Which continent has the best beer?

[PolishHeadlock]

This is a partial list of breweries in Pennsylvania. In 2012 there were 134 licensed breweries in Pennsylvania.[1] Only the notable ones are listed here.
This is an incomplete list of many of the breweries in Canada.
The Canadian list is demonstrably longer although only a most pleasurable lifetime of sampling them all would prove whether they are the equal in quality, I will admit. Anyway, why the hell is everyone so serious about a discussion of beer? I love beer no matter where it's from if it's good. I rebel a little from the uber emphasis throughout NA on IPAs since I quite smoking but I appreciate their place in the beer pantheon. I just happen to have the impression that if you extract IPAs from the equation, the USA is not so far along as one might wish and Canada has a role to play in filling the gap.

I can't think of a Canadian craft beer outside of La Fin du Monde.

Which ones should I be looking out for?

 

[Andy Capp]

I can't think of a Canadian craft beer outside of La Fin du Monde.

Which ones should I be looking out for?

It all depends upon what part of the country you're in. For US sale, I haven't the foggiest clue.
I love these guys although I have had limited access to their varieties since I am quite a bit further east:
http://st-ambroise.mcauslan.com/en/
Here in my home province there's lots of good stuff also. I don't know if there are any that have become big enough to be found too far afield. And of course, Ontario has been a hotbed of micro-brew since long before I lived there back in the late 80's. Sadly, none of it makes its way this far east and what I have had lately was in airports. Coming to Canada sometime soon?

 

[bdthrill]

Yep. The US is catching up faaast, Some great microbrews in the US, some of the best I have had. Europe still crushes our common domestic beers. Samuel Adams is really the only big name US beer that can hang with the Euro beer.

Sam Adams sucks so does all domestic beer. US has great beer but not what is the most popular

 

[Don Hagliatelli]

It's difficult to say.

I agree with a lot of posters that craft / micro breweries are putting out the best beers.

That's why it's difficult to compare. Often production volumes are so low and local demand for good beer is so high that they don't export.

If something gets so popular that they increase production, the larger scale will often lose what made the beer so good in the first place.

Importing small amounts of beer works out very expensive so even if you have a good beer it will struggle to justify the retail price compared to decent local beer.

I've had plenty of nice beers abroad but usually struggle to find them when I get home. If I do they will probably be on a specialist website for twice what I normally pay.

Unless you travel a lot and make an effort to find the best local beers everywhere you go, I don't see hoe anybody can make a call on this.

Personally, the best beers I've had were in Belgium. It's all subjective though.

 

[Chinballs]

I was under the impression American beer sucks.

I'll have to try some.

 

[BennyOcean]

Heineken is Dutch, no?

Yes I realized it after I posted that but forgot to edit. Becks is German tho.

 

[Phlog]

Europe.

By a country mile. It's not even close. Belgium alone can give the US a good run.

That said, it is great to see that America is redressing the balance and finding out taste.

 

[monsterxmonster]

Europe.

By a country mile. It's not even close. Belgium alone can give the US a good run.

That said, it is great to see that America is redressing the balance and finding out taste.

Good beer is everywhere in the States now though. For sheer quantity of good beer, America wins. The Belgians have trappists and lambic but for the most part (like anywhere else including the US) that isn't what the general Belgian public is drinking.

 

[I Am Legion]

I actually don't care for Belgian beer. I also don't like overly hoppy craft beers. I went to Germany and loved Oktoberfest...but in the end I gotta go with the US for so many quality beers and access ability to anything u want.

 

[MaureenCretis]

Wrong.

Only twats call it craft beer.

 

[monsterxmonster]

Only twats call it craft beer.

And supermarkets, pubs and bars.

 

[Pixelated Porn]

Guarantee you all these motherfucking ignant bitches saying the US sucks, have never had a Treehouse beer period.

I can't think of a Canadian craft beer outside of La Fin du Monde.

Which ones should I be looking out for?

Just because you are in philly, I was at Tired Hands a few weeks ago and it was fucking awesome.

 

[Sonnyboi83]

Vietnam, because Beer om.

 

[JSN]

France

French France?

Is this about who has the most great beer? It may remain Europe for the time being due to sheer variety and history but North America, Canada in particular, will overtake you within a decade or 2, I think. The US is pretty obsessed with IPAs but here in Canada there is far more variety from what I have seen. I suspect this correlates very well with our respective rates of smoking vs non-smoking beer drinkers and it needs to be said that it depends a lot on personal taste, but once I quit smoking, I was less interested in scotch and IPA beer and more into subtle tastes like sake and less hoppy varieties of beer.

For the record, Japan has some really great beers, but they tend to be quite similar. Strong tastes like in IPAs don't go well with subtle tastes like miso and sushi so there isn't as much experimentation, but man, they perfected some really good ones. I think Asia shines when discussing who has the best overall booze, not just beer, mind you.

Can you recommend a couple japanese whiskeys? I tried one several months back called kamikaze or something like that they charged me $18 for and TBH is wasn't that good. I bought a bottle of Oban later that night and it was sooooo much better.

Yeah, you're way off. There are states in the US with more high quality breweries than the entire of Canada. There are tons of breweries in the US specifically specialising in saisons, American wild ales, lagers, stouts and every other style you can imagine. You'll always see a lot of pale ales and IPAs because they're accessible and easy drinking. Nobody's drinking a 6 pack of imperial stout.

I think IPA's are such a large % of the market because they're just plain easiest to brew. You don't need lagering temperatures and the hops will hide bad water source or leaching from your tanks.

 

[SouthoftheAndes]

I don't believe in 7 continent.

Eurasia is 1
Africa is 2
North America is 3
South America 4
Australia is 5
Antarctica is 6

There are 6

 

[monsterxmonster]

I think IPA's are such a large % of the market because they're just plain easiest to brew. You don't need lagering temperatures and the hops will hide bad water source or leaching from your tanks.

Oh yeah, definitely that too.

 

[MaureenCretis]

And supermarkets, pubs and bars.

Twatty ones, yes.

 

[HHJ]

Europe, Belgium in particular

This

I got myself proper sozzled when i actually went there and gloriusly bought tasty death beers for 3.20 euros a pop with no tip

 

[j123]

This

I got myself proper sozzled when i actually went there and gloriusly bought tasty death beers for 3.20 euros a pop with no tip

inb4 40+ page thread

 

[Tamriel Terror]

so far my favorite beer i've tried was red oaks amber lager. It was kinda sweet and not super bitter, and i loved it.

Basically anywhere thats known for having a larger selection of less bitter beers would be my personal favorite (not sure where that would be though)

Also i can't stand IPA's, they taste like bitter ass to me .