# "Worst & Best" beer taken onboard ?



## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Remember how many cases you had to get through - if it was crap ?

Worst - "Pabst Blue Ribbon" followed closely by "Budweiser"
Best - "Tennants Thistle" - sadly no more "Tiger" "Heineken" "Castle"
"Tusker" "Amstel" "Becks" - pucker stuff' 

Dare I mention Oranjeboom !!!

And i'm sure there's heaps more ................

Whoops nearly forgot ......... "Kaiser" & "Brahma" - Brazilian nectar


----------



## dom (Feb 10, 2006)

*dom*

Elbschloss?? german beer,loaded it in Hamburg,vile stuff


----------



## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

I think the best was Tiger - loaded in Singapore and the worst (well, it was always left till last) was Oranjeboom. (Pint)

Steve.
(Thumb)


----------



## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

Worst - Bavaria

Best SP Export (Brown bottle with Bird of Paradise on label - Greenies and brownies were headaches in a bottle)

Anyone remember Guiness Export - little green cans?


----------



## Pilot mac (Jun 28, 2005)

Definately the worst, 'Billy Beer' brewed by Billy Carter brother of President Jimmy Carter, absolute gnats. (is that how you spell nat?)

regards
Dave


----------



## joebuckham (Apr 1, 2005)

Pilot mac said:


> Definately the worst, 'Billy Beer' brewed by Billy Carter brother of President Jimmy Carter, absolute gnats. (is that how you spell nat?)
> 
> regards
> Dave


yes it is, but i was tempted to say know it's gnot (K)


----------



## BlythSpirit (Dec 17, 2006)

This reminds of the complaints the bar member and I got when we were down to Castle Ale from South Africa in the ERA club in Qatar. Nobody wanted any of it and complained about the lack of Forsters. I pointed out that the poor buggers down the road in Saudi wouldn't have complained if they had a few cases of Castle to sup!! No such thing as bad ales in a dry country(Jester)


----------



## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

I bet the name Oranjeboom crops up regularly in this thread!


----------



## gordon bryson (Aug 15, 2011)

BlythSpirit said:


> This reminds of the complaints the bar member and I got when we were down to Castle Ale from South Africa in the ERA club in Qatar. Nobody wanted any of it and complained about the lack of Forsters. I pointed out that the poor buggers down the road in Saudi wouldn't have complained if they had a few cases of Castle to sup!! No such thing as bad ales in a dry country(Jester)


I've never been mad about lager (prefer real ale), but I lived on Castle lager for 5 years in South Africa - excellent


----------



## blurb10 (Mar 23, 2007)

Yes. I remember Guinness Export in the little green cans, enjoyed them on the Lamport boats, a beautiful drink although a little on the heavy side. Mind you at the age of 75 I am still searching for a drink I don't like!!!


----------



## E.Martin (Sep 6, 2008)

Molsons,Dow,Cincennati Cream.


----------



## James_C (Feb 17, 2005)

Milwaukee Red - absolutely vile stuff!


----------



## China hand (Sep 11, 2008)

Westmalle dubbel. Serenity in a glass.


----------



## tedwatt (Feb 15, 2007)

Windhoek good, Oranjeboom and Moretti vile(Jester)


----------



## michael charters (Apr 4, 2010)

once had stella artios in my cabin or was it stella maris.


----------



## awateah2 (Feb 12, 2005)

Pabst 'Blue Ribbon' and Blue Ribbon 'Dry' still one of the biggest sellers in Quebec province !!!! at 64p (UK) a bottle ,it is a bargain !!!!!


----------



## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Best beer was CSB, Courage Sparkling Bitter. No such thing as a bad beer just some less palatable than others.


----------



## GBXZ (Nov 4, 2008)

Ahh CSB, also known as nerve gas. I can taste it now................


----------



## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

It all tasted the same to me,always warm and fizzy and much appreciated.Always plenty of it too in Bank Line.I remember most of the brews mentioned here,happy days indeed!I also remember the first case I bought as an app.Looked at it longingly and then cracked one open,suddenly the cabin door opened and the sparky and a few engineers polished it off within the hour!


----------



## sparks69 (Dec 18, 2005)

Watneys Red Barrel - the story goes that the Watneys rep was down on a BP tanker in the Isle of Grain to say that the company was to shortly cease brewing that classic beer. The sparks sitting in the corner of the bar listening to this asked what on earth was Watneys going to do with 10,000,000 soon to be unemployed gnats


----------



## valencia59 (Feb 23, 2008)

[=P]The worst was some onion based beer we got from Venezuela (though when the AC broke down in the gulf it tasted pretty good out of the fridge !) Tennants yellow can, Castle and Lion were pretty good.


----------



## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

awateah2 said:


> Pabst 'Blue Ribbon' and Blue Ribbon 'Dry' still one of the biggest sellers in Quebec province !!!! at 64p (UK) a bottle ,it is a bargain !!!!!


