Beer is Fun!

Something awful is happening to beer and many of the people who supposedly enjoy it. Yes, our worst fears are being realized. The craft beer community is coming to resemble its wine counterpart, and its consumers, wine snobs. The industry is growing pretentious, unapproachable both in image and price, and those not in the know are often viewed as inferior, as are their choices in beer.

Case in point: At June’s American Craft Beer Fest in Boston, we played host to nearly 90 brewers, 400 beers and over 12,000 attendees, who ranged from beer newbs to beer geeks. Though it was a very successful event and a lot of the feedback was positive and useful, some of the comments were slightly… disturbing. For instance, we received quite a bit of negative feedback toward people just having fun: “Did you hear those assholes chanting ‘USA’ and yelling for no reason?” said one attendee. “There were a lot of people just there to get drunk,” said another. One more? “They don’t belong here.”

Whoa. Hold on. No one was on fire. People were simply having fun while drinking beer. Good beer, at that. And some of those people wouldn’t normally be exposed to so much good beer. That’s the point of these larger festivals: Reach the masses with good beer! And… hello? Beer has alcohol in it. We drink beer because we like the often therapeutic impact that alcohol has on our brains. Anyone who claims otherwise is probably a liar or feels the need to uphold a false image of themselves.

Let’s remember that beer is the world’s ultimate social lubricant. It brings a lot of different people together for the same reasons. So let’s keep it fun, approachable and inclusive.

Respect Beer. ■