During a 2 week stay in the St Louis Area I only managed to visit 2 micro breweries (1 in St Louis and 1 in St Charles, Illinois) but I was lucky enough to sample beers from at least 10 different ones:-) They are by far the best I have tried for a long time and have a bigger range than most in the UK. Only in Belgium did I find a better range of equivalent beers. I was there over 3 months though:-) Maybe if I stopped in the US that long I would find that it surpasses even the Belgians!

I am not disputing anything about the quality of US beer, Ron, and I don't think anything I said suggested otherwise. Sorry if it came across that way. The whole point is that there are probaby as many different views on this are there are beers (or ales)! None is right or wrong. They are just different. Taking an absolute standpint on this is aking to trying to tell everyone here what real folk music is - No one will ever agree.

The funny thing is that I generaly agree with your definitions but there are exceptions, particulary where you allow for the peculiarity of language. Adams ale is certainly not a beer by any stretch of the imagination;-)

Cheers

D.