ALWAYS CLASSY: TO SOME STELLA IS A HARSH MISTRESS
Ah, Stella Artois. The beer that for some can instantly bring forth mouth watering memories – and for others can bring forth nothing but disdain and bitter beer face. Such is the life of such a classy brew, I suppose.
Doesn’t it look delicious?
Where it came from:
Tax records exist from 1366 for Leuven’s Den Horen Brewery. In 1708, Sebastianus Artois became the master brewer at Den Horen, and gave his name to the brewery in 1717. In 1926, Stella Artois was launched initially as a seasonal beer especially for the Christmas holiday market. It was first sold in Canada and it was such a commercial success that the brand became available year round and, apart from the duration of the Second World War, has been produced ever since. The first Stella Artois beer was exported to the European market in 1930. By 1960, 100 million litres of Stella Artois was being produced annually. InBev opened a new fully automated brewery in Leuven in 1993, and by 2006, total production volume was over a billion litres annually. The current package design and bottle design and shape was created in 1988 by David Taylor, founder of Taylorbrands. The design replaced a 1960s design and is inspired by the original 1926 bottle label. The design incorporates the horn symbol of the Den Hoorn brewery and the date 1366 which is the date of the earliest recorded brewing in Leuven. The label also shows medals for excellence awarded to the brewery at a number of trade exhibitions in Belgium in the 19th and 20th century. The name Stella Artois is held within a “cartouche” which was influenced by the style of Belgian architecture of Leuvenes. Source: Wikipedia
Why it gets a bad rap: As a beer drinker – I don’t have the slightest idea where anti Stella sentiment could come from. It’s smooth going down, has a great taste and goes well with just about any food. You can have Stella during a football game while sitting at a bar or during a fancy dinner party in a glass and it fits all the same. It truly is a multi-purpose beer, if such a thing exists. When I’ve asked for reasoning others have called it “That skunky beer” or have said the initial smell is too strong for them to actually give it a try – and for the bottled version of the beverage this may be true. When the cap is first opened under someones nose you’ll know right away if Stella is the right choice for their evening.
Why it will always be classy: As mentioned above it truly is the Swiss (Belgian?) army knife of beers. It casual settings as well as dinner party or date night out atmospheres it can fit will with any situation and not carry the ‘frat boy’ stigma that the less tasting beers such as Bud Light seem to possess. A recent article from a website that I’ll refrain from naming (way to drop the ball with another terrible article, Yahoo) made the assumption that Stella Artois is a beer produced for and chosen by people that are undecided about the choice to actually stick with beer as their drink or to move onto something harder.
Bold assumption, random Yahoo writer – and you couldn’t be more wrong. The true beer connoisseurs I’ve met have enjoyed Stella immensely – it’s the casual beer drinkers or those who don’t enjoy beer at all that turn their noses up at one of the world’s finest beverages. Their loss, I say – and bartender please pour me another, I say.
Stella Artois – Always Classy indeed.
26 Comments
Johnny Famous
01.03.2012
We have Stella in Canada but I’ve never really tried it to be honest but based on your description, it sounds like the American equivalent of Alexander Keiths. It’s fancy enough to escape the “domestic” beer list and make an excellent choice while eating out but casual enough to bring camping or watching the game while feeling like a boss.
naavar
01.03.2012
It’s fun how easily European import beers can get status abroad. I’m not badmouthing Stella at all, as I tend to drink it quite often. But in central Europe this one is an everyday beer and is sold cheap on every corner, running second only to African hookers.
Gismo
01.03.2012
Naavar is actually right. When living in the UK that was the cheapest beer available, hence I drank shitloads of it. Eventually, I developed a taste for it and only rarely switched to anything different like a Polish beer for instance.
To be honest I would happily come back to that taste and should I only have a chance I will buy it. Unfortunately, Stella is not available in Poland as we have loads of our beers and import just few brands. It’s a shame actually.
Should you guys ever want to make me a gift you can always send me a crate of Stella
By the way, very nice review, Sir.
RockNTheFreeWorld
01.03.2012
Stella has become my go-to beer since Classy recommended it during my beer tasting spree. Warsteiner and Bass are other personal favorites but Stella does seem to go with most anything and luckily I have not had a real skunky lot yet. Warsteiner, on the other hand, has let me down a couple of times now.
