Better Beer Authority interview with Sam Calagione

I saw this one yesterday. Is it just me, or is their show getting way more watchable?

EDIT: I mean Better Beer Authority, not Brew Masters

 

Yeah its everywhere now
Its 2 fold IMO. might have started out with no commercial following but after you do a big time show on Discovery about your brewery and brewering process only you lose all credability IMO

 

Is it me, or is the host guy always drunk?

The interview was pretty interesting, but I think they're putting up a straw man about that thread. The narrative in the video is that people were posting Dogfish's name in that thread because they "got too big" or "sold out," which I didn't see at all in that thread. While some of the hating on Dogfish people have is pretty exaggerated or harsh, I don't think anybody is complaining that they're bad because they're too big.

All I'm saying is, if people are criticizing the quality of your beers, don't act like they're criticizing the size of your brewery.

 

Good point.

 

It's much easier to address a straw man. I don't have anything against Dogfish, but I can't find any of their regular beer fresh (60 Minute doesn't even come to the Bay Area for some reason) and I've yet to try a single one of the special releases that I've liked, so I don't buy it. Other people do, so it's all cool. I'm not sure why posting that in public turns me into a bad dude, but whatever.

 

show's definitely getting better. on the one hand, i feel like the theme song has to go (so dumb). on the other, i very much appreciate that they keep the "intro" to like 2 seconds instead putting on a bunch of dumb computer graphics and banter between 3~4 guys no one gives a shit about. right to the point is the way.

re: DFH overrated thread, it's a fine line. surely lots of people think they're just expressing a polite "i don't really care for their beers," opinion when in reality they're doing weird emotional stuff that's hard to understand. if we're honest, we have to accept that a lot of the hater stuff online is very strange, deeply emotional stuff... people do not keep track of their own behavior. and, some people just don't like DFH and happened to be online at that hour.

me, i love DFH.

 

Hahaha, after reading "deeply emotional stuff," I'm just imagining a guy laying on a couch, crying a little bit while talking to his therapist about why he doesn't like DFH beers.

But seriously, good point. The extent to which people are spouting what others think (group think) probably has an effect on the amount of criticism DFH gets on here.

 

I think part of the problem is that they get more criticism and harsher because of their size and popularity. If you have a bad or old beer from some brewery 90% of the BA community hasn't heard of, you don't really care. You have a beer you don't like from DFH and suddenly it's necessary to take to the forums to talk about how overrated they are and how they suck. We tend to have double standards when judging something that's popular simply because it's popular, whether it's beer, books, movies, music, etc. I'm guilty of it myself. I remember the thread as well and there were quite a few posts about how awful people thought DFH was.

If you can't find fresh beer, I think the fault is more at the hands of the distributors. I doubt DFH is sitting on cases of 90 Minute for months before sending it out.

 

Good point. But then Sam's gotta get some thicker skin. If you up your production, you better expect more people to know about/have an opinion about your beer, and not just chalk it up to big brewery hate.

And for what it's worth, I think he has enough reasons to know that what he's doing is good and people appreciate it, regardless of whether some of the brews could be better.

 

It does seem like the bigger craft brewers don't get credit for good solid beers as much and in that thread it did seem like people were hating on DFH for all the wrong reasons. I chimed in on that thread saying that I'm not a huge fan of DFH sometimes, but I think people took it to an annoying level that prompted Sam's defense. He was totally right in saying that a lot of beers that we get today come from brewers like DFH sparking interest. I'm not old enough to know, but from everything I've read that seems to be the case.

Point is, I think that some of that forum got a little out of control. It felt like people weren't just saying they didn't like DFH, but that DFH was crap and made them out like BMC. I'm all for saying what brews I like and don't like, but that doesn't make it shitty. It's not like DFH is dumping in corn and rice and 3 drops of hop extract and calling their brews triple hopped. Sam, to me, represents everything that's right about the craft beer movement. I liked his point about taking things too seriously. It is just beer, so unless they start putting out messed up beers to get extra revenue or something that hurts the consumer, I don't see the point in a vendetta like some people seem to have against DFH for putting out polarizing beers.

 

Yeah, though if I remember it correctly he was more upset about the general attitude of the thread in general. Instead of thought-out critiques, it was a lot of simple bashing and attacks on breweries. As you often see with collaborations, the craft beer community tries to be more about working together and sharing good beer, and threads like that can become cesspools of negativity.

 

Fair enough. I agree with that.

 

Sam seems like an awesomly passionate, knowledgeable, and respectful dude. I love how he is so quick to give the props to his company rather than give into the interviewers verbal fellatio. As I've said before, DFH makes amazing beers. Distinctive, interesting, impressive, refined; all words I would use to describe a majority of their beer. Calling their stuff crap is as immature as it gets, especially when you know first hand how much work and creativity goes into making it. One of craft beer's true class acts.

 

LOL... For the record, it was 9am. I didn't have anything to drink before the interview. In our over 100 episodes I can only think of about 3 shows where I felt like I was slightly "over-sampled" (check out our review of Pliny The Elder to see one of those). I usually go out of my way to not drink before the show because I think it hinders my performance. Unfortunately for me, that "drunk"-act must just be my natural disposition.

 

Great episode. I like that Sam was even willing to talk about the thread and talk specifically about other brewers and companies. No need to bite your tongue when you have the respect of everyone in the industry.

 

this

 

Stoked to find out that Sam has a pug. I like those dogs if you can't tell.

James did a great job here, the interview was really good

 

IMO if you have a problem with a breweries beers, keep it to yourself. With so many options you do not have to drink what you do not want to. But if you have something constructive to say that is a different story, but to simply put down a brewery is a bit much. On that I thought this was a great episode of BBA.

 

skip to 13:10. he's talking about a minority of the beeradvocate community, so i doubt he's going after people who respectfully agree to disagree about dfh. and the thread he was referring to was "most overrated," so i think he's right about giving credit where credit's due as far as pioneering the craft beer movement. feel free to disagree though