How has discussion on BA changed over the years?

After seeing them mentioned on BA, I used the Wayback Machine to travel back to search ancient Beer Advocate history to look at posts referring to 'Edward 40 hands' and 'snulip glass'. I noticed a difference in overall tone. I think discussion on here now is more civil than back then. It was also interesting to see how fandom for some beers like BCBS has evolved. Also interesting is spotting BAs that were posting back then, and still around now.

 

I've only been a BA for 3 yrs but I have noticed an increase in, I think, in the Dry January Trail Of Tears that some people just love. Also the AB InBev comedy of errors has wind in its sails.

 

Among other changes, there was a lot more explicit racism and T&A-style sexism a decade ago. My guess is that intentional moderation has removed a lot of that, but maybe (hopefully!) it’s also a change in user perspectives and culture. Some of the transphobia that’s popped up in the last few weeks has reminded me of the “bad old days” of the site.

 

Oof. This is a tough one. I find that the scene, and, BA, have matured, but part of me misses the passion of the mid to late 00s.To me, those times were intense, in a way that would be unrecognizable now. The parallel I will draw, and arguably influenced by my being in the metal scene longer than the beer one, is to where one wouldn't pronounce judgement on an album until after multiple listens, after a week of listenin to said band's past discography, rather than sharing opinions based on lead singles ( and, according to my daughter's generation, tiktoks). Ergo, a beer like Hommage in 2007 reanimated old school BAs and got them hot and bothered in a way that nothing can today. And that's okay, because, at the end of the day, we're talking about beer and not world peace. But the fervor is missed.

And no, I disliked the clownish misogynists then, and I'm glad that died down significantly.

 

Started lurking on BA around 20 years ago - didn't sign up for several years. One thing that made me reluctant was a sense that I didn't know enough about beer to converse with this crowd. Saw someone say You wouldn't know an Ester if she crawled into bed with you! After getting to know this Ester, I became a BA. I don't see that kind of shit-talk anymore.

 

I still remember a thread when I first started lurking this site that was titled, "That New Style, Double IPA". I think OP captured all the other points I thought to make.

 

No more “versus” posts
-Pliny vs.
-Heady vs.
-Westy vs.

 

The two biggest differences I can recall are:

1. Beers with adjuncts of all sorts have gone from being disliked to mostly revered. Not just alternative grains, but fruit, spices, vegetables, or any oddball ingredients. There are some exceptions, but from 2000'ish until around 2010 there were a LOT of people that just wanted the standard 'ol malt, hops, water, and yeast and they were super vocal about it.

2. Macro discussions were almost 100% negative. It was pretty unusual for anyone to say anything positive about any of them. There was also a perception, real or not, that they were trying to full-on kill off the craft beer industry. You'd have places opening up one day and acting like Bud or Miller wanted to rob them...when they were the ones opening and trying to take market share. That's not to say that the big boys weren't assholes, but it's pretty easy to galvanize a community when they think you're being marginalized.

 

Yeah agree that beer snobbery/elitism has diminished substantially on this forum and out in craft bars/breweries in general as I suspect the craft beer “hobby” has drastically reduced as it’s become a lot more mainstream and specialty beers are more obtainable. I’m thinking a lot of the elitists/hobbiest /collectors may have moved on to bourbon or scotch.

 

I joined BA with the purpose of tracking my beers I wanted, and then for the local discussion of drops of cool stuff.

I don't do either anymore. Hell, we can't even keep a Central Iowa thread active on here anymore. Not sure what has happened, if the discussion moved to Twitter or Tiktok or if people don't care anymore.

 

Nicely done,and took a lot of effort on your part. TY

 

Its fun to go back in time , just did a search of Surly, 2012 lots of fun stuff to read Todd Haug was active on several forums as were dozen and dozens of people I remember, (avatar) that are no longer active (fun to read those also.)

 

I feel similarly.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

@bubseymour thank you for this

@unlikelyspiderperson was right. 2016 seems to be a pivotal year.

We still have stale beer on shelves, which isn’t a surprise considering we have more than DOUBLE 4000 breweries now.

And now it’s downright laughable that there wasn’t a widely distributed New England IPA. I went to pick up my mobile order coffee at Dunks this morning and got a Fiddlehead IPA instead. I would say they screwed up my order, but I wasn’t complaining.

 

S

SN hazy little thing is the most obvious. Although then we get into that discussion about what is our isn't a true neipa. And given the way the beer market has shifted i would say the more important thing is that if you go into any store that sells beer near you you will likely find many examples of ne/hazy ipas from local and regional producers