How Beer Saved the World [Infographic]
I have things to say about this, but you all should comment and do the thinking for me…
Is it possible to fully appreciate something in 35 seconds?
Daniel McCord (AKA The Dude[1]), owner of It’s a Fucking Beer! , does reviews like the one you see above. Basically, he shotguns a beer, but not just any beer. No, Daniel shotguns a fine craft beer, usually consumed over a long session, poured in the proper glass.
Some would call this “blasphemy.” How is he able to fully appreciate the subtle nuances of a finely crafted beer[2]? Does he even take time to smell the beer? Does he study the appearance or note the lacing? Is he really just promoting binge drinking[3]?
Personally, I think it’s great[4]. I’ve read Daniel’s blog enough to know that he gets craft beer. He has a different way to express that appreciation, but he gets it. So, I’m not worried that he’s somehow missing out. Even if he were, I don’t care how he drinks his beer. It seems to work for him.
What he’s doing is really throwing a giant bird in the faces of the craft beer elite[5]. It’s the punkest thing I’ve seen in craft beer[6] and I hope his liver continues to hold up as he makes his way through the influx of craft cans to hit the market in recent years[7]. Daniel is bridging the gap between those who just want to blow some steam on the weekends (or possibly week nights) and those who appreciate craft beer[8].
Still, the question remains whether or not it’s possible to properly appreciate a beer when consumed in this fashion. First, who’s to say there is only way to drink a beer? It seems that Daniel’s method is the most efficient I’ve seen and it’s greener than dirtying a glass or even drinking from a bottle[9].
From Daniel’s reaction, you can tell that he fully appreciates the nuances of the beer[10]. It’s not the most eloquent review of a beer (even by IaFB! standards), but you know that it’s a hop bomb with a solid malt backbone. What else do you really need to before trying the beer yourself?
I liken these shotgun beer reviews to basing an opinion on a band or album within 30 seconds of a first listen. I usually know right away whether I’ll like a record or band. It’s not that I have a keen sense or magical powers. It’s just that I’ve heard enough music over the years to know whether or not I’ll like something. Is it foolproof? No. Sometimes, I find out that I enjoy the band immensely after further inspection or vice versa. Still, a momentary impression is an impression. There’s validity to an opinion formed in seconds. Should it be placed above more thoughtful responses? Probably not, but that doesn’t change whether or not shotgunning a beer is an adequate way to judge a beer[11].
Notes:
1 
2 I don’t know that any one person is uniquely qualified to do this. Yes, some have been trained to recognize certain characteristics of beer, but that doesn’t mean that they’re more qualified to appreciate a beer.
3 Maybe, but why binge on high-end beers? He at least comments on the flavor of the beer, evaluating it in a way no frat boy would ever dare.
4 Will I shotgun a beer? Unlikely, but I’m glad someone is doing it.
5 I don’t know who that is, but I’m sure I can find them in my Google Reader if I looked hard enough. I’m not anti-elite, just anti-elitist.
6 And that includes BrewDog. I like BrewDog for the most part, but they do some things that make me cringe. For one, they claim to be punk. Well, as Dave Berman once proclaimed, “Punk rock died when the first kid said, “Punk’s not dead! Punk’s not dead!”” You can’t call yourself punk. You really can’t call yourself punk when there are hundreds of other breweries doing the same thing, often better. If BrewDog were American, they wouldn’t even register. Now, I like their beers, but it’s not that unique in the context of American craft beer, certainly not punk.
7 I’m in favor of all the new craft cans out there. However, this is not an excuse not to pour your beer into the proper glass. I know that I support Daniel in his shotgun reviews, but I still prefer a beer in a glass.
8 In other words, he’s taking back craft and artisinal beer from the bourgeois and giving it back to the working class.
9 Again, I prefer drinking from a glass. As I often ask those who turn down my offer to pour their beer into a glass, you wouldn’t smell a rose through a straw, would you? For the purposes of these reviews, shotgunning is a fine method. However, I’ll drink my beer from a glass, probably a tulip.
