Forget American
beer, we get better stuff brewed in Britain now
All
those expensive bottles that used to be imported from America will be less
attractive compared to the brilliant British-brewed equivalents. Of course,
there will be some new American beers arrive which will get us all excited, but
mostly we’ll shop British because they are better and fresher.
Americans
finally embrace the ‘session’ beer
Session
IPA has become an actual thing now and one of the best beers I drank in 2012,
at GABF, was Avery 3point5 (I didn’t have the version brewed for the ‘Spoons
fest). The rise of the pale and hoppy in Britain will transfer to the US and
see a rise in sub-4% beers.
Wheat
How
many British breweries make decent wheat beers? I reckon we might see a few
more in 2013 following on from beers like Magic Rock Clown Juice and Camden
Gentleman’s Wit. I certainly hope that we see more wheat beers – Wits,
Hefeweizens, White IPAs, and so on.
British sour
beer (and better barrel-aged beers) arrives
The
end of 2012 saw more sour beers start to emerge from British breweries. Most of
these are Berliner-weisse-style but there are others which are barrel-aged for
a long time. More breweries are also experimenting with different yeasts and
Brettanomyces is becoming more common. I think we can expect more of these and
we can expect the quality to get better and better. Likewise, a better use of
barrels will see more beers aged in wood.
Better beer
festivals
IndyManBeerCon
has kicked it off and I hope there’ll be more festivals that take inspiration
from things like Borefts and Copenhagen Beer Celebration. The best breweries,
the brewers pouring their beers, small pours, good food. Festivals which
celebrate the taste of beer not just the effects of it.
The year of the
beer list
Will
it finally happen? Will restaurants and bars finally kick out the crap and make
more effort with their beer selection? If they don’t, they might get left
behind...
Better beer in
general
Pubs
will move towards local brews from smaller producers and away from national and
multi-national products. Even in the last year, drinking in London has changed
significantly and it’s now normal to walk into almost any pub and find a decent
local beer.
Use British
hops!
Use
‘em or lose ‘em. British hops need more of a focus and I hope we see more
highly-hopped beers using wonderful British hops to show a side of them that is
rarely shown. There are new British hops being developed each year and British
brewers need to support the British hop growers.
Rediscover
European hops
Now
that virtually every brewery in the country uses American hops, the
forward-thinking breweries will look to European hops but use them in a new way
(the same as they will bring back to focus to British hops) – this might be a
Styrian Golding Pale Ale or Saaz IPA or whatever. These hops have wonderful
fruity, intense flavour profiles and I want to see more of them.
Cask and keg...
...live
happily ever after. Just shut up and just drink whatever beer you want to
drink. There’s plenty of choice for everyone now.
Fingers crossed, particularly for the British Hops. East Kent Golding's was my first true Hop based love, particularly when combined with cascade for some trans-Atlantic love.
ReplyDeleteGreat Piece
As someone who lives near fields growing tall with EKGs I share your affection!
DeleteMy thought is, "is 2013 the year Dredgie gives in to sandals and beard or will he remain a hipster" It has to come, but when?
ReplyDeleteWhat happens if I start wearing sandals and they become a hipster must-wear? (Not that I have that much influence in fashion circles, but you never know...)
Delete#1 is ambitious, but as a Yank, I would love to have some decent british selections in our stacks. We'll see. As for now, at least you've surpassed the germans. Good luck with the belgians, tho. A better goal would be for the EU to surpass the American brewers, as 2,500 micros is tough to surpass in quantity and quality. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteMo @anavenueblog www.anavenue.blogspot.com
I think No.1 is the LEAST ambitious! We don't need to buy American beer in Britain anymore - we can get beer brewed in the UK which is as good, or better, and importantly it's fresh!
DeleteMark, a few months ago I would have disagreed with you, but Harvey's Prince of Denmark has totally replaced my favourite Brooklyn black choc stout. What can you recommend to replace Racer 5 other than Jaipur?
DeleteDean
Firstly, don't replace Racer 5! I love that beer and it generally tastes pretty good even after travelling over here! Some others to go beside it would be Magic Rock Cannonball, the Kernel IPAs, Buxton Wild Boar, Dark Star Revelation/Six Hop, Lovibonds 69 IPA, Tempest Brave New World, Bristol Beer Co Southville Hop, Rocky Head Pale Ale... They are all good places to start!
DeleteThanks Mark. I love my Kernal beers but haven't tried the others you mentioned. will give them all a try, thanks. That's a relief about Racer 5......probably my favourite hop bomb.
DeleteI think you're on the money here Mark, more people will start buying lovely, fresh British beer because it'll be easier to find. In the last 6 months 3 off licences within a couple of miles from where I live in North London have started stocking Redchurch, Kernel and London Fields to name a few. It's easy to get hold of, it tastes amazing and like you say, it's much fresher than many American imports!
ReplyDeleteI also look forward to more breweries trying their hand at sour beers, Brodie's efforts this year have been excellent so I look forward to seeing what other breweries can bring to the table.
I think the one thing you've missed is that some larger American breweries will try to counter this problem of freshness and start brewing under licence in the UK just as Sam Adams have done already... Brooklyn and Sierra Nevada are two of the more obvious ones but I think a couple of smaller breweries could suprise us by also taking these steps.
I've noticed the same - there's just more good beer everywhere you look, especially in London. It's good to see.
DeleteInteresting to hear your thoughts on contract brewing... I can't see Sierra Nevada doing it (but hopefully their new east coast brewery will give more capacity for shipping), but Brooklyn is possible - they might even brew some in the UK already, though that's not confirmed by anything other than rumour. Personally, I think America will just focus on America.
Matt, what are the North London offies selling good beer?, incase they're not the ones I'm thinking of - Jack's in Finsbury Park, Bottle Apostle in Crouch End, Theatre of Wine in Tufnell Park, one in Gospel Oak.
