Pete Brown's World Cup beers
Every four years, a beer writer somewhere gets asked to do a World Cup-themed beer feature with a different beer representing each country. I remember reading them in 2002, 2006 and 2010, with grim inevitability, each trudging out a procession of Identikit imitation Pilsners, with a few gaps for those countries where alcohol is not for general sale.
This year it’s different.
You might think craft beer is a London hipster thing, or something that’s just about America, or even a phenomenon that occurs only in long-established beer markets where people have become bored with big brands.
But it seems you’d be wrong.
My search for 32 beers from 32 diverse countries revealed an astonishing cornucopia of styles and flavours.
There are barley wines from South America, stouts from Africa and English-style ales from southern Europe. Just as talented footballers play for clubs all over the world, so classic and new beer styles and influences are likely now to pop up just about anywhere.
Group A
Brazil
Eisenbahn Rauchbier 6.5% ABV
Germany has always had a big influence on the finer end of Brazilian brewing, and Eisenbahn has been creating interesting beers brewed to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law since 2002. This beer is already winning international competitions with its subtle, smoky skills.
Cameroon
Kadji Beer Blonde Lager 5% ABV
This beer simply describes itself as ‘100% Camerounaise’. Pale, light and refreshing, it’s not quite up there with the most successful African team in World Cup history, but is a worthy accompaniment to celebrating the heroics of Samuel Eto’o and co.
Croatia
Tomislav Tamno Pivo 7.3% ABV
A ‘Baltic Porter’, in the Baltic states, often refers to a dark lager, quite unlike the English style. Further south, this is the style Croatia took on to create its strongest beer in 1925.
Mexico
Negra Modelo 5.4% ABV
This dark lager is quietly respected around the globe, a curious anomaly in
a world of pale imitation Pilsners. Malty and flavourful, light and balanced, it’s likely to prove more durable than the football team this summer.
Group B
Australia
Little Creatures Pale Ale 5.2% ABV
This gem of a beer is in many a connoisseur’s world top 10: sweet, citrus hoppiness and a gentle, bitter buzz, it’s little different from many other pale ales, except it’s much better than them.
Chile
Szot Strong ale 12% ABV
Continuing the extraordinary development of South American craft beer, this strong barley wine has triple the hops and five times the fermentation period of the brewery’s other beers.
Netherlands
SNAB Maelstrøm 9.2% ABV
A barley-wine style beer full of US hops from a northern Dutch brewer’s collective: lots of dark fruit with deep, woozy, sherry-like alcohol rounded off with an aromatic hop hit: this is total beer.
Spain
L’anjub Lug 3.5% ABV
Named for the Celt-Iberian god who was purported to be both warrior and healer, this session ale shows Spanish craft beer is becoming as strong and exciting as its football.
Group C
Colombia
BBC Chapinero Porter 5% ABV
Described as an English-style porter with the coffee and chocolate notes you’d expect, Bogotá Beer Company owes more than its initials to great British institutions. There’s craft in them there mountains.
Greece
Mythos Hellenic Lager Beer 4.7% ABV
The archetypal beer you drink your bodyweight in every day on holiday, this Carlsberg-owned brew actually tastes more like Heineken would if it went on holiday itself — lighter, carefree and less complicated.
Ivory Coast
Beaufort 5% ABV
According to its website, Beaufort is “a valuable and distinguished lager that celebrates and promotes excellence, and its legendary finesse guarantees you a unique taste in every sip”. Every sip is unique? That’s got to be one hell of a beer.
Japan
Kirin Ichiban 5% ABV
The old joke used to be that the Japanese nicked stuff, took it apart and rebuilt copies that were even better. They certainly did that with lager beer. Clean, crisp and refreshing, but with a nice balance of flavour too.
Group D
Costa Rica
Segua Red Ale 5% ABV
An Irish-style red ale brewed in Central America? A nice balance between pale ale hoppiness and good caramel malt character shows England’s Group D rivals have strength in depth.
England
Worthington’s White Shield 5.6% ABV
Not the most fashionable beer since England’s craft revolution, but whenever I think of a beer that represents my country it’s this — brewed since before Victoria took the throne, it has a complex and endlessly surprising character.
Italy
Birra del Borgo Ke To Re Porter 5.5% ABV
One of the very best of the new wave of Italian craft beers. Has a really nice smoky note, largely because the beer has been infused with tobacco leaves. Extraordinarily complex for its strength.
