All is well

Going around the internet is a strange way to get a sense of what's going on in the world of beer. But you can get a real feel for what's going on this very minute. I just did.

Tonight I read about my buddy Shaun HIll's long-awaited brewery project in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and a new brewery called Stillwater making a beer that's not just eerily Jack D'Or-sounding, it sounds equally delicious. There are hundreds of people entering reviews of their beer experiences as I type this little column - and others just logging in for the first time and seeing the infinite world of great beer laid out before them for the first time.

A few weeks ago Tod Alström wrote that he and his brother's website is seeing record membership growth. At the same time the beer and food world seems to be uniting in a new way, the span between us all is getting ever so small. All this despite a time in American history where the economy is a sad state of affairs, unemployment grows, politics and social warfare is generating anger and even hatred all over the place... and beer is way up here. Not just in sales growth but in a supercilious way. It's an oasis of ambitious flavours, well meaning artisans and fun-loving Americans. It's one of the last things we make industrially and by God it's something we love to make, consume and do it well at that.

If there needs to be a model for a new way forward in this country I wouldn't be too embarassed to see our 1400 craft breweries put in the spotlight for a few minutes.

That aside, I'm drinking a Smuttynose IPA and happily contemplating the next few months while Martha struggles with the taxes. All is well.