Hello people

Cesu Premium Lager beer will be officially launching in United Kingdom on 8th June 2008.
This awesome Latvian lager beer will be sold in UK’s 2nd largest supermarket chain ASDA.

Find more info on Facebook
Website coming soon

enjoy…
Edgars

While this is good news for 6-pack beer-bellies,  I would like to know where this “Cesis “ brewery is located and who is its owner.

Mr. L. L.

Feel free to use your favorite search engine to look this up.

I used http://www.google.com and entered CESU ALUS
The very first listing comes up:  http://www.cesualus.lv

On their home page it says they are located at:
Aldaru laukums 1, Ce’sis, LV-4101, Tel. 80009090, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Ownership:
1999 - The Norwegian-Latvian Commerce Development Fund sell its shares to the Finnish beer and non-alcoholic drinks producer Olvi Oyj subsidiary A.Le Coq. This marks the beginning of a new stage in Cēsu alus with broad opportunities for modernisation, production co-operation, increasing the qualifications of employees and cementing the company’s positions in the Latvian and Baltic markets, whilst preserving the unique heritage of the Cēsu alus brand.

Their website is chock-ful of information

Vergi bijām, vergi esam, vergi mūžam paliksim.

The only “Latvian” part I see is in the brand name. And also there I am not sure if it has not “Pelēko Baronu” beginnings and proprietorship.

“The Norwegian-Latvian Commerce Development Fund sell its shares to the Finnish beer and non-alcoholic drinks producer Olvi Oyj subsidiary A.Le Coq. “  reads like the times of democratic collapse in 1930-1934 and only by kicking the foreign leeches out of the country Dr. K. Ulmanis and General Balodis in 1935 preserved what was left and created unprecedented growth of national wealth. 

Mr. L. L.

P.S.  If I would google everything I ask, we would have nothing to talk about with each other, would we?

L.

wowwww why so negative dude ...:(
U know its bout beer and it real good…. do u have it in States?

regards
edgars

I have to agree with Edgars. There is more than the Latvian name. I have driven by the plant in Cēsis numerous times. So to my way of thinking it is “made in Latvia”. And I like it too! Last time I had a Cēsu Alus it was in a conical/octogonal bottle with the letters A. LeCoq embossed in the glass. That’s an Estonian brand, right?

Edgar, I haven’t seen it in the States ever. What a shame! If I’m lucky, I might find Aldaris in some Russian stores, but not lately.

Pierre

A Le Coq is from Estonia yes… I am not sure that it is the same beer as Cesu Premium. As Cesu Premium lager is 5.2% and A Le Coq is 5% alc. vol. However might as well be as two companies are related to each other.
So no Cesu Beer in USA… hmmm… maybe in future you will be able to buy some ...:)

regards

Way out here “Tālajos Ziemeļrietumos” we have the pleasure of 5 (yes five) types of Aldaris and 4 types of Līvu Alus in the local imported beer store. Granted, they are USD 2.50/.5Litres but it is oh so worth it.
Cēsu Alus would be a most welcome addition, but no sign of it yet.

Priekā!

The way I see this topic is representing “Latvijas Tautas” cultural trends at its best.  As it is about pouring in at one end and pouring out at other, should not it be under “Latvian Culture and Cooking”?

By the way, are the promoters of these foreign (non-Latvian ownership) business activities on this forum paying LOL Forum owners the advertising fees? Or is their pusher Edgarz only   freeloading?

Mr. L. L.

My goodness, LL, you can sure be crabby about anything/everything!  I think I’ll have to start appreciating your posts as an artform.

As to finding Latvian beers, Kalamazoo, of all places, has many different kinds available as well (though I’ve not seen Cesu there)!  Still, I should admit, the taste test at a zolites game about a year ago came to the conlusion that Svyturis was the best…

$2.50 a bottle for Līvu?! It’s one of the cheapest beers there is—28 s at the Rimi, or $0.62, for 0,5 l. See—there are still advantages to deepest darkest Muttistan teetering on the edge of eternal totalitarianism, etc., etc.!

Līvu is OK, as is Cēsu—but my two favorites are Užavas and Tērvetes (both of which are still local companies, actually, so Mr LL can quaff their beverages without catching AIDS, aromatic Judaism, a Berkeley education or whatever his fearsome abomination of the moment happens to be…).

