Match 2 - Group A - Bucegi vs. Bürger
Thursday night was witness to the second wrestling match between beers sold in Romania. In one corner, we had the venerable Bürger (from giantcorp European Foods) and in the other was Bucegi (from megabrewer Brau Union). Once again, the fans lined up to witness the carnage of head-to-head action.
After the opening announcements, both spartans trotted out onto the field. Bucegi wore a traditional galben uniform but Bürger was dressed to impress with enough gold to be a manele singer. To determine the order of play, the two teams were called to the center of the field so Spammy could administer the bottlecap toss (being as there was no coin available).
The first half was a lesson in confusion. Despite the difference in exterior appearance, the style and flavor of the playing styles was nearly interchangeable and officials had a very difficult time in distinguishing any remarkable difference between contestants. Movement flowed back and forth as each bottle poured forth its best effort, but neither team managed to score a goal during the half (though if they had, judges probably wouldn’t have even been sure which one it was).
Although the ball did float back and forth across the green, most ticket purchasers were probably more entertained by the halftime show which featured the ever spectacular B! Machine performing such hits like Greed (thanks to Amazon) among other to-die-for masterpiece classics of synthpop electronica. Pundits speculated the tunes were loud enough to waft a bit down the dusty hallways of certain cartier blocs. No doubt this pleased everyone with the ability to hear.
To open the second half, Spammy was recruited to personally over see the cold-pour strategies of each team as they slipped into frozen beer mugs in hopes of rectifying the scoreless first half. After verifying that each beer’s head foam was of sufficient quality, the plastic to mouth action unfolded in sips and gulps.
A subtle pattern began to emerge where it became clear that Bugeci had a slightly sweeter playing style against the Bürger hop. The drama continued to unfold in a complex exchange of swallows, but neither side had a noticeable advantage in either pricing or alcohol percentage. Without any particularly brilliant individual plays, the crowds became restless and the BraşoDome slowly began to empty as adrenaline-addicted, disappointed fans could avoid being overly bored.
At the final buzzer, with condensation sweat dripping down the various bottles the ultimate verdict is that while both beers were drinkable, neither of them had the chutzpah or special schtick to overcome the other. So, the face off ended in a draw.
Final score: Bucegi 0 - Bürger 0
June 17th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Matches like this will happen when two mediocre teams compete.
Oh and Spammy rulez.
June 17th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
There’s wisdom in those words…. guess it was to be expected.
January 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
[...] We made our way down the streets along with thousands of other people, many of whom had open bottle of champagne or plastic two-liter bottles of Burger. All the while, we were carefully watched over by uniformed police officers on hand to contain any potential extra-celebratory behavior by tipsy revelers. [...]
January 15th, 2007 at 1:42 am
Though I have yet to try Bucegi, I have to take issue with your review of Burger beer. I tried this beer in a 1L bottle on a recent visit to Bucuresti. Words cannot describe how awful this beer was. This beer is unbelievably cheap and one taste will tell you why. It started out all right, but within 10 seconds, an aftertaste that was something like… I don’t know, maybe GANGRENE, overwhelmed me and I was forced to drink again to repel it. I went through the whole 1L bottle taking a swallow every 10 seconds until it was quickly gone, and then fell to my hands and knees in a desperate bid to scrape off my tongue on the carpeting.
Kudos on the site — I love it!
I’m bringing back as many of these bottles as I can so that I can prove to the doubters back home that this beer is easily the worst ever brewed.