Budvar is in my view the best of the Czech options. I think the fact it is nearer helles than pilsner in character gives it more of a chance in bottled or canned form. Staropramen fine but the stuff is brewed under license and seems to be all over the place quality wise. One day surprisingly good, the other, pure shit gloop. Pilsner Urquell...? Well... I really don't rate it unless it is tapped. The higher bitterness really works when it's on tap with the thicker smoother texture. I wouldn't choose it.
Nah, the bottle stuff is pretty good. Obviously not anywhere near the quality of the fresh version, but still a safe go-to supermarket drink that has a lot more going for its flavour than your average lager. But yes, Budvar is another great choice.
If you try M&S, Booths, Waitrose you might find stuff like Hacker Pschorr and Paulaner's helles which are always a step up.
Paulaner's helles isn't great in bottles, but beautiful on tap. Hacker Munchner Hell is superb and definitely worth picking up if you can find it - would love to stumble across one in a supermarket. But then Waitrose have their own brand dunkelweizen, so I suppose that seems like the place.
If cost and availability were no object, what five beers would you recommend someone to try?
Schneider Mein Aventinus - As previously mentioned by anyone with a tongue.
Augustiner Maximator - My choice of the doppelbocks. Maybe the most well-rounded, although the Celebrator comes close. But this is stronger, so go f'rit.
Rochefort - The best balance of their three, compared with the slightly boozy 10 and the underwhelming (by dubbel standards - it's still an amazing beer) 6.
Mariahilfer Vollbier - A beautiful nutty amber lager. I think there's only one guy who actually exports it from Germany, but he does distribute all over the UK.
Reutberger Josefi-Bock - Not had one of these in almost a year. A maibock, so the rich, malty strength of a bock but with a ligher lager texture. A nasty one because you can't identify its slightly hefty strength at all; it goes down as easily as a 4% lager would.
Do Camden make anything good? It's one of those cans of beer that I always notice in hedges or left on the grass after BBQs and so perhaps unfairly I have always assumed it is S4C
Camden Hells is fine. It's a British craft take on the German style, but not done in a 'throw a load of hops at it' type way. Not a patch on an actual helles, but better than most craft lager I've had. I've had a couple of their others and they've been totally generic modern craft stuff: drinkable but totally unexceptional and far from a first choice.
Once all this virus madness is over, the first thing I'm doing is going to a pub and having a pint of something -
anything - on cask. Having a shop in town that does great German beer at comparatively low prices, and who deliver, is a lifesaver during the lockdown, but I'm really missing the texture of a proper cask ale.
