At Least They Have Good Beer

That's true... they do always seem to have ammo.

I may have mentioned it before, but I am fan of the AMC television program “The Walking Dead.” A huge fan. I’m not entirely sure what about flesh-eating zombies and post-apocalyptic survival appeals to my senses, but for whatever reason, that show never ceases to entertain me.

The reason I mention it today is because last fall, during the fifth episode of season three, craft beer made a cameo. Ordinarily, I cannot abide product placement, but when that product is craft beer, it’s a breath of fresh air since smaller companies (and good beer) usually don’t get the air time.

In the episode, the town of Woodbury is holding a celebration, and the beer they are drinking is SweetWater Brewing Company’s Georgia Brown and Red Brick Brewing Company’s Hoplanta IPA. It should be pointed out that the show is set in Georgia, and those are both Atlanta-based breweries, but still, that’s pretty awesome if you ask me. The network and producers could have had the characters drinking some corn/rice-based, yellow, fizzy, industrial, swill beer, but instead, they opted to have their characters drink good beer. Way to go AMC. Say “no” to big beer!

This of course got me thinking, would living through a zombie apocalypse be so bad if they had good beer to drink? It certainly would be a welcome creature comfort, serving to both distract us from reality and take the edge off. Obviously, we would have to enjoy our craft beer responsibly, due to limited supplies and the need to not be totally wasted when a zombie tried to bite us.

I know you’re probably thinking that eventually, the beer would run out. In reality, because of people like me, that would NOT be a problem. Beer has been made by humans since humans settled down in one place and started farming. Some historians and archaeologists even believe that beer was the reason humans stopped wandering and settled in one place. The beauty of brewing beer is, if you can make a fire, you can brew beer. No electricity is required. And since some of us have bothered to learn how to make the stuff instead of just drinking it, we will be able to continue to provide that service until the day the zombies finally bite us.

The Governor keeps the crappy macro beer out of Woodbury

And it’s not just brewing – we will need farmers to cultivate the barley, wheat, rye, and of course, the hops! We’ll also need a miller to mill the grain and a malt house to malt the milled the grain. Someone will also need to grow and maintain orchards and fruit tree groves so that there will be wild yeast in the air to take care of the fermenting.

Not only would beer still be available in a post-apocalyptic world, it would also have to be crafty, whether the beer plebes liked it or not. There probably wouldn't be electricity, which means the major factory-style breweries would go away, or at least have to be steam-powered. Either way, there would be less of that going on. Not to mention that without oil refineries, there is no gasoline, which means no cars (though they do drive cars on “The Walking Dead”), which means smaller, more tribal-like societies, which means a smaller, artisanal, cottage-industry-type of business model with little to no distribution beyond the local settlement… the point is, any beer that is “made” (as opposed to left over from before), will be made by hand, in small batches, with attention to detail and love of brewing guiding the brewer’s hands. Honestly, it seems as though the beer would be better following a cataclysmic event of some kind.

Michonne will make sure the beer stays crafty.

But all hypothetical, post-apocalyptic theories about beer and society aside, it is good to see the craft beer community getting some love from a very popular show. I’m not sure if big beer was too short-sighted to see the opportunity for product placement, or if the creators of the show are beer nerds who know better, but for whatever reason, SweetWater and Red Brick were chosen. It should be pointed out that it is not just isolated to one episode – there have been other incidents of craft beer product placement in the show in other episodes as well. Usually, it’s a SweetWater beer sign in an abandoned bar, or something else that is only in the background. But in the fifth episode of season three, craft beer was in the spotlight, alongside the Governor and Michonne. Maybe surviving after most of our fellow humans are gone won’t be so bad after all.

Note – No, I am not rooting for the apocalypse to happen. I’m just trying to look on the bright side of things.

Here’s to craft-brewed happiness… Cheers!