OK before anything else, let me say this: I am not a heavy beer drinker (at least not as heavy as Monette) couple of bottles will attenuate me to a lesser form of social being, add another one and expect me to start blabbering some gibberish Spanish with a Nihongo accent.

It was couple of years ago when I heard of this urban legend about the Happy Horse. According the this drunkard’s folklore, there are these nasty bottles of red horse beer out in the market containing twice as much of the usual alcohol content of the beverage. It will definitely kick your guts up your head.

As the legend goes, There is a Happy Horse in every 2 cases of the beer, it is marked by an ostensibly smiling horse on the logo of the lager and red (instead of yellow) label prints at the back. Sounds like kwentong lasing? Well, what do you expect?

Last night, I had a close encounter with the creature.

Happy Horse at the right

Sorry to burst your bubble but I did a little bit of a research. According to http://greatergood.i.ph/, the bottles of Happy Horse were simply factory misprints which dates back to its early days in 1983.

Other people claim that the bottle of Happy Horse contains the same alcohol content as its regular counterpart. The argument sounds valid: In the bottling plant, the bottles are lined up on a conveyor belt where they eventually make their way to a machine where they are topped up with the brew.

There can be one, two, three or no bottles of Happy Horse in each case.  Machines randomly grab bottles from the bottling line and place them on the recognizable red cases for distribution to dealers. I bet they would be charging a higher market price considering the hassle of separately brewing and putting-in a special bottle in every case.

So how was it? Can’t distinguish the difference with one bottle. But don’t worry. I will conduct a controlled experiment soon.

In the mean time, when you buy a Happy Horse at a stiffer price, maybe you are being ripped off.

[thanks to Rizchell for letting me borrow her camera to take these photos]

flip’n advisory:
DRINK MODERATELY!
and prevent this from happening to you