There is a website I visit from time to time called The Bar Towel. To most of the readers of World of Beer, it will hold little to no interest, seeing as it's a beer appreciation site devoted almost exclusively to the geographical region immediately surrounding my home, or in other words, the Greater Toronto Area. But from time to time, the 'Forums' section of the site raises an item of particular interest, and as you might have guessed, this is one of those times.

     A recent thread of discussion questioned whether it was nobler to encourage the promotion of a local brewery, even if such brewery's fare might be considered rather pedestrian by craft brewing standards, or to ignore the clarion call of 'Drink Local' and instead support more characterful beers brewed further afield. On one side of the debate was the laudable if possibly naïve suggestion that the success of even a mediocre local brewery might spur the development of other, better operations, while the contrary position took the approach that only beers of character were worthy of support, regardless of brewery size or geographical position. To the supporters of the latter view, a craft brewed beer with a mainstream taste was no better than a mainstream brew mass-produced by the mega-brewers.

     While I followed the dialogue with interest and enjoyed the intelligent cut-and-thrust of the debate, I knew where I stood on the subject even before the discussion began. When it comes to matters of taste, I stand by my palate, pure and simple.

     Make no mistake, I am a political animal of the worst (or best?) sort, and in general, I carry no torch for large corporations. If I am considering two products of equal quality and one is made by a massive multinational while the other is prduced up the street, I'll pick the local option nineteen times out of twenty. But when it comes to my taste buds, I am steadfastly apolitical. I recognize that I have only so many taste experiences left in my life and I want as many as possible to be memorable ones, so the lone prejudice I hold when it comes to food and drink is that it has to taste good. At the very least, even if the flavour is not to my personal palate, it has to be interesting. Otherwise, local or not, count me out.

     Case in point is Pilsner Urquell, a beer produced in very large qualtities a long distance away by one of the largest brewing companies in the world, SAB Miller. Yet despite the fact that it is anything but 'local' or 'craft brewed,' when I go pilsner shopping, Pilsner Urquell quite frequently ends up in my basket, often alongside another very fine, Bohemian-style lager, King Pilsner, which is brewed about a 25 minute drive away from my home. I buy both of these beers irrespective of their origins. I buy them because they taste good.

     In that same vein, I no longer buy Guinness when I go hunting for stouts, not because it is made by Diagio, one of the largest drinks companies in the world, but because to my palate, it no longer tastes as it did when I used to enjoy it. (As an aside, or digression, when I offered this opinion numerous times over the course of a one week visit to Ireland a few years ago, I received startling few rebukes, despite the fact that many of those with whom I was speaking were supping pints of the stuff.) And conversely, if Anheuser-Busch or Interbrew suddenly started producing beers boasting the robust flavour and character of a Westmalle Tripel or Harviestoun Ptarmigan or Schneider Weisse, then I would most certainly become their customer, at least from time to time.

     Finally, to offer one other perspective on the debate, as a partner in a new restaurant and bar -- the temporary website of which, I might add, may be found on the Bar Towel at www.bartowel.com/beerbistro -- I feel that patronage given to a local business simply because it's local could be construed as, well, patronizing. While customers are obviously always welcome, I don't expect people to come to beerbistro just because it's locally-owned and not part of a massive restaurant chain. I expect them to come for the excellence in food and drink I believe we offer.

