When I hang out wth my friends, or if I hang out at a bar with strangers, the drink of choice is beer. Almost always. The crowd I run with favors beer 10:1 for drinking pleasure. Wine is what you have with food. Beer is what you have with everything.

    So this article about America's megabrewers's worries about wine overtaking beer in the hearts of American drinkers confused me a bit. I really don't think a cultural crisis is afoot, but this is interesting.

    Especially since I just finished reading this great book: Great American Beer.

    And it does have words, but what it has mostly are photos of awesome old beer ads from the post-WWII era when America's megabrewers smashed small, independent regional brewers across the country. Then came the 80s, and with it the rebirth of quality, craft-brewed beer in America. Change happens. That's life.

    So even if nowadays Americans drink less MGD and more Woodbridge Chardonnay, it's a good era for beer. You can find great beer in most any bodega--there's always a six-pack ofSierra Nevada somewhere--and that's progress to me.