While I do not take issue with anything Cecil says in this classic column, I suggest that Mr and Mrs Puzzled Canuck are drinking the wrong American beers.
First of all, real beer comes in brown bottles. Any other color bottle, even green, allows for too much sunlight to penetrate, making beer “skunky.”
Second, the Pacific Northwest is the epicenter of superior American beers. I suggest the supercilious Canuck try beers from the following microbreweries: Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Full Sail, Rogue, Steelhead and Alaska.
Even in 1986, when the letter was published, I was a college student drinking Sierra Nevada, Red Hook, and (when funds were low) Henry Weinhard beers… all quite fine and much better than the green bottled Molson and Labatts that the frat boys were attempting to fatally poison themselves with.
Well, the problem is that “American beer” stands for BudMilCo, so if you go anywhere in the world, those are the first beers non beer-knowledgable people are going to think of.
Especially in Canada, where one of their points of pride is how much better (matter of contention…may well be better than the macros, but a pale shadow of US micros) and how much stronger (a myth, considering the difference between the Canadian alcohol by volume measurement and the US alcohol by weight measurement…ABV is 125% ABW, so naturally will be higher) their beers are than the stuff that idiot Americans are swilling down.
So, of course, Molson’s going to be far better to them in Canada than in the US, though any effect beyond longer on the shelf is pure placebo.
Personally, I’ll take Stone, Victory, Dogfish Head, Penn, etc., over Molson or Labatt any day of the week!!
I just wanted to add that molson no longer comes in green bottles…they’re brown now. The original poster is correct considering it was 1986 in the column but that’s no longer true. Also, now we have NAFTA and I’d assume a better distribution network so I doubt there’s any shelf difference in areas where canadian beer is popular. In fact in Upstate NY we’re closer to the canadian brewery than the american brands and molson sells second to only labatt so I’d think the canadian beer would actually be fresher. Having said that people still claim a difference between molson in canada and here in america. I personally think there is a small difference although I’d never had them side to side. Alot of people also claim a difference in the alcohol amounts but I’m not so sure about that one. One of these days I’m going to have to go buy some to check this out.
Oh ya one more thing… I’m almost positive that ALL molson is brewed in canada (theres a couple different breweries Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver I think?).
Here’s how I have it, In canada its brewed by Molson and distributed by molson.
In the united states it’s still brewed by molson but DISTRIBUTED by coors.
I doubt that Mr/Mrs Canuck could have found Sierra Nevada in their local beer store in 1986. Hell, most Americans could barely have found it. At least, not without searching many a store. Today, it’s everywhere.
Not that I doubt you, but I’ve heard this many a time, but never seen any news article or such that substantiates it. Do you know of a press release of a marketing or joint venture agreement or news article about the arrangement or some such?
In light of the mooted, but by no means assured, Coors/Molson merger, it appears this is something of a moot issue. I found a 2003 Brewery Age article which appears to say that Molson in the U.S. is brewed in Canada:
The article describes some of the history of Molson in the US - up to about 1998 or so, they’d been a partner with Miller, which let Molson brands languish. Then Molson formed a joint venture with Coors, called Molson USA.
Much of the initial reporting on the Coors/Molson merger noted this relationship. But I’ve found no evidence that Coors ever actually brewed Molson.
After reading through some of molsons financial releases heres what I have to add (sorry I didn’t keep the links to cite)
In canada molson brews and distributes coors products. Perhaps this is where some of the confusion comes from. They also brew and distribute fosters beer which explains why there boxes say theyre australian except made in canada.
I can’t find anything that specifically says where molson in the us comes from but it does say its brewed by molson. Now with the merger I guess they could accurately claim they brewed it even if it was in the us.
Perhaps the best evidence is that (here in NY at least) both molson and labatt use the canadian common refillable bottle. I’ve worked in a grocery store and indeed all the canadian bottles are not broken with the rest of them and are returned to the distributor. The labels also clearly say “imported” which would probably be illegal if they were made in the us.
Go your local teppan grill or sushicatessan and read the fine print on the beverage containers, you’ll discover that almost all of the Japanese beers, like Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory, while accurately (and prominently) labeled “Imported,” are not brewed in Japan…
They are brewed in Canada, and then “imported” to the USA.
At this point, with the Board freshly back up, I’m just trying to be the last reply in every forum. Oh, yeah, Canadian beer rocks. 'Specially Keith’s!!
I can’t believe that EVERYONE missed the most obvious difference. License brewing.
Yes ABW and ABW don’t really matter. Budweiser<-----a bastard miscreant with no connection to the REAL Budweiser.
True beer lovers know that Bud is a euro-beer. RICE!!! WTH is rice doing in a beer. Reinheitsgebot (sp?) makes no mention of rice as an ingredient
I digress.
Molson is brewed under license in the States.
We have two Guinesses in Canada. Real and Labatts. The Real stuff is a true import. Labatt’s is a sad pathetic attempt at Guiness.
I prefer Bud made up here to those I’ve had in the States(if I HAD to drink it). The only difference is where the ingredients come from… Maybe the US version is using uncle ben’s.
Beer recipes are like any other. Given two cooks and different sources for the ingredients the end result is never the same.
For those that can handle it I’d suggest Unibroue. They brew on lees in a belgian style