• Spirited Foods June 2007
• The Culinary Beauty of Belgium May 2007
• Considering Oysters & Beer April 2007
• A Country, a Beer, and an Equation Not Necessarily Sound March 2007
• Besting Wine with Beer and Chocolate February 2008
• A Year in Beer & Food January 2008
• Cooking Up My Last Supper December 2007
• The Best of Beer Fests? November 2007
• My First Visit to Oktoberfest October 2007
• So What IS Balance, Anyway? September 2007
• Revisiting the Beer Cocktail August 2007
• Sampling The Ubiquitous Chip July 2007
• Three Stops in Philadelphia June 2007
• Time to Kill the Cold May 2007
• Sahtis and Saunas in Lammi April 2007
• Turning St. Patrick on His Head March 2007
• A Tale of a Tasting February 2007
• Twelve Months of Beer January 2007
• The Year in Beer Blogs December 2006
• The 25th Edition of the Great American Beer Festival November 2006
• Why Can't Somebody Explain this Beer to Me? October 2006
• Ten Years Can Be a Long Time September 2006
• Rethinking the Draught-Bottle-Can Paradigm August 2006
• Light, fizzy beers are losing popularity July 2006
• Beer & Health June 2006
• Tallking Tin May 2006
• Consider the Cocktail April 2006
• The Future of Big Breweries? March 2006
• A Potpourri of Beer News February 2006
• Looking Forward in 2006 Janaury 2006
• Gifts for the Gourmand December 2005
• Beer Tasting 101 November 2005
• The Great Canadian Beer Festival October 2005
• The Passion of Mondovino September 2005
• Belgium Came to Cooperstown ... Again August 2005
• Ten Truly Great Summer Beer Experiences July 2005
• Great News for Good Beer June 2005
• Flogging A Dead Horse May 2005
• Hey Molson-Coors, What Do You Have Against Taste? April 2005
• Beer and Food Pairing Gains Popularity! March 2005
• Bud for the Cocktail Set February 2005
• Looking Back and Looking Ahead January 2005
• Holiday Wishes December 2004
• The 2004 Great American Beer Festival November 2004
• The Empty Words of Beer October 2004
• A Visit to the Griffin Brewery September 2004
• Oh Look, It's Another Major Brewery Merger! August 2004
• Interview with John Sleeman July 2004
• Creating a Blend June 2004
• World of Beer turns 40 May 2004
• Eighteen Ways to Improve Your Beer Life April 2004
• Drinking Old Beer March 2004
• Drink Local or Drink Quality? February 2004
• 2003 - The Year That Was January 2004
• 2004 - The Year of Lambic December 2003
• Perspective on the Premium Beer Market November 2003
• So What Makes a Bar Great? October 2003
• Random Reflections at Summer's End, September 2003
• Why I Drink Beer, August 2003
• American Beer Month: Controversial Again, July 2003
• The Case for the Complexity of Beer, June 2003
• Enough of the Lowbrow Chic Already!, May 2003
• A Beer Called Lambic, April 2003
• Of Snow and Barley Wines, March 2003
• Lament for a Brewpub, February 2003
• What We Didn't Get Done, January 2003
• More Belgian Bliss, December 2002
• Joanna Blythman is an Idiot, November 2002
• Brakspear and the Name Game, October 2002
• Taking a Taste of the Midwest, September 2002
• Oregon Brewers Festival 2002, August 2002
• In Praise of Expensive Beer, July 2002
• Le Mondial de la Bière, June 2002
• Beers that Go to the Dogs, May 2002
• In Praise of the Pub, April 2002
• A Great Restaurant Town, True, But a Magnificent Beer Town, March 2002
• Right Beer, Wrong Weather: Imperial Stouts in New York, February 2002
• What I've Learned About Beer, January 2002
• Deceptive Names, Deceptive Drinks, December 2001
• The Truth About Dutch Beer, November 2001
• A Very Personal Message from Stephen Beaumont, October 2001
• Smell Your Beer, September 2001
• Travel Karma, Great Beer and the Oregon Brewers festival, August 2001
• Switzerland after Samichlaus, July 2001
• A Tale of Three Bus(c)hes, June 2001
• Announcing a New Great Canadian Beer Guide, May 2001
• Beer Belongs at the Table, April 2001
• A Bevy of Barley Wines, March 2001
• Why Craft Beer is Here to Stay, February 2001
• Y2Beer -- The Year in Review, January 2001
• No Age Verification Necessary, December 2000
• A Tale of a Tasting, November 2000
• In Praise of la Belle Province, October 2000
• The Premium Beer Drinker's Guide is Here!!, September 2000
• The Downside of Beer and Brewing, August 2000
• So Why Do You Drink Beer?, July 2000
• The Summer Joy of Wheat, June 2000
• In Defense of Beer, May 2000
• Ten Days in Belgium, Part II, April 2000
• Ten Days in Belgium, Part I, April 2000
• Ten Days in Belgium, Introduction, April 2000
• A World of Stout, Mar 2000
• The Glass From Which We Drink, Feb 2000
• The Year As It Was: Brews, Fests and Damn Foolishness , Jan 2000
• New Years Eve, Dec 1999
• Beer in the Land of Stout, Nov 1999
• Visiting the World's Best Beer Fest, Oct 1999
• The Secretive Charm of the Bière de Garde, Sept 1999
• The Mixed Marriage of a Beer and a Cigar, Aug 1999

We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer.

Send Feedback To: beaumont@worldofbeer.com