Both are real, live beers (Lāčplēsis [also multinational—Royal Unibrew] may advertise itself as “dzīvais alus,” but it is pretty darn dead). Užavas will set you back a bit in a shop, but if you’re in the Ventspils area—it’s only slightly more than the Eurogeneric Aldaris, on tap.

Carlsberg is also brewed in Latvia these days, in Tvaiku iela. Personally, I’m rather a rabid ethnocentric purist when it comes to beer. Yes, OK, the big breweries are local. But there is nothing else Latvian about the major brands—not the recipes, not the ingredients, not the style. I would rather drink Staropramen, then, which is superb. Or even (gasp!) some of the Russian beers, like Arsenalnoye (same conglomerate as Aldaris anyhow). For a better geopolitical stance and value—Obolon, a fine Ukrainian beer. 

I won’t quote Giustino on putting something labeled A. Le Coq to one’s lips… this isn’t that thread.

Visu gaišu,
/P

P.S. I thought “wowwww why so negative dude ...:( ” was the best response to Mr LL thus far—žetons!

Booze and politics, eh. It reminds of a time when Anita and Andrejs passed by the Lukoil gas station even though the tank was getting close to zero. Moving on though.

Aldaris Zelta Alus has a specific smell to it that resurrects forgotten childhood memories in my mind- like smelling my Lettish dad in the evening. I hated that smell. Back in the US, a Lettish friend of mine and I rushed to a booze store in Chicago to lay our hands on some great Aldaris beer because we felt so damned homesick. I opened the bottle and the smell of beer did what it has always done - it reminded me of my dad and I remembered how much I hated the smell and how much I wanted to be opposite of him. I couldn’t drink it.

My favorite beer remains Užavas since my lips first touched its unpasteurized goodness in the town of Lembergsville last autumn. I can say that it’s the best beer in the world that I have ever tasted. Even better than Ireland’s Murphy’s which takes the second spot on my list. 

Dienas Bizness, I think, recently published a story about beer competition in three Baltic countries and how it doesn’t exist. Aldaris doesn’t sell in Lithuania or Estonia because then it would compete with local established brands, like, God forbid, A Le Coq in Estonia, which is part of the same conglomerate. It’d be ridiculous to compete with yourself.

I’m not much of a beer drinker, connoisseur, by any stretch, but the first time I went to Latvia I was really impressed with Aldaris (and yes, I know, everybody who knows anything votes it thumbs down), and I even brought back one bottle so that my husband could try to duplicate it.  One of his hobbies is brewing beer (looks like a brewery down there in the basement with all kinds of tubes, devices, tanks…).  His batch came out pretty good, IMO and we even brought some to one of my mother’s parties and had all her Latvian friends sample it;they seemed to enjoy it, some of the men even opting for seconds which seems to be indicative of some level of approval.  Lately he’s been brewing some Belgian hybrids and the one thing I will say is that I couldn’t even imagine putting a Budweiser (the American taster’s choice(?) to my lips anymore, ever again.

The next time I’m in Latvia I’ll have to try some Uzavas, Tervetes and bring home some samples.  As Pierre says, we can barely get any Aldaris around here, never mind Cesu alus; can’t figure that—the Northwest, being further away, yet having more acsess, than we here in the Boston area.

Irena

PS Edgar, you are one funny “dude”...thanks for the sharing of info—making me laugh all day…oh, to be that fly on the wall!

Sveika Irena!

I have never tried Užavas either (or at least I can’t recall :-). I’ll need to remedy that on my next trip to Latvia. Besides, Latvian beer is best enjoyed while in Latvia. There are plenty of good beers to be found here in the Boston area (in Irena’s basement? :-). Even some of my favourite beers from Québec are available here.

Pierre

Irēna, in that case what you really ought to do is come to Latgola for Ļeigū and head for Višķi. They have a wonderful contest of home brews there. You get to ride in solar circles in the meadow, sample the pride of local saimnieki and their loyal, conservative saimnieces, and get really dizzy (these are smoky, scarily strong wine-like potions that sneak up on you… as are some of the Belgian Trappist beers, though these are what Germans would call Rauchbier). Your husband can use our basement to compete if I get a cut of the product!

Vysu lobu,
/P

P.S. Those interested in Latgallian issues shouldn’t miss the latest by Cibuļs.

P.P.S. “Budweiser” (“Budveizers”) here gets you the real thing—Budvar, a great beer. I actually did encounter those jeņķu čuras once in Rīga, though (not that Americans don’t have superb beers, too).

Peteri, what are “solar circles”???