Have I become a beer snob?

[pepindavid]

Somehow, since I started homebrewing I became "less" of a beer-snob: I've come to the realization that beer has been made for thousands of years, with so many ingredients, using diverses processes, that suited the time and place. And I also realized that it takes tremendous skills to brew a light, very simple beer with the consistency of InBev, for example...

That said, I wish that brewing would (at least partially) go back to a "pre-industrialized" state, where brewing beer would be a basic skill, just like baking a bread loaf. You know, a world where you can decide to buy the industrialized bland-but-consistent-and-cheap sliced bread at the grocery store, or you could stop at a local brewery to fill a growler easily of something more "craft" (like, say, a slightly expansive but delicious bread done by a craft baker), or you could decide to do it yourself, the way you want to, at a fraction of the cost.

Come to think of it, that's pretty much where we stand now... ;-)

 

[Mainer]

I always consider the company when I order a beer. If I'm at a bar and have the chance to drink something from a tiny brewery, I'm always going to choose that first. It's not because I'm turning up my nose at the big breweries. It's because there's an excitement in trying something I've never had before. The joy of discovery.
For example (living in Portland) there's Allagash, Bissell Brothers, and Maine Beer Co on just about every menu I see. But I almost never order those. Why? Not because they're not good beers. They're fabulous. It's because I always want to try something different. And if it's something I don't know if I'll ever get to try again, even more so.

 

[Mainer]

I'd definitely categorize myself as a beer snob. It sort of has a negative vibe to it but i cant see myself brewing my own beer and not calling my self a beer snob. I brew beer because it's an awesome hobby but what makes it awesome is that i enjoy good, fresh, well made beer. Will I buy an ipa off the shelf that's over 5 weeks old? Nope! Why when I can make it myself and have the freshest beer in town which is what all the snobs want anyway?
One may be a beer snob but that doesn't mean one needs to be obnoxious about it.

Edit: thinking about this further i think we're all beer snobs. We're on a beer forum talking about all aspects of beer. We're beer snobs and it's ok!

I prefer to consider myself a "Beer Geek" rather than a "Beer Snob." They're probably the same thing, except that I picture a Beer Snob really getting off on the scene and appearances and stuff, whereas a Beer Geek I picture getting way too enthusiastic about trying beer.

 

[jurgenph]

i'd rather drink a good beer that is owned by one of the big guys, than a crap one from the latest craft brewery that sprouted.

some of my favorite beers were once small local breweries, that are now owned by some of the "big guys", but the beers still taste great as ever, and are easier to find in stores and restaurtants now. i have no reason to complain.

they are in the business to make money, they do what they have to do in order to survive. once they sacrifice the quality of a beer, then i'll move on.


J.

 

[r4dyce]

i'd rather drink a good beer that is owned by one of the big guys, than a crap one from the latest craft brewery that sprouted.

some of my favorite beers were once small local breweries, that are now owned by some of the "big guys", but the beers still taste great as ever, and are easier to find in stores and restaurants now

Fair point, but I don't think I'm often confronted with that decision in real life. It's not a choice between good beer or bad beer, more often a choice between a good beer by big company or good beer by local company. I also have enjoyed beers that were from breweries that got bought out, but the reason they're more available now is because big beer can afford to produce them at a loss and push them into taps and shelf space that would otherwise be occupied by more craft/local breweries. I see it increasingly becoming an issue at bars where more and more taps line ups that look klike this: big guys, big guys light, goose island, 2 types of Sam plus angry orchard, travelers seasonal, blue moon, leinenkugel, shock top, lagunitas IPA. If my choices are those beers or no beer, I'm going to choose no beer more often than not.

 

[bajaedition]

Funny thing about this discussion is this: at one time we first started drinking beer, and it was more than likely a big brewery lager we developed a taste for.
Mine was Miller High life back in the early 70s
and until we got educated, we thought that was beer
Think back to yours
I bet you could drink a twelver of it today. working in the yard or doing a project without even a complaint
I could, and sometimes do.
So, do we say we were drinking crap beer? Or admit we like a better beer now but can still drink our old favorite?
Being a snob is kinda like driving and only seeing what we want to see, soon we will have an accident. After all it is all beer, and it is all brewed to someones taste. Why does it sell if it is crap?
Do not fight it, just do as you want, but fighting a billion dolllar business will not get you anywhere.

