Fix Hellas

Brewed by Olympic Brewery
Style: Euro Pale Lager
Athens, Greece

The brewery Fix was officially founded in 1864 by Karl Johann Fuchs in Athens and was the first major brewery in Greece. Fix is the Greek translation of Fuchs.

In January 1833, Greece had a German ruler in court, Prince Frederic Othon of Wittelswach of Bavaria. He was fond of the old country and so brought along with him many Bavarian troops, civil servants and civilians with him to Greece, in search of the good life and new opportunity.

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!

First he imported beer from Germany, but later, he decided to produce and sell his home made beer which was popular with the German expats of Athens at that time, a Greek made beer with clear Bavarian characteristics.

Poor Johann, fatherless, needed a bit of luck. Well with the appointment of the new King of Greece, George Christian Wilhelm Glyxbourg, from Denmark, another beer loving nation, he was in luck. This new royal court – full of beer enthusiasts – encouraged Charles’s efforts, and Fix Company soon became the official purveyor to the Greek Royal Court, which gave them a near total domination in the Greek beer market for about a whole century. Now that was a good piece of fortune for the young fella!

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.

The fix brand started to be reproduced in 2008 by the Olympic Brewery, after they had bought the trademark rights of the old brewery off Hellenic Breweries of Atalanti, who had also tried to reintroduce the old beer. Starting off small, sold mainly in local supermarkets, but concentrating on the patriotism of Greek beer lovers by referencing how Fix is 100% a homemade brew and also a nod to its historic legacy, sales were dramatically boosted leading the beer to make a successful comeback.

Ιn 2015, the Olympic Brewery merged with the Myth Brewery. Since then, both breweries are majority owned by Carlsberg.

Review: 330ml can of Fix Hellas: 5% vol.

On the blue and white can, it says that this beer has won “38 gold medals and prizes”, so it must be a great beer then, right lets crack on then and see….

Fix Hellas Lager is made from the finest quality hops and is drawn from a recipe handed down from the original brewer.

On pour I get a very nice and very frothy white headed beer, with a golden colour.

The carbonation is alive and well, and the head is not bad but goes a little flat after a while. Some lacing.

Starts off looking fine but ends up looking a bit shitty.

On the nose I get a very faint smell of malts, and an overall general lagery type of aroma, all the grains and yeast, but its all very faint, nearly odorless in fact!

Get a lot in the can. On the taste, getting nice big mouthfuls initially, showing a light lager that is pretty drinkable, but with no standout tastes. Get the malts and barley, but all on the low level
No real taste at all here, all a bit watery. Smooth but……..dull.

Eventually after a while it turns a bit hoppier and bitter, but it has a sickly feel to it.

Taste is nothing really, big mouthfuls of nothing!

Bit bitter and “urgh”. Basically this is cheap watery lager swill for the masses.