Craig’s tasting
My first experience with 1664 was in Paris during the summer of 2005. The Champs-Elysees was being prepared to welcome the leading riders in the Tour de France and the only beer available anywhere was Kronenbourg 1664.
As I sat in my 300 Euro per night hotel room, overlooking a glittering Eiffel tower I wept. Not because I was in the city of love but because I knew full well that spending that much on a hotel room (Eiffel tower or not) was equal to 560 Aussie dollars, 14 slabs of beer or 336 stubbies.
The French are a cultured and beautiful people and all things French are apparent in this beer.
The first thing you will notice is the clear taste of disdain. Others might confuse this with contempt or even hatred but it is clearly its overtones of disdain that separate this beer from those brewed in other countries.
In truth the beer I tasted was brewed under licence in Australia. So I can only assume the disdain was imported from France.
The disdain combined with the almost Pilsenerish crsipness had me believing that my country was indeed better than all others, that the English language was not worth learning and that putrid smelling cheese could in fact be edible.
