I’ve been reading and enjoying Andrew Barr’s book Drink: A Social History of America. Some of it’s serious reading, including a lot of cultural commentary about American drinking culture from a Brit with an understandably cynical take on it.
His chapter on “Americanization of European Taste” is the best, an overview of how Americans adapted European drinks to suit a different climate and a different culture. In one section, Barr outlines the difference between American microbrews and the eponymous European beers:
Brew pubs are prevented from serving cask-conditioned beer by the prevailing American taste for cold, fizzy beer… Whereas low temperatures may be appropriate for mainstream American lager, they do no favors for the beers brewed by microbreweries and brew pubs, which are supposed to distinguish themselves by their superior flavor. In order to make sure they can be tasted through all that cold and fizz, they are often brewed with exaggerated hop and malt flavors; beers as delicate and subtle as the best English bitters would simply not be noticed. As a result, many American microbrewery and brew-pub beers end up as pastiches of traditional English beers. (68-9).
That’s the best explanation as any for why the porters or stouts or bocks one has from microbrews taste nothing like a true porter, stout or bock. I know the microbrews have lots of fans, and I wouldn’t detract from the goal of making a small-shop crafted product. I hardly dislike microbrewed beer myself, but for my taste, give me a trusty pint of English (or Scottish) bitter. Whereas the American boutique beers are overpowering in their flavor and strongly alcoholic, bitter is smooth, subtle and imminently quaffable. For those uninitiated, think of a milder version of Guinness: often pale colored, not very carbonated, with a creamy consistency.
The city’s Irish pubs don’t always carry bitter, for reasons of nationalism or authenticity. Boddington’s is the most famous brand. It’s almost a different animal served near the source in Manchester, but even imported it’s good, and widely available. A few pubs will stock other varieties: James’ Gate in JP has Oxford’s Old Speckled Hen on tap, Elephant and Castle downtown has draught Fuller’s ESB, and the Publick House in Brookline carried a couple more varieties bottled. Have readers come across any others?
