Beer from Around the World

I hope everyone is safe and sound in the snowy weather - I personally do enjoy cold weathers and the snow, and in particular with a nice stout, for example Kernel's London Stout which I strongly recommend for cold, wintery nights. 

In today's post I will be discussing a brief outline about different beers and styles from all over the world. This will link to my previous (and first yay!) blog post about a brief introduction to beer and how it came about, however this post will go more deeply about different beers in USA, Germany, Belgium and so on - and I promise you, things will start to make more sense. If you are a beginner to craft, or just reading my blog because you have nothing better to do, I can reassure you that (hopefully) this will be a fun and comprehensive read; and you might even get a thing or two out of it. I'd like to call my first posts as the ''introduction'' to beer before we get into the more technical stuff so that the basics will make sense to those who would like to learn! 

USA:

Arguably, USA is the new world of beer. From Alaska to the Mexican border, USA brewers are pushing at boundaries as never before. They brew darker beers, more bitter beers, and hoppier beers than can be found anywhere else in the world. In brewing terms, they are simply no rules anymore. European beer styles are being taken apart and put back together with barely a nod to tradition.

Hops

In the 40 years since the godfather of the USA beer renaissance, Fritz Maytag, saved Anchor Brewery from closing, a revolution has taken place. Today there are more than 2,500 new breweries, with few settling for a limited range. Instead, they brew many styles of beers over the course of a year, some inspired by classic beer styles, others limited only by the brewer's imagination. 

At the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware, founder Sam Calagione is brewing ''off-centred ales for off-centred people''. His beers use unusual ingredients or ''extreme'' amounts of traditional ingredients. White Muscat grapes, honey, saffron, liquorice, chicory and coffee have all been added to the kettles. 

Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver is not only pushing on the environmental front - the Brooklyn Brewery is 100% wind powered - but he has also taken the pairing of beer with food to new heights. He wants every restaurant to have a beer list to stand proudly alongside its wine list. Good beer, he says, is an affordable luxury - and the pairing of it with serious food is a truly creative, life-enhancing experience. 

At the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau, each of the beers produced emphasises its regional roots. Its Smoked Porter uses malt smoked with alder at the local fishery - a local twist on the smoked beers from Bamberg in Germany, where beechwood is used. And Samuel Adams in Boston, Massachusetts, continues to push at the boundaries of strength. Utopias, at 28% ABV just keeps getting stronger. 

The great beer writer late Michael Jackson and Charles Papazian have both had pivotal influences on the craft beer scene in the USA. Michael Jackson's seminal writing inspired a generation of people to brew good beer, develop new recipes, and recreate historic, lost styles. Charles Papazian's writings gave people the skills to start brewing at home. He helped found the Brewers Association and created the Great American Beer Festival in 1992. 

Germany

The great brewing nations of Europe still stand tall, with glorious tradition standing alongside intriguing innovation. All across Germany, wonderful beer gardens are to be found. Here, brimming litre steins, booming bands, and exuberant celebrations help make the country a beer paradise. In the main, the country's brewing tastes remain very traditional, with even new brewpubs producing pilsner-style beers rather than being innovative. 

However, the country has more than 15 classic beer styles, ranging from the rauchbier of Bamberg and Nurnberg to Cologne's soft kölsch, served by the blue-aproned köbes, and the acidic weissbier of Berlin. 

At the Heller Brewery's tap, the Schlenkerla restaurant in Bamberg, brewer Matthias Trum produces world-class smoked malt beers that are unequalled anywhere else in the world. At Weltenburger Kloster, the north of Munich, the brewers in one of the world's oldest brewing locations are showing their Barock Dunkel is a beer to be enjoyed locally and abroad - it has won gold three times in the dark lagers category at the World Beer Cup in San Diego, California. 

Great Britain

Hook Norton Brewery in the British Isles is more than 100 years old and has a historic Victorian steam engine, but its beers are not stuck in the past. Brewer James Clarke is increasingly using local ingredients to make beers with new flavours. 

Thornbridge Brewery

Thornbridge, which opened in 2005, is one of Britain's first new-wave of breweries and has rapidly gained a reputation for innovative beers with an emphasis on pronounced flavour; recently trying their Cucumber Pale Ale (4.5% ABV) which was absolutely amazing. Also Richard Keene at Cotswold Brewing is showing that a small British craft brewer can make lager-style beers rather than ales. 

