Alcohol

Quenching The Fire: A Firefighters Quest for the Perfect Beer…..haters!!!

---

Haters gonna hate!

So I was going to finish up the last part of the homebrew series where by I tell you how to bottle the golden elixir that you brewed, but I wanted to opine on something that happened this week in the beer world and offer my opinion (whatever that hell that is worth) on what seems to be a new trend in the ‘beer world’ .

Besides, your beer isn’t ready any way, you still have two weeks to go. I’ll write that article next week.

A new disease seems to be festering in the craft beer world. A disease that seems to be spreading like a bad case of the herpes at a Hollywood B list party. That disease is called ‘snobbery’.

You will recognize this disease, since it infected the wine and food worlds many many years ago. The worst of this infection has been in wine, where for far too long too many waiters, critics and sommeliers have turned their nose at the average folk who don’t know the difference between a left bank and a right bank Bordeaux. They have shunned the common man or woman who may have never heard of that wine from Estonia produced by some alpaca farmer who decided to spit a grape seed on his property. This snobbery has completely overrun the Napa/Sonoma wine area with no hope of quarantine in sight.

The food world has its share of snobbery, with the only thing keeping it in check is the ethnic immigrants produces high quality foods at low prices in the least suspecting locations. There is also a growing number of chefs who do high end street fair at reasonable prices. It seems as if the food world found the vaccination, but like all vaccinations, there are still its casualties.

There is also another wave of snobbery called ‘hipsters’, but I’ll save that angry rant for a whole other article.

It seems though, that ‘snobbery’ has started to creep into the craft beer world, and its spreading…..

Earlier this week a firestorm of sorts has occurred, with the target being Brew Dog, a Scot based craft brewery who released a super limited production beer called ‘The End of History’. This ‘beer’  is a 55% abv beer that was bottled in squirrels or ‘stoats’ as they called it. Yes you read that right and if you’re not sure, read that again.

Brew Dog made only twelve bottles of this beer, bottled them and stuffed the bottles into dead squirrels. The dead squirrels were taxidermied  by a professional. To be fair, Brew Dog only used squirrels that were already dead. These squirrels were dead because they were road kill. If that isn’t the most batshit thing you have ever heard when it comes to beer, I don’t know what is. Hell I didn’t believe the story at first, but believe me it was real. The twelve bottles came with a price of 500 £ (roughly $770 USD) per bottle.

This offering caused a firestorm of sorts this week and some people were just completely pissed off. Were they pissed at the price? Only a couple people. Were they pissed at the use of dead animals? Some were for ‘ethical’ issues.  The bulk of people mad  were mad about the brewers themselves. I saw everything  from them being called ‘gimmicky’ to ‘their beer isn’t that good to begin with’. What fueled the fire even more was that Brew Dog themselves responded to a lot of the critics in a post on beeradvocate.com .  They even went so far as to single out one famous beeradvocate poster who called them out. Now Im am not siding with Brew Dog or any of the critics when I say this, but the hate has to stop. The snobbery has to stop, be it from a beer drinker or a brewer. The craft beer movement is still too new to have all the hate and snobbery. That kind of attitude will only drive people away who may be thinking about finally ditching their mass brewed crap.

This is only the latest example of hate and snobbery. It seems like every month or so a new target appears. I have seen hate toward Dogfish Head for their beer being ‘too extreme’. I have seen hate towards Stone Brewing for being, well, arrogant. I have seen hate towards Boston Beer Co aka Sam Adams for being ‘too big’ and selling out. Hell I have even seen hate toward Russian River Brewing, considered one of the best in the world, about their perceived lack of planning on Pliny The Younger release day. People saying the Russian River ‘sucked’ because they ran out of beer and that some other guy bought three growlers and they didn’t get one.

To the craft beer people out there I am going to say this. LIFE ISNT FAIR, GET OVER IT! Is it really worth it to get that worked up over beer? To get angry and stressed out and pissed off for a beer? Think about it, you are getting flat out angry over beer! I know for some this is an obsession but lets take a step back and look at the world. Get mad about politicians screwing you. Get mad about Wall St. stealing your money. Get mad because of the oil spill in the Gulf. But seriously, there is no need to get mad over beer.  These brewers are doing the best they know how. They are trying to compete in a world dominated by large corporate beer interests and make a living at it. That’s right, these brewers still need to make a living. They may brew the beer you like, but the man or woman behind brewing that beer also needs to put food on the table, support their families and pay employee salaries. They need to stay competitive and ahead of the curve if they want to survive and grow their product. If they want to stuff beer into a whale bladder who cares. If you don’t want to buy it don’t buy it. But if that’s the way a brewery can get someone to notice their product and maybe sell a couple bottles of their other stuff, so be it. There is room for all craft brewers in this world, and we should be rallying behind them.

To the brewers, you are not off the hook either. There is a fine line between being gimmicky, or perceived as such, and being different and innovative. Also it doesn’t do any good for brewers to thumb their nose at customers, and let’s be frank about craft beer customers, we are a small set. Most craft brewers can’t spend a dime on advertising and we the craft beer drinkers are your best source of growing your brand. One thing I learned back before my fire days when I used to work for mega-grocery chain was that the customer is strange animal and ‘was always right’. Some of you brewers and brewing companies out there would do better if you learned to take some criticism every now and then. Being humble goes along way.

The point being, the snobbery has to stop. The hate has to stop. We, the drinkers and the brewers, can work together for the common goal. That goal is spreading the good word of craft beer. To the drinkers I say don’t hate just because you may not like one aspect of a brewing company. To the brewers I say stay humble, yet keep making great products. We can all do this together. Craft beer is growing while the fizzy yellow stuff is finally starting to slow down. There is a long way to go, but if we work together we can take down the mass brewed crap, one crazy beer at a time. ( I know there is some irony in that last line……..)

What I’m Drinking This Week- Firestone-Walker Brewing Co. ‘Solace’

This is my new favorite summer sessionable beer. This beer is an unfiltered wheat ale kind of like a hefe, kind of like a pale wheat ale. Smells bready with a nice wheat flavor with some spices, citrus, coriander, some funk, a hint of banana and clove. This is backyard mow-your-lawn beer. Great for a hot summer day and super easy to drink. Also a good gateway beer for non craft drinkers, they will enjoy this.

A warning- this is not a big beer or a traditional wheat/hefe/saison ale, this is light bodied fare, some of you craft heads might not like this, but when you’re like me and you live where it hits the century mark in the summer on a fairly regular basis, sitting out side and drinking a big beer just isn’t appealing while sitting by the pool.  This is a summer beer, which is exactly what FW was aiming for.

This beer is Fireman Approved for the summer!