Where’s the Stella love? (Stella Artois)
Well, you can see how people think about Heineken - do you really think they’ll feel much differently about Stella?
I know, I’m an American ex-pat living in the UK. US brewers have a good record of copying or even resurrecting old British styles. A couple examples I can think of is Anchor Porter and Brooklyn Chocolate Stout. It’s working the other way now too with UK brewers importing and using American hops, one example being Jaipur IPA from Thornbridge Brewery.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that. Funky stuff going on in the UK, as well as in Scandinavia. They’re taking the hyper-American styles and running their own direction with it. Fun time to be a beer drinker, indeed! I think the biggest resurrection is not so much the porters and stouts, but the IPAs, brewing them more to the original specification (and, of course, well beyond.) The IPAs I’ve had in the UK have generally been fairly mild, with some really odd, low-alcohol beers somehow getting the name “India Pale Ale.” Now, they’re certainly not all that way–Samuel Smith is has a fine IPA, but stuff like Greene King you’d be hard pressed to identify as an IPA.
The Heineken you get in Sweden has a certain tang of water and I wouldn’t drink it if there is something better around, so I got a pleasant surprise when I had a glass in a bar at Schiphol airport. It was most definitely not the same broth.
A friend of mine likes to organise beer tastings where we judge it from a number of different angles; head, smell, taste, aftertaste etc. One is (IIRC) overall drinkability, i.e. what it would be like to sit down and drink a whole evening and I have noticed that I rather prefer a blander lager to IPA, stout or whatever. They are good for enjoying a good higher quality beer from time to time, but it really can be too much taste for just sitting down with a glass (or four) reading the newspaper.
It’s the other way round. American style IPA is a deviation from the British original.
Actually I like Stella. Or at least I don’t dislike it.
And now the Brits are taking that derivation and playing with it.
I agree that there are some British IPAs that barely edge into the American Pale Ale range, much less IPA. I’m loving the American take on milds and such, since those beers typically don’t travel at all well.
Yes, I know that. That’s what I meant by “resurrection.” It’s a UK style the US started brewing to more original specs and developed a resurgence in the popularity of the style.
And to further expound, AFAIK there are only two styles of beer I could think of that originated in the US: California Common (steam beer, most common is Anchor Steam) and Kentucky Common (I’ve seen it on one beer menu in my life, either in Kentucky or the southern tip of Indiana, but it was not available when I was there, so I’ve never actually tasted it.) That said, you can probably put some wacky experimental or extreme beers in the “originated in the US” category, but those are the two styles that are traditionally considered US originals.
You can’t forget (no matter how much you try!) American Light Lager (now with even more adjuncts!).
Yeah, I am getting sick of the hop posturing. Yesterday I was in a market near my house that has a lot of different beers, but they were all IPAs, Imperial Pale Ales, Pale Ales, etc. I like hoppy beers, but I also like a pilsner, or a wheat beer, or maybe some beer I have never heard of but hey that looks interesting.
Dogfish Head, in my opinion, has dropped in quality since it has focused on hoppiness beyond any other quality.
I always wonder how much of the Westvleteren hype is due to the fact that it’s from one monastery brewery in far NE Belgium and you can only get it at the brewery itself (or the pub across the road).
At any rate, I have a bottle of St. Bernardus Abt 12 in the fridge; I think I’m going to give it a shot next weekend.
As for the “best” beer… there is no such thing. Not that beer isn’t good, or that there aren’t excellent beers, but rather that there’s no way to really objectively rate a beer as “best”. It’s like saying “What’s the best chocolate?” or “What’s the best wine?”
The best I think that can be done is to narrow down to a few outstanding examples in a given style.
Even this is fraught with peril because there are a lot of good beers that aren’t exactly in-style, but claim to be. (a lot of American “bohemian pilsners” are much more like a lager version of an IPA with noble hops than a real bohemian pilsner- way too much bitterness, hop flavor and aroma in relation to the maltiness. But people like them, so they’d get high marks in a lot of polls despite being out of style in reality.
I think that’s just considered an offshoot of pilsener-style or just lager or something like that. I’m not sure where they draw the line between an “indigenous style” and one that is an American take on a European style, but California Common and Kentucky Common are usually the two that are claimed to be the only truly “American” beers. I think it’s all rather arbitrary. I would put something like an Imperial IPA as a true American innovation, too, but, for some reason, the beer text don’t seem to. Maybe it’s just a matter of them catching up and redefining what it means.
I suppose the thing that makes a California Common unique is that it is a beer brewed at ale temperatures with a lager yeast. I guess nobody had done that before. I find that a little difficult to believe, but these experiments have to start somewhere I guess. A Kentucky Common is a little more interesting as it’s a sour mash beer basically made from a bourbon grainbill to which hops and yeast are added. It’s supposed to be a fairly light beer. Now that I think about it, I’ve got to believe that within the next five years some intrepid brewery is going to have to give a shot at resurrecting the style.
