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On Tuesday 19 March 2002 15:15, Nick Zentena wrote:
On March 18, 2002 05:19 pm, Gideon Hallett wrote:
German beer is the best *if* you like German bier. It's recognisably different to, say, Belgian beers, since the most common German style is a lager.
Well the most common US style is a lager to. Doesn't mean much-)
Though the US does brew some decent real beers, but only generally from small breweries. Anchor Steam is good, as is Red Hook (both from SF); and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is great, but very difficult to get hold of in Europe (read: bloody impossible).
For sheer variety, though, British beer probably has the most choices around; Britain dominates ales and invented 'pale ale', 'bitter', 'mild', 'porter', 'stout' and any number of other types of beer that can be found around the world today.
You could argue that Mild to bitter to IPA is one type of beer with a wide range of examples. I always thought Belgium had the most breweries per capita. With the most different kinds of beers.
They're all really descended (including stout) from the various sorts of (London) porter - see http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000041.html - but they're also different enough to qualify as different beers by now. Anyway, Belgium's only got about 10 million people, and 300+ breweries; the UK and Germany both have more breweries (AFAIAA), but also have a lot more people. cheers, Gideon.