10 At first, I thought the booze had gone straight to his head, but his somewhat detailed explanation demonstrated that he enjoyed the full blast of hops which certainly obliterated his taste buds for the evening.
11 I recognize that I’ve waffled a bit between my own beer snobbishness and Daniel’s middle finger to the bourgeois beer connoisseur, but what I’m getting at is that there’s room for both in craft beer. Comment freely below.
Youthful Exuberance
Is it possible to experience youthful exuberance with beer or music not intended for children?
One of the things I love about Tune-Yards (AKA Merrill Garbus) is the fun, youthful naivete she captures in her music. This is perfectly exhibited in her new video for “My Country.” Children dance, lip-synch, and pretend to play instruments, but the energy in the music is even more child-like.
Unlike Kimya Dawson[1], Tune-Yards doesn’t write kid songs. However, her music still appeals to children. My daughter loves Whokill, particularly “Gangsta.” She sings the chorus like a pro even though its sense of danger “crawling out the wood” is decidedly non-childlike[2].
How is something so not meant for children also so filled with youthful exuberance? This can be answered in exploring the joy adults display when their song is played or they discover a beer that completely blows them away. Still, as a parent, I want to know how this all fits into a child’s experience.
My daughter is all I have in regards to a test subject. She dances and sings with the music I play for her. She enjoys songs I sing to her by the likes of Pavement or The Flaming Lips. I still remember the day as a not-quite-two-year-old when she refused to leave the car before school until the Arcade Fire song on the car stereo was finished.
I often ask my daughter if she wants a beer when I pour my own[3]. She, of course, turns me down, informing me that she can only have beer when she’s older. Additionally, she likes to tell me that she’ll help me brew beer once she’s older.
Music and beer that aren’t meant for her still have a place in her life. These interests sometimes make me as giddy as a child. So, there is a youthful experience in things that are not exactly G-rated.
What do you think of this? Is there music or beer that makes you feel young again? Don’t you miss that feeling sometimes? Or is this whole discussion really inappropriate?
Notes:
1 I saw Dawson play a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather and had to skip out early. Before I left, she found half the audience enthusiastically greeting her and the other half back at the bar, talking over the music. Her solution was to lead the audience in a few of her kid songs, which was pretty fun. The sad part was that I knew those songs better than her other work.
2 I recognize that she has no idea what she’s singing, but the combination of words and rhythm can be addictive even when we don’t know the real meaning. She totally caught me off-guard when we got out of the car one day after the song had just been playing and she continued to sing.
3 Obviously, this is a joke, and she knows it. I have some liberal ideas on when kids should first try alcohol, specifically beer. I used to stick my finger in my beer and let her lick it while she was an infant, but I stopped that as she can be pretty demanding. I’m considering giving her a full sip around ten and building from there. I want to make her a beer snob so that she turns her nose up at the swill being served at high school keggers.
More Proof that Indie Rock and Craft Beer Belong Together
I have a bottle of this from a few years back. Someone gave it to me and said not to drink it. The bottle was old and he didn’t like it. So, I kept it for sentimental reasons. I’ll post a picture one of these days. In the meantime, know that Sub Pop is the indie label that featured Nirvana and you know what effect they had on music.
Accept this post as yet more proof that my incessant writing about craft beer and indie rock is not for nothing. Connections exist, people. Recognize. [Link]
Revisiting Sentimentality
Is it redundant to keep coming back to sentimentality?
The above video works because it taps into the sentimentality of the photo series by artist Irina Werning better known as “Back to the Future.” Feist has always had a warm, inviting voice and her songs are comforting remembrances to which we all can relate. The combination of the song and the images should make you smile as you remember your own childhood pictures, stashed away in some cardboard box.
This idea of sentimentality is an important one, contributing to the success of indie-craft markets. Connecting to these feelings and memories are what give a glass of beer or record a soul. This is something corporate entities try to manufacture in an effort to separate you from your money, but the personal approach of indie-craft producers makes such an approach more authentic.
I keep going back to it, but the Deschutes promo from earlier this year has a similar effect on me. Sure, it’s advertising and marketing at its finest. However, there’s something about these small businesses tapping into our collective experiences that sets them apart from their corporate overlords.
