1895 versus 1795

On a trip to my local Tesco I noticed that they had a couple of Czech beers on special offer ("AKCIO!") - cans of Staropramen and 1795, a pilsener from Ceske Budejovice's "other" brewery, the Budějovický Měštanský Pivovar.
 Then the other day I read someone thought that Soproni 1895 was one of the best Hungarian beers, so despite my rather entrenched prejudice against the big four Hungarian brewers I thought I'd give it a try. The Soproni 1895 cost about 265 forints, and the discounted 1795 cost 169ft, so there was about 1 forint per year price difference....err, no that doesn't quite work. Anyway.

The Soproni was the bottled variant, rather than canned, just to give it a sporting chance, and it was also the first of the beers I tried, so it benefitted from the first beer of the day effect, which has on several occasions made me think "well, maybe Dréher/Soproni/Borsodi isn't that bad after all."
And indeed, my inital reaction was - yes, I can taste more aromatic hoppy bitterness here than in most Hungarian macro-beers (see, I am picking up the beer tasting jargon). I could taste a pleasant bitterness on the tip of my tongue. The label makes a big deal of it containing genuine Saaz hops, and they were definitely present, if not too skilfully handled.  Unfortunately these heavy handed hops seem to have been grafted onto a typical népsör (a nice term sometimes used by the Hungarian beer bloggers, meaning something like "beer of the masses".) Wateriness, lobotomized, cardboard malt and worst of all, the inevitable, slightly acrid-sickly taste of "corn semolina". The aftertaste was of water, corn and a hint of alcohol. The colour was rather too yellow - I think perhaps that is the idea behind the corn - market research must have indicated that this market likes light, yellow beer on scorching hot summer days. There was rather too much CO2 for my taste - I like a burp as much as the next man, but these wer harsh, ripping gassy burps, and compared unfavourably with the fruity, evocative belches I had stifled a day or two before after a nice glass of Ferdinánd "Sedm Kuli" at the Ferdinand sörház. Big, profit driven brewery tries to appease beer lovers and fails.
So my raised hopes were cruelly dashed, and instead of refreshing bitterness I felt somewhat embittered. I had peculiar visions of masses of wage slaves pouring this stuff down their necks - neither complaining nor particulary enamoured of the mediocre anodyne at the end of the daily grind. Soproni 1895 is the premium version of a beer for an undemanding market, where "beer is beer." As a car it would perhaps be the sporty version of a midrange family hatchback, maybe a SEAT or Suzuki. And for the same price, why not go for the real thing?

Opening my can of 1795, I was already fairly confident that it would be better than its predecessor, but after the Soproni I really need something to restore my shaken faith. Sunshine to light up an overcast afternoon, the joyful laughter of young children to drown out the droning of cynical old businessmen. You get the idea. I can report that 1795 works much better as a first beer of the day. The depressive effect of the Soprioni took a while to subside, and I even detected an inkling of a headache coming on from it. After a while though, the 1795 began to shine through. The can didn't boast of Saaz hops, but  alook at the ingredients revealed that this is what they were, and the hops I could taste were distinctively Czech. I must confess have a soft spot for Czech beers - they conjure up memories of lazy afternoons in beer gardens, and rarely disappoint too badly.
I would place 1795 somewhere in the middle of the field of light Czech lagers. It is certainly inoffensive, has some nice hops and a hint of fruity sweetness in the aftertaste, what might be called a slightly caramelly malt (my beer tasting vocabulary is failing me here slightly.) I didn1t detect notes of alcohol, nor a foreboding of a post-industrial-beer hangover. There are better Czech beers, and worse ones. If I see it on sale again for less than 200 ft, I won't hesitate to pick up a couple of cans.

For me then, 1795 beat 1895, as I was fairly sure it would. I thought it would be interesting to see what people thought about it on Hatebeer, erm, I mean Ratebeer.com. 1795 fared about as well as I thought it would - judged against other Czech beers it was found tobe average, or perhaps below average. There seem to be plenty of beer lovers out there who really don't like Czech beer, perhaps annoyed at the ubiquity of pilsener style beer. Soproni 1895, as one of the "best Hungarian beers" seemd to almost get better reviews, but again no-one said it was their favourite. Next to other Hungarian macro-beers Soproni 1895 looks good, while 1795 Budweis looks like the poor cousin of the more famous beer from České Budějovice, while being too geared up for selling large quantities to foreign supermarkets to qualify as one of the many small, interesting Czech brewers. Stuck in the middle, but for all that, clearly better than any comparable Hungarian lager.

In the background of the photo there is a clue as to why this might be...