I am a beer snob, plain and simple. I admit it because it's true and because I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I love beer. I love all kinds of beer styles, and I like to try new beers all the time. I make beer at home and I like to experiment. My friends make beer and I like to try what they make. I am working to open a brewpub in Amarillo, TX where we will make beer. The takeaway? I love beer of all sorts and I'm a beer snob because I turn my nose up at the swill that the AB InBevs and MillerCoorses of the world produce.
I also hate Untappd. Untappd is a website where people create a profile and keep a record of what beers they are drinking or have drunk, and share this with their friends, and earn "badges" for drinking certain quantities or styles or labels of beer. Basically it is social media for beer snobs. But I hate it, and here's why: it showcases the worst aspects of beer snobbery. Whereas I am a beer snob with an emphasis on "beer," a lot of people on Untappd are beer snobs with the emphasis on "snob."
Why do I say that? The goal on Untappd, and the goal outside of such websites for people who are of the same mind, is to be cooler than everyone else. So if you drink a beer as soon as it's available, you're cooler. If you drink beers no one else knows about or can get their hands on, you're cooler too. If you can wax poetic on the hop schedule of the important new IPA release from hole-in-the-wall cool-ass brewery X in California, you're super cool. Do you get my drift? The whole vibe with this thing is that we need to be outdrinking each other by finding the most esoteric or sought after beers in the industry and telling everyone that we drank them.
I'm going to get a lot of flack for this, and not just from the Untappd devotees. I've already been accused of being a narrow-minded beer drinker. Admittedly I have a limited range of beers I truly enjoy, and a very limited variety of commercial beers I will regularly buy. If I tried to keep up with the level of beer snobbery currently running amok within the Craft Beer Scene, I'd have taken a second mortgage on my house just to cover the cost. Have you seen how much a limited edition Dogfish Head beer can be? And I used to scoff at the winemakers and their inflated prices! But that's just it - the craft beer industry has become so popular, and so many damn fine brewers have entered the market and made so many damn fine beers, that we the craft beer drinkers have become less beer snobs and more, well, just plain snobs. We're creating an atmosphere within the craft-beer-drinking community that is frankly overwhelming, because there are so many beers that we're all clamoring to find, meanwhile ignoring the vast array of fantastic standby beers that we should all be drinking and talking about too!
Remember Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? Remember Anchor Porter? Hell, remember Fat Tire? When I was a new, young craft beer drinker, I eased into the wonderful world of full flavored beer by way of Shiner Bock and Fat Tire. I explored the entire New Belgium lineup during college, and learned the difference between ales and lagers as my love for beer grew. Each time my wife and I visited a new brewery we would order a beer flight. We loved the variety of flavors, not just in a single brewpub but between and among breweries and pubs. The point is, I came into the craft beer market at a time when you weren't assaulted with beers and breweries and styles that everyone who seemed to know what they were doing was telling you you had to get your hands on. Should a new craft beer drinker be buying the latest Belgian-Tripel-IPA brewed with cherries and aged on Tahitian beechwood? Hell no! I'm not even sure anyone should be drinking it!
I'm being facetious of course, but you know what I mean? We're at that point that any given industry reaches when excitement is high and growth seems unlimited. Remember the dotcom boom? How every other commercial during the Superbowl was for a website that hadn't turned a profit yet? Remember AOL? While I don't buy the argument that the craft beer industry is in a bubble that will pop, I do think that the craft beer culture is creating a bubble that will need to be poked with a needle of beer purity. You can only add so much shit to a beer before it ceases to be pleasurable. In fact, I'd personally draw the line at watermelon. Watermelon in a beer is a novelty. For me watermelon beer is a sign of the beer apocalypse; it signifies that the end is coming. Truth be told I welcome that end, and while the four horsemen trample the coconut stouts and blueberry IPAs under their hooves, I will sit back with my Anchor Porter and watch and smile to myself, knowing what wonderful beers will survive.
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