Six pack leather carrier gets your beer home in one pice. After that, don't drink and pedal, please! Photo: draftmag.com.
Probably one of the coolest revivals to take place in the local foods movement is the return of local breweries and brew pubs.
Fifty to sixty years ago local breweries were no special thing. Cities everywhere had them, and had had them for decades. Locals drank the local brew, which varied from region to region depending on the influences that had landed in that particular area.
But cue the villain in the form of Big Capitalist Corporate America in all its brawny, bland glory and what we got was the dominance of the beer landscape in the form of what 90s Indie rock band Pavement called “Watery Domestic.” That is to say, blah pilsner lagers that aren’t fit to be drunk anywhere outside of a freshman college rush party in Animal House.
Budweiser. Busch. Coors.
Soon regional breweries died out and megastores filled up with a narrow band of beer options.
The whole thing makes one want to strap a sign to their bike saying “Help, I’m trapped in America with nothing but a Miller Lite” and jam a satellite in hope of rescue. (This is not to say all pilsners are bad. Far from it. But the American Big Beer varieties? Oy vey!)
Craft beer to the rescue
Fortunately as some supremely cool Americans began waking up to the corporate dumbing down of both culture and taste buds a revival in beers occurred. For the last couple of decades a steady growth in the localized craft beer industry has happened, though not without some push back by Big Beer.
Even so, in localities across the country craft brewers have brought back America’s storied beer history and culture, delivering brews that are the pride of the neighborhood.
One of the great things about these breweries is that they support local business, provide local jobs, and help you get your brewskies without them having to travel all over this fine land, saving fuel and other resources in the process.
Yes girlfriend, drinking (or at least choosing) local beer is the duty of a good conservationist.
Going local
Now, some of us girls love our beers. To others it’s a grainy no-no to drink those higher calorie brews. But that’s okay, because our fellas often love beer. And it can be a sweet and special thing to steer him to a conservation lifestyle, too.
Something tells me that will go down easier with a nice Starr Hill Amber Ale. At least here in my ‘hood.
Which craft beer is in yours? Post below to tell me.
And remember, don’t drink and pedal!
–Lindsay Curren, Lindsay’s List
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