Bottle Conditioned

Sorry for the slow week -  I’ve been out of town and quite busy otherwise, including writing tasting notes for the upcoming beer blogging Friday event - The Session.

That said, I did want to at least post briefly and point out a great blog post by Lew Bryson this week on beer snobbery and elitism, with respect to Fat Tire.  Now, let me preface this by saying I’ve not had Fat Tire yet.  We can’t get it here in Nashville, and we haven’t traveled far enough West yet to grab some and give it a shot.  Want to mail us a bottle?

Anyway, although I’ve never had it, I’m fully aware of the controversy and conversation surrounding this beer.  Two camps seem to set up - a true “love it or hate it” scenario.  Unfortunately, however, it seems as if the “hate it” camp hate it for the wrong reason.  Not because they don’t like the beer - because they think they shouldn’t like the beer.  Uh oh.  Bad move for craft beer drinkers.  We don’t want to become elitist here. 

I’ll admit, there are times I’ve made passing comments about a few beers because of the wrong reasons.  Redhook, in particular.  Because of its association with AB, I’ve been skeptical about the quality of the beer.  Now…I want to make this crystal clear:  Even though I’ve had hesitation regarding the quality of Red Hook, I’ve not passed judgement until I’ve tasted it, and even then, my basis for critique is based off of the taste, nothing else.  I don’t particularly enjoy their beers as much as other craft beer (and yes, I do consider it them a craft brewery), but that doesn’t preclude me from making my own decisions based on taste and letting other folks make their own decisions.  In short, my not liking the beer doesn’t come from the fact that they are associated with AB, but rather starts with the taste, and then I look to other factors such as ownership for an explanation…not the other way around.  That’s very important.  I certainly don’t dismiss it as not being a craft beer, and I certainly don’t look down upon people who enjoy it.

Read Lew’s post.  It’s very interesting, and I think, spot on.  Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada are under the same sort of pressure from the beer geekerie lately, and that’s sad, considering that they are both pioneers in this field.  Support your craft brewers and make decisions based on what they should be made on - taste.

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