My Christmas With Stella (Stella Artois)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Stella Artois
Date:	29/12/01 (588 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: How long have you got?

Disadvantages: Expensive

It’s time for my first venture into the world of consumer durables so here goes. I spent my Christmas with my good friend Stella Artois. Renowned for it’s sharp, dry taste Stella is one of the most famous of mainstream lagers.

Where did it come from and where did it all start? Well, Stella comes from a town called Leuven in Belgium. The original brewery was known as “Den Horen” or “The Horn” and dates back to 1366. In 1708 Sebastian Artois was made Master Brewer. He proceeded to hand his skills down to the following generations. The family house became known as the Artois brewery in 1717.

The modern day bevvie came about in 1926. It was a Christmas special brew that the creators felt to be as clear as a star. As latin for star is Stella, well, a star or Stella was born.

Stella Artois is made from water, malt, hops and a unique Stella Artois yeast to give it its distinctive flavour. The bottle or can is very distinctive with a predominantly red crest with the words STELLA ARTOIS straddled by “Anno” and “1366”. Stella is 5.2 alcohol by volume and, as mentioned earlier, has a sharp, dry taste. It is one of your more potent lagers and it’s easy to find yourself with a Stella hangover the following day if you’re not careful. Unfortunately, I have fallen into this trap on many occasions where I’ve set out to pace myself but found that I’ve got the taste for drinking (sadly, usually after the first pint).

***Cautionary notes about my friend***
# Stella hangovers are only marginally behind whisky hangovers on the Richter Scale (force 9 as opposed to 10)
# Stella advertising plays on the fact that it is "re-assuringly expensive". Whilst us suckers are led into a subliminal belief that costing more = better, in reality, there are probably just as good if not better lagers available at a lower price than SA.
# Advertising that has a hug
e budget supports Stella. In common with other mainstream lagers, this means that they are invariably over-priced and aimed at a mass market. This can lead to encouraging an unadventurous approach to taste.

So to conclude – I like Stella but it is in a broad band of mainstream lagers like Budweiser (enjoyed my trip to a Bud – making factory at Sea World, Florida...Free samples!), Miller etc. The Stella ads do a good job but kinda make me feel like I’m lacking in street cred by buying and drinking it. It’s certainly a pint with a kick and, once you’ve acquired the taste, it’s easy to get hooked. Yeah, OK, I’d recommend it to you but only on the proviso that you try other beers as well.

This is the best excuse I’ve ever come up with for trawling up and down the booze aisles at Tesco, searching out and trying their vast repertois of beers and ales. Here’s to a great New Year!!

Stella retails at £1.99 for a 660ml bottle over the road at Dillons. It can be bought on draft in most Public Houses from anything between £2 (working man’s club) to £3+ in a trendy London haunt.

Happy New Year!!!

Marandina.

***Update 16/6/2002***
It's Father's Day & I've been given the biggest bottle of Stella I've ever seen from the kids. It's a whopping 1 litre and comes with 2 rather splended glasses. Just for you,lovely Dooyoo consumers, I rather cheekily asked my wife how much it cost. £9.99 from Tesco! Blimey...I'll save it for a special occasion (btw: comes in a lovely presentation box).

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