DeletePretty much on the money there Mark. Magic Rock opened my eyes (and taste buds) to fresh British hoppy beers in 2011, and I realised that breweries other than Brewdog and Thornbridge were brewing the beer that I really wanted to drink. Having had Wild Beer Co's Bliss earlier today I would say that the British sour beers are coming on nicely although I had a couple last year that weren't up to scratch. Matt makes a good point about US breweries looking to expand into Europe on general and would like to throw Stone into the mix as a brewery that may be looking this way. You're also right about cask & keg, good beer is good beer. Read the reviews, try for yourself, buy the good stuff and leave the bad beer alone. Happy New Year for us all !
ReplyDeleteHigh five to all of that! I can't wait to try more of Wild Beer Co.'s stuff - I bet there's some really nice beers hiding away in there...
DeleteHave to say that Wild Beer Co's beers seem to be dividing opinion at the moment. Some of us have been pretty much underwhelmed by then while others have found them a delight.
DeleteI think thye may be beers where a bit of age might work but there's the catch. I am told the kegs say they should be kept for two or three months before being sold but how may bars are going to do that ona regular basis? I also can't hep wondering whether some of their beers might perform better on cask? Not entirely sure about that one, but it might suit the style of what they are trying to do a bit better.
Agree with you about American beer Mark. For some time now I've been a little bemused at the continuing obsession with USA beers by many UK bloggers and beer geeks when there's equally good (and often better) beer being made under their noses here in the UK and on mainland Europe. Be realy good to see a change of focus.
ReplyDeleteI think the obsession was with the enormous volume and variety and how different it all was a few years ago, but now that's shifting, meaning we can drink those US-style beers here. Hopefully that'll mean we look a little closer now (though it'll be hard to ignore the US completely...! And why would we want to, last year I drank A LOT of amazing US beer)
DeleteI think that perhaps the American beers we will enjoy more are those that don't "need" to be fresh - think big stouts, quadruples (one I had from Boulevard Brewing at Xmas was just stunning) and sour ales. For those beers where hoppy freshness and "zing" is more important I think home grown and European beers will (and, I think, do) have the edge.
DeleteAgreed!
DeleteEddi Gadd can work wonders with Goldings, it's still a lovelly hop as is fuggles but expensive to use for highly hopped beers
ReplyDeleteEddie knows how to use Kent hops! And Fuggles et al are still a lot cheaper than many US and NZ hops, even if you need to use a lot more of them.
DeleteNice piece - would personally like to see a different/better range of US stuff coming over. I definitely agree that Brewdog/Thornbridge/Magic Rock/Kernel/Brodies and more are better than the increasingly repetitive selection of American beers, not to take away from Sierra Nevada or Brooklyn (classics) but the US selection is so often the same brands, Goose Island, Anchor Steam, an occasional Flying Dog (if you're lucky.)
ReplyDeleteI assume this is to do with distribution but it isn't really good enough. As you say the choice is widening all the time in London, I am sure there are tons of great American beers we're not getting. I know there are plenty I've read about that I want to try but never see.
I'd love to see more American beers, too. Imagine if we could regularly get Firestone Walker, Deschutes, New Belgium, Bell's, Oskar Blues... And that's just a few of the bigger ones. But I think there's enough choice from Brit and European beers to keep us happy for now (just save up and head over to the US - they taste better fresh!)
DeleteAnother Yank here. Great post and I enjoy your blog, but I've got to say my hackles rise a little at labeling British beer as "better" than American beer. I've had many wonderful British beers and many wonderful American beers, but labeling British beer as "better" seems to be painting with a very broad brush. It's a bit hard for me to set aside the kaleidoscopic variety of tank-fresh domestics and seasonals available here in Chicago. To follow on Ronan's point, maybe "better than the range of American beer currently available in the UK" is more correct. Let's just agree that more good beer is always a good thing, regardless of where it comes from.
ReplyDeleteAllow me a little jingoism! There are brilliant British beers brewed which can rival (almost) anything brewed in America and I think British drinkers should support those instead of looking for the imports (which invariably are a few months old and not as fresh as they could be). And yes, these beers are largely better than the ones available, I think. Bear in mind that there's lots of tank-fresh beer here which doesn't get to the US (and having spent a few days in Chicago last year I do wish we had more places like Half Acre and Haymarket in London!).
DeleteBut at the same time, you are saying that American beer is better. More good beer is always a good thing. Cheers to that.
Good predictions, hope you're right on the British wheat beers. One more might be, will this finally be the year when Saison emerges from obscurity to take its rightful place and is acknowledged as one of the finest styles in the world?
ReplyDeleteIs Saison really obscure? Not so sure -and I'm equally unsure as to whether it's much of a homogenous "style" as even the Belgians have numerous, quite different, beers they call a saison (and that's without even venturing into the territory of the so-called black saisons).
DeleteI suppose in the modern Belgian idiom saisons are moderately strong (6% give or take), lighter bodied beers that are used as a vehicle for some interesting hopping, but even that's a pretty broad brush "definition" with several variations on and around the theme.
What they do have in common though is that they are very entertaining beers so yes, more please!
Good thoughts mate!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletehappy new year to all of you
Hi there! First time reader that's stumbled across your little patch of heaven here via G+.
ReplyDeleteReally great thoughts presented, and it's interesting to get a Brit's perspective (as an American beer nerd).
What American brewers do you typically see over there? As someone who regularly tastes very fresh beer (day of bottling, pre-bottling, etc.), I agree that even between two pints from the same batch, a days-old pour will be like night & day compared to one that's been sitting around for a few months. I'm just curious as to what beers that our friends across the Atlantic are using to measure the American craft beer landscape.