IF beer were the new wine

I prefer discussion about beer and wine, as opposed to beer versus wine. (And there is the matter of New Beer Rule #7: Beer is not the new wine.)

But “Why beer is the new wine, and wine the new fur coat” is so nicely written you should take the next six minutes (it is posted at Medium, that’s why I know long) to read it. Three sentences that might motivate you . . .

– Unlike wine, beer is subversive and lewd and witty.

– You know what the wine section looks like after you’ve strolled through the beer section? Like black-and-white TV after watching hi-res color video.

Go enjoy it. One reservation: I don’t consider wine an anachronism. Because the essay celebrates advances (I agree advance are good, just so you know) it would be easy to see some readers mentally substituting in “pale lager” for “wine” in the second excerpt. Pale lager is not an anachronism. So make that two reservations. Still a fun six minutes.

7 thoughts on “<em>IF</em> beer were the new wine”

  1. Can I gently argue that it was snottily written? It would be wonderful if someday somebody who knew both the wine and beer worlds were to write about both. This author is just enjoying scoring cheap and dubious points. Germany’s wine culture is as world-renowned as its beer culture. And the property deeds to pieces of dirt yield sublime wonders, and yet “engineering” is involved as well, but I guess that introduced problematic elements to the argument. And yet somehow beer recipes are both jealously guarded and open source, and the key to sharing and duplicating yet somehow unduplicable, and huh?

    Really, the world of wine is much more varied and rewarding than what your local supermarket offers. The author predicts wine folks will be shamed out of the snobbery and status-seekers like those who (once) wore fur, but perhaps the author fails to see he’s just moved the snobbery to a new home. Plus ca change…

  3. A guilty pleasure for sure but I agree with you both – very snotty. I would add to Bill’s statement about wanting to see a beer & wine drink write about both and add, I’d like that person to have brewed both.

    Any homebrewer knows it isn’t really in the recipe. Brewers give recipes away all the time – brewing is equal parts ingredients, recipe and craft.

    With writers like that beer will be the new w(h)ine.

    • Aleksei, if that last line were a tweet I would favorite it.

      I have a friend who became interested in brewing beer hanging out in my garage.

      He bought basic equipment and started brewing on his own. Decided it was not for him. Instead put some of the equipment to use making wine, starting with kits, of course. Now he essentially owns rows at a nearby vineyard, crushes his own grapes and make pretty nice wine.

  4. Amusing, witty, and It makes some good points in a rhetorical way. But at the end of the day, the two drinks are different since they serve different purposes. At bottom, wine needs food. There are exceptions of course, but that is the nub of it. At bottom, beer needs no such thing as it is a kind of nourishment itself. There are exceptions of course (beer-and- pizza or wings, say, even a well-planned beer dinner), but that is no less the nub of it. So comparing the two in any way, even that which speaks up for the good old every man’s drink which of course will appeal to all those who admire the malt, is kind of bootless I think. Still, his heart is in the right place – unless the whole thing was meant ironically, but I don’t think so.

    Gary

  5. Perhaps it was the mood I was in when I read it as I took it to be a fun and lighthearted read. Both beverages have their own unique incredible merits and the writer would be a fool to suggest otherwise. His wordplay (if intended) was not lost on me. Chateau Douchebag? Love it. But, it’s not to think that the beer industry is not seeing a growth its own sub-category of like “fans”.

    Thanks for the link, Stan.

  6. I just posted the article on my Facebook page, with the comment that, though there’s more here that I disagree with than agree, it’s so amusingly well-written it’s worth reading. I agree with Bryan — take it as though it were written in an ironic vein, whether or not this is true.

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