Brewers Blog #1 – A Transatlantic Tussle

In the first of his five part series, Brewer announces a transatlantic tussle of quaffing proportions. Who will emerge victorious…palette cleansers please!

Welcome to Brewer’s Blog: Craft Battle of the Atlantic. This 5 part pilot series will select the finest UK Craft Beers and “hop” (pun initially unintended) over the Atlantic where in each episode they will be duelling with the American Craft heavy weight Breweries.

I acknowledge that the Craft Scene is ultra trendy/hip at the moment and may well be a flash in the pan. However, in the meantime, let us ride this bandwagon together before we return to the potential days of cans of commercialised Carling and/or John Smiths.

The format of Brewer’s Blog consists of a series of one versus one gladiatorial transatlantic battles. Each beer is scrutinised and quantified against the rigorous criteria: bottle/can aesthetics; quaff-ability, cool factor, and of course, taste. Additional pallet tasting notes may be included, assisting in painting the metaphorical picture.

Where possible, pretentious food will be used to describe the bouquet of flavours (such as lychee) and this will be compared against the Brewery’s own, often exaggerated, description of their product’s taste. The nation with the highest score will emerge victorious from the Titanic struggle. Let us begin.

Camden Pale Ale

First up from London UK, is Camden Town Brewery’s Camden Pale Ale. The Brewery, founded in 2010, is just in time to ride the crest of the Craft Revolution wave (supported amply by London’s Yuppies), all the way to a multimillion pound takeover (more on that later).

My previous tasting notes totalled four words: “good green labelled ale” however, a more extensive critique is required for the blog (although the impact of the graphically designed green bottle shouldn’t be ignored). I re-familiarised myself with a Camden Pale Ale whilst eating a curry (probably nuking my taste buds in the process but this isn’t an exact science). Upon sipping the UK candidate beer, between mouthfuls of Jalfrezi, I received a sharp quick bitter sweet hop taste.  I didn’t detect any of the infamous tropical fruit flavours. Either it doesn’t have any or my pallet isn’t sophisticated enough. Perhaps my taste buds will mature as Brewer’s Blog progresses. Funnily enough, I have been informed that the American hops it uses is responsible for the sweet aroma. That is something I will be more conscious of in future.

In my opinion, pale IPAs are generally ‘quaffable’ and this one didn’t defy convention. I cannot disagree with Camden’s ‘big gulping’ ‘drink-me-faster’ description. Although they then get carried away and make the simile that it is like “the Queen wearing dirty sneakers” (probably to evoke patriotism). This seems a bit much but is quite an entertaining thought.

Overall: a solid, moreish IPA. The simple graphically designed bottle aesthetics, with no crass puns/innuendos (often found on our “Real Ale” counterparts), have contributed to this becoming an ubercool hipster drink.

Score: 8/10

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

In the stars spangled banner corner is the well established Sierra Nevada Brewery, heavily engrained in American culture. This is to the extent that a fanatical ‘Friends’ fan friend of mine, informs me that the beer features on Joey’s fridge in an episode of the repeated to death TV sitcom. Exactly which specific episode is unknown but I doubt it is the one where the cast give up their beloved coffee in favour of decent beer.

I digress. The beer delivers in spades, the tiny bubbles fizz nicely up the nose. The bitter broad lingering hops (maybe derived from the ‘whole cone and cascade hops’ claimed on the bottle) have contrasting caramel overtones adding real depth to each quaffed gulp.

Overall: This beer is world renowned for a reason, and the reason is that its non-offensive taste and ground braking aroma delights all (even Dad Brewer, with 45 years of beer consuming experience, could not find fault).

Score: 9/10

Result

First blood in the pale ale round to the Americans. Perhaps it was unfair to pit a new boy with a giant but as the saying goes: all is fair in love and war.

About the Author: Sean Brewer

Born a Brewer my credentials, as a beer taster, are limited to a grand total of five satisfactorily completed beer brewery tours: Cains (RIP), Heineken (Amsterdam), Peerless (Birkenhead), Edge Brewery (Barcelona) and Allgates (Wigan). Although this amounts to only a few hours spent in a Brewery, I can assure you I took copious notes. Unfortunately these which were subsequently mocked by fellow attendees but I took the hit for the bigger picture of beer education.

I did not always have such standards for good beer. It took me a while to graduate from my student days. I would often shamelessly query the bar man “what’s your cheapest pint?” and I could not resist the lure of a 2-for-1 offer on the alcoholic lucozades: WKDs. It was a slow process but my taste buds eventually rebelled. Common sense had to prevail and a craftphany was inevitable.

Disclaimer: Brewer by name only. The only Brewing experience I have is associated with Tetley Tea!

Also, I am aware of some critics’ passion regarding the definition of “craft ale”. For the purpose of this blog, I’ll overlook the ‘6 million barrows of beer to qualify as a true craft beer’ rule. Let’s keep the criteria to boss tasting beers with character.

Important Addendum

Since the time of writing I have to report that a potential change of ownership has thrown the Craft Battle of the Atlantic into disrepute. Camden Town Brewery have been sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev (Belgium/American based owners of substandard beer companies (such as Corona and Stella Artois)). It has been strongly labelled as “an act of betrayal”, not quite on a treason level (although Camden’s reference to the queen now has a reduced impact).  This of course casts an unwanted shadow on the true nationality of Camden Town Brewery and whether it can be truly considered as a UK Craft Beer. This may be something to be mindful of if you follow a religious ‘Buy British’/’buy independent’ way of life.