Beer is enjoyed in hundreds of countries all of the world. Many countries have fine-tuned their brewing styles to suit the unique tastes of their countrymen. Here we cover different styles of beer grouped by Country.
Australia
It is a common misconception that Australians drink Fosters. This is untrue – it is a joke among Australians that Fosters was so bad that they decided to export that one and keep the rest.
Australians are divided over their beer by their state; Queenslanders love their XXXX; South Australians drink Coopers; in New South Wales they drink Tooheys; Victorians prefer a VB; Western Australians drink Swan beer; and Tasmanians are further divided; those in the north drink Boags, and those in the south drink Cascade.
Although it is generally quite difficult to tell an Australian that there is any other beer than his home state’s beer, other popular brews are Hahn and Crown. Particularly in the trendier areas of the major cities, specialty brews, including a wide variety of ales, some by new divisions of the major brewers and some by new microbreweries, are beginning to become popular, as are some foreign beers.
Having said that, you can pretty much get most of these beers anywhere except the grubbiest most down-market pubs and clubs, which exclusively serve VB, the various varieties of Tooheys, and in NSW Resches.
Belgium
Like other nationalities, Belgians pride themselves on their rich beer culture. There are over 1500 kinds of Belgian beer (including label beer) among which Stella Artois, Alken Maes, Jupiler, Delirium Tremens (brand), Duvel, Kwak, Leffe, and Hoegaarden are some of the best known. It is often said (particularly by Belgians) that the Belgian beers are particularly excellent. Belgium is the only country that has Trappist beer. External link: Beers of Belgium.
Each variety of Belgian beer is served in a specific glass. The shape and size of the glass varies, and functions to enhance the flavor of the particular beer.
Britain
One common stereotype of the British (and indeed most residents of the British Isles) concerns their love of “warm beer”. In fact, their beer is usually served around 12 degrees Celsius – not as cool as most cold drinks, but still cool enough to be refreshing.
Modern-day pubs keep their beer constantly at this temperature, but originally beer would be served at the temperature of the cellar in which it was stored. Proponents of British beer say that it relies on subtler flavors than that of other nations, and these are brought out by serving it at a temperature that would make other beers seem harsh.
Where harsher flavors do exist in beer (most notably in those brewed in Yorkshire), these are traditionally mitigated by serving the beer through a hand pump fitted with a sparkler, a device that mixes air with the beer, oxidizing it slightly and softening the flavor. Nowadays, only real ale tends to be served via a hand pump, not a typical way for mass-produced beers to be served – it is common to find the latter sold in bottles or drawn from a carbon dioxide-driven tap. Real Ale is championed by the Campaign for Real Ale.
With the growing of Hops growing being characteristic of southern counties in particular Kent, traditional southern beers, such as London Pride south of a line that can been drawn from the Bristol channel to the Wash (on the east coast of England) typically contain more hops than those found north of this line such as Boddingtons.
Canada
Canada has a long history of beer production as the cold winter climate provided ideal conditions for brewing before artificial refrigeration was invented. It is well known for its two large commercial breweries, Molson and Labatt, and also for its large number of smaller companies. In addition, the popular SCTV characters, Bob and Doug McKenzie, are famous Canadian characters who are associated for their love of beer as Cheech and Chong are for marijuana.
Czech Republic
The Pilsener style of beer originated in the town of Plzen in Bohemia, and the Czechs make many well-known and well-regarded beers of this style, including the original Budweiser. The Czechs have the highest per capita consumption of beer.
Estonia and Finland
Both of these countries are known for their traditional Sahti, which is a beer made from rye or oat malts that are filtered through straws and juniper twigs. According to beer hunter Michael Jackson, it is by far the oldest continuous living tradition of beer making, representing nothing less than a direct link with Babylonian beer-making methods.
