From simple ingredients to complex flavors, beer is one of the world's great metamorphoses, evolving over years of practice and tons of luck to become a multi-billion dollar industry and savior to thirsty football-watchers everywhere. It has fueled economies and inspired art. It has been at the center of major political warfare and it has spread culture.

That same metamorphosis can be seen in people. Like simple ingredients, we're built out of simple skills that fuel change, turning us into complex beings who are capable of participating in the wider global discussion. Sometimes these skills are practical, such as learning to code or speak in front of groups. Others are rare and valuable, such as learning to lead with empathy or understanding sociological trends.

But sometimes those skills are things that most of us take for granted. Sometimes those skills are as simple as learning how to read, a skill that feels so basic most of us couldn't imagine living without it.

Wait. Why am I comparing hops and yeast to the ability to read?

Because this Saturday is the annual Brewhaha - a fundraiser put on by Reach Literacy (the former Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council) - and it's theme is metamorphosis, highlighting how the simple things in life can often change us in ways we never imagined.

(The details: this Saturday, February 22, 7-10pm at the Museum of Visual Materials. Check out the site at for more info.)

Literacy is a personal touchpoint. I was raised in a bookstore, surrounded by books bad and good. I am a self-taught writer and a former book reviewer. I spent six years as a board member for the South Dakota Humanities Council, an organization backed by the National Endowment for the Humanities and tasked with celebrating and promoting history and literature across the state.

I'm also, by nature of my career, a professional communicator - the person who helps plan and account for the words you see on the web. I'm a writer. When it comes to literacy, I owe it to you - and to myself - to make sure the word gets around. Without readers, I have no reason to write. My career (no, I don't drink beer for a living, thanks) can be boiled down to one thing: helping people understand the web. But it goes one step further: helping people understand language and message, regardless of ability.

Brewhaha will promote literacy and celebrate storytelling as five of the area's best speakers tell their tales of metamorphosis. The spaces in between will be filled with good beer, good food from Chef Dominique and a literacy auction.

Johnson Brothers is doing the beer part of the event, and for those who don't follow the distribution back channel that fills your local beer cooler, I'll tell you that they're responsible for a handful of local beers and a whole ton of great imports, from the venerable Samuel Smith brewery to personal favorite Ayinger.

If you were going to tour those breweries, you'd encounter dozens of dialects within several languages. Yet, those languages would be a luxury - there are hundreds just here in Sioux Falls who have trouble with their first language. So let's help them out and have some delicious German lagers while we're at it.

I'll be at this year's Brewhaha. And so should you. See you there.

- Corey Vilhauer

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