Look at the ingredients of just about any mainstream Hungarian beer, and you are sure to find "Kukoricadara", which could be translated as corn meal or maize groats - however you say it, it shouldn't be there. This holds true for the cheapest brews, the flagship or "core lagers" - Soproni, Dreher, Borsodi and even the recently introduced wheat beer from Borsodi - Borsodi Buza. Any beer where corn is used to bulk out the ingredients is never going to be too special. (Although I'll keep an open mind about beer that is actually labelled "corn beer", which is apparently a speciality in parts of Africa.)
There are dozens of disappointing beers here at both the mid- and budget end of the price range. My local CBA, for example stocks a range of slop with fake German names, at under 100 ft per bottle, and they certainly seem to find buyers. The Pécsi sörfözde (Pécs Brewery) seems to specialize in these, and indeed their (sort of) premium brand, Szalon sör, tends to be slightly cheaper than Dreher, Soproni or Borsodi too. I actually don't mind Szalon all that much, even if it is spoiled by the addition of cornmeal. and the dark beer they do, Szalon Barna, is pretty good.
I have never known imported Czech, Slovak and German beer here to include kukoricadara - but it is present in most of the foreign brands brewed under license in Hungary by the big breweries - HB, Zlaty Bazant etc. I looked at a can of license-brewed Kozel the other day and cornmeal wasn't listed in the ingredients, however. You can see that it isn't quite as bright yellow in colour as a typical Hungarian big brewery beer. I wonder if it was the Czech Velkopopovicky Kozel brewery which insisted on no corn being put in their beer even in its license produced version? Still, it doesn't taste much like real Czech beer - it didn't have that intense hoppiness of a pilsener, nor does it have a "sticky" body or pleasant aftertaste like the less crisp Czech lagers. But more on the decent Czech beer I've come across in Budapest later...
So, when looking for drinkable, everyday bottle or can of beer (budget for me means the 100-200ft price range), the first thing I check on the label is that there is no kukoricadara present. If there isn't, I next check who brews it - and almost invariably it isn't Heineken-Soproni, Borsodi, Dréher or Pécsi. I have seen kukoricadara once or twice in some of the cheaper, light házisör ("homemade-beer" - but it really tends to mean small breweries) - but it seems to be more the exception. They add other things apart from water-malt-hops - and with varying success, but they don't seem to have the maize habit of the big Hungarian brewers. My guess is that if one of the big brewers took the cornmeal out of one of their beers would be an admission that it shouldn't be there, and that would be a costly decision as well as an embarrasing aboutface. Maybe one day the curse of the corn will be lifted, but I am not holding my breath.
There are dozens of disappointing beers here at both the mid- and budget end of the price range. My local CBA, for example stocks a range of slop with fake German names, at under 100 ft per bottle, and they certainly seem to find buyers. The Pécsi sörfözde (Pécs Brewery) seems to specialize in these, and indeed their (sort of) premium brand, Szalon sör, tends to be slightly cheaper than Dreher, Soproni or Borsodi too. I actually don't mind Szalon all that much, even if it is spoiled by the addition of cornmeal. and the dark beer they do, Szalon Barna, is pretty good.
I have never known imported Czech, Slovak and German beer here to include kukoricadara - but it is present in most of the foreign brands brewed under license in Hungary by the big breweries - HB, Zlaty Bazant etc. I looked at a can of license-brewed Kozel the other day and cornmeal wasn't listed in the ingredients, however. You can see that it isn't quite as bright yellow in colour as a typical Hungarian big brewery beer. I wonder if it was the Czech Velkopopovicky Kozel brewery which insisted on no corn being put in their beer even in its license produced version? Still, it doesn't taste much like real Czech beer - it didn't have that intense hoppiness of a pilsener, nor does it have a "sticky" body or pleasant aftertaste like the less crisp Czech lagers. But more on the decent Czech beer I've come across in Budapest later...
So, when looking for drinkable, everyday bottle or can of beer (budget for me means the 100-200ft price range), the first thing I check on the label is that there is no kukoricadara present. If there isn't, I next check who brews it - and almost invariably it isn't Heineken-Soproni, Borsodi, Dréher or Pécsi. I have seen kukoricadara once or twice in some of the cheaper, light házisör ("homemade-beer" - but it really tends to mean small breweries) - but it seems to be more the exception. They add other things apart from water-malt-hops - and with varying success, but they don't seem to have the maize habit of the big Hungarian brewers. My guess is that if one of the big brewers took the cornmeal out of one of their beers would be an admission that it shouldn't be there, and that would be a costly decision as well as an embarrasing aboutface. Maybe one day the curse of the corn will be lifted, but I am not holding my breath.
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