Button it, beer snobs

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Bulk beer and sneers

Kristy

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:45:29 +0000

Couldn't agree more! Suggesting that a beer is bad just because of its size or brewer only serves to perpetuate the myth that beer is the sole preserve of bearded, sandal wearers and will only drive more drinkers into the wine category.

Beer is one of life's simple pleasures whatever your favourite style and as an industry we should be doing more to encourage people to try beer, all beers!!

MikeMcG

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:05:53 +0000

I totally agree that beer snobs are guilty of turning people off from good beer - snobs of any nature are not pleasant company.

That said, imagine a world in which wine makers, drinkers & commentators only praised both the best of Bordeaux & the New World's finest and the worst of the volume end of the industry.

I can't see a Gilly Goolden-type wine critic saying "Oh this Blue Nun may not do it for me, but some of you out there with shallow pockets & poor tastebuds may go mad for it . . ."

I think it's simplistic to say that there are only 2 ways to appreciate beer - to be totally accepting of all beers regardless of quality, or to be a beer snob.

The sensible & proactive choice to me is to be an advocate for good beer. I'm not so daft to think that large breweries per se cannot make good beer. Often their QC, consistency, etc leave smaller brewers far behind, but they also seem rarely to make distinctive genuinely interesting beers, while in the US & Belgium (& to a lesser extent Germany) it seems for some breweries, size is no barrier to making some truly fantastic beers.

I probably agree that ideally smaller craft-brewers should stick to explaining why their beers are excellent, rather than bashing bigger brewers' beers, but against a world of massive marketing budgets (where everyone's beers use "the finest malts & hops"!) I guess the critical shock-tactics of some micros seems to make sense.

BREWERS' GUARDIAN

Button it, beer snobs

Kristy

MikeMcG