The Raleigh newspaper has a weekly column on Fridays entitled “Beer Here,” a look at the beer scene written by Julie Johnson Bradford, editor of All About Beer magazine. Today Ms. Bradford writes about American Beer Month:
Knowing that July is officially dubbed “American Beer Month” probably won’t cause you to drink any more beer than usual. With the temperature and the humidity on the rise, those of us who love beer will likely already be drinking more of the stuff this month than any other on the calendar.
At first blush, it seems odd to dedicate a month–any month–to red-white-and-blue brew: Not only is American beer all that most Americans ever drink; in a larger sense, American beer is pretty much all anyone, anywhere drinks. The pilsner-descended pale lager style created by our biggest brewing companies is the blueprint for nearly every mass-produced brew in the world, from St. Louis to Singapore.
Clearly, July was not set aside to celebrate the domination of the world’s beer taps by one hugely successful style.
The beer boosters behind this campaign have just the opposite in mind. They don’t want us to drink more mainstream American beer; they want us to drink in the great variety of American beer. In particular, the Colorado-based Brewers’ Association hopes that American consumers will take time to appreciate the fact that we have the most diverse range of home-produced beer of any country in the world.
Considering I don’t like pilsner-styled beer, anything that draws attention to the darker side of the beer spectrum is, in my book, a very welcome thing.
I have a rule, you see. Pour the beer from the bottle into the glass. Put your hand behind the glass. If you can see your hand through the glass the beer probably isn’t dark enough.
A silly rule, I know. But it’s my rule, dammit! 🙂
Drink up!
While youre Raliegh based critic has missed several of the american brews not found in colorado, but dark to amber in color and quite refreshing. We will forget of course the the flavors of Boston based sam adams brews, but move down to the refreshing yeunglings which are flavorful. Lest we forget dark and hearty Dominion brands from richmond, va, to the more suited amner of carolina’s own red oak. but as allyn said, the less you see the better on the other side of the glass, especially if youre hand is stained green.