Snob Vs. Geek

I have a friend with whom I occasionally have the opportunity to have a beer and discuss the state of beer in southeast Wisconsin. Terry is a member of the Belle City Home Brewers and Vintners and and the Milwaukee Beer Barons. He recently wrote an article for the Beer Barons newsletter, which I think is worth sharing with you.


PILSNER URQUELL RATES ONLY C+ BY BEER ADVOCATE

C+! It got a C+! When I saw it I thought I was going to explode. Maybe it was still Packer loss hangover, or just the general malaise from “the winter that would not end”. But there it was in black and white a C+ for the beer that changed the world. Maybe a little background is needed. My name is Terry and I am a beer geek! I love beer, not just the taste but the aroma, the texture and the even the way it looks. I will stare at my nitro poured Boddingtons like a bug in a jar. My wardrobe is 90% beer logoed, family vacations have brewpub stops filtered in, I love beer! I love the signs, the steins, the tap handles, the STUFF! I love beer, the process, the breweries and especially the history. I am a beer geek, but I am not a beer snob!

This is why when I read BeerAdvocates rating of Pilsner Urquel of a C+ I got mad. But wait, maybe something went wrong, maybe they got a skunky bottle, or god forbid is there an Urquel Lite? Curse you Miller! I quickly read the review. Then I saw “Even without a recipe change”. What!? Lacing and head retention is described as “quite amazing”. “Clean”, “very smooth”, “crisp”, are other adjectives used to describe this beer. Then there it is at the end, “globalization, growth, and popularity” Three words that beer snobs hate but stockholders and people who actually pay the bills love. Bottom line, Pilsner Urquell, one of the world’s greatest beers is now a C+ not based on aroma, flavor and mouth feel but based on the fact now it is available to more people!

This is snobbery, and in my opinion what is gone wrong in today’s beer culture. Last month this same magazine listed there top 25 beers on the planet, 6 out of the top 10 were Russian Imperial Stouts. Not since Catherine the Great has this style received such props. Out of 25 beers there was only one lager! This of course was some obscure beer only a few people ever heard of. And goodness knows if the monks of Saint-Sixtusabdj van Westvleteren actually marketed their beer to make money to do the Lord’s work, their precious #8 and # 12’s ratings would drop like a rock “even without a recipe change”. No, it’s time for me to give up BeerAdvocate. Recently while at Barnes and Noble I saw a new beer Magazine. I think it was called Beer. It had a lot of shiny pictures with a lot of well-endowed beerchicks and not much substance. But it was not preachy, pretentious, or snobby, it was just about beer. Maybe I’ll give it a shot. Cheers