The globalized regionalization of beer

[randy_byers]

Zak Avery, who runs a bottle shop in Leeds, posts a beer-year in review and makes three claims for the British beer market:

* British beer is on the up
* Belgian beer is on the wane
* American beer is on the verge of going stellar

In his Best-Of categories, his Best UK Brewery is the Kernel (a small brewery in London) and Best UK Bottled Beer is Kernel Citra IPA. I got to taste that on my November trip, thanks to reverendjim, and it really was superb, managing to taste like passion fruit despite having no fruit additives. Jim was rather high on Kernel's porter as well. [Jim tells me below that I actually tasted the Pale Ale Nelson Sauvin, not the Citra.]

The comments on that post are also very interesting for the discussion of how American craft brewing is influencing British brewing and how Belgian brewing is also evolving in ways that aren't necessarily noticeable in the export market. Lots of interesting things are going on at a local level that hardly anybody sees, but under the influence of global trends. The Dutch and the Italians are given as examples.

I discovered the Zak Avery post via a Beervana post that also has some interesting comments regarding the retail market for beer in Oregon, where Belgian beer is apparently not waning yet. (I doubt it is in Seattle either.) One retailer breaks customers down into the categories of noobs (beginners), average craft drinkers, and beer geeks. I'd say I fall in between the latter two categories, with a taste for rare beers but an only haphazard interest in actually tracking them down.

Reading this discussion made me think again about how much the American scene is evolving right now as well. When the craft brewing phenomenon started out in the '80s, it mostly produced British-style ales: IPAs, ESBs, porters, and stouts. A German-style hefeweizen managed to stand out in that early market. In the past ten years there has been a huge Belgian influence on top of this British tradition. Nowadays there's a very eclectic pursuit of obscure styles such as gose and Berliner weisse and spontaneously fermented beer. There has been another explosion of small breweries, most of which seem to cater to a small, local clientele and a large, sprawling series of beer festivals where aspiring brewers compete with small batches of strange brew. I've taken to calling this a golden age of brewing, because there is just so much going on. It's impossible to keep up, especially if, like me, you don't care for the festival crowds.

Well, to paraphrase the Bottleworks motto: I don't drink to get drunk, I drink weird-ass foreign and American craft beer to get drunk. I'm certainly not complaining about my choices, and this year was a wonderful chance to investigate the British and Belgian scenes in person, as well as a taste of the East Coast and Toronto. If I don't watch out, I might topple (or tipple) myself right into the beer geek category.

Comments

[reverendjim.livejournal.com]

I was impressed with the range of styles available the first time I went to a US brew-pub. Although mostly the sorts of English ales you mention there was definitely a pilsner and possibly a hefeweizen. But at the time the vast majority of British breweries just seemed to be making a varying number of "brown bitters". Porters and stouts, for instance, just weren't really getting made, whereas they seemed a normal thing in the US. Happily this has now changed over here and getting hold of the dark stuff has been much easier in the last several years.

Although there are a few breweries going for the wilder end of experimentation, I'm still not sure it's at the same level as what's happening in the US. Arguably, starting the beer culture from scratch gives you more leeway to pick and choose. Though that doesn't excuse Britain ignoring its heritage for ages and ignoring porter etc.

I think the Kernel you tried was the Pale Ale Nelson Sauvin, but I could be wrong. If I was giving out a "brewery of the year" award I think I'd have to give it to them (him). I did miss the launch of their Black IPA on Sunday, unfortunately. But I do have an Imperial Stout from them which I really must drink soon.

I still love the Bottleworks motto. And I think you're heading for "beer geek", if not there already.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right about the Pale Ale Nelson Sauvin. I didn't make a note in my little black book -- well, actually I wrote, not very helpfully, "the Kernel" -- and so I tried to find something likely on their web page. I'm hoping the Fishlifters will bring over a bottle of the London Porter or Imperial Stout for Corflu or Worldcon.

It'll be interesting to see whether "Black IPA" sticks as a name for that style. There's resistance to Cascadian Dark Ale as an alternative name, because of the regionalism, but I've also seen India Black Ale as a suggestion. Makes more sense than black pale ale. Unless it means black Indian instead.

The darker styles may have been rare over your way in the recent past, but Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout was one of my first beer loves. I still have a fondness for oatmeal stout because of it. The Big Time makes a good one periodically called Old Rip.

[reverendjim.livejournal.com]

Black IPA definitely seems to be the preferred term over here. I quite like the oxymoronic quality of the phrase. I take it to be a contraction of "like an IPA but black" really, which tells you a lot more than "Cascadian dark". IPA actually means something and you don't have to mentally unpack it into what the actual letters stand for.

Sam Smiths always seems to get a lot of love from the US; they must have had some decent distribution deals. I still drink their stuff occasionally.

Kernel do a lot of small batches of beers so their line-up keeps changing. They seem to be making a few semi-regularly now but they've done quite a lot of different ones in the last year. Actually I think it's only about eight months since I first had one of theirs.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I suppose you're right that Black IPA tells you that it's going to be a very hoppy dark beer, but I've seen a couple of Indian Brown Ales (including the one from Dogfish Head) and I think the name tells you the same thing. It's the "Indian" that tells you it's going to be very hoppy. But I'd guess that the Black IPA name is here to stay just because so many people are using it already. The cow is out of the barn.

I think you're right about Sammy Smiths' distribution deal. For a long time it was one of the few British beers you could find in stores in Oregon and Washington.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

We'll see what we can do; I'm assembling a little beer collection for you here. Actually, after getting a sip (well, several sips; reverendjim knows how to indulge me) of the Kernal imperial stout on Friday I'll go out of my way to get some more of that; and if I do I will bring you some too.

Cascadian Dark is a wonderful term, though.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Oh, goody! So far I've set aside a bottle of Lost Abbey's Deliverance, which is a blend of imperial stout and barleywine. Not sure what else I'll bring with me, but I had a new (to me) imperial stout last night called Old Growth from an Oregon brewery called Caldera. Very nice. I was thinking we could have a beer tasting at the convention at some point.

[reverendjim.livejournal.com]

I think those boots are a reason for indulgence in themselves.