A new craft beer store off W. Franklin Street, Beer Study, just held its grand opening. The question posed is obvious: To drink craft beer or not to drink craft beer? Well, consider this:

Choice is one of the most important things in life. Think about it, what would you do if you walked into a clothing store and they only had three shirts? Would you buy one because it was the only thing available? Or would you go to store that has a wider variety of options? The answer seems pretty clear.

Well the same can be said about beer. Any time you watch TV and there is a beer commercial, who is it for? The likely answer is Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. These are the big boys of the beer industry in the United States. The problem is all of their beer essentially tastes the same. They are all using the same ingredients, and are actually aiming to make a similar product.

These companies are dictating what the American population wants because they can. Their market share is so high that somewhere around 60% of all beer sold is made by one of these breweries. But instead of innovating their products, they spend most of their money on cheesy marketing campaigns and other gimmicks. So what can you do? Stop by places like Beer Study and try a meticulously crafted micro-brewed beer.

Craft breweries are popping up more and more these days and they’re making an incredible amount of styles and flavors of beer. Almost all of these are made with just four main ingredients: malted grain, hops, yeast, and water. The beauty lies within the varieties of each constituent. Most beers used malted barley as their fermentable grain; however, roasting the grains to varying levels causes different flavors to come through. There are also numerous varieties of hops that add all sorts of differences to the profile of the beer. Along with differing sorts of yeast and water sources, the possibilities for the flavors a beer has are limitless.

The point here is simple: choice. The culturally dynamic community of the Chapelboro area demands choice, and that’s why Beer Study is one of many different micro-brew retailers around the downtown area. If you’re tired of having everything you drink dictated by mega-companies, head out to Beer Study and try a craft beer. You might not like everyone you taste, but I can guarantee that there is a beer out there that you’ve never heard of that could end up being your beverage of choice.

(thumbnail by geo462rge via flickr)

(feature photo by Christopher Lehault via flickr)

Related Stories
‹
Talk Derby To Me
My favorite spring sporting event has to be the Kentucky Derby.  What stands out most during this historic horse race is difficult to decide…the sleek and athletic thoroughbreds, the diminutive yet wiry jockeys in their colorful silks, the thrill of the race itself or the chance for a long-shot filly to come from behind and […]
Parenting Page: It Takes a Village - Of Perspectives
This is a parenting page, about parenting Page. I am a child psychologist and a mother. So I specialize in children, yet I am human, thus I am full of knowledge and yet as full of emotions as any other parent. So I decided to write this Parenting Page since it might be informative and […]
Cabaret at PlayMakers
The crowd laughs, but […]
Political Power Grabs in 1875 and 2013
Republican Party. We need more moderate voices.” One of my longtime friends was tempting me, noting that his political party was in charge now. If I wanted to participate in the new regime in North Carolina, I should change my registration. “And,” he said, “we could use some […]
TABLE Celebrates its 5th Birthday
TABLE celebrated its 5th birthday with children of the South Estes Family Resource Center with a delicious and healthy carrot cake — made with carrots, whole grain flower, white flour and cream cheese icing. TABLE is a nonprofit providing hunger relief to at-risk kids in the Chapel Hill Carrboro area. They will be celebrating their […]
Sleep On It
Some mornings I wake up, check Twitter, and see the following: “The struggle is live today” or “I’m captain of the struggle bus this morning.” Did you ever think about what is the cause of the struggle? I’ll tell you: insufficient sleep. College students are probably the worst offenders when it comes to not getting […]
A Dangerous Eight Seed
Anyone who was channel surfing last Sunday had to stop and marvel at the Carolina-Miami game and how great that first half was. Even if they didn’t know the teams. That’s how good, and at such a high level, the ACC championship game was played. Both teams scored better than a point per possession, shooting […]
Light Sensitive at Nasher
Immediately upon entering the exhibit, one is greeted by images at once recognizable and disorienting. The photographs in “Light Sensitive” are not merely beautifully captured or distilled moments in time. Rather, they are hyper-consciously manufactured artistic works. In this exhibit the idea of photography as an unbiased portal into reality interacts powerfully with the more […]
The Luck of the Draw
Roy Williams wasn’t thrilled with the ACC's NCAA Tournament draw on Sunday night.
ACCT 2013: This Matters.
Who would say this tournament doesn’t matter? Try finding someone in the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday afternoon who would tell you this is all just a big “cocktail party.” Not only was Saturday’s content potentially Maryland’s last ACC game ever, but every member of this particular UNC team was fighting to win their first tournament—of […]
›