Home Today's Reason to Drink May 13: Day Three of American Craft Beer Week

May 13: Day Three of American Craft Beer Week

It’s hump day for American Craft Beer Week. Before you start thinking, “What, those beer snobs get a whole week?” let me lay something on you. Now, it’s easy to take for granted America’s 6,000 breweries, but I can remember when there were only a handful of massive beer factories cranking out very similar lagers, aside from a few mind-bending mutants like Lowenbrau Dark. The craft beer explosion is a true American Dream story. When you consider the amount of red tape and bureaucracy the pioneers of the movement had to hack through, then the hard fight of getting American’s to grow their stunted palates, then the rapid growth of new breweries, many of them started on shoestring budgets: it’s quite simply astonishing. Not only have we replaced all the breweries killed by Prohibition, we’ve handily surpassed that number. In this age of corporate consolidation and ever-growing mega-companies, the craft beer revolution is very nearly a miracle. Much more than most companies, they’ve been battered by the lockdown, so buy some craft beer this week. Hell, buy a case. Let’s get America’s craft breweries rolling again!