Which countries make the best beers in your opinion?

[Deathknightish]

What would we do without beer? Water of life, truly. But who does it the best, in your opinion?

I have to categorise it, because different countries do different beers the best.

Lager: Hom sweet home. Germany and the Czech Republic, no doubt. They created beer as we know it today, and they master the original. Nothing goes better with a sausage than a München lager.

Ale: Probably England and the U.S. I prefer APA over IPA, but I like most ales. This is my most commonly drunk type of beer.

Stout/Porter: Scandinavia. This is where I have to be a bit patriotic. The UK make some mean porters and stouts, but the true masters of the porter craft you find in Scandinavia. My all-time favourite porter is the Swedish Carnegie porter. A glass of that, with a piece of dark chocolate in front of a good movie... nothing beats it. My favourite type of beer.

Hokirable mention, the lambic. Belgium. Nuf said. Don't even think I've seen a lambic made outside of Belgium.

[Tziva]

Ten, fifteen years ago before craft brewing and microbreweries were a big thing, liking beers by region was probably a little bit more viable. Nowadays you can find great beers almost anywhere, and places with craft beer scenes (which I'm going to guess is almost everywhere now) are branching out and doing new, different things. America went from being a joke to being a fantastic source of many really excellent beers of all varieties.

I'm really picky with what I like (certain kinds of stouts and porters), and there is no location pattern to my favourites. I guess if I had to make a list, the US would make up the majority of that, but that's almost certainly just due to sample size because it is a huge country and probably just simply has more breweries overall. But I really do like stuff from all over.

So I think this question is a little obsolete nowadays unless you happen to really only like a very specific type of beer that is still very inherently tied to the region. And if you're just judging on the whole picture of output, then I'd probably have to be a heretic to beer snobs and go with the US because, once you ignore the massive-produced drek, there are so many fantastic breweries doing great iterations on every kind of beer under the sun.

[Stelio Kontos]

I'm not a beer snob, so I don't think any nation has intrinsically better or worse beers. Different producers can have differing qualities of course.

So I drink beers from all over. Sometimes a brewery from a country you don't expect can surprise you.

[Dwarfhamster]

whichever country makes Bud Light. Man, that's some great beer.

[Valerossi]

The beers of Saudi Arabia must rank right up there , given the country’s relaxed attitude regarding alcoholic beverages. Here are a few reviews of one of their best known brews:

https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/al-amo...egular/108792/

[Tuor]

Well, i don't understand much of beers, but every time there's a football (soccer) game, and a Brit team comes here (Portugal) they always enjoy our beers. There was even the case of a Brit team that had a song for a specific portuguese beer, can't remember wich team.

[MCMLXXXII]

whichever country makes Bud Light. Man, that's some great beer.

Bud light has nothing to do with beer.

To answer the OP: Belgium, for every kind of beer.
Germany is a close second, especially for Weizener.

[Puupi]

Lagers: Czech Rep, Belgium, Finland
Ales: Ireland, Germany, UK
Wheat beer: Germany

Although there are lots of good beers from all over the world so ranking them by country is a bit hard.

[Zuben]

Store shelves and beer festivals here mostly feature domestic products from small breweries, so I'm most exposed to Finnish beer and have liked them a lot. I also have friends who brew their own beer and I've gotten to test their stuff on multiple occasions. With that in mind I say Finland for craft beer. Germany for wheat beer. For the bulk stuff I mostly consume Finnish or Estonian, but Czech has been consistently good for different products where the other two have had some really bad ones.

[tankbug]

I think that globalization has made this question hard to answer, because a lot has happened in beer culture all over the world the last decade. I usually prefer craft brew to the industrial, traditional beer, and my favorites are from different countries. Currently, I think my favorite breweries are Omnipollo (Sweden), Mikkeller (Denmark), To øl (Denmark) and Cervasiam (Norway). I prefer IPA and sour ales, but the situation can make a huge impact on my experience. The most refreshing beer I ever had was a regular Peroni on a very hot day in Rome. The best "taste to go with the surroundings" was a Franziskaner on a mountain cabin in the alps after a long hike.

[Acidbaron]

Ten, fifteen years ago before craft brewing and microbreweries were a big thing, liking beers by region was probably a little bit more viable. Nowadays you can find great beers almost anywhere, and places with craft beer scenes (which I'm going to guess is almost everywhere now) are branching out and doing new, different things. America went from being a joke to being a fantastic source of many really excellent beers of all varieties.

I'm really picky with what I like (certain kinds of stouts and porters), and there is no location pattern to my favourites. I guess if I had to make a list, the US would make up the majority of that, but that's almost certainly just due to sample size because it is a huge country and probably just simply has more breweries overall. But I really do like stuff from all over.

So I think this question is a little obsolete nowadays unless you happen to really only like a very specific type of beer that is still very inherently tied to the region. And if you're just judging on the whole picture of output, then I'd probably have to be a heretic to beer snobs and go with the US because, once you ignore the massive-produced drek, there are so many fantastic breweries doing great iterations on every kind of beer under the sun.

I believe this is pretty much the case now, things have opened up so much that brewing beer is no longer limited to older generations of brewers that have a business or monasteries. I would use to say Belgium but i am not a snob on that matter so i am open to all sorts of new creations IPA's are all around these days and even apparently some good Dutch ones around, while dutch beers don't have the best of reputation here, for example "Brand bier"



For lagers honestly i am sticking to Jupiler or even Maes force of habit and for me they also always have to be freezing cold, family in Germany have some odd habit of serving their lagers on room temperature. So for me lagers i am sticking with Belgian ones.

For all the rest i really don't have an actual preference having grown up in Belgium it is rather rare that you drink beers from other nations because we simply have such an abundance of choice, cafe's i used to visit generally held anything ranging from 20 to 40 different type of beers.

Looking come summer to order from this one, https://vandestreekbier.nl/ to try something new.

[ranzino]

do never ask a german which country is best in beer. it is unfair competition with >1400 breweries.


for fun and giggles: Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen's figur) in Two and a half man stocked the fridge with Radeberger, which IS a german beer.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Since micro-breweries made such an explosion onto the scene, I can't really settle for one single country... But I love how Belgians enjoy beer, with the glasses and the facial hairs and the pubs. :3

[stevenho]

This https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._retouched.jpg

Also 99% of craft beer is pure crap.

[Puupi]

This https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._retouched.jpg

Also 99% of craft beer is pure crap.

When you say you like Budweiser, which country do you mean?

Czechia, Germany, Austria or USA?

[stevenho]

When you say you like Budweiser, which country do you mean?

Czechia, Germany, Austria or USA?

Click image and read.

[Puupi]

Click image and read.

Yes and that only rules out USA.

[zEmini]

Belgium, Germany and US Micro Beers.

[stevenho]

Yes and that only rules out USA.

Read harder.
Hint: bottom.

[Puupi]

Read harder.
Hint: bottom.

Now we come back to the subject in the other thread a couple of days ago; why knowing geography and therefore history is important.