British Expatriate Network

Because mrs Servalan and I travel a great deal, we get to sample many different local beers. Currently i'm enjoying a renewed interest in American beer thanks to the local brew here in baltimore which is National Bohemian. Its about as strong as gnats piss, but actually tastes quite good, might be different chemicals or something but its not half bad.

Up in Delaware we found the Dogfish Head brewery, which produces all sorts of real ale type things. Last night we had an IPA that was both tasteful and reasonably strong (6%) for American beer.

Up in Wisconsin the local flavour was Leinenkugels, which i quite like and a whole bunch of other microbrews which I forget for the moment. A tiny place called Junction City (pop. 411) had the Central Sands brewery which made some really good, hoppy beers.

As you're all spread out across the country I was wondering if anybody had any local favourites.
Whats going on where you live? any beer to recommend?

(Whilst here in Baltimore I was talking to a guy in a bar who told me he was a member of CAMRA ,whilst drinking a bottle of bud light!!)

Try Goose Island's Honkers Ale if you ever see it. (The honking refers to geese, not what you do if you drink too much of it).

I like John Harvards India Pale, but I had a decent brown ale, called "Unicorn Amber Ale" at McKenzies Brew Pub. Did you ever go there when you lived in Delaware, Servalan? It's on 202 just on the Pennsylvania side of the border..

Here in Colorado we are lucky to have (I think) the largest number of Micro breweries per capita. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong roll

Fat tire from the New Belgium brewing company is OK. I know its distribution is becoming more National as I had a few pints of it in San Jose last year.

Buffalo gold from the Boulder brewing co is good.

The left Hand Brewing Co in Longmont produces a couple of good beers..Sawtooth and a nice Pilsner

Biggest local brewery here is Bell's, makers of Oberon which is a nice tasty ale and only brewed in the summer. They have a bunch of different brands, I've only tried a couple of them but all have been good.

http://www.bellsbeer.com/



That's the only one that is known in West Michigan outside of its own zipcode. They're based in Kalamazoo.

We can get Fat Tire in most bars where I live. It's not a bad beer at all.

Others of note are Full Sail and pretty much anything from Rogue Brewery in Newport. They have an ale called "Dead Guy" which tastes better than it sounds.

If you haven't already, in Baltimore, I would try DuClaws. Much more of a real ale, than Natty Bo. I believe it is a Maryland based brew pub, though I may be wrong. I know they have an inner harbor location.

The Wharf Rat also is a brew pub in B'more, which serves Oliver Ales. Another favorite.

Also, a little off topic, I would check out the Brewer's Art in Baltimore for a great selection of belgium, along with other, beers. (I prefer the basement to the restaurant upstairs.) They also have nice food.

No, I think you're right, I have heard that too.

Buffalo Gold is the beer I normally drink at Walnut Brewery. The Indian Peaks Pale ale isn't bad either.

The worst local beer in my opinion is at the Southern Sun/Mountain Sun pubs in Boulder.

Slight detour here......

Comparing American lager to real ale is like comparing spinach to chocolate.

They are both called beer, but they are totally different. It is possible to like both, you would probably not want to have them at the same time and on certain occasions one may be preferable over the other. Some people only like one of them, some people will mix them and some people seem to think that their preference for one over the other makes them special.

/sidetrack/rant ;)

There are two microbreweries in Ann Arbor. I think their beer's awful. Way too sweet and cloying like a mild with added sugar. Their guest beers usually aren't bad, though. Grizzly Peak has the better "bitter" but it's still too sweet and flat (and cold). The locals seem to like it, though, so maybe it's just the American way -I find most foods here sweeter than their British counterparts, too.

Continuing the detour, lagers and ales are different drinks. Lagers are the result of a cold, slow ferment, while ales are included in the "Steam beer" class, fast ferments. Strictly, an ale is not a beer.

- I've walked past the Wharf Rat loadsa times, usually in the morning when I'm not up for a beer - its on my list of places to go at some point. We went to a place called Max's On Broadway which had all sorts of things very good, Belgian beers like in my local back in blighty, Adnams ale Broadside which cost the same here as it did in suffolk (!!) and other lovely things.
as for stuff in Delaware, we favoured a place called stewarts brew pub which had a few Ales on offer, pretty good and over by the university was a place called iron mill which did a pretty good job of Ales and suchlikes in REAL PINTS to boot!(Was expensive tho)
Theres so many micro brews here that its great fun sampling the local suds - as well as old faves like Newkie Brown - that goes down well here.
There's a pub down in fells point that offers beer for english money, damn i gave all mine away already!!

I was watching a programme on Food Network (The Best of.... I think?) and they featured a pub in Baltimore behind Camden Yards (the Baltimore Orioles Baseball stadium) which I think had a micro brewery and was an english themed pub. It looked a nice place. I was just wondering if anyone had been there at all?

I think that place behind Camden Yards on the Food Channel is the Wharf Rat (I didn't see the show, though). I believe that they have two locations, one in Fells Point and one in Camden Yards/Convention Center. We have been there on multiple occassions, though my husband prefers the one at Fells Point. Maybe once or twice a year, their Camden Yards location has a "beer fest" in which you pay an entry fee and can imbibe in unlimited amounts of beer not only from their brewery, but also other local breweries. It is quite fun, though I have found with a lot of that type of beer [brewpub beer], it really sneaks up on you and you are wazzed before you know it.

Max's is a nice place for beer, though, to me, it always seems either obnoxiously crowded or completely deserted. My husband swears that Bertha's Mussels (right across the square from Max's) has the most English Pub feeling to them all. I find it quite small. It usually has the closest thing to bitter you can find on tap. Though, as I mentioned in a previous post, the beer at the Brewer's Art can't really be beat.

Theres an english type pub opposite the convention center on W Pratt street, not been there either, we tend to hang out either in Fells Point or here in Canton. Must admit, i'm getting a bit worn out on sea food - crab cakes are nasty - but there's always something new turns up.
Here's a picture of the old American Brewery company building - its in a fairly rough looking part of Baltimore, we got lost last weekend and this place loomed out of the rain

Well, I think California is well served by many fine microbrewery's, such as Lagunitas (my favourite) and we have a botlaod of small breweries down our way in Santa Cruz and on the Central Coast..

Andrew )