From Mike Allen’s Playbook this morning:
Seated in dark leather chairs, with the G8 and G20 logo serving as a backdrop in the small room, Obama and Cameron satisfied a wager they had made on the U.S-Britain soccer match. ‘Since it ended in a tie, we’re exchanging, by paying off our debts at the same time, this is Goose Island 312 beer from my hometown of Chicago,’ Obama said, holding a yellow-tagged bottle of beer. Cameron then handed his beer to a smiling Obama. ‘This is Hobgoblin,’ he said. ‘I advised him that in America, we drink our beer cold,’ Obama quipped. ‘He has to put it in a refrigerator before he drinks it, but I think that he will find it outstanding.”
I like 312 Urban Wheat Ale very very much, but I will have to say Cameron is on to something as well. Hobgoblin is a stunningly good beer, a red ale (?) that is complex and flavorful and a versatile beverage with food, like a duck confit crepé made with a cream sauce.
I will also note that Americans prefer their beer, on average, colder than the Europeans. This is partially because during the colonization of the West people developed a taste for crisp, lighter beers that were best consumed cold for refreshment. The more complex, heavier beers from Europe simply did not travel well; both the closures on beer as well as the glass that went into bottles were often less than adequate for the rigors of travel, and particularly with regard to exposure to light and heat.
Ducks and Economics 