Like wine as well, the majority of beer produced is made to appeal to as wide a market of consumers as possible, and because of this most beers lack the above mentioned qualities. There are now in North America many smaller micro-breweries and larger regional breweries that make superior products, many of whom have taken brewing in new directions. Wine is a very simple drink to make. In winemaking most of the attention is placed on the origin and quality of the original grapes. I've argued a great deal in this column that viticulture and micro-climate are the major determinates of a wine's quality.
Wine almost makes itself.
Beer-making is a much more complex affair. But like wine, the quality of ingredients, and thus the expense, have a great deal to do with the finished product, as well as how the beer is made. Since the end of prohibition, the large breweries bought out and absorbed almost every regional and smaller brewery in North America, leaving the marketplace dominated by a handful a large producers. These producers have largely shaped the marketplace in their own image. In an attempt to appeal to the widest possible market they have literally diluted beer to suit the lowest common denominator.