Forgo that beer-belly and hangover-inducing trip to Bavaria’s rowdy Oktoberfest and have your own civilized beer festival at home, celebrating Britain’s unique brewing heritage. In retaliation to the evil, gassy lagers that are produced here under licence, Britain’s quality-seeking beer drinkers have been increasingly clamouring for the real thing – and getting it.

Largely in response to this demand, the wealth of British beers available now from all over the country, judging from the four dozen or so I tasted blind for this article, is extraordinary. The sheer variety of superb hoppy, floral, fruity yet bitter flavours present in my line-up was a delight.

Ditto the range, with everything from pale, low-alcohol, citrussy, summer-suitable brews, spiced beers, fruit beers, honey beers, lavender, heather, nettle and elderflower-scented beers, through to the traditional bold, rich, yeasty more malty, amber offerings, and the dark, black, strong, creamy, winter food-suitable porters and stouts. Hurrah, too, for the resurrected vintage-dated cult ales that, just like fine wine, bear the year of their production and can be put away to mature for decades.

The beer renaissance would not have begun were it not for brewers wanting to give their discerning customers the opportunity to drink at home the same quality pint of real ale, or cask-conditioned beer, that they downed in a pub. Step forward bottle-conditioned beer which, just like cask-conditioned beer, is still live and gently fermenting, due to added yeast and sugar, provided you store it correctly away from heat, light and vibration, and serve it at the correct cellar-cool temperture of 11-12C. Make certain, too, that you pour your bottle-conditioned beer slowly and carefully off its sludgy, yeasty sediment, so that a clear, not cloudy glass is your reward.

Worthington’s White Shield, a classic India Pale Ale, originally beefed up with extra hops and alcohol to survive the five-month sea journey, delivers delicious light, nutty, faintly tea-leaf-scented, 5.6 per cent alcohol style (£2.09, 500ml, Waitrose). Also bottle-conditioned is the blissful Brakspear Organic Beer (£1.52, 500ml, Asda; £1.59, Morrisons; £1.69, Sainsbury’s), with its wonderful, ripe, hoppy, floral, 4.6 per cent alcohol taste. Or, try the sweet, fat, dark, toasty Yorkshire Bitter, again 4.6 per cent and included in Marks & Spencer’s bottle-conditioned beer range (£2.49 for 500ml).

Waitrose’s beer showcase runs until November 20 and offers lots of gorgeous beers, including the delectable, rich, fruity, malty, almost gingery 2007 Fuller’s Vintage Ale 8.5 per cent alcohol, (£3.29, 500ml), and the starry Thomas Hardy’s Ale (11.7 per cent alcohol, £3.49, 250ml), whose 2007 edition offers the same ethereal, sweet, beefy, toffee-licked taste of old. Bottle-conditioned beauties every one.

janemacquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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