Surely not a patch on Molson ?[=P]


----------



## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Steven Lamb said:


> Remember how many cases you had to get through - if it was crap ?
> 
> Worst - "Pabst Blue Ribbon" followed closely by "Budweiser"
> Best - "Tennants Thistle" - sadly no more "Tiger" "Heineken" "Castle"
> ...


P.S. Once had an 'afternoon session' up the road in Antwerp with some of the lads drinking "Trappist" - never again !


----------



## michael charters (Apr 4, 2010)

how about Mcquines spelling wrong?


----------



## bryanm (Aug 23, 2008)

remember on one ship with draught harp larger. Over the voyage various people
said that a few kegs were off and they were duly returned to the beer locker to
be landed on our return to UK. Once all the kegs had been consumed it did'nt
take long before someone suggested trying one of the condemmed kegs again.
needless to say these were quickly drunk with no problem.
Bryan Miller


----------



## R396040 (Sep 30, 2008)

*beer on shipwreck*

My wife has just shown me an article in a recent Family history magazine about beer and champagne found near Aland Island Finland on a shipwreck dated between 1800 and 1830 and incredibly its still drinkable. Couldnt have been Barclays ?.......... Sorry to deviate slightly from this most interesting theme...
Stuart H


----------



## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Steven Lamb said:


> P.S. Once had an 'afternoon session' up the road in Antwerp with some of the lads drinking "Trappist" - never again !


Went to a reception of some kind in Brugge/Bruges. Several beers were provided free and one on offer was "Brugse Tripel". The locals warned us to take it steady on that one and we took their advice. But there were 3 or 4 Danes in the party and they took advantage of the free "Tripel" beer, knocking back bottle after bottle. The next day at breakfast they appeared in various stages of disarray, two of them with heavily grazed and scabbed faces.

It seemed that on leaving the reception, hanging on to each other for desperately-needed support, the group had fallen face first down the flight of stone steps outside the building.

Brugse Tripel is 9% alcohol. 

We never had any of that at sea in my time! (Jester)


----------



## stan mayes (Jul 22, 2006)

Dom thinks Elbschloss was the worst.My home was in Hamburg nearly
five years and Elbschloss was my favourite..they closed some years ago.
I then drank Astra - but now is Beck's -very good.
Derek - EldersUK -mentioned Oranjeboom and yes that was vile...
We riggers put much of that aboard Elder Dempster ships in the 1960's as ships stores and the bottles were returnable.
When the ships returned to Tilbury four riggers were employed in landing the empties...many of the cartons were useless and most of the bottles were in 
old cement bags..then came Barclay's in 'Brasso' cans - but unbeatable, later
almost all ships had Tennents...
Stan


----------



## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

On one ship I was on we got stuck in a dock strike in the States and not surprisingly ran out of Tennents after nearly 3 months. We loaded some absolutely vile cat's/gnat's, you name it, local Philadelphia beer but I can't remember the name but unfortunately I can still remember the taste. I am not sure what the best beer ever on board was but the ubiquitous Tennents took some beating.


----------



## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Tony Selman said:


> On one ship I was on we got stuck in a dock strike in the States and not surprisingly ran out of Tennents after nearly 3 months. We loaded some absolutely vile cat's/gnat's, you name it, local Philadelphia beer but I can't remember the name but unfortunately I can still remember the taste. I am not sure what the best beer ever on board was but the ubiquitous Tennents took some beating.


Hello Tony - can't think of any fellow seafaring brethren who have raved-on about Yanky beer full stop !(Thumb)


----------



## Corky (Feb 25, 2008)

Possibly "Knickerbocker?" Loaded in Baltimore/Philadelphia, but not well received.
Becks in the little green bottles was ok


----------



## stan mayes (Jul 22, 2006)

Corky said:


> Possibly "Knickerbocker?" Loaded in Baltimore/Philadelphia, but not well received.
> Becks in the little green bottles was ok


Hi Corky,
What do you mean Becks was OK?
It is also in cans - Beck's Vier, and is cheaper than in bottles..


----------



## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Originally Posted by Tony Selman View Post
"On one ship I was on we got stuck in a dock strike in the States and not surprisingly ran out of Tennents after nearly 3 months. We loaded some absolutely vile cat's/gnat's, you name it, local Philadelphia beer but I can't remember the name but unfortunately I can still remember the taste. I am not sure what the best beer ever on board was but the ubiquitous Tennents took some beating".




