I've never had the chance to sample English ales, if someone could post a short list of some commercial examples I can seek out
If anyone knows what British beer is available around Chicago, it will be
@Gadjobrinus .
The big problem is that British styles make most sense when fresh out of a cask. Conversely they are never worse than when out of a tired cask through dirty lines. Even when the cellarman has done his job to perfection, the trad brown beers like Bass or Pedigree can go from "Amazing - I want its babies" to "Mmm - nice pint" in a few hours, then two days later down to "Alright I suppose" and a few days later "I would rather make babies with Harvey Weinstein than drink this".
So cellarmanship and throughput are critical to good cask - and that combination is hard enough to find in the UK, let alone overseas (but far from non-existent AIUI). For that reasons, festivals are probably the best place to try cask - I'd guess there's probably something like that in a city the size of Chicago? I saw someone recently mention an upcoming cask festival at Yards in Philly?
So to some extent, I'd emphasise the freshness rather than a beer's passport, so it may well be that you're best experience Stateside may come from an OK-ish US version served really fresh, rather than a terrific British beer served tired. I'd guess in Chicago the obvious example of that would be Goose Island Honkers - I've never had it fresh (why listen to the tribute act when the original is all around?) but I believe it's a passable effort and at least you should be able to get it fresh. There's a very out of date list
here of bars serving cask in IL that may be of some use, last updated in 2013 by the look of it.
So if you can't get cask - what's the best option? Bottle definitely - ideally bottle-conditioned, but to be honest the bottle-conditioned beers for the mass market can be a bit dull, they tend to be the regional brewers making a point to CAMRA by having a token SKU that ticks the box. Worthington White Shield, Morland Hen's Tooth, Shepherd Neame 1698, Fuller's 1845 and Adnam's minicasks of Broadside and their bitter are the usual ones you see in British supermarkets.
Keg generally doesn't suit classic bitters particularly well, they generally end up too cold to release their flavours and excess carbonation knocks the balance out of whack. The same applies to can only more so, as the traditional bitters that are canned in 440ml by the majors tend to be the bottom of the range ones made down to a price, they're the British equivalent of BMC lager. Obviously the modern beer movement has changed perceptions of cans, so that now even breweries that care like Harveys do (330ml) cans, but in general I'd avoid 440ml cans from the breweries big enough to handle the hassle of export.
So what to get? Well obviously bitter is the headline beer of British brewing, but I'd avoid the ordinary bitters below 4% - they tend to have less to them so you'll wonder why you paid import prices for them, they're intended as BMC equivalents for people to have a few pints on a school night and stay capable the next morning and the lack of character means they don't seem to cope well with any format other than fresh cask. So start with best bitters in the 4-4.5% range.
The obvious starting place would be Timothy Taylor Landlord and Harvey's Best - I probably prefer TT Boltmaker but Landlord is the one you usually see. Landlord is a notoriously fussy beer on cask and even in bottle it seems to have bad moments - I think it's one of those beers that is so iconic that it's often bought by retailers who don't know how to look after it. But it's fabulous when on form.
I'd put the likes of London Pride in the second rung, along with eg Black Sheep - I wouldn't go to the wall for either, but I'll happily drink them in bottle. They're a good example of the regional differences within the UK - northern beers tend to be more bitter, dry and minerally, southern beers are sweeter and less bitter. Tourists tend to visit the south, so they think all bitters are like Hobgoblin, which I find undrinkably sweet.
For instance, Manchester has tradition of dry golden ales exemplified by Boddington's, but Boddies was one of the first victims of the takeovers of the late 20th century and is now part of ABInbev, it might not have suffered quite as much as the transition from Budvar to Budweiser, but not far off. I'm not sure if the US version is brewed Stateside? If it's anything like as bad as the reports of US-brewed Bass (also owned by ABI) then I'd avoid.
But you can regard something like Marble Bitter as a modern Boddies, and the likes of Lees MPA, Marble Pint (or Metric when in 500ml cans, for legal reasons) and Track Sonoma as interpretations with more obvious use of US hops. I imagine they won't be so easy to find, but they are good examples of how bitter is evolving in one region.
ESB/strong bitter is one of those things that is far less common in its homeland than USians seem to think, it's really confined to Fuller's and Young's in London. If other brewers make a strongish beer with British hops, it tends to get marketed as an old ale or English IPA, but given that beer over 4.5% is rare in pubs outside city centres, it's really not much of a thing. At festivals, a bit, but not in pubs.
As already mentioned in this thread, mild is almost extinct outside the West Midlands, you might find Banks or Thwaites in cans but that's about it.
There's lots of good porters around, I guess Fuller's will be the one that's easiest for you to find, it's fantastic on cask but I've not had it in bottle. Titanic Plum Porter divides geek opinion somewhat, but is a crowd favourite.
Classic milk stout is also almost extinct having been hugely popular in the 1950s - Mackeson was the granddaddy of the category but ABI have now reduced it down to 2.8% in the UK for tax reasons. An XXX export version has been brewed in the US, supposedly the Mackeson brewed in Trinidad is the best of the bunch. Bristol Beer Bactory arguably now make the best milk stout in the UK.
Newcastle Brown Ale is a bit like Orval, in the sense that it's an oddity that doesn't much relate to any modern beer (to be clear - it's not remotely Bretty). It doesn't help that Heineken have moved production to the Netherlands, and supposedly are going to make it at Lagunitas. It's kinda hard to recommend it as representing anything in the modern scene. Originally it was "inspired" by Double Maxim by Vaux, which has been recreated by a new brewery called Maxim, which would be a better option if you can find it.
Mann's is a similar oddity - despite being lumped together with Newky Brown as a "brown ale" it is perhaps best regarded as an attempt to get round Mackeson's patents on milk stout, it's dark, weak and sweetish. I imagine its demographic is ageing fast and it won't be with us much longer. Martyn Cornell has a good rant about English brown ale
here.
Right, well that will give you a start....