Is There a European Beer Belt?

[Gangerolf]

...and a wine belt and a vodka belt? Iwoldu say yes.
But where do they go?


I think this map I found is quite good, altoguh it's from 1987 so it doesn't show the former Russian-oppressed countries. Except Czechoslovakia, which goes to show what kind of a hardcore beer country thta is (Slovakia could be considered border-line wine belt though, along with Hungary).

[Gangerolf]

for comparison, here's the american beer belt

[BeBMan]

I thought all of Europe forms a single Beer Belt

Beer

[chequita guevara]

Ours is better.

[BeBMan]

[chequita guevara]

Our beer belt, that is, provided it has the right beer in the belt.

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by BeBro
I thought all of Europe forms a single Beer Belt

So did I, but in some places they consume more of some weird drink called "wine"

[Last Conformist]

@Gangerolf: You're a shame to the vodka belt.

[Gangerolf]

But I don't feel like a vodka-belter. I'm from a beer enclave under siege by moonshine-drinking hillbillies and people who think anything stronger than water is the Devil.

[Last Conformist]

Vatten är ett dödligt gift,
omger Visby stift.

(Sorry, it just doesn't work in translation:
"Water is a deadly poison,
Surounds the diocese of Visby.")

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Gangerolf


So did I, but in some places they consume more of some weird drink called "wine"

Heretics!

[Alexander's Horse]

At last the important questions

Our beer is good

[CerberusIV]

That map looks pretty traditional to me and the local drink reflects the climate for agriculture. Where they grow grapes they drink wine, where they grow grain they drink beer and where nothing much grows at all they distil spirits from mouldy potatoes.

The beer here in Ireland is pretty good. I used to dislike Guiness (to name but one) in the UK but here (where the water is right for the recipe, unlike Stoke-on-Trent or wherever) it is nectar of the gods almost.

Mind you the whiskey is pretty good and there has been a big push to sell wine in the last 6 months. There was a report a couple of days ago that more women than men in Ireland are seeking help for alcohol addiction and it's because they are drinking wine. I don't see the problem myself (takes another sip from a glass of very palatable Cote du Rhone).

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by CerberusIV

Mind you the whiskey is pretty good and there has been a big push to sell wine in the last 6 months. There was a report a couple of days ago that more women than men in Ireland are seeking help for alcohol addiction and it's because they are drinking wine. I don't see the problem myself (takes another sip from a glass of very palatable Cote du Rhone).

Being a bag-in-box wine alcoholist has become quite the thing among women here in recent years.

[GePap]

Ireland's beer exports are terrible. Beer in Ireland better be better than this stuff.

I have found Belgian beers to be the most refined, German and Czech beers the most satisfying.