The Best Beer Nation on Earth

For generations, the rest of the world has snickered at American beer. It has been dismissed as watery, weak, and without flavor. It has been the butt of dirty jokes involving canoes. In many ways, American beer became a symbol of how people from other countries saw American culture in general: Prefabricated homogenous and dollar-driven.

Fortunately, the old stereotypes no longer apply. Today, the United States is the best beer nation on earth.

Thanks to the vision and work ethic of a new breed of brewers, the nearly defunct beer industry is being turned on its ear. Over the past 20 years, more than a thousand independent breweries sprang up across the USA. These businesses don't hinge on quarterly earnings reports and shareholder satisfaction; they reflect the passion held by their founders.

While other nations' brewers adhere to long-standing tradition, American craft brewers experiment joyfully, creating new beer styles and offering fresh takes on classic European beers. Only now, forty years after Fritz Maytag bought the dying Sierra Nevada Brewery and lit the pilot light for the craft beer movement, are small breweries popping up in Denmark and Italy. In the USA, the local brewery is becoming a neighborhood fixture.

Taken individually, these indie brewers are too small to be noticed by the big multinational conglomerates that control the industry. But as a category, craft brewing is slowly changing peoples' expectations of how beer should taste, and stimulating consumers' desire for variety. The whole market is shifting. According to the Brewer's Association, in 2007, craft beer sales were up 12% over the previous year, while mainstream beer sales stagnated. This trend continues today.

The conglomerates are taking steps to adjust their product lines to reflect these changing consumer tastes. But they can never capture the ethos of the independent brewer or craft beer lover. Craft beer is a triumph of man over marketing. Each glass contains a story of people who made something great, because they liked it, and were thus proud to offer it for sale.

As an American, I am equally proud to drink the finest beers in the world. Cheers!