Controversial Beer Opinions Thread

I’m hoping someone else stated this in an earlier post. Nothing new but just got perturbed today.

You are not a beer aficionado/enthusiast/nerd if you only drink NEIPAs. I see far too many social media handles with a similar personal description surrounded by countless hazy beer photos.

 

That's a hot take if I've ever read one.

I belong to a couple local FB beer groups and outside of occasional talk about the state of craft beer, everyone basically just posts dick pics of 16 oz. cans of haze and thinks they know something about beer. Sure, there are occasional massively fruited kettle sours and BBA imperial stouts, but, other than that, they're a hazeboi's paradise. The funniest part about it is most of these beers look absolutely terrible. Murky, not just hazy, with no head with many of them looking like snowglobes with all of the suspended particulate. Don't dare comment about how terrible they look, though, as the "how the beer looks doesn't matter" police will dogpile you. The hivemind is real in craft beer right now.

 

I am a member of a similar group on FB. My last 2 posts were pics of SN Torpedo and Fuller's London Pride. Needless to say I didn't get many "likes"

 

This shouldn't be a controversial opinion but it seems that it is:

Social media is largely filled with garbage and getting upset about what you encounter there is a bit like being bothered by the fact that the conversation in a junior high school cafeteria isn't witty and urbane enough.

More specifically, why exactly would anyone expect Instagram to be filled with 60 year old beer nerds squinting at their Belgian dark ales instead of 20-somethings showing off the newest shiny thing they encountered?

 

AB is now the King of Craft Beer as well.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/ct-food-anheuser-busch-craft-beer-top-sales-0809-story.html#

 

Yes, the ideal roll of BeerAdvocate would be as a thoughtful counterpart to the inanity of Instagram and Facebook and not a mindless parroting of it or defensive apology for it. Sadly, high ratings of many of those beers here (and, more importantly, let's face it, on Untappd), as well as giant threads of endless and self-congratulatory hive-mind hype, embolden the social media users in celebrating their confusion as to what constitutes good beer.

 

Opening statement in the article:
"A decade ago, Anheuser-Busch made no beer that could legitimately be called “craft.”

According to the Brewers Association that's still true, unless there's a distinction between a Craft Brewer and a brewery that produces craft beer, among others.

 

Your post needs more wit . . . and urbanity.

 

I imagine that these places are filled with people who give each other high fives for saying "That's what she said."

 

They're the HIgh-fIVERS

 

This years SN Octoberfest is not good...there I said it again.

 

The author's using IRI data, and they DO consider the AB "captured" brands "craft".

From a Brewers Association report quoting IRI figures, noting the difference between BA and IRI statistics:

The Brewers Association's own figures for 2017 (based on their and BMI estimates) gave AB's "craft" barrelage (not dollar share, as in the article) at 2,027,341 bbl. BUT that includes nearly half million barrels of "Shock Top". OTOH, it does not include partially-owned CBA's ~ ¾m bbl.

For comparison, BBC was listed at 2m bbl. and Yuengling at 2.7m bbl.

 

I do not want fruit in my beer and I do not care for the NEIPA style that many folks do.like

 

Agreed. And ideally BA wouldn't be guilty of the accusation many make that it is a site of pompous assholes who look down on noobs and younger folks. Ideally we could be a thoughtful counterpart without being antagonistic and unwelcoming, even if unintentional, or with the idea that it somehow is useful discussion to point out things we don't like about newer members of our community. And I mean the beer drinking community, not BA, we BA'ers don't own a claim to anything, and to keep the community thriving we should be inclusive, as we always have been.

 

Yep, you're the laid-back everyman who just wants everybody to have a good time out there on the slopes, and I'm the rich, preppy asshole who thinks I own the mountain and needs to be taken down a peg in your slobs v. snobs fantasy. Everyone is the hero of his own story.

Your ideal sounds to me intentionally restrictive, practically counterproductive, and ultimately stultifying, and it fails to meet your own stated inclusivity standard as it's tailored specifically to exclude those who communicate in a critical style.

 

Come on, the old "can you be tolerant if you are intolerant of intolerant people argument?" Really?

 

There's a difference between criticism and intolerance (and this happens to be a site for beer criticism), but I find that comment revealing. As is often the case, you're attempting to stifle the argument rather than engage and counter it. I encourage you to explain (if only to yourself) why you think "the old... argument" you reference, inapplicable as it is to this discussion, is flawed, instead of merely thoughtlessly dismissing it with a "Really?"

 

My roommate isn't into craft beer at all but he will try whatever beers I happen to buy. Pretty much every IPA I have ever let him taste yields the same reaction from him -- "It tastes like grapefruit" and I'm talking about stuff like Dogfish 90, SN Torpedo, HopDevil, and Two Hearted. I have never even brought home an actual NEIPA.

 

You mean like a bread roll? Or like rolling down a hill?

 

If it tastes like grapefruit to him then it tastes like grapefruit to him and not everybody likes grapefruit. That's a perfectly valid position.