World beers have been regulars at the bar for a while now, many of them dispensed from eye-catching, boldly coloured fonts in the company of equally beautiful glasses — the sort of bar-top eye candy that can often sway the purchasing power of an indecisive drinker.
Many also work well with food and are a handsome addition to the dinner table. So it goes without saying that for the licensee with the right attitude and a good awareness of the likes and dislikes of their customers, world beers can add style and substance to the front of house.
In addition they make good economic sense: they are a buoyant part of the beer category, partly because many young drinkers are widely travelled and partly because of the excitement the craft category generates.
Here are 20 world beers — listed alphabetically — that the adventurous licensee might like to consider.
Jever Pilsener
4.9% ABV, Friesisches Brauhaus su Jever, Jever, Lower Saxony, Germany
In a country stacked with Pilseners, Jever stands out like a beacon of non-conformity. Yes, it’s gold in colour, and it’s brewed to the Reinheitsgebot, but one gulp and you’ll be gasping at its uncommonly ferocious bitter finish. Great with pickled herring.
Available from Beer Hawk
Köstritzer Schwarzbier
4.8% ABV, Köstritzer Brewery, Bad Köstritz, Thuringia, Germany
This black lager is the speciality of the eastern Germany province of Thuringia and before the Berlin Wall came down was fairly unknown in the west. As dark as a stout, this has plenty of mocha coffee, chocolate on the nose and palate, while its mouth feel is creamy and the finish is dry.
Available from James Clay
La Trappe Quadrupel
10% ABV, De Konongshoeven Brewery, Berkel-Enschot, Tilburg, Netherlands
There is one Trappist brewery in the Netherlands and this is it. The Quadrupel is the strongest beer in its portfolio and a definite sipper, with a deep and rich fruitiness, smokiness, and caramel sweetness all combining to make a special brew.
Available from Cave Direct
Orval
6.2% ABV, Brasserie dOrval, Florenville, Walloon, Belgium
Yet another classic Trappist beer, this time from southern Belgium. Served in an elegant goblet-like glass its earthy and peppery nose is underpinned by rich orange peel notes, while its creamy mouth feel, snappy carbonation and flurries of sour and citrusy notes always fascinate.
Available from Beer Hawk
Pilsner Urquell
4.4% ABV, Pizensky Prazdroj, Pizen, Bohemia, Czech Republic
If you had a time machine and went to Pizen (Pilsen) in 1842 you’d find the good citizens celebrating the creation of this sparkling golden beer. Thankfully, Pilsner Urquell remains a world classic, delicate yet assertive with the combination of spicy Saaz hops and gently toasted Moravian malt making for a beer as refreshing as a mountain stream.
Available from Miller Brands
Seefbier
6.5% ABV, Antwerpse Brouw Compagnie, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
Award-winning beer based on a traditional Antwerp style from the 19th century.
Falling into the Belgian ale category, it has a rich fruity nose reminiscent of banana, a tingly mouth feel and more fruit (banana and pineapple) on the palate before its striking bitter finish.
Available from James Clay
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
5.6% ABV, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Chico, California, USA
If you want a beer to introduce the curious drinker to American craft products this is the one. First brewed in the early 1980s it is still a great beer whose bright and bold use of the Cascade hop variety produces tropical fruit notes on the nose, while the palate is a judicious balance between more fruit and gently toasted maltiness, before leading to a lasting bitterness.
Available from Westside Drinks
Spaceman IPA
7% ABV, BrewFist, Codogno, Lombardy, Italy
Hops, hops, hops. BrewFist began brewing in 2010 and looked to the USA for inspiration.
One of the results is this robust IPA with an array of tropical fruit aromas on the nose, with similar on the palate alongside a furnace blast of hoppiness and a juicy malt sweetness before the dry finish.
Available from Beer Hawk
Westmalle Tripel
9.5% ABV, Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle, Malle, Flanders, Belgium
Over at the Trappist abbey of Westmalle near Antwerp, this generously flavoured Tripel is rightly considered as one of the world’s best. Expect a massive Champagne-like mouth feel, a rich but lean fruitiness and a warming, bittersweet finish.
