In his recent visits to the UK Greg Zeschuk, the founder of Edmonton, Alberta’s Blind Enthusiasm, has experienced the great and the good of the brewing industry here. In this column, he shares his views on the scene and how it compares to the breweries, taprooms and beers of North America. 

My name is Greg Zeschuk and I’m writing this column because I strong-armed the editor of the Brewers Journal into letting me share some observations on the UK brewing industry from an outside perspective.

I’d hesitate to call myself and expert, but I am a student of beer culture and brewing. I own and operate a brewery in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada called Blind Enthusiasm, and I previously produced a YouTube show called The Beer Diaries that showcased the rise of the craft beer industry in Austin, Texas and Colorado.

I recently had the opportunity to spend 2 months in London meeting folks from the brewing business and sampling a wide range of beers. My time was spent nearly exclusively in London though I did take one trip to visit some small southern towns.

Consequently my experience was like viewing the entire brewing UK scene through a keyhole. To alleviate this I did my best to try beers from as many breweries as possible. In the future I’ll continue in my quest and do more traveling to get more of a local perspective. Meanwhile, I’ll share some of my observations and comparisons of the UK and North American brewing industries.

The most fundamental difference between the UK and North America is we don’t have pubs in North America. This has huge implications for the structure of the brewing industry and the approach we take in North America in serving our beer. We do have bars, restaurants, and retail outlets but not UK-style pubs.

Bars are the closest we’ve got but they don’t have the same community-focus as a pub. They also aren’t nearly as plentiful. This gap in the market has led to a huge rise in brewery taprooms.

In North America you’re seen as crazy if you don’t open a taproom along with opening a brewery. Taprooms serve both marketing and sales functions.

I’d even postulate that brewery taprooms in North America have a role similar to UK pubs: community gathering places where folks get together to hang out and just happen to drink beer.

I was really surprised to see how taprooms weren’t a focus for many UK breweries. They seem to be rising in popularity now, but that seems like a recent thing.

Spring-boarding off their taproom efforts North American breweries are also crazy about merchandise. A running joke is that most North American breweries have hats and t-shirts even before they have beer. We’re all on a mission to make our customers walking billboards for our breweries. This didn’t seem like the case in my travels, and I was surprised to see well known breweries with no t-shirts or hats for me to purchase.

Aside from a theory that folks in the UK are simply better-dressed than North Americans, I think part of the reason for this is the independent beer business in North America is relatively new and novel, whereas in the UK there have been independent breweries in existence for years, and beer culture isn’t new. In North America beer culture is new, and people love to trumpet the love for their favorite brands.

The last topic I want to call out is the beer itself. Like any good beer tourist visiting the UK I had some great cask ale and marvelled at the unfamiliar carbonation and temperature but this certainly didn’t prevent me from quaffing many delicious pints. Some were from classic brands, but other standout cask ales were from smaller breweries firmly in the craft category. This was a delight.

“I didn’t expect to have best hazies I’ve ever experienced from UK breweries.”

Greg Zeschuk, Blind Enthusiasm

The other revelation for me was just how well UK brewers are brewing North American styles. I didn’t expect to have best hazies I’ve ever experienced from UK breweries. I even had one on cask! In North America we tend to overdo everything, at least initially, and that’s what we did with hazies: hop burn, excessive sweetness, and sludgy yeast build-up were common characteristics here. The hazies I had in the UK were exceptionally well balanced and brewed with finesse.

And it wasn’t just hazies: I fully expected UK breweries to be kings of dark beers and barleywines but I didn’t think I’d be having great mixed fermentation beers and experimental styles. If any of you had any insecurities about how your beers are stacking up against ours, don’t! They are not only delicious, but better made in many cases.

That’s the quick summary of what I saw during my visit. As I noted at the outset of this column in the future I’m planning on traveling more widely around the UK to test my assumptions in more locations. I’m also going to try a lot more beers and hope I continue to be as pleasantly surprised was I was on my first visit.

You guys are killing it!