Vergina (ΒΕΡΓΙΝΑ)
Brewed by Macedonian Thrace Brewery
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Komotini, Greece
Vergina, as I am sure all you history buffs have spotted, is the ancient capital of Macedonia, and where Alexander The Great was proclaimed King.
Like Alexander, the beer has had to fight and battle its way to the top. Unbelievably by the mid 1990’s a nation as old and great as Greece didn’t even have one 100% authentically Greek owned beer that was produced in the country!!
Step forward a Mr. Politopoulos who had a dream and ambition to rectify this, quite frankly embarrassing situation and, with the help of his brother and father, a brewery was set up. The very first bottles of “Vergina” went on sale in 1998, to a market that was 90% dominated by Heineken conglomerates crowding out the competition, sometimes illegally. A tough battle for the new brewery in a country with notorious corruption and anti competitive practices.
But, like Alex the great, the brewery have battled hard, and inroads they have made, as they now have roughly a 6% of the Greek market, behind only Heineken and Carlsberg, and are expanding all the time. They now also produce a host of other beers, from a “Vergina Red”, to their own version of a Weiss, to a host of seasonal and specialty beers, while all the time expanding to newer markets such as to New York and Australia.
Review: 500ml can of Beptina Lager Beer: 5% vol.
On pour we get a light yellow coloured beer with a small white head.
Head maintains a little, and there is some lacing present.
Overall its an ok looking beer, not bad.
Aroma is one of light malts, some barley, not strong on the nose.
First impression on the taste is positive. Lovely crisp initial mouthfeel and taste. Nice and cool straight from the fridge, very crisp, nice light lager tastes, very smooth and with mild bitterness.
Very malty for sure. Also getting the fresh grains and some fruit.
Ok, overall it is a bit of a light beer to chug with not much depth to it. No need to think too deeply about this beer.
Goes down easy, with a light finish. Taste is pure grounded malt, Not bad, refreshing with a very lagery taste, does the business as I watch the sun go down on a lovely Corfu beach side setting. Keeping it simple sometimes works.
Athenian Brewery SA was founded in the 1960’s by a group of Greek entrepreneurs and is a member of the Heineken Group. One of the oldest brands of beer in Greece, since 1961, and plays on its heritage with its authentic Greek name and origin proudly on display. 
On pour I get a golden coloured beer with a desperately disappointing head. No head really to speak about. Some carbonation going on, but not enough to give the beer a decent head.
One of these immigrants was a Johann Ludwig Fuchs, a miner. He was the one who had started the Fuchs (Fix) activity of brewing beer in Greece. As he was from Bavaria he had the deep knowledge of what constituted good beer. Unfortunately on the way to pick up his son, who was arriving from Germany, he was robbed and killed, so that it was to be that the young Karl Johann Fuchs was in a foreign country and suddenly in charge of his fathers fledgling business at just 20 years of age! 
But the good luck eventually ran out as in 1983 the company fell into bankruptcy, and the family owned business was closed down thus ending the legacy of the Fuchs family, in brewing at least. 
On pour I get a very nice and very frothy white headed beer, with a golden colour.
Valaisanne, a small Swiss brewery, that produce exciting craft beers. They produce a range of beers, a Zwickelbier, a Pale Ale, and a Weizen. 
Comes in a very decent looking bottle that has a well designed label and logo with pretty lettering, stands out. Bought in Coop, local supermarket. 
Aroma of fruits and straw, all light though. Getting a red berry note. 
The Mahr brewery, with a history dating way back to the 17th century, is situated in Upper Franconia, in the city of Bamberg, northern Bavaria, Germany. The name of the brewery comes from a Karl Mahr who purchased the brewery in 1840. The early brewery changed hands a few times but since 1895 it is owned by the Michel family, now into its 4th generation of ownership under the stewardship of Stephan Michel.
Love the bottle and the logo, a striking light blue winged man, bit strange but stands out.
A full bodied beer on the taste, nice and crisp is the initial reaction, all smooth and easy to drink, good first impression. Sweet malts and grains to the fore.
The Obermühle Steinen mill wanted a beer to celebrate its anniversary, so they approached Wäfler, a Lucerne based brewery, with the idea of producing a beer made from corn, as a gift to its customers. Unfortunately, over time, the brewery went bankrupt and so was the end of the special beer. But there was a clamour from the public who had got found of this unique beer. So a new brewery was needed to continue this production. Not least the beer was a financial hit for the mill too! In 1978, the Rosengarten brewery was asked if they would be prepared to produce a specialty beer with the maize from the Obermühle Steinen, and they agreed, and so in 1980 , the brewery launched the Maisgold.
The beer is brewed with a share of about 30% corn from the Bruhin mill and from the Linthebene, barley malt and hops. The corn causes it to be tasty, light and rather sweetish.
Initial taste is that its a very light beer, with a lot of malt.
Not a whole lot in the bottle too which is a bit disappointing. 
In the late 1990’s, the Lion Nathan brewery in Australia produced a beer called “Duff Beer”. 20th Century Fox brought legal action against the company. The product was ordered to be pulled off store shelves and destroyed, even though the beer had no direct relation to the comedy series, or any similar colouring or logo design. A similar thing happened to Duff Brewery in Dunedin, New Zealand who were brewing their stuff well before even the Simpsons were on the box. To escape heavy court cases and legal drama the company changed the name eventually to McDuff in the end!
For the actual show version of the beer, Duff is made by Duff Breweries in Springfield, small town USA. Duffman, a superhero kind of guy, is their always enthusiastic spokesman all the time wearing a utility belt full of cans of Duff Beer. The beer’s slogan is “Can’t Get Enough of That Wonderful Duff”, though there are others.
Very carbonated on pour, all fizzing away no end, resulting in a very nice and white frothy headed beer that has a nice clear golden colour. Some slight lacing going on. The beer manages to maintain its head throughout. Overall its a pretty decent looking beer. A good start!.
Not without problems it has to be said, as Heineken, or more like their Greek subsidiary, Athenian Brewery, were fined £25 million by the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC), for abuse of the market by squeezing out competitors through exclusivity agreements and aggressive practices of domination, over a 15-year period. The company was found to be in breach of Greek and EU competition law. Macedonian Thrace Brewery who initiated the lawsuit are also seeking damages from the parent company, as a small Greek brewery they felt stepped on by the large multinational and its aggressive behaviour in distorting the local market. It is said that Athenian Brewery had used “exclusivity agreements” to force publicans to stock Heineken brands, and by offering wholesalers “significant economic motives” to promote their own specific brands while at the same time to refrain from introducing competing products. Well all is fair in love and war I guess!
Aroma is of sweet malts, but overall it is quite light on the nose. 
One I got on the holiday island of Corfu. 
Barley strong in this one, plus very grainy. 
Pour a pure yellow colour, looks like a very watered down dilutable orange drink more than anything else, or you could say some fruit juice. No such thing as a head on this fella, but then did you really expect one?