Let me start this post with a story. It is a St. Patrick’s Day party. The corned beef is being prepared for the table and I pick up a Harp and drink it straight from the bottle. Now my friends have seen odd behavior from me before but even this is beyond the pale. I have told them on numerous occasions that you need to let the beer breathe. Was I going back on my word?
Yes and no. And it boils down to geek vs snob. Every thing in this world has enthusiasts and enforcers. From movies to architecture to beer. To me, geeks take pleasure in that (carefully chosen) movie or cafe while snobs are looking for chinks in the armor so they can take that musician or politician down a peg. Because that is where they get their pleasure. In feeling better than something else. I prefer to select the elite and celebrate what the best brewers in America bring to the table.
So why did I drink Harp from the bottle? Lazy is one for sure. I won’t deny it. But if it had been Crannog’s Beyond the Pale Ale, it would have gone into the glass. No questions asked. The main reason is that some beer is better cold and will not markedly improve in the proper glassware. Harp is a fine beer but a blah beer. Boring. Steady. Better than the mass marketed crap here by a long shot. But I do not need to carefully drink it and take tasting notes.
I’ve had it before and I understand it’s place in the beer world. Let me use cars to explain my point. Would you take the new Porsche (fresh from the dealer) to the grocery store and back? Or would you take it on the open road? Same with beers. Some beers are utilitarian. Crafted and artisan but still utilitarian. While other beers are meant to showcase the art of brewing.
And this is another fork in the road that separates the geeks from the snobs. A geek will drink the Harp. Enjoy what it is and move on. A snob will, either, not touch it or will pour it with great ceremony into a special glass and try to make more of it than it should be.
I am all for the proper temperature and the right glassware and other assorted beer geekery but I have learned to step back and enjoy beer. There are more than enough opportunities to carefully analyze a beer with the beer round table but there is just as much pleasure in enjoying a beer for the sake of enjoying beer.
For me, it is better to stop and savor each beer for what it is at that moment and what it’s purpose in that moment is. I know that is vague and zen-like, but grasshopper ,when you are sitting on the patio with a beer and your wife is there smiling. That is beervana and no snob can take that away from me.
