Lager

I must admit I like a good lager - chiefly because I find it the most effective instant pick-me-up (and thirst quencher) after a day's exertions. Note, I say a 'good lager', and I am quite sure that there is such a thing, that it tastes better, and that I could tell the difference blindfold. I was therefore rather startled to come across this report, which concludes that all lagers taste the same.
 I wonder what they were actually tasting - draught, bottled, canned? Bottled Budvar is surely distinctive enough to be told from the other two, though there may be some denatured draught version that tastes much the same, as draught lagers tend to (though even the widely available Kronenbourg certainly tastes different from Stella and Heineken). The main distinction in lagers is - to my palate at least - between the generic, brewed anywhere, Europop style, which, particularly in England, has a nasty sour-stale overtone, and those lagers that are still custom-brewed. This is illustrated perfectly by canned Heineken: the version that is still brewed in Holland is about the best lager you can get in a can, whereas the Europop ('brewed in the EU') version is really quite nasty. Both kinds are now on sale in the UK, but happily the good ones still bear the legend 'Brewed in Holland'. But I have detained you long enough...