Can drinking craft beer be considered a hobby?

I didn't notice this thread before posting thoughts along these lines in the thread about the importance of beer (which I assume inspired this one). Might as well copy it here since it's more directly on topic.

"As to the larger question of "beer as hobby" there have been some good points raised but I think overall we're more critical of the descriptor than necessary. "Drinking beer" is indeed not much of a hobby, though nor is 'going to the movies'. But once you combine those things with an interest in their history and production, an eagerness to travel to specific places to experience new or hard to find examples, attendance of festivals and conventions, and a willlingness to blather online with others about the minutia of it all then I think both are reasonably within hobby territory.'

 

Start homebrewing. That's a hobby.

 

I didn't vote. To me, it's a hobby as long as it's fun. When it stops being fun, it turns into something else.

 

We've all had that beer that was a job to finish.

 

A hobby? Possibly, but I’d think collecting would be a hobby, drinking them an activity. Different.

 

I drank all my supply far too often. So I had to lay low for awhile. 3 people to drink 20 gallons of beer in a timely fashion wasn't that hard actually.

Doing 20 bottle trades was fun for awhile. But then I realized I needed to drink down the supply as well. The freshness bug got a hold of me. I was having 3-4 beers a night. That didn't seem healthy.

Seeing what people were hauling at places like HV, HF, and TH back east was eye opening. I do hope they were sharing 90% of it. Does all this beer actually get consumed?

I'm down to weekend drinking, down 15 lbs, up on the bank account, and not really chasing any releases. Feels good.

I still come here. I still read brewery Twitter and fb pages.

Hypothetical question. Can one be a memorabilia hobbyist or car enthusiast without actually owning said items. Is talking about it enough? Anymore I like talking about the beer culture aspects. But I don't have to drink everyday or try every release to believe I'm still in the know.

Road tripping to breweries is fun but it's not healthy IMHO. Hitting up 6-7 breweries in an afternoon is fun. But it's basically a drunken scavenger hunt. It's fun looking back, but really, the only ones who had fun are the ones that barely remember.

I think there's a healthy level of brewery visits and feeling but it basically stops at that first place and with 1-2 four packs to go. Beyond that, youre an alcoholic

 

I drink 1 or 2 a week.Tops. still an advocate. Cheers.

 

Drinking craft beer is recreational, collecting beer cans is a hobby.

 

"HOBBY - an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
synonyms: pastime, leisure activity, leisure pursuit, leisure interest, amateur interest, sideline, diversion, avocation, divertissement, enthusiasm;
recreation, relaxation, entertainment, amusement;
informalthing"

I feel like drinking craft beer exclusively falls under the category of hobby, whereas simply drinking any beer in general is recreational. Ergo, hobbies are recreation, otherwise why do them if they fall under tedium.

 

I'm not sure that drinking it is but traveling to breweries, beer citys and learning about the different styles is a hobby for me.

 

I need to be quicker on the draw. I echo this sentiment. I keep crowlers from places, which I guess is collecting therefore a hobby. Emptying them was an enjoyable activity.

 

Drinking beer craft or not is not a hobby. Spending ones free time hunting for or setting up trades for hard to get beers is a hobby , Collecting bottles you will never drink is also a hobby.

 

I’ve got a ton of Growlers and Such, from HF to Kane wherever. I don’t intentionally collect them, they’re just too nice to chuck.

 

I haven't read through all the responses, but just wanted to share my thoughts. The act of "drinking" craft beer is not a hobby. An "overall interest" in craft beer is a hobby. In my estimation it entails much more than just drinking. It requires knowledge gathering, search for gems, ranking, classification, building relationships etc...

 

My wife and I do the same thing, and I try to write a BA review on every brewery visit. We have taken many weekend trips and many week-long trips, a 21-day European and a 27-day pub crawl during our travels. Beer is a main focus of these trips, but family visits and touristy things are also in the scheduled itinerary of the longer trips. The experience of learning a beer's characteristics during the evaluation process and then the write-up of the review is really the hobby, but the beer drinking necessarily has to be a part of it.

 

To me craft beer is a hobby. Even though I prefer high-ABV BA Stouts, I usually only have one a night, four or five nights a week. I'm as much into hunting for new favorites and hoarding current favorites as I am drinking them. I'm also into posting in WBAYDN, NBS, and Beer Haul. I've made it a point to learn as much as I can and have tried all 111 styles. I have a blast trading because I spend a lot of time researching and getting beers for my trade partners that I think they'll love and can't otherwise get. Sometimes when I'm beer shopping, staff in the store refer questions from customers to me - and I enjoy sharing my opinions! So - all of that is the hobby, not the drinking.

 

So your asking BA if we think beer can be a hobby.

Kind of like politicians choosing their voters, right? So here's the answer you will get here: "yes".

But I think real question is is does your partner come before your hobbies. So ask yourself, which one matters more.

 

This. Learn from this guy.

 

The question of whether drinking craft beer can be part of a hobby is even a question due to the way we look at drinking. I'd say specifically that this is more of a US problem as most other countries have a much more healthy outlook on drinking. There is a bit of a social stigma around drinking often, whether the amount is high or not if you drink a beer or two most days a week some people will consider you an alcoholic. Some might even consider drinking every week a problem. Now the flip side is that probably most of us struggle with determining what is a healthy balance.

Drinking craft beer without an interest in learning more about the process, the history, styles, etc. is probably not a hobby. I eat cheese a lot but its not a hobby, I'm not reading about the history of cheese or traveling around to places which make a lot of cheese. I probably eat too much cheese but no one seems to be complaining and I'm not claiming its a hobby. You can't claim something is a hobby just to justify why you do something a lot.

Being interested in craft beer and drinking too much craft beer aren't mutually exclusive but you can have one without the other. People are addicted to other hobbies but obviously most hobbies aren't both physically and mentally addictive. We all know people who are an alcoholic. We probably don't know a lot of people addicted to other "hobbies" or at least they aren't as apparent. Lots of activities that people engage in too much aren't even considered an addiction or the belief of that addiction is controversial (video game addiction for instance).

Bottom line as mentioned before is balance. The thing is though if your significant other is asking you to drink less then its probably a good idea to drink less or at least take a good look at your behavior. Are they asking you to drink less because society says drinking x number of beers x times a week makes you an alcoholic or is it because you are missing out on other things because drinking is taking over your life? That's really only a question any of us can answer ourselves. As long as you are open and honest with your significant other and with yourself its all good.