As some of you know, I’m a bit of a beer aficionado, so I decided to write a blog about it. Don't worry, I'm not about to waste your time with talk about Budweiser, Coors, or any of the main stream beers, cuz that ain't how I roll.

 

 

 

I’m talking about craft beers. Not the experimental crap some dude half-ass made in his garage, but the stuff that breaks the mold of the mainstream beers and surpasses ‘home-brew’ standards.

 

 

Look, let's be honest: There’s not much difference between the standard American beers. When I graduated high school in 1983, American beers were all I knew. I liked them ok I guess, until I joined the Army and found myself in Germany drinking European beers at the tender age of 19.

 

 

 

 

Above: My 1st day in the army.

 

 

How would I describe the European beers? In a nutshell, they’re pretty fucking awesome. It was in Germany that I learned what true variety and quality is. In the US, variety seemed like nothing more than the spelling of the beer itself. My beer purchases ended up being based on what was on sale that week, because that was the only difference.

 

 

 

 

But you want to know what’s better than the European beers? The craft beers made in small home-town breweries. I'm talking about folks that have actually figured out how to brew beer that competes with top-tier beers both foreign and domestic. If you want to take it a step beyond the beers, we can talk about bitters and ales from the UK.

 

 

You know how wine snobs talk about which wine goes with which food? There’s an ale for that. And a bitter, and a lager and a pilsner... You get the point.

 

 

Too bad all that is all the way on the other side of the Atlantic... or is it?

 

 

My years of tastings, brewery tours, and online research led me to these two dudes from the UK who started brewing and bottling their own beer.(BrewDog.US) They sold some to local pubs and it instantly became a massive hit.

 

 

Fast forward a few years and these same two guys are now a world-wide operation. The good news is they are finally coming to the good ole US of A.

 

They’re setting up shop in Columbus, OH with a kind of crowd-funding backing through stock sales. The campaign "Equity For Punks" turns the company into an-employee owned operation! The brewery is even offering some additional perks like free brewery tours, discounts, and tons of other awesome merchandise. (i.e. check it out so you don't miss out)

 

Here’s the bottom line: I like beer. American beer is ok if that’s all there is. UK beer is much better, and craft beers are the best. So a Craft UK beer is the holy grail!

 

I would love for the US market to start seeing more variety. I would love to send a message as a consumer to the mainstream US beer companies: “Your beer sucks big green donkey dicks. Get with the program or get left behind.”

 

 

 

Who doesn't love a company that releases this beer during the 2016 Olympics?

 

 

Got something to add? Hit me up in the comments. I’ll try to respond to all the comments (as long as they are relevant to the blog).

 

 

Here’s an idea: If you have some experience with the craft beers, write a blog about it and maybe we can talk about food pairings (like the wine snobs do).

 

 

As always, happy blogging fellow ebaumers, and please drink responsibly!