Aggregator moment: A beer culture waning

The folks over at Slate feature a sobering look at the retreat of Germany's brewing industry.

It's hard times over there for the beverage that's virtually a country identity and gave the world the notion of beer purity, reinheitsgebot, an idea some have called one of the earliest consumer protections, but as Slate points out, the mandate for only hops, barley and water has had a sclerotic effect on Germany's brewing industry.

What's also interesting is the fact that Germany's youth eschew beer, seeing it as their fathers' Volkswagen, so to speak. Yet, here in the US, craft beer has become a beverage that many in their early 30s down to legal drinking age know before and better than their fathers' and grandfathers' Budweiser and Coors.