i am young (25) and i tell everyone i work with and share some times, but everyone jokes that i always drink. this is not true. its been over a week since i had a drink and even then i only had a beer or two. i drink for flavor now and i never drink to get drunk.
we live in a world that it doesn't matter what you do someone will be offended in one way or another. my wife is a teacher and has a hard time having a drink when we go out. we also live in Utah and Mormons for the most part in this area are quick to judge.
Everyone judges. You wouldn't survive 2 seconds if you didn't exercise judgment. I'd be willing to bet the nonsensical idea that it's wrong to judge probably comes from the same superficial half-wits who "see brewing as unprofessional."
I've always been a beer drinker; never cared for spirits, wine, mead, hard cider, etc. For most of my adult life I drank beer for the buzz. The "
beer" was just the medium by which the alcohol was infused into my bloodstream. I didn't give a rip about style, appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel. The cheaper and the colder... the better. I spent more than my fair share of time "drunk" back in the day.
Eventually "getting drunk" kind of lost it's appeal and I gave up drinking altogether for a couple of years. I remember going into a bar I used to hang out in and seeing a lot of my old friends stumbling around, slurring their words, bouncing off walls, acting like fools... I was embarrassed for them, but more embarrassed that I used to be right in there with them. I couldn't help wondering how many people would have watched me back in the day and felt the same pity I felt watching my friends, hugging each other, hanging on each other, telling each other how much they loved each other... Like the old Bud Light commercial, "I LOVE YOU MAN!"
I didn't get into home brewing until I was 55. It actually started as an interest in learning the different styles of beer. Up until then the only difference between beers I knew was warm or cold, light or dark, import or domestic.
My journey into learning about beer has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying hobby's of my life. Just a cursory glance at the history of beer in the world will shut up any moron who has an uninformed opinion based in stupidity and ignorance about how professional or unprofessional it is. The study of yeast and fermentation has probably contributed as much to medicine as the study of anything else. Louis Pasteur was a "professional" involved with the brewing of beer. Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation was heavily involved in the brewing of beer; the Pope called him a "drunk monk." George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, on and on and on. Obama brewed beer in the white House.
I have a deeper appreciation for beer now. I drink more beer today than I ever did, but I can't remember the last time I was "drunk." I still despise "drunk". My wife and I spent a day in Flagstaff, AZ, and I visited every brewery in that city. I kept track of what I drank and how much time elapsed between one beer and another, and we walked as much as possible. It took all day, (from the time the breweries opened until 10 or 11 that night), but it was an awesome day, we had a ball, I can't remember how many amazing beers I drank - and the most I ever felt at any one time was maybe slightly buzzed walking out of a brewery. I never got drunk. If I would have drunk half of those beers slamming them one after another like was my old habit - I would have been toast in about 3 hours, my wife would have had to have driven me back to the hotel room to "sleep it off." I would have woke up feeling like crap and probably not remembered anything. Instead, we had an awesome day, I got to drink twice as much beer, and I had a blast, remember ever minute of it, and skipped the ugly hangover feeling.
I think people who have a deep appreciation and love of beer and all that is involved, are some of the most responsible professionals in society. The Bud Light drinkers who just drink to get hammered and screw their lives and everyone around them up - those are the unprofessionals who look at brewing as unprofessional.
Just my long-winded opinion
