I hosted a beer tasting a couple months back where one of the beer was Fuller’s IPA. I find it is a quality English-style IPA. We can debate where it ranks in the style, but I think there is no question it is flavourful, well-made and accurately reflects the style profile.
I overheard a table of men trashing their samples of it. Curious, I wandered over to inquire. As it turns out all were big fans of IPA and through questioning I discovered their only experience of the style was big, citrusy, American-style IPAs. For them, the Fuller’s was embarrassingly not bitter, not recognizing that it actually achieved what it aimed to be.
It got me thinking. I have noticed an uptick lately in the dismissing of traditional European styles. Not just Engligh IPAs, but German Helles, Scottish Ales, Northern Brown Ales and other long-standing styles. Thinking led to writing, which resulted in a Beer 101 column published last week (you can read it here). It is the first Beer 101 of the new year due to some technical glitches over at the website.
In the piece I suggest that North Americans have become a little too enamoured with big and bold. Breweries feel the pressure to constantly push boundaries, to create a more intense version of this or a barrel-aged batch of that. I think in all the rush to bigger and crazier, some people lose sight of the joys of more traditional, old world styles.
By no means do I mean everyone. Most of the beer aficionados I know are thoughtful, varied in their preferences and respectful of old world approaches. But the craft beer world is growing and there is now a sizable number of beer drinkers who appreciate quality craft beer but are not as steeped in the histories of beer. There is no question in my mind I have been observing more dismissiveness than before.
I actually think it is a trend that is much broader than beer. Allow me to quote from the Beer 101 column directly:
Maybe that puts me in the camp of old fogeys, and so be it. But there is value in the old school approach to restrained flavour and balance.
Personally I intend to double up my efforts to educate Canadian beer drinkers about the wide diversity of flavours possible – both to get timid drinkers to open up to something more bold and to urge lupulin-heads to consider the beauty of a quiet English Brown Ale.
Are you in?
March 25, 2015 at 9:23 AM
Subtlety is something that most craft brewers these days tend to neglect. There is nothing better than drinking multiple pints of Harveys Dark Mild in a British pub and discovering the multiple layers of flavour and complexity. It’s also partly because its easier to hide flaws in a 12% imperial stout than a 3% bitter.
March 25, 2015 at 10:19 AM
I think there is also something to be said for drinking a lot of these beers fresh. I can’t say that I appreciated a Munich Helles before having one in Munich. Many of the continental beers don’t travel well. What makes them great is their subtle complexity, something lost on the trip across the pond.
March 25, 2015 at 12:02 PM
Chris, that is an excellent point! Indeed, a delicate lager or a subtle hefeweizen are not at their best when shipped half way around the world. I wonder how American IPAs would fare going the other way.