Read last week: What Would Beer Taste Like Without The Internet? – A Rebuttal, from Jordan St. John, replying to a post by Jeff Alworth.
I pass it along not only because I think the combination of five words at the top should be put to music, but because it helps explain why the speed at which beers that don’t taste like beers that came before are being introduced.
Fifty years after Fritz Maytag bought control of Anchor Brewing Company in 1965, he talked about the importance of tradition, at least in his mind. “Mind you, there was no beer in the world more traditional than ours. Pure water, good yeast, malted barley, hops. Period,” he said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. “No additives, no chemicals, no nothing. That was a theme we felt strong about. To make old-fashioned beer in a pure, simple way.”
Although I might like the beers being referred to, I also have reservations about the phrase “beer flavored beer.” Mr. Tradition shouldn’t act as a gatekeeper.
With that in mind, from St. John:
“[Today] you’ve got tens of thousands of brains working on creation in concert in what may as well be a massively decentralized iteratively developmental simulator, sharing their data with each other in real time via social media. The technology has turned us into a computational device.
“When you see a brewer or brewery post on social media telling you about their product, whether it’s the strength, technique, malt bill, hop varieties, hopping rate, etc, they’re not only trying to position it to the consumer, they’re participating in a larger evolutionary discourse that is extant across an entire industry which has more participants than at any point in global history.”
You might also find these interesting:
– When friends actually did let friends drive drunk.
– Josh Noel confesses he owns 147 hard plastic beer can holders. I’ve always taken them back to breweries (not necessarily the ones they came from) when I was buying beer at their door. I would be happy to trade them for a pour.
– Interesting observations in a story about the young bosses of Silicon Valley who rode their unicorns to fame and fortune. May apply to some brewing industry members.
A reckoning. “Patience for visionaries wore thin. Founder-led companies started to seem like liabilities, not assets.”
A familiar attitude. “In start-up lore, Mark Zuckerberg pioneered the modern boy boss. Carrying business cards that read, “I’m C.E.O., bitch” and ruffling Wall Street feathers with his ‘disrespectful’ hoodie . . .”