Mention the word beer to any number of diverse people and you're bound to get an equal number of diverse responses. An old frat boy is bound to recall in varying degrees of hazy recollections keg parties, where massive quantities of cheap beer were consumed and maybe something about beds spinning, cool, comforting toilet rims and missing underwear. Ask for the beer list at a fancy restaurant and the wine sommelier is likely to roll his eyes and sniff indignantly as he saunters away. Mothers will generally not wish to discuss the merits of beer. Fathers on the other hand, prone to consuming some pretty foul adjunct-laced suds, are all too happy to discuss the value of a 30 pack. But to discuss beer with other beer lovers is to open into a deeply impassioned and sometimes intellectual dialog. An almost reverent understanding and serious discussion may develop. Note pads and beer rating pocket guides appear. Beer is poured correctly into the appropriate-style glass to create a proper head. The beer is carefully examined with the intense focus of a diamond cutter. The glass is raised to the nose and gently agitated as the drinker inhales. And finally the long anticipated mouthful, gentle swish and swallow. The olfactory senses are now excited! Smiles widen.

While beer is by far, the alcoholic beverage most consumed by the masses, in the U.S., it lags far behind most beverages in social status. Fact: According to the Beer Institute, an organization that represents America's brewers, and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, which represents more than 2,200 beer distributors nationwide, the beer industry accounts for $144 billion in U.S. economic activity annually. Yes, most of the sales are attributed to the bland yellow fizzy swill produced by the big three; Budweiser, Miller, and Coors.

Blame it on the mass-mega-beer marketing forces who cheapen the product with an endless bombardment of idiotic advertisements. Or blame the gullible public. Whatever the case, slowly but surely real craft-made beer is gaining ground as more people are awakening to fantastically well-made brews, in an unbelievable variety of styles. Like it or love it, well made beer deserves our respect.

Before distilled alcohol, there was beer. Before naturally hardened cider, there was beer. Even before early-civilized culture discovered the joy and pleasure of wine, there was beer. Archaeologists in ancient Assyria (Iraq), Mesopotamia and Egypt have unearthed deep pits that were used

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