Is beer being described like wine now?

I've my share of descriptive beer labels, and actually I find it helpful. But to the extent wine is detailed on labels? Not so much. There's a balance to be struck, and I think MOST breweries have found it, IMHO.

 

Horse blanket.

 

Full-bodied, acidic, minerally, tobacco. These are all adjectives that could be describing either beer or wine. I don't see these words all too often on labels but definitely in reviews.

 

Have you ever tasted a horse blanket? It's gross.

 

Me too. I haven't seen any descriptions on labels of wine. In fact as far a getting a good description goes, beer wins. You can look up any beer on the shelf and find a description of it here on BA. That's remarkable. With wine, if it has been reviewed you may be able to find it in online but not always.

 

Yeah... "everything from California is overpriced."

 

And as far as I'm concerned, that is a good thing. However, I don't have a smart phone, so if I want a review, it's a bit trickier on the fly.

 

I've seen it occasionally. Most of the time I think with beer it's done sort of tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at the wine types. Sometimes, though I think they're serious, either trying to put their beer on a level with fine wines, or using such descriptive terminology that no one knows what they're talking about.
With beer, it's generally pretty easy to describe, "a malty backbone supporting a citrus, piney bite from the hops."
However, wine seems to be more esoteric, with "notes of tobacco, leather, etc.."
BTW, I find those kinds of things, and the people who use them, insufferable with any beverage.

 

Chocolate too and other fine food/drink

 

I feel like with all the advances in the brewing world; and beers getting bigger and bigger in flavor profiles, barrel aging in a variety of different barrels/ and blends of beers from different barrels, and the use of wild yeasts, and innovation with brewing equiptment. its something that is bound to happen and very useful for the people making the switch from macro to micro. IMO.

 

I dunno. It's just my favorite flavor description.

 

One has only to browse through the reviews here to see that yes, it is. On the one hand, it's great that producers and consumers alike are taking the beverage seriously and attempting to describe beer in the manner it deserves, but on the other some people just go overboard.

 

Nothing new. A number of beers have been describing their characters for some time now.

 

I think that it is on the road to that point, but I don't think it's there yet, nor am I sure it will ever truly get there. I get the impression that OP thinks this is a bad thing, but I would argue against that sentiment. Beer, like wine, is extremely complex. Certainly there are points where it gets a far too in depth, tasting and smelling things that are not really there, but I have personally been told that something I undoubtedly tasted was not there by other people. The fact is that people have different palates, and just because you cannot personally discern a depth of flavor that someone else (or many others) have does not mean that they are wrong. Let's leave this be and let brewers and tasters describe what they want; it's up to you to decide whether they're on the money or full of shit.

 

I try not to read the breweries descriptions of their beers, whether on the bottle or on a menu; I can figure out for myself what it tastes like.

Descriptions of wine and beer to me are like beer commercials that tell you how cool you should feel for drinking their light beer.

 

Both are beverages with, potentially, a high level of complexity of flavor, no?

I'm just trying to figure out how one would describe beer in a manner different from how they described wine, other than the specific adjectives used.

 

I read labels all the time that tell stories about flavors. I don't read them till after though since I don't want that putting ideas in my head about what I should be tasting.

 

Pretty much this. If you find a specific flavor in a beer, why not just call it like you see it?

A lot of people worry about beer becoming similar to wine in a snobbery regard. I used to be one of those people. Now I don't care. I just don't think it'll happen on the scale that it has with wine. I'm on the inside though. I'm sure there are many people who talk about beer snobs with the same disdain as wine snobs. And I'm sure wine snobs insist that they aren't really snobs, they just are really into wine and exploring it and describing what they taste in sometimes absurd ways. People have different perceptions based on their interests and the intensities thereof. To my Mom I'm a beer snob, to my wife I'm an obsessive, to me - I'm just an enthusiast along for the ride who happens to enjoy the taste of horse blanket now and then.

 

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm reviewing beers, but I think the point precisely is to use "descriptive terminology" so that everyone knows what they're talking about. To me, an intelligently, well-described beer is way more helpful than "Pliny's overhyped" or the countless other useless comments littering the forums. Read reviews by utopiajane to see how this language can be used in a helpful, and non-pretentious way.