“A beer” can be applied to just about any carbonated alcoholic liquid-in-a-can, such as “the beast” (milwaukee’s best).
If you’ll pardon the phrase… “this ain’t that”.

Rather than trying to homogenize everything down to the lowest common denominator so that “everyone can be a winner (without having to try too hard)”, I for one would love to shrug off these Gen-Me-esque concepts and strive for excellence if that is what you’d like to do.

The Chevy Malibu is an ok vehicle (“a car”).
However, it’s no Ferrari and rightly so.
Just don’t try to dumb-down Ferrari simply because Chevy either isn’t capable to this level of quality or isn’t interested in trying.

Just because a beer is cloudy doesn’t mean it’s not an excellent beer. Appearance is kinda neat, but it’s purely aesthetic and has very little affect on the aspects of beer that matter; flavor, aroma and carbonation (mouthfeel). It really bothers me that the author suggests you send a beer back because it’s cloudy. He says “The only exception is if haziness is considered proper for the style of beer being served.”

The idea of making a decision about a beer based on what is “considered proper for the style” is the final wall the craft brewing industy needs to break down. These systematic rules that some people insist on using to define what is RIGHT and what is WRONG about a beer takes away from the potential creative expression of the brewer and the possibility of a new, unique and enjoyable experiences for the drinker. Everyone needs to calm down a little, expand your minds a bit, get rid of preconceptions and instead of deciding if a beer is what it “should” be or if it’s pretty, just decide if you like the actual beer.