It's great that the Obama/Gates/whoever "Beer Summit" is calling attention to the companies that actually make the mediocre beers which masquerade as being tied to a specific locale.
* You thought Bud Light was American? Try corporate Brazilian-Belgian.
* Blue Moon is from the Midwest, right? Nope. That would be from a multi-national version of nowhere which includes South Africa, the UK, and Canada.
* Red Stripe, as you know from its commercials, hails from London. I mean, to the extent that a corporation like Diageo can be said to exist anywhere.
What's marvelous about the curtain being pulled back on this charade is that it crystallizes this little-talked-about fact: actual American breweries are simply the world's powerhouse for quality beer. The joke about American beer being like a having sex in a canoe no longer holds -- that canoe now rides the Thames or the Amazon.
Anyway, if the Three Summiteers want to actually enjoy their beers, there are some obvious substitutes -- aka improvements.
Since President Obama drinks Bud, he'd probably really enjoy a quality Pilsner like Prima Pils from Victory Brewing. That's in Pennsylvania...like the Avenue.
Officer Crowley's could indulge his enjoyment of wheat beers by ditching the Blue Moon and instead sampling the witbier from Missouri's leading brewer: Boulevard Brewing.
And for Professor Gates, who strikes me as appreciating aesthetics, there is one very obvious step up from Red Stripe:
That would be Session Lager, brewed by employee-owned Full Sail Brewing in Oregon.
Beer of this quality makes me want caught breaking into my own home to drink some. Fortunately, I don't have to...since here on 30th Street, most of the bars, restaurants, and corner stores traffic in it.
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