I think the forces of anti-neo-prohibition are at it again. I have never been sure who the anti-neo-prohibitionists are but that goes for neo-prohibitionists as well. They each stand for everything good as well as everything else and in the end look a lot like each other. Best of all, they aren't really a "they" at all. It's just folks thinking about something and needing to make a generalization about it in order to make sure that the equation "X=good" means "X=what I like already".

You see it when someone can write: "... none of it will work because the ‘misuse’ of alcohol isn’t nearly as bad as the government or the corporate do-gooders would have us believe" without the slightest evidence to back it up other than following it with reference to "the puritanical anti-drinking movement." Safe to say, when you see this sort of thing you are dealing with the closed mind of the anti-neo-prohibitionists... or neo-prohibitionists depending on the brand of outlandishness foisted upon your eyes.

You also see it in other ways. Self congratulations. Chest thumping king of the hillery. First prize giving. Now, I like Jeff Alworth as much as the next guy but he is getting a lot of responses to his suggestion that in his home state of Oregon "we are abandoning the larger quantities of cheap beer for the smaller quantities of good beer" and, as a result, has determined that craft beer has become "competing cultural model for alcohol consumption that encourages healthy behavior." Well, just as we understand that there are actual social issues in the UK related to alcohol use (even if cask ale isn't to blame) we also realize people are cutting back and shifting drinking compared to past decades for any number of reasons which are related much to the shift caused by Jane Fonda's exercise VHS tapes as well as the breakdown of family life being based on post-work male bonding in bars in favour of driving children around in mini-vans to their incessant activities (though craft beer may add a 1% shift plus or minus.)

One of the oddest first prizes you see fans of craft beer giving each other is the "I drink less because I drink craft beer" blue ribbons. My experience of craft beer drinkers has been somewhat less purifying than that - though, to be very fair, witnessing the huge amount of pleasure that Stan got from a very small portions of very good beer was a revelation. Frankly, I think a fair measure of craft beer consumption is pretty much the same as non-craft beer consumption. Some have a little and some have a lot. In Pete's words it's about "managing their arc of inebriation in a way with which they feel comfortable" - aka the buzz even if a tasty buzz.

So, given all that tell me this: do you really drink less? Do you drink less because you are older? Because society has shifted? Because craft beer is a drink for people over 30? And if you don't drink less than you did when you were in undergrad... what the hell is wrong with you?