Serve in a branded chalice glass.
Available from James Clay
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
5.1% ABV, Brauerei Heller, Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
One of the most contentious beers in Europe, a smoked beer (or Rauchbier) from Bamberg in southern Bavaria.
In the glass it pulsates with a smoky nose of peat, well-worn leather, fireplace ash and the suggestion of smoked fish. There’s more roast on the palate with whispers of chocolate and caramel and an appetising bitterness.
Available from James Clay
Anchor Porter
5.6% ABV, Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, California, USA
Lush, creamy, smoky, bitter and mocha-like porter first brewed by San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing back in 1972, one of the first revivalist porters made by an early pioneer of American craft beer.
A delight on its own or tempt sweet-toothed customers by matching it with chocolate cake.
Available from Carlsberg
Birrificio Italiano Tipopils
5.2% ABV, Birrificio Italiano, Lurago Marinone, Lombardy, Italy
This gleaming golden Pils is big and bold in both nose and flavour, with a crisp and refreshing mouth feel; on the palate it’s bitter and aromatic, dry and sprightly, fragrant, resiny, powerful and punchy. The finish is dry and bitter; one of the best European Pils(e)ners outside Bohemian and Bavaria.
Available from Vertical Drinks
Boulevard Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
8.5% ABV, Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
When we talk of saison we think of southern Belgium and farms where this style of beer has been brewed forever, but saison is a worldwide style now, including this earthy and spicy example from Kansas City.
At 8.5% it is a big beer, but a pub intrigued by food and beer would have no problem suggesting it with a creamy, stinky blue cheese.
Available from Carlsberg
Easy IPA
4.7% ABV, Flying Dog Brewery, Frederick, Maryland, USA
Hopheads in search of something less assertive than the usual IPA will bark with joy at this well-hopped session IPA, which has fresh aromatics of pineapple, lime and grapefruit on the nose. It continues in a similar vein on the palate, alongside a grainy, cereal sweetness, before finishing dry and bitter.
Available from Carlsberg
Duvel
8.5% ABV, Duvel Moortgat Brewery, Puurs, Antwerp, Belgium
The devil is in the glass with this magnificent Flemish golden ale first brewed in the 1920s (it was dark until the late 1960s). Best served in its classic thistle-shaped glass, which gives plenty of room for the billowing meringue-white head and allows the fruity aromas to waft upwards before you sink into its deep dissolute well of fruit (pears), spice and a brisk carbonation.
Available from Carlsberg
Budweiser Budvar Dark
4.7% ABV, Budejovicky Budvar, Ceske Budejovice, Bohemia, Czech Republic
Known as a Tmavý Ležák in Czech, this midnight-dark lager has coffee, light toffee and smoke on the nose and leads to an elegant and medium-bodied mouth feel with ground roast coffee beans and toffee-meets-vanilla sweetness on the palate before its dry but quick finish.
Available from Budweiser Budvar
Dirty Bastard
8.5% ABV, Founders Brewing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Not all American beers making their way to the bar-top are massive hop bombs, as this rich and powerful Scotch ale demonstrates.
At this strength it’s definitely a contemplative, end-of-the-night beer with a smoky, peaty character on the nose, while the seven types of malts used give it a luscious character, balanced by a righteous buzz of hops in the finish.
Available from James Clay
Dead Guy Ale
6.6% ABV, Rogue Ales, Ashland, Oregon, USA
True to form this morbidly named beer comes in a bottle on which there’s a silk-screen printing of a skeleton sitting on a beer barrel. Brewed in Oregon, this is a malt-forward German-style Maibock with plenty of coffee, caramel and a honeyed sweetness before its bittersweet finish. Delicious.
Available from EuroBoozer
Brooklyn Lager
5.2% ABV, Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, New York, USA
One of the great revivalist American craft lagers, this amber Vienna has a solid malt-accented body, which works alongside a refreshing bitterness and a delicate floral and fruity aroma. Always a good go-to lager.
Available from Matthew Clark