WaPo talks about the game and beer:
That XL in Super Bowl XL this year might as well stand for "Extra Large" -- the game supersizes beer sales like no other midwinter holiday, out-chugging even green-around-the-gills St. Patty's Day. (It's not the biggest beer bash of the year; that'd be the Fourth of July.) But there's no crying in beer sales that spiked $150 million during the two weeks surrounding the Super Bowl last year, according to research firm ACNielsen. . . .
This helps explain all the brew-haha over a drink that defines the event almost as much as the game does. Blow off the frothy head of the Super Bowl and you're looking deep into a collision of cultures behind the teams and the brews.
Take Iron City, the hops equivalent of Steel Town's tough working class. Same as the Steelers -- smash-mouth, run-it-up-the-gut, no-nonsense. Hey, a few years back, Iron City even put photos of the Steelers on its cans. You may think it's watery swill, but what of it, buddy? It ain't no girlie beer.
