Wanted: New Beer Explorers
April, 1998With as many breweries and brewpubs as we now have in the Pacific Northwest, sometimes it seems as if one needs venture no further than the environs of Seattle or Portland to experience all that's happening in the craft beer revolution. As we know, many of the nation's pioneering breweries are here, as well as some of the largest craft operations in the country - Redhook, Pyramid, Widmer, Full Sail and BridgePort. If you've been reading this paper regularly, you know they've got a lot of company in these parts, too, with nearly 150 players in the game now in Washington and Oregon alone. While some have closed or changed hands recently, such as Nor'Wester (now part of Saxer), growth remains steady in what actually amounts to a tiny part of the overall U.S. beer industry. But small as the micro segment may be in the world of industrial brewing, it has clearly captured the attention of the whole business (could it be, "macrobrewers", because these beers really ARE better?)
But even while I find it relatively easy in the Northwest to encounter good craft beer, it was an eye-opener for me recently to attend the Great American Beer Festival in Denver for the first time. There I found over 400 breweries and brewpubs from across the U.S. with some 1700 beers to sample. Now THIS was a beer festival! Pick your style - from Pale Ale to Gueuze "Lambic", and there was an example (usually, too many examples!) to taste. I had Pilsner from Pennsylvania, Hefeweizen from Alabama, Brown Ale from Texas, and barley wine from Kentucky. There were no apparent geographical limits to flavor, with dry Irish-style stout from Utah, Dortmunder export lager from Tampa, Florida, and Kšlsch from New Mexico. The 150 medalists at the GABF this year came principally from California and Colorado, but also represented many other states, from the Midwest, East Coast, and even the South.
Of course, the challenge in such a beer smorgasbord is to sample as many brews as possible without sensory overload or just plain inebriation. I'm not sure I really accomplished this, but I did manage to taste about 100 beers in three days. Some were great, some not, but that was to be expected. The experience was still a vast improvement from those marathon wine tastings I indulged in when I was in that trade, where I might sample 27 Red burgundies in a single afternoon, all soon tasting the same.
If there was anything I learned from the GABF, it was a sense of the remarkable diversity of good beer in this country in all kinds of places. I'm still glad I live in the beer-rich Northwest, but it has no corner on the industry anymore. Regional appreciation is concept I firmly believe in, but it's not enough to satisfy the national and international appetite of the true beer lover.
So, to reword the phrase we all hear these days, I'd like to propose that we drink - and think - both locally AND globally. There's an exciting world of beer out there beyond our own backyards. Why not join me in trying a beer today that you've never had before? After all, as Michael Jackson put it so well, "the search for the perfect pint should last a lifetime."
