Beer Industry Reacts to ‘The New Yorker’ Cover
Nora D. McGunnigle
I think it’s interesting that beer finally finds legitimacy as an alternative to wine or spirits when paired with food, specifically high-end food. In New Orleans and Louisiana, food pairing is the best way to convert people to craft beer, because it’s introduced as melding and complementing flavors, something that the locals here are very familiar with as a matter of course. I think that breweries and beer nerds should concern themselves less with being legitimate or high end or upscale and just enjoy the ever-expanding range of flavors and styles available and have fun with playing with the pairings with food. Beer is delicious. Beer is fun. Let’s not lose sight of that.
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Love it. Sez everything you need to know about cool dining circa the 20-Teens.
Gotta love how Sam Calagione begins with totally unrelated self-promotion. Maybe he was something ‘back then’, but there are so many others before and after him who just shut up and made real beer. Sorry, but the Dogfish train has left the station.
This comment goes to show that you are beer snob. How hard is it to accept that there are other people out there that enjoy different types of beer than you like.
If there wasn’t people like Sam it would always be the same boring things.
-Just J
I think you need to re-read Sam’s answer, he drank a bunch of Italian beers & did a collaboration with an English brewery (that he isn’t selling, the English brewery is). He is simply talking about how American craft beers are now influencing the rest of the world, which is the opposite of how things use to be. Whether you like their beer or not, Dogfish Head has been innovating brewing since there humble beginnings & seem to be continuing to do so.
“Just J”, DogFish continue to innovate as they always have.
Sure, DFH is not the fastest brewer in terms of turnaround on specials, seasonals, one-offs or other experimentation. But they’re consistently creative, and they often put WAY more effort into researching a brew first (compared to breweries that experiment semi-randomly and try to sell it).
Case in point is DogFish’s collaboration and support of Pat McGovern’s archeology and ancient brewing recreations. But this is only one of several themes DFH does.
I honestly don’t know if you’re a true beer snob, or simply trolling. I’ve considered myself a beer snob since 1994 (and it’s why I got into brewing), and a long time BFD member, and NO ONE I know would make your comment about DFH.
Perhaps you mis-spoke and meant to say “Red Hook”?
^J, I feel like you missed the point. He’s simply saying that craft beer is exploding all I over the world, not just in BK, NY, or the US. 15 years ago, the idea of Italian craft brewers was probably pretty far-fetched.
I agree with you on the issue of variety. I am often asked what style of beer I prefer and have no answer. I appreciate many styles with the exception of fruit and spiced beers which I avoid. I do wish more servers had a greater knowledge of the beers that they offer!
Craft beer going mainstream in America is so refreshing to see, and gives hope to fledgling movements, like the one in Japan. 200+ craft breweries and growing!
HAHAHA @ “Mr. I-only-drink-double-IPAs” from Cicerone Certification Program.
This has been my beef with craft beer for the last couple of years. I’ve been drinking stouts, ambers, and browns lately trying to recover a few tastebuds after getting blown out by over hopped ales.
Who cares? I’ve been drinking all styles for 20 years and since 2006 it’s been pretty much all IPAs. Drink what you enjoy, if it’s Keystone Light, some Belgian or a sour. Why would you have a “beef” with someone’s palate?
We don’t need to do that tasting thing. As long as you’re ordering a reputable beer there’s not a 10% chance it will be spoiled.
Unless the distributor let it get hot, or the restaurant has dirty lines, or…
Hopefully you get the point – that there are many potential opportunities for spoilage/issues along the path from brewery to consumer.
I’d swear that was a scene from a Portland pub! Beer does deserve a place on the same shelf as wine, and anyone who says otherwise is snobby or naive. I could have chosen beer or wine as a profession, but went the beer route because of all the great, lovable personalities in the business. We sell great beer without pretension or a stuffy suit, and good, long-lasting friendships are made from that.
Honestly, I thought it was ridiculing the pseudo-intellectualization of craft beer by people who pretend to know or care anything about what they are drinking, just so they can appear to be hip. It seems to me to be satirizing the classic wine-snob restaurant moment–not celebrating our excellent local beermakers and genuinely informed beer drinkers–and implying that if “beer is the new wine,” the designation is a double-edged sword at best.
