Craft Beer's Post-Snob Era is Here

I read it. I thought it was kind of stupid. I posted this elsewhere but it fits.

So many people who have pet likes look down on others who don't have the same level of enthusiasm. This could be beer, or wine, or sports cars, ski boats, grass fed butter, organic produce, or any number of things. Don't assume that because something is overly important to you that it SHOULD be to someone else. Just relax and be a good person. Sheesh.

Snob has a negative connotation, but I don't really view it like that. Without a discerning eye, so much of art is utterly meaningless.

Totally bogus. Craft beer is exploring the extremes of the styles, and people like to try new things. That doesn't mean your tastebuds are numb. What about people who drink black coffee, or down apple cider vinegar every day? I've heard of people that suck on lemons.

 

Or, they were just into the trendy new thing. But you're spot on here

 

And now we can add the new Sixpoint Helles to that list!

Well, it is certainly possible for me! I can sit out on my back deck with friends on a warm spring day and enjoy drinking a fine Kolsch (e.g., a Sierra Nevada Kolsch, my homebrewed Kolsch).

Needless to say but you are a very knowledgeable and experienced craft beer industry person. You do not need to hear this from me but to produce a 'winning' beer in today's market requires a combination of 'skills':

· The ability to discern sustainable market demand

· The ability to properly market product to a given beer market(s)

· The ability to distribute and maintain fresh product throughout the supply chain

· Etc.

You obviously could add many more items to that list.

My personal philosophy is that enjoying beer is not an either/or proposition. A brewery like Night Shift can successfully serve the hop-head portion of the craft beer market with awesome beers like Night Shift One Hop This Time – Citra (I loved that beer). I have not had the opportunity to drink the Night Shift Pilsner but I suspect that I would have enjoyed drinking that beer (but not too happy about the price). Hopefully they will be successful serving the Light Lager market.

I wish folks like you, Terence, Shane, Rob, etc. all the best. Charting the craft beer waters today is a challenging thing to do! As you already know using the BA crowd as the measure of the craft beer market is not the way to approach things. We BAs generate a lot of ‘noise’ but we are a very small portion of the beer market.

Cheers!

@Sixpoint @SierraTerence @masterob8

 

Of course I'm exaggerating. But in hyperbole there is occasionally truth. There are plenty of great bars with bad beer, and there are also plenty of bad bars with great beer. If given the choice, I'll opt for a great bar first.
My point being, to me the experience comes first, the beer adds to that.

 

^^^ This.

If I end up at a party with nothing but Light AAL as my beer option, I will, very probably, drink something other than beer. That said, if it's the only option for alcohol, I'm probably going to drink it.

 

Agreed. I'd rather go to a great bar with an OK tap list than to an OK bar with a world class tap list. As you said, it should be more about the overall experience than JUST the beer. I think a lot of new(er) craft beer drinkers are missing that point and by a wide margin.

 

Can't I just enjoy my pilsners, vienna lagers and helles beers as much as my IPAs, porters and stouts?

 

I guess you have to admit to that every so often craving for Miller Lite to quench that thirst for "something that tasted like you remembered."

Wha? I drank a lot of dreck in the late 70s and early 80s that I don't want to remember. It's not gonna make me burst into a liquor store and pick up a 30 pack of Bud Light 'cause I'm feeling nostalgic. I started looking for better beer for flavor and enjoyment, not as a status symbol.

That said, I can certainly "understand the nuances of a mellow brew," I can still appreciate that along with the bigger-flavored beers, but the stuff I left behind was far from "nuanced" or "mellow." It was bland. Period. A good Helles is nuanced, elegant -- and still stepping way up from what this article is trying to push.

My long-time motto has been "Life is too short to drink bad beer." Sure, it's subjective, but I can argue a lot longer about the flavors in an HB Original being better than a Miller High Life than most barflys or beer snobs can.

 

Absolutely.

Agreed 100%

 

This is worth a view

 

I love that she used that term - how many times is she going to hear "Well, aren't ALL of your beers "refreshing"?"

(And, in the case of Yuengling's portfolio, not a lot of high abv, heavy bodied sippin' beverages there to begin with).

Maybe it means the misused "session" term is dead - or just never made it to Pottsville?

 

A classic!

The line “It’s a very Light Lager served in a urine sample cup” for some reason ‘rang a bell’.

Cheers!

 

If I trust the conversations I hear at bars, and from some people I know, coupled with people shitting on breweries for not bringing the most exteme rarest to festivals and shitting on people who bring something in distro to a bottle share ...there are waay more snobs that people want to admit.

I always likened the journey many have with craft to the experience many have with spicy food. Newbie right into only the spiciest food will do, making fun of anyone who can't handle that level of heat. Then they round out some and come back to a sensible level where they enjoy the heat but also want it to enhance the food it's in.

 

The article is dumb and too long. I drink beer I like based on what I’m in the mood for, and it changes. I don’t like too much of the same stuff but I also like to stick with stuff I like.

 

I think you have, perhaps, perfectly articulated what's wrong with "beer snobs."

The perception that beers that are not absolute flavor bombs are "unseasoned chicken breasts" or "plain white rice" or "water, no lemon,"

But a perfectly roasted chicken is one of the greatest things there is in life. It's not Nashville Hot Chicken, though. Anyone who's had great sushi knows that, sweet and warm (plain white) sushi rice makes for amazing, but far subtler, experiences than some monstrous roll with three sauces and five fishes.

They both have their place, but at some point for many drinkers a different set of values (restraint, subtlety, etc.) emerge other than maximum intensity of flavor.

...

but that doesn't mean this article isn't another lazy example of: "whatever I, the writer, am experiencing, is clearly a popular movement, and look, I've hand-selected a few examples and people that reinforce my bias!"

 

From Bud Light to New England IPA to Nite Lite?

And the Circle of Life is complete...well done Simba.

 

You mean Juicy or Hazy IPA, right?

Cheers!

 

I don't see it this way at all. I see bland, tasteless food (such as I described) as the equivalent of the flavorless fizzy AAL / Light Lager in the beer world. I also don't consider those with refined palates to be snobs simply for exercising their prerogative to drink good beer. Quite the reverse, in fact. The tone I got from the linked articles was that of pompous, arrogant jerks looking down their noses at those who haven't yet been enlightened as they have been. They are the real snobs in my view. My comment about the chicken, rice, and water was, of course, a joke, meant to imply that I wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of those poor, misguided anti-foodies by eating anything flavorful..

You don't have to regress to AAL's to get restraint and subtlety.

I think it's time for a beer. I think I have a Curmudgeon around here someplace. Where's my damn thistle?

 

Can people just drink the beer they enjoy and not make a thing about it?

Drink Bud Light, drink Tree House, drink Yuengling, drink Gatorade! I don't care what you do.

Instead of writing an article or arguing with other people, just enjoy what is in front of you. I hate labelling things and making mountains out of mole hills. Just drink what you like and forget everything and everyone else.

 

The wonderful thing is that BOTH of you can be snobs, on opposite ends of the spectrum, at the same time. We contain multitudes, after all.