France
Although French market is dominated by industrial breweries the Nord/Pas-de-Calais possesses strong brewing traditions, which it shares with its Belgian neighbor across the border. Alsace has also a strong tradition in brewing beer with bottom-fermenting yeasts in German style. Nowaday, there are more and more microbreweries that are producing fashion beer, especially in the regions with a strong identity feeling (Brewerie Lancelot in Bretagne, beer Pietra in Corsica)
Germany
With an extremely strong beer-oriented culture, the German market is a bit sheltered from the rest of the world beer market by the German brewers adherence to the Reinheitsgebot (purity commandment) dating from 1516, according to which the only allowed ingredients of beer are “Wasser (water), Hopfen (hops) und (Gersten-)Malz (barley-malt)”. Through this agreement (which was law up to 1988), beers from Germany tend to have a good reputation for their quality.
The Germans are slightly behind the Czechs in their per capita consumption of beer. There are a variety of different styles of German beer, such as Helles (lager from Bavaria), Weizen (fermented wheat beer), Kölsch (top-fermented beer from the Cologne region), Alt (a dark beer drunk around Düsseldorf and Dortmund), Pilsner, Export (a milder version of Pilsner) and Bockbier (a dark strong beer).
While the beer market is more centralized in northern Germany (with the biggest brands Krombacher, Warsteiner and Bitburger each selling about 400 million liters), the south has lots of very small, local breweries which add up to a total of 1350 breweries in Germany producing over 5000 brands of beer.
The alcohol content usually is between 4.7% and 5.4% for most traditional brews. Bockbier or Doppelbock (double Bockbier) however can have an alcohol content of up to 12%. Bockbier season is during June and July and a lot of local Bockbier festivals are typically held in the south of Germany.
The Munich Oktoberfest is well known for the millions of liters that are served every year (almost 6).
India
In various parts of north-eastern India, rice beer is quite popular. Several festivals feature this nutritious, quite intoxicating, drink as part of the celebrations. The rice is fermented in vats that are sometimes buried underground.
It is quite popular, and not only with humankind. Elephants are known to attack villages, with the primary agenda of raiding these vats and having a good time generally. Often, bull elephants have been observed exaggerating their talents amongst one another, leering at female elephants and trumpeting show me the way to go home in an undignified manner.
Ireland
Ireland is best known for stout, of which Guinness is the largest selling and most widely distributed brand. Guinness also make the most widely distributed Irish lager – Harp. It is recommended that Guinness be served after being poured, waiting for three minutes and then topped up. Along with Guinness there is also Murphy’s, Caffrey’s and Beamish.
Japan
Beer is the most favored alcoholic drink in Japan. It was introduced in the early Meiji-era from Germany. Major makers are Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo while small local breweries supply distinct tasting beers. Lager beers are most common but beers made with lower grain contents called “Happoushu” (sparkling alcoholic drink) have captured a large part of the market as tax is lower on these products. Drinking beer with salted boiled beans, and edamame, is known as a favorite summer pastime for adults.
New Zealand
The indigenous people of New Zealand (Maori) did not brew beer. The major ingredients of beer were not found or introduced to New Zealand until the arrival of Europeans in the mid-1800s. Late European history is characterized by the dominance of about three large breweries. The dominance of these breweries was helped by the buying of some of the small local breweries. From the mid-1980’s small boutique or microbreweries started to emerge. Consequently, the range of beer styles increased. Some pubs operate their own small breweries, often housed within the pub itself. Wine and ready mixed alcoholic drink consumption is increasing and is lessening the quantity of beer being sold.
Poland
Beer has always been extremely important for Poles. One Polish ruler, encouraged by the Pope to take part in a crusade, refused because, as he wrote to the Pope, the holy land has no beer. Traditional Polish beer is usually pilsener, lager or porter. The most popular Polish brands are Z.ywiec, EB, Lech, Lezajsk, and Tyskie.
Romania
Romanian beer is known in Central and Eastern Europe for its taste and low price. Ursus is the king of the Romanian beer from 1879 (a brand of South African Breweries). Other traditional Romanian beer brands are Timisoreana, Bucegi and Neumarkt.
