With all due respect to the big friendly giant brewery here in St. Louis, I don't tend to think of beer in nearly the same terms as I think of wine.  Subtleness, complexity, and richness of flavor just don't enter into my decision when I order a Bud Light.

I was fascinated to read, in the latest New Yorker magazine (the Food Issue), an article by Burkhard Bilger entitled A Better Brew: The rise of Extreme Beer. Bilger highlights the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach , Delaware, among other craft brewers, and he provides a great concise history of brewing.

While the idea of "extreme" beer (or other food or drinks) is not overly appealing, some of the descriptions of beer in the article are mouthwatering: "Cloudy and golden, with a lush flowering of bananas and cloves, it tasted like something a trader might have sipped a century ago, standing in a colonial market in Ceylon, with open baskets of tea and spices all around."

Bilger points out that only 4% of the beer market is currently served by craft and micro-brewers, and that number probably holds true for my own beer experience. If nothing else, the article convinced me to expand my beer palate by seeking out local craft brewers, and to expand my concept of what a beer can, and, perhaps, should be.