Beer here

There is good news and bad news, or almost bad news. The almost bad news concerns industrial brewers- Budweiser, Miller, Coors- and the like. Their sales are flat or even decreasing slightly. The recession may be partly to blame for this, but in most other down economies sales of alcohol tend to increase.

The good news is that the sales of craft brewed beers, year to year, 2008-2009, increased at more than 10%. Now a 10% increase in a category that is maybe 4 or 5% of the total beer industry will not refloat the Titanic. But is does point out another interesting fact.

The reason people are going for more of the craft beers is the fact that these beers have a hand made quality and aura to them, even for the largest of the lot, which I believe is Sam Adams. At more than two million barrels per year, Sam is not a home business. But as a nation wide brand, Sam has done much to introduce people to the genre of suds and that is a good thing.

For those of you too young to remember, in the dark ages of the 1960s and 1970s and much of the 1980s, people were condemned to buying only industrial beers, or select from a small group of still local or regional breweries. But in the 1980s things began to change.

No longer were we going to be talking about 50 or so companies that brewed beer. Today there are more than 1500 so-called craft brewery concerns, including brew pubs and traditional breweries. In some places the time honored tradition of taking home a growler of beer is once again on the scene. And the brew pubs generally have food that is at least interesting and more appealing than chain restaurants. (It was interesting that after a rapid increase of brew pubs in the late 80s and 90s, that the ones that survived were generally the ones that offered the best food.)

With the craft beer movement, and to a lesser extent the micro-distilling world, I believe we are seeing a unique version of larger trends that are gaining momentum in the country. The interest in locally grown food, grass fed and humanely raised and slaughtered animals, sustainable fishing programs and increased mainstreaming of organic food, all seem to be part of a collective of desires for people to know their food, where it came from and who produced it.

The beer in the US is as good as any place in the world for the person who wants to separate him or herself from the industrial brewers. Just about all large cities have brew pubs, and craft breweries are to be found in all regions of the country. Sales are steadily increasing all with the trends listed above.

It is a good time to go out and enjoy a true American tradition: locally brewed beer!