Where is the best beer from?

It definitely has to be between the UK and Germany, personally I would say the UK on the basis that there is simply more variety in the British brewing tradition - that said British ales can be an acquired taste and if your palette veers more towards the lager and wheat beer spectrum I can see why you'd pick Germany.

I think Belgium strolls a third. Brewing in the USA is not the joke it once was - there's certainly a greater variety than there once was but they need to learn not to make everything so damn sweet and they lose points for the fact that good beer is still a niche market there, not a standard fact of life as in most of Europe. Therefore the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Ireland can play off for 4th, 5th and 6th place.

(Augustiner Helles = ) and of course they make some exceptional wheat beers, my favourite being Augustiner/Hacker.

I've heard that German firms can't add 'junk' chemicals to the beer unlike every other country. Don't know whether this is true though.

I've heard that German firms can't add 'junk' chemicals to the beer unlike every other country. Don't know whether this is true though.

They do have a reigensvehbotenvoten or whatever its called, which is basically a stringent set of rules.

Technically, there are several ways a German brewery could add other ingredients, but just as rare exceptions. The rule dates back to 1516.



As a German I really had to laugh reading this word It is actually the Reinheitsgebot (Reinheit meaning purity and Gebot meaning rule/imperative).

More variety in Britain? You reckon? Possibly in the last few years, but until recently the beer being brewed over him was very limited. Commercial lager aside, we have porter, stout, and mild (all very similar). bitter and brown ale, and IPA and pale ale. All served luke warm, all using pretty much the same grassy flavoured hops, just some are darker and more bitter than others.

Whereas Germany has always had helles and pilsners and hefeweissen and krystalweissen and berlinerweissen and dunkels and schwartzbiers and marzen and koelsh and altbiers and rauchbiers and etc etc etc.

USA? Really?

I think we come a little bit into the US category in that although we brew a lot of good beers most people drink generic crap - or drink Brahma and Coors and tell you that they're 'into beer'.

That said the range over here is actually extremely wide - there's all the traditional beers (the stouts, porters, bitters etc) that have been available for ages, plus the new wave of micro brewing doing everything from lagers and witbier to fruit beers and bocks.

Basically I just think that you'd probably find it easier to get a German wheat beer brewed in the UK than a British porter brewed in Germany.

My vote goes to England though, as ale is my thing.

Same. So, so many really great breweries around Yorkshire too. My staple ale is Fursty Ferret. I couldn't name a favourite... tried far too many types to remember. Doom Bar is by far the easiest ale I've ever drunk. It just goes down like water...