Pale ale benchmark

[grainbrew]

Greetings,

I have never been to England. I live on the East Coast of Canada, and the only experience I have with english ales are the brews of the Granite Brewery. I really enjoy their beers, and would consider it a grand achievement of mine to brew similar beers.

Here's where I get confused. I bought a Fuller's London Pride, having been told that this was the quintessential English Pale Ale. I pour it into my ale glass, and enjoy. I really enjoyed the beer, but it was VERY different from the pale ales that I had tried at the Granite House and similar breweries (locally).

The beer was very focused on the malts, and had a medium to heavy body. I was always under the impression that ales had more to do with hops and their balance with the malts.

This beer is clearly about malts and the creamy smooth mouthfeel.

Any thoughts?

[steveh]

Check into this thread (http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4958&perpage=15&pagenumber=1), we got into a whole discussion on this subject a short time ago.

S.

[grainbrew]

Thanks,

I read the thread.

I'm sitll confused however. Are English ales mostly about hops or malts? According to the Promash Guidelines, it's clearly hops. Yet London Pride is clearly malts, and is described as what an English Ale should be by many.

From my experience, when I order an english bitter in the local brewery, the mouthfeel is rather thin, and the emphasis is on the hops. The pale ales seem to have a bit less emphasis on hops.

So...which is what? what is which?

J

[steveh]

Originally posted by grainbrew
I'm sitll confused however. Are English ales mostly about hops or malts? According to the Promash Guidelines, it's clearly hops. Yet London Pride is clearly malts, and is described as what an English Ale should be by many.

It has evolved over time. While hops are still involved in "true" English ales (that is imported from England), the flavors are more balanced than hop heavy.

From my experience, when I order an english bitter in the local brewery, the mouthfeel is rather thin, and the emphasis is on the hops. The pale ales seem to have a bit less emphasis on hops.

Micros and brew-pubs in North America evolved from interest spawned by home-brewers. Home-brewers (at least in the U.S., possibly all over N.A.) are incurable hop-heads, therefore my theory is that the (good) commercial beers on this side of the pond reflect that a little more.

My theory - and I'm stickin' to it! ;)

S.

[grainbrew]

Thanks,

Just to make sure I understood...a traditional english ale would have less of an emphasis on hops and more focus o malts or the balance of the two, whereas in North America, our versions of english ales are in fact hoppyer than they would of been across the pond?

In the end, I brew what I enjoy. But I never fully understood the style parameters being that and English bitter can be an IPA at the same time, according to the Promash parameters. This is not a problem, but confuses me none the less.

J

[steveh]

Originally posted by grainbrew
Just to make sure I understood...a traditional english ale would have less of an emphasis on hops and more focus o malts or the balance of the two, whereas in North America, our versions of english ales are in fact hoppyer than they would of been across the pond?

Balanced - yes. Unless it's an ESB, which tends toward more malt...but that's your first thread of which I haven't had a chance to respond.

I also forgot that I wanted to add that there's a new trend in the U.K. to some hoppier ales from smaller breweries - no doubt due to the popularity over here.

In the end, I brew what I enjoy.

Brew and/or drink - and therein lies the true answer.

But I never fully understood the style parameters being that and English bitter can be an IPA at the same time, according to the Promash parameters. This is not a problem, but confuses me none the less.

Take a look here, at the Beer Judge Certification Program Style Guidelines (http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/). They're ever-evolving, and not everyone agrees with them (including me at times), but they're a great benchmark - to coin a phrase.

S.

[grainbrew]

Thanks,

An ESB has more malt character? I thought it was more malt AND hops. Oh well. Not really important.

I will check out the guidelines. Thanks.

Like you said, the importance is to focus on what you enjoy drinking. For me it's definately the english bitters in the style of the local micros. So I'll stick to that, for now.

J