The state of Beer and Food in America

From Andy Crouch's BeerScribe: For Charlie Papazian, founder of the Brewers Association, inspiration struck twice in remarkably similar ways. In the late 1970s, Papazian traveled to London, England, to attend the British Beer Festival. While sampling stouts, porters, and cask conditioned ales from around the United Kingdom, Papazian, an avid home brewer, started thinking about beer in the United States. When Papazian wondered aloud about whether Americans could host a similar festival, famed beer writer Michael Jackson famously quipped, Yes, but where will you get the beer? A few years later, Papazian welcomed eight hundred attendees at the first Great American Beer Festival, offering them forty beers from twenty-two breweries. Fast forward two decades and travel to Italy, where local supporters of the Slow Food movement host several large international events dedicated to good, clean, and fair food. Founded in 1986, Slow Food has grown to more than 80,000 members in 120 countries. As part of its mission statement, Slow Food espouses that everyone has a fundamental right to pleasure and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our movement is founded upon this concept of eco-gastronomy a recognition of the strong connections between plate and planet. The Birth of SAVOR Pairing American Craft Beer with Fine Food It was in this environment, while enjoying wine and cheese pairings, that Papazian began wondering again whether such an event could work in the United States, only with beer. The resulting event, SAVOR: An American Craft Beer and Food Experience, was held May 16 and 17 in Washington D.C at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Tucked just behind the National Museum of American History, just steps from the National Mall, the auditorium provided a fitting and picturesque venue for an event that sought to elevate the public image of beer. Considered one of the finest classical structures in America, the auditorium was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places as part of the Pennsylvania Avenue Historic District on October 15, 1996. The event served several different purposes for the Brewers Association. SAVOR was the cornerstone event for this years American Craft Beer Week, which was held from May 12 to 18. Recognized by Congress in House Resolution 753, the event changed to a week long event in 2006. Celebrated annually, the week gives craft brewers a chance to highlight their industry and to promote their efforts. The event also gave craft brewers an opportunity to step up their legislative efforts on Capitol Hill. The Brewers Association, along with many of its top members, spent more than a week in the nations capital, where they attended the National Beer Wholesalers Legislative Conference and met with legislators from several states to press issues important to smaller brewers. As the culmination of their efforts, SAVOR gave craft brewers a chance to showcase their products to congressional staffers, many of whom attended the opening session on Friday night. Beyond politics and legislation advocacy, the event gave the association the opportunity to raise public and media awareness of craft beer by associating it with upscale food. SAVOR offered its 2100 attendees the chance to taste ninety six craft beers from forty eight breweries from around the country. Each beer was specifically paired with a sweet or savory appetizer selected by the brewery and made by Federal City Caterers. At eighty five dollars per ticket, the event was not an average beer festival for interested consumers. The price tag, which did not fully cover the associations expenses for even the food portion of the event, was an area of concern for some brewers and attendees. Beer enthusiasts and well-