Gazing in the Congo (DRC): the dark heart of Africa (2006-2017)

[Stan]

Nice catch, Adam. Sadly, the authors have never "been there and done that", or that article would have been slightly different.

Primus, as a pale lager, was and still is the lowest on the popularity scale. It is also the cheapest and is far from what the Belgians would ever consider a beer to be. Even back in the 80s formaldehyde was used to accelerate the brewing and fermenting process Imagine the headache that produced.

Every business in then Zaire owned a private military unit to protect their warehouses and transportation and still carry on that tradition be it diamonds or beer !

This BTW is what most of us drank and is still ranked number 1 in the DRC.

[ganulv]

Nice catch, Adam. Sadly, the authors have never "been there and done that", or that article would have been slightly different.

Primus, as a pale lager, was and still is the lowest on the popularity scale. It is also the cheapest and is far from what the Belgians would ever consider a beer to be. Even back in the 80s formaldehyde was used to accelerate the brewing and fermenting process Imagine the headache that produced.

Every business in then Zaire owned a private military unit to protect their warehouses and transportation and still carry on that tradition be it diamonds or beer !

This BTW is what most of us drank and is still ranked number 1 in the DRC.

Is the Guinness sold in Africa actually a different formula than the Guinness sold in the U.S.? I was told this for years by a Kenyan friend and wanted to see for myself when I was in Burkina Faso, but every time I had it there it was served to me mixed 50/50 with soft drink.

[davidbfpo]

ganulv asked:

Is the Guinness sold in Africa actually a different formula than the Guinness sold in the U.S.?

I don't know about the USA. Only recently there was a press story about the difference between home-brewed Guinness, in Dublin and that brewed elsewhere. The difference was the water, nothing else.

Ah, the Irish.

[Stan]

In an attempt to respond to Matt, David managed to point out a significant error in producing anything in Africa.

The difference was the water, nothing else.

Our Guinness with the widget in the cans came straight from Ireland. I did hear stories about a Namibian based production but not good reviews.

In Zaire if one wanted good lager, you would visit the customs terminal every Tuesday when the Sabena 747 flight landed. As the mass amount of cargo was sent to customs for (ahem) inspection one could land a case of Heineken, Guinness or Stella Artois for 20 bucks

Those were the days !

[ganulv]

In Zaire if one wanted good lager, you would visit the customs terminal every Tuesday when the Sabena 747 flight landed. As the mass amount of cargo was sent to customs for (ahem) inspection one could land a case of Heineken, Guinness or Stella Artois for 20 bucks

Those were the days !

One of my linguistics professors told our class once about his Chinese store owner friend in Kano who could always be counted on to have a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the back he was willing to sell to foreigners a shot at a time. For the right price, of course!

My professor had been back to Nigeria the summer before I took the course with him and had looked up his old friend. He asked the store owner how he had always managed to have a bottle of Johnnie Walker on hand all those years, even during the Civil War. His friend laughed and told him there had always been a Johnnie Walker Black bottle on hand, but very rarely a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black.