Now why those two get singled out as indigenous beer styles while American Light/Adjunct Lagers and Imperials and crossbreeds of all sorts don’t? You got me.
This is part of why I love Bell’s, Great Lakes, and Goose Island so much (although the last more for the taps at its brewery at the Clybourn location, not so much the bottles.) They have a very wide range of styles that they do very well. I’m particularly partial to Midwest breweries for this reason. There just seems to be more variety. Now, this is not to say that other regions of the US don’t produce a reasonable range of styles, too. It just doesn’t seem to be QUITE as hop-focused around here (with the notable exception of Three Floyd’s, which I love, but have dominant hops in most of their products.)
This is it for me - this is the answer to what the best beer in the world is. Beer tastes better the closer to the brewery in most cases, in my experience - and, as many have pointed out, depends on the occasion too, with different occasions demanding different styles.
Being British, I’ve been brought up in the “session” beer culture - this isn’t necessarily the default mode but the one I have slipped into during my time drinking - whereby I prefer something that is flavourful without being exceptionally alcoholic, so that you can keep drinking it all night (by the pint) and not get absolutely wasted (just pretty wasted). On these grounds, what I drink will depend on where I am in the country. When back home, I try and find Coniston Brewery’s Bluebird - I’ve never had a pint of this that I would call decent further than about 50 miles from the brewery - it’s a belting session ale though and if anyone is passing through the Lake District and is interested in a local beer to have after a day’s fell-walking, you could do one hell of a lot worse. When in Sheffield, I’ll try and find stuff from the Sheffield Brewing Company (usually Five Rivers - another session ale, less hop forward than American style but hoppy for British ales - or Tramlines if they have made any, as they do it only for a local festival).
Now I have been in London for years, I’ve had plenty of time to experiment with similar session beers made down here. A current favourite is Meantime (brewed in Greenwich), who do a variety of beers, but my current favourite is the Yakima Red - again, a good session ale made from US hops and British/German malts. For something at 4.1% it’s very good.
The rule of thumb is as NB notes above though - when on your travels, find out what (knowledgeable) locals are drinking and drink that. You’ll broaden your horizons and probably get the best beer because it hasn’t travelled far from the brewery.
I’ve had Bluebird before, here in the States, and thought it wonderful enough to buy again on a subsequent trip to Louisiana. With your post, I can only imagine how good it tastes in Cumbria.
On the session beer, I agree with you. I often just want something tasty, without the 6%+ blast of alcohol that seems to be the going rate for many U.S. premium offerings, and the Mild Ales seem to be the ticket. I had hoped that rumors I’d heard of milds being the next thing in beer were going to be true, alas. One question for the brewers here: how much alcohol do you need in a commercial beer to ensure that it doesn’t spoil, second fermentation, that sort of thing?
But I’d love to see more local microbreweries try putting something out with 2.9-3.3 % alcohol, yet with interesting flavors. Jester King’s Petit Prince is excellent, with only 2.9%, but I’d like to see others give it a try too.
I do like the breweries you mentioned, but I’m in DC and I also like to drink local. Dogfish Head is Delaware, close enough to be local (but they’ve drunk the hop infused Kool Aid). I also like some of Dominion’s beers, but my new kick is DC Brau and Heavy Seas (Baltimore, but close enough to DC to be local).
That’s interesting. I must confess, I’ve only ever had it on draft away from Cumbria. Maybe it bottles better than it travels in kegs? Maybe I should go and get some bottles and try. It’s frigging fantastic in Cumbria though.
Glad to see that there is some move towards session beers in the US - when I come over to see my girlfriend’s folks, I have to think a bit carefully about what I drink beer wise, knowing that I can’t put it away in the same fashion as I would at home because the beer that I tend to drink there is quite a bit more alcoholic than I would usually drink. Drinking something like Harpoon (they live in Mass. so I have had some experience with their different brews) at the same volumes that I would drink Coniston would wipe me out.
I hadn’t heard the rumors, but my suspicion/prediction has always been that they will move more in this direction because, well, what other direction can they go to? (Well, there’s the Amero-Belgian styles, but those are starting to get a bit long in the tooth) That, and I really do feel craft beer drinkers are starting to get burnt out on all the big flavors. And I do see hints of that happening at the brewpubs. I’ve began seeing over the last few years more “session” heading on brewpub menus, usually with beers in the 4.0-4.5% ABV range, but sometimes lower, as low as a 3.2%, but with the milds and ordinary bitters at more like 3.5-3.8%. The local brewery Half Acre has a particularly exceptional one. Goose Island often has something in the sub-4s, too, at their brew pub, but not always. I think you will continue to see a bit more movement in the 3.5%-4.5% session style beers.
ETA: Oh, yeah, the other direction is sours. Those are gaining some traction here over the last few years. I remember back in '03 and '04 drinking Oude Guezes and people nearly spitting out the beer when they had a taste of it. Now, it seems tastes have somewhat acclimated to sour beers, so there’s a bit of an exploration in those styles going on.