It seems that our German friends have come up with a pretty good idea. A brewery on a cruise ship. Well nearly a pretty good idea given what they are actually doing with the idea. Brewmaster Andreas Hegny has been on board the newly launched ship MS AIDAblu brewing Hövels Original, the super-premium beer brand owned by Radeberger Group, for thirsty passengers.The five hectolitre brewery on a cruise ship is a world first. Pity they seem to be following the usual German Brewpub formula of brewing a lot of dross.
The ship might have cost €360 million and weigh 71,000 tons, but it's an ugly looking bugger.
Wonder if Brewdog will attempt to sink it?
ReplyDeleteWere I ever stuck on a cruise ship I can think of many worse beers to have on tap than Hövels Original. I take it you're not a fan?
ReplyDeleteYes it is ugly: fancy paying €1000s to be seen on that!
ReplyDeleteBN:I can think of many worse beers too, but many better. If you were to have your own 5Hl brewery, how high on your list would a clone of Hövels be?
ReplyDeleteTo cater for 2,000 mostly-German drinkers (even if they are captives) quite high, I think. With a choice between that, yellow fizz or weizen, I'd go for the Hövels.
ReplyDeleteOr a nice doppelbock to thin the numbers a bit...
Ha. Remind me when I win the Euro millions (not likely as I don't buy a ticket) not to ask you to be Head Brewer in my fancy new brewery! (-;
ReplyDeleteIf it's on a German cruiseship I won't be offended when the offer doesn't arrive in the first post.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading about that over on Appellation Beer. Seems it's not a first as the British had done this before (see comments on above-linked post).
ReplyDeleteI never really saw Hövels as a "super-premium" brand. The fact they renamed it from Hövels Bitterbier to Hövels Original suggested to me that it was seen as an old kinda drink that didn't appeal to the pils drinkers. The Hövels you get in bottles or on tap around this area is made in some Radeberger-owned brewery (close to Dortmund, I believe), but they still make it on-site in the brewpub to be served there (along with a Zwickel). I actually prefer the mass-produced one as it feels like it has a crisper hop element. I'll be testing that out in the pub tonight ;)
I hope this isn't as seedy as those piss up ferries that leave Hull for the Netherlands, unleashing trendy perfumed students onto the boat and tipping out bedraggled ruffians with no change of clothes and the hangover from hell at the continental end.
ReplyDeleteBeer + sea = dangerous combination.
Thanks for the link Barry. Good piece and it seems that they will brew a variety of beers, so good on them.
ReplyDeleteI did know about the 2nd World War on ship breweries, but not in any detail, hence the question mark.
You've also cleared something else up for me. When I last had it, in Duisberg, it was Bitterbier!
Cheers.
Apparently it was only renamed at the end of 2007. When I arrived here in March 2008 (God, two years here already!) it was still listed in some menus as Hövels Bitterbier, which both delighted and confused me a bit, as bitter seems to have negative connotations for many Germans when associated with beer (herb is used more when it's hoppy). If the trend is towards those awful biermixes, bitter would not be appealing to the younger generations :D
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of their nice "Victoria" glasses with the old logo on them.
There is a TV idea here. The crew of the love boat sink, are rescued by the beer boat and a new TV series starts. The beer boat, it's exciting and new, take a trip with the beer boat crew....and beer!
ReplyDeleteEvery week a group of tea totallers could get on board, discover beer and get pissed. Embarking as twats and disembarking as pissheads.
I'm off to write a script.
I thought you just had. Don't be tempted to tinker with perfection.
ReplyDeleteI'd be up for singing the theme tune!
ReplyDeleteThe Poseidon Adventure would have been a lot more bearable with a brewery on board.
ReplyDeleteSo would Titanic, if only to drown the memory of that Celine Dion song.
ReplyDelete