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40 The beer aisle coolers were dominated by Budweiser, Miller and Coors, as well as sub brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz and a few regional brands which included as Narragansett and others. The big deal and battle in the beer business was fought between light beers, such as Bud light, Miller Lite and Coors Light. Slogans featuring "This Buds For You," "The King of Beers," "Great Taste - Less Filling," "It's Miller Time," "Cold as the Rockies" and "The Silver Bullet" would dominate the commercial airwaves, television advertisements and billboards. If you wanted to go 'premium,' then Eric Clapton or Phil Collins would subliminally serenade you to purchase Michelob, which was basically Budweiser in a different bottle and label and would cost a buck or two more for a six pack. Don't forget the famous catch-phrase, "Weekends Were Made For Michelob." What do all of these mass produced American beers have in common? They are all Lagers and Pilsners, and only in the sense of their ingredients. Budweiser still touts "Beachwood aged." So what? All of these beers are watered down Lagers and Pilsners, and that is essentially what America had after Prohibition. Prior to Prohibition, local breweries were in every city, where different immigrant influences dictated the many styles and recipes of beer that had been around Europe for centuries. Fast forward from the 1960's and 1970's with the days of, "Hey Neighbor, have a 'Gansett," to Patriots Day of 1985, when entrepreneur Jim Koch introduced Sam Adams Boston Lager. This revived the long standing Boston Beer Company, which dated back to the early 1800s. The introduction of Sam Adams Boston Lager began the craft beer revolution, with others soon to follow here in Massachusetts, including Harpoon. The west coast had their own craft beers, such as Sierra Nevada, Pete's Wicked Ale and Anchor Steam to name a few. People began to see that there was more to beer than the watered down lager products that had been offered for more than a generation. The quality of the product and distinct flavors of these new "craft beers" began to resonate quickly and ferociously with the younger crowds. In the late 1980s, the country began sprouting up microbreweries like wild fire, growing from just a few dozen or so to over 3,500 toward the end of 2014. Despite this amazing growth, craft beer still accounts for only about 11 or 12 percent of the beer produced worldwide, with a goal of 20 percent or greater over the next five years. This growth of independent craft beer brewers and their off-the- charts success with new products and styles has not gone unnoticed by the big macro-brewers. With the exception of light beers, as it relates to the traditional beers, purchasing and consumption has plummeted when it comes to their primary demographic ages. I believe that most of the larger brewers have had an arrogance about them for most of the last 15 to 20 years, thinking that this "craft beer thing" was a hipster fad and would go the way of wine coolers and Zima! Boy, were they wrong. They have now realized that they were so far behind the curve on the ability to create new products that were good enough to compete with the micro brewers' products. They all tried to bring new products to the market, but most have failed. So, what do you do if you're the big guy in the arena and Complexity by Stanley Blackmur i n t h e B e e r A i s l e Remember 15 or so years ago, when you were on your way to a party or buying beer for the weekend and, if you were going to get something different, it was probably an import like Heineken or Becks? Or, maybe something more exotic like Molson Bradour or, on an extreme long shot, Guinness?