No debating, huh? Well, if that's the case, he clearly sparked some kind of non-debating argumentative social discourse, because there are currently 618 comments (and counting) on the article, many of which express very sharp disagreement with Mr. Berrong's bold assertion.
I think that he's rather missing the point of craft beer - in his opening paragraphs he only mentions the hop-heavy IPA and Pale Ale styles as if they're the epitome of beercraft. Not so, say I! Bucketloads of hops do not a Great Beer make. Here in Upstate alone, we've got awesome breweries making fantastic examples of a broad range of styles, some of them aggressively hopped (like CB's Caged Alpha Monkey, or the IPAs made by the lads at Three Heads Brewing), others not so much, because they realise how to use them appropriately! The base ingredient of beer, believe it or not, isn't hops, it's malted barley; hops are added to balance the sweetness of the base malts.
So, Mr. Berrong, I'd like to issue you an invitation: come to Upstate New York, and I'll personally guide you on a tour of the fabulous breweries and brewpubs we have here. I'll show you how our moderate, mid-European climate creates a fantastic environment for growing hops, barley and adjunct grains. Please, see how it compares to the West Coast, and I think you'll find that Upstate Brews are some of the finest you'll find in the country.
