In my latest column for the Malt Advocate magazine, I make what I feel is the little-recognized point that the youngest legal beer drinkers in North America today have lived almost their entire lives with the existance of craft-brewed beer. For them, brands like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Anchor Steam Beer are not oddities in a Bud-, Miller- and Coors-dominated marketplace, but staples in the fridges at the local Joe's Liquor Store.
This fact, I maintain, is a sure-fire indicator that craft beer has come of age in North America, and moreover, that it is not about to go away. Quite recently, I have added to this another observation that would seem to support my thesis.
It came to me as I was walking past a pub in my neighbourhood where stood, propped in the front window, a chalkboard listing the fifteen or so draught beers carried at the bar. As I perused this list, I was pleasantly surprised to note that only two of the brands mentioned could be described as mainstream beers. As I read further, though, I also noted that not a single brand mentioned made me want to step inside for a pint. With the exception of that duo of big brewery lagers, the entire list was made up of what could with some justification be called "second tier beers."
Once upon a time, beer on the North American continent could be neatly divided into two categories: domestic and imported. Order the former and you would receive a thin, yellowish lager, while a request for the latter would typically bring a skunky, light golden lager or occasionally a poor example of British best bitter. The choice was simple -- one or the other.
Today, however, there are myriad segments of the beer market. Of course, the thin, yellowish lager prevails in the form of the mainstream brands and there are still plenty of skunky imported brews around, too. But other classes of brew have also sprung up, including craft brews, premium imports and that second tier.
The category of second tier beers is, to my mind, made up of two sub-classifications. The first of these is the craft beer with mainstream tendencies, beers which boast more body and character than do those of the industrial behemoths but still not quite enough to make them interesting drinks. Their brethren are imported brews that still on old reputations no longer quite deserved, beers that may once have been great but have since declined into more decidedly mainstream tastes. Together, these two sub-classes make up the group of beers I only order when there is nothing better available on tap or in the bottle, and I don't feel like a whisky, mixed drink or glass of wine.
Now, given that I have been less than generous in my apraisal of the second tier, it may surprise you to learn that I view their existance as a good thing. Because what the second tier does is both raise the flavour bar for the mainstream and make people more comfortable with ordering a beer other than their 'usual.' As much as I am uninterested in ordering them, I like the idea that they appeal to others because that means beer drinkers are tending away from beers that are completely bereft of character, aroma and flavour.
And where the beer market in North America is concerned, almost any flavour is better than no flavour at all.
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