US Bottle Ale
Summing up the US real ale market in a paragraph or two is an impossible exercise given the size and range of brewing taking place in North America. If the UK can claim to have reinvigorated the real ale movement through the formation of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), then the US have certainly taken that impetus and developed a huge and varied craft ale movement that arguably leads the world in both variety and quality of ales.
Some in the UK mistakenly associate US beer with weak, carbonated tasteless lager and to an extent the gargantian breweries do mass produce some of the aforementioned abominations, but to the uninitiated there are stouts, IPA’s, pale ales, porters, and virtually any other type of beer currently being brewed in North America by different microbreweries from coast to coast whose quality will rival any beer served anywhere in the world.
Taking its name from a peculiar species of tusked Arctic whale that survives the pitch-black depths of upto (or rather down to) 1500 metres, Narwhal Imperial Stout from California’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Co is a deliciously dark, tremendously rich and unbelievably complex Russian Imperial Stout. Pouring into the suggested ‘snifter’ glass a thick, viscous oil-slick black with a head reminiscent of a perfect espresso coffee shot, this is a beer that grabbed my attention from the outset – it actually looked like it was going to be well worth drinking…
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