Without a lot of fanfare in the early 1980s a fledgling cable channel called MTV launched in New Jersey. No one knew it at the time but it was the start of something big, a sea change in American society that would break the big traditional values of the 50s and 60s down into specialized, bite sized chunks ready to be gobbled up by enthusiasts, fanboys and hop heads for the next several decades. At the same time microbreweries were steadily growing in popularity from a niche interest into a national powerhouse that only continues to expand to this day.