I’m giving over my lone comment on the current American Craft Beer Week to Smuttynose Brewing’s Peter Egelston, who noted the following in his monthly newsletter:
Greetings!
My sister Janet and I opened our first brewpub, the Northampton Brewery, in the summer of 1987, nearly 23 years ago. Back then, what we now call “craft beer” seemed like a very strange idea indeed, given the very non-craft-like state of the American beer industry. Today, on the first day of 2010’s American Craft Beer Week, it is interesting to pause for a moment to reflect on the sorry state of American beer in those days, and the amazing array of outstanding, truly handcrafted beers we’re able to enjoy today. Please, sometime this week, raise a glass of fine American craft beer to the brewers who made it, and then raise a glass to yourself, for keeping the faith and supporting those brewers.
Cheers!
Peter Egelston
And that’s what it’s all about: not jingoistic “isn’t American craft beer just the friggin’ best?!” or anything like that, but rather ’nuff respect and appreciation to the men and women out there who took an entrepreneurial flier all for the love of good beer. And to the rest of us for being smart enough to catch on.
Absolutely agree. Craft Beer represents more than a return to quality, but it represents the whole notion of the American Dream. What’s better than doing what you love, making people happy, and making some money at the same time?
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