Now it takes half an hour to inspect the vast array of ales, bocks, stouts, ciders and so on to make sure you're not missing out on something. Of course, buying a beer by the label is like picking a doctor out of the yellow pages, but it's what most people do. There's no such place. Anheuser-Busch recently joined a bunch of legitimate microbreweries in a lawsuit to require that beer be accurately labeled as to place of origin. Beer politics makes strange bedfellows.
Contract brewing is another deception for the unwary.
The whole line of Pete's Wicked Ales is created by a contract brewer who slaps Pete's label on it. Those of you who thought ol' Pete was slaving over a cauldron to turn out a handcrafted product have made him a rich man. The people who used to be wine snobs are now beer geeks and are about as much fun. In the interests of full disclosure I should confess that I have written for beer magazines from time to time. Gets a little tiresome.