a date in beer history?

[hopjack13]

i don't blame people for drinking yellow fizz. after all , it's all they know.
very few of us(and i don't know any) grew up drinking real beer. before prohibition
there were a few real brewerys in america . however on january 16 1920 the 18th amendment
came to be (prohibition) and as we all know the smaller brewerys never made it .
the ones that survived were only the bigest and the strongest. (mass produced beers)
then on april 7th 1933(new beers day) franklin d roosevelt repealed the 18th amendment.
(the only amendment of the constitution to ever be repealed)
the market was flooded with fizzy yellow crap, by the only brewerys that were left.

50 years went by and this is what people considerd beer, then in the early 1980's
some states passed legislation allowing microbrewerys. look at all that we have now!
more beers in more flavors then just about anywhere in the world!and damn good beers too!
who was the first state to pass legislation? who and where was the first microbrew?
this (i think ) is a very important date in the annals of american beer history!
does anyone anywhere have the answers?

hopjack13

[Richard English]

A good exposee, if I may say so.

Two points though. Anchor Steam have always brewed acceptable beer and somehow managed to excape the rapacity of the likes of A-B. On one early visit to the USA (as a stopover on a round-the -world trip) I deliberately chose San Francisco instead of Los Angeles simply to be sure that I could sample Anchor beers.

The USA now has very large range of beers - according to the latest figures I have seen - around 1500. Not all of that 1500 are Real Ale, of course, and not all are even good beer. However, the situation is far better now than it was when I first visited the USA - in 1979.

Exact and valid references are hard to obtain but I have seen sigures as high as 5000 for the UK and similarly high figures for such beer-heavens as Belgium, the Czech republic and Germany.

Of course, the USA with its vastly larger population, and thus market, has every chance of overtaking these traditional high producers, always providing that the band of enlightened drinkers that exchew chemical fizz continues to increase in size!

[beer editor]

hopjack13, the key legislation probably wasn't legalizing microbreweries per se, but brewpubs (so they could serve they beer where they made it - which collided with the anti-tied house part of post-Prohibition legislation). After all, microbreweries such as Albion (RIP) and Sierra Nevada were able to get going in the early 80s without new legislation.

The first post Prohibition brewpub in the United States was Bert Grant's place in Yakima, Wash., in 1982.

Richard, the U.S. now has nearly 1,500 breweries (the bulk of them brewpubs). Each produces many to several beers (often more than 30 different ones over the course of a year). Hence there are easily more than 10,000 different beers available.

Prosit,
Stan

[hopjack13]

would you say that grant's place in 1982 was the turning piont in what i like to think of as " the american beer revolution "
there is becoming a more and more increasing demand for real beer , it wasn't always so. im trying to find the turning point , as i think it should be a national holiday.....probably never happen , but i think it's a significant date none-the-less.

[Richard English]

It's interesting that, assuming that it is now true that the USA produces more good beer varieties than any other country (and I have no reason to doubt your figures), that it's still quite difficult to find it.

According to my good friend in Illinois (now a 100% convert to the cause of good beer) it's still very rare to find anything but the usual fizz rubbish in the bars in her state. Indeed, she now has Fuller's 1845 imported to meet the demands of her discerning palate!

Obviously yours is a much larger country than is the UK, but even allowing for this that's a big difference. It's very rare to find a pub here that doesn't sell good beer (even though most of them also sell A-B fizz rubbish). And most supermarkets stock a good range of BCAs and imported beers (including good beers from the USA - such as Goose Island)

Possibly the next stage of the Real Ale revival for you wil be for bars to start selling Real Ale on draught from the cask (not pasteurised, kegged and fizzed up).

[steveh]

Originally posted by Richard English
According to my good friend in Illinois (now a 100% convert to the cause of good beer) it's still very rare to find anything but the usual fizz rubbish in the bars in her state. Indeed, she now has Fuller's 1845 imported to meet the demands of her discerning palate!

Possibly the next stage of the Real Ale revival for you wil be for bars to start selling Real Ale on draught from the cask (not pasteurised, kegged and fizzed up).

Richard, Your friend just isn't trying hard enough - or else lives too far from the big city (which is pretty difficult these days). There is plenty of good beer to be found around Illinois - in taverns as well as liquor stores.

As you've doubtless read at this forum before, Chicago is home to the biggest Real Ale festival outside of England, and every brew-pub has cask conditioned ales (sometimes even lagers) on the beer engine at any given time.

I live in Chicago's suburbs and can buy anything from Young's ales to Pilsner Urquell to Dogfish Head's 90 Minute (as well as the elusive Carlow ales) at my small corner liquor store - and the larger stores have even more variety.

If your friend is actually close to the city, she should try to visit the Map Room, as they have an extensive selection of draft beer - cask conditioned hand pull as well. http://www.maproom.com/ Then she can wander over to Piece for a hand-crafted ale or lager and some great food. http://www.piecechicago.com/

S.

[Richard English]

Actuallky she mentioned that she had heard about the Map Room so maybe it's just a question of her becoming more familiar with what's around. After all, if you were to visit London and never to stray far from your hotel bar or the bars of clubs, theatres, cinemas and the like - you would assume that there's no good beer there either!

