham. Part of Allied Breweries back in the day. Perfect soft water. Carlesberg bought it and demolished it.
There's a Premier shop in Barry (on the corner of Barry Road and Buttrills Road) who sell both UK- and Belgian-brewed barrels for BeerHawk/PerfectDraft machines.
Great channel. Thank you. I'll be looking out for the Czech-brewed stuff on your recommendation. Cheers.
I love the Tankards 🍻 you use in this video mate, where did you get those ones from?
It's the same thing with Bira Moreti...the original brewed in Italy tastes 1000 times better than the UK brewed Bira Moreti.
You're welcome, Simon. Happy that you read my comments :)
Just had a bottle of the imported Staropramen, absolutely outstanding compared to the UK verison, one of the smoothest beers i've drank, off to lidl for some more 😂
don't know if you know this but czechs are extremely fussy about how you pour beer. No tilting of the glass just straight in from the top and it creates a lot of foam (more than half the glass) Then they wait a couple minutes for the head to go down and maybe even repeat the process before serving. Seriously, you have to wait a while for a beer in a pub.
He knows, it's called a Czech pour