What I Learned About Beer in 2009, Part II

6. Craft Brewers Aren’t Generally Big Cocktail Drinkers: When I ordered a negroni at a Vail, Colorado, bar in January of last year, you might have thought from the reactions of the beer folk around me that I had just reeled off a 20 minute soliloquy in Greek. Yet most of the top cocktail people I know, like Jeffrey and Jim and Tony, all have a far above average grasp of beer. Time to catch up with the times, people!

7. Anheuser-Busch Can Make a Pretty Damn Decent Bavarian Style Weiss: Some of my colleagues discovered this at a GABF tasting a year or two earlier, but I wasn’t as impressed at the time. The sample of Michelob Bavarian Style Wheat I tasted towards the end of 2009, however, convinced me.

8. Big Hops Aren’t Going Anywhere Any Time Soon: Massively hopped beers, even ridiculously out of balance massively hopped beers, continued to prove insanely popular in 2009 and likely will again this year.

9. Beer & Cheese Is Even Bigger and More Beautiful Than I Ever Imagined: Notwithstanding No. 4, this is a relationship that can sing gorgeous arias and rockin’ screechers on the palate. And I fully intend to spend several pounds of weight and untold dollars further exploring it in the coming year.