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.

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.

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.

Cheers, Rick

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.