E279: Classic American Craft Beers for your 4th of July

Beer Guys Radio Craft Beer Podcast

July 4, 1776. America is born. There are high fives all around. Samuel Adams breaks out his homebrew to celebrate. Life is good.

This week we take a look at some classic American craft beers. American craft is fairly young in the grand scheme of things. Where many European countries have hundreds of years of tradition, we've got 40ish years - with maybe a couple of exceptions. A little thing called Prohibition threw us off for a while but when we got back in the game, we went all out. Anchor Steam hit the scene in 1971, Sierra Nevada in 1980, Sam Adams in 1984. The 90s gave us bold beers from Dogfish Head and saw the brewpub boom where you could always find a Blonde Ale, a Pale Ale a Porter, and in Irish Red. There were 90 craft breweries in American in 1978 and today there are over 8,800.

Our crafty pioneers brought hoppy beers that not everyone took a shine to. Many people that were used to their American lagers thought the beers were flawed. But the brewers pushed on and the people developed a taste for hops and bitterness in their beers. This led to the IBU Wars with 1,000 IBU beers, the soft NEIPAs, and the fruited glitter milkshake DDH I-can't-even-taste-beer beers we have today. What a ride.

To celebrate this journey we sat down with our friend (and show sponsor!) Adam Silverberg from The Nest Kennesaw. We talk some about the beers that introduced us to craft, dive into the history of these classic brews, and discuss some of the trendy phases we've seen.

Whatever you choose to pack your cooler with this 4th of July there's no shortage of amazing American beer to celebrate with. I'll drink to that.

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Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.
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