 

[applescrap]

My friend and i have discussions like this a lot. there is so much hypocrisy in most of our lives. Yeah, many wont drink "big" compay beer, but check out your closet. Are there any slave labor clothes in there from china, indonesia, or wherever they are made? My friend drives a car from a company that, no big deal, just used nazi slaves. Or how about fast food companies, that are known to be discriminatory towards the GLBTQ community? Or how about the guy who hunts big game whose restaurant my friend wont eat at? How about the car companies who put faulty s..t in cars that kills people, but figures lawsuits settled out of court and public opinion ultimately cost less? Aleppo, and on and on. There are probably bigger issues than big beer and i know many will argue they fight and stand for all of these battles but the reality is there is plenty of bs to sling around. My hope is if you find yourself never drinking big beer out of some altruistic cause, then there are plenty of other causes to look at. Haha, it reminds me of PCU, the movie. Remember that, everyone clashing for their causes. My point is as you type i wont drink budweiser be sure to hide your shirt label. There are many reasons why not to drink budweiser other than they are big beer, and i agree with many of them, i just wanted to offer some perspective to the fact that there is a lot more important battles to fight if one wants to take up a cause.

 

[Bosh]

I'm being a knucklehead and only joking.
When I was on the DMZ back in 1989, according to the old Korean who was my sergeant of the guard on Kamak-san, putting a snake in your soju was good for you. I laughed, then realized he wasn't joking when he held up his jar. It had a wriggling garter snake inside.

Come to think of it, soju, kumbok-ju, and makgeoli weren't kind to me even when I was a young guy. You can have my share.

Yup, people put weird **** in soju bottles and age it. Saw one place with mice fetus and what looked like an ostrich egg in some soju. Ginseng works much better. What's really surprising is how good or a "wine" you get by mixing 30% ABV soju 50/50 with fruit juice and then aging it for two years. In-laws do that with blackberry juice. Tastes horribly sweet with a chemical bite when it's new but after two years it's a nice balanced fruit "wine."

Back then the situation with makgeolli must've been different. Probably more of the good homemade stuff and probably much much much less than the modern profusion of commercial stuff (where you get to choose from the some aspertamine, the lots of aspertamine and the gotta dump it because it has so much aspertamine varieties), very trendy these days with everything from honey to chestnuts to pinenuts to corn (one tasted like drinking popcorn) thrown in.

 

[myelo]

I see it increasingly becoming an issue at bars where more and more taps line ups that look klike this: big guys, big guys light, goose island, 2 types of Sam plus angry orchard, travelers seasonal, blue moon, leinenkugel, shock top, lagunitas IPA. If my choices are those beers or no beer, I'm going to choose no beer more often than not.

If someone rather not drink beer at all then drink a good beer because it was made by an out of town brewer ... than yeah, that might be getting close to beer snob territory. Of course everyone is free to drink or not drink whatever they want.

 

[MagicRat]

I have been boycotting ABInBev products for a while (although I have been in couple situations where I indulged in a Goose Island or something) and my decision was based on the way they conduct business. I recognize that I'm missing out on some good beer but there's so much out there that I haven't tried that I don't feel like I'm missing a thing.
I also realize that there are so, so many small craft breweries out there and a lot of them are pretty bad. Just because a beer comes from a small, independent, family owned brewery doesn't mean it's any good.

 

[r4dyce]

@applescrap You know what you're 100% right, in the scheme of life it's a terribly stupid thing to take a stand on lol. And it's not like I'm out picketing bars that sell macro brew etc. But it's a beer forum and these are the things we gripe about.

@myelo agreed, and I totally believe it's not my place to tell people what they should enjoy. If you like what inbev sells then awesome enjoy it. But it's not because it's an out of town brewery. it's because those big companies just used their muscle to force out craft brewers, yes usually smaller, that can't afford to give their product away so cheaply. So when I used to go to a restaurant and see maybe 6-7 different breweries with 12 beers on tap they now have 2-3 companies with sub brands masquerading as craft. So then I go the bar up the street and it's the exact same line up as I saw at the last place and the next place etc. And generally speaking I'm taking about your typical eateries and bars. Specialty beer bars are another story. It's actually been a public bone of contention with Jim Koch that a lot of the better beer bars in Boston are refusing to carry his products because he is both fake craft and fake local as the trucks of Boston Lager come in from Cincinnati.

 

[Mainer]

Funny thing about this discussion is this: at one time we first started drinking beer, and it was more than likely a big brewery lager we developed a taste for.
Mine was Miller High life back in the early 70s
and until we got educated, we thought that was beer
Think back to yours
I bet you could drink a twelver of it today. working in the yard or doing a project without even a complaint
I could, and sometimes do.
So, do we say we were drinking crap beer? Or admit we like a better beer now but can still drink our old favorite?
Being a snob is kinda like driving and only seeing what we want to see, soon we will have an accident. After all it is all beer, and it is all brewed to someones taste. Why does it sell if it is crap?
Do not fight it, just do as you want, but fighting a billion dolllar business will not get you anywhere.

Speak for yourself. My first beer of choice was Allagash White, circa 2000.

