[bodski]

Stella in the UK is basically the same as Carling's 'chemical' lager, it shouldn't be surprising that the hangovers are so bad.

Most lagers on sale in the UK (outside of city 'mini-marts') are brewed in the UK and all seem to taste the same (terrible) and give me hangovers before I have even stopped drinking. We have no beer purity laws like there are in places like Germany either, sold out brands that are brewed in the UK like Carlsberg / Stella / Kronenburg etc are nothing like their native counterparts. The difference when drinking duty free (real) Stella is like night and day (but it does go flat very quickly). The EU just wouldn't put up with such terrible lager, us Brits seem to lap it up though. Another one is Fosters, we seem to love it, apparently Fosters is Australian for 'horse piss'.

In Belgian off-licences, even the 'real' Stella is relegated to the bargain bin alongside Juliper. They 'reassuringly expensive' advertising campaign is a total sham.

Imported Heineken, Becks, Budvar (the original Budweiser brand from Czech) etc. seem to be the only decent lagers you can still find in the shops here, rip off prices though.

[spjwebster]

Since we're on the subject of alcoholic beverages that taste better than your average beer, I'm honour-bound by my West Country upbringing to suggest some decent quality cider. I'm talking about Henney's Frome Valley, Weston's Organic, or (if still and cloudy cider is your thing) Addlestones. This is, of course, unless you can get hold of some proper West Country homemade scrumpy. Cheers!