I’m all for perspective, although I expect it to go out the window this weekend in Denver.
The Simpsons and Norm Peterson? How much more pop culture can the Great American Beer Festival handle? To keep us on an even keel All About Beer magazine had historian Maureen Ogle pen a piece titled “What Revolution?” for its 30th anniversary issue, “Beer: 30.”
Early on she writes:
“Here’s where I’m supposed to wax rhapsodic about the craft beer revolutionaries who taught Americans to drink real beer, and who changed the brewing industry forever.
“I’ll pass. I’m a historian, and it’s my job to take the Long View of the Big Picture. And from my vantage point, what was fringe in 1979 is fringe in 2009, and the ‘revolution’ was not.”
Certainly not as she, and many other people, would define it. Perspective indeed, although I’m sure if she were going to be in Denver we could line up plenty of people to debate that thought. I’d like to take the other side on two different statements.
Second, she writes, “Morever, entrepreneurs are ambitious. They will always strive for more. And so small brewers expand their brewhouses in order to satisfy their ambitions and to ensure the financial future of the children and grandchildren who are born in between mashing and lagering.”
What’s changed since 1979 is that a person who wants to run a small brewing business, and keep it small, can. Yep, it’s that simple.
Now onto the first. “For every five beer geeks who applaud the arrival of say, Groovy California Brewing Co.’s ‘local’ beer on the east coast, at least one will criticize Groovy’s ambitions and find something else to drink. Something more pure, more real, more local. Something less, well, ‘successful.'”
How about choosing local because tastes better? Again it can be that simple.
Just wanted to be on the record with those two thoughts. Of course I’m the guy who when AABM asked for predictions for the next 30 years (those appear at the back of the magazine) responded with more of a wish than a prediction:
“We will continue to most enjoy beers made by breweries where, if the guy in charge really needed to put on his boots, walk into the brewhouse and make a batch of beer, he could.”
Really enjoyed reading that issue. I wish they’d put Burt Reynolds on the cover again. Oh well, maybe DRAFT will do it.
I think it is important to think about what we bring to any question, whether beery or not, whether history or ethics. Maureen brings the interest in entrepreneurial achievement to her analysis – defining it as success – and sees the world through that lens. I am not entirely convinced by it but it is a good perspective if only because it is not the same perspective. I am also not convinced, Stan, that people actually gravitate to better tasting and local but I know you see it as a driver. It is also a good one.
For me, asking how much more pop culture can the Great American Beer Festival handle is an oxymoron as the GABF is pop culture and in the consumer society pop culture is a huge force in creating identity in the consumer. Some and likely most will always want the homogeneity that connects them to others, helps them avoid standing out, being regular – succesful in the eyes of the neighbours. Success in the market will always feed upon that need. Others seek easily attained distinction that buying (and gathering knowledge and experience about) a low cost niche product offers. Hardscrabble lies that way but there is a living to be made. But few are actually seeking the path of enlightenment that is based on authenticity of the thing itself – beery or not.
Craft beer is revolutionary but only in that it is part of a larger movement. The US craft beer movement coincides with the arc of trends in music like punk rock, in politics like the breakdown of party affiliation, in deeper shifts like the move away from traditional denominations or any religious affiliation. Like buying better baked goods or not settling for acrid industrial residues label “coffee”. People will still buy white bread and white bread bakers will be well off. But it’s not a very interesting element of the culture or indicative of where the culture is going. It’s just where it’s been.
To one degree or another, while have shaken off our “betters” and homogenized models of success, we have not necessarily replaced them with an improvement. For example, I see (from my high chair at the children’s table) the move in recent years to “pairing” craft beer and holding expensive dinners (in addition to celebrity brewers) as just another in a line of attempts to find that sort of improvement, to stake a claim for craft beer to greater cultural validity beyond its place in (and defined by) the market. But it seems overly self-conscious and, also, unnecessary. Frankly, given the slight tinge of neediness, I am surprised a Canadian didn’t come up with the idea.
No, we don’t find a revolution when we go looking because we are in the midst of evolution. A slower process but also more steadfast. Until it is replaced by the next thing – as is always the case with pop culture.
Well put, Alan, on all counts – both the pop culture aspect and the entrepreneurial one. I particularly like the addition at your site and music analogy.
Stan, I just got back in touch with your blog after a Tom Cizauskas citation. It’s a great read and great writing style. I’m going to enjoy working through the backlog. See you in Denver.
Cheers, Rick
Well, as always, you guys sound a hell of a lot smarter than me.
And to confirm that, I’ve posted the first of three chunks of what got edited out of the All About Beer essay. (Daniel originally asked for, and got, 4,000 words. He ran only 2,000.)
The first bit is here.
I actually think it is ahistorical to assume that ambition is at the heart of every American economic decision and activity. In the nineteenth century, brewers were capable of remaining completely local and brewing over 100,000 barrels. Shipping brewers from the Midwest became national brewers for specific economic reasons and within a specific economic and historical context. Taking the long view does not mean you should flatten out historical differences and exceptions.
In today’s economic climate, I think there is validity in considering that in many ways there are two beer markets or industries, the huge mega brewers and then the craft beer industry. It seems to me that craft brewer can remain local and do very well. This could be his or her choice and a way of defining ambition on their own terms.
Well put, Amy. Obviously many craft brewers also choose to sell beer some distance from home.
One thing that is different from 1880 or 1980 is that it is now easier for somebody running a small brewery to make beer of similar technical quality to a larger brewery, at least if it is consumed rather quickly and close to home.