Which is better - British or American Beer?

Originally posted by gortex
British beer is better than American Beer but Irish beer bests them both , Guinness rules the beer world and all other beers bow before it ....

The further you get from Dublin the more Guiness makes you fart.

Originally posted by Druscilla

I'm going with German beer.

How predictable.

Originally posted by gortex
British beer is better than American Beer but Irish beer bests them both , Guinness rules the beer world and all other beers bow before it ....

Can't argue with that. Ireland rule the roost as far as drinking goes. Even Slash loves his Guinness (when he drank)

reply to post by Jepic


Tyskie is very very good indeed - i have enjoyed many a bottle! it's usually a bit cheaper than other bottled beers in the supermarkets too which is an added bonus

reply to post by hotel1


*Apparantly* Guinness comes to the uk as a syrup from Eire and is then "diluted or w/e in the pubs or somesuch, which may explain variance in taste around the uk. i've tried it in dublin and the general area, and it is better there, though not massively so imo.

ETA: and yes, Guinness make me trump something rotten

Most of us have never been exposed to other countries beer. I'm not sure I could consider a warm beer. It sounds nasty to me. But, If you grew up on it....American cold beers would probably seem nasty. I'm taking an objective approach and say drink what the heck you like and to heck with anyone who don't like your tastes. It's all good (I say that too much).

reply to post by SinMaker


over here in the uk we get a wide range from europe, beit in pubs or shops... i think the idea that british beer is served warm is a bit of a myth really - it's cold, just not as chilled as lager normally is (or american beer i assume).
i have to say though, if something needs to be ice cold to enjoy it, i feel it may not be so good in the first place.

British "Newcastle Brown Ale" is one of my favorites. A whole pint in a real bottle and great in hand to hand combat too.

reply to post by skalla


Give me a nice bitter and I'm a happy Frog. British beer by a landslide for me. There are a few good ones here in the US. Mostly smaller breweries - Shiner Bock comes to mind ans an American one I like. But, you guys across the pond make better beer than we do here in the states.

reply to post by nerbot


as a teenager i drank stupid quantities of "broon", but then i hung out in rock pubs, where it would be banged on tables to "the ace of spades" - there was a tradition of banging the bottom of your bottle on the top of bottles of folk who were not looking, making it froth everywhere.
if someone did it to you and you were quick enough, you could choke the top and spray it all over them.

good times

another thing - i was getting served in pubs in britain without any problems from the age of 15.... how the hell did/do you cope with the 21 age limit in the states?

ETA: i first got served in an offie (liquor store) when i was 13 too - dodgy corner shops FTW!

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
Neither... Australian beer is the best (I'm an American)

I agree but we do have a few labels down here that taste like kangaroo piss..

These are the ones I have tried and I can safely say after drinking Australian beer, These taste like absolute crap.

Becks (Germany), Grolsh? (Netherlands), Stella Artrois (Belgium), Some Beer that starts with K(France), Fosters (Australia though its our number one export apparently)

Some that don't taste to bad - Corona (Mexico), Bud (USA)

If you want a great Aussie Beer - Carlton Draught, Tooheys Extra

reply to post by skalla


Thanks for the reply. I had no idea. I've been to South America. They largely have no ice. But I don't drink beer. I'm a bourbon kinda guy. You can tell by some of my posts. Thanks for the feedback.

Originally posted by skalla
another thing - i was getting served in pubs in britain without any problems from the age of 15.... how the hell did/do you cope with the 21 age limit in the states?

lol, me too. I had my 16th birthday in a pub. A pint of bitter was about 20p. The landlord was cool though and I never got barred.

Yeah, nukie brown was a favorite in the rock clubs and bars. The only drink that actually gets me "high".

I'll put my cards on the table too, I've tried nearly 1,000 different beers from many, many different countries. I brew beer (not professionally) I love beer, I experiment with beer, and i research beer. I'm American, so my exposure to local craft brews is mostly limited to American craft breweries.

From those local craft breweries, I can get light lagers, dopplebocks, porters, stouts, IPAs, CDAs, RIS, brown ales, red ales, bavarian heffe, american heffe, belgian whit, trippel, quad, barleywine,shandys, fruit ales so on and so fourth. Pretty much any and all styles of beer from anywhere on the planet, American brewers make that style, and many do an awesome job at it.