Steven Lamb said:


> Hello Tony - can't think of any fellow seafaring brethren who have raved-on about Yanky beer full stop !(Thumb)


I agree with both posts, I don't think that I ever met anybody who was not a US citizen who had a good word for American beer. On my last ship we were based over there most of the time for 3 years and occasionally if there was no European beer available we had to have American beer, I think that the worst beer was Miller's it left a really bad after taste in your mouth and the best was Coors. I think that the problem with most American beer is that it has been "chemically aged" to save on storage time and it is the chemicals that give you the headaches, even when you have only had a few beers.....[=P]

As far as the best beer, I would go for Becks, Holstein and San Miguel among some others.

Cheers Frank.....(Thumb)


----------



## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

American beer has been compared to making love in a canoe - both f*****g close to water.

Best beer had to be Tennants Thistle. Worst, Ind Coope Long Life. Tasted like soapy water and you invariably decorated the deckhead with half the contents of the can when trying to open one.


----------



## Rhodri Mawr (Jul 6, 2008)

Allsopp's tinned lager - definitely the worst. Tasted as though someone had doused a *** in the tin. Was usually referred to as "allslops."

However, after several months on the Indian coast during the monsoons, the ship had become dry of everything else. Suddenly "allslopps" was not too bad after all.


----------



## john richards (Jan 11, 2008)

steve lamb, Had a sess in the Mish in antwerp on Trapist the skipper sacked everyone then declared he was having so much fun i`ve decided to sack myself! Worst beer in Drydock Mobile Alabama loaded Viking Larger 100`s of cases for the trip across the Atlantic on SS Sinaloa Fyffes Skin Boat to be scraped in Bruges. The beer was unpaliable! We found if you put your end of watch case in the freezer or brine tank it wasn`t too bad. When we paid off in zeebruge we got the ferry to Dover naturely we all gravitated to the Bar, Watney`s red barrel on display 3/e first up took a sip exaimed Not a patch on Viking. JR.


----------



## Duncan112 (Dec 28, 2006)

Had this twice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_Tremens_(beer)

Once in Belgium (fair enough) and once in Papeete!! bit too strong for my taste.

One pub in town went through a phase of selling Leffe on tap - some of the young bloods thought it was clever to drink it by the pint - till they fell up the steps coming out of the pub.


Always liked Becks on board though.


----------



## steve Coombs (Sep 27, 2005)

First ship i was on had nothing but Oranjeboom, One of the wives on board used to wash her hair in it


----------



## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

i wonder if she still has her hair?

I wudn't bet on it.


----------



## eldersuk (Oct 24, 2005)

I wouldn't wash_ your_ hair with that stuff.

Derek


----------



## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

Aye, but when ships chandlers were spoilt for choice Oranjeboom was the choice and I loved it,cheaper the better I say.


----------



## brewh (May 26, 2008)

Gents, next time you're in the U. S. give Sam Adams Lager a try, I think you'll find it a great improvement over Miller, Bud etc. and proof that not all of us Yanks are ''beer illiterates''.
Lew
(hope I spelled illiterate correctly. . )


----------



## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

I'm wondering how this thread comes to be in the R/O forum; wouldn't have thought R/Os (myself included) had any greater or lesser afinity for beer than anyone else.

That said, my worst would be Fix.
Brewed(?) in Greece, it has been unfavourably compared to bubblegum.
I agree with the general sentiment about Oranjeboom; liquid honey with a guaranteed headache.

I read somewhere a comment about an american beer supposedly brewed by the german forebears of the company for generations before becoming established in the U.S. The comment was: if Hitler had to drink that, no wonder he went a little strange!


----------



## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

When our ship visited Civitaveccia, a couple of us decided to do some sightseeing in Rome. We decided to have a beer at the railway station buffet while waiting for the train back and were disappointed to be served stubby bottles of Oranjeboom!


----------



## alan ward (Jul 20, 2009)

Steven Lamb said:


> Surely not a patch on Molson ?[=P]


I was once in Hamilton Ont.and needed ale for the ships bond and nobody wanted to know in desperation with sailing looming.Visited the local brewery and went to the reception desk to make enquiries`How much do you want?` 300 cases we made the front page of the local paper!


----------



## Peter Eccleson (Jan 16, 2006)

And after all these years I thought that I was the only one who hated Oranjeboom


----------



## Criffh (Feb 27, 2006)

Sugar Line used to provide Watneys Export Lager in kegs on their ships. Pretty potent, and and if spilt would make a good substitute for varnish once dried. Not too bad once you got used to it though.
On one trip, we had a radio survey in new Orleans. The rather portly (to put it mildly) and pedantic, surveyor had spend all morning going through the equipment, and was intending to spend all afternoon checking spares, docs etc. I invited him to have a beer before lunch. Two pints of Watneys Export, and after a bite to eat he returned to the radio room, completed the paperwork and certificate, and left the ship. That was the last I saw of him!


----------



## pete (Mar 13, 2005)

I am now going to go against the "flow" of this thread and say I like Orangeboom. so many people dislike it but if you want a revolting brew try San Miguel brewed in the Phillipines YUK.........pete


----------

