Nitpickers can grab their Coors Light and prove me wrong. But our nation's grandest holiday, July Fourth, deserves to be celebrated with a taste of authentic, indigenous American beer. Try these:
_ Anchor Steam (San Francisco)
This is the beer that started the entire American craft beer revolution, recreated when washing machine scion Fritz Maytag revived Anchor Brewing and proved a small brewery could still thrive.
And it wasn't just any beer that Maytag saved from the trash heap. Steam beer (aka California Common) is wholly American, invented in the 1850s to compete with the golden, refreshing German lagers that were catching on back East.
Lager fermentation requires refrigeration, which was in short supply in 19th-century California. The solution was steam beer, a lager that is fermented at warmer ale temperatures.
The name comes from the gush of carbonation produced by this unique fermentation.
And the taste? A glass of Anchor Steam offers that classic, crisp refreshment of a lager, but with the fruitiness of an ale.
Other steam beers: Orlio Organic Common Ale, Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Lager.
_ Smuttynose Wheatwine (Portsmouth, N.H.)
If barleywine is a strong ale made with excessive amounts of barley, what's wheatwine? Well, you can guess the answer.
This simple change of grain creates an equally assertive but entirely different beer. Where English barleywine is a challenging mouthful of malt and hops, American wheatwine is seductive, with silken notes of vanilla and apricot.
It was brewer Phil Moeller of Sacramento's Rubicon Brewing who came up with the wheatwine style in the late '80s. A few other West Coast breweries - Marin, Lagunitas, Steelhead - toyed with it over the years before Smuttynose brewer David Yarrington brought her East and bottled what may be the defining version.
Other wheatwines: Marin Star Brew Triple Wheat, New Holland Pilgrim's Dole, Portsmouth Wheat Wine.
_ Genesee Cream Ale (Rochester, N.Y.)
