BUSINESS OF FOOD AND WINE: The Alternative Drink

“Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer”

 

— William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II

 

COMMENT: By Patrick Skinner

 

I was quite old when I discovered the joys of wine. Twenty to be exact. My parents never kept anything other than gin, Pims No. 1 and sweet sherry for Christmas drinking, and it was an old black and white French film called “Clochemerle”, which concerned lots of goings-on, naughty and otherwise, in a fictitious village in the Beaujolais that persuaded me to go the following day to a wine-store in London’s Soho and buy a bottle of that famous region’s wine. That night, I left beer behind.

Since I was 16 I had been drinking draught beer, and had formed a liking for quite warm, limp, low alcohol bitter beer pulled up by hand pump from a barrel in the Pub’s cellar. I never took to bottled beer, which gave me wind. A pint of flat bitter can still be found, even if it is close to £3 a glass, and I did enjoy a pint or two on my recent UK visit.

I think there is a pronounced difference between wine and beer drinkers. Yes, there are a few wine imbibers who always drink the same wine, but I think brand loyalty is much stronger among the beer brigade. The other day, I was talking about this to Dinos Konis, GM of wines, beers and spirits importers, Desras, who, among many brands bring in a lot of beers to Cyprus (Stella, to name but one – the UK’s best selling lager incidentally).

“We sell a lot of speciality beers”, Dinos told me. “Fruit-flavoured, spiced, clear, amber, brown in many styles, and we are aware that ‘out there’ (the public), there are quite a lot of people who experiment, or have definite preferences for different beers at different times, especially with various styles of food.”

Knowing I am a Wino, Dinos didn’t press a beer on me, but suggested I take some Budejovicky Budvar to try. This is a very good one. Lovely amber-gold colour, a barley-hoppy fruity nose and satisfying balance and body on the tongue. Hot summer’s day: fresh bread, cheese and salad a good mating.

But look at the bottle. Like another beer in presentation isn’t it? Yep! The American Budweiser. Now, here you are looking at more than two beers, you are looking at more than a 100 years of legal action, in a variety of countries, with the American company trying to prevent the Czech company from using the word “Bud”, or even from selling its beers – and vice versa.

 

— Riches for the Lawyers… and confusion for the Punters

The American and the Czech beer companies both claim to have the right to the name Budweiser. Currently, there are two different beer brands both named Budweiser being brewed by different producers, and such situation is a source of obvious disagreements. At the beginning, the reasoning behind the dispute was that two beer beverages of similar type with the same name would be a source of confusion in the markets that both the brewers wished to target, and therefore only one should have the right to use it. Later, each of them, of course, believing in authenticity and better quality of its own product, expressed the “fear” of one party taking advantage of the other one’s prestige. Lastly, since neither one managed to win the exclusive right to the use of name in general, respective law suits were filed in respective countries, markets of which were of interest to the brewers. The rulings differ, and each of the parties were able to gain trademark rights in only some cases – thus the dispute did not win them exclusive rights, but led to the division of market.

Anheuser-Busch was founded by German immigrants, the American brewers say. Adolphus Busch (a German-born American beer brewer) adopted the name Budweiser in 1876. He is said to had thought it was a great idea to give the beer distinct and evocative name — Budweiser — that reminded him of his old country which already was well-known for its high quality beer products, and was also to be brewed in the same style the Czech/German lager-style beers were.

The (then Czechoslovak) company named Budejovicky Budvar was founded in the town of Ceske Budejovice in 1895. The beer, however has been brewed in Budejovice ever since the 14th century. The disputed “Budeweiser” name is an adjective originating from the German name of the Czech town Ceske Budejovice – Budweis – where the beer was born in the Middle Ages and thus describing the origin of the brew. Budweiser means the beer of the Budweis region, same as Champagne in France describes the wine of the Champagne wineries. Logically then, the Czechs claim to have the right to the name from long before the Americans even started the beer brewing.

The Czech brewer wished to start exporting its then already existing Budvar into the markets beyond those of the Old Continent but found out another Budweiser existed. Since Anheuser-Busch has already had the trademark registered in the United States, Budvar was temporarily sold in the US under a different name – Crystal. Similarly, the American brewer, also interested in expanding its market, but now aware of the other Budweiser’s existence [and due to the disputes] would use the name – Bud – abroad to get around the issue. The disagreement, however, grew larger and later included also the right to the variations of the name Budweiser which includes the name Bud (which is, now, already produced by both brewers). Theoretically, the two companies were to honor agreements about avoiding the market dominated by the other party, but they have eventually engaged in a legal dispute over who should have the right to use the trademark.

Various outcomes have followed litigation in courts throughout the world. The most sensible is in the UK where the good judges decreed that both could be sold without let or hindrance. In others, one or other company has had to re-label or sell the beer under another name. Here you can drink both, each with its own, proper label.  Cheers!