Mr. Classy
01.03.2012
RockN touched on a good point that I should have mentioned in the article – Stella’s consistency. Often times you’ll get a batch of beer be it in bottles or cans and it’ll just taste.. off. So many factors can obviously play in to that such as how old the beer is, temperature changes, how it’s been stored, how it was transported and so on.
With Stella I’ve literally never had ‘a bad batch’. It may be one of the cheap beers in Euroland but I’ll be damned if it isn’t consistently the best tasting one. Every time I pop open one of those bottles I know what taste I should expect and it delivers. You can’t say that about a lot of other beers nowadays that are mass produced.
Samuel Adams Boston Lager is a close second for me on consistency of taste.
Jujubeez
01.03.2012
I’m not a beer drinker, I’m not even a booze drinker, but there are times a beer hits the mark with me. Summertime and eating crabs at the beach always requires that beer to polish off a great experience. Stella has been my beer of choice for a few years now. It’s one of those rare beers that seems to go with food better than anything else. I used to drink Grolsh in my early days, but it was mostly because I could get drunk quicker as it had more alcohol than other beers.
Today a much older, and hopefully wiser Juju, drinks for occasions rather than the norm. Stella is the beer I choose.
naavar
01.03.2012
“A beer hits the mark” oh aren’t you funny with your puns!
As a Euro I don’t feel Stella is an exclusive beer, it’s on of the more common ones. And it has made it to be one of my two go to beers together with Heineken. Like its been said they always taste the same and there’s never any fuzz about them. Just good quality blonde beer that you can either drink all by itself or next to just about anything you’re eating.
Jujubeez
01.03.2012
You’re such a tool.
naavar
01.03.2012
Oh come on, I actually chuckled real good from that one
Jujubeez
01.03.2012
So did I
Johnny Famous
01.03.2012
OH….
I get it now.
Devil
01.03.2012
I like Stella but thanks to it’s “Euro” status bars like to over charge for it here. It’s a fine beer but if i’m gonna be paying for the ‘Import/premium” prices I want something a little more flavorful or unique. Still much better than the Bud/Canadian/Coors brands though.
Also I got one of those Stella glasses in the pic for taking part in a Stella pouring competition. I don’t remember how I placed… the only things I cared about were that the beer was free and the hostess was insanely hot
naavar
01.03.2012
Stella is served in glasses like that in bars here. I have loads of friends that have a good time taking glasses homes with them.
To be honest that glass does have it’s effect on the taste. It actually does enhance the drinking experience.
Devil
01.03.2012
Yeah they went through the whole thing about how it effects the taste. It’s the only time where being a bit of a beer snob comes in handy cause I you do notice a difference when the whole thing is done properly. It just takes forever to pour it the ‘Stella way’
naavar
01.03.2012
Which is why a serious alcoholic beverage maker always provide his own glasses, to maximize the tasting experience.
Mr. Classy
01.04.2012
I’ve never tried one with the official Stella glass but I should – unfortunately the bars here serve it in the same usually dirty glasses that they serve everything else.
Spader
01.05.2012
Stella is a tasty brew, but it’s too expensive here to be my norm.
I do love it when someone else buys it though!
naavar
01.05.2012
I paid 2,55€ for the six-pack I bought today. And that was even in a store that tends to overprice :p
Spader
01.05.2012
Stella usually runs between $15-$18 a 12 pack in my local grocery store. Well over my self imposed $1 a bottle limit on beer spending.
Mr. Classy
01.06.2012
Like Spader said it’s definitely too expensive here to be the everyday brew as well. Same with Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Tax included it’s just below 20 dollars for a 12 pack here.
Spader
01.06.2012
Sam Adams winter selection is about the only thing I’ll break my $1 a bottle rule for. I absolutely love their dark stuff.
Mr. Classy
01.06.2012
Sam Adams is a pretty safe bet for any of their beers. I have yet to try one of theirs I didn’t like.
naavar
01.13.2012
I might have to stop frequenting a couple of guys I call friends. I was insulted and critiqued for serving them Stella. Then the day after they bring Hoegaarden when they come over again, a shitty wheat bear.
Mr. Classy
01.13.2012
Friends like that are not friends at all, really.
wetbedknob
01.14.2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sm8JM-K1dc
Mr. Classy
01.14.2012
Pabst Blue Ribbon has been adopted by attempted hipsters nowadays and they’ve ruined any appeal it could have ever had in the first place. Not that it was a good beer anyway
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