"First Column, Part Two"
Discussed in this post:
Beer Snobs
I Only Drink Budweiser (IODB)
Liquid Rapture, Mason’s Brewing Co., Brewer. Imperial/ Double IPA 8.2% ABV
Whole Lotta Lupulin Double IPA, Smuttynose Brewing Co., Hampton, NH. Imperial/Double IPA 8.6% ABV Citra, Amarillo, and Simcoe hops.
Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO. Lager 5% ABV 12 IBU.
(Beer information as it appears on Untappd)
Jeff: Meg calls me a beer snob. Are we beer snobs?
Pete (laughing): Guilty as charged! A nice member of our informal group at Novare Res asked a genuine and seemingly harmless question, ‘I usually drink Mich Ultra, which beer here is the closest to a Mich Ultra?’
‘Water,’ I suggested. You know, I was pandering to my fellow snobs with cheap laugh at our fellow drinker’s expense.
Laugh, sip.
Jeff: You sound kind of sorry about it.
He goes to the refrigerator for two more cans of beer.
Pete: I’m a beer snob in recovery: I cringe at that snarkery. People should be able to drink the beer they like without being condescended upon.
Pete gets a fresh glass for his second beer, a Mason’s Liquid Rapture. Jeff settles for rinsing his glass before trying the Lupulin.
Jeff: I don’t think we’re really snobs, though. A snob feels superior to others based on some perceived social or moral hierarchy. I think mainly the beer fan tent is a big tent full of live-and-let-live types.
He pauses and sips thoughtfully.
Jeff: Shit, that’s not exactly right. Here I sit in my free Sculpin IPA T-shirt, but I can’t help questioning the judgment of my neighbor with the ‘dilly’ vanity license plate. I wouldn’t mock him to his face; that might only be sour grapes that he can afford a way nicer car than I can, and a vanity plate, and is passionate enough about something to identify that strongly with it.
Pete (nodding, sipping): There’s a flip side to beer snobs. Their tagline reads something like ‘I only drink Budweiser (IODB).’
IODB takes various forms. At a weekend ski getaway one member of our group was gracious enough to bring many local craft brew cans, and generous enough to share them with all of us. A couple of the fellas announced they had no strong preference, ‘as long as it’s not one of those friggin’ IPAs.’ Offered a Saison, and a Stout, and a Sour, they vigorously shook off all, evidently lumping those unique and diverse beer styles in with the dreaded IPAs. They settled on a Pilsner, and sipped a third of it before heading out into the night in search of a Bud/Miller Lite/Coors Light comfort food disguised as beer.
Laugh, sip.
Jeff: Some of my best friends drink Bud Light. Some of them have grown to like craft beers, but often they go back to the Bud Light for sessions with their college friends, keeping their limited-release crowlers hidden for another time.
Pete (summing up): We can’t help leaning closer to the snob than to the IODB guy. We like craft beer, and the variety in our local craft beer scene.
Jeff: And we can’t resist a cheap laugh. How’s that Mason’s?
Pete: I think I like it better than the Lupulin. I didn’t realize Mason’s is in Brewer. That’s a good town to make beer in.
We didn’t get the gig. But we did get excited about writing about beer.. Hence this blog. In the blog we’ll explore and suggest, critique and praise. We won’t get too scientific. We’ll be honest and direct. And, we’ll try hard not to be snobs. We have nothing to say to IODB’s, because part of their ethos is that beer occupies their hands, mouths, and bellies, but not minds. And we probably have nothing to say to the innermost of the innermost beer nerds because they already know everything. But we approach beer in the most democratic way we can, and if you do too -- that is, if you like to drink it and think about it and talk about it, but mostly drink it -- then we might have something to say to you, and you to us. Hit us up with your comments, send us an email, check us out on Untappd.