Stop being snobs

Very much agree with this statement!

 

But....I'm British......so,....

In all seriousness, I happily share my beers with anyone who wants to try them, or who I think might enjoy them. Just not a trader (yet)

Cheers all,

 

Funny it occurs to me that folks who won't go into craft bars or tap rooms due to thinking we are pretentious or snobs are the ones guilty of prejudice that, at least around here, is completely unwarranted. Nothing almost all the folks I know and meet in this area wouldn't do to welcome new folks into the fold.

I think the image many folks have of us as snobs is the real snobbishness. Just a few steps away from how years ago they used to think of us as those crazy folks drinking that dark imported expensive beer, instead of the real beer they drank.

Now they want to join in, and they still label us unfairly, it seems, only now we are the snobs in their minds, ironically.

 

You were turned off by the CCB website or stuff you read on this site? CCB, Cycle, and Rapp are all worth a visit. Cycle and Rapp are probably closer to Clearwater.

 

Seriously. Just got sit your ass down at Angry Chair and drink The Awakening until it kicks. Then drink the rye pale while you wait for them to change out the keg.

 

whats wrong with CCB? Things are getting a little snobby in here

 

Living in Asheville, NC I would expect to see plenty of beer snobbery but honestly genuine "I'm better than you because I drink better beer" behavior is really quite rare. Oftentimes I think bad/snobbish attitudes associated with craft have nothing to do with beer itself but simply income demographics. I can expect a bar/brewery/bottle shop in a yuppie part of town to carry a snobbier attitude because well its full of yuppies, not because its full of craft beer.

Heck I've met and sometimes work alongside many of the brewers here and I've yet to meet a single one I would consider a beer snob. All really nice humble folks willing to drink most anything despite dedicating their lives to craft.

Honestly I find more BMC consumers displaying snobby attitudes. "Oh I won't drink that fancy beer" "I only drink Bud Light" etc. I've even had people refuse to meet up at a craft beer bar because they didn't carry their favorite BMC offering. I've yet to encounter anything quite like that from the craft beer "snobs".

 

Perhaps the BMC folks like to hang out at a bar for 12 hours, as I do, and drink the entire time. 12 hours of craft beer is possibly a significant increase in the cost for 12 hours of Budweiser. Also, who can drink Backwoods Bastard for 12 hours straight?

Long ago, I often would order "Budweiser" as my first beer at any bar, just so I could sit and figure out what else was available. Back in the 80s, you could pretty much enter any bar in America, say "Bud" and be drinking in 20 seconds. I didn't like the auctioning off of something decent: Do you have XYZ -no, How about ABC, no. If I had a Bud, I could be drinking and in the 5 minutes it took me to drink it, I could peruse the tap handles/bottle cooler/and beer list without hogging up a bartender, as I know there are others who need help.

Alas, in the late 90s, I ran into a bar where my theory broke down, the Map Room in Chicago. I ordered a Bud and the bartender suggested Pilsner Urquel. He went on to say "It's the same thing, you'll like it." A. I know what it was. B. It's not the same thing. and C. Why would I pay an import price for something that's the "same" as the cheap starter beer I ordered? He meant well, but I do feel people are judged from both sides of the issue.

/rant

 

To me, a "beer snob" is merely someone who has a lot of knowledge as it pertains to beer, but not a lot of knowledge as it pertains to tact.

 

I do tastings and seminars and I am very conscious about my approach. My job is to appeal to the wider crowd. I always start off saying "I can almost guarantee we're going to try something today you won't like..." It's all about the experience. I'm in the liquor business and it's one thing I've always hated about the wine clique. They can be very pretentious and actually scare people away from the experience. Some beer geeks are creating that same vibe. I've been to tastings and their is always someone saying "Oh Budweiser is crap, a pig wouldn't drink that stuff...", Oh really, I guess their selling those million of gallons/litres to ghosts. It may not be your thing but it doesn't mean it's garbage. I'm not usually a big pilsner macro lager fan but one of the best beer experiences I ever had was pulling a Molson Canadian right off the bottling line and having it with lunch. I think everyone would be better off if when people talked about beer it leaned more to experience of trying different things and not try and wow everyone with your knowledge of how it's made, etc... Most people don't care.

 

I have a friend from Tampa and he called himself a Tamponian. Love the term now!

But I agree with you. I was at a pub this past weekend and there was a guy with a couple of his buddies, whom I can tell were snobs. And there was a guy that walked into the pub by himself and didn't know what he wanted. The snobs were already cracking jokes and calling him a "noob," and what not. I ended up calling the guy over and had him sit with my friends and I and I bought him a Lost Abbey Serpent Stout. It felt good in helping a stranger become a friend and enthusiast.

 

Couldn't agree more - one of the best beer experiences I had (almost 20 years ago now) was touring the Heineken 'factory' (pretty sure they had stopped brewing there almost a decade earlier) and having a few fresh beers in Amsterdam. Sure, the beer isn't actually brewed right there and it is a huge tourist attraction - but none of that means it wasn't fun, and I still had a great time with my buddies.

 

I don't like snobs in general...I used to be on a Progressive Rock forum that was loaded with these condescending fucks, ...that's one of the things I like the most about this forum...99% cool

 

"buy someone a beer" hahaha love it, nice post !

 

Your'e kidding, right? If you want to drink, go drink. So now, someone getting into craft beer needs to rehearse at home before they can go out into the big bad cruel world of beer bars?

I agree with one thing you said. "Don't be afraid to try new shit." And if you're not afraid to try new shit, then why worry about practicing before you can go drink on a real stage?

 

I first realized how snobs had invaded the genre after meeting some beer distrocraft reps. First, they look down their noses at everyone outside their clique because obviously nobody else could ever know as much as the exalted douche fucks. Second, admit that you enjoy something that is not brand spanking new and suddenly you just don't get it. Casually admitted that I really liked Siberian Nights and was ridiculed for liking a beer that had been out for a while"Ha! That's not even new!"

What's funny is that all their snobbery served to fully discredit them as functional adults. Fuck hipster snob douches.

 

I have to relate a story on this subject. I usually don't say anything, if someone likes bud light...go for it. But once I was a beer snob but just couldn't help myself. I went to my local Wawa gas station and they only carry macro (bud, miller, coors, etc.). As I was walking back to my car two guys pulled up in a car near mine and apparently they were out of town and not familiar with Wawa. They asked if they sold beer there. I just couldn't help myself. I shrugged my shoulders and said "Eh...they sell crap beer". I got the deer and the headlights look. Clearly they had no clue there was anything else but crap beer. I followed up and said "you know....they have bud, miller, and that type of nasty stuff" and then suggested a nearby place for them to find some real beer.

 

I think they are somebody who thinks they have a lot of knowledge, but actually don't. Witness the nitwits in @gopens44 post at #117.

The second part is pretty accurate, though .

 

I avoid these sort of people at all costs, and only offer education if there is an inquiry. I think the snobbiest thing I've done is stop someone in line at the liquor store that was holding a 6 pack of blue moon and ask if they'd ever considered trying Odell Easy Street.

Aside from that there are a lot of things about the craft beer community that are annoying, like any other community. But you just choose not to surround yourself with those people and it remains a pleasant venture.

P.S. avoid people that maintain that they only drink sour and barrel aged beers...I've found that to be helpful.