I have now seen parts of Den stora ölresan where the clip of the Stella marketing executive came from. Quite good documentary in three parts. The over-riding question is why do we have the particular beer habits we have. He answers by looking at history, in particular brewing history, regulation and marketing. He talks a lot with marketing people and confirms that the taste is of course of little importance to them - well, it can't be disgusting but otherwise they don't care.

The Stella bit was part of a general argument that lagers pretty much taste the same, if you do blind tests. We perceive a lot of difference from our own ideas about the differences.

His overall conclusion is that we drink what we drink because it says something about ourselves. Branding in other words.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se