Beer snobs SUCK!!! (rant)

[Sedge]

The other day someone asked me in conversation how big Sam Adams was and as I started to answer a Sam Adams commercial magically came on the tv. Lo and behold it was a commercial stating exactly how small they are compared to BMC. Have you guys seen this commercial?

Its nice that it will educate people a little bit about the market shares in this country, but it also came off as a little defensive. Either way they highlighted the contant creativity aspect of craft brewers, which people need to see.

 

[Sea]

How did this thread become a debate about whether SA now a part of the BMC crowd or not?

I think the greater message here is that snobs of any kind suck. I can say that with certainty because I'm better and smarter than everyone else.

 

[Sedge]

How did this thread become a debate about whether SA now a part of the BMC crowd or not?

I think the greater message here is that snobs of any kind suck. I can say that with certainty because I'm better and smarter than everyone else.

Yeah I totally failed to see the length of the thread and the age of the OP. My bad. There was some comment on the first page about people dismissing the larger craft breweries as common swill.

 

[Teromous]

Just thought I'd post some general info for you guys to feed on:

Market Cap vs Major Breweries:

Anheuser-Busch InBev $74.12 Billion
Heineken $19.78 Billion
Coors $7.45 Billiion
Boston Beer Co. $860.82 Million

Annual Sales vs Craft Breweries:

Boston Beer Co. $398,400,000
Sierra Nevada $31,600,000
Dogfish Dead $11,700,000
Stone Brewing $280,000

 

[pacebrew]

coors is a micro brew by those standards... .lol

that stone data looks a bit low.

 

[northernlad]

Yeah, a local Brewery could do $280,000 in just their hometown.

 

[Starderup]

I agree. I am not a giant fan of Sam. I like some brews they make, I dont like some brews they make. Talking about them as a company though, saying they are a step up from BMC??!! Ya right!
Jim Koch and Sam Adams have done very great things for the beer industry and will keep doing more. They sponser the Patriot Homebrew competition every year and last year gave thousands of hops away.

I bought some of their Nobel Pils on the advice of a friend, and everyone was shocked when I said it was not my favorite SA beer.
Sorry, Samuel. It wasn't that good of beer. I'll take a simple Boston Lager any day.
At least I can refill the bottles...

 

[carnevoodoo]

Those annual sales numbers are way off. That looks like 1995 data or something. Maybe their first year? Stone's financials were listed on their business proposal for the European brewery they want to do, and the number was something like 49 million for 2009.

 

[Starderup]

Just thought I'd post some general info for you guys to feed on:

Market Cap vs Major Breweries:

Anheuser-Busch InBev $74.12 Billion
Heineken $19.78 Billion
Coors $7.45 Billiion
Boston Beer Co. $860.82 Million

Annual Sales vs Craft Breweries:

Boston Beer Co. $398,400,000
Sierra Nevada $31,600,000
Dogfish Dead $11,700,000
Stone Brewing $280,000

I will only comment on the numbers vs quality of beer.
The American beer buying public has no idea whatsoever what beer is. They think that fermented rice extract is beer. Thanks to cool Bud Lite commercials. Seriously. I offered a taste of SNPA to a girl that never tasted real beer, and she almost spit it out.
I could have peed in a bottle, chilled and carbonated it, and she'd have loved it.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I will only comment on the numbers vs quality of beer.
The American beer buying public has no idea whatsoever what beer is. They think that fermented rice extract is beer. Thanks to cool Bud Lite commercials. Seriously. I offered a taste of SNPA to a girl that never tasted real beer, and she almost spit it out.
I could have peed in a bottle, chilled and carbonated it, and she'd have loved it.

That's a gross generalization, and assuming that someone who has never really explored hoppy beer will either like hops or piss is ridiculous. I would have asked her what she normally likes in terms of food and gone from there. Perhaps a porter, a stout, a scotch ale, or something with a more malt focused profile would have been to her liking. I'm thinking you failed craft beer by giving her one choice and assuming that's what she'd like.

The American beer buying public is waking up, slowly. Sure, it'll always be a niche market, because Americans like what they're used to. McDonalds will always make more than the local businesses making food out of... well real food, but that's ok. Given time and the resources to choose, more and more people are understanding that there's more than what was previously out there.

 

[Starderup]

That's a gross generalization, and assuming that someone who has never really explored hoppy beer will either like hops or piss is ridiculous. I would have asked her what she normally likes in terms of food and gone from there. Perhaps a porter, a stout, a scotch ale, or something with a more malt focused profile would have been to her liking. I'm thinking you failed craft beer by giving her one choice and assuming that's what she'd like.

The American beer buying public is waking up, slowly. Sure, it'll always be a niche market, because Americans like what they're used to. McDonalds will always make more than the local businesses making food out of... well real food, but that's ok. Given time and the resources to choose, more and more people are understanding that there's more than what was previously out there.

Actually, this was not a gross generalization, but my actual experience with someone that thought that Bud Lite was beer.
I'd be glad to hook you up with her and see if you could get her to drink anything other than Bud Lite without her making a face.

 

[carnevoodoo]

ok, then try something like Sam Adams Nobel Pils. It isn't a huge jump from one to the other. Throwing a beer that is so not typical for the masses and then calling them a simpleton is pretty harsh in my book. You work and figure out what a person likes, and then you go from there.

 

[Starderup]

ok, then try something like Sam Adams Nobel Pils. It isn't a huge jump from one to the other. Throwing a beer that is so not typical for the masses and then calling them a simpleton is pretty harsh in my book. You work and figure out what a person likes, and then you go from there.

She might have liked the Nobel Pils. I really didn't care for it. I do like a lot of other SA brews, but not that one.

