DecemBEER

December is here, which means snowy weather, outdoor markets, bad music and of course too much eating and drinking.

December also means that I can jump off the beer wagon that I've been on for the best part of a month. I did actually get off at an early stop, because during the last weekend of November I was in the UK, and there is absolutely no way that I was going to say no to a decent pint of British ale. I was in Liverpool for three days and had the pleasure of visiting some absolutely fantastic pubs. It's really lovely to see, in a country where 40 pubs are shutting a week, that the pubs who do something different are the ones that are packed to the rafters. I went in about eight CAMRA recommended pubs at various different times of the day, and each one was busy. One of them had a winter beer festival, offering over 70 cask ales, and it was standing room only (in what was quite a large pub) at lunchtime. The others all offered something different too, be it a particular meal that makes them stand out (research the origin of the word "Scouse" on wikipedia), or a selection of ales from a local micro. It was also pleasing to see that the pubs that only offered generic lagers and beers, with the standard "live sports" sign outside, were either empty or shutdown.

The British pub is part of our heritage, and is on the same level as fish and chips, red telephone boxes, London buses and David Beckham when it comes to things that "Non - Brits" associate with the country, and just like Beckhams image, it will only progress and win new fans, if it offers something different and stands out from the crowd.

The same goes for beer.

As well as visiting the UK, I've also been to Sweden. I went there to visit my old mate Jorgen, who owns the superb Oliver Twist pub in Stockholm. This pub was the blueprint for Drink Bar, and Jorgen offers over 65 draught beers, and over 100 bottled beers. He's the largest importer of American craft beers in Scandinavia. He always gives me somthing interesting to take home, and it's one of these beers that I'll review.

When you think American beer, you generally think of something light and uninteresting. The 4 main brewers in the US have 98% of the beer volume. The remaining 2% is made up of about 500 small breweries - microbreweries, nano breweries. No one has heard of these breweries, because as Jorgen quotes "when you spend all your money on sourcing the best possible ingredients available, you don't have any money left for marketing". Now you can see why Budweiser has such a huge marketing budget.

When you think of canned beer, you generally think of the contents as being something light and uninteresting. So now I'm going to turn this all on its head by reviewing a canned American beer.

Modus Hoperandi IPA (http://www.ratebeer/ rating: 97) is produced by the Ska Brewing company from Durango, Colorado. (http://www.skabrewing.com/)  It's 6.8% abv and comes in a 330ml can. Yes - an IPA in a can.  These guys are at the forefront of American craft brewing, and they've canned this beer (although it's available in bottles too) to prove that decent beer can be served from a tin. Just like Brewdog in the UK do things because they can (but generally to prove some sort of point), Ska do the same.

I'm not going to do a long winded article about American beers and the current rapid growth of the micro market - I brought enough back with me from Oliver Twist to review more beers and talk a bit more, so let's get straight down to the beer.

It pours a lovely burnt amber colour, and you get a huge whiff of hops -zesty hops - as you pour into the glass. It's got a great body, and the head is huge and substantial. Especially when you consider it's from a can. The last time I had a beer from a can with so much body, was when it had a widget in the bottom.

The taste is something similar to Punk IPA. The IBU's on this beer are pretty much the same level - approx 65. If you shut your eyes away from the can, you'd never guess you were drinking a canned beer, and to be honest, you wouldn't be looked at funny if you thought someone had just handed you the beer straight from the bar. Its got that typical USA zesty, pinecone taste from the hops, but this also has quite a bit of malt to back up the flavours. A nice dry finish, not too bitter, but certainly dry enough to make you reach almost immediately for the next sip.

Definitely the best beer I've had out of a can since the times when I used to drink draught Bass (they brewed it especially for can - it was less carbonated and matured over time) out of a can when I used to come in from doing the gardening. Back then, four cans of Bass whilst I was warming up from the cold, hardly used to touch the sides.

I'm tempted to bring this to Estonia. It's got a cool name and a cool image on the can. But it's in a can. And it's American. And it will be more expensive than local beers. And...Finns drink out of 330ml cans.  So all in all, a fantastic beer - but I'm just not sure if it will sell in Estonia. Which is a shame, because cans are so much easily stored/transported than bottles. It's also available in bottles, and I'll look into the possibility if they are available to bring to Estonia.

Or is a bottled craft beer now too mainstream?