h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's called Cusquena (with a tilde above the n), and unless it has a cleverer marketing campaign than I give it credit for it seems to be genuinely brewed in Peru.

Really dark flavour (but not colour) for a lager, with an absolute ton of malt. Crucially, not over-gassed. Bloody good, actually. I got mine fom Sainsbugs, who are offering eight bottles of this for £7. I may well go and get more.

B

You really need to come and visit Texas. Apart from all the quality German lagers and Czech Pilsners we can get here which you can also no doubt get in the UK, there are some fantastic American-brewed lagers, including Austin's own Live Oak brewing who specialise in German and Czech beers, and also a few English styles. Their Live Oak Pilz (made with Saaz hops) is one of my favourites, and this year, for the first time in yonks, they're brewing a batch of Old Treehugger Barley Wine, a legend in these parts, and I've already got my name (well, the Drafthouse has its name) on a keg that I plan to sit on for a few years and age. They also make an amber lager you might care to try.

Craft lager has a distinct marketing problem over here. Apparently people actually WANT to drink Stella and Carling.

B

They want to drink that stuff here too, but there are enough brewers making the good stuff and enough people who want to drink it to keep the brewers making it.

Fact is, though, I've drunk more German and Belgian beer since I started working at the Drafthouse, five years ago, than I drank in all the years I spent drinking in the UK. That's a problem with the tied house system, I think.

Right now, for instance, I'm drinking an American-brewed saison, my new favourite beer style. It's bloody delicious, but did I ever see a saison in any British pub, or an offy, or in Sainsbury's? Did I buggery. Nor a doppelbock or a weizenbock or a hefeweizen or a tripel or a witbier. While Britain makes so much good beer that's a relatively small loss, but variety is the spice of life, as my old Grandad used to say.