American Beer Culture.

The US is melting pot. As such culture is very diverse and would be impossible to homogenize into any single beer culture.

 

The Benedictine Weihenstephan Brewery in Bavaria, Germany, can trace its roots to the year 768. Ask me your question in 3262 & I'll give you an answer.

 

That sounds a bit more like a family dynamic than a national dynamic.

Thanks for that thoughtful response. I think what we are discovering- yes rediscovering- is that this is an amazing place and great things are going on. Like I said above...Portland, Seattle, Bend, San Diego, Asheville and so may more.
I go to New Orleans on occasion (Jazz-Fest), and the beer scene is just OK. I love the oysters. Check out Fonta Flora out of Morganton for some original stuff. Beer is meaningful, but not everything!

 

I understand your sentiment here and I tend to agree with it. I am not sure that there is an unambiguous definition for "beer culture" so this is likely a 'shades of gray' topic.

It is tricky to use the word "Europe" here since many countries of Europe are not beer drinking nations (e.g., Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, ...). Even if you try to concentrate on a single country like Germany it is difficult since there are portions of Germany where beer is not as much of the regional culture (e.g., the wine growing regions of Germany, the regions of Germany where industrial beer is the beverage of choice (they call these beers Ferneshbiere: TV beer), etc.).

Cheers!

 

I think there is a single beer culture in the USA. People in different parts of our country may drink different beers but the beers are while doing the same things. Backyard BBQ's, tailgating at or while watching live sports, watching sports on TV at home or in a bar and other forms of partying is the American beer culture

 

I agree with your sentiment but I would prefer that it be worded as: "I think there is a common beer culture in the USA". it is a nitpick but the word "single" implies this is the only (sole) culture.

While there may be some variation in the brand of beer consumed I would be willing to bet that in a significant number of these events we would see light beers of some sort (Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc,) being consumed. I would be willing to bet that a tailgating event at Penn State, LSU, Michagan State, UCLA, etc. you would see light beers being consumed in massive quantities regardless of where they are located in the US.

While there may be some regional differences there is also a lot of commonality; the tops selling beers are consumed in massive quantities in every region of the US (and I am sure that even in Oregon there are lots of light beer drinkers).

Cheers!

 

Not sure if inverted keg stands and beer pong qualify as "culture".

 

'shades of gray'

Cheers!

 

Your are right common would have been a better choice of word to use. It also seems to me that the % of craft beer drunk at such events is about the same as crafts % of the total beer market.

 

America is huge and we are much more prone to tear things down and build something new than the Europeans. In some ways our culture and scene is that we are forever changing and reinventing things. Years ago I was taking a walk with a little Irish boy and we cam upon a plaque at the south End of lake Calhoun in Minneapolis that said an Indian Village had been on that site 200 years ago. He looked at me and said that his school was 400 years old.

I would rather not have a unified American Beer culture. A thousand or two different cultures would be just fine. Businesses rise and fall, get gobbled up or gobble up others and lose their character. Some businesses last for several generations but most don't. Even the ones that last change. If my local microbrewers and have different names, vibes and locations in the near or far future I will continue to go there as long as I can walk through the door.

 

I think sadly American culture in general is at an all time low. Music, art, etc. Our sense of community isn't what it was and there are so many factors that we can attribute to this but I think as long as we live in this cell phone/computer/tv centered age where kids would rather face-time their friends than actually hang out with them, they are going to grow up with a different sense of community than our parents knew. I guess I'm just a rambling old timer and you should just ignore this post.

 

My last tailgate was last year at MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ) for a Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Football Game. In our 'neighborhood' of a dozen or so RVs the only people drinking craft was me and a few others (drinking my homebrewed beers). Everybody else was drinking Bud Light, Miller Lite, Bud (and a handful of people drinking Coors Light). Game time was 8:00 and there were tons of people staggering to get into that game. I can't claim that this one instance is statistically valid but there was essentially zero craft beer being consumed at this event.

Cheers!

 

Hey you damn kids get off my lawn!

Cheers!

 

Hmmm, might be a better number than you give it credit for.

First rule out all those you couldn't see drinking. Drunk can be caused by many different things.

Next "a dozen or so RVs" and "me and a few others."

If we say a dozen as an estimate and assume 3 people drinking beer per RV then thats 36 drinkers. With you and "a few others" that's about 4 people minimum. That means about 11% of the people were drinking your home brew (a form of craft). If market share is still about 12% then your 11% is well within range of the expected numbers we'd expect to find.

 

Pauly do you know what your parents were saying about your generation and what their parents said about them? :-)

 

Based upon my RV and the other RVs immediately near us it was more like 10-12 drinkers per RV. There was more than one fight that broke out within 20 feet of where I was sitting.

Cheers!

 

I don't think we'll have a single unified beer culture, but I absolutely feel that we have elements of a regional beer culture in some places. I've spent time in the beer-centric European nations and think there are elements of it that we capture. The trick is that it's only in certain pockets. Denver and Ft. Collins might have a lot of the communal aspects I've seen in Germany and Belgium, but this is a huge country. You don't necessarily even get that same vibe an hour or two in any direction, let alone in rural Mississippi or Camden NJ.

 

Man that's a lot of folks per RV, but if your RV had close to that many home brew drinkers.... Gotta have at least one fight erupt at a tailgating football event, its one of the parking lot rules....

 

We will never have a beer culture like the Europeans. First off we are regionalized, all ready been said but the size of our country and regional differences come into play. I also see the us beer culture being all about innovation and making bigger flavored beers that'll turn a lot of people off. Most people don't have the palate for hoppy beers or big boozy imperial stouts or sours that are popular in America. The German lagers and English session beers seem much more approachable and makes it easier to have them be a regular part of their beer culture.