USA #1 in beer?

I just wish we were #1 in Lambic

 

Don't worry - you'll have someone responding to you soon telling you that RR/CS/Cascade etc sours are better than Belgian lambics

 

Well since to my knowledge RR only puts out one spontaneous beer and Cascade does zero..not sure about crooked stave, but I don't think that is a valid argument at all. Beat and DDG I'd say are America's best sours, and yes they do compete with Belgian ones...

Either way I just can't wait for Jester Kings spontaneous beer to be done

 

Just so I'm clear here - I agreed with your prior post

 

I have not personally been to the Bulls Head Public House but it appears to be fairly authentic to me: http://generalsutterinn.com/bullsheadph/

I am guessing that you might know Alex Hall? He conducts cask events there. Maybe you could chat with him on this matter and solicit his opinion on whether Bulls Head is deserving of being above Honorable Mention?

Cheers!

P.S. I have been to the Victoria Freehouse in Philly. That one is indeed an authentic pub: http://www.victoriafreehouse.com/ I had a pint of Fullers Chiswick beer there a few months ago; t was yummy!

P.S.S. I have been a frequent traveler to the UK (London, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, etc.) and I have been to many British pubs.

 

Not in NYC, but I'll give it a shot if I'm ever in the area - cheers

 

Right, I was just putting that out there for the BA world haha. Cheers.

 

And I would suggest the Victoria Freehouse in Philadelphia (I edited my above post).

Cheers!

 

I noted about three different types of beer at your local. I don't understand your question, but if by local you mean a ten minute walk from your home, then here's what's on tap at one of my locals:

http://www.thebrewery-tap.com/beer-and-spirits

The variety isn't staggering but their cask ales are world class and their American style double IPA hop bomb would probably give anything from California a run for its money. In this pub I can get a fruity Belgian or a wheaty German. It may not be house beer but who cares when it's brewed by Trappists monks or Weihenstephaner? There's variety, and I can find this variety in several equally good pubs that are almost a stone throw from this one, plus I only live in an insignificant market town in the Fens.

If by local you mean a 30 minute drive up the highway then Cambridge is well within reach. With it's 365+ pubs I can find pretty much any beer I care to drink, but I'm usually preoccupied with the gargantuan selection of cask ales in that town.

45 minutes up the road in the other direction from my home I can pull up at 'Beers of Europe' (one of the biggest beer shops in the world) and pick up a bottle of pretty much anything. While I'm in no way trying to suggest we enjoy as great a variety as America (although I've now halfway convinced myself we do!), I'm saying that we do alright, and if you're ever over my way I'll be happy to buy you a pint of Oakham Ale.

Cheers.

 

I love pretty much anything from Oakham

 

I had the pleasure of going to the Golden Bee pub in the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs a number (15?) of years ago. That pub in indeed authentic in that it was constructed from a deconstructed pub in England and shipped over.

http://www.broadmoor.com/golden-bee/

I would recommend a visit to the Golden Bee if you are ever in Colorado Springs.

Cheers!

 

In a strict side by side taste comparison, I think American craft brewers can give any of the worlds brewers a run for their money.

 

British pubs are in decline but I can still walk around any town and find one in under ten minutes. British ale is on the up and hasn't tasted better for years. Macro beers rule in every country and that's how it's always going to be.

I'm not sure I understand your edit, but as for geographics, with a population 38 million California has well over half the amount of people in the UK and only a fraction of the amount of breweries.

 

I've totally eaten at one of those places before. The first night the wife and I were in Paris on our two-week Western Europe extravaganza, we went to a little brasserie that was in between our hotel and the Eiffel Tower, which was within walking distance (a long walk, but a walk all the same). I ended up getting a dish that was dry and bland and was nothing resembling the reputation of French food that I'd come to expect. Thoroughly disappointing, although the dirt-cheap but fantastic tasting French table wine helped a great deal.

The next night, determined not to make the same mistake, we asked the concierge at our hotel for a recommendation, and he directed us to another little spot within walking distance of our hotel, but in the opposite direction of the Tower, where we enjoyed some amazing foie gras and escargot followed by a fantastic meal that took us probably close to three hours to eat, all told. One of the best dining experiences we had in Europe. And while it was a little more expensive than the first place, it was overall a very reasonably priced meal.

Not sure of the point of that story--maybe to agree that even in places of high repute when it comes to food/beer/wine that you can still easily find establishments that coast on the reputation of the overall region. And to tie this back to beer, I know for a fact that there are plenty of the 3,000+ breweries now open in the U.S. that some of those new breweries are hoping to skirt by on the reputation of the craft scene overall in this country.

Also, our time in France was the only time in our trip that we didn't primarily drink beer, proceeding to Belgium, Netherlands and England afterwards. I cannot wait to go back, perhaps with a stop in Germany the next time...

 

Agree completely (emphasis added). Need to get back to the UK. Last time I was there (2004), almost everything I had was boring, bland and generally too warm (cask or otherwise). Oakham stuff looks good. On the other hand most of the taps at your local were Heiniken, Amstel, Kronenborg etc., which are all (a) available here and (b) terrible. My local "British" Pub (took two colleagues from London there recently, for the irony and the beer) has this current beer list.

I wouldn't trade what is on tap at a specialty American craft beer pub for what is available anywhere else. On the other hand, I'd trade what I find at many ordinary US bars, or Chilis, or TGIF for what I can get in a decent British Pub or German Beer Garden. I have no doubt that there are awesome beers being made in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Norway, and perhaps elsewhere, that we aren't getting access to or aren't getting fresh.

We do have a beer culture in parts of the U.S., just like anywhere.
http://betaboston.com/news/2014/07/...-beer-is-culture-builder-and-recruiting-tool/

 

So..... there are no bars in NY city where local people frequent 1-5 times a week to converse and socialize?

 

Totally.

Thank goodness though, that there are hoppier, stronger and more complex American-style beers served via kegs popping up in the UK, rather than the weak/bland/warm cask crap.

I'm planning on living in the USA for a while longer, but want to eventually move back to the UK (say in 10 years or so). I'm hoping by then, that the scene in the UK is more "mini-America", so I can continue drinking the great beer I'm currently drinking over here, and don't have to choke down the cask-crap.

 

Did I say that?

Since you've been to the UK and know what a pub is like, I'm just asking you if you've been to NYC and can point me in the direction of something similar.

A bar where people go several times a week to converse/socialize and drink beer, doesn't necessarily make it the same as a UK pub

 

My feeling is that the "decline" is actually more apparent than real in that I don't forsee them disappearing, if only because of the important social aspects of pubs and what they enable. And the ease of finding a decent one was part of what I meant by the pervasiveness of pubs and the role they play.

As for the edit, I was wanting to point out that if one wants to compare two regions based on geographical size, population density should also play a role. So comparing size to size geographically but then comparing population to a different unit is risky and misleading. Australia has the same geographical size as the continental US but the population desnsity is radically different. For purposes of your argument its more effective to talk about number of breweries per capita for two comparable geographic regions. The UK has one of the greatest per capita number of breweries of any comparble region in the world and as you know the number is growing as this fresh breeze of re-awakening interest in beer affects us all.

 

No I have never been to NY city. The pub atmosphere in the U.K. is all about scocializing. It's not the looks that make a good pub it's the conversation.