When you’re drinking to get plastered, typically the quality of the alcohol doesn’t matter much. Thursday night: hello Fleischmann’s!

But what if instead of viewing alcohol as a tool to get “crunked,” it was viewed more as the French do? That is, as a food, to be enjoyed in good company?

The problem with all the “just say no” campaigns targeting alcohol, drugs and sex is that they force extremes. The simplistic message “don’t drink” creates a backlash that leads many students to take 21 shots on their 21st birthdays.

Students across the United States spend a great deal of time and money trying to beat a system that won’t allow them to drink until age 21. In spite of the strict law, there isn’t anything morally wrong with drinking before we reach the magical age; laws and morality are not always the same.

But the point isn’t being allowed to drink; it’s how we drink. How many times have we been lectured on alcohol use when the real issue is alcohol abuse? Why does it have to be all or nothing? Alcohol isn’t evil, but if you blow a 0.3, are you really enjoying it?

Beer is the alcohol of choice in Wisconsin, and has been for years, as many German immigrants carried over their brewing traditions.

The editor of the La Crosse Nord Stern wrote about prohibition in 1867, arguing beer was a part of German culture, but more importantly, it was a person’s right to have a beer. The closing of saloons and the temperance movement, he claimed, were examples of “the senselessness and injustice of the prohibition laws,” and he was offended by officials’ disdain for “our German character.”

To learn more about current Wisconsin beer and food culture, I consulted brew master Dean Coffey, who has spent 10 years working for the Angelic Brewing Co. in Madison.

He told me he “absolutely” placed quality over quantity when it came to drinking beer. In addition, he explained how the Angelic pays close attention to pairing beers with specific foods.

“It’s the same as with wine,” he observed. “You have two schools of thought. The first looks for flavors that complement. The second looks for flavors that contrast.”

This echoes what I’ve heard my dad and his French-wine aficionado friends say for years. Every wine has a “nose,” and you drink red and white wines with very different foods.

Coffey gave the example of a meat and gravy dish served with a complementary Nutbrown as opposed to a somewhat sweeter dish that might be served with a bitter or sharp beer.

“The chef tries to include beer in the food,” he added, mentioning a beer cheesecake.

“Most people will agree that desserts go best with a real sweet beer, like a Stout or Porter.”

Coffey also noted while there was “kind of a war of rhetoric” between wine lovers and beer lovers, he’d heard that the spectrum of beer flavors was broader than the spectrum of wine flavors, so in effect, beer paired better with more flavors.

“The fun thing about the beer culture is it’s evolving now,” he said.

Coffey explained that during prohibition, thousands of smaller breweries disappeared almost overnight. When prohibition ended, only a few large breweries returned, and they couldn’t make beer fast enough to meet the demand. Today, he noted, “all the big companies use rice and corn [in their beer], which is offensive to anyone who cares about beer.”

Many of us can recall at least one incident when we partied a little too hard. But boozing to the point of no return doesn’t need to be the night’s great achievement. I remember a friend in Italy explaining that sure, sometimes he and his friends had too much to drink, but they never went out with the goal of blacking out. That would take away from the pleasure of drinking and being social. In short, drink at the table; don’t consistently drink yourself under the table.

Good brewers don’t support binging; maybe those concerned about binge drinking at the University of Wisconsin should include local brewers in their discussions.

Coffey concluded: “That’s the heart of the beer renaissance. Instead of buying a 24-pack of the cheapest beer on the market, have a few really good beers.”

I’ll drink to that; cheers.

Cynthia Martens ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in Italian and European studies.