Are you a hop head?

Did you ever notice that Americans are extremists? Nothing is done right if it isn’t done at full speed with a healthy dose of violence thrown in for good measure. The best example of this that I can think of is the National Football  League. The NFL is the single most popular sport in America. Every play there are three hundred pound men that can move quick as a cat crashing into each other and trying to separate other large and quick men from the object they are carrying around.

We can’t get enough of it. Otherwise normal everyday folks dress up in costume and transform into rabid, chest pounding, vitriol spewing legions that inhabit places like the Dog Pound or the Black Hole. They brave searing heat and bitter cold, rain, snow and howling winds, all so that they can be part of something bigger than themselves. This is America at its most flamboyant, extremist self and we love every minute of it.

In case people missed it when watching the replay of Eli Manning’s escape and subsequent circus like catch by David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII for the 338th time (I can revel in that particular moment of glory forever it seems, what can I say, I’ve got issues), we like our beer the same way. Ever since the microbrew revolution hit this country back in the 1980’s we have slowly but surely been ratcheting up our beers in a manner similar to the way we like everything else. Full speed and with just a touch of violence.

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