Carlsberg and Stella Artois are essentially the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees of Belgian beer. Both are massive brands and are constantly in competition with one another. To call the two breweries rivals may be an understatement as they are constantly fighting for the right to be Belgian’s best selling lager and things hit the fan recently when Carlsberg claimed they had taken over Stella Artois as Britain’s best selling lager for the first time in almost two decades.

Recent figures show sales of Stella brands fell 1% to 491 million pints, while Carlsberg sales have shot up 18% to 495 million pints. Looking strictly at that statistic one may agree that Carlsberg has taken over Stella but the company that owns the Stella brand, Inbev, believes judging by those numbers is unfair. Inbev is quick to point out that the Carlsberg sales include Carlsberg Export, Special Brew, and Carlsberg Edge and that Stella sales are based almost solely on Stella Artois but also include two recently launched beers.

I’m not sure if Carslberg’s claims are totally legitimate though because a spokesperson from AC Nielsen released a statement saying that “Stella Artois remains UK’s off-trade number one beer brand with volume sales 10% ahead of its nearest rival and value sales 40% ahead.” So Carlsberg might be selling a couple million more pints than Stella, but Stella is making way more money and when you’re in business which is really more important?

Personally, I’m a Stella guy, it has been my “classy” beer of choice for a long time and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Carlsberg moving more units makes no difference to me because I find that Stella is a way better tasting beer. What about you guys though, who wins the Belgian lager battle in your opinion?