Steve wrote on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:53:52 +0000 (UTC):

>> "James Silverton" > wrote in

>>> Sometimes I wonder about tales of beers tasting much better
>>> in the original country! It's like some wines that are
>>> said "don't travel". The ambience and the mood you were in
>>> affects your memories of a first taste. It has to admitted
>>> that not all imported beers have been kept properly and can
>>> be a bit skunked.

>> there is that, of course, but a beer's flavor is also
>> dependent on the water used, the strain of the yeast (& that
>> alone can make a rather big difference), the grains, the type
>> of hop... when the hops are added, etc. American made
>> St.Pauli Girl really isn't anything like imported St.Pauli
>> Girl.

> I'm sure the latter is true, but even beers that should
> be from identical batches can taste far better close to
> their origin.

> I personally think that ales travel much less well than
> lagers.

Water used for making beer is usually pretty pure and I have no evidence
that St. Pauli Girl uses different hops or yeasts in different
countries, do you? American brewers do use imported hops for some beers.
As an aside, I don't think all that much of any brewer's St. Pauli Girl.
It's not one that I would go out of my way to buy.

There's another type of beer that I like, Hefeweizen, that many US
brewers claim to make but very few of them use the correct yeast. You
can readily detect a slight taste of cloves in the real thing. Flying
Dog brewery of Denver does make a real tasting Hefeweizen, despite the
ridiculous label.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not