More and more frequently reports about beer fraud (Dutch) are coming in. Supposedly, bar owners buy cheap no name beer and sell it under the name of brands like Heineken or Brand. As the story goes, the pubs will buy kegs of cheap beer and hook them up to the taps of contracted brand beers.
While this is certainly hard to verify, it seems plausible. The large beer brands in the Netherlands have been raising prices frequently and aggressively, with the average cost of a 50 liter keg rising from € 90 to € 100 in just the last year. And where pub owners used to be able to pass the raises on to consumers or reduce the size of a regular beer, this has become increasingly more difficult.
Expectantly, cheaper beers like horecabier are entering the market aggressively claiming that generally Dutch pilsner beers are very much alike in flavor and therefore hard to distinguish by drinkers.
I do wonder about that hangover the morning after the last night out at the bars…
if there ever were a reason to instate the death penalty in the Netherlands, this might be it.
Living in the Netherlands for 12 years now (german origine), and I am wondering ever since how this went/goes completely unnoticed by Dutch horeca guests. Being a beer lover for more than 20 years, I consider myself a subject matter expert (not an alcoholic :-))and I can distinguish between a proper quality beer and the horrible cheap replacements that most bars are selling in their bars. As a matter of fact, I don’t know even 10 bars in NL (and I’ve seen many, believe me) where I can say their draft beer is 100% quality.
Well, you don’t really have to be an expert. Your headache the next day (even after few glasses) will tell you.
PS: Another problem is lacking hygiene. Pipes are not cleaned often enough, so you get a nice set of bugs in your glass. Also, glasses are not cleaned properly. Occasionally I tell them to please remove the detergent before drafting me a beer.