Is Craft Beer Cringe Right Now?

The only thing that is cringy to me is people who use the term “cringe.”

 

All enthusiast culture has some element of so called cringe. So that's not the issue for me.

The real issue imo is that craft beer has been in Groundhog Day mode for nearly a decade now. Hazy IPA/Pastry Stout/Fruited Kettle Sour. Rinse and repeat.

Drinking the same hazy IPA, but with a different name each release, just doesn't provide the same stimulation for me as all the newness and experimentation craft beer had in the Aughts.

 

I use untappd once a week. On Tuesday, when we walk and then hit up Tap 22 for $2 beers, I check their updated tap list. Otherwise, BA is the only social media site I use.

 

Same. I use BA for real feedback on a beer I'm either interested in trying or at a bottle shop trying to find something I hadn't heard of. I use Untappd to check a local venue to see what awesome beers they have on tap or to check in a beer and give myself a reminder later if it was good or bad.

 

Some influencers do make some serious money. But probably not your average influencer.

I can get far more styles today than I could in the aughts, particularly lagers.

 

Yup, got my click as well (unfortunately).

Is there a method to have my click to be un-clicked? I truly regret clicking on that article.

I also regret reading halfway through, I should have stopped after just a few paragraphs.

Cheers!

 

I think the whole idea is pretty fetch.

 

You win everything.

Speaking as someone who's in their 40's and has friends with teens and early 20-somethings now, yes.
Everything single thing we like is corny, cringe, wack, out of style, jive, lame... my personal feelings of how insufferable craft beer has become aside: Yes.

 

Are you sure this isn't just a reflection of the period of time when you were really exploring the new-to-you world of beer styles? Like @AlcahueteJ said, I have way wider style access today than I ever did in the aughts

 

More open to change? Craft beer these days is almost nothing but change. So many beers and breweries that made me love beer are gone because so many people don't buy stuff unless it's new.

 

The best thing about beer is the cringe factor, whatever it is, and whatever its personal impact to any beer drinker, can be completely and permanently eliminated by learning to brew your own non cringe beer exactly to your own liking, and hanging with the least cringe folks on planet, fellow home brewers. If only that were possible for my other hobbies that got ruined by their popularity drawing the Cringe Crowd onto scene..

BTW, Cringe Crowd is not copyrighted and is open for free use

 

People are so cringe that cringe cringed.

 

I still like using the term craft beer because a lot of people unfortunately still drink BMC big beers… I’d rather have wine, whisky, or water.

 

Just wait, fetch will catch on

 

I sense a bit of irony here, but... then you grab a shovel, and glibly go on. I like the defensive strategy put on while also aggressively shaming a beer industry job as something not real. Cool beans, that. Here on beer advocate. A site which has served ALL along as an influencer. Yet, you persist. Meanwhile. No beer nerd with a cicerone would ever shame a (well made) pilsner, or dark lager.
Cringey stuff.
I may, or may not see the kernel of the problem with just what some of the get off my lawn takes are try to pull off here. Getting into the real versus fake job is a genuinely fascinating nugget. Like a booger that got farmer hankied on to a bathroom wall. Takes a while to clean up.

 

That article lost me as soon as they pulled the race card with frequent derogatory reference to "bearded white guys" and admitted use of stereotyping some people in the craft beer community based on racial characteristics

 

I think we need BA tee shirts that say "Cringe...and proud of it"

 

Yeah, blaming white men is a bit odd. Maybe we should flip the argument and blame women for not standing up for themselves a few thousand years earlier then maybe there wouldn’t be the gender imbalance within modern beer industry.

 

I didn’t read it that way. The author certainly draws attention to the persistent and problematic white dude culture that exists in the beer industry. But they also write this,

“It’s obviously not cringe to take your job seriously if you make beer or work with it; it’s not cringe to enjoy craft beer, learn about it and help foster the community aspect of it, whether as a professional or an enthusiast. Breweries who make a balance of what brewers and consumers want to drink sans judgment or snark, and who are more invested in creating an engaging third place: not cringe. And brewery owners, brewers, beer educators, beer judges and beer influencers who are members of underrepresented communities, as well as those devoting time and energy to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, all in the name of leveling the playing field? They are the exact opposite of all that’s being roasted within the craft beer space. They are the reason to still be excited about craft beer.”

I’m confident that there are various white dudes who fall into the groups listed above.

 

Cracks me up to see all the complaints about hazies and pastry stouts ruining “craft” beer—then pop over to WBAYDN and what do we see? *




* OK, other styles are represented too, of course—but BAs have done a reasonably good job of supporting these styles over the last few years. There’s a reason breweries keep cranking them out.