Let the Beer Battle Commence

UK Beer vs US Beer

Looking sharp, the lads from BrewDog

One of my favourite Scottish breweries, Brewdog, recently announced their support for LGBT rights with a beer launch protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his "Gay Propaganda" Law in the run up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. They've named the beer "Hello, my name is Vladimir" and blazed his image in multiple colours and festooned with lipstick in a clear message against his archaic and clearly homophobic "law". The Scottish pioneers of extreme and bold beer went a step further a gave the beer a tag line which should please the bear wrestling Vlad (you know if he's not a fan of sarcasm), "notforgays".

Whilst I'm obviously in full support of both this new beer and the message messrs James Watt and Martin Dickie are putting out to the world with their new launch, it also got me thinking about the battle of craft beer on both sides of the Atlantic and who's winning.

So I've decided to have a look at some of the best craft beer makers and some of their top offerings from both the old masters in the UK and those noisy upstarts this side of the pond.
*Note* beer snobs may criticise some of these as not being "true" craft beers, my response - go boil your heid, its good beer OK!

UK

BrewDog

A point of contention for brewers this side of the Atlantic, case and point;
http://aleheads.com/2011/09/09/its-time-to-stand-up-to-brewdog/
But in my seasoned drinking opinion, they are the standard bearers for the fuck you big brewery movement and that is something which many beer experts don't seem to understand. Yes they may be apologetically brash and loud but you know what, big breweries are sacred of them and that can only be good for us all.
For a less extreme show of their range I recommend 5am Saint, strongly hopped and amber ale. Perfect for the winter. For the more adventurous I recommend the Hardcore IPA especially if you're a fan of the overhopped Dogfish Head beers from the land of Red, White and Blue as I am. This is very hoppy, quite strong and definitely not an afternoon beer swilling corona. Also if you happen to be near any of their rapidly growing number of bars, head in for several hours and try it all - you definitely wont be bored!

Innis and Gunn

Straight from the heart of the hood', central Edinburgh boiy! Jokes, Scotland's Capital has a good strong history of brewing from the Caledonian Brewery that give that hoppy Edinburgh smell when the wind is right to Stewart brewing Edinburgh was once one of the epicenters for worldwide exporting of quality beer. In comparison Innis and Gunn is a relative upstart only been around just over 10 years but already gaining staunch fans around the world. I can even get it in New York now, boom! My personal favourite is the Spiced Rum cask pictured below. It's not for the faint of heart at 7.4% abv but with a strong spiced rum finish it combines 2 of my favourite things, Caribbean Rum and proper Scottish beer.






Timothy Taylors
A cracking proper ale brewery based in Yorkshire in the north of England. No nonsense proper beer served by people who know what they're doing. One of the favourites of my buddy Chris will extol the virtues of proper Yorkshire beer over some of our homemade products and back in Edinburgh we could often be found necking back several Timmy Taylor Landlords at the physically closest bar to our flat.

Harviestoun
Now anyone who pays attention to beer awards and or websites like beeradvocate will probably know this small Scottish brewery. They are a specialised small batch brewery in Central Scotland who have hit the jackpot with some of their superb whisky aged beers and appear in the UK & Ireland beeradvocate top 5 twice (Ola Dubh special reserve 30 and 40). I've tasted the 30 and have to agree it is very special and well worth the effort to find it. Unfortunately i'm yet to try the 40, just cant find it anywhere! Definitely try any of their selection if the opportunity arises.

Honourable mention to Bellhaven, Blacksheep and Cairngorm

USofA

Brooklyn

My local brewery, woo hoo I have a local brewery! Actually, there is at least one closer but lets put a pin in that, once i get a visit to that place I'll give it a post! Brooklyn brewery have a great story (go visit it's cool) and produce a great selection of very drinkable beers, including some outstanding sessioners. Their standard lager is exported around the world now including the UK so you may well have tried it. However its some of there easy to find here not so much elsewhere stars which make them worthy of note here. The Sorachi Ace, Oktoberfest and Brooklyn Blast beers are all excellent (7.5/10 at least across the board) but for me the Silver Anniversary beer really put it in the stands/knocked it out of the park/hoofed it into row Z/top bin! A little pricey but worth the investment, I bought 2 one fore drinking, one for the collection. It's a German style Dopplebock 8.6% and goes great with a steak. This bad boy would definitely live in an apartment that smelled of rich mahogany.

Ithaca

This one is a bit of a sleeper. I didn't know much about the brewery until our friends Rachel and Malcolm (also a Scot) stumbled across a very hoppy British style IPA called Flower Power. It's one of their favourite beers and I have to agree that is really good. I also tried an Ithaca Nut Brown at a beer festival last year which was a nice surprise. Most dark beers have a tendency to be overly coffee flavoured - a sure fire way to ruin any beer for me, this one avoids that and finishes well.

BluePoint

Allowed on this list today but will be removed soon after agreeing to a buyout from Anheuser-Busch booooo! This was a really good quality Long Island brewery with a proven track record or some really interesting beers, unfortunately the likelihood now is for them to be swallowed whole by the giant and its soul ripped apart, with falling quality almost guaranteed to follow. Here's hoping for a miracle but in the meantime try these 2 crackers before they are changed/abandoned/drank once then pee'd back into the bottle or whatever they do with budweiser and Stella to achieve that urine flavour.

BluePoint Toasted Lager - a different take on the lager that is normally ignored by craft beer-ers, a favourite session beer in the NY spring for me.

Rastafarye - A Rye beer which was a new one on me a few years back (Rye whisky yes but Rye beer?) but produces a copper ale with tropical flavours, like an alcoholic beer Lilt, right up my alley

Ommegang 

Superb upstate New York brewery, my last post goes into great depth on these guys so hey read that...now ...I'll wait ... done? good!

Honorable mention to Dogfish Head, Russian River, Sam Adams and Goose Island

OK so who wins?

Belgium. Belgium wins followed closely by Germany. UK Bronze medal, USofA coming up fast and just sneaking into the top 5. Sorry guys but Belgium make the best beer they just do and if you avoid the mass produced pigswill Germany are a close second. The UK needs to step up and take a leaf out of the US book and embrace the craft beer revolution more and ditch the Tennents (rat piss) Carling (mouse?) and Fosters (kangaroo or human?). The US needs to keep on their path but take more interest in the masters styles instead of tending to be a bit brash and all knowing.

P.S. Let internet banality commence, no I haven't tried every beer and people will obviously have a number of different views on it. That's a good thing, please feel free to comment below your favourite beer and why i should go and try it, maybe I'll agree and it'll appear in an updated version of this, thinking every 6 months or maybe 3. Now immediately go and drink a beer - just please don't let it be Tennents!