Gambrinus Premium - Cheers to miscommunication!

Dear beer enthusiasts,

if you are a long time follower, or have perused through the older posts in this blog, you might realize that I have already written a short post about this 500ml beer bottle. You might also notice that this is the third different label for the same Czech 5.0% lager beer (in the old post, I uploaded a picture with two versions of it).

Regardless of how good a beer can be, I usually don't keep two or more bottles of the same beer, unless there is a very good story behind it. Yet, it was while attempting NOT to get this bottle again, that I ended up "ordering" it... but more on that later...

In my old post, I failed to underline that this beer is produced by the same brewery of her more famous "sister", the Pilsner Urquell.  I also stated at that occasion, that Gambrinus was the unofficial patron saint of beer, which is part of the legend, but not really 100% correct. 

There are different theories about who had actually inspired the creation of the legendary entity of Gambrinus, some of these theories involve dukes, counts and/or kings of the Flanders and Brabant regions, some involve Germanic kings and others even ancient Egyptian gods.

One of these stories caught my attention. It links Gambrinus to John I, the duke of Brabant from 1267 to 1294. Johns dukedom included the city of Brussels, and was a wealthy beer-producing jurisdiction. He was, it is said, very loved, and became an honorary member of the local brewers guild. The name Gambrinus would have been a corruption of his Dutch name, Jan Primus. At that time, such things were bound to happen, after all, communications were limited and writing was a privilege of few.

Gambrinus - or would it be "Jan Primus"?

Apart from the miscommunication that generated the Gambrinus legend, fact is that several breweries pay homage to both the legendary entity - Gambrinus - and to the former duke of Brabant. The Hertog Jan Browerij is named after Jan Primus, Duke of Brabant, and the Spanish brewery Cruzcampo based its mascot on Gambrinus, opening several pubs around Spain with the name of the legendary King of beers.

Now, going back to how I ended up "ordering" this bottle... It is funny to see that, many centuries after Jan had his name slightly altered, miscommunications still happen! Even if we have cell phones capable of reaching any major city in the globe almost instantly, we still fail to communicate properly.

It is so that Kai Lei Peng, one of the regular contributors to my collection, was in a trip to Prague, and asked me what beer I wanted from there. I said that I could send her a huge list, but it would be easier if I told her the ones I already had so she could simply pick any new one she came across... She asked me for the list - at which point I understood that she wanted the list of the Czech bottles I already had.

Without confirming that vital piece of information, I sent her a list of more than 30 beers, all part of my collection already, and she set off to get all of them with the help of two other friends, Angelo and Lei... The confusion was only clear to me when I got a message from her saying that she "only" managed to find some 15 of the beers on the list...

I then apologized to her for the confusion, and for all the stress I might have caused by sending her such an extended "wish list". I also told her that I would never abuse someones generosity to the point of asking them to bring me over 30 bottles of beer in one trip. She then asked me to at least make the whole ordeal into a nice story for this blog...

So here it is, Kai Lei, this post is to thank you for this and all the other bottles you got for me in that trip to Prague and also in all other occasions... moreover, I'm keeping this bottle in the collection alongside the other two versions of it :)

Cheers

Schwechater Bier - To my anonymous contributers

Dear beer enthusiasts,

I have many people to thank for the diversity and size of my collection. Many good friends remember me when they see a new beer. They go through the trouble of packing full bottles in their luggage, carrying extra weight around in their backpacks during their trips or even bothering their friends and relatives to bring me some beer from their region.

While these good friends (it would be unfair to cite names here, I'd unavoidably leave someone out) have a special place in my heart, today's post is not about them...

This post is about all the strangers who, upon hearing about my collection for the first time, felt compelled to contribute with something, and effectively did it!

Although my mother told me many times not to get candy from strangers, when it comes to beer, I tend to trust the generosity of people, as you might already have realized when you read the San Miguel story at a jazz bar in Düsseldorf, ... besides, no one would try to kidnap a broken grown-ass bearded man...

Even better than in that jazz bar, this time, instead of a massively distributed Spanish beer, I got a much tastier brew from a local Austrian brewery in Schwechat, in the vicinities of Vienna.

Schwechater Bier - Accepting beer from strangers

Although this brewery has been standing there since 1632, it was only last time I visited my sister, for 2015-16 new years eve, that my brother-in-law made me aware of the existence of this 500ml bottle of 5.0% lager beer . Needless to say that I felt immeadiatly compelled to get one for the collection...

Once in the brewery's shop, I was made aware that I could not purchase individual bottles, only crates. Faced with indecision in between the two options available and with the inability to carry one crate of each back home, I told the store clerk the reasons behind my request for a mixed crate.

His first reaction was to make me repeat the number of bottles in my collection, so to be sure he heard it right. After that, and also after inquiring me "where the hell do you keep all of those?" he offered me a quite generous deal: 

- I can't sell you a mixed crate, but you gotta go back home with both of them, so I will just throw in an extra bottle to whichever crate you buy... call it a new years gift!

This small, kind gestures are priceless... gifting me a bottle of beer definitely doesn't bring the clerk anything, and it's just a small sacrifice from his side when compared to the value that a new bottle has to my collection

The fact is that he heard my story, judged it to be honest and true (and not only me trying to get things my way) and was happy to help as he could.

As of me, happy with the two newcomers (the other beer will feature a different post, in the future), I also told him about this blog, gave him the web address and told him he'd probably feature in a post.

To all my friends and strangers who contributed, your post will still come, I promisse :)

To the clerk who went the extra mile and threw in a free beer: Thank you! I can't remember your name, but I hope you read this!

Cheers!