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Hi, I have had some bad experiences buying usually good brands from Irish supermarkets in recent months, Erdinger and Duvel being the main two.
Initially I thought I had bought a 'bad' bottle because of the overly cloudy look to the Duvel and lack of head. I use an official Duvel glass and the Erdinger tasted very weak and dull. It has happened many times now and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

Is it possible that counterfeit beers are now in Ireland as mentioned in this article...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.thehagueonline.com/headlines/2010-02...er-in-amsterdam-bars">www.thehagueonline.com/headlines ... erdam-bars

Well given the difficulty in brewing a cheaper alternative to the two styles, that you've mentioned,from an Irish point of view, I'd say you'd be more likely to experience the possibility of receiving a counterfeit Macro like Heineken or Carlsberg if at all.

I would have presumed so, Atticus. I wouldn't have thought that Duvel, in particular, would sell in such quantities as to make it a target unless of course it's coming from the UK.
That said, I've kept the bottle from my last instance and have contacted Duvel about it just out of curiosity.
What's interesting is that the bottle from Tesco has some differences in it's label compared to Duvel bought in an Off License.
This might be due to a label change or end of label run but it's curious all the same. I'm hoping a rep from Duvel will get back to me about it and if they do I'll post it here.

have you tried leaving the last half inch of beer in the bottle when pouring to prevent the beer from being cloudy? I've noticed that sometimes the head tends to dissipate quite quickly sometimes

Yeah, though thanks for the advice, delzep. I should add that the taste was awful as well but I only posted the question to see if anyone else has noticed it.
My wife also noticed the difference, visually as well as the taste, which is saying something <!-- s:-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:-) -->

&amp;quot;agnosticdave&amp;quot;:2gbfv96j wrote: Hi, I have had some bad experiences buying usually good brands from Irish supermarkets in recent months, Erdinger and Duvel being the main two.
Initially I thought I had bought a 'bad' bottle because of the overly cloudy look to the Duvel and lack of head. I use an official Duvel glass and the Erdinger tasted very weak and dull. It has happened many times now and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

Is it possible that counterfeit beers are now in Ireland as mentioned in this article...
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.thehagueonline.com/headlines/2010-02...er-in-amsterdam-bars">www.thehagueonline.com/headlines ... erdam-bars[/quote:2gbfv96j]

They're just talking in that article about wrong kegs hooked up to tap fonts, so it's not counterfeit beer per se, just that it's not what the label on the tap is claiming, but the keg will still have the original name on it.

What you are claiming is possibly simply down to InBev versus original imports.