American beers lose subtlty and class in favour of extremness, why would you want to go there? there are already crass US beers, would crass UK beers make things better?Stan Hieronymus, US beer writer, responds.
Absolutely, that lack of connection leaves many such breweries with a slightly soulless range where every beer is totally different and equally out of context.
[Update: Whoops, apparently the quote's from a Kiwi. What's he talking about, then?!]
A lot of Britians small breweries and/or ones of diversity have been gobbled up by the British or European big commercial breweries. Leaving the British beer selection in England shrinking by the year. They should be worried about they're own brewing heritage and leave our PROGRESS alone. Porter was almost a extinct brew in the UK until the US brewers started brewing the style and saved it from obscurity.
ReplyDeleteI could go on...But, I'll stop there....
Just so no-one is in any doubt - I didn't make the comment highlighted, and I don't endorse it!
ReplyDeleteDr Wort - porter never became extinct in the UK - that's a myth. Nowadays it's certainly more common, but whether that has anything to do with the US scene I doubt.
ReplyDeleteAs for British breweries being swallowed up, yes scores of the old regional brewers have gone under, but they've been replaced by hundreds of microbreweries, usually more adventurous to boot. Your information is tragically out of date.
There's plenty of progress on the British brewing scene, it's just that our small brewers don't bottle the stuff and send it your way. Remember our beer scene is centred on cask conditioned beer, which doesn't travel.
I didn't make the comment highlighted, and I don't endorse it!
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to imply that. The commenter was Kieran Haslett-Moore.
...who by the way is a New Zealander, and not English! ;-)
ReplyDelete