| A Thirty Year Perspective by Kelly T. McManus Hello Bob - When it comes to beer I guess you might say I’m a senior citizen since I remember a time when Michelob (no Ultras then) was considered top of the line. Fortunately I became of legal drinking age when “micros” – an early term of craft - emerged. From that perspective I would say that the rise of craft beer’s most significant effect has been to help wake up the populace and help them realize that corporations and industrial producers do not have the consumers’ best interests in mind. They pander to the lowest common denominator and force-market their wares, attempting to convince people that bland is what you want. The changes in the economy over the last two decades has helped awaken people to the fact that smaller, more local producers create flavor and increase the enjoyment of life – whether with beer, bread, cheese, or what have you. Local artisanal producers keep money in the community, revitalize neighborhoods, create jobs, and offer people a sense of place. Those are good things. When I first learned about beer American brews were laughed by people in other parts of the world who appreciated quality. Now, American beer is respected the world over. American Craft Beer has sparked a similar brewing revolution in many of the countries that initially served as our own inspirations – Germany, England, Belgium – as well as spawning nascent craft beer industries in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand, Japan, China, Italy, Poland… the list goes on! Over 30 years ago I had my first Samuel Adams Boston Lager. To me it was an outlier, an extreme beer because of its complex yet balanced hop flavor profile and full body. There was nothing else like it sold in the any store I went to. Now after all this time it is almost a mainstream beer found in many a bar next to the usual macro suspects. Kudos to Sam Adams for bringing real beer back to the people. Today I think serious beer folks have more sophisticated palates than drinkers generally did years ago. Craft beer drinkers are passionate, curious, and always looking to explore different flavor profiles and styles of beer and see quality beer as part of their everyday lives. When people think of wine, they always think about the upper 10% of the market, not the bag-in-box wines or jugged wines that makeup 90% of sales. On the other hand when people think of beer, they have concentrated on the 90% of beer at the bottom, the industrial lager. Now people are starting to realize that beer is both “high” and “low,” and it is just as appropriate in a 4-star restaurant as it is at a baseball game. And even baseball stadiums and airports are getting goof beer lists. That's about it Bob. Just wanted to tell you and your readers what one long time beer drinker has seen over the years. ------ Thanks to Kelly for a most interesting article. It's important to some- times look back and see just how far the craft movement has come. Good beer is not going away and indeed this just might be the best of times for craft beer lovers. I'd like to invite everyone to send me their own columns about anything related to beer in any way just as Kelly did. I select the best and publish them here. So join in and get writing! Cheers! Bob |
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