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Old 11-25-2015, 08:26 AM   #18
denverd0n
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City: Tampa, FL
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 672
It really is quite amazing how dramatically the beer landscape has changed over the past 20 years within the United States. In the 80's, with very few exceptions, it was Budweiser, Miller, or Coors, and pretty much nothing else. If a bar wanted patrons to think of them as having a wide variety of beers then maybe they would offer Heineken.

Today, any bar or restaurant that doesn't offer a pale ale and an IPA--at least--is considered a barren desert as far as beers are concerned. While American pale lagers are still fairly insipid, and they are still the biggest selling beers in America, there is just so much variety in American-brewed beers today that anyone who immediately thinks of "Budweiser" (or the like) when they think of "American beer" is just sadly and desperately behind the times.

The irony is that while the American mega-breweries, making their pale lagers, are struggling to figure out how to compete with all of the varied and flavorful micro-brews now available here, pale lagers are actually becoming more and more popular in other areas of the world. The market share controlled by pale lagers has been going down in the United States over the last decade, but it has been going up in most of the rest of the world.

It's a wonderful time to be a beer drinker in America.
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