British beers and causes for similarities

[Opherman47]

Having drank a ton of British beers of late.... in order to tweak my palate as to commonalities and differences.... I think the main commonality is the water... that gives it that "taste" I wanted to put up a small poll.... mayhap someone could advise a better way of doing this.....

but i will post the question... what is the primary similarity in british beers, like fullers esb, bombadier etc?

of course within style... english porters with english porters.... ESB's with ESB's etc etc.... got some questions as to the clarity of the poll

 

[BigEd]

Rather than the water per se I would say it's the malt, hops and yeast. That's not to say that those beers or other UK brews use the same choices but those families of ingredients do share some of the same broad characteristics. Fuller's and Well's are certainly recognizable as members of the same beer category but on the other hand each has it's own distinctive flavors.

 

[SumnerH]

Get a Fuller's Vintage Ale, a Sam Smith Pure Brewed Lager, a JW Lees Vintage Harvest Ale, a Meantime IPA, a Young's Double Chocolate Stout, a Mackeson's XXX Stout, and a Sam Smith Imperial Stout.

In other words, try British beers in a lot of different styles.