Are you a fan of Stone Arrogant Bastard by the way?

At some point that gets silly. Lets be beer lovers, not wine haters or wine wannabees.

Ultimately, I dislike any effort to elevate beer that compares it to wine. As the above comments confirm, beer has its own unique character and traits. We should promote it by teaching people about those traits and helping them to develop a long-term interest in the things that only beer can offer.

To bandy the phrase about is to embrace trendiness: those recruited under its banner will flee just as soon as they hear of the next beverage trend.

The next time I attend a retirement dinner at some stuffy, old-fashioned restaurant, I will probably be able to order a decent glass of beer.

It is ridiculous for a “nice” restaurant (defined by me as an eatery with white tablecloths) to have a decent wine list, but only offer macro-lager beers.

If we as fans, brewers, and promoters of good beer keep comparing it to wine as if beer were was the younger brother of an overly successful sibling then beer will never come into its own. Even if sometimes it does behave like that cousin you hope doesn’t RSVP to your wedding. Beer is great, beer belongs at the table, and BEER IS BEER!

Imagine that beer does get to be as “accepted” as wine, that all the people who devote so much time to understanding wines focus on beer and that all decent restaurants have decent beer lists.

The result? Rare / difficult to produce beers start costing hundreds of pounds. Perhaps we should all be grateful that the critical world ignores it.

In terms of matching though – there are some foods that you can’t match with wine, and a few that you can’t match with anything. There are certainly beers that I would never try and match with food. I don’t feel like I’m trying to “validate” beer by matching it with food – I just like beer and food.

From a marketing standpoint, I agree.

But from a good sense standpoint I don’t.

I don’t think beer needs “validating” this way. It’s not only new variations that deserve respect but also “traditional” beers.

1. It makes beer geeks feel better about themselves by elevating a working-class beverage.

2. It will allow fancy restaurants to charge dear prices for that feeling.

Considering how hard it is to make it in the restaurant biz, and how some folks love to spend money for the thrill of it, I think this is a win-win situation.