Your Comments, Criticisms and Contributions - August 2001
I own 8 six packs of a 1988 "Special Collectors Edition" of 'Hu Dey' beer (48 cans). I bought the beer because it was a special collectors item. I have never opened the cans of beer and they are all full. The plastic is intact so you can carry each 6 pack easily. Each can has the 1988 Cincinnati Bengals schedule. They have been kept in a cool area. Not sure if beer lasts this long for one to drink. My question is: Is this beer worth anything, considering it is a collectors edition? For as old as it is, is it OK to drink or would it have gone flat by now?
Thank you.
For the value of your beers, I'd suggest contacting breweriana.com, a website for collectors of beer paraphernalia. As for the drinkability of the beer, I'd guess it would be past its prime by now.
I am glad to tell those who are interested that as of October 1, 2001, the idiotic Florida laws restricting beer bottle size will be repealed. The wait will be unbearable...
- Tim Bender
Thanks for the news, Tim. And it is indeed good news for Floridians who are tired of not being able to buy great domestic and imported brews simply because they are packaged in the wrong size of bottle. Truly a victory for beer diversity.
I have recently returned from Egypt and while there had the opportunity to try a beer that I dare say might possibly be the greatest beer I have tasted. The name is Stella, not Stella Artois, just simply Stella, brewed and bottled in Egypt. My question is: Is there a way to purchase this beer the States, and if not, is there a world beer distributor of sorts that sells this beer via the Internet?
Thank you.
- Steve Collier
I'm afraid that you've stumped me on this one, although I suspect that the beer in question is the local version of Stella Artois. (Generally speaking, only divisions of the world's biggest breweries operate in the Middle East.) I can't imagine Interbrew allowing a beer with that name to exist without challenging it in court, unless they owned it themselves.
After I posted my reply, I received the following from my friend Josh Oakes, who publishes his "Beer Manifesto" page on-line at www.netcom.ca/~jdoakes:
Hi Stephen,
My understanding of the Egyptian Stella is that it is a seperate article entirely from Stella Artois. It is brewed by a company called Al-Ahram, and I had found the non-alc version at a Middle Eastern grocery in Hamilton a couple of years back. I also received an interesting email regarding this beer a while back, which you might enjoy.
"Dear Mr. Oakes:
Just a comment on Stella beer. On your very entertaining and informative site, you mentioned Stella beer, a non-alcoholic beer from the always Muslim, but now more theocratic country of Egypt. I was in Egypt for six months in the winter of 1978-79, on a UN mission. While there, I sampled many things that the surprising and different culture there had to offer, and among the most memorable was Stella beer. We were immediately forbidden to buy or consume any, it having been found to be unfit for human consumption, so our first thought was that our superiors had found something that they didn't want us to have, for fear that there would not be enough for them!! We were quick to see through their shallow bluff, and made our best efforts to procure as much as we could.
Well, at the time, Stella was not non-alcoholic. Far from it. It had quite the punch, in fact. The taste was, well... awful; but as it was ice cold, and we were in the Egyptian desert, we drank a lot of it. What the hell, it was cheap!! And another thing. I don't think there was much barley in the recipe. It was probably more millet and rice, because there was almost no head. I would pour this stuff out in a glass, and the "foam" would disappear immediately. But to a young soldier in the heart of a country of questionable loyalty to the UN, and I being a Baptist in the heart of a Muslim culture, I embraced the liquid to my soul. I don't want
to mislead you - it was vile! It was terrible. But it was wet and cold. And there was plenty. And it was cheap!"
I was recently in St. Jean, Québec and had the opportunity to taste a beer new to me. It is called Trois Pistoles and I thought it was the best beer that I have ever tasted! Talk about full bodied, smooth and flavorful, it was thoroughly fantastic. Now the search is on to where I can obtain this beer locally. I am currently living in Austin, TX (Bud country - yuck) so I don't hold out much hope, but I sure would appreciate any leads at all.
By the way, your web sight is new to me but I will certainly be checking it out more frequently.
Thank you.
- Lindsay Davidson-Sulpizio
You're in luck. Unibroue's products are handled in Texas by Glazer's Distributing. Their Austin office can be reached at (512) 919-1500.
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