Does the Feist video speak to you? Is sentimentality important to you when choosing music, beer, etc?
The Sessions I’ve Missed
During my recent hiatus/momentary lack of inspiration[1], I missed some opportunities to participate in sessions of different sorts. I had contributed to several monthly Session posts before running out of ideas a month or two ago. One of those missed sessions happened on Friday. The topic revolved around what drives beer bloggers, something I’ve struggled with in recent weeks. In an effort to keep things fresh around here, I’ll attempt to respond (albeit late) as briefly as I can[2].
What drives us to blog about beer – or at least what drives me – is the quest to promote beer (especially of the artisinal variety[3]) to the masses. We do this because we feel a specific perspective has yet to be shared, a perspective that will make it clear to skeptics why craft beer really is as amazing as we all think it is. And if we’re successful at making our case, the craft beer boom will continue, insuring that there is quality craft beer selections in every bar, restaurant, grocery, bus station, and elementary school to quench our undying thirst for the sweet, dank, pucker-inducing, bubbly, good stuff we crave.
Of course, this is what drives most bloggers who write about any product. We want what we love to succeed and feel we can make the case for said success through promotion via social media, in this case, the blog. Maybe it’s more narcissistic than that[4], but I believe that the motivation behind beer blogging is a good one that goes beyond “look what I got to drink.” The same goes for film, music, about whatever one blogs.
Still, maybe what really drives us to blog about beer is the excuse to drink more beer. There’s nothing wrong with that.
Notes:
1 Call it an existential crisis or whatever. I was beginning to both feel the pressure to post as well as the the fact that not too many people really care about what I think.
2 This is part of my new strategy to keep posting. Maybe if I go back to shorter posts, I’ll get more content out there, stuff I can develop down the line. Plus, I often over-think my posts and that’s not possible if I keep them short.
3 I interchange “artisanal” and “craft” all the time. Let’s not get hung up on the labels. I get that for some, these two terms are not the same. Additionally, “craft” beer has a very different meaning in the UK. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll stick to the American definition, in case that wasn’t clear before.
4 Who am I kidding? Blogging is an exercise in narcissism. It’s better that we acknowledge this and move on.
Hiatus from the Hiatus and other things
Not too long ago[1], my wife noticed that I know a lot of young women. She’s right. I probably know more ~college-aged women at this moment in time than I did when I was in college. When she made the observation, several of these friends and acquaintances had stopped to say hello while we were out on the town. I had been telling of other encounters in clubs and online with these women. So, she noticed a pattern in my social circle.
I’m not bragging. It’s just that when one partakes in oodles of social media socializing and goes out fairly regularly for beer and live music, it’s easy to know a lot of young[2] people (male and female). Also, there’s probably something non-threatening for these women about the married guy with a kid, talking music and such while not hitting on them. Trust me. I’m not bragging.
This is not about titillation or some adulterous contemplation. My partner is not jealous, nor should she be. This town is small enough that there may be whispers. I know I’ve heard them about other married guys my age or older who I see out and about, but that’s not me and that’s not why I’m writing this.
There are things that separate me from the young. These things might even be what make me such a nonthreatening novelty around town, but these characteristics clearly keep me from being seen as a potential suitor at best or stalker at worst[3]. Of course, these things are what I write about almost exclusively on this blog: craft beer and indie rock[4].
At times, there are things I do or preferences I have that can cause me to be perceived as cooler or unreachable than I actually am. For example, a few weekends ago, I participated in a casual tasting of beers that featured an extraordinary number of rare and insanely big beers. You can see for yourself on my Untappd feed for March 25th[5]. On a musical note, I just received the new Lee Ranaldo solo record[6], of Sonic Youth fame. What these two facts might tell people – particularly young, hip women – is that I’m on a higher plain with my consumption of beer and music.
However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. That Sunday afternoon of beer revelry nearly did me in. I didn’t wake with a hangover, mostly because I fell asleep before dinner. The fact that I’m so into Sonic Youth that I even buy their solo records is really pathetic in that the one time I had an opportunity to speak with Lee Ranaldo, I chickened out like a typical fan-boy. The point is that I’m not nearly as cool as the things in which I consume.
