Is Craft Beer Cringe Right Now?

Founders, Hill Farmstead and Tired Hands are three that have received a lot of attention in recent years. I’ve stopped buying beer from them as a result. I believe there are multiple threads about each of them on this website if you’d like more info.

 

The only one of those breweries that I think I have access to (or have ever had a beer from) is Founder’s—and I’ve also stopped buying their beer. So apparently I’m doing what I can already.

 

Writing like this makes me really miss Michael Jackson.

 

Give this is the cringe thread are we talking the beer writer or the trans-racial pedo?

 

Sure, there is racism and sexism at the individual behavioral level in the beer industry and even on this board. But does it happen at a higher rate than in other industries? Maybe. But that isn't really the thrust of the article. The article was basically shaming the whiteness of craft beer, which is just a symptom of a broader underlying problem. The answer isn't to cover up the symptoms with the empty inclusivity platitudes of the cultural moment. It's to fix the structural problems that lead to it.

 

I agree the structural problems need fixing. That doesn’t mean we can’t also stop sexual harassment in the workplace, misgendering folks on BeerAdvocate, etc, etc, etc.

 

I think this applies pretty much to all past and current generations when young and not just the current young generation. The beverage of choice may change but this is the mindset.

 

Why, because it challenges your perception? Micheal Jackson was of a certain veneer, era, and type. His writing was legendary, and paved the path for writers such as the one you are attempting to lambast. Because she has other opinions and observations to make from the end of the glass. The what she is able to also make fun of is a mature market with a set of growing up problems that sort of has aligned itself to a club and gatekeeper mentality when the idea that a broader market that uses a fuller range of crayons from the box of humanity is entirely possible, and it is SLOWLY making its way forward to constructing ACTUAL percentage points in the market share. Humans are also taking notes from the nature it uses to create beer while also realizing that gender constructs can be questioned, and or messed with because nature happens to pull this trick off ALL the time. NBD. Where beer is on the wane because there are many other options available. That's your future of opportunities.
The beer, and cultures Michael Jackson was at the forefront of was the (re)discovery of what was always around, and that the speed and manufacturing of his era was probably trying to leave behind. Ah, but of course the choir wants a fellow chorus member to stay in tune with.

 

FYI, Michael Jackson was an outspoken anti-racist.

https://www.themjf.org/home/#block-89b195c5991723edef9c

 

Yes, I would fairly expect that of him.

 

Different regions are at different beer culture maturation levels, although Brooklyn (where this writer is based) isn’t exactly a backwater. Could also be an age thing—younger people might frequent beer establishments that older drinkers tend to avoid, and maybe behavior at these places is markedly different as well. I don’t know. When I go out for a beer or three I can’t say I’ve ever witnessed anything like what this article describes. People are just drinking beer and talking to each other, which seems pretty harmless.

 

John, that properly sums up the taproom scene in my area (Philly area).

Well, that sure seems to be the situation in my area based upon my experiences. Maybe things are different very late on a weekend night?

Roger that!

Cheers!

 

The fact that Hill Farmstead is lumped in with Tired Hands and Founders shows how poorly the RatMagnet "news" traveled.

Brie accused Shaun Hill of telling another person he wanted to sleep with Brie. Thinking thats on the same level as the accusations around Tired Hands and Founders is laughable. Brie thinking she's the first woman in history to experience that is appalling to victims of actual sexual harassment and assault.

By the way, she started a Go Fund Me for legal funds 3 years ago for lawsuits that never happened. There's zero evidence anywhere of where the donations went. If she was soo concerned about this, why isn't she showing where the money went?

Oh and she started a new brewery AFTER raising funds for lawsuits that never happened. Not suspicious at all.

 

Just because the problem doesn't exist where you live. Its an author being particular observant of locality. So. This is hardly a beard so much as location, location, location, and income discretion, and possibly how quickly that will change a breweries capability to stay on mission. I vividly recall chatting with a bartender at a taproom near what was pending huge development for a certain huge corporation that doesn't need any additional tax-breaks. They mentioned the possibility of enjoying the attention and influx, but also absolutely dreading the privileged douche-bag clientele this influx of development whose catering to those with disposable income that it would turn their neighborhood into.

 

The only thing I recognized from the article is the "craft beer dads" thing. I've seen some of those videos and it tends to be a late 40s dad with his late teen/early 20s kid at a brewery, the kids filming and the dad is just dorking out over a flight. Taking pictures and posting on untappd and just kind of being a beer dork getting real into tasting the beer.

It's real easy to see why the kid would find their dad's behavior cringe. It's also social media in the era of ubiquitous filming so you've got all the dorkiest beer moments out of the tens of millions of brewery visits that happen every year collected and broadcast together, which could sure give the impression that it's normal behavior.

But again, that hashtag amounts to kids being embarrassed about their dads nerding out about something they're not particularly interested in. Not exactly a culture shaking event.

 

I can see that. Our daughter is a junior in high school and when she was much younger I used to occasionally drag her to release events etc.—just long enough to stand in line and get my bottles, usually on a Saturday morning (I think she came with me to two or three of these). Those days are long gone. I like to think I’m self aware enough not to put her through anything like that now (and, truth be told, even when I used to do it was mostly out of necessity because it happened to be “my turn” to watch her when these events were happening).

For the life of me I don’t know why someone with older teens or kids in their early 20s would want them to come along, unless said child was of drinking age and liked beer. At that age they are old enough to be on their own and would find the brewpub experience boring as hell.

 

culture shaking? Not so much. Isn't the hashtag kind of an I ate the "gut-buster" for the participation trophy generation?