Back in the day Americans only had what grew in America to flavor their beers. In the case of the mid-west that was wheat and wood. So it really wasn’t much of a choice as to what American beers would taste like and what kind they would be. Plain clean beer is a lager. America was all about lager.
Anheuser out of St. Louis, Coors in Colorado, and Miller from Milwaukee were all about it. Simple clean beers made from wheat and wood. But that wasn’t good enough for some people. They wanted their beer to have more flavor. They weren’t satisfied with a good beer. They wanted to get big, complex, and fancy.
Enter the craft brew.
Micro Brews
In 1984 Jim Koch started the Boston Beer Company and it all started going to piss.
He found that European beer makers had been using a pretty flower called a hop for centuries to flavor their beers. Jim thought, “I know how to ruin America and their great beers! HOPS”
So Jim brought over hops from Europe and convinced America that it needed more than it had. And we all know that needing more is the first step toward the fall…
The Pale King
Here in America it is a highly believed contention that bigger is better, and the more the merrier. It should be no surprise that beer flavored with hops would reach it current conclusion – hop overload. Most IPAs today contain more hops than wheat, and more pretension than water.
If you make a sour face after taking a sip, congratulations! You’ve just paid $10 for 12oz of fermented hop water. You also may ride a penny farthing bike, eat paleo, “love” Rush, and live in a different state than your parents.
But I digress…
Lager – The Once and Future King
Today you have a rare opportunity. All culture is cyclical. All trends come, go, and come again. However, every once in awhile trends line up with truth. We are reaching the end of the sour and bitter age. Soon the masses will tire of over flavored beer and long for a crisp, cool, fresh, simple, clean, refreshing sip of something that has been here all along.
The great American Lager. Bow before him. Crack open a bottle and live the good life.
