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    Sunday 18 November 2007

    Does Stella Really Make You Violent?

    Stella Artois (if that's what it is still called) has been referred to as Wife Beater for as long as I can remember because apparently drinking too much of it makes you super aggressive and likely to go home and give the little lady what for.

    I'm not sure that Stella really is any different from any other 5% lagers, or if it's drank by a particularly volatile type of customer, but certainly a number of pubs in Sussex are no longer stocking it because of its reputation.

    As much as I think it is a crap beer I refuse to believe there is any special chemical within which accelerates violence. I'm sure a gallon of Kronenbourg 1664 would have the same effect. So while I'm pleased to see beers such as this being removed from bars, I am sure the replacements will be other dodgy 'European' lagers brewed in the UK.

    If anybody has any anecdotes about the Stella effect then please share them, but my abiding memory of being with someone who had downed a whole load of the stuff certainly didn't end in violence, and as that imbiber is female I won't go into detail.

    4 comments:

    Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

    I thought it was called Wife Beater because it was percieved that slightly down at heel working class chaps drank it, not because anyone seriosly thought Stellar caused violence.

    Much the same as here in NZ singlets are known as Wife Beaters because of the perceptions about people who go around in public in there under garments.

    The Beer Nut said...

    We've only had Stella here for five or six years, so it's still seen as a slightly classier option than Heino or Carlsberg. The head-breaking constituency all drink Bud. Just as well, since it's only about 4.3% ABV in these parts.

    I like your quotes on European. Aren't Luton and Reading in Europe?

    Anonymous said...

    My boyfriend an i went to the pub on friday after work for a few drinks... he had about 6 pints of stella, and was very very very violent towards me that night.

    He is NOT a violent person, and its DEFINATELY not in his nature. He has never hit anyone in his life, never provoked a fight... a 'wimp' you might say - and the only reason i can put this violence down to is stella.

    Anonymous said...

    hi, my dad drink stella regularly, he does not have a job, so he his home all day. i come home from school, and normally he is ok. but as soon as he hass anything more than half a pint, he is very very violent. when i was younger, he started to hit be physically, so much i called the police on him and he was arrested. he is great normally!!! hes a b*****d when he drinks stella!!!!!!!!