People slagging off American beer is something of a hot button for me, but when I see posts here, I have to remind myself that a lot of Escapist readers are furriners, and are probably only exposed to Budweiser. This would be the equivalent of rendering judgement on Belgian beers based on Stella Artois, Dutch beers on Heineken Export, and UK beers on Bass Ale and Guiness Stout. Americans who slag off American beer though, have no such excuse, and deserve scorn and contempt, and a round to speed their enlightenment.
Now let's talk beer.
The vast Majority of American beer is going to come from two brewers, Anheuser-Busch, and Coors, and from those two, the main labels that are going to be sold will be Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller, Miller Light, Michelob, and Michelob Light, which makes for 7 labels total.
The 2008 Great American Beer Festival had 472 breweries entering 2,902 beers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Beer_Festival#2008 ), though to be fair, not all of those beers came from production recipes or will be destined for production labels, and some chunk came from the pro-am division, where professional brewers submit amateur homebrew recipes. And all you guys got to see was Budweiser.
How does that work? When A-B plus Coors are outnumbered 470 to 2? From the Brewers' Association ( http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/statistics.html ):
Why don't you get to see any of these frickin' awesome American beers? For the export market, it's simply a matter of money. Inside the US, each one of the 50 states has their own unique set of laws regarding the sales and distribution of alcohol, and the big brewers are already quite entrenched in the distribution channels, though that makes it sound more dreadful than it actually is.
Whenever I'm traveling, I make it a point to try the region's local brews, and if you're visiting the US, drink American. And you don't have to settle for Budweiser, even though it may soon be a Belgian beer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser-Busch#Acquisition_by_InBev .
Something I've been curious about though, many of the best American brews are highly non-traditional, while here in the US, we only see the most traditional of European of styles. What are the breweries in yor country that are trying out new things with their beers?
Now let's talk beer.
The vast Majority of American beer is going to come from two brewers, Anheuser-Busch, and Coors, and from those two, the main labels that are going to be sold will be Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller, Miller Light, Michelob, and Michelob Light, which makes for 7 labels total.
The 2008 Great American Beer Festival had 472 breweries entering 2,902 beers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Beer_Festival#2008 ), though to be fair, not all of those beers came from production recipes or will be destined for production labels, and some chunk came from the pro-am division, where professional brewers submit amateur homebrew recipes. And all you guys got to see was Budweiser.
How does that work? When A-B plus Coors are outnumbered 470 to 2? From the Brewers' Association ( http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/statistics.html ):
The 96% of beer that that A-B plus Coors produces also includes their specialty beers, which are their attempts to pick up some of that 6.2% of cash that beer drinkers of taste are spending on craft brews.
Why don't you get to see any of these frickin' awesome American beers? For the export market, it's simply a matter of money. Inside the US, each one of the 50 states has their own unique set of laws regarding the sales and distribution of alcohol, and the big brewers are already quite entrenched in the distribution channels, though that makes it sound more dreadful than it actually is.
Whenever I'm traveling, I make it a point to try the region's local brews, and if you're visiting the US, drink American. And you don't have to settle for Budweiser, even though it may soon be a Belgian beer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser-Busch#Acquisition_by_InBev .
Something I've been curious about though, many of the best American brews are highly non-traditional, while here in the US, we only see the most traditional of European of styles. What are the breweries in yor country that are trying out new things with their beers?
