Have You Uncritically Embraced Craft Beer?

You know, I think a lot of people give such kudos to craft beer for two reasons. 1) It’s much better than what people had been drinking before more assertive and flavorful beers came on the scene. 2) Even though craft beer is becoming more popular, it’s under continual threat from the macro folks out there. I can understand why smaller brewers trying to establish themselves are concerned about all these rankings. But encouraging bloggers to give 5 star reviews just because it’s craft beer?

One thing the author didn’t mention is hype. I haven’t had a number of the whales/trophy beers yet, but I really wonder if they’re as good as all the superlative ratings. Same goes for a whole list of beers that pop up regularly on sites like BA.

 

Well since I'm not a beer writer/blogger it misses me entirely.

At a personal level my reviews are written for my own benefit in keeping sorted out the the sensory experience I think I am having while drinking and to promote my memory for a beer 6 mos or a year later. I post them on here because someone might actually look at them and it helps me to remain honest with myself knowing that someone else might actually read them.

As for posting in threads I'm a bit of a selfish person. I figure if I say something dumb others might just take the time to correct me and help me learn something from my mistakes.

So no promotion of beer or breweries, no evangelism on behalf of anyone or anything, just trying to sort out what I like and why.

 

Is a "beer blogger" trying to curry favor with the industry or trying to provide independent reviews? Click bait or thoughtful analysis? It's pretty clear within a few seconds which is which and which one I will actually read.

Problem is, so many shallow blogs are out there that I have given up on the whole enterprise.

 

This was actually a pretty good article. The author loses his way a few times, but for the most part the message is strong. I definitely agree about the IIPA vs. lager issue as I've espoused many times on this website.

It is difficult to separate oneself from the hype behind and effort to acquire certain beers, but in order for our reviews to have meaning and be quality, we should strive to do just that.

 

I keep to a pretty simple standard in my ratings and occasional rantings. I don't like hops. I'll chug a 70 IBU Russian imperial stout all day long and be more than happy to discuss whether it has nuances of black cherry or plum and earth versus loam or clay therein, but the Boulevard 80 Acre tastes like slightly wheaty perfume to me, and SNPA is on the verge of undrinkably hoppy. Hence, I don't review hop-forward beers. They're not my thing, and I don't want to go around lowering their scores because I personally don't like them. I don't need a record on a public site or app to tell me I don't like them.

I also don't penalize a good lager or kolsch for not tasting as bold as a batch of Old Rasputin or Yeti aged first in a bourbon barrel and then in a gin barrel while having chiles and civet cat coffee beans added in each barrel. That's not what those beers are trying to do. Heck, if I rate a barrel-aged anything, I generally rate it against other barrel-ageds, not its barrel-free version. I already know a barreled imperial is going to be big flavor, so I want to compare it to others in its weight class.

I will, on the other hand, give a lower score to something like a marzen that was made to be hop-forward, but branded as just another marzen. If a beer is meant to be experimental or deliberately contrary to style, I'd hope that would be indicated somewhere, as opposed to "Surprise!"

Other people insist their ratings are based on their personal tastes, or how much they enjoy a beer overall and style be damned. That's fine, they're your ratings. They would seem to do a disservice to people trying to learn and experience, though. I know I'd have been scared right out of craft beer as a newbie if I'd tried a DIPA right out of the gate because it was ostensibly the best beer in the world at the moment.

 

After reading a few comments decided not to read the article, and this you wrote is exactly my attitude about craft beer and reviewing beer, thanks for expressing it so well.

 

I don't really understand the article. I think opening a piece about beer-blogging with Tolstoy reviewing a Wagner opera is a bit lofty. I'm more Lord of the Rings than Ring of the Nibelungen, more Tolkien than Tolstoy, so I guess I'm just on an epic journey, and making notes along the way. Also a lofty comparison, I know.

 

Way too much text, going to drink a beer instead.

 

It's interesting that the man criticizing the quality of beer criticism does so in an a poorly paced, directionless article that comes off as an unfocused laundry list of personal pet peeves.

 

No, what's good and who is doing it right deserves praise and what's shit and who is doing it wrong should get called out.
Same as it always was.

 

Beer criticism is like advertising for microbreweries, but more honest since the writers stand nothing to gain from the beer's success. The big domestic companies spend millions on advertising because they're not going to get a great response from critics. The more good exposure small breweries get in blogs and what not, the more they can save on advertising and then reinvest that money into making more good beer. Beer criticism and the craft beer industry have a mutually beneficial relationship.

 

My thoughts were similar- on BA it seems there is a naysayer for everything, which is as it should be. Plus the forums have the added benefit of being an ongoing discussion if you'd like it to be.

 

Wagner, Tolstoy, craft beer give me a break.
As Mark Twain said about Wagner "his music is not as bad as it's sounds"
Craft beer is only as good as it tastes we don't need reviewers telling us what tastes good.

 

We have close to 3000 breweries in operation in America. If anything, it's high time to be even more critical of the breweries we do and do not support.
And why.

 

Some of the worst beers I've ever tasted have been craft beers but some of the best beers I've ever tasted have also been craft beers.

I think the main thing people need to work on is being able to tell the difference between beers that are well made and poorly made and beers that you like and dislike. I can love the taste of a beer that isn't perfect but I can also hate the taste of something that is. I feel like its an important distinction people should making when rating beers.

 

Wow I looked at that article, can't imagine reading it.

 

Huh? Run that one by me again.