Today April 7th 2011 is America’s National Beer Day, by coincidence it is also my Birthday too, (I’m about 29 if anyone is asking..).
By even more of a coincidence my good lady wife Rach, has uncannily based my birthday present selection around a beery theme!
So just when you thought you were seeing light at the end of the tunnel as I had reached beer number 42 in the 100 Belgian Beer Challenge:
To aid me in my newly expanded search, she also signed me up to MyBreweryTap‘s 52 Week Beer Club which is basically a box of 13 different and diverse beers delivered each quarter, taken from some of the UK’s fine breweries.
“We’ll ensure a truly diverse mixture of the best of our breweries ales, be they hoppy west country summer ales, more-ish best bitters from Yorkshire, dark and delicious porters from London, you’ll be guaranteed 13 bottles a quarter of diverse and interesting micro brewery ale which you simply wouldn’t be able to collect together anywhere else.”
It’s gets better, this quarters selection from MyBreweryTap‘s USA 52 Week Beer Club was in the next box.
“There’ll be Pale Ales, Porters, IPA’s, Double IPA’s, Imperial Stouts, special Seasonal beers and even collaborative beers between different breweries. We will endeavour to source classic and unusual US beers in a wide range of styles.
Contrary to most peoples opinions of American beer, the US has arguably the most vibrant and interesting craft brewery scene in the world. Craft brewers unhindered by traditional styles and flavours have since the late 70’s been re-inventing and re-defining styles of beer with amazing results. Our mission is to bring you an interesting mix of the best of their output.”
I couldn’t agree more with the last statement, in the last few weeks I’ve sampled some absolutely fabulous beers from the USA Craft Brewers and I can’t wait to get stuck into this little lot…
Finally, to top it off, two tickets to The Great British Beer Festival in August…
Truly a Happy ,Beery, Birthday 🙂
Beersay 
Cheers!! My name is Justin Smith, and I am the founder of National Beer Day. When I started this holiday almost 3 years ago, I had no idea it would get so big so fast. It’s good to see this important day in our history start to get the recognition it deserves. Thank you for helping spread the word about one of my favorite days of the year!
Great to hear from you Justin, and thanks for your comments.
I actually quite impressed that this reached you but even more so that you were the founder of such a great day.
How did it all go anyway, I trust you celebrated with something tasty?
Cheers
Phil
I get notifications anytime someone on the Internet uses the phrase “National Beer Day”.
The day went well. I spent it with some good friends around some great beer for sure. I ended the night with a Weyerbacher Insanity.
I started this holiday a few years ago with some urging from a friend, Mike Connolly. It started on March 1st when a few people wished me a National Beer Day. I was curious to find out the significance of the day, and learned that it was an Icelandic holiday. I’m a fan of any excuse to drink beer, but I was curious why the US didn’t have our own National Beer Day. I had some conversations with my friends over beer during the following few weeks and they all wondered the same thing: why doesn’t America have a National Beer Day?
Mike would not leave me alone about the idea and kept insisting that we start a National Beer Day. I told him that if we were to start a holiday, it would have to have historical significance and not just be a random date. I was pretty skeptical about finding a date with any real significance as I was sure that if such a day existed, it would already be celebrated. After some research, I learned about April 7th and we decided that it would be the perfect date. I first did some checking into why it was not already a nationally observed date and ever contacted the American Brewers Association about it. They told me that it had been celebrated under several names before but that they did not want to promote it as they were focusing their attentions on Craft Ale Week.
I told Mike that I found a date and that I would start promoting the day. I’ve done all the research and promotion, but if it wasn’t for Mike pushing me, I would never have done it. We started out with a Facebook group and it has just evolved from there. I spend around 10-15 hours a week surfing the Internet telling people about National Beer Day and joining in beer discussions wherever I can find them. I’m in the process of putting together a website (www.USNationalBeerDay.com) that will teach people about the history of beer in the US and the differences in styles of beer. Until then, you can check out our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/USNationalBeerDay