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Sadly, there is a continuing process of "dumbing down" interesting lagers when they become popular. A big company buys it up, or it becomes part of a larger company, and a few years later the lager is brewed under licence in another country and made bland - little different to all the others out there. Often with less taste, fewer hops and sometimes less strong. This has been going on for many years. Estrella Damm was a case in point about two years ago - after it became widely popular, they reduced the alcohol content and more importantly the taste. It looks like they've just done the same to Staropramen, which until this month was a reliably tasty lager. Now it is "brewed in the EU" and its taste has gone south. Craft beers are usually immune (but God help us if they get too popular). And there is one lager being sold in all the supermarkets which has yet to be "budveised": 13 Hop House Lager. At the craft level, Curious Brew is a winner!
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