Beer 'Swiss Style'

For those of us who failed geography or to those with no sense of direction, it comes as no surprise that there are many similarities between Swiss beer and that of Austria and Bavaria. (For the geographically-challenged: Austria and Bavaria are Switzerland's northern and eastern neighbours.)
This is continental Europe (and not Belgium), so we're in lager country, children. We shouldn't be surprised that country with four official languages is ever so slightly schizophrenic. On the one hand, Swiss brewers voluntarily stick (in certain circumstances) to the Reinheitsgebot. Then they're proud to brew lagers with a third maize or rice. So proud, in fact, that they celebrate the foreign grain in the beer's name. Not that I'm complaining. Odd it might be, honest it certainly is.
Swiss law allows the use of maize and rice, as well as up to 10% sugar and 20% starch. So just how Reinheitsgebot any of the beers really are, is totally up to the brewer. On the Schweizerischer Bierbrauerverein - Société Suisse des Brasseurs site they claim that certain styles are always brewed to the Reinheitsgebot - it's up to you whether you believe them or not.
There are two distinct beer cultures (ignoring mass-market stuff):
Western Switzerland (French-speaking cantons and neighbouring areas, the limit being somewhere near Berne) has been exposed to Belgian imports for 30 years. Since 1997 beers from Quebec have also been available. But they don't limit their influences to other Francophone regions; the micros in this part of Switzerland are also open to British styles.
Eastern Switzerland (German-speaking cantons) is still very much lager country. The micros and brewpubs there brew lager, lager and more lager... it's also the region where independent family brewers are still strong. Their lagers are decent, at times, if unspectacular.
Without any big predators of its own, Switzerland, inevitably, attracted the attention of those that had already emptied their own praries of buffalo. Heineken and Carlsberg gobbled up a considerable portion of the Swiss industry without a great deal of effort. Between them they have around two thirds of the Swiss beer market.
They did what this type of global parasite always does: push their own crappy lagers and kill off any interesting beer that falls into their hands. So goodbye Switzerland's only internationally-known beer (Samichlaus - now brewed in Austria by Schloss Eggenberg). I'm sure that such philanthropically-inclined enterprises will continue to improve and rationalise the the poor old parochial Swiss brewing industry.