Conversely, I’m probably not as boring and dad-like as a few of my other choices would suggest. Alongside the Lee Ranaldo record, I’ve been listening to new records by The Shins[7] and White Rabbits[8]. One (The Shins) smells of dad-rock[9]. The other shows an aging hipster grasping at newer indie bands that aren’t all that new nor indie. Of course, I like variety and have followed these bands before they were ignored by the likes Pitchfork and Hipster Runnoff. These records making it to my regular rotation have less to do with me being an out-of-touch dad than they have to do with habits, loyalty, and a general interest in how music develops over time.
I also have some mainstream tastes in beer. There was a recent crawfish boil in our neighborhood. These gatherings are often an opportunity to pull out some nice beers to share. However, I opted to be one of the group[10], bringing a selection of a variety of APA’s, amber ales, and other less-extreme brews. It didn’t show me softening since that epic tasting the weekend prior, but it showed that I can have craft beer that fits any situation. Craft beer is for the people, not just the beer geek set.
I don’t know what I’m really trying to say here. It’s just an attempt to bust my slump and work out of this hiatus. I realize that the post comes off as conceited, but that’s not how I meant it. My point is that I am perceived a certain way that is both attractive and somewhat banal. The pressures of living up to perceptions that I’m something more than I am can crush my creativity at times. Additionally, the normality of drinking beer and listening to rock and roll isn’t always that inspiring, hence the hiatus.
Sorry for coming out of the hiatus with such a rambly mess. It can only go up from here. In the meantime, enjoy the return of footnotes. Look for some regular series[11] of posts and hopefully less rambly ramblings.
Notes:
1 Yes, it seems the hiatus is over. There’s not much of a focus just yet, but I have ideas. I’m cutting back on beer and music expenses. so, this should be interesting. Stay tuned. And, yes, the footnotes are back for the time being. Also, as long as it has taken me to write this post, it has actually been a long time ago, but I digress.
2 Of course, “young” is relative. I’m 37 and anyone under 20 is young to me. Anyone under 25 is a kid.
3 I do worry more about being perceived as a creepy old guy more than a target of affection. The potential whispers about my fidelity do not bother me, but being seen as a stalker does. Hopefully, that’s not how anyone perceives me.
4 Yes, young women (and men) enjoy craft beer and indie rock. However, the craft beer of which I speak is often beyond the average income of a college student. So, PBR or their ilk are often the preferred option. Also, the kids don’t really call it “indie rock.” I’m not sure anyone really does anymore. Additionally, the particular brand of indie I discuss is more closely related to my college days than theirs. Go, back and quit reading the footnotes for more on this.
5 Again, not bragging. I just happen to know some incredibly generous beer enthusiasts in my own age group.
6 It’s poppier than I would have ever guessed. Plus, it sounds as if Ranaldo is trying to drop his deadpan, spoken-word-style vocals for singing. It actually sounds like he’s trying to sing. It’s a bit of a mixed bag overall, especially when he slips in some slide guitar here and there. It’s a fine record, I guess.
7 This record has been growing on me. It’s bigger and showier than past efforts. One can hear the difference professional musicians make. I suspect The Shins will improve as James Mercer figures out how to write songs for/with this new crew of Shins.
8 White Rabbits hail from right here in Middle Missouri, but they apparently didn’t learn to play instruments until they hit Brooklyn. They’ve moved from sounding like The Walkmen to Spoon, now they sound like themselves, perhaps. It’s a talented group, but I’m not sure I’m digging the bigger vibes at the moment. It might grow on me, but I have doubts.
9 Dad rock is basically anything that might have appealed to dads during their college days only it’s friendlier. See: Wilco.
10 Often, I show up to neighborhood parties and get-togethers with fancy beers that only I drink. So, rather than getting drunk in the afternoon sun, I opted for some safer selections that I could have left behind had the day gone too long.
