Happy Independents Day — Special 250th Anniversary Edition
Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze 1851.
This is the tenth anniversary of the first time I celebrated “Independents Day,” which salutes the work of the independent breweries who are principally responsible for inventing the new styles that fueled an industry as well as preserving traditional methods and styles that no longer have a mainstream audience. If you are reading this post, the beer you like to drink exists because independent breweries exist, whether we’re talking about Breakside or Schlenkerla. I have been mystified the Brewers Association hasn’t taken up this obvious low-hanging fruit to celebrate the independence of the breweries in their trade group, but for the past decade, I’ve celebrate alone. (Yay independent media!)
If you’ve never read one, here’s last year’s, which adds another element to the celebration of independents, which involves the loneliness of the small brewer. Of course, I take advantage of America’s Independence Day for my homophonic fun, and this year our country is celebrating a significant milestone, its semiquincentennial (250th). Rather than repeat myself again this year, it feels like an opportunity to consider American brewing in a larger context.
Beer is not art. It doesn’t comment on society’s big issues. Were this a music blog, I might examine the most “American” music, which, honestly, I’d love to do. Pairing a consideration of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” or “Sweet Home Alabama” with “Strange Fruit” or “Mississippi Goddam” would itself be an invitation to consider not just the country’s history, but its myths, truths, and traumas. Movies? Wouldn’t “The Birth of a Nation” and “Do the Right Thing” make a great pairing? All of these works comment on, explain, and conceal the meanings and lessons of America.
Beer is a craft, though, and has about as much explanatory value as a Stickley chair. Yet beer has played a role in American history since the first immigrants arrived. In fact, it features in the story of the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock. (They were running low on beer, a fact some boosters have claimed solely motivated their move inland, while others contest it was but a minor factor. Still, there it was in the frame.) Dissidents later plotted revolution over pots of ale at the Green Dragon in Boston. From then until tomorrow, when beer will slake the thirst of celebrants across the country, beer has been a part of the still lives decorating the scenery. Look closely at anything that happened in American history, and you’re probably going to find a bar nearby where someone was drinking beer.
The history of America is, fundamentally, a fight over the meaning of America. Did it start in 1607? The Patuxet people living near Plymouth in 1620 might take issue with that story. I hinted at the different types of stories people tell by referencing music and movies. Beer is a cultural artifact, and as such it has been present in all those stories. Let’s return for a moment to the movies I mentioned. DW Griffith made a short movie called “Three Friends” which features factory workers drinking beer together. In “Do the Right Thing,” there’s this incredible scene:
Two directors who told very different stories about America, using the cultural power of beer to advance their themes. Beer is content-neutral. Because everyone drinks it, it belongs to everyone. It can and has been used to celebrate White culture, Black culture, and lately and very successfully, Latino culture. Across the US, every state and many towns have used it to celebrate themselves, to stand as a symbol of them—just like Da Mayor uses High Life in “Do the Right Thing.” Everywhere, all at once, beer is us.
To the extent beer tells us anything about America, it’s a story of immigration. Europeans brought beer with them—the Dutch, the English, and finally, the Germans. That is perfectly appropriate: 419 years after the first immigrants arrived (some might say illegally), immigration remains one of the hottest and most contested issues in American life. For those four centuries, beer has been sitting in wooden casks, glasses, bottles, and cans in the same rooms where history happened.
Since this entire post has courted controversy, let’s dive in and really embrace it as we go out. Beer may not be able to comment on America, but that doesn’t mean certain brands can’t be especially “American,” amirite? What better way to celebrate Independence and Independents Day than starting an argument. For your consideration, here are the most American beers in our long history (in alpha order). Please affirm or dispute in comments.
Anchor Steam
Ballantine IPA
Budweiser
Colt 45 Malt Liquor
Genny Cream Ale
Miller Lite
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
John Taylor & Sons Imperial Albany Cream Ale
Yuengling Porter
Have a good weekend, my friends, and drink well.