Not that college students normally need an excuse to drink beer, but tomorrow is that annual beer-gulping, bar-hopping, don’t-stop-till-you-drop extravaganza otherwise known as St. Patrick’s Day.

But before they crack open a case of Budweiser, local beer buffs want college students to wake up and smell the barley.

They say there’s a whole other world of beer out there to be tapped into - a world where beer is flavorful, diverse and more tantalizing to the tastebuds than the watered-down, mass-produced “light” beer college students are so fond of.

“That’s what in America they think beer is,” said Katie Moss, an employee at Things Beer, 100 E. Grand River Ave. in Williamston. “Most people that come in here and compare them (say) that’s not beer.”

Moss said real beer aficionados scorn popular brands in favor of making their own beer or going to a brewpub for some homemade brew.

People from all over Michigan come to Things Beer to buy home-brewing supplies and equipment, beer advertising items and other beer-related accessories. The store recently celebrated its seventh anniversary.

As she packs tubes of yeast into a refrigerator, Moss explains there are two main styles of beer: ale, which is produced by top-fermenting yeast strains at warm temperatures, and lager, which is produced by bottom-fermenting yeasts at low temperatures.

However, while there are different flavors, smells and types of ingredients that make different flavors and colors of beer, Moss said all beers require four basic things: water, malt, hops and yeast.

Most of the popular brands in America are pilsners, making them all taste similar.

“I won’t even allow my dad to buy a Miller or a Bud,” Moss, a 1994 MSU alumna, tells a customer who is buying products to make his own beer. “I make him at least buy a Sam Adams.”

While home brewing is popular with a wide range of people, as evidenced by the Things Beer clientele, MSU cytogenics laboratory technician John Bice said nearby brewpubs and microbreweries provide people with good beer, eliminating the need to brew at home.

Bice wrote a book, “Tap into the Great Lakes,” which provides reviews of nearly 800 beers from 200 microbreweries and brewpubs in the Great Lakes states, a feat that took him a year and a half to complete.

Like Moss, he has no love for mass-produced beers.

“It’s basically the sparkling water of beer,” he said. “It’s completely watered down, almost flavorless.”

Bice said he’s drank thousands of beers in his life and he posts many reviews online at his Web site, which is located at www.msu.edu/~bice.

But he said his personal favorites are hard to pin down.

“It varies with my mood,” he said. “Guinness is one of my favorite all-time beers and there’s a bunch of German pilsners that I really love - it just depends on the type of mood I’m in.”

Locally, there are several brewpubs and microbreweries where students and other beer-drinkers can visit, including Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., and Michigan Brewing Co., 2582 M-52 North in Webberville.

Brewpubs and microbreweries are differentiated by how they sell their beer - microbreweries distribute most of their product to stores or restaurants while brewpubs sell most of their product on site at an adjacent bar or restaurant.

Bice said the beer quality at Harper’s varies from visit to visit, but he gives Michigan Brewing Co. two thumbs up.

“They have a wide variety of styles that they produce, and it’s very true to style, with a lot of brewery personality as well,” he said.

The microbrewery has 12 beers on tap, 30 different recipes, 24 beer distributors and will produce 155,000 gallons of beer this year, Michigan Brewing Co. owner Bob Mason said.

He said his beer is separated from others by what they put into it.

“They’re all natural and we put our heart and soul into them,” Mason said.

But Harper’s brewer Scott Isham said he puts plenty of love into his beer as well.

His affair with beer began in the Army when stationed in Germany.

“I just fell in love with beer,” Isham said. “I thought back before I went to Germany that beer tasted like Bud Light or whatever. I never realized beer could have so many different flavors - it’s amazing.

“When I got back, you couldn’t find any decent beer to drink, so I just decided to make my own beer one day, and now here I am.”

Harper’s has four mainstay beers that are always on tap, as well as two seasonal beers.

Isham said he loves his work, especially being allowed to drink beer on the job and seeing people enjoy his finished product.

“There are more types of beer than there are types of wine out there,” he said. “I don’t think people realize that and I hope people come in here with an open mind and can enjoy something that tastes different than the last beer that they had.”

And when tomorrow comes, Isham is expecting plenty of opportunities to open beer-drinkers’ minds with new and different tastes.

“St. Patty’s Day and beer go hand in hand,” he said with a chuckle. “We’re ready for a beer onslaught anytime - we can handle anything East Lansing throws at us.”