Since getting interested in beers other than American Lagers more than twenty years ago, I have asked the title question thousands of times in restaurants all over the U.S. and Canada. Frustratingly, more often than not, the place doesn't have a beer menu. As someone wanting to branch out and try something new or local to the place I was visiting, this began to annoy me. As I learned more about beer and the beer business I really began to question the wisdom in offering beers, but not listing them somewhere for customers.

In the last few years, this situation has improved, but a remarkable number of restaurants still force beer-desiring patrons to put their servers on the spot. This seems to be a particular issue at chain restaurants. In most cases,the server begins to recite a long list of beer and brewery names they've memorized, or flips through their service folder for the list they've stashed and begins to read. If the list includes something new, the server might know the style, but a detailed description is  a rare commodity. In the worst case, the response to the title question is, "Oh, we have everything." 

This is not the fault of the server. Why not include a beer list in the spiral-bound booklet that almost always includes the wine list, the desserts, and the monthly promotion? Working table service is challenging enough without  requiring servers to recite a list of beers as if they are elementary schoolers reciting state capitals. A great beer list will include all of the following attributes (a good list will incorporate at least four of them): beer name, brewery name, brewery location, beer style, alcohol content, a short description, and price.

Offering a detailed beer list will elevate beer. It will lead to happier customers and happier servers (both of which lead to increased sales). If you are a restaurant owner wanting help with this process, I am a Certified Cicerone® for hire; feel free to contact me.

There has been an uproar in the beer world lately. Big breweries are buying up some of the country's best known small and medium-sized breweries. A chorus of "I'll never buy it again" rises up from fans of these once independent breweries every time one is bought out. The most active in recent months has been AB-InBev, the makers of Budweiser who famously mocked "microbreweries" and their fans in a 2015 Super Bowl commercial (here).

Fans worry that their favorite beers will be compromised by the corporate giants. That the heart and soul of brewer will be overcome by the spreadsheet of the bean-counter. That their favorite beer will decrease in quality or even be taken out of production. Are these concerns real? Of course. All of these things has happened sometime before in the history of beer. Are these concerns worthy of the repeated Chicken-Little routine every time a brewery changes hands? Probably not.

There are more than 4,100 breweries in the United States today and the vast majority of them were started by scrappy entrepreneurs in the last three decades. Many of these breweries operate on a hyper-local business model, with some only selling their products in the brewery taproom. There is going to be plenty of beer variety out there for the foreseeable future. The days when a person wanting something other than an American Lager needed to brew it at home are gone (although brewing your own beer is fun and rewarding - you should try it sometime).

Perhaps the greatest reason for trepidation is the prospect of losing access to distribution. Most vulnerable are small and medium sized breweries that compete for shelf space, cooler space, and tap handle space. Breweries located in regions with few distributors have limited avenues for getting packaged beer into the marketplace. Will that distributor's truck have enough space for your favorite brand on board when they are pushing the flagship's craft portfolio? That is the real question. More than one brewery sale announcement has included greater distribution access among their reasons for selling.

I believe a wait-and-see approach is best when a brewery sells out to one of the big guys. We've seen examples ranging from the place keeps doing what it's always done (sometimes with the same leadership) to shutdown after a brewery sells out. Most sales so far have resulted in the beer maintaining quality and its place in the market. If one is truly interested in elevating beer, quality is about all that matters. In the mean time, the locavore movement is a real thing; support your local brewery by enjoying your favorite local beer.