TOPIC:

Has anyone else been trying some of the newer, stronger, more premium and limited-branded English ales lately?


Some of them I'm really liking, I could take or leave King Goblin, but Pedigree V.S.O.P. is pretty gorgeous.

The maltiness and smooth mouthfeel, plus the English ale response to a stronger beer is just beautiful; some of these instantly remind me of Hobgoblin.

The Pedigree VSOP is loads of Marris Otter (6.7% ABV) Fuggles, Golding, and Sovereign done in the Marston's Burton Union system but with a couple Brandy Oak Casks added.


Again, I'm super excited to see some really, really English beers embracing the new craft brewing revolution but keeping the product exceedingly English. -Brandy Oak Cask aging?!? -We know where their inspiration comes from, but the final product is incredibly subtle and balanced.


There's a reason England continues to support the highest number of breweries per capita of any country (yea, I made that statistic up but unless someone can convince me otherwise, I have every reason to believe it); I've been given many, many reasons to be incredibly scared for the future health of the microbrewing scene here in England during my course with BrewLab this week and really feel like increasing beer diversity is the main hope that they have but also feel like it would be an absolute shame if just a million BrewDog's sprung up. I am really happy that some breweries with significant history are taking aspects of the new world brewing cultures and making it their own, in addition to seeing some clearly new world-style breweries popping up here. -It's weird that the "old guard" seem to be seizing the opportunity faster than the micros, though.


Adam

Pedigree is brewed on the Burton Union Set, but unfortunately I really don't like it. VSOP being brewed on the same set... I'm already thinking I won't like it. Is it like a stronger version of Pedigree, or is it a much better beer?

I see Fullers are about to launch an American style beer, and UK-grown Cascades are starting to make the price list from the hop factors, so indeed changes are afoot.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.fullersfinealeclub.net/Brewery-News/american-hopped-beer">www.fullersfinealeclub.net/Brewe ... opped-beer

&amp;quot;Biertourist&amp;quot;:383aiatv wrote: England continues to support the highest number of breweries per capita of any country (yea, I made that statistic up but unless someone can convince me otherwise, I have every reason to believe it)


Adam[/quote:383aiatv]

Silly rabbit...

Firstly, if you think you can throw down a challenge like that without one of us taking it up, you just don't know this group very well. (Or was that your plan all along? <!-- s:twisted: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt="" title="Twisted Evil" /><!-- s:twisted: --> )

Secondly, you're way off.

Here's the "Big Five" (yes, I just made that up) brewing countries with some quick and dirty figures because I'm not spending all day doing this:

Germany: 1200 breweries, 82 million people - 68,333 persons per brewery
UK: 900 breweries, 62 million people - 68,888 ppb
Belgium: 180 breweries, 11 million people - 61,111 ppb
Czech: 140 breweries, 10 million people - 71,428 ppb
US: 2000 breweries, 311 million people - 155,550 ppb

The US numbers are skewed by crowded-but-not-pulling-their-weight (brewing-wise) states like Texas. Figures end up much better for craft-happy places like Colorado:
120 breweries, 5 million people - 41,667 ppb
(Then again, if we're subdividing by state/county/region, Bavaria and even Devon do better still.)

I was surprised how close the numbers are for the traditional European brewing nations. But if you're counting [b:383aiatv]all[/b:383aiatv] brewing countries, nobody can top Denmark's 125 breweries for 5.5 million people, giving them a brewery for every 44,000 people.
Now, lots of those are glorified homebrewers or gypsy brewers, and there's a portion of them that close as fast as they open, but they are licensed commercially under Danish law. So there you go.

What the UK does lead in is growth: 140 breweries opened last year, and a further 50 already this year.

Hey, you asked.

</threadhijack>

Good stat finding KeeganAles, but disgraceful omission:

Ireland
17 breweries(source beoir cheat sheet)
6.3 Million Population (source wikipedia)

Giving: 371k ppb

Using further dirty math we can support 90 - 105 breweries. (Using 60-70k ppb)

&amp;quot;KeeganAles&amp;quot;:3cnx4hma wrote: (Or was that your plan all along? <!-- s:twisted: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt="" title="Twisted Evil" /><!-- s:twisted: --> )
[/quote:3cnx4hma]

I've been here too long; people are starting to pickup on my tactics... <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) --> I'm glad I did it, though. Great numbers and great discussion.


Where did you pull these numbers from, Richard?



Adam

&amp;quot;Biertourist&amp;quot;:3jw375h5 wrote:

Where did you pull these numbers from, Richard?



Adam[/quote:3jw375h5]

Brewers Association keeps lots of good US numbers; last year's final number was 1989 but they trumpeted pretty loudly when 2000 was passed in February.

CAMRA proudly mentions the UK figures, though they haven't had as much to do with that number as they'd like to think.

The others are generally references from print media, tourist boards, and marketing web sites.