Craft Beer Misnomers

In the early 2000s, I was making a presentation to a national chain with a local headquarters. I was presenting Franziskaner, Duvel (illegal at the time!), Aventinus, Schneider-Weiss, Reissdorf Koelsch, Blue Bird Bitter, and many others. After my spiel, with the samples ready for him to see and take home, he balked on price. "How can I sell these "froo-froo" beers to my customers? They are more expensive than any American beer." I knew there was no hope and this chain has been trying to catch up ever since. Incompetence is not abnormal, and maybe my sales skills were not what they should have been that day, but vindication still doesn't make me feel any better about how they are still "missing the boat". "Froo-froo" pissed me off.

 

I was at a beer store with a really good selection with my brother and asked him what he felt like getting. After looking at the selection, he said..."I only like good 'ol American beer, like Yuengling or PBR."

For some reason, this sentiment ticks me off. I don't care if people call good beer fancy, expensive, sissy, whatever. But please realize almost all of these good beers are actually brewed in the good ole US of A.

Do most folks who say such things not realize that, or are they trying to be funny? I didn't ask my brother to explain himself (after 40+ years of knowing him, I didn't feel the need).

 

What exactly is a douche bag? Snicker heard off camera. Cheers.

 

Fancy or snob beer is what I heard in the past, now it's just expensive.

 

I feel like there is a subset I people who think if it's not a macro then it's an import. I've never thought anyone who said this was trying to be funny they were just not knowledgable.

 

I've heard literally all of these, except "froo-froo," though my dad has called them fruity, so I guess it's the same thing. The most recent time I saw him, he said I only drink "imported beer," this too, bothers me.

One apparent difference between me and everyone else is a vast majority of friends and acquaintances who've tried IPA's and sours, liked one or the other or both, and one friend is now crazy for stouts. So amongst friends and acquaintances I mostly just get the good 'ol "craft beer" or "expensive beer," but I also get from the girls' "which one's are sours?" or "which one's are IPA's?" It's nice to make a difference in someone's life. All these people the first time they'd seen me drink one of these beers looked at me like I was crazy.

I've also been called a hipster for drinking craft beer.

 

I'm sorry to be naïve.
I'm a budding beer geek.
Can someone please tell me, what is AAL?
Thank you!

 

That sounds like my neck of the woods as well! No way you can comeback on that one, but I probably would have said "I got a better idea, how about you go dig a hole, and I'll get myself another beer! " That one actually might either make him laugh or get you punched out depending on whether he saw the movie and remembers the line or not.

 

Not bothering to read all 4 pages, so sorry if this sounds similar to another post.

About 2 weekends ago I volunteered to pour beer for a local festival. I've never done anything like that before, so I wasn't very confident. Turns out, I actually had a great time and turned on a lot of new people to craft. We only had craft at our beer tent (and PBR was the only non-craft thing offered at another tent anyway) so when people came up to me saying, "I just want a beer..." or "Do you have anything yellow?" or "I don't understand this craft stuff, what would a 'normal' beer drinker like?" I generally suggested New Belgium's Snapshot, as that was the yellowest/mildest of the bunch (everything else was more niche Michigan stuff), and sometimes Flat Tire, depending on the dialog. Now New Belgium is a larger brewery and personally I don't think their stuff is amazing or anything, but it's way better than BMC and I'm glad some people who would have otherwise never branched out tried it and liked it. I hope they try other new things now.

 

I was about to start all over the beaten-dead conversation about 'connoisseur', then I kept reading... man, I'm glad when I actually do that! Nevertheless, I do want to say:

That instead of "no, not like Blue Moon" I'd probably say something like "In the direction of Blue Moon, but a bit further off the beaten path"

Also, I also really like the "let me buy the first round" suggestion, at once it gives you the chance to be generous without 'who buys the first round' being a pissing contest, and it also solves the problem of ordering what you want without making an issue of it.

There's a BMC-oriented bar near me, they do have a few craft options, like DFH and Victory standards, but they skew toward the BMC end...

I cannot tell you how much my blood boiled when I saw "Domestic $4 - Import $5 - Craft $6 - Craft Import $7" on their board... 'Import' included Corona, 'Craft' included Victory, and 'Craft Import' included Blue Moon... It's not like I was going to buy a Blue Moon and felt cheated out of $2, mind you, I just felt offended on behalf of both craft and import beers...

 

Do what I did to my dad...Give him a taste of the biggest gnarliest thickass stout or a DIPA that'll strip enamel off teeth. When he cringes you say, "Yeah, most guys can't handle it. It's an acquired taste. Do you need a neat rye whiskey chaser?"

 

This only works if you can drink neat rye whiskey without a chaser. Personally, I enjoy doing just that, but if you can't you're just being an ass

 

American Adjunct Lager. Think Bud, Miller, Coors, etc. Basically beers that use adjunct cereal grains like rice and corn (per the BA definition.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/38/

 

When I was a bar tender a lot of people would come in and order a "domestic". Took a lot of explaining that domestic doesn't really mean what they think it means.

 

Not a problem for me. I'm a man who knows how to drink and I wouldn't challenge if not up for the task. My pops will drink scotch, bourbon, tequila, and gin...but he cannot stand anything straight. Well, except for his beloved Natty Light, lol!

 

No matter how long it takes, I will commit this to memory.

 

I assumed as much, but if this wasn't the case.... dammit now I want some whisky

 

tl;dr

 

I appreciate the info!
I will read right now.

Happy Beer Hunting!

 

My favorite craft beer misnomer is that all craft beer is good just because it's not BMC.