American beer has long been derided for being watered-down piss. While this is still true of America's mass-produced lagers, there are more and more microbreweries popping up all over the country, and the beer they produce is often excellent. Though the micro and craft brewers have a tiny market share, the bigger breweries are taking notice: recently, Michelob (owned by Anheuser-Busch, who are currently in the process of being bought out by InBev) introduced a line of "premium all-malt beers", presumably in order to appeal to drinkers becoming accustomed to drinking something better than standard, or even premium, lagers.
The New Yorker has an excellent article about Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery and the rise of "extreme beer". The term "extreme beer" is knuckle-headed, but the phenomena of idiosyncratic local brewers--often only with homebrewing experience prior to turning pro--brewing up all sorts of wild concoctions simply because they can, is a wonderful one. The article mentions the Dogfish Head beer Midas Touch, so named because the beer was inspired by an analysis of dried residue found on the inside of a bowl found in King Midas's tomb. Orthodox brewing it isn't.
I find that it can sometimes be a bit much, with brewers continually attempting to outdo each other with bigger and hoppier beers. It's beer for beer's sake--not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that--but it sometimes ignores the social aspect of beer. You don't spend hours in the pub with friends drinking IPAs weighing in at over 20% alcohol. You'd also be hard-pressed to find North American breweries making excellent but low-alcohol session ales. Then again, North America doesn't have the same sort of drinking culture that, say, Britain has.
That said, more beer--and better beer--is always a good thing.
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