Craft Beer in My Hometown and Why I'm Encouraged By Sierra Nevada's Summerfest

I'm from a pretty generic middle class suburban community in central New Jersey. I now live in DC, which is becoming, if it hasn't already become, something of a craft beer stronghold in the United States. Even before Churchkey opened its wonderful, wonderful doors, there were a number of bars in the District that took pride in the suds they slung. Now, with Churchkey, DC is undeniably a craft beer town. It's very familiar when I come home and find the same BMC cases/kegs at parties I go to hosted by friends from high school. I've tried to turn them onto something better, but I guess it's kind of hard to play beer pong or other drinking games with fuller-bodied beers. Scratch that, I guess it's not hard to play those games with these beers, but it is a lot harder to play the games for any length of time. Mostly when I come home I just bring a six or some bombers with me so I don't have to bother with the BMC stuff.

I've had a couple of interesting and encouraging things happen during my last two trips home:

- I had a conversation with a friend of mine at Thanksgiving about how he's on a quest to try as many different beers as possible. He doesn't really want to repeat, and he's saving the bottles on his journey. Very positive. He's currently pretty big on wheat beers, which isn't really my wheelhouse, but hey, more power to you. I'll be dropping him off a bottle or two of Flying Dog's Raging Bitch before I leave as I'm certain that the distribution for it won't make it up this way for a while.
- There's a liquor store that remodeled itself on a major intersection in my town that now advertises itself as the "Home of 1,000 Craft Beers." They aren't lying. The selection is fantastic, and they have the always-a-winner "Mix a Six" opportunity. I've loaded up these past two trips home. What's really nice is my friends go to this store as well, so they're starting to branch out a bit.
- Last night at a party a friend of mine brought a six of Sierra Nevada Summerfest that he'd picked up. Summerfest in the winter? Yeah, it doesn't really fit. But it wasn't Bud Light Golden Wheat, so I'm not complaining one bit. I recommended Sierra Nevada Torpedo to him, and he said he'd check it out (for the record, I think it's one of the best IPAs for your buck out there, even better than the venerable DFH 90 minute IPA, which is probably my favorite beer of all time).
- I brought two bombers of Rogue to the same party last night and another guy asked me, "They make Dead Guy, right?" Solid.

One mark in the "negative" column? Blue Moon is still viewed as craft beer. I guess it isn't really non-craft beer. I don't know, I'm kind of torn. On one hand, I want to see people buying true craft beer from craft breweries. On the other hand, if people are going to buy from BMC, I'd prefer they buy stuff like Blue Moon and not the usual swill. This will show BMC that market share is shifting (I mean, it's really not, but if Blue Moon sales go up, it might send a message, who knows?)

Anyway, I'll keep planting the craft beer seeds (bottles?) at home. We'll see what grows.

Why I like beer bars and other things that have the word beer in them that I similarly like

From an early age, what are we conditioned to do when we meet a new person? I can't begin to tell you the number of times I was chided by my parents to, "Tell him/her your name!" and to "Put out your hand!" Where you don't seem to do this really is in the service industry. I mean sure your waiter/waitress/server person at restaurants usually says, "I'm Bartholomew and I'll be taking care of you tonight" but you don't really say that to say, your dry cleaner, barber, or postal worker. I mean, I guess I don't, but I might try that soon. I've got a new thing where I introduce myself to bartenders at beer bars before I order. Now first let me stop and clarify, what do I mean by "beer bars." Well, if you don't know, I'd be surprised if you're reading this blog. I guess I mean anywhere craft beer is sold. My definition of craft beer is pretty broad, maybe broader than most people's. Craft beer, to me, is anything that isn't in the macrolager style and anything that isn't directly produced by Bud/Miller/Coors (BMC). Anyway. Introducing myself to bartenders (beertenders?) I think it goes well. There are few things in life I take as seriously as beer, and why wouldn't you want to develop a rapport with the person who will be slinging your craft suds for whatever drinking session you're on? I started this when Churchkey opened up, mostly because they introduced themselves first. It's a small thing, I guess, but beer really is a social hobby. You share beer with friends. Talk about it with friends. Network through beer. Meet new people. Talk to them about it. And so on and so forth. Beertenders who you get to know may be more inclined to tell you what deals they've got going on right now, what beers taste off, what beers have been really popular, and hell, may even throw a free pint your way. It's not something I expect by any means, but it's happened enough to know that building that relationship can help. Anyway, introduce yourself to your next beertender. See how it goes.

On a completely different note, I've decided to take the plunge and start homebrewing. I bought some equipment (I'm going with the 6 gallon plastic bucket with an airlock for a fermenter). I also have a 5 gallon Poland Spring jug that I will try to fit a bung and airlock into for a second fermenter (if I could get two batches from two fermenters a month I wouldn't hardly have to buy beer ever again). I'm basically using Charlie Papazian's seminal The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (3rd Edition) as my reference. I like his philosophy about not stressing out. It's important. We'll see if I feel that way once I actually start doing it. I know that all-malt brewing is the best way to start for a n00b like me, but honestly, I'm in this to win this. I'm not in this to make some watered down ale that is less appealing to me than whatever BMC is slinging this month. I want something I will be satisfied drinking. And if I don't get that, then I will try again, but I'm not going to shoot low and play it safe. My first brew will (hopefully) be a very hoppy red ale. I'm using Stering hops to bitter and Glacier and Cascade to finish. If it tastes anything like Rogue's St. Rogue Dry-Hopped Red or Green Flash's Hop Head Red, I'll be ecstatic.

I'll update when the equipment comes and I try it out. I may even take pictures. We'll see.

Anyway, I guess I'll get to bed. Cheers.