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…and So Can Writers
Like Hollywood, where one bad volcano movie begets another or a Sharknado leads to The Meg, beer writers fall into the follow the next tiny topic off the cliff all to easily.
The latest is the “Exploding Can” coming to a ‘fridge near you! You need to say that last bit in the movie trailer voice.
I have not had an exploding can nor a bottle in 2018. For that matter, I haven’t had a gusher since 2017 and that was from a corked and caged bottle. And looking back at my drinking history (yes, I keep one but that is a different post topic), I haven’t been a slouch in the drinking department. I certainly haven’t played it safe.
Now, I haven’t gotten any word on how many cans or bottles have done this nor do I know how you would nail down those statistics but it is another proof, to some in beer world that independent beer is not taking quality seriously.
This is usually followed by the old bromide that the macro beers should be cited for their quality control measures when, in fact, it is simply consistency control. If they could make and sell an even more flavorless beer for cheap, they would. Where is the quality there? Yes, most small breweries don’t have a QC staff. Yes, imperfect beers get by or are allowed by but I posit that, that is OK and that a good percentage of the people drinking craft beer have a tolerance level built in to their opinions. Quite frankly between buying a QC lab or buying health care for employees, I woul say, take the latter.
Secondly, there seem to be writers out there who are drinking a lot of exploding and bad beer that I am not encountering in my travels. I can’t imagine that I am that much better at picking better beers than people who write and edit beer magazines. But apparently, I am. Because any opportunity to bring up anecdotal or slim actual evidence seems to be enough for them to think this flimsy house of craft to be brought low.
There is a lot for craft / independent beer to work on (again another blog post) but frankly, most beers are just fine. Not fantastic and not faulted. Just fine. And I am more than willing to trade that for the innovation and risk taking that will bring me those transcendent beers that make me happy when I find them.
So, write about the exploding cans, the bad beers but also write about the other beers too. Keep perspective and don’t oversell the issue.
LA Beer Week – Day Eight – Beer Scribes
What it was like to be on a panel? Weird. I am usually the one looking up at speakers, not the other way around. So some nerves and fast talking at first but once I started cussing live on the streaming internet.
We were at the Four Points right next to Brewsters which had some cool Sierra Nevada brews on tap and the Cismontane Oktoberfest beer as well.
The assembled panel from the Celebrator (Don and our moderator Tomm), Drink-Eat-Travel (Cambria), SW Brewing News (Dave), FoodGPS (Josh) and LA Times and Squid Ink (Steven) talked about who we are and what we do, then segued into our take on the culture of craft beer in Los Angeles, then tackled the thorny topic of ethics and objectivity.
As I have mentioned before, you will know that L.A. Beer Week has taken bigger strides when there are more sessions and events that are blogger or community driven (much like the Echo Park crawl). Not that our fine LA beer bars and breweries don’t put on a good show, But we need more outside viewpoints on the beer scene for balance. Much like a uber-hoppy IPA needs a malt counterweight.
Thanks to Tomm Carrol for moderating and getting the event set-up and also thanks to Phil Baxter at Four Points for his hospitality. (They have two beer dinners coming up that look really good, so add them to the list of beer places to try)
Beer Bloggers Conference – The Photos
Get comfortable. I tried to edit but there are still loads of photos to see…So let’s get started….
