What German beer is better than UK beer

I've hunted beer throughout Germany and England both -- and I wouldn't pick one over the other. Both countries have their specialties and do them well, but there's really no need to put one on a higher pedestal than the other.

 

Yes, but where is Radler? Jkjk

I’d take a good Bitter over any German beer. But Raul still has room for almost all.

 

I agree it was an interesting read.

I will let others continue the 'debate'.

Cheers!

P.S. I have a homebrewed Altbier in my cellar and a Bitter Ale in the primary fermenter. Hmm, should I conduct a side-by-side tasting!?!

 

Regarding lagers - Germany wins

 

As late as in 1960 only 3% of the beers sold in British pubs were lagers - now it is over 50%. The Brits have an inferiority complex to Germany concerning lagers - there are few good lagers invented in the UK. I am mostly an ale man myself - in Germany, I like Weissbiers and Altbiers, which are top fermented. I can also drink German lagers. But to say "an ordinary/best English bitter is better than a German Doppelbock" is ridiculous - we should cherish VARIETY, and not try to make all beers taste the same.

 

My beer tastes have always leaned very German, and as an American living in Germany I've been blessed with the opportunity to try dozens if not hundreds of fantastic German beers. But I've got to say, I went to the UK recently and I was thoroughly impressed by just about every single cask ale I tried. If you put a gun to my head and told me I had to choose between Augustiner Lagerbier Hell and Timothy Taylor's Landlord, I really truly have no idea which I would pick. I believe that technically my rating on here is higher for Augustiner, but these aren't exactly beverages you can taste test side by side or back to back, at least not in their ideal serving conditions. I really am dreaming about those English cask ales though... so special and far away from me now.

 

i've yet to have anything even from the best British brewers that achieves the malt character of the best German lagers.

 

I can’t say I’ve had enough British craft scene lagers to compare, but that’s quite a feat to accomplish though.

 

Composite reply, marked thus: >>

Sigmund:
'As late as in 1960 only 3% of the beers sold in British pubs were lagers - now it is over 50%. The Brits have an inferiority complex to Germany concerning lagers - there are few good lagers invented in the UK. I am mostly an ale man myself - in Germany, I like Weissbiers and Altbiers, which are top fermented. I can also drink German lagers. But to say "an ordinary/best English bitter is better than a German Doppelbock" is ridiculous - we should cherish VARIETY, and not try to make all beers taste the same. '
-----
>>Only 15 years previously we had just won victory in WW2 (with Norway as an ally I'll note). I can imagine surviving men were not exactly racing to visit the pub and buy German or German stle beer over domestic styles.
I knew men (my Dad included) who would not contenance eating or drinking anything Japanese, full stop. The reason was because what the JPnese did to friends/family of theirs who had fought in the WW2 Asian theatre. I lived in a few countries in Asia 92-96, incl Japan c92-93, unusually my parents declined to visit Japan but leapt at Singapore, Malaysia etc. Japan was still that taboo, but some of their acts in war were unimaginable, forget the Geneva Convention. Sorry, some levity please! Grudges get held. Some elderly still wouldn't welcome Argentinian wine, because of the Falklands war 40 years ago. That was not uncommon amongst my family + circle. I've never leapt on French wine since c1980... because of their riot-prone attitudes to foreign products of their farmers and haughty snobbery of many people, esp Paris. Gawd forbid I take a bottle of French wine to my parents or one of their farming friends, seriously. See, some country's products are deeply favoured over others.
Furthermore I don't know if the UK has ever had the climate to properly lager beer.
'Lager' these days in pubs is mostly absolute cr*p, the cheapest possible cardboard-tasting liquid plus 5% alcohol. Example Belgian Stella Artois (which I really enjoyed back in the day, smuggled duty free in van-laods to London off-licenses) was an entirely different beer to UK Stella which is brewed by InBev, a US company. UK stella used to be referred to as Wife-beater. The suggestion you drink 10 pints and that's what happens. Read the implied target market from that!<<
------

Kibi
'Augustiner Lagerbier Hell and Timothy Taylor's Landlord'
>>But there exceptional lagers of course! And this Augustiner one is one of my all tiime favs, but then I only discovered it when living in Germany for 3 years! Only very recently have I seen it appear in the UK, and still it's rare. Consider: Some countries tend to keep their limited output best products close to home and export their cr*p. That perception still applies to German wine in the UK... think Blue Nun/Liebfraumilch. Riesling has more recntly created a small market... but I'd still regard it as niche.<<

-----
John-M
'While everyone would lament the unfortunate fact that I was a Yank and had to put up with the shite beer available in the States (this was back in 1975), they would completely change their tune when I mentioned I was currently stationed in Germany. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say " oh, well, of course you're drinking far better beer over there than what we have here.".
Weird. Especially as at least to my uneducated palate, I thought the ales and lagers I drank in London were delicious and outstanding.
>> This is complex. Around that time the UK was being utterly broken by the unions, the economy was in a tail-spin, there were power outs and the country sometime around then was bailed out by the IMF, you know, as happens to complete economic basket cases. They were very very hard times, and most families had very little money for leisure, geez even food and fuel coupons were issued. Much beer in England was therefore cheaply produced, Double Diamond, Long Life were two examples of those dominant brands. Such were my first experience of any beer haha! As the economy was rebuilt people wanted better. It was likely c1980 or so that the Campaign for Real Ale was launched to fight for traditional quality beer. Thank gawd it worked tho it took maaany years, and now the range of UK beers available is boggling. In comparison Germany with it's Bavarian Purity Law (and conservative local tastes) now looks very parochial indeed. See how things flip 180 quite simply?
-----
EmporerBev
'Regarding large macro brew lagers, yes, beyond a doubt.
Microbrewed speciality lager, I've yet to have anything German that competes with the British craft scene lagers'
>> Most 'UK lager' I wouldn't dream of wasting money on. Now, give me a Sam Smiths trad (NON hipsterised) lager and I'll enjoy it. But I am also very sure that it will be too$ vs mega-swill lagers to be worth shops stocking.
Most German breweries might make local pariahs of themselves if they produced the equiv of Brit craft scene lagers, it would be so contrary to their culture. Jeez look at their trade guild laws for 'protected trades', bread-makers, brewers, etc, you used to have to apprentice for years, 5, 7 , ? until you could even be licensed for that trade.

>> I also note that unlike the 70s in the UK when there were few types/styles of beers available, these days you can mail-order a panoply of global beers for home delivery. People experience waaay more than just their home-town brewers output, the boundaries have effectively gone. Youngsters today likely couldn't conceive how the choice available and knowledge therof has changed over say 50 years.

ps a question, why won't you find a decent locally brewed black beer in a tropical country? [some might change the term black beer there to beer, that would be a parallel question for similar reasons].