What I learned on my holidays

After two trips to the USA in quick succession, I feel better qualified to comment on the American beer scene. Though I am well aware that my experiences are just one tiny snapshot in a wall-sized collage.

Let's start with the positives. I'm an optimistic chap, after all.

1. Everywhere I went, had something drinkable. The includes non-beer orientated places like a hotel bar, Applebee's and TGI Friday. I was more surprised that this was true in Wisconsin. New Glarus seem to have got their Spotted Cow into every bar in the state. Good on them. I've had more exciting beers, but I was more happy to down a few Spotted Cows. It was good to see a local beer so readily available.


2. Cask beer is widely available in New York. Every beer bar stocked it and every pints I had was in decent condition. That's not a simple or as self-evident as it may sound. Cask beer is tricky to look after and it appeared pubs were making the necessary extra effort.


3. Good beer is starting to enter mainstream consciousness. A colleague who wasn't a craft beer drinker and hadn't left the East Coast for 15 years knew of New Glarus.


4. My experience of liquor stores was more limited. I only went in the one. It was way out in the distant New Jersey suburbs. But it had a resonable selection. More interesting beers than I had chance to sample in a week.


5. Not all beers are dominated by C- hops. I was taken aback by the accessibility of beers like Weyerbacher Old Heathen. Rather subdued, in fact, for an Imperial Stout. I rather liked the more easy-drinking beers that I tried.


6. The hop bombs aren't as crazily bitter as I had expected. 90 minute IPA I had feared would be more of a challenge to get through. In reality, it was in the same ballpark as the Bitters of my youth. Things like the original Barnsley Bitter.


7. Specialist beer bars offer a reasonable variety of draught beer. I mean not all the same basic style, which is what you often find in Britain. Though, if I were to compare Blind Tiger with, say, Wildeman the latter would come out on top for the breadth of its beer selection.


8. The locals are pretty friendly. Even in New York, I struck up conversations with a varity of fellow customers. Including the very nice cheese man.
   

Now for the not so good.

1. TV's. Bloody TV sets everywhere. I can't think of one bar I visited that didn't have a TV. That includes the first-division beers place like Blind Tiger. It's annoying, distracting and creates on obstacle to social interaction which is, after all, what pubs are about.


2. Deafening music. Many pubs I drank in had the music way too loud. At one in the afternoon and just a handful of drinkers in the bar and the music was at disco level. This didn't apply to everywhere. Blind Tiger and d.b.a. both kept the volume at an appropriate level.


3. Not enough weaker beers. Ignoring the cask English beers, Rattle 'n' Hum had almost nothing under 7% ABV. And lots 9% plus. I only had one beer there, because I couldn't find a second that was weak enough. It was a hot, sunny afternoon, over 30º C. Just thinking about an Imperial Stout gave me a headache.

That's enough about the USA for now. Back to my usual indigestible fare of ancient brewing manuals and 19th-century legislation.

Last night I drank a Budweiser American Ale

I went to Applebee's for dinner last night. I was knackered and it was just down the road from the hotel. That was good enough for me.

This being Wisconsin, they had Spotted Cow on draught. But I spotted a tap with American Ale written on it. Usually, I'd rather be dragged naked over broken glass than drink Budweiser. I've read about American Ale and was intrigued. Curiosity got the better of me. I ordered one.

The colour was quite pleasing. A nice reddish amber. It looked rather appetising, in fact. What would it taste like? Only one way to find out. I took a sip. Mmmm, I've had much worse. Like a better keg Bitter, is how I would describe it. Keg Bass. That's the closest I can think of. Not that I ever drank much keg Bass.

It slipped down quite nicely. Not that I ordered a second. I switched to Spotted Cow. American Ale reminded me of something I've noticed before. Big industrial breweries can brew decent beer. When they choose to. Problem is, most of the time they choose to brew something else. Probably for some accounting reason.

You know something. American Ale would probably work well cask-conditioned. I 2wonder if they've considered brewing a cask version? Stranger things have happened.

Monroe, Wisconsin

It's been an interesting day. Starting in New Jersey and ending in Wisconsin. Monroe,Wisconsin, to be precise.

The highlight was a sprint to catch my connecting flight in Chicago. Thrombie time, I feared. Luckily, my heart and belly both made it unscathed to the gate.

The drive from Madison to Monroe made a change. A change from the urban sprawl of New Jersey. Open farmland, punctuated here and there by farmhouses, lofty barns and towering silos. And empty roads. About as unlike eastern New Jersey as you could imagine. The occasional towns are mostly just a handful of houses. "Unincorporated" underlines the town name on the signboards. Effing tiny, it could equally well say.

One town had a different subscript. New Glarus. That said: population 2,111. Surprisingly, my colleague knew the town's claim to fame: New Glarus Brewing. The place itself is bizarrely distinctive, many buildings being in the form of Swiss chalets. No sign of any mountains, though.

Stan Hieronymous had told me Monroe was a good spot for beer. New Glarus all over the place. He wasn't wrong. Ludlow, the bar restaurant next to my hotel, has Spotted Cow on draught. I had three with dinner. Drinkable enough, but not outrageous. Where are all the extreme beers? I never seem to be able to find them. Am I looking in the wrong places? I'll continue my search tomorrow in Madison.