Real Ale Reviews

British beers are bland and boring, aren’t they?

Well, that’s what the general consensus isn’t it?

I’ve heard this comment twice in the last two weeks. A week ago, my friend Sam was on business in northern France, where he was accosted by a local spouting rubbish about how all English people drink is Stella.

Yes, in Yates. But not everyone. And today, one of the breweries pioneering the exact opposite of bland and boring beers, Scotland’s BrewDog, were interviewed by The Full Pint. Both parties agreed that the perception of British beers is one of ‘uninspired session ales‘ and James went so far as to say ‘pretty much all the small UK brewers make the same boring 4% ales’.

Now hang on a minute.

I get where these perceptions come from. When Greene King IPA is the most exciting beer in a pub this country’s brewing scene is in trouble. And I can understand how the US craft brewing scene can consider the UK beer market uninteresting. But to say that British brewers all make the same beers with the same hops – that’s simply not true.

Yes there are predictable beers. Yes there are predictable breweries. And it could be argued that the British beer scene has been in the doldrums over the last 30 or 40 years perhaps?

But not anymore. Perhaps we should thank the craft brewing scene across the Atlantic for been a catalyst? Maybe the UK really are fed up of the monotonous shite of Carling and Fosters? But there’s no doubt that beer and brewing is in the beginnings (or even well in the middle?) of a renaissance.

Boring? Halcyon and Jaipur? Golden Champion?

Uninspired? Gadds No. 3? Summer Lightning?

The same hops? Unpronounceable IPA, Ring of Fire?

Look, I’m a massive fan of American ales, my top ten beers would be full of North American pale ales and hop laden concoctions. But I will say that there are British breweries just as bold and daring as many other countries around the world. And I’m  a massive fan of BrewDog, they push boundaries and are fun to drink.

We should not be distinguishing between beers across borders and classifying countries as bland or boring. We should be praising those beers that do dare to be different, those that shine above others when you’re tasting, and those that you’ll always come back to, because when you need a beer, when you’re desperate, they are the beers that you will come back to time and time again.