Listening to my various geek and gaming podcasts has confirmed a curious fact that I've noticed among my own circle of friends: geeks love good beer. While not all of my friends drink, those who do drink tend to choose microbrews over mainstream beer, and even if they choose a mainstream beer it tends to be something other than the Big Three (Bud, Miller, Coors) like Samuel Adams or Yuengling.

With that in mind, I offer this bit of insight into the rise of mass market beer, the subsequent collapse of American breweries, and the resurgence orchestrated by the microbrew market: "The Longneck Tail: A revolution in American beer". Jay Brooks discusses how the theory of the longtail -- a proliferation of market choices made possible by the emergence of the Internet -- allows us to find and drink better beer. It also includes a hat tip to Shangy’s, a beer distributor in Emmaus, Pa. that I've been meaning to visit for years.