| |
| home |
| destinations a-z |
| about me |
| updates & links |
| top fives |
WORLD BEERS A-Z
Proof that I've spent too much on beer... A selection of beer labels I've picked up from around the world.
OK so my very first entry isn't a beer at all but a mineral water. Andorra doesn't brew its own beers, but Estrella - from Barcelona - is a common tipple.
There's a few bars in Bahrain, with Ethiopian barmaids serving European beers such as Heineken.
Huari; Potosina
Bosnia
An unfiltered Sarajevsko beer from Pivnica HS, a beer hall right next door to the Sarajevskaya brewery in Sarajevo
Erster is brewed in the north at Tuzla, BiH, while Mostarsko is from - you guessed it - Mostar
Jelen is a Serbian beer but is also sold in Republica Srpska
Hercegovina has plenty of grape fields and makes several wines, some of which are pretty good. This white wine from Mostar, however, was rank
Castel is ubiquitous in French West Africa.
Colombiana is not quite a beer; actually it's nothing like a beer. It tastes like Colombian Irn Bru.
Croatia
Hajducko is Hajduk Split's very own beer
This is a Croatian white wine
Pilsner Urquell (in German. In Czech - Plzensky Prazdroj) was the world's first pilsner beer, brewed in Plzen in West Bohemia.
Don't confuse Budweiser Budvar or BB Budweiser with its US namesake Budweiser. American Budweiser took its name from the original Ceske Budejovice brew after equating it with top quality beer, resulting in a naming rights battle.
Becherovka is a herb liqueur famous in the Czech Republic and beyond, made from the spa water at Karlovy Vary.
There's only a handful of places licensed to sell alcohol in Djibouti. Bottles of Heineken were on the menu.
I seem to remember Stella being more like a shandy than a beer. Either that or it naturally tasted of water..
Ethiopia also produces its own wine. I had a red wine which wasn't bad at all. Try tej aswell, a home-made honey wine, which is available in differing potencies.
Sambadoro beer is a Brazilian beer but it was the one I got hold of. I'll have to check further but I don't think French Guiana makes its own beer. Virtually everything is imported at high cost, food especially.
Below is Equatorial Guinea's Lito-Cola. I bought this at a shop in Bitam, Gabon near the Equatorial Guinea border.
I bought the last one in Scotland - drink several and you won't remember how old you are.
Gibraltar doesn't have a brewery. Many of the beers available are from Britain and Spain, particaularly Cruzcampo.
El Dorado rum is an award-winning rum. The Banks label above is actually a Barbados one, but it's also the main beer of Guyana.
Nacional; Imperial
A draught Soproni lager in Budapest
Alcohol is illegal in Iran. At the land border customs asked if I had 'any alcohol or sherry'(?). But you can get hold of alcohol if you know who to ask..
Delster is an Iranian non-alcoholic beer. The second label, Anjoman, isn't a beer at all but a carbonated yoghurt drink I bought in London. An acquired taste is the best I can describe it as.
Considering Jordan is a Muslim country, Petra beer is a rather potent 8%. The Dutch beer Amstel is brewed in Jordan under licence.
Barbican shown here on the Red Sea coast at Aqaba, is a malt drink from United Arab Emirates,
A non-alcoholic malt drink
Byblos beer is passed off as Lebanese but it's brewed in Cornwall, England. Almaza is the real deal.
Non-alcoholic Becks - so near yet so far. Another country which is officially dry, though again it's probably quite easy to get hold of.
Carlsberg have a brewery in Malawi.
Malaysia relies on its neighbour Singapore for its most popular beer, Tiger.
Kinnie is a Maltese soft drink
Mauritania doesn't produce its own beers and there's very few places to enjoy a drink. Again it's Heineken that's the easiest to get hold of in the upmarket hotels.
The Merlot is obviously a wine label straight from the cellars of Milestii Mici
I asked around for a Monagasque drink but it only sells the usual European beers such as Amstel, Kronenbourg and Heineken. The label is a local wine which comes from the south of France rather than Monaco.
Above is a fancy casing for a bottle of Mongolian vodka. And very nice it was too.
The only beer I saw in Nepal was San Miguel - in Kathmandu as well as being carried by locals in the middle of nowhere in the Himalayas.
And of course Heineken is a Dutch beer.
Taedonggang is brewed in Pyongyang - North Korea bought the Ushers of Trowbridge brewery in England and transferred it lock, stock and barrel to Pyongyang, going into operation in 2002.
.
Strawberryade
Another DPRK soft drink
Pyongyang vodka - potent stuff! I never had a drink of the Long-Life Liquor Ryongjongsu but check out the ingredients down the left.
Drinking soju at the Hyangsan Hotel, Myohyang-san
The more expensive hotels and restaurants can ply you with imported beer, but there's no local commercial stuff.
Alcohol can be found at a few high-end hotels but I stayed dry. The Murree Brewery in Rawalpindi produces whisky, beer and more but allegedly only non-Muslims can partake.
Palestine
Inca Kola is a sickly sweet soft drink
Like many Middle Eastern countries Qatar doesn't produce its own alcohol, but imported beers are available.
I don't think there's a local brew on the island. Amstel's quite common, this one being straight from Amsterdam.
San Marino no longer makes its own beer, but Gradisca apparently used to be made in the country before moving to Italy. The second label is a Sammarinese wine.
Alcohol is illegal in Sudan. Besides home brews, the nearest thing is the Egyptian non-alcoholic Birell and the French malt drink Moussy.
The two above are local Sudanese drinks.
Al Shark
I took this photo at Port el-Kantaoui marina as the Celtia labels are pretty much ironed on.
Turkey
Efes is also sold in Northern Cyprus
Gin and whisky in small plastic bags are commonplace in Uganda and Malawi. The whisky tasted more like industrial alcohol to me but Waragi is a passable version of gin.
Barbican is a 'non-alcoholic' malt drink which tastes nothing like beer.
There's no Emirati alcohol produced commercially, but you can get imported beer and Guinness at hotels in Abu Dhabi and Dubai aswell as, amongst others, Dubai's Irish Village.
The smallest whisky bottle? And Punk IPA, one of the best tasting beers by a mile!
Holy Water wasn't available..
The last two were bought in London. The best beer experience in Vietnam however is sitting on miniature plastic chairs on the roadside sipping dirt cheap lager from a tank full of home brew, cooled down with a huge block of ice.
Western Sahara is occupied by Morocco and the beers sold there are Moroccan or European. Flag Speciale was the main (Moroccan) beer available in Laayoune.
Website and content Copyright © 2008-2013 Mark Wilkinson. All rights reserved.
I am not responsible for the content of external websites.
|
||