While beer is a social beverage that is meant to be enjoyed in good company, it helps to occasionally step back and inspect the foundations of our beer knowledge and beliefs.
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.
Beer service, when done right, can certainly put on a good show and captivate its audience. Such delivery, with proper glassware, thoughtful pours, and a touch of caring and flare, causes heads to turn and customers to ask what that lucky guy or gal is drinking.
The complaints and expectations about beer are reaching whole new levels. And the snobbery and superiority factors among craft beer lovers over macro drinkers are becoming shameful and embarrassing.
It’s all too easy to forget that beer was meant to be enjoyed. In our opinion, it can often become way too business-centric, unnecessarily elite or just plain silly. Here are some pet-peeve instances of when beer is not beer.
Assuming we’d like to see the craft beer segment grow more than fractions of a percent against the market as a whole each year—and that’s a good year—craft beer shouldn’t be exclusive.
For a country that has never possessed much of a discernible brewing heritage, America has taken a leading role in exporting its nascent beer culture around the world.
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.
For some, tailgating is a chance to catch up with old friends, show off homebrew and try new beers. For others, it’s a party to celebrate the return of football season and a perfect excuse to drink a locally brewed favorite.
Somewhere along the way, the intersection of cultural amity and the entrepreneurial spirit of big business morphed traditional celebrations into global bashes devoid of historic meaning.