The Best for the Brits

You might consider Pretty Things St Botolph's Town, a "rustic brown ale" supposedly inspired by browns in Yorkshire.

 

Let the hops shred their palates!

 

Mayflower IPA, Smuttynose Finest Kind, Green Monstah, CBC Flower Child, Trillium FB-90, Tree House Saturday morning for some Green, Wachusett Lost Sailor for a gear change, then take them up to VT and explode their taste buds w/HT.

Take no prisoners.

 

Was going to post this as well. Good call.

Mayflower's been mentioned already, they make some decent English styles.

But to give them a "gateway" perception of craft beer without overloading them with hops, I'd go with a mix along the lines of....

Anchor California Lager/Liberty Ale, Sierra Nevada's current summer mix pack (add in Summerfest too!), Brooklyn Lager....basically go with tried and true breweries loaded with experience that excel in styles that don't overwhelm with hops, but still have an American flare added to them.

Oh, and don't sleep on Boston Lager!

 

Still don't understand why you want to simulate what they can get better at home. Let them experiment with styles they can't get home, hit them with HT and Trillium, lay a Bomb on them, bet they don't make Chile stouts in GB. Give them an experience, not a taste of home.

 

Fb90 ? That's the last trill beer i would offer anyone --- and a beer that is unlikely to be brewed again.

 

Treat them to some Newcastle Brown Ale for a change of pace

 

Just remember that 90% of British drinkers drink macro lager as per the US.

You may all view the UK as the land of cask ale, which it undoubtedly is, but this this only takes a small part of the market share.

The age of your customers will likely determine their preference for hop forward beer vs more subtle flavours but don't be surprised if more than half your group are happy to swill bud or coors!

 

Just throwing it out there, I wouldn't do cask ale and although I'm British I like the "Hop Bombs" I like all beer. I'd say give them a selection of your best. Sours, Stouts, IPAs, Pales, Browns, Lagers etc. Don't worry about the ABV us, Brits can handle it

Have a good time with them

 

The difficulty is that many (perhaps most) British cask drinkers don't like to drink beer of 5% or above. Many think that American beer is 'overhopped fizz' (or bland 'chemical fizz'). Unless you know they'll like them I would avoid getting them strong beer (they might think of it as undrinkable 'rocket fuel'). Things like Brooklyn Lager etc. might be fine, but remember you can get this beer in British supermarkets (the same goes for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale), but they might be good beers to offer. As stated above it is a tiny minority, no doubt, who would like strong, 'overhopped' American style beer. Again, I think that unless you know they like IPAs or Imperial stouts, then it might be a very bad idea to offer them these beers...

 

That was my motivation for suggesting Notch Brewing Company beers. Notch is known for making moderate alcohol beers.

Cheers!

 

Frankly don't understand all the moderate / low alcohol recommendations. These are Brits, not aliens.

If they're beer nerds, let them sample the best your country/region has to offer (subjective I know, so go with your personal preferences as you can [hopefully] speak knowledgeably/passionately about them).

If they're not beer nerds, then think about beers that ain't going to cause too much of a ruckus - in exactly the same way you would with an American macro drinker / craft newbie.

It's about beer geek vs non-beer geek, not USA vs UK.

 

Try and locate something from the portfolio of B. United International. They have great offerings from Britain that may surprise them!

http://bunitedint.com/information/producers/by_country/

Now that I have lots of tourists from all over the world, I can surprise them with knowing a lot about beer in their country.
An older couple from Italy was very pleasantly surprised at my Italian beer knowledge so I can some suggestions before they went onward. It made my day as you can imagine!

 

I know everyone loves to hate on Shipyard, but I would have some Old Thumper and quickly tell the back-story of the beer and the brewers behind it, because I think that beer metaphorically bridges the Atlantic between the UK and US. You can find more details with some Googling, but the short version is Old Thumper was created by a well-known British brewer, Peter Austin, who allows Alan Pugsley, owner/master-brewer of Shipyard, to brew Old Thumper here in the US. Alan Pugsley trained under Peter Austin and is one of the US's craft beer pioneers. Peter Austin and Alan Pugsley helped build 74 breweries in the US using Austin's ringwood system.

From there I would move on to what makes US beer unique... APAs and IPAs of course, but also bourbon barrel aging, pumpkin ales, chile stouts, sours, etc. You can always fall back on SA Boston Lager or some light macro if the unique beers don't go over well.

If you like the Austin/Pugsley theme you could follow it up with some Magic Hat #9... I know #9 is a polarizing beer around here, but consider this: 1) many craft and non-craft drinkers like #9, 2) Magic Hat is the largest and most successful of Austin's ringwood breweries in the US, and 3) #9 being an APA brewed with apricots makes it very uniquely American (for better or worse).

 

Not trying to be a dick, but I wouldn't have time for anyone that would prefer to drink a (likely less-fresh / good condition / less preferable format) beer from their own country when on holiday.

Like if you (and I mean any American in this thread - not you specifically) visited Britain, would you not want to try a beer/style that's not remotely available back home? If you visited France, would you not want to sample the local dishes? Or does everyone go abroad looking for a can of Heady and a burger?

 

THANK YOU!

 

That is a very good point!!!!!!! 100 percent true!!!

 

I'm a huge fan of Notch, since you suggested them, have you tried their beers, if so which ones?

This is a good point. When I was in Munich, I drank a fair amount of Helles. Aside from that, Festbiers, hefeweizens and pils.

In Belgium, mostly Cantillon, and I of course grabbed Westvleteren, swung by de Struise, and had my fair share of very cheap and stellar Rochefort.

When I visited France for work, wine all week. I think I had one beer. I was in the Alsace region, so mostly wines from that area.

Heck, even in Amsterdam I drank mostly Heineken/regular Amstel, and also swung by a microbrewery by the seaport (the name escapes me at the moment).

Not once in any of these countries did I even attempt to try an IPA of any sort. I've had Heady Topper on multiple occasions, no need to try something similar overseas.

 

I should know better..I am a believer of local and regional things

 

I have not had any of the Notch beers. I just figured that since they seem to 'specialize' in moderate alcohol beers this might be something that would be appealing for the visiting Brits.

Cheers!