Beer Snobs on New Yorker Cover: Geeks Unsure If They Should Celebrate http://www.heybrewtiful.com/2014/10/craft-beer-mocked-on-cover-of-new.html
I’m 45, and Iv’e all way’s loved beer, even before I was 21, and personally glad it’s finally getting the respect, and attention, it has all ways deserved! Beer Is THE “Nectar Of The God’s”!
I love this cover! It’s great that widely distributed publications like the New Yorker are starting to take notice, and spread the word about craft. It’s about time!
This easily could represent (most of) the US and obviously not just Brooklyn. I’ve been called snob pleantly of times, but its mostly by ignorant (as in not knowing anything about beer) Bud Light, Coors Light or Miller Light drinking people who refer to quality craft beer as “dark beers” and go around saying “I don’t do those fancy dark beers”. I really don’t mind being called a “beer snob” it just means I enjoy quality over crap.
The illustration depicts a restaurant, but it easily could be a brewery tasting room as well. Beer is vastly different even now than it was just five years ago, let alone the 30-something years that is the breadth of this flavor renaissance. Give it another five years and perhaps the faces populating the illustration will have changed, as certain elements/facets mature and other undercurrents surface to make their mark.
It appears “The New Yorker” is once again validating itself as the epicenter of all things new and zeroing in on hipster mecca Brooklyn as the center of the craft beer universe.
I echo Greg Koch’s sentiments that your average craft beer drinker is not a neck tattoo guy or an extra from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video from 1991. People from all walks of life and ages are into craft beer; my 70 year old dad has been drinking them for almost 10 years.
The pull of craft beer is not exclusive to hipsters, indie-rockers, and neo-hippies.
The cover has little to do with beer and a lot to do with Brooklyn hipsters taking themselves too seriously…about anything, not just beer.
And all the beer execs getting their panties in a bunch over it is even funnier. It’s social criticism, not beer criticism.
Some people don’t even know how to look at pictures to let them speak first before the personal biases kick in.
it’s fair to say that this is a golden age for beer drinkers seldom has there been such quality & variety available to Joe public. The New Yorker has taken a snapshot (if you will) that could just as easily be London or any large cosmopolitan city. As a UK publican & self confessed beer groupie I’ve endeavoured to wax lyrical about cask ale & craft keg. For the longest time I was the weirdo beer dude who compared beer to wine. Suddenly to my amusement A: I’m almost fashionable (still not sure how I feel about this fact) B: the inevitable incursion of wine snobbery has invaded my once peaceful Beery province or craftdom C: I apparently don’t fit in to the developing scene ( I can only assume my beard isn’t big enough & my jeans do not cut off circulation to my genitals)
Now quality is obviously important but in my opinion so diversity of beer style, breweries etc.so the one act I’ve seen more often than not by the enthusiastic but not so knowledgeable craft beer drinker is the “I only drink pale ales” or whatever the first beer style they stumbled upon was don’t get tied up people try as many style as you can get hold of & try to remember it’s beer not a fashion accessory. There’s a Beery brave New world dive in & drink it all up……
I was not impressed with the cover of the times??
I never felt I needed to “arrive” as a beer drinker…I have not been in competition with the people that drink wine?? If I had that in mind..I would have been drinking it!
Plus, I am not impressed with the people, nor the bar! This does not represent anybody I know..and the people it does represent would feel the same if it was me in that drawing!!I feel that it was, and is close to being racist?????? I am 73, and and have been drinking beer for many years..in every kind of establishment out there. I do not need anyone to accept me..nor the beverage I choose. Sad commentary on our world!
I’ve been looking for great beer since before the first “microbrew” – please ABB (anything but Bud in any form by any maker). I love most styles and have probably 150 different beers in my cellar, some 20 years old. I applaud punking the hipster and also the need to stop and think about the beer you are tasting. Find what you like but remember it is still just beer – putting on airs like that hipster is for fools – like speaking latin or going on about which side of the river a wine is from (as if the winemaker had nothing to do with it).
There is a large wave breaking behind the breweries and restaurants….it’s the wave of the homebrewing societies. Catch the VIBE.
Member: Ventura Independent Brewing Enthusiasts
The more hops the better