ORIGINAL: Prince
And I wonder why we lost the war. Becks surely kills all fighting spirit. I mean Mint in beer? Guess was only for interrogation purposes "Tell us where you ships are, or you have to drink a Becks Ice&Mint. And if it`s a lie, you get two bottles of Becks Green Lemon" Oki, would be against the convention of Geneva [;)]
I'd assume that the stuff they brewed up to the 'sixties was different to what they produce now, else it wouldn't have been so popular among the target group.
When I went somewhat north to Koln I found mostly wines and ciders.
Wines and ciders sounds more like Hesse or Swabia, which is quite a bit south of Köln (Cologne).
Oh, Rheinland (Cologne) and beer, that doesn`t fit..
Cologne is a special case. Not for nothing is the city called "the northernmost Italian city" (and that was even before the Italians came there in masses to work in the Ford factory). There is a typical Cologne beer called "Kölsch", it is brewed in numerous breweries of all sizes, served in glasses like slightly oversized test tubes, and said to be the only beer in the world that doesn't change color, temperature, or taste on passing through the human digestive system.
But if you go slightly north and east to the Ruhr area, or into the hills of the Sauerland to the east, you'll find quite decent beers.
American beer is German styled , and was brewed by German immigrants. Are you trying to say that Germans know nothing about beer-making? (Old American saying--"people who live in glass house should not throw stones".).
I'm certain that the people who founded the breweries knew how to brew decent beer, but the accountants (and therefore the shareholders) probably told them off. Welcome to Corporate America. Cut the quality (and costs) to the absolute minimum, put all the effort into advertising, go for volume and get rich: SOP for consumer products. This isn't a recent development; Mark Twain already had poisonous remarks to make about this practice.
[/center]
