Well, Howdy Doo Buckaroos and how the heck are you?
I am Tom The Beer Whisperer
Beervangelist
Prolific Beer Drinker
Purveyor of Wisdom and …
All Around Good Guy!
Has Craft Beer Jumped The Shark?
Bull testicle beer. Beard beer. Vagina beer. Glitter beer.
Given that those all have been made into beer, some might say that it’s more of a question of when craft beer jumped the shark.
The Beer Moral High Ground
Oh yes, both craft and macro drinkers like to claim superiority.
Who’s right? Well that depends on who you ask.
The Craft Point of View …
Macro beer is swill that uses cheap malt and even cheaper adjuncts. The result is something that barely resembles beer and drank by those more interested in getting drunk than drinking a quality product.
The Macro Point of View …
Craft beer isn’t real beer! They like these mamby pamby peach pumpkin pineapple creations, that’s not beer.
Who’s right?
Both sides have valid points.
Us craft beer drinkers like to hammer macros for the adjuncts, rice, corn, corn syrup, corn sugar etc …
And somehow we discount that chocolate, raspberry, coconut etc … Are also adjuncts.
It’s hard to claim that you’re the one drinking REAL beer, maintaining superiority while you’re drinking a mango, pineapple, peanut butter, Graham cracker beer aged with yeast cultivated from the pubic hair of an Aboriginal pygmy elder with glitter floating around in it!
The Evolution Of Craft Beer
What started as microbrew and independent brews morphed into what we now call craft beer.
It started with a few brewing pioneers that were tired of what beer had become and wanted to brew a beer that more closely resembled pre-prohibition beer. And they did, and it was wonderful!
Until …. Well, Americans did what Americans do.
Most early examples of craft beer was based on classic English, German and Belgian styles.
Then American Brewers said,”Hold my beer and watch this!”
More, More, More
IPA’s went from 5% abv to 6%, to 7% to … Double/Imperial, 8%, 9%, 10%, holy cow, we can’t stop.
Then we decided that everything should be barrel aged.
Bourbon barrels, Rye barrels, Scotch barrels, Sherry barrels, heck, let’s just age it in all of them!
But that wasn’t enough.
We decided beer shouldn’t taste like beer.
We added peanut butter, raspberry, marshmallow, every fruit imaginable, but that still wasn’t enough.
Look Out, I See A Shark!
Oh yeah, beer was made from yeast cultivated from beard hair, vagina yeast and now glitter is being added to beer.
“Jump The Shark”
A pop culture phrase that came from an episode of “Happy Days”.
“The Fonz” must somehow save the day by water skiing over a shark that for some odd reason ended up in a fresh water lake.
Too far?
Well, Henry Winkler that played the character has pointed out that the show lasted a few more years after that episode.
So, did it really “Jump The Shark” or did it just run it’s natural course?
And that’s the question, has Craft Beer gone too far or is it just running it’s natural course?
If you’re asking me if I like the current hipster/gimmick marketing trends, the answer is no, however if you’re asking me if I’m going to stop drinking craft beer, the answer is also no.
So no, I’m drinking good beer until I can’t anymore, but …
No glittering mountain oyster beard beer for me and when I want the taste of vagina, I’ll eat one!