UK beers and lower abv

Whut?? I see Anglophiles over here. I guess you have the opposite affliction over there. Not saying all real ales are mind-blowing, but come on. It's blinkered to say they're all bland, and to only support the American craft-inspired UK beers

 

No because I haven't had English craft.

 

What exactly, is "English craft"?

 

I must say that's not been my experience when drinking beer in the UK.

 

I was not ripping on English beers, just stating my opinion that I have not had a beer from the UK that I liked except the two I named. And it doesn't matter to me if the two are mass produced. It seems like you thought I was being a snob hense the way you defended English beer as if my opinion actually bothered you. And there are craft breweries in the UK so that is what I meant by English craft.

 

"Craft" is an American thing. In the UK there are lots of breweries that put out good beers. Some are American craft-inspired, and some are not

Not all good beer is necessarily craft beer in Europe

 

I don't know about any "how" to how they do it, but I don't think they have less flavor

 

If you get a chance to go to England and get to some traditional pubs, here are some beers that I highly recommend:

Fuller's London Pride
Fuller's Chiswick Bitter
Adnan's Bitter
St. Austell HSD - from Cornwall
Timothy Taylord Landlord Pale Ale

If you get any of those fresh from the cask I suspect that your opinion of the flavor of English ales may change. The closest to a traditional English bitter that I've found here is Mad Fox Fennec, straight from the cask at Mad Fox brewery in Falls Church, Virginia.

 

I agree totally , My friend and I were in the UK this time last year. I really got into the mild ales there. You can drink a ton of them , they taste good , and didnt seem to be as filling. A lot of small breweries here are doing english mild ales now. I had two excellent ones a couple of weeks ago. One from Bearwaters in Waynesville , NC and another from L.A.B. in Asheville , Nc.

 

Most saison and sours especially Berlin error Weiss

 

Ballast Point's Even Keel is 3.8% and very tasty

 

One of the reasons is that they have benefit of most of their low abv ales being served on cask. This truly brings out the complexity of many English bitters and milds.

 

There are many factors.One is the availability of UK malt which is much tastier than domestic (though many US brewers do import it) and also an infrastructure allowing widespread use of cask conditioning beer which develops its flavour far beyond what the brewer can achieve.
Beer in the UK is regarded as for drinking.It's about going out and meeting people and drinking over long periods. The last thing you need for this is a high ABV blockbuster but something delightfully tasty which you can drink for pints on end.
Point is, your senses adapt to the circumstances.Some beers give palate fatigue, others allow the tastes to apparently grow.A beer which may seem watery at first encounter starts to develop tastes which dance on the tongue.High ABV beers are a bit like 200mph sports cars , they give loads of oomph but half of what they can do isn't used.But you can push a more modest car to the limit and enjoy all it can do.

 

I nearly choked on my coffee this morning reading this. Please take a trip to the UK at the earliest opportunity.

 

And unfortunately, for the most part they suffer in the bottle as a result (even though they often crank up the ABV a little). People need to understand that real ale is designed to be served in cask format.

 

What is English craft beer? To many it is overhopped, highly alcoholic, fizzy rubbish that isn't even proper beer ('real ale'). Many in CAMRA might hold this view. Of course they've got it wrong, but perhaps they are right to be suspicious of it. 'Craft breweries' here essentially imitate American brewers. Whatever is fashionable there, they will brew. Their bottles often have infantile crass pop culture (cartoonish) labels that youngsters might think are 'chillin'' or 'sick', but really put me off. They might claim to be 'revolutionary' or suggest that what they are 'about' is being 'different in a world of conformity'. I find it troubling that American approaches are being uncritically adopted around the world (and 'craft breweries' in radically different cultures are churning out imperial stouts, saisons, American IPAs etc. that, understandably, appeal to 'unsophisticated' tastes, but are American). Anyway, tonight I've been drinking Anchor California Lager and Torpedo...I might finish with Brooklyn 1/2 Ale (at 3.4%).

 

The point is that the term "craft" has no sense in the UK context.We've always had small breweries turning out beautifully crafted beer.One or two traditional breweries are making the point that they have always been craft breweries.
What I've seen being sold as "new style craft" is obscenely overpriced keg beer. Although there is a place for keg, where turnover precludes cask , why stock a beer in a pub with proper cellaring and access to handpumps which is sealed in a can and won't be able to develop ?

 

A lot of UK 'craft beer' is fantastic, but just too expensive and not value for money when we have masses of excellent real ale / cask beer available in every decent pub. Real ale breweries and craft breweries are both on the rise in the UK, so fans of both are increasingly well catered for.

 

Of course, you are at the opposite end of the country, but these guys seem to have what you are looking for. They are draft only at this point, but they can't be the only ones in the USA, right?

 

It is easy for Americans to look down on UK ale....but I bear witness....it tastes damn good when sitting in a pub, pumped with beer engine from cask, and trading stories with locals.