“That’s not a beer, now this, this is a beer…”

"Life’s to Short to Drink Shitty Beer…"
Ben Franklin , 1776

There are beers and then there are stuff large corporations call beer and foist on the American public. The Mega-brewery dominates the scene, and there are NASCAR watching, livestock fornicating hill folk that are perfectly content with that. Hell, six dollars for a whole case, it has to be good. Fortunately, beer production has come full circle. Originally, many towns had their own breweries, this was necessary because there weren’t long haul refrigerated trucks clogging our highways, driven by large Budwieser swilling livestock fornicators. Beer spoiled easily (well it used to before big business started adding crap) so if you wanted beer you either bought it locally or made it. Even my German Uncle had a hygrometer in the basement – ain’t no German going to do without his beer. Leinenkugle’s in Chippewa Falls was one such brewery and they are still in operation albeit under the auspices of the Miller Brewing Company. The past ten years or so have seen a resurgence of small local custom breweries and Brew Pubs, like Four Peaks here in Arizona. They actually care about how their product tastes and aren’t worried about putting out something that will help Bubba get smashed for under $3.00. Not all the beer coming out of these small breweries is great; to be sure some of the beer coming out of these tastes like crap, but it is the experimentation that leads to better beer.

Next time you are in a market give the big brewery shelves a pass and check out some of the lesser-known offerings. When in a bar forego the Budwiser tapper and ask the bartender what kind of local stuff he has to offer or you can guzzle your pitcher of mega-company beer and turn back to the stockcar race on the TV behind the bar while you pine for your daddy’s sheep. Your choice.

Next Time: I catch you drinking Budwiser while you are visiting Germany and I’ll personally kick your ass, hillbilly.