Sorry, couldn't think of a better thread title. In this article, a writer compares visiting craft brewers versus his experience at a large brewery: http://beltmag.com/large-city-near-...erious-disappearance-great-midwestern-brewer/
Man, without the photo of the author stroking goats, I wouldn't actually be able to take this excerpt seriously!
I'm not really sure what this author's point is - An exercise in imagery with heaping sides of condescension and syrupy sweet sentiment? I daresay most who pick up a book like this belong to the beer enthusiast sphere on some level, and are already very, very aware that the BMC machine turns out mass-produced, mass-market, characterless beer in *gasp* a huge factory. Talk about preaching to the choir. I wonder how this excerpt/book would come across to the beer layman? I'm thinking it reinforces the BMC = evil, craft = good line of thinking, which only serves to narrow minds and proliferate snobbery.
The excerpt is really taken out of context and is not what the book "The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According To Beer" is about. In fact, if I was trying to sell anyone this book that excerpt might be the last that I would choose.
It's neither here nor there, but I've toured a couple large breweries and I have enjoyed the tours. Even if they don't make my favorite beer, they are industrial marvels.
Now we've gotten the anti-hipster barbs and big beer apologies out of the way, I will say it would have been cool to see the old brewery beer gardens back in their day. Sounds like they would have been great places to spend a sunny afternoon.
Craft IS industry. Anyone who says otherwise is either an idealist or doesn't understand the business.
"The New York Times reported in 1877 that Budweiser drinkers typically drained three times as much beer as those who drank the darker bocks and malty dortmunders of previous generations." And the seeds were sown................
Beer is industry , I may not like bud or miller but i tell you what they have made consistency into an art form. I've toured many craft breweries aswell as a few larger ones both are marvels in their own ways.
