It’s every beer blogger’s favorite time of the month – The Session has arrived. It’s a time when bloggers from around the world write on one predetermined topic and share their thoughts on the discussion of the day.
This month’s installment comes from Adrian Dingle – better known as “D_I_N_G” online. He writes over at Ding’s Beer Blog and asks, in so many words, “OH MY GOD … AMERICANS DID WHAT TO BEER!?” Because apparently the USA stole beer from the UK and Europe and went all Michael Bay on it and shit just got real. How real? Real real.
Anyone with any inkling of my online, in-person and blogging presence in the American beer world since 2000, will know that the whole of my beer experience in that time has been colored by, sits against the backdrop of, and forms the awkward juxtaposition to, my English beer heritage and what has been happening the USA in the last few years. Everyone knows that I have been very vocal about this for a very long time, so when it came to thinking about what would be a great ‘Session’ topic, outside of session beer, it seemed like that there could be only one topic; ‘What the hell has America done to beer?‘, AKA, ‘USA versus Old World Beer Culture‘.
So with that in mind, I’ve once again turned to multimedia to tell my story.
The way I see it, “Old World Beer Culture” was all like…
… and then Americans came along and were all like…
… and then I guess everything bad in the world ever happened and we’re all terrible people.
Or maybe it’s just another case of diffusion of innovation and there’s really nothing to worry about because we have lots of options and regional specialties and people are happy.
Either way, let’s drink up and just get along.
Photos courtesy of kcutillophoto.com.
+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac
