Analysis: IPAs By Decade

November 2016, Josh and I headed up to the Big South Fork to climb the Standard Route of the O&W Wall. The Big South Fork is remote and wild, and the cliffs are intimidatingly tall by southeastern standards. At the top, Josh and I cracked open some cans of barley soda and enjoyed the gorge at its golden hour before making our descent. 

Once we returned to civilization and cell service (a McDonald's in Oneida, Tennessee), Josh posted a photo from the evening on his Instagram. Within minutes, vitriolic comments about our beer of choice  began blowing up the notifications on his phone. People did not approve of Busch. 

It was the 2010s, the height of the craft beer movement, and the Age of the IPA. Beer Wars was on Netflix, Fat Tire was no longer "fancy," and every town in Colorado had its own micro-brewery (8.4 breweries per every 100,000 21+ person, to be exact). Busch, and other single-name, macro-brewed, American-style lagers that retail for around $1 a can, were considered "cat piss.” According to Josh's refined friends and followers, we might as well have been a pair of slack-jawed yokels.

But that's all changed now. Beer taste has horseshoe theory'd back to the macro-brew, and now IPA's are the butt of jokes and memes. Micro and craft breweries have even started cranking out their own light lagers. But a six-pack will run you about $9.99 while a 12er of Busch costs and tastes about the same. That's basic economics. 

Speaking of economics, Busch and many other beers like Busch are union-made. And we should support labor unions. Unions are why our employers do anything remotely humane for us. And in the face of a fifty-year neoliberal onslaught on the working class, we should build worker power however and whenever we can; whether buying PBR or democratizing our own workplace. So here's a helpful list of union-made beers to get the revolution started. 

 

all-time great can design; bring it back, Busch.

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