This week of the summer head cold has led to questions and grumbling. And it's just not only about how pumpkin beers in 2012 can be made with 2011 pumpkin preserved mash if they are supposed to be some sort of harvest celebration. Maybe it's the dog days of summer but there is much head scratching going on:
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Jeff points out that women may well not be jumping on any bandwagon waving the good beer banner. Did anyone think we were watching a market shift?
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Despite claims that you need to spend money and go to seminars and get certificates, the vast majority are happy with their own understanding of beer. What is the ultimate capacity for this sort of training? And how much of it will go beyond hobby interest?
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The making of silly rapidly disintegrating beers attracts more questions than respect... well, from me at least. What is, however, the point at which the newest form of new beer will just be so utterly silly that it flops?
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The marketplace has shown that there is no real money in good beer hospitality training. Beer just does not have the mark up to justify it. Or are you willing to pay 15 bucks a glass to have the waiter then tell you how clever you were to choose the beer that cost 15 bucks a glass?
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And, most oddly, consider the case of the beer writer who is locked in the 1990s. Makes one wonder what it is like to live without the initiative to engage with the discourse. Or was someone owed a living?
Is there anything up there that you really care about? Or is the Tandyman right? One thing that undercuts my concern is the continuing indications that the trustworthiness of information does not match up to the claims which are made based on that information. Is it a subject matter that is really worth study or is it part of popular culture, a hobby interest, a diversion?
To be honest, with the majority of beer writing I actually have a hard time understanding what is being described. Or why. Does the columnist write to meet the deadline or to explain a new thought? Does the same format of beer book get published by a new author every fall to explain what has been reviewed in a better way or because every publisher figures it should have a good beer book in its line? Was what ever is being discussed all that necessary?
I have optimism. Beer, after all, is good and usually not a rip off. Its actual history has been largely undescribed but good folk are working away at it. And the good stuff is more and more available so that the experience need to be mediated by the few. Does much else really matter enough to complain about?
Comments
Stan Hieronymus - August 24, 2012 10:52 PM
Hey Alan - I could be wrong (I'm used to it) but the MBAA and Cicerone programs are not intended for consumers but for people who make life better for consumers.
Alan - August 25, 2012 8:32 AM
"...people who make life better for consumers..."
You have just lost me. I am pretty sure that just the mark up required to introduce the You Don't Know Enough To Be Happy program for people who enjoy beer already is not a great idea.
What makes you think that beer fans need a better life?
Bailey - August 25, 2012 8:57 AM
If courses and training mean that we can visit a restaurant and see a carefully chosen selection of beer rather than the five crap beers their wine distributor happens to stock, then that's good news as far as we're concerned.
Alan - August 25, 2012 9:12 AM
But does it mean that? Purchasing of stock and front line training are different things, no? I am quite content to go into bars, find at good bottle or tap and happily ignore the waiters who has no clue what they are serving me. I actually assume I will know more because of my hobby interest. Frankly, I am there for a beer and maybe a meal, too, not a conversation.
Alan - August 25, 2012 9:31 AM
Because one way or another this is where it is all leading:
"...“Celebrity” brewers in the form of guest beer writers, visiting brewers and colleagues will also add to the diversity of the brews..."
Lord help us.
Stan Hieronymus - August 25, 2012 1:27 PM
To be more specific, the program is intended for "Front-of-the-house bartenders, wait staff, retail clerks, and duty managers who want to learn more about beer,"
Craig - August 25, 2012 2:42 PM
As much as restaurants, be them high-end or otherwise, may think that a cicerone is going to increase sales as a "value added service", I'm not convinced. I think realistically, people are craft beer drinkers or their not. Think of it like quitting smoking. People will quit when their ready, no amount of anti-smoking propaganda is going to really affect anything. The same goes for beer drinkers. A restaurant hiring a cicerone isn't going to convert a Bud Light Drinker—and that Bud Light drinker isn't going to make the decision to go to that restaurant because the have on on staff beer nerd. Having a knowledgeable staff is one thing, and it's great if the bar's buyer buys great beer, but I don't think you need a cicerone to do that. Honestly I don't think 99% of patrons would care if a restaurant does or does not have one. It just seems like a group of beer nerds trying to get paid for being beer nerds.
Alan - August 25, 2012 9:01 PM
I know Stan. That is why I wrote "...the vast majority are happy with their own understanding of beer." Training front of house staff to train customers is both an expense and the assumption I am writing about.
Jeff Alworth - August 26, 2012 9:08 PM
"Or are you willing to pay 15 bucks a glass to have the waiter then tell you how clever you were to choose the beer that cost 15 bucks a glass?"
If I had had a mouthful of beer when I read that, it would have shot out my nose.
I guess I'm slightly on the fence on this one. Whenever I talk to people who are sheepish about feeling they don't know enough about good beer, I try to convince them that they don't really need to know that much. Beer is pretty simple, and people don't need a lot of information to sort themselves by style.
On the other hand, when I walk into a restaurant/pub and find an unfamiliar beer, I want the server to offer more than "it's pretty dark" as a description. Twice in recent weeks I've gone into a place and had a beer described as being "like Stella," and in both cases this was wildly inaccurate. (It was like Stella in that it was not a cup of coffee.) I'm always appreciative when someone gives me a decent idea what kind of beer it is.
Alan - August 26, 2012 9:15 PM
I hear you and, while I am glad the clever sentence had sinus filling capacity I have a third experience most times. I want a bar tender to tell me what you got and I will take a stab at a best guess myself. Even with a well informed bar tender, I feel I am listening to a script rather than having a conversation.
But I am cursed from having pursued this hobby. I don't know what a newbie would want anymore. Haven't for years.