Serbia and Montenegro
Beer in Serbia and Montenegro is rarely mentioned outside of its state, regardless of its quality. Beer is mostly sold in half-litre bottles (empty bottles must be exchanged while buying or if not, bottles must be bought with beer as well); cans are less common, and canned beer could be of slightly better quality. Recently, most breweries began packing beer in plastic bottles of 1.5 or even two liters. This beer is cheaper though equal in quality.
Most beer that is produced is light beer. Dark beer is rarer (almost every larger brewery produces dark beer but in such small quantities that it is hard to find it). Some breweries also produce kvass or a similar drink.
Beer in glass bottles costs around 45 dinars (0.69 euros) per liter while in plastic it could go as low as 35 dinars (0.54 euros) per litre. Beer in pubs costs around 100 dinars (1.54 euros) per liter. Of course, it is possible to buy foreign beer in better-equipped stores, of these Heineken being most popular; but it is inaccessible to average citizens.
It is important to know a phenomenon caused by competition between breweries, most notably between the breweries of Apatin and Belgrade. When one brewery starts making beer of higher quality, more and more people start buying it; because of high demand the brewery begins hyperproduction of beer, and as a result of this its quality drops; meanwhile the other brewery, having low sales, improves the quality in order to attract customers; people switch back to it and the circle starts again.
United States
The USA has always been a beer-drinking nation. The diary of William Bradford records that the Mayflower made landfall at Plymouth Rock under duress: “We could not now take much time for further search…our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.”
The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands (as brought to New York) ensured that the colonies would be dominated by beer drinking and not the imbibing of wine. Up until the middle of the 19th century, ales dominated American brewing. This changed as the lager styles, brought by German immigrants, turned out to be more profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping. Names such as Miller, Pabst, and Schlitz became known through the breweries they founded or acquired, and many others followed. Czech immigrants also made their contributions to US beer.
The lager brewed by these companies was not the extremely weak and mild lager now associated with modern US mega breweries. This American pilsner was a significantly stronger beer, both in flavor and alcohol, that was designed to meet the appetites of both Native Americans and central European immigrants.
All of this came to a halt when Prohibition was imposed. Only a few of the largest breweries were able to stay in business — by manufacturing near beer, malt syrup, or other non-alcohol grain products. Production and shipping of alcohol was largely confined to illegal operations, which could deliver potent liquors — smuggled rum and domestic moonshine — more efficiently and safely than bulkier products such as beer.
For more than fifty years after the end of Prohibition, the United States beer market was heavily dominated by large commercial breweries, producing beers more noted for their uniformity than for any particular flavor. Beers such as those made by Anheuser-Busch and Coors followed a restricted pilsner style, with large-scale industrial processes and the use of low-cost ingredients (such as rice and corn). The dominance of the so-called “macrobrew” led to an international stereotype of “American beer” as poor in quality and flavor; one famous Canadian joke holds that American beer “is like making love in a canoe: it’s fucking close to water.”
However, since the resurgence of the commercial craft brewing industry in the 1980s, the United States now features many beers, offered by over 1500 brewpubs, microbreweries, and regional brewers such as Anchor (San Francisco) and Samuel Adams (Boston).
In much of eastern Pennsylvania including Philadelphia, the word “lager” is synonymous with Yuengling Traditional Lager, a flavorful beer from a regional brewery in Pottsville founded in 1829, making it the oldest continuously operating brewery in America. While in volume, the macrobrews still dominate, smaller producers brew in a variety of styles influenced by local sources of hops and other ingredients as well as by various European traditions.
The Association of Brewers has identified the following styles of North American origin:
- American-style pale ale
- American-style strong pale ale
- Imperial or double India pale ale
- American-style amber/red ale
- California Common beer
- Imperial or double red ale
- Golden or blonde ale
- American-style brown ale
- American lager
- American-style light lager
- American-style light amber lager
- American-style pilsener
- Dry lager
- American ice lager
- American malt liquor
- American-style Märzen/Oktoberfest
- American dark lager
The success of the commercial craft brewing industry has led the large breweries to invest in smaller breweries such as Widmer, and to develop more complex beers of their own.