Beer - The Mirror To A Country's Soul

A while back, Doug at Bogus Gold put up a post or two that rankled a few Belgians. He revisited those today in this post, all of which inspired my hypothesis. You can tell a lot about a country and it's citizens by the beer they produce. Below I've listed my impressions of beers from around the world. For the most part the metaphor works quite well.

Belgium - Highly nuianced, subtle, soft, pretentious and overated.

Ireland - Hearty, yet masterfully artful.

Australia - Simple, boisterous and strong.

Canada - Strong and a little rough and rugged (ok, the metaphor only works east of Vancouver and west of Toronto and maybe east of Quebec)

England - Great taste, somewhat bitter and edgy, but reliably among the best in the world.

Germany - Complex, old world, very well engineered, but lacking a little bite.

Czech Republic and Poland - Not flashy, but well crafted with great chacter.

France - Irrelevant.

Mexico - Nothing special, but still a lot is exported over the border to the U.S. (ok, that was a reach)

Japan - Slightly dry and understated, nothing flashy but solid quality.

America - Highly entreprenuerial and diverse (micro brews), drawn from a variety of immigrant cultures. Mass produced, mass consumed, and lacking charm, yet highly successful (macro brews).