Fridays are for celebrating Stance Friends and Fans. I encourage you to visit their facebook page, website or place of business and tell Stance about your experience with them.

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Today, and all next week, we celebrate American Craft Beer Week. The mission of American Craft Beer Week, which is May 16-22, 2011, is to encourage beer lovers everywhere to celebrate the accomplishments of America’s small and independent craft brewers.
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Beer weeks are giving craft beer fans across the U.S. ever-increasing options to enjoy and share the beverage they love. Beer weeks celebrate the culture and community of craft beer, and give breweries and beer businesses the opportunity to connect with the fans.

According to the Brewer’s Association, an American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional.

Small: Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition.

Independent: Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer.

Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50 percent of its volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

Video about American Craft Beer Week.

The Brewers Association, the national non-profit association on behalf of the majority of today’s U.S. breweries, and publishers of CraftBeer.com, celebrate the culmination of these events each May with American Craft Beer Week (ACBW), The Mother of All Beer Weeks. This year, ACBW offers an exciting opportunity for small and independent craft brewers and the community of better beer retailers to feature craft beer in their community. Plus, tens of thousands of today’s beer beginners, beer enthusiasts, and hard core beer geeks make time to toast the week.

Of the roughly 1,716 craft breweries in the nation, Colorado has over 120 established craft brewers located across the state with many start up breweries in start up phase.

Visit here and find an ACBW event near you.

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If you have had an experience with any American Craft Beer Week or just love craft beer, please share it here. If not, visit one today. I look forward to hearing about it and sharing your experience with other Stance Friends and Fans.