Beer Review #3: Brewed in the USA

America – known for it’s huge cars, huge people, and huge murder rate, is also well known for having shite beer. Beyond the isolation of the United States, the self proclaimed “King of Beers”, Budweiser, is mocked and left well alone in the pubs of Europe.

However, over the last couple of years our colonial cousins have developed a taste for craft beer, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of micro breweries popping up. A recent work training course enabled me to sample at first hand what all the fuss is about. Samual Adams, whose lager seems to be quite prevalent amongst a number of bars in the U.S., have delved into the ale market, producing some very flavoursome beverages in the process. We were over in November, prior to Thanks Giving, and so were able to manage a swig or two of their Harvest Pumpkin Ale, which was apparently first brewed by American colonists. A red ale, with strong hints of pumpkin and ginger, a really enjoyable and novel taste. We also sampled a number of other Sam Adams' ales, including another seasonal delight; Octoberfest.

Based in East Tennessee, we visited The Smoky Mountain Brewery, a microbrewery/restaurant (the Yanks need to be coerced in to visiting with the promise of food, and do be fair to them, for being “American Cuisine” the grub was pretty top notch), which boasted a range of beers, many of which drew their names from the local area. The Cherokee Red Ale, named after the Indians that they forcibly removed from their land, was a particular favourite of mine, and ideal to wash down a massive Philly Cheese Steak. While the hoppy Appalachian Pale Ale, was also well worth a sup.

We even had time to pop into a "Scottish Bar" in Knoxville called the Jig and Reel, which offered a the chance to experience a Celtic public house, complete with mounted stag head on the wall and bags of Walker's crisps behind the bar, and to be honest it was a really top bar, full of genuinely friendly people (as was much of Tennessee). The remainder of a wet Sunday afternoon was spent sipping bottles of "New-castle" (Brown Ale to me and you) in front of an open log fire, enjoying the pub quiz and live music.