Better a do-nothing congress than a BREW-nothing congress

The economy is in the toilet and thousands of gallons of sweet crude are gushing into the gulf as I type this, but all is not lost. Colorado representative Betsy Markey is at least doing SOMETHING productive by sponsoring HR 1297, recognizing the ideals and goals of American Craft Beer week (which we're smack-dab in the middle of right now, people, May 17-23). A chicken in every pot is no substitute for a craft beer in every hand. My only disappointment is that, given the zillions of great beers she could have referenced, she only made mention of Skinny Dip by New Belgium Brewing Company, possibly the most macro of microbreweries. It's as ridiculous as a president holding a "beer summit" at the White House and drinking a Bud Light.

New Belgium in Entrepreneur Mag

My brother-in-law Chris informed me that Entrepreneur had a piece on micro-brewing this month, and he was right—it's all about New Belgium and its co-founder, Kim Jordan (who apparently just split with her husband, the other co-founder, if anyone's, you know, interested). The gist is that it's a near-$100 million brewery with the soul of a micro-brewery, because she bikes to work and wears jeans and thinks conservation is "sexy." Whatever. My take is, she created something she was passionate about and people really like—the culture doesn't make the product successful, it's the reverse: a successful product allows that culture to exist. If New Belgium weren't making insane money, they'd be spending a lot more time trying to be profitable and a lot less time watching "An Inconvenient Truth" in the breakroom and listening to Phish. Anyway, good for the smallest macro-craft brewer in America.