At the Meantime Brewery in London, brewmaster Alastair Hook is on a mission to show the full flavours that beer has to offer. His Coffee Porter, which is rich with roasted cappuccino flavours, is brewed with fair-trade coffee beans from Rwanda. 

Each of these breweries, in its own way, is contributing to a reinvigoration of the British brewing scene, centred on small-batch producers. 

Belgium

Beer drinkers in Belgium probably have more choice about which beer to drink than in any other country in the world. From Flanders come pale ales and sour red ales. Add to this the gueuze, lambic, and krieks of the Brussels, the country's abbey ales and saisons, and not forgetting its witbier, and the drinker in Belgium is spoilt for choice. 

Imbued with tradition, the Cantillon Brewery in Brussels produces uncompromising and intensely sour beers. The Van Roy family has been making acetic gueuze beers (a blend of aged and newly brewed lambic beers) for over 100 years - long before the term 'extreme beers' was ever coined. Brewer Jean-Pierre Van Roy went organic in 1999, and is well known for his experimentation with new ingredients and variations on the traditional wild yeast fermented lambics, gueuze and fruit beers. Like many of today's craft beer producers, he recognises the importance of using the Internet to sell and promote his beers, and half of his production is now exported to foreign markets. 

Czech Republic

The town of Plzeñ in the Czech Republic plays an important part in the history of beer. Here, in 1842, brewer Josef Groll mastered the art of triple decoction mashing, which created a golden, clear beer. And, as they say, the rest is history, as pilsner went on to become the world's dominant beer style. 

The bars and beer halls of Prague are rightly renowned as being must-visit places for any beer lover. But, outside the city, many of the country's brewers have embraced beer tourism and offer fabulous visitor centres, such as can be found at Pilsner Urquell in Plzeñ and Budweiser Budvar's in Česke Budejovice. 

Italy

Beer can now be produced in any country in the world. The traditional winemaking country of Italy has more than its fair share of brewing tyros. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find American brewers touring the country's more innovative new breweries, looking for inspiration. 

Teo Musso lives in a part of Italy renowned for its Barolo and Barbera wines. At his Baladin Brewery he produces ''his raptures'' using wine and whisky yeasts. Once beer, Xyauyu, is oxidised for a year to produce mouth-tingling, sherry-like flavours. Ever the nonconformist, he has placed large headphones on his fermenting vessels, convinced that the type of music played will influence the quality and characteristics of the brew. 

At Bi-Du, in the tiny village of Rodero, just a few steps away from the Swiss border, brewer Beppe Vento is producing beers in his brewery that are pushing at the boundaries of conventional styles. Rodersch, for example, is a cloudy, fresh digestif, and a perfect precursor to the region's food. 

Former home-brewer Agostino Arioli saw the light after a visit to the Granville Island Brewery in Vancouver, Canada. Today, production at his Birrficio Italiano, in Como, includes Fleurette, a beer brewed with barley, wheat and rye, and flavoured with rose petals. His Tipopils, which is hopped with four hop varieties (Hallertauer Magnum, Perle, Herbsucker and Saaz), was recently voted the world's best pilsner by Ratebeer.com.

Pacific Rim

In Japan, the Ise Kadoya Brewery uses soybean paste and

Japanese Yuzu plant

the juice from a native aromatic citrus fruit called yuzu. Even Cabertnet grapes can be found in some Japanese brewers' mash tuns and kettles. 

Forget the notion that Australians only drink pure, yellow lagers; that never was the case. Australians are increasingly looking for beers of distinction and invention - a demand that is being met not only by the bigger producers but also by a growing number of independent craft producers. Today, there are more than 100 brewers producing an exciting array of beer styles. The country's wine producers had better watch ouuuttt - oiiii. 

The family-owned Coopers Brewery which opened in 1862, continues with its exquisite range of cloudy, bottle-conditioned beers, while highly creative Little Creatures, in Fremantle, has introduced US-style, hoppy pale ales to the local market. 

This is a very brief introduction to styles of beer from around the world and my next post will go more in-depth about beer ingredients in specific beer styles. I hope you enjoyed the little read - have a beeeeeeery night! 

Weronika x