Big lager brands may be shiny and reliable, but they are not exactly fun, so dreamers, misfits and visionaries stepped up to start making beers for the more discerning drinker. Twenty years later, Argentina’s craft beers are its best-kept secret.
Sitting at home with a few friends and rating a bottle of foreign beer from a nearby store shows a welcome willingness to experiment, but seeking out craft beers and the people who drink them, in places close to where they are made, shows an intent to live life to the fullest before you no longer can.
What brings the visitors is the spectacular backdrop of Andean peaks, ice-capped even in summer, the breathtaking scenery around the seven sprawling lakes and, increasingly, the beer.
The reluctant or inexperienced traveler may need an excuse to enable them to overcome fear of the unfamiliar. As craft beer lovers, the lure of a famous beer festival might do it. Better yet, why not consider an obscure one?
The development of the “safer” beer glass is a response to an alleged UK annual total of 87,000 violent incidents involving glass, an undisclosed proportion of which features pubs and pint pots.
To persuade others that they need to take beer seriously, you need to take it seriously. So drink and read and travel beyond your conventional horizons to discover where and how beer fits into the wider world.
Adding spice to beer is like applying perfume or aftershave to humans. The point is to use a dab to aid allure, not a vial to hide grime or lack of confidence.
Arguing that Lambic should only be made in Brussels or Payottenland is as unsustainable as saying that lagers should only come from Bavaria or Bohemia.
Tim Webb reminisces about his first taste of better beer in 1974 (a Batham’s Bitter at The Plough Inn) and wonders what the prize-winning GABF beers will be like 35 years from now.
Adding stuff to a nearly completed and rather shabby beer is a dangerous pastime that brand Belgian cannot afford. And neither can any other craft beer culture that wishes to be taken seriously.
Since it first appeared in 1992, Good Beer Guide Belgium has grown to include advice on where to buy beer, bar etiquette, what a train is, why cycling is good, how to eat food and so on.
Preserving for the sake of preservation is for curators, not consumers. Timeless excellence should ensure the survival of our greatest pubs. Drab imitations must be allowed to fail.
One problem with global and personal expansion is that each is based on an optimistic set of assumptions that perpetual growth is both realistic and beneficial.