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13 June 2003: "'Lager Bier'?"

One of the more curious aspects of being an expat (I'm not really sure whether I consider myself an emigrant or an expat at this point) is finding yourself confronted with products from your home country which you didn't even know existed. Sitting on my desk is exhibit A: a 12 fluid ounce (355 ml) bottle of Dutch lager named "Hollande 1620" which I spotted for the first time in my life at my local Fred Meyer.

It's a not unpleasant but undistinguished pilsener, which is brewed by Bierbrouwerij H. West in Maarssen, in the province of Utrecht. After a bit of Googling, I conclude that West's output until recently consisted of two lagers. The first is Schultenbräu Feinherb Edelpils, a bog-standard but very cheap lager; this is the house brand of the German supermarket chain Aldi, so I suspect West is a subcontractor for them.

The other is a lager called "Hollandia," which I suspect is aimed entirely at the export market, especially the part which would like to drink an imported lager—the Dutch stuff is supposed to be good, right?—but can't afford the mildly ridiculous prices Heineken and Grolsch command abroad. By all accounts, however, "Hollandia" isn't particularly good (perhaps as a summer thirst-quencher), so I suspect "Hollande 1620" is an attempt on West's part to mimic the marketing strategy behind Amstel's "1870," which is to produce a beer which is slightly better than your bog-standard slop and emphasise the tradition and history ostensibly underlying the product. The obvious response, in the case of both "1620" and "1870," is to ask "If it was so good, why did you ever stop making it?" Ah, well. The odd thing is that the label identifies the contents as "lager bier," a curious mixture of English and Dutch words. "Lager" (i.e. bottom-fermented beer) in Dutch is pilsener, while the Dutch word lager means "lower"; so according to the label, "Hollande 1620" is "lower beer." Make of that what you will.

I have to admit I seriously doubt I'll buy this stuff again. Not that it's bad, but there's plenty of better stuff to be had at lower prices in these parts.

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