The best American beer in the UK?

I've just tasted the best draught American beer that you can buy in the UK.

If it were the product of a West Coast brewpub, said establishment would enter into brewing folklore and be rammed whenever this beer was tapped.

If it were bottled once-yearly, fans would drive all night to queue all morning for the chance of buying a case.

It's riven with sticky, dirty citric hops. Not polished and effortless and fragrant hops. Big, fat, in-your-face, on your gums and down your throat hops. An aroma and flavour that sticks in you like actual resin would.

It's an American Pale in style. It's overflowing with American hops. But it's brewed in Derbyshire. Now, strictly speaking, you may say that it's not actually an American beer. But I'd say it is American in attitude, approach and execution.

It's not going to get the wider recognition that it deserves. Brewed infrequently, distributed narrowly, it's a here-today-gone-later-today beer. Which is just the way I like it. As good as any limited-release US hop bomb, without the hype and overwrought expectation...

Reader, I drank it. A quiet lunchtime I had: my pint and I, the landlord and the chef, were alone present. When I got back from the pub, I went into the chatrooms of the internet, where an old pal was surfing, and I said -

"Mr X, I have drank That American Style beer this morning."

Mr X said only -

"Have you, Scoop? Well, for sure!"

(and before anyone asks; no, it wasn't from Thornbridge. We do have other great breweries in the county, you know).