11 For me, describing them as series means that I won’t have to post them on any kind of schedule. I’ve tried schedules and they just don’t work for me. The following are what I’m considering. You can decide what they mean: Indie-Craft Interviews, Stupid S*** I Wrote, BICTB&P Hall of Fame, Key Party, I Can’t Sing It Strong Enough…
Hiatus
I’m going on hiatus for a bit. It seems life has been passing me by and I need to be in the present a bit more. Of course, the last time I went on hiatus, I posted two day later. That was followed by a flurry of posts. However, this feels different. I’m sort of over writing about consumption. I’ve started many posts and have just not had it in me to write anymore about beer and music.
Check in periodically. I’m sure that something will make me want to write. Also, be sure to search the archives. There are some gems in there, you just have to search them out.
-Zac
A Rant Against Beer-Themed Holidays
This past weekend, many Americans proclaimed themselves Irish as an excuse to get ridiculously drunk on green beer. Aside from the nausea induced by the idea of fizzy yellow stuff tinted with food coloring for anyone who takes craft beer seriously, St. Patrick’s Day is just another horridly bastardized cultural holiday Americans have ruined in the name of over-consumption. Throw in Cinco De Mayo and almost any day associated with a saint (including the Super Bowl – Saint Lombardi), holidays meant to celebrate a culture and its many contributions to society are simply dismissed as another way for industrialized, rice-adjunct lager to destroy our livers and taint our criminal records, not to mention their assault on our taste buds.
As a beer enthusiast, I love any opportunity to celebrate with beer. However, whether it’s for a holiday or just getting together with friends, I cringe at the idea of drinking with the sole intention of just getting drunk. It’s particularly offensive once we associate drunken debauchery with an entire culture just because that’s how it was marketed to us. Is it really fair to celebrate our perception that the Irish are a bunch of drunks?
The mainstream take on St. Patrick’s Day is beer culture at its worst. There is no acknowledgement of actual Irish tradition. Green-colored, light American lager is not what’s served in Irish pubs. So, it’s not even remotely authentic. If there was ever a time for some “real ale”, St. Patrick’s Day would be a fine day to try some. What makes this all worse is that Irish culture is so much more than beer… Of course, this is a beer blog, so I’ll stick with what I do.
Who’s to blame for this misappropriation of St. Patric’s Day?
I blame the big beer makers and their marketers. Someone did some research and found that there’s a fantastic pub culture in Ireland. Instead of emulating the beer in Ireland, they decided just to add food coloring to the cheap stuff (or buy a name in the case of Killian’s). All in the name of making some profits in mid-March, these companies and their marketing machines have misrepresented a holiday that celebrates the accomplishments of an entire culture.
This marketing then does what the beer companies do best which is appeal to the lowest common denominator in hopes of selling more product to mindless consumers. The message is that on March 17th, we all wear the most ridiculously green outfit or costume we can find and drink ourselves silly. It doesn’t matter what sort of nod we think we’re giving to Irish culture, we just want to drink.
This is too bad. After all, a holiday such as St. Patrick’s Day could have a positive effect on our perceptions of Irish culture. For one, it could be a day to positively look at immigration and all the contributions immigrants (not just the Irish) have had on this country. Besides, it only takes a quick trip over to Wikipedia to realize that St. Patrick’s Day has other meanings to the Irish and their connection to Catholicism that only remotely has something to do with drinking. A moment to recognize Irish immigration, culture, and history might be hard to do between green Jello shots and keg stands.
To be clear, I am not against partaking in some St. Patrick-themed fun. The day used to serve as an excuse for the Irish to feast and beer goes well with a good feast. Having some greenish attire and calling yourself Irish in search of affection is cool as well. What I’m railing against is the practice of mindless over-consumption under the guise of a cultural celebration. Let’s have some fun but do it with a purpose.
I meant to post this before St. Patrick’s Day (hence the inevitable verb tense issues). So, the point is moot. However, as we near industrial beer’s next great holiday, Cinco De Mayo, remember that Mexicans don’t really celebrate this day and that it has little to do with a skunked beer enhanced with a slice of lime.
Beer and Pavement 
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