Had an interesting conversation with a new acquaintance a couple of days ago about beer.
He hails from Wisconsin, home of cheeseheads, cheese and some surprisingly fishy country up north. Though I don’t know him very well at this point he perfectly models that unperturbed, almost dispassionate personality I’ve seen in many from the upper midwest.
I’m not even sure how we got on the subject, though it came to pass that he insisted, with uncharacteristic and ever-intensifying ardor, that Wisconsin was the number one beer consuming state (per capita) in the country.
I conceded the point that intuitively one could easily imagine that to be true, though I went on to point out that he couldn’t be more wrong. He became almost what one might call agitated, drawing the attention of our waitress. She flitted over, asked if he needed anything, and was given an earful by my companion.
She, bless her heart, despite having an apparent IQ somewhere in the range of the basket of sweet potato fries on our table, blithely offered that she thought the state of Washington was number one in per capita beer consumption. This drew a yelp of contempt from my guest loud enough to now draw the attention of the restaurant manager.
I assured her all was fine and excused myself to grab my computer out of the truck.
A quick visit to the Beer Institute’s site and a download of their Brewer’s Almanac 2011 solved the debate.
Turns out Wisconsin ranked a respectable sixth in per capita beer consumption rankings in 2010, though once again New Hampshire (what the hell?) ranked first with Montana once again a close second.
Our waitress was crushed to see that Washington ranked a paltry 39th though we all agreed that seeing Utah in (a distant) last place was no surprise.
Seeing the data I rose to the defense of Montana, insisting that despite an economy that doesn’t provide her hardworking residents with a lot of disposable income, Montanans do their share and more to enjoy a cold one now and again.
In fact, with a little concentrated effort, Montana can easily topple the long-standing reign of NH at the top of the beer consumption pyramid.
Time to step up and play ball Montana.
Visiting fishers can and should do their share this upcoming season too; in fact, we’re counting on it. Montana’s now producing some damned impressive microbrews and residents have been know to imbibe more than their fair share of some great regional beers too.
(Thirsty Thursday will be back on track in the next week or two; Jake is finally settling in permanent digs in Bozeman and will back in the writing saddle shortly.)
