Has American Craft Beer Culture Gone Over the Top?

I remember reading an article about reverse culture shock, written by an American expat who had been abroad for several years. He finally returned to the States and went to the grocery store. Naturally, that's where it hit him. Things had changed. So many choices. An embarrassment of riches. He expressed a mixture of amazement and delight and vague disgust at a type of rabid consumerism that we generally take for granted.

That's what I see on my horizon. We'll be back in the States in less than two weeks, so I'm doing advance research. Looking at the websites, draft lists and dinner menus of trendy beer bars and restaurants, for example... I'm amazed. Delighted. And vaguely disgusted. So many choices. And it's all so damn precious.

One place that really piques my interest – and I think this is a fair example of the US craft-beer-and-food trend, particularly in larger cities – is the Birch & Barley restaurant in DC, and its attached ChurchKey beer bar. They have a person whose title is beer director. They have pairings. They have foie gras. On the daytime bar menu they have lists of "farmstead cheeses" and charcuterie. The taps are pouring Kölsch from Köln, Alt from Düsseldorf, biere de garde from France, and Scotch-barrel-aged beers from Scotland – and that's just to mention a few.

It's all a bit... much. It's enough to make a yank want to duck into a cheap dive and quietly suck down shakers of Sierra Nevada. Because frankly I would be content to do so.

Or I could be a good soldier, put on a brave face, and attack that Pig's Head Terrine with a becher of Uerige Sticke. You know. Just for courage.

I'm not fooling you, am I?