Is Craft Beer Cringe Right Now?

Wait, I thought we were supposed to proselytize and convert. Have I been doing this wrong? I also always wear a white shirt and black necktie while consuming beer.

 

No coattails? No monocle? Pshaw! I doubt you can even appreciate the difference between a Citra and ekuanot DDH NEIPA and a Nelson and Moteuka TDH NEDIPA!

 

I was going more for this image.
Source

 

~~~ As Tower of Power once sang, " What is Hip? Tell me. Tell me, do you think you know?"

 

Well, for one thing don't wear a tie.

For other helpful hints:



Cheers!

 

No argument from me on that. But I wasn’t talking about who gets credit from nerds, I’m talking about representation within a community. African-decent people weren’t represented (or even welcomed) into the early rock n roll community despite the contributions to its origins.

It seemed like you thought the author was being unfair for going after European-decent folks' over-representation in craft beer because beer had significant evolutionary moments in Europe. If that's why white folks are over-represented in craft beer, then it stands to your reasoning that African-decent folks ought to be over represented in rock n' roll (as rock n' roll had significant evolutionary moments in the African-American community). But, as we both know, African-decent people were not over-represented in early rock n' roll. This suggests to me that there are other factors at play.

Ultimately, and back to the article more specifically, I think the issue the author is trying to get at is that the lack of awareness by so many white craft beer enthusiasts is off-putting (or cringey, if you will). You see it up and down this thread. "Who cares who brews it, who cares what people drink, who cares xyz, so long as it tastes good, so long as I'm happy, etc.." There is so little recognition of how privileged folks are to have the time and resources to search out, buy, and wank off to beer.

Gen-Z seems to understand positionality in a way that previous generations do not. To many Gen-Z folks you can't sit around analyzing beer unless you have first recognized various social and political injustices. Is it fair to assume no white person has ever recognized various social and political injustices nor worked to combat them? Of course not. Is it safe to assume that most white people have neither recognized injustices nor worked to fight them? I think so.

Of course, while I'm hopeful that Gen Z will continue to focus social, economic, and environmental injustices, the pessimist in me says, as they age, they may not. America is extraordinarily good at turning cool young folks into old assholes.

Anyways, lots to unpack here and I'm confident I'm not wording things as well as I'd like, but you seem like a generally level-headed and sharp person, so I think you get what I'm saying.

 

Go to Hafner's in Moline, IL. & someone like this guy would be glad to pour you a pint. Bartenders there have worn white shirts, a tie, and a white apron for years.

 

Jeez - This thread seems to have a lot of posts from easily triggered people. The personal attacks on the author are over the top. She's a professional writer on beer (I'm not pointing this out to add credibility... I'm pointing it out because this aspect seems lost on some people). Some people also seem to have a hard time differentiating between the author and people she is quoting. If some here are trying to get others to double down on their negative impressions, then this thread is probably doing a pretty good job of making that happen.

 

Will he try to hand me a religious leaflet? If not, I’m not interested. He’s just a bartender.

 

If it meant a sale, I'm sure he'd give you a leaflet of some kind.

 

Ice machine went down yesterday. Sorry. No. I haven't put the pretzels out yet. Hang on.

 

They were systematically excluded from the most profitable and mainstream visible segment of early rock and roll, as was the social convention at that time. But by the numbers I have no doubt that there were far more black rock n roll artists than white. You're pointing to an example of the dominant culture appropriating a cultural artifact and then excluding the culture that created it. That's a shitty thing, and part of a pattern of shitty behavior in that vein at that time. But it's not the story of beer in America.

I guess that's where I disagree with the author, and probably you. People generally turn to things like beer as a space to relax and focus on something low stakes. I don't think it's a reasonable demand to say that people can't enjoy their hobbies without being "cringe" unless they incorporate some sort of deep socio political analysis of the hobby. If that's an aspect you enjoy then by all means, go for it. But insulting anyone who doesn't engage it that way is just silly and all it accomplishes is terminating any conversation with the people you're choosing to attack.

They're welcome to think that, but why? What do american racial dynamics and history have to do with how I experience Orval or Ayinger beers? How do those dynamics play into my experience of a sierra nevada beer?

To me, beer could be an interesting side bar in a conversation about the historical social injustices and their continued presence/impact, but those topics are at best a footnote in the history of beer in America.

I can understand why people would object to things like people insisting that any effort to increase diversity in the beer industry is stupid or whatever, but that's not who the author called out. I live in a county that is something like 95% white (and most of the other 5% is native), is it more cringe for me to not really think much about the fact that most local breweries are owned by white guys (although two are woman owned, two are tribal owned, and one of the longest tenured and most celebrated brewmasters is hispanic) or for me to insist on bemoaning the lack of non white representation in local brewery ownership?

I hope so and I think so. I disagree with what I understand you to be saying but I'm also familiar with the cultural context that provides the lense for these views.

To me, there's plenty of cringe worthy stuff about the beer scene (adults acting like cicerones analyzing a beer made with literal cookies or so much fruit puree that it is accurately called a smoothie anyone?) but the predominance of white people in the industry and the fact that it isn't discussed in every beer related setting isn't high on that list. And when you choose to phrase it the way the author did, all I see is divisiveness and pandering. If you want a more inclusive space then make one, don't tell "straight white guys" that their cringe for not making sure there's more black or queer people owning and making the beer they buy.

 

I know 2/3 of those well enough to use them and piss off my kids
The other one I understand but wouldn't think to use

 

No such thing as cultural appropriation as no on lives in a vacuum. If anything, Rock and Roll is an American cultural invention organically created. No one culture invented the equipment needed to play Rock and Roll.

 

If Elvis et al. gave proper credit to black pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll and made sure they were fairly compensated for the musical genre they created, then you are right. But if these white artists took this music and then pretended that they invented it and enabled studios and labels to largely shut black artists out of the market, then appropriation is real. It’s about being recognized (monetarily and otherwise) for your contributions.

 

This is exactly what I was driving at earlier saying you need to talk with people who disagree with you. And also listen to them.

You can’t tell them what to think or feel. That’s automatically going to shut down a productive conversation and illicit a visceral reaction.

“You’re a cringeworthy person.”

“Oh, I am? I didn’t even notice, thank you for pointing this out. I’m going to put my beer down and work on that.”

 

I dunno, you might want to spend some time with a dictionary. Monetizing a musical genre while systematically excluding members of a culture that was largely responsible for its creation is a behavior that's pretty perfectly described as "appropriation".

 

This is especially true for the kind of disagreement the author has with the broad class of people she identifies. It's one thing to call out explicitly bad behavior (I mean, the litany of blatant seismic detailed by the ratmagnet stories seems like a glaring omission of cringe behavior in the beer world), but when you're just expressing dissatisfaction with people's life philosophy it's probably a good idea to keep the conversation open

 

My point was, I'm here for the beer. As far as my take on inclusion, I think I made my feelings clear in my comment. It's only a big deal because some people make it one.

 

I don’t buy it. The culture that you claim came up with the genre using language and instruments created by a different culture? Wouldn’t that make the genre appropriated to begin with?