I just ran across an article from Thrillist entitled 30 Beers That Changed America, and it’s a nice rundown of some milestones in beer history in the United States, from the 19thcentury until today, including both some of the longtime big national beers (Budweiser, Coors), some interesting regional selections (Iron City, Narragansett), and, of course, many of the important pioneers in the modern craft beer industry. Criteria included advances in packaging (first brown bottle; first flip-top can; first six-pack), marketing innovations (first beer to align with a major sports franchise; first annual release party), as well as experimentation with different beer styles (too numerous to mention). If I had one quibble with the authors, it might be their giving credit for the American IPA phenomenon to Lagunitas (1995) rather than to Harpoon (1993), but all in all it was fun reading and thinking about all of the changes in the beer landscape, most of which have happened since I started drinking beer sometime around 1980. Cheers, and happy reading!
Dr. Dave's Beer Blog 