Oh mighty admin gods, i come to thee seeking knowledge. Drinking an imported can of Asahi Super Dry (US purchase). Can clearly states " Brewed and canned under Asahi’s supervision by Molson Canada, Toronto, Canada. Imported by Asahi Beer USA." Listed in RB as the Japanese version. Am i splitting hairs here?
Most macro pale lagers are made at multiple locations around the world but we list them under the home brewery. Asahi Super Dry is brewed under license in Europe, Canada and apparently a few places in Asia too. All of them are considered the same beer as the Japanese brewed one so your rating goes on that.
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Well, I could list as example the versions of Spaten, Löwenbrau, HB and Gösser brewed in Hungary under license, for the local market. These beers have dedicated pages on Ratebeer, but actually these beers are completely different (worse) than the ones brewed in Germany. So I don’t know, probably in this case is the same beer.
There however a few which have not been aliased. I.e. last time I looked there was still a German one.
Yeah, there’s a German one (apparently brewed in the UK also) and a Russian one (brewed in Kaliningrad under licence from Kirin Europe).
As I’ve rated both, what would happen to my ratings if there two beers are aliased to the Japanese original? Which of the ratings will be carried over?
The Hungarian versions are all non-Reinheitsgebot from what I can remember and as such shouldn’t be touched. Or very much notably different stats-wise.
Oh yes, the Hungarian versions are definitely non-Reinheitsgebot 
nothing to compare with the originals. In the case of Asahi, I never tried the Japanese version, but maybe it’s the same.
What about them is non-reinheitsgebot? Do they use yeast, or cost more than 2 pfennig, or something?
Hah! Actually wrote an article for a daily newspaper on how bullshit referring to the 1516 Reinheitsgebot really is some years ago.
But, of course, what I mean there is the “modern usage”… and the Hungarian versions contain corn.
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FatPhil, yes, we all know that nowadays the Reinheitsgebot stuff is more about marketing, but as Marko already told you the Hungarian versions of those beers are cheap stuff brewed with maize/corn (kukoricadara, or kukoricagriz in Hungarian), with 4,0% alcohol, basically they are the same that many other beers produced in the same industrial brewery, just sold with different names. And they are cheaper than the same-name beers sold in Germany. If you want a real authentic Bavarian beer in Hungary, the only one you can easily find in supermarkets is the Paulaner, indeed it costs more than in Germany and you can read on the label where it is made.
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Yeah, the BUL runs deep and thick. There certainly are cases where the beer is actually brewed under licence - the intention is to make the same beer from the same recipe, but there are also cases like this where things are simply branded under licence. Sometimes it’s hard to distringuish the two, but sometimes it’s easier. Consumer-friendly labelling laws for the win, as they can highlight cheapened or otherwise changed recipes.
Löwenbräu is a major offender. It’s actually a cheap swill brand in many ex-StarBev now-MolsonCoors breweries, corn-riddled. Generally the best quality per buck during my student days of which I’ve downed many a 2l plastic bottle, but still corn-riddled cheap swill. And it varies between clusters of countries.
With the notable exception of the Gösser Bock which was IMO actually quite better in its dark Hungarian version.
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I didn’t try that 
I’ll look for!
Sadly, Soproni doesn’t brew it for the last 5 or so years.
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Maybe they are too busy now with their IPA and APA
Very nice discussion. I have found it very enlightening… Thanks!