Uruguay
Davok Shannon Dunkel 6% ABV
This is brilliant: an homage to Irish stout, complete with leprechauns and shamrocks on the branding, but named because of the German Dunkel style. Brewed for the Shannon Irish pub in Montevideo, which sounds like a perfect venue to watch the tournament.
Group E
Ecuador
Sinners Total Death 6.3% ABV
BrewDog must be bitterly jealous of Ecuador’s Sinners Brewery — a beer called Total Death. Could somebody please import this strong amber ale just so we can have a bit of entertainment at the Portman Group’s expense?
France
La Choulette Bière des Sans Culottes 7% ABV
The Belgian ‘saison’ style so popular with craft brewers right now bleeds across the border and becomes ‘bière de garde’ (or beer for keeping) in north-eastern France. Light and refreshing with a hint of funk, a surprising treat.
Honduras
Cerveza Imperial 5% ABV
Honduras makes several lagers, and this is one of them. It’s golden and people drink it cold. That’s about all there is to say about it. Did you know the Honduras World Cup squad has six British-based players in it?
Switzerland
Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 11% ABV
A strong, sour beer fermented with wine yeast and aged in oak barrels. Named after a beatified brewery cat, probably after one too many bottles had been drunk. Possibly the most interesting thing ever to come out of Switzerland.
Group F
Argentina
Araucana Rojiza Fuerte Doppelbock 9.2% ABV
Sweet with oodles of caramel and sherry notes. Richer than Manchester City, with an alcohol punch like the Hand of God. We would not recommend kicking a ball about after one of these.
Bosnia/Herzegovina
Prima Božićno 5% ABV
For some reason this perfectly decent lager is marketed as a winter beer in its home country. It’s slightly fuller-bodied than you might expect, with good fruity hop character and a solid body.
Iran
Iran Bartar Castle Brau 0% ABV
Iran has a beer? Well, yes, but it’s non-alcoholic. As with any such beers, it tastes a bit grainy, but by all accounts it’s not a bad example of the style.
Nigeria
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout 7.5% ABV
Isn’t it cheating to list an Irish beer for Nigeria just because it’s made there? Not according to the Nigerians. They’re delighted when they see Irish people drinking ‘African’ beer. And so they should be: FES (Foreign Extra Stout) is Guinness at its very best.
Group G
Germany
Weihenstephaner Hefeweiss 5.4% ABV
There’s a grim, sometimes depressing inevitability to the sheer quality of Germany as both a footballing and brewing nation. This superlative wheat beer is named the best in the world even more often than the football team.
Ghana
Accra Chairman 10.1% ABV
I’ve never tasted this, but like holidaying in Rhyl or eating at an Aberdeen Angus Steak House, it’s something I’d like to do once just for the perverse pleasure of saying that I did. A strong, spicy beer with drinkers’ tasting notes including words such as ‘burning’. Fit for a chairman indeed.
Portugal
Sagres 5.1% ABV
Beer is not as celebrated in Portugal as wine or Port — or football — but Sagres is one of those decent, full-bodied lagers that actually deserves to be sold at a premium import price when it reaches these shores.
United States
Brooklyn Local 1 9% ABV
A Belgian-style ale brewed in Brooklyn with English and German hops is the perfect example of how brewing brings the world together. What better way to celebrate a global festival of football?
Group H
Algeria
Schems Bavaroise 4.5% ABV
Calling this a ‘Bavarian-style’ lager is poetic licence but who’s to know? As insubstantial as San Marino’s defence, but it hits the spot on a hot, North African afternoon.
Belgium
Rochefort 10 11.3% ABV
Like a classical symphony played by 10 orchestras at once, this is Trappist beer at its very best. If beers were footballers, Belgium would be Brazil, and this would be Pelé — simply unbeatable.
Russia
Baltika 6 Porter 7% ABV
Porter has a strong tradition in the Baltic states and this one doesn’t disappoint. Lots of sweetness and fruit, with a lovely balance of coffee and chocolate, it’s stirring enough to make you want to take up topless horse riding.
South Korea
Hite Lager 4.5% ABV
South Korea’s number-one beer brand is supposedly a ‘European-style’ lager, only it’s brewed with a lot of rice rather than an all-malt recipe. Thin and delicate, unlikely to cause an upset.