 

[bajaedition]

Speak for yourself. My first beer of choice was Allagash White, circa 2000.

I was speaking for myself

 

[nDub]

Honestly, I'm more concerned with the company I'm keeping while drinking than the company I'm drinking.

Like that sentiment


I enjoy beer too. Given a choice I try and drink locally but if the picking is slim I'll drink whatever looks best. That being said I keep PBR in the fridge all summer because nothing beats a beer-mosa to get a lazy weekend day going.

 

[firerat]

It's beer. I drink it.
If it's good, I'll have another.
If not, well now I know. I'll order something else.
I LOVE trying new stuff. If I go somewhere with rotating taps, I almost always grab something new.

Those are my stipulations on buying beer. The only reason I'd care who makes it is if it's something good, I want to try more from that company.

I couldn't imagine turning down a beer because a big company made it. Unless it tastes like pee.

 

[myelo]

@myelo agreed, and I totally believe it's not my place to tell people what they should enjoy. If you like what inbev sells then awesome enjoy it. But it's not because it's an out of town brewery. it's because those big companies just used their muscle to force out craft brewers, yes usually smaller, that can't afford to give their product away so cheaply. .

Understood ... and I get that approach. My wife is like that. I'm not allowed to buy gas at Exxon because of the Valdez spill. I can't buy gas at BP because of the gulf spill. I can't buy Shell because she got some water in her gas once. She has her principles and I respect that ... even though I'm running out of places to buy gas.

 

[MagicRat]

I realized during a conversation this morning that it's very rare now that I buy commercial beers more than once. Most of what I drink is my own product and if I'm buying, the vast majority of the time I want something I've never had before.

 

[filthyastronaut]

I'm unlikely to turn away beer that's offered to me, but I won't buy BMC (and BMC owned breweries regardless of quality), Sam Adams, etc. except for when I do. I bought my fiance a sixer of Kirin Ichiban the other day. I guess the exception is that it wasn't for me.

 

[Calder]

I'm unlikely to turn away beer that's offered to me, but I won't buy BMC (and BMC owned breweries regardless of quality), Sam Adams, etc. except for when I do. I bought my fiance a sixer of Kirin Ichiban the other day. I guess the exception is that it wasn't for me.

Why would't you buy Sam Adams? It is probably due to Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada that we have a craft beer industry. They started the revolution. Without them, many of the craft breweries we have today would not exist.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

For me, if the product becomes bad or different in a bad way after they are bought out then I don't continue buying it. Mill Street is a prime example. Everything changed when they got bought. However, my attitude is that if it's good beer I'll drink it. I try to stay local when I can but sometimes on a hot day, a guy needs a light American Lager.

 

[bobeer]

Funny thing about this discussion is this: at one time we first started drinking beer, and it was more than likely a big brewery lager we developed a taste for.
Mine was Miller High life back in the early 70s
and until we got educated, we thought that was beer
Think back to yours
I bet you could drink a twelver of it today. working in the yard or doing a project without even a complaint
I could, and sometimes do.
So, do we say we were drinking crap beer? Or admit we like a better beer now but can still drink our old favorite?
Being a snob is kinda like driving and only seeing what we want to see, soon we will have an accident. After all it is all beer, and it is all brewed to someones taste. Why does it sell if it is crap?
Do not fight it, just do as you want, but fighting a billion dolllar business will not get you anywhere.

I still get a 12'er of Red Stripe to drink on while I'm out doing yard work in the heat of the summer. I've tried to brew beers like it but nothing has come close really. I love those little bottles and that ice cold lagered sweet corn taste when it's 100 degrees outside. I don't feel bad about it at all because it's what I want when I want it!

 

[r4dyce]

I realized during a conversation this morning that it's very rare now that I buy commercial beers more than once. Most of what I drink is my own product and if I'm buying, the vast majority of the time I want something I've never had before.

I'm like this too. I'm not the guy who goes to the store and buys a case of his "favorite" beer. Once I've had a beer once or twice I rarely feel the need to order it again. I already know what it tastes like. Variety is way more important to me. This mind set has flowed into my home brewing too and I'm doing multiple small batches simultaneously.

 

[r4dyce]

Why would't you buy Sam Adams? It is probably due to Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada that we have a craft beer industry. They started the revolution. Without them, many of the craft breweries we have today would not exist.

I mean that's kind of like saying without Henry Ford there would be no cars today. I'm sure someone else would have figured it out. I generally don't buy Sam in part because they're just not craft anymore, but more so because for many years they lacked innovation and I didn't enjoy their products. I'm not going to spend money on them just to pay homage to their legacy. I do still buy their stuff occasionally but it's usually a last resort.

 

[firerat]

What's the definition of craft beer this week?