Spring has sprung, and like many across the world, thoughts turn to cold, refreshing beer—although for many different reasons, I suppose. The image of beer in the United States is something of a paradox. The inflammation of wine enthusiasm came at the absolute zenith of beer domination by a small number of bland and likeminded breweries. And so, sadly it seems, wine and beer have seemingly taken diametrically opposed positions among imbibers (let’s not complicate the picture with spirits, yet). To me, the products of any of America’s huge breweries are really alcohol for people that don’t like the taste of alcohol, or anything else for that matter. People often criticize drinkers of so-called “girl drinks” for wanting the effects but none of the real flavor and I would level that same criticism against “light” beer drinkers. Real beer, light in color or dark, is not afraid of flavor or character, is made with an artisanal mind, and can provide the same or similar sense experiences as wine. Anyway, now that I’ve driven away at least half of my scant few readers, let me make an impassioned plea to wine drinkers to drink more beer.

As a person whose vocation often requires I taste wine throughout the day, I commonly come home and with great relish, open up a fresh bottle of beer. In fact, I would say that beer is an almost perfect companion to avid wine consumption and especially to the hopelessly over-wined. I can’t imagine how much more tasting stamina I could have had during those absurd marathon tastings that I’ve been victim to if maybe a small glass of cold fresh beer would have been served throughout the tastings.

I often get asked by my wine drinking friends as well as my beer drinking friends why I’m drinking beer at all, supposedly being a “wine guy” who is curiously forbidden beer. First, to my beer drinking friends I might suggest that what they like is really not beer, but a weak brew tasting faintly of cardboard steeped in seltzer water. To my wine drinking friends I often ask, why aren’t you drinking beer? Maybe because of the former set of friends, beer has been mongrelized, leading us to believe that its only mode of being is to be unobtrusive enough to be guzzled by the gallon. To my more open-minded friends I might ask, can’t there be a bit more to it?

Like Champagne and all great sparkling wines, beer starts with a leg up in the charm department by being frothy. While beer can carry an appreciable acidity, many can get away with having none as effervescence can take its place as a cleanser of clogged up taste buds. Beer provides a more pastoral flavor profile—for lack of a better term—providing drinkers with flavors that tend more towards agriculture like wheat and barley. It has the option of a sharp floral note provided by hops, which also takes the place of acidity. Good beer can be more sugary or loaded with carbohydrates than wine, but magically it can carry these things with the illusion of being dry.

Wine has had an apparently absolute lock on food pairings for centuries. Wine lovers will debate endlessly over the merits of this or that wine with this or that food. While a vocal minority will tell you that there’s far less codification to these pairings as you might think, beer drinkers have almost totally shied away from the topic, choosing instead to default to who they see as the prognosticators of food and drink pairings. If you’ve read this column before, I hope there’s one thing you took away from any of my articles: iconoclasm and engaging in a Bacchanalian frenzy go hand in hand. So let us remember, beer and wine drinkers alike, that Bacchus is also the god of the threshing room floor.

Stout with a lean Filet Mignon? Hell yes. Pilsner with roasted Grouper? Count me in. Lager with fish and chips? Sounds like heaven to me. How we’re really blessed here is that there are none of the preconceptions around food and beer tastings as there are with wine, so we have a great opportunity to get off on the right foot. No longer do we have to fret that our food might not be up to our wine and vice versa.

I think that if you are a true follower of your senses that you owe it to yourself to give beer a chance. It is always your option to like or dislike anything, but the ancient companion to our favorite ancient drink hasn’t lasted 6000 years without a damn good reason. What more, even the most expensive of beers barely approaches modestly priced wines in cost per serving. In almost every state in the Union there is a renaissance of small, local artisanal brews. And on top of that many similar beers that may not be brewed in your home state have enjoyed a surging popularity, which is allowing them international distribution. All this is bringing more and more attention to the fine brewers abroad who have never gone away and continue to work through the ages making their amazing beers better and better. Beer drinkers are now faced with an unprecedented array of choice. So I hope you join me tonight in exercising that choice and replacing a tired old Sauvignon Blanc with a nice frosty brew on your dinner table. Believe me, it’ll make that Sauvignon Blanc all the much finer when you do return to it, for absence only makes the heart grow fonder.