Ian Stewart A Company Director from Aberdeenshire, Ian's love of beer was fostered whilst working in London, where lunch was the excellent steak pie of the Guinea Grill just off Berkeley Square, washed down with a couple of pints of Young's Special. In the 80's Ian moved to Edinburgh, where Lorimer 70/- was a favourite, as was the occasional trip to the "Diggers" (The Athletic Arms - across the road from the graveyard!) Ian contributes to his local CAMRA website, and helps at the annual beer festival.

An ale-drinker's guide to US microbreweries

part I - background and the brewpub phenomenon

Our daughter moved to USA several years ago, married a Californian, and settled down with their two children in southern Oregon. Naturally, this means we are obliged to travel to USA on holiday every year - a hardship I can easily endure!

The only thing I was initially slightly concerned about was getting a regular supply of good ale whenever we crossed the pond. My previous experiences of USA had been family holiday trips to Florida many years ago, where everything seemed to be Bud, Miller's or Coors. What I didn't appreciate until I did more travel in the USA, was the extent of the craft brewing revolution over there. It reminded me of all those years ago when the large brewers in the UK were trying to phase out cask conditioned ale and force us all to consume Red Barrel and the like, and, as a direct result, CAMRA was born as a consumer pressure group.

Craft brewing seemed to start in the USA on the West Coast, with Oregon, and Portland in particular, claiming to be the instigators of this "revolution". Craft or micro-breweries initially made inroads in to the market, by offering a new tasty alternative to the global brands. However, they soon discovered that brewing was a low margin business, with the major brands largely making money solely from economies of scale. Microbreweries had to look to increase their margins by adding value, and this led to the growth of brewpubs which offered their own beers for sale, but also an extensive food menu. Soon these brewpubs got larger and attracted families as well as drinkers and today, many

of them are part of chains, like Rock Bottom, which now has brewpubs in 15 separate states. Conversely, the UK's limited experience of brewpubs has been on a much smaller scale and has largely been done to supply a source of cheap beer, with only a very few places realising the marketing potential of having a brewing theme, with shining kettles clearly visible.

In the past 6 or 7 years I have travelled around the States and visited many of the big cities like New York, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, New Orleans and this year at last, Portland, Oregon. Without fail, all have several large brewpubs and I always make a point of doing an internet search before I go to locate them. Some, but by no means all of the big city brewpubs offer a cask conditioned ale served from a traditional handpump, but the vast majority are keg.

The first thing we always do when entering a new brewpub for the first time is ask for the sampler tray. This is by far the best way of finding out which brews are the best. There's usually at least 6 or 7 to choose from, but I have seen up to 13 in one pub! They range all the way from the light pilseners, through bitters, ambers, pale ales, hefeweizens/wheat beers, stouts and porters. One outstanding feature you notice almost immediately is how high the a.b.v.'s are on all of them. Mostly, they start at about 4.5% and rise rapidly from there. The American craft brewers appear to be trying to keep alive/revive the European classic brews, particularly the Czech, Belgian, German and British ones, some of which, ironically are dying out or under threat on this side of the pond.

Pale Ales are a classic example. We are now more used to these being lighter at about 4% or less (like Deuchar's), but you seldom see them at less than 6% in USA. Of course, historically, IPA's used to be brewed stronger in the UK as they had to undergo a long journey to the heat of the Indian sub-continent, but nowadays, things have changed a bit. It may seem strange to some to think of Americans as upholders of a fine tradition, but that's exactly what's happening.

photo © F.W Houck

Craft brewing has now spread to smaller towns, and often these are the more interesting, more often than not owned by "one generation" American families, those with a German family background particularly prominent. I came upon a particularly good one this year in Sedona, Arizona - red rock country, where all the old cowboy films from the 50's were made. It's an hour or so's drive north from Phoenix on the way to the Grand Canyon. The large red rocks all have strange shapes and each has its own name (Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock etc.), and they are believed by some to have mystical properties. The town seems largely to consist of artistic, spiritual and alternative thinking and healing businesses. The whole area is also believed to be a centre for extra-terrestrial activity, so you get the general picture?

on to part II - the brewpubs