Comments on: The bittersweet fruits of bringing craft beer mainstream

By: The Mother of All Father’s Day Festivals « The Thirsty Hopster

The Mother of All Father’s Day Festivals « The Thirsty Hopster — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:28:08 +0000

[...] social lubrication, and silliness. However, I’ve been to more than a few festivals (ahem, San Francisco International Beer Festival) where silliness devolves into obnoxious shouting, dangerous glass smashing, and misguidedly macho [...]

By: purlygrrrl

purlygrrrl — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:15:15 +0000

I had a similar experience at the Great British Beer Festival– which is totally massive. I wished they had little taster glasses like that– the smallest glass you can try is 1/3 pint, which really means you have to plan and pace yourself.

It was definitely a sausage fest. Beer in Britain seems almost more of a macho affair than in America. There were women there but they seemed like maybe they were attending to drag there man home when he’d had one too many. Of course there were a couple women beer-lovers there– it was easier to break the ice with them because, hell, we were like unicorns in that sea of ladish suits and bearded fusties!

By: rdenunzio

rdenunzio — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:17:27 +0000

PS Just tried the “Origin” pomegranate ale the other day, too, with an equally “meh” response.

By: rdenunzio

rdenunzio — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:34:55 +0000

The thing that’s really twisting my mind about your write-up here - which is great, as usual - is how completely Twilight Zone identical your experience was this year as mine was, what, three years ago? Four years ago?

Granted, back the the B&T kids were all wearing Gucci and A&F, and Blue Moon hadn’t come out yet, but some details have to change, I guess.

Down to the *huge* crowds of kids trying to get loaded at the Shiner booth and the part where I had the Ommegang table all to myself, it’s like you pretty much relived our experience, an experience I now think is shared by the tiny handful of craft beer fiends that show up at that fest looking to be introduced to something new and exciting. We actually just chatted the Ommegang guy up for about half an hour about brewing techniques, spices, the emerging role of American-Belgo brewing, all while he went to his car and pulled stuff out he hadn’t wanted to pour for the crowds (whereby I too gave the blessed Three Philosophers top marks when we left).

I guess my gut reaction then is that despite what seems to us beer aficionados as a rapid ascent of the craft beer movement is actually much more gradual in the real world, and slowly taking on the added ballast of the macros’ introduction of camo-craft beers. Does the SF Int’l Beer Fest help expose the brilliance of craft brewing? Not so much, I still think. Kinda sad so hear how little it’s changed…

By: chipperdave

chipperdave — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:29:41 +0000

Sounds like that was a fun festival. So many good beers and it’s a shame you can’t try them all even if you wanted to. I like to stick to one or two styles during a session at a beer fest. After a while, you lose the ability to taste the subtle differences. Love hearing about what you enjoyed. Look forward to trying some of those beers.