Premium Bitter/ESB

Originally posted by JoeMcPhee

Originally posted by chriso

Originally posted by SamGamgee
I just want to say that to compare something like bottled Fullers over here to your local versions is a mistake. Fullers cask in London is a lot closer to many American versions, which come out leaner and hoppier because they are fresh and non-pasteurized, unlike imported bottles. I think that a lot of the roundness and fruity-malty notes that people get here in English versions is just the effects of old, pasteurized beer.

Yep

Yes and no - I’ve been the UK many times and although the freshness of the hops certainly affect the taste, what I’m talking about are not the bottled/canned versions we get. It’s still true that the US versions (generally, not always) have a cleaner, less interesting malt component.

That’s definitely true, but I do see plenty of US brewers using UK base malts in their UK-style beers. And if you now what you are doing, it’s not that hard to get a nice malt character with only North American malt. I think the real issue is just a bunch of US brewers that aren’t that great to begin with and don’t really understand UK beers anyway. I’ve heard that Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was originally a Fullers ESB clone. Thank goodness SN wasn’t afraid to take the beer into new style territory and not copy the name.