MemeMachineGo!

=v= My first encounter with beer was in Germany, as an exchange student, and when I got back home I couldn't believe how weak American beers were. So I pretty much ignored the stuff, for years. Little did I know, there was a craft beer revolution in the works. I got some inkling of this in Boston, when Samuel Adams (the beer, not the patriot) got underway, but when I moved to California the quality plummeted -- turns out it's an entirely different brewery, and beer, on the West Coast.

Later I visited Ireland and was gobsmacked at how good the Guinness was when it was local and fresh. This was, of course, followed by another buzzkill disappointment when I got back to the States and tasted the imported version. This time, though, my inklings were of the locavore variety and I discovered the virtues of Steelhead Stout. It was my introduction to the craft beer revolution.

The fine folks at Grand Teton Brewing Co. are putting out four "cellar reserve" beers this year, in honor of the four ingredients mandated by Germany's Reinheitsgebot: hops, barley, water and yeast. Each beer is supposed to honor one of the four ingredients.

I think I'll be skipping the beer that honors water. After all, that would be kind of exactly like the type of American beer I've been avoiding all these years.