 

[northernlad]

Actually, this was not a gross generalization, but my actual experience with someone that thought that Bud Lite was beer.
I'd be glad to hook you up with her and see if you could get her to drink anything other than Bud Lite without her making a face.

Send her over. I've done it before. I'll do it again.
What you DID imply with your story is that since she doesn't like SNPA she doesn't like good beer and that is just not correct. You went too big. It is like taking someone to a Thai joint and saying they don't like spicy food because 4 stars was too much. I can pick a 6 pack of beers she would at least think twice about. Make sure you tell her that is not what everything that is not BMC tastes like or you will have ruined her.
Baby steps.

 

[billvon]

I'd be glad to hook you up with her and see if you could get her to drink anything other than Bud Lite without her making a face.

I made a two-row SMaSH that I bet she would like. A woman at Lost Abbey compared it to Bud Light Lime. "This is the first beer I've had today that doesn't take like ass!" she told me. To each their own.

 

[Starderup]

Send her over. I've done it before. I'll do it again.
What you DID imply with your story is that since she doesn't like SNPA she doesn't like good beer and that is just not correct. You went too big. It is like taking someone to a Thai joint and saying they don't like spicy food because 4 stars was too much. I can pick a 6 pack of beers she would at least think twice about. Make sure you tell her that is not what everything that is not BMC tastes like or you will have ruined her.
Baby steps.

I probably won't ever see her again, and no big deal. Problem with educating everybody is, I don't have the time, and second, it is going to increase demand for decent beer and drive the price up. I am content to let her drink her swill.

 

[BlueSunshine]

Well it seems like America is slowly warming up to craft beer:

http://www.mlive.com/kalamabrew/index.ssf/2010/03/craft_beer_sales_up_7_percent.html

BMC is down 2% and craft beer is up 7%. I'll take it!

 

[AdamWiz]

Basically, there are a lot of people out there that think that anything that becomes popular is no longer cool. Because Sam Adams is the biggest brewer outside of BMC, their beers must suck. Granted, SA doesn't make a lot of mind blowingly unique beers - but they still make some fine brew that I will drink any time. It's the same with a lot of things: music comes to mind. You know the type of guy who only listens to a band if he can feel like he was the first person to hear them and noone else knows about them? Any band that has ever had a song on the radio or that people know anything about becomes lame to them. I think the same goes for Blichmann products : because they are the most well known company, and their products tend to be a bit pricey everyone wants to call them overrated. I will never understand people who need so badly to only like things that noone else knows about. Sometimes things that are popular are popular for a reason.

(now who's going to be the first to call me out for posting on a "zombie thread"?)

 

[bovineblitz]

nice necropost.

 

[doctorRobert]

Basically, there are a lot of people out there that think that anything that becomes popular is no longer cool. Because Sam Adams is the biggest brewer outside of BMC, their beers must suck. Granted, SA doesn't make a lot of mind blowingly unique beers - but they still make some fine brew that I will drink any time. It's the same with a lot of things: music comes to mind. You know the type of guy who only listens to a band if he can feel like he was the first person to hear them and noone else knows about them? Any band that has ever had a song on the radio or that people know anything about becomes lame to them. I think the same goes for Blichmann products : because they are the most well known company, and their products tend to be a bit pricey everyone wants to call them overrated. I will never understand people who need so badly to only like things that noone else knows about. Sometimes things that are popular are popular for a reason.

(now who's going to be the first to call me out for posting on a "zombie thread"?)

I couldnt disagree more, maybe that's true for some people. But sam's product is just not up to snuff as rest the of the craft beer industry. I think pasteurization is a huge part of this. Also, they brew all over the country, with breweries in at least 3, probably 4 states. Quality control may be an issue which is why the sam summer has tasted like ass for the past two years.

Sierra Nevada is the 2nd largest craft brewery, and nobody has that "too popular to be good" opinion of them. Just look at the latest top 50 beer survey conducted by Zymurgy.

 

[Revvy]

Basically, there are a lot of people out there that think that anything that becomes popular is no longer cool. Because Sam Adams is the biggest brewer outside of BMC, their beers must suck. Granted, SA doesn't make a lot of mind blowingly unique beers - but they still make some fine brew that I will drink any time. It's the same with a lot of things: music comes to mind. You know the type of guy who only listens to a band if he can feel like he was the first person to hear them and noone else knows about them? Any band that has ever had a song on the radio or that people know anything about becomes lame to them. I think the same goes for Blichmann products : because they are the most well known company, and their products tend to be a bit pricey everyone wants to call them overrated. I will never understand people who need so badly to only like things that noone else knows about. Sometimes things that are popular are popular for a reason.

(now who's going to be the first to call me out for posting on a "zombie thread"?)

Noone calls people out for that, it's always in good fun...BUT I have to ask, why bump a 3 year old thread when you could participate in the CURRENT version of this same thread, Idiot beer snobs or its sequel Another reason why some "beer snobs" are idiots?

It's great to dig up old threads, but some are nothing but cobwebs and dust, while others still have some stinky meat on them. (See what I did there? Zombies, stinky meat? )

But I do tend to agree with what you posted.

 

[onthekeg]

I made a two-row SMaSH that I bet she would like. A woman at Lost Abbey compared it to Bud Light Lime. "This is the first beer I've had today that doesn't take like ass!" she told me. To each their own.

Since its Necro and Revvy will like it, I had to comment on this, as I didn't last time around. Where has her mouth been?

 

[bovineblitz]

Since its Necro and Revvy will like it, I had to comment on this, as I didn't last time around. Where has her mouth been?

I may know her...

Speaking biblically, of course.

 

[onthekeg]

Now thats just WRONG!