What’s all this fuss about beer?
I know I am going to have to explain myself to many people, including friends and family, when they ask why I care so much about beer. I have to try and drum up an answer; to me, it seems as elementary as why anyone would like anything else? Honestly, I’ve read that beer and brewing have been around for as long as civilization, in one form or another. I remember reading that the first beers were brewed because people didn’t have a way of making potable water. So, that being said, I think beer has a lot to do with culture, tradition, and history.
Each beer tells many stories:
- How a beer style originated
- Why a certain region brews a beer
- What the different styles of beers mean and why / how they differ from one another
- Why a a person decided to make a brewery
Many beers (or at least the original styles) are older than much of modern Western civilization. So, what better to study and appreciate than a beer?
I have began the journey to learn as much as possible about beers, the varieties, styles, and the ingredients, so I can eventually release a collaborative project with the intention of creating a community discussion around beer. Recommendations, descriptions, where to buy/find, breweries, and food pairings- all these things are eventual hopeful sections within the site.
So, I decided that I needed to create a list to chart which beers I’ve actually had. I thought that it’s best to start at the most basic level. From there, I hope to create pages for each beer, brewery, and type. But even by having a list, it’s already shed light on some great new avenues Mike and I hadn’t considered. First, the sheer number of different beers we’ve actually had. Second, the crazy world of corporate brewing (as you can see with the lists we created subdivided by brewery). I didn’t realize until recently that SABMiller, inBev, and CoorsMiller are edging ever-closer to a worldwide beer hegemony.
Yes, to many it may sound superficial and sophomoric to be even bringing world politics and global economic systems into discussion surrounding something as commonplace and oft-underestimated as beer. However, ask me anything you’d like about beer, and why I decided to embark upon this journey with Mike to create a site centered around beer. I can tell you. This site is far from complete, and the URL is unknown to all save a small quorum of close friends who are coders and significant others. But when this site finally reaches fruition (hopefully by the end of the summer) and goes into beta testing, please let me know if you’re interested.
I do know many people are interested in beer, more than just the standard “American” beers: Miller, Coors, and Bud. Some are even as interested as I am, and have quite a bit of personal knowledge about beers, breweries, and trips to Europe/Asia/Latin America where the beers are much different. That is why Mike and I originally began working on this project- to create an educated-yet-casual-dialog about beer, where people can join an online, organic movement to share the knowledge they’ve gained over the years with other beer aficionados, or people who just want to know a little more about beer.
