Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.
Paul Klee
This quote might be a stretch to consider in regards to #independent beer but I think it is important to keep in mind because one aspect of our shared beer culture is that a popular beer over there breeds a popular beer in your own neck of the woods.
But instead of just making a copy of a beer, the “What We See” as it were, it behooves a brewery to lead us to the next beer, making us see what that new experimental hop can do, or putting a sour blonde ale into gin barrels or, yes, even adding glitter to beer.
The Tomme Arthur mentioned this at CBC-Nashville last week, “”We are becoming incredibly dependent on imitation, and that saddens me,”.
Make the beer customer come partway to you. Make a hopped imperial hefe. Do a hazy hopped farmhouse blended saison. Put a Gratzer in a 16oz can. Do new.