Recipe - Micro Brews Information

INFORMATION

As you settle in to watch the big game, pop a cold one and take a moment to
toast the return of microbrewed beers.

From the end of World War II through the presidency of Ronald Reagan,
American beer lovers were routinely offered three choices when they asked a
waitperson in a bar or restaurant what beers the establishment carried.
"Budweiser, Miller...and Budweiser" was the standard monotonal reply. Not
so today. The final decade of the Second Millenium has become a remarkably
energetic era of suds resurgence in major cities and whistlestop hamlets of
the U.S. in an age in which new eateries are being designed and erected
around small brewing operations.

Beermania has become so prevalent that even the finest restaurants in top
drawer communities are offering their patrons printed rosters of microbrew
beers, complete with tasting notes, in addition to the wine list. What wine
was to adventurous consumers of the 1970s and the 1980s, microbrew beer is
to those same people here in the late 1990's.

In the shadow of the new millenium, microbrew beer, or, as it is commonly
defined, high quality, locally crafted beer made in less than annual
volumes of 15,000 barrels, stands poised to write exciting new chapters in
the history book of brewing. That historical account first recorded by the
Sumerians in cuneiform goes back to the initial stirrings of civilization
circa 3000 B.C.

Since America is first and foremost a beerdrinking nation, the
reemergance of this libation, which is made from water, yeast and
fermented and cooked grain mash, is not that surprising. We are a nation
with a fabled legacy of brewing right from colonial times. The microbrews
that we are relishing today are keen reflections of the 17th and 18th
centuries when corner brewpubs populated the streets of New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago.

The main difference with the contemporary brews is the astoundingly long
menu of styles that are available. Pale ales from California, stouts from
Vermont, porters from Oregon, wheat beers from Massachusetts, nut brown
ales from Iowa, viennas from New York. Microbreweries are mushrooming at a
rate that mirrors the interest and leanings of the drinking public. Working
people, young and old, want more character, more depth of flavor to their
beer than the mass produced, chugalug golden lagers can deliver.

Consumers want more intensity for their hardearned cash. Because they are
made in small batches, which automatically means more of a handson
approach to brewing, beers from locally owned and operated microwbreweries
and contract brewers (brewers who make beers which are frequently labeled
under a different name) provide the complexity and the range of flavors and
aromas that today's consumers are demanding. Microbrews and contract beers
by their very nature are far more idiosyncratic and individualistic than
any highvolume golden lager could be.

Cheers! F. Paul Pacult

Recipe by: Bay's English Muffins Website

Posted to MCRecipe Digest by SuzyWert@aol.com on Feb 13, 1998