I just went to Belgium and had some of the greatest beer for like $4.75 a pint at restaurants in Antwerp and Brussels. In Switzerland I got a Brooklyn Lager for $6 a pint, cheaper than in the US. Europe must subsidize and regulate their stuff much differently than New Jersey does, for some obvious economic and touristic reasons, and maybe Brooklyn Lager isn’t the best comparative because it’s a NY beer, but I suppose what I’m getting at is when I want a quality beer in the US I go to the liquor store to buy it. The margins at US bars and restaurants make to too expensive. I can’t even loop breweries into it because they can’t serve food for some dumb reason.

I think when you have beer as your culture, and your very proud of that history and quality of product, you protect it. The US has a large population proud of drinking really shit, cheap beer; meanwhile the “craft beer drinker” is a running joke of white hipsters talking about IPAs with their noses in each other’s asses. Breweries and their patrons get roped into that dumb stigma and so a grand opportunity to have a better quality LOCAL product at a better quality LOCAL establishment gets squashed.

I just want a good pint for a decent price and I want it with a good meal with my friends.