Craft beer demystified

Comments

1. Auntiegrav says

   January 16, 2011 at 11:35 am

   Gee whiz. I didn’t know I was such an idiot because I don’t like the taste of beer. I must immediately run out and buy all of these special brands so that I may be included in the group of people “We don’t know what food is, but we like to pretend we know a lot about one thing that nobody needs, and everybody pretends to like.”
   The only thing worse than beer snobs are people who fall for this stuff.
   If it tastes bad, don’t drink it.
   If someone tells you “It’s an acquired taste.”, that means it tastes bad.
   Beer is an unfortunate way to store calories. Run the grain through some chickens and eat them.
   Better yet, from a ‘transition’ standpoint, try and figure out where you are going to get all of the starch for beer under a permaculture growing system.

   Reply

   • Lindsay Curren says

     January 16, 2011 at 12:33 pm

     Thanks for chiming in, but don’t worry Auntiegrav, no one’s going to hold you down and make you drink beer, whether you like the taste or not. No beer bongs for you! Besides, the less you like it, more for the rest of us.

     And anyway, this was half posted tongue-in-cheek. Not taking everything too seriously, we find, goes a long way in life.

     But as to your final point, societies throughout human history have made alcohol as a way to store grain. We’re going to grow grain. Societies have grown grain for 5,000 years. Those roadway medians look like fine places to grow it, too.

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     • Auntiegrav says

       February 2, 2014 at 9:40 am

       Sorry for a delayed reply, Lindsay. I was browsing some old emails and found your response. You said, “Thanks for chiming in, but don’t worry Auntiegrav, no one’s going to hold you down and make you drink beer, whether you like the taste or not.”

       Apparently, you’ve never been to a NAVY party.

       Reply

2. Joshua Nelson says

   May 12, 2011 at 12:18 pm

   Beer is an ancient tradition in human culture, only young in comparison to grape wine and mead (honey wine, the oldest fermented beverage). We will be making alcohol out of grain on into the future, though I believe it will only get smaller (mirco-breweries) and more sustainable – and not necessarily out of requirement because of climate change and peak oil, but also because beer tastes better when made this way.

   I have a theory that beer is only good when made by local micro-breweries. Mind you, I live in the Pacific Northwest, where breweries are everywhere and nearly all of them are great (sorry East coast, but it’s true. IPA made here is much better, in particular). I’ve tasted great beer from local breweries when they were small, then again once they get larger and start distributing nationally (or get bought out by a big brewery) and the quality suffers. (Fat Tire is a good example, used to be great and today tastes like a slightly more flavorful Budweiser)

   So, in the spirit of Transition and craft beer – drink local! And be courageous, try a beer that is outside the bud-light and pilsner style, you might be surprised.

   Cheers,
   Joshua

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