The Craft Beer Reputation. by Guest Blogger Shannon Jones
Shannon Maria Jones and business Partner Ian Boston McCafferty are The Beer Mistress and The Dashing Rogue. They specialize in homemade, custom catered beer dinners. Visit them here.
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The Craft Beer Reputation
When telling someone that you’re into craft beer, they seem to react in one of two ways. Either they are impressed with your “culture and good taste” or they roll their eyes and call you a hipster. So far this year, I have encountered a growing number of the latter, which is what inspired this article.
Photo Credit: Shannon Maria Jones/The Dashing Rogue/Beer Mistress
Let me come out swinging and say, “just because I want a flavorful, expertly crafted beer does not make me pretentious.” I prefer to think it means I care about what I drink, where it came from, and appreciate the story behind the glass. Yes- there are beer “snobs” who turn their noses up at a well-crafted, old-school style beer, and need everything they drink to be a collaboration, barrel-aged, new variety with a witty name. I think of these people as the gluten-free vegans of the beer world.
Following that metaphor, I think of the average craft beer lover as an adventurous eater who wants a quality restaurant meal instead of McDonalds. McDonald’s in this case being the American mass market beer. (Did I just take that too far?)
I understand that just like the person in front of you at Starbucks who takes two minutes to order a coffee can cause discontent, those going out to a typical bar looking for an exotic beer will be looked at sideways. But craft beer is growing – by 15% last year! New craft beer bars are popping up all over the place and established bars are expanding their beer lists because populations demand it. Ladies and gentlemen, craft beer is not a fad. Good beer is here to stay!
America is finally returning to its full-flavored, pre-Prohibition glory and we will not allow ourselves to slip back into a colorless, flavorless beer world. We have tasted the manna that is craft beer and we want more!
There will be new trends that develop out of this: craft distilleries, infused beers, new styles and ingredients, the resurgence of the cocktail lounge- and I sincerely believe that the hipsters giving the rest of us a skewed reputation will only be drinking craft beer until these new fads come along. So stand proud, order loud, stick it out, and know that you deserve excellent beer. Even if the old man on the corner stool looks skeptically at you when you order an Arrogant Bastard.
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