The Bitter Brits and how I came to Love Ontario Craft Beer

The Bitter Brits and how I came to Love Ontario Craft Beer

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During a recent trip back to England, in-between all the long past due hello's and in the same instance good byes I found time to go to a Cask beer festival. Now it's been four or five years since I have been back in England and in that time I have had chance to sample beer cultures all over the world. Germany, Australia, New Zealand  and most recently my adopted home Canada. More specifically the twin cities of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario.

When I first moved here, not knowing how beer was in Ontario, I ordered an Alexander Keith's IPA at the first bar I went to only to be met with a bog standard american lager much like a Budweiser. It was boring,  no imagination and most importantly no taste. I had to find something better, something I believed would be on par with British beer. I found it! I have become a huge supporter of the Ontario Craft Beer movement and think it's fantastic for the area and I encourage anyone to buy beer from Ontario. I instantly fell in love with Creemore Springs the first time I tried their European inspired beers. Now there are more and more craft brewers popping up all over Ontario. Block Three Brewing will be opening in St.Jacobs this summer to go with the Brick Brewery in Waterloo, Grand River Brewing in Cambridge and Wellington in Guelph and that's just in my vicinity.

The Sign of a good Bar

Now when I was back in England I used to support the CAMRA scheme, supporting micro-brews in local bars. So when I recently went back to Blighty for a few days I was looking forward to getting stuck into the new local brews on offer. The only word I can use to describe them is 'disappointing', somehow in the ether the English micro brewers have confused making beer with just making Cask Ales. Now don't get me wrong, cask ales are fantastic, cellar temperature for optimum taste and no carbonation, meaning no hangovers the morning after. The reason I felt let down was the lack of imagination. Everything was a Bitter, so every beer was a cloudy ale with a moderate hop profile. By the end of my time there I would have killed for a micro produced Wheat Beer.

Cask Pump

This got me to thinking why England's CAMRA representatives are in this state, is it because the drinkers aren't as adventurous as my Canadian Counterparts? Is it the climate, lots of cloudy rainy weather dampens the mood for summer style beers? Was it because Lagers have a longer lead time compared to Ales and the brewers don't have the time to wait? Was it a contribution of all these questions? I can't say for sure, all I know was that the Ontario Craft Brewers I've encountered are putting them to shame.

The most thrilling thing I found on the Cask list in England was a Black IPA which was a solid effort. There was an attempt at a Dusseldorf Altbier that had been watered down so much that any German worth his salt would have turned their nose up at it. Other than that it was just  Bitter, Bitter and more Bitter.  There is no more British Empire anymore so the need for these overly bitter Ales is lost on me.

I'm hoping the English can undertake a Beer revolution that has undergone here in North America. In America it is believed the numbers of breweries nationwide is close to matching what it was prior to prohibition. Around 1500, so it's taken 90 years to get back to that point. England had no prohibition so why was there a stunt in progress? It truly fascinates me, It may go back to ancient times when the English wound't put the foreign muck in their ale's the Germans were drinking in there beers. The foreign muck was of course later to be known as Hops, an essential ingredient in modern brewing. Are we just to stubborn as a nation? Are we Bitter Brits?

Hops

I love Beer as there seems to be an endless combination with what you can do with all four of the main ingredients. Yeast Strains, type of Malts, Various Hops & the Water supply. So the Ontario Craft Beers really impressed me with what they were doing. Just recently I sampled a Water Melon Wheat by Kensington Brew Company, A Black Lager by Silversmith Brewing & a Spring Maple by Lake of Bays. Such a diverse selection from such a relatively small area is impressive in the extreme.

I'll be returning to England in 6 Months and hopefully I will be able to do more of an Investigation into the state of beer profiles over there. Sandwiched in between will be a trip to Belgium, so there will be some interesting observation to make between styles. In the mean time I'm looking forward to Ontario Craft Beer Week.

Prost!

EyeBeerHolder