They're Finally Starting to Get It

Home of the Potomac Nationals
in Lake Ridge, Virginia

A surprising and welcome trend has begun to develop across the sporting world. The sports venues are serving craft beer! Sure they are still over-inundated with corn-based yellow beer, but craft beers are slowly beginning to crack the big beer armor.

For the most part, these are all local craft beers and are still being sold as an afterthought by the actual vendors. But for the beer nerd like me, it’s a sight for sore eyes; an oasis in the barren desert if you will.

Last night, as I was taking in a Potomac Nationals minor league baseball game, it occurred to me that I was in dire need of a beer (which is not an indictment of the caliber of play that the Potomac Nationals or Salem Red Sox were displaying, although they were pretty bad). I remember dreading the selection of beers that I was about to be presented with as I walked towards the beer vendor. I can’t recall ever walking slower in my life.

When I arrived, and saw the lineup of brews staring back at me, I thought that this might be the most pathetic collection of beers that I had ever seen. Budweiser, Bud Light, Bud Light Lime, Natty Light, Stella Artois, Shock Top Belgian Wit… ugh… but then I was greeted with a gift that filled my heart with delight. They had Port City Brewing Company’s Monumental IPA on tap (all the way from Alexandria, Virginia). I felt like a mountain climber who had been buried in an avalanche but was now being met by a St. Bernard with a jug of whiskey around her neck. I may have started dancing at the sight of the Monumental, but since I can’t remember and there were no witnesses, let’s just assume I didn’t.

Later on in the evening, at a different concessionaire, I was equally impressed to see that they also had Starr Hill Brewing Company’s Northern Lights IPA on draft; a local (Charlottesville, Virginia), which is great to see. The P Nats are supporting craft beer, and their also supporting the local economy. Take that Big Beer!

A few years back, I was attending a Philadelphia Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and I happened upon a vendor cart that was serving craft brews from Victory Brewing Company (Downingtown, PA), Lancaster Brewing Company (Lancaster, PA) and Troeggs Brewing Company (Harrisburg, PA). I thought, at the time, that it was an isolated incident, but now it appears that sports venues are finally starting to get it… there is a large swath of the population that want GOOD beer… not el cheapo corn-based no love for brewing industrial swill beer. That, my crafty friends, is very good news.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!