Microbrew
Microbrew
A Microbrew is a beer that is produced by any brewery that does produces less than 15000 barrels of beer per year.
The brewery that produces the microbrew is known as a microbrewery, or craft brewery. However the term is often used to describe any small commercial brewery.
The beer produced is usually of high quality (about 5% alcohol in America) and often has a unique flavor.
Today most American commercial beer is produced by only a few very large corporations. Unfortunately the beers produced are uniform and mild-tasting. The microbrew's popularity is growing in popularity because of this with many drinkers appreciating the finer qualities of a well brewed beer.
It is often the case that the beer produced by a microbrewery is both brewed and distributed regionally. In the United Kingdom there has always been small breweries producing cask ale but unfortunately the large commercial breweries have taken their toll. One of the finest beers ever made was by the Higsons brewery in Liverpool (UK) they produced a number of beers ranging from the light lagers and pale ale to the slightly darker "Bitter" and the even darker, virtually black "mild" which was rather sweet. My favorite was called a "brown bitter" which is half a pint of Bitter with a small bottle of Brown Ale poured over it. Sadly Higsons was taken over by the Manchester brewery Boddingtons and the best beers I have ever tasted ceased production.
I have been unable to find any other beer that compares to Higsons "microbrew" but England has a massive range of microbrews with some truly outstanding ones in each region. To find a quality microbrew in the UK look for a pub (public house/bar) that has the sign "Real Ale" outside. If you are lucky you will find one of the pubs that serves nothing but the finest microbrews.
In Scotland there has also been a recent upsurge in the number of microbrews available. Even in remote regions such as the Hebrides you will find a local microbrew such as "Heather Ale". In Newcastle (northern England) I had a pint of beer that tasted of fresh strawberries. It really did taste just like them and certainly closer than anything else produced that is supposed to taste like them such as some of the boiled sweets etc.
To expand your knowledge on the term "microbrew" we have gathered together a bunch of articles on the subject:
Microbrew Articles:
Alaskan Brewing
Anheuser Busch Microbrews
Beer Culture
Beer Ingredients
Brewpub Heaven
Clipper City Microbrew
Keg And Cask Ale
Discovering Microbrews
Equipment For Microbrews
Guide To Microbrews
History Of Microbrews
Hybrid Microbrews
Intro To Microbrews
Lagers
Methods Of Microbrewing
Microbrewery
Microbrewing With Fruit
Microbrews Of The Northwest
Oregon Microbrews
Original Microbrews
Pale Ale Beer
Homebrewing
Brewing Process
Troubleshooting Home Brewing
Wheat Beers