Craft Beer

Beer fests can best be described as the province of flannel-wearing, beard-having, craft beer nerds. Put more politely, they’re events where small, mostly independent breweries can show off their latest and greatest work to attendees in search of rare, high-quality brews they’d have a hard time finding at their local bar or convenience store. 

Though America’s beer laws have become increasingly lax over the years, alcohol is still one of the more heavily-regulated products in the country, and selling booze comes with plenty of hoops to continually jump through. For instance, every new product label has to be approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

Love them or hate them—and plenty of brewers hate them—beer rating platforms like RateBeer, BeerAdvocate, and Untappd are an important part of the craft beer world. As the number of breweries has exploded to over 7,000 in the United States alone, and the number of beers each brewery makes has also evolved to include ever-expanding lineups, keeping track of the beer scene would be virtually impossible without some sort of searchable digital guide at your fingertips.

When Keith Villa, the brewer who invented Blue Moon, decided to retire from MillerCoors to launch his own line of THC-infused non-alcoholic beers, the move definitely had the feel of a potential sea change in America’s transition towards a marijuana-friendly nation.

Not that long ago, beer drinkers were simply happy to see their suds slung in a glass that wasn’t cracked. But as fancy brews have gone more mainstream, many beer bars have taken to using glass rinsers to blast glassware clean right before serving.

From dad rock bands to coffee chains to colleges, everyone wants in on the craft beer craze.

Often times it feels like everything has been tried in the world of craft brewing—from a double IPA brewed with fried chicken to a saison barrel-aged with Wu-Tang Clan music.

If Generation Y (that’s the early end of millennials, in case you prefer buzzier terminology) has taught us anything, it’s that nostalgia is big business. From Saved By the Bell pop-up diners to Ecto Cooler reboots, America’s thirty-somethings have plenty of opportunities to indulge in and relive their childhoods.

Now that cans have become craft beer’s coolest packaging, I find myself buying a lot of aluminum. Just last Thursday, I was hauling my latest purchases down to the cellar when I heard a pretty serious pop. One of the cans in my right hand, a hazy IPA, had burst at the seam of the lid, sending about a third of a can’s worth of beer from the ceiling to the floor.