German beers are great, I love their doppelbocks and wheat beers, but that's bout it. Their purity law really stifles a lot of creativity, and the beer suffers imho. But if I want a nice wheaty, estery heffe, a german one is what I'd go for. Some of my favorite common exports are Franziskaner and Konig ludwig for heffes and Kulmbacher and Ayinger for eisbocks and doppelbocks.

Belgians are incredible, very few belgian beers I don't like.

Canadian, Australian, non-german and non-belgian european beer..meh. Boring and lacks complexity and low on flavor. This is just based on what is available for me to try, there could very well be some craft brewers making some awesome stuff... I just haven't personally seen in.

Really, there is no such thing as American beer, Canadian beer, Mexican beer, etc. They are all just stolen styles from their respective homelands. There isn't a long history of beer brewing in these places ( compared to other countries) which imho helps their craft brewers make better beer. They aren't tied down by convention or style, they experiment and some incredible beer comes out of it.

Some of my favorite american beer by style:

Imperial stout: Deschuttes Abyss- they make a new version every year, but it's generally around 10% alcohol, full of dark, thick, rich chocolate, vanilla, roasted flavors. Lost Coast Old Rasputin, souther tier's choklat stout, is a close second.

Barleywine: Lagunita's Gnarleywine- about 9% alcohol, very sweet and sticky, floral hop notes, strong but refreshing and drinkable.

IPA: Avery Maharaja, nearly a barelywine, similar in description to the Gnarleywine above, 9 or10% alcohol but much more hop forward and a little dryer.

Wheat; Deschuttes has quite a few different brewpub-only wheat beers, they were all great. Ivanna weiss, wowzenbock, were a few of my favorites. I used to like Sierra nevada's kellerweis, but I believe they use a continuously evolving yeast, and the flavor has changed over the years, not so great anymore.

Porter: Flying dog's imperial porter is delicious, although really more of a stout. I like to go big or go home, so I generally don't play with porters, I go straight to stouts if I want a darker heavier beer.

Some other beers that don't fall neatly into a style:

Kona brewing coco brown is awesome, coconut flavor and slightly sweet, roasty and full flavored, average alcohol content.

Southern tier's Pumpking, DFH's punkin are both tasty pumpkin beers released around thanksgiving usually.

Pretty much any of the new belgium lips of faith series are interesting and delicious twists on various styles.

So as you can see, there are tons and tons of American beers out there, if you want good american beer you really have to go with craft breweries, even if they are some of the larger ones. Dogfish head, sierra nevada, heck even sam adams make beer lightyears ahead of that swill most Americans unfortunately drink and are still available many places in the US, and I believe are also exported to Canada, no idea other than that though.

I went out to dinner with a group of friends, one of which married a guy that moved here from somewhere in england. He had his friends from back home come visit, so we thought we'd take them out to a brewpub for dinner. He kept saying how he couldn't stand american beer, so we got him a little 6 glass taster tray of some various beers. He was amazed at how good they were, how intoxicated he was after drinking that night, and I'm sure went home telling people that there really is good American beer, and you have to be careful if you are expecting normal weak light lagers, as many good craft brews are 7-10% alcohol and still go down easier than that light dishwater they were expecting.

Candian beer by a country mile!
Aussie beer close second!

Originally posted by hotel1

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
Neither... Australian beer is the best (I'm an American)

Are you serious?

Damn straight it is, beer drinking is a national pastime in Australia and our micro brews are second to none. Some of the micro brewers have become quite large and have been bought out by the big brewers but the quality has more or less remained the same.. Nearly every liquor store in this country will greet you with an icy wall of delicious cold local and imported beers to choose from.
……AND I LOVE IT!

I like some of the Canadian beers. Some local brewed beers taste pretty good also but the cost is up there. Small breweries have bigger overhead.

I prefer Brit beer, but I like my liquor American.

I'm not much of a lager person. I prefer heavy ales and stouts/porters. England and Scotland make excellent ales. And Irish stout is divine.

I've always wondered if Maudite is sold in the US? It's a very strong French Canadian ale (8%) that comes in a huge wine bottle lol. It tastes great, and your mind will be on a nice vacation for a few hours after just one