Monday, May 14, 2012

American Craft Beer Week

This week, May 14 - 20, has been designated American Craft Beer Week by the Brewers Association.  Given the popularity of the concept of "beer weeks" in recent years, it seems hardly surprising that the Brewers Association would loosely organize events in a week to highlight the American craft beer industry.  Several years ago, select cities in the United States with a strong craft beer industry began to promote their breweries through an organized series of events, spanning a week or more.  Such beer weeks highlighted specific breweries through tastings and food pairings, as well as brewer talks, seminars and other educational opportunities.  Some of the original beer week cities include San Francisco and Philadelphia, and they are still going strong.  These beer weeks, along with many others, have gained popularity until they have grown to such a proportion that one could one even hope to attend even a fraction of the hundreds of events events held during the larger beer weeks (see CraftBeer.com site for listing of known beer weeks).

If taken as a general indicator of the health of the craft beer industry, I would say the growth of beer weeks is a good thing.  While they seem to becoming a bit over-done, they do present an opportunity to attend events that are normally not available.  If you can make time to attend an American Craft Beer event, I would encourage you to consider one of the rarer events, such as a brewer panel discussion, celebrity beer dinner, or rare beer tasting.  You can find a listing of American Craft Beer events here.

But whatever you choose to attend, supporting your local craft brewery is never a bad thing.

Cheers,

TW

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