During our wide-ranging, several hour conversation, we switched gears frequently to discuss a variety of topics. At one point, McNeill offered his views on the so-called 'extreme beer movement'.
"I think it's a bunch of hokey crap, by and large," he says. "With the exception of Dogfish Head, because I think that Sam (Calagione) really thinks that getting that spoiled grape juice out of the refrigerator and throwing it into a beer is a good idea. He is out there but he is genuine about it. I think that most of the other ones are just trying to make money through marketing hooey. They come up with the bizarre beers in an effort to appeal to a certain member of the public who thinks that a 21-percent (alcohol by volume) beer has got to be great. In fact, most of it sucks. So that's what I feel about the 'let's pour some maple syrup and raisins and some pineapple juice in our beer, we'll add two or three more yeast strains and store it in a Jack Daniel's barrel and then we'll put it in a cutesy little blue bottle and sell it for twenty dollars each and try and get press all around the world with it.' It's just hooey. It's PT Barnum crap. My opinion has always been, 'if you're a really good violinist, you play the violin. If you suck, you get an electric violin, and a fuzz box, and a wah-wah pedal and then no one has to know that you really suck.' For the record, and you can print this if you want, if you believe that Sam adds hops every minute for 90 minutes in his 90 Minute IPA, then I've got some beachfront property in Colorado you might be interested in. That's marketing hooey. I've only met Sam once, and I really like his beers, but that's just ridiculous."