[beer editor]

Originally posted by hopjack13
would you say that grant's place in 1982 was the turning piont in what i like to think of as " the american beer revolution "
there is becoming a more and more increasing demand for real beer , it wasn't always so. im trying to find the turning point , as i think it should be a national holiday.....probably never happen , but i think it's a significant date none-the-less.

If we go much deeper this may need to be a new thread. The opening of the first post-Prohibition brewpub certainly begins on the timeline. Some other milestones:

- Fritz Maytag buying Anchor Brewing in 1965.
- Sierra Nevada opening. The top selling ale in the country now, and this has been an ale (vs. lager) revolution.
- Sam Adams opening. Well into the 1990s, craft beer was something of its own brand and Sam Adams' advertising also benefited the brewpub down the road.

But in Michigan it was Larry Bell opening Kalamazoo Brewing and in Maine it was Dave Geary opening Geary's (the first two micros east of the Mississippi).

But I like the national holiday idea ...

Prosit,
Stan

[beer editor]

Originally posted by Richard English
It's interesting that, assuming that it is now true that the USA produces more good beer varieties than any other country (and I have no reason to doubt your figures), that it's still quite difficult to find it.



I'm not saying that every one of those 10,000-plus beers is a great one. Most brewpubs will have 6-8 beers on at a time and make 20-40 styles over the course of a year. One of the joys of beer adverturing in the states is ordering a sampler of the beers available (4-6 ounces of each). It is also one of the non-joys because there will be "training wheel" beers as well as beers that are technically flawed. The back half is less true all the time.

Most grocery store chains, and even Wal-Mart (becoming the largest grocer in the U.S.), will carry some better beer. At the closest store to my house (in New Mexico), at a small chain that is semi-organic, I can get Fuller's in 6 packs or the 1845 as well as many imports. There's also a good range of micros, including all 3 New Mexico brands that bottle, Stone, Avery and the big boys like Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, etc.

On the other hand, you can get cask beer but one night (Thursday) per week in the whole state (Second Street in Santa Fe). There is lots of well made craft beer in the brewpubs, some fined, some lightly filtered, but it isn't served via gravity or handpump.

Prosit,
Stan

[drstandley]

Richard does bring up a very good point. There are still many many bars in the USA that do not sell real beer. And even though we make many real beers here, all of them together don't equal a week's production from AB, let alone Miller and Coors. The majority of Americans order a Bud, or similar. And that's because it's what we grew up with. We saw our fathers and heros drinking it, and we drank it. It's funny how the "land of change and fast food", is the land of slow when it's come to good beers.

It is much better than it was 10 or 20 years ago, but it will be another 20 years before we've turned the corner.

On the plus side, since we haven't always gotten good beer, and it's still much more expensive than AB, many have started brewing their own. Home brewing is probably growing (I have no facts) faster in the USA than any place in the world. We just seem to love it! It's amazing to me that so many of us brew. Sometimes it's people that you've worked with for years, and somehow a side conversation will come up and you'll find out that you both brew.

[steveh]

Originally posted by drstandley
It is much better than it was 10 or 20 years ago, but it will be another 20 years before we've turned the corner.

On with the Crusade!!

S.

[steveh]

Originally posted by Richard English
Actuallky she mentioned that she had heard about the Map Room so maybe it's just a question of her becoming more familiar with what's around.

Forward the link - it's a nice place with friendly people and >gasp< knowledgeable bar tenders!

S.

[steveh]

Originally posted by beer editor
But in Michigan it was Larry Bell opening Kalamazoo Brewing and in

Mmm - Oberon... and I've spotted my first siz-pack of the season - Summer MUST be here! :D

S.

[hopjack13]

i don't think it's an ale vs. lager revolution, there are some good lagers out there, pilsners too, that aren't chemical fizz. a brewery near me makes a jagged little pilsner i'm quite fond of. it's a beer revolution! chemical fizz vs. real beer! david took out goliath , i think we can do this.


" On with the Crusade!!"

[steveh]

Originally posted by hopjack13
i don't think it's an ale vs. lager revolution,

I hope I didn't imply that, I agree that there is good beer to be found on both ends of the fermenting process. I've stated before that Capital Brewing in Wisconsin is my favorite micro, and they make mostly lager. But I'm a sucker for a good mild or ESB - and Oberon is an ale as well.

I have to say that the Macro "swilsners" have done their best to give lagers a bad name. When Miller Lite started touting its thin corn-water as a "true Pilsner," I nearly choked and it almost caused me to spit out the Golden Pheasant I was drinking at the time - almost.

I thought a chink in Goliath's armor was showing a few years ago when AB bought into Red Hook, "As long as they don't monkey with the recipe." I thought. I don't know how the partnership has gone, but Red Hook is still on the shelves.

S.

[Richard English]

Remember, this is what CAMRA did in the UK around thirty years ago. It's largely thanks to CAMRA that Real Ale still exists.

Now it's your turn in the USA and you can do it. CAMRA saw off the fizz breweries here - Watneys Red Barrel; Whitbread Tankard; Doible Diamond - now just memories (thank the Lord). Get rid of the US chemical fizz manufacturers and bring back to everyone the pleasure of drinking proper beer.

Find out more about CAMRA at http://www.camra.org.uk/