I’ve been sick as a dog these past few days, so it’s not surprising that Bill got the jump on me in regards to this story.

A state lawmaker wants to give the “King of Beers” its own kingdom by making Budweiser the official beer of Missouri.

“We’ve got a state dinosaur, a state frog, a state reptile, a state flower, a state nut, but no one has given a thought to a company that’s been in Missouri for many, many years and is bringing prosperity to our state and manufacturing a product in our state that many people enjoy,” Dougherty said.

Call it apathy, but my reaction to this is “eh.”  A Beer Advocate member suggested that Missouri BAers may want to “fight this” and I ask why?  I really don’t think it’s the big of a deal.  Let’s face facts, when people think of Missouri and more specifically, St. Louis, they usually think of Anheuser-Busch.  It’s the largest single brewery in the world (no, that conglomerate of breweries called InBev doesn’t count in my mind) and while it may not produce my favorite style of beer they do an amazing job of producing it.  I’ve mentioned this before, and I’m sure to do it again, but the American Style Lager that AB produces is one of the most difficult beers to make.  The fact they do it on such a large scale is really, really impressive.

I guess Bill’s bigger issue with this is the fact this State Representative is wasting tax payer time and money worrying about a “State Beer”, to which I have no argument.  (Plus, Bill’s been pretty cranky as of recent.)  I think William from Year of Beer has the best solution yet:

I think make the state beer American Lager, would be a fine idea. Not directly promoting any company, but still paying tribute to the best selling beer in America that is head quartered in St. Louis.

That’s a brilliant solution.  Not only do you give love to our St. Louis beer brewing giant, but you also get people thinking about beer styles as well as the history of beer.  Anyone interested in starting up a letter writing campaign?