Why I Love Craft Beer
I’ve always been interested in alcohol culture, even from an age when I wasn’t legally allowed to drink. That’s not to say I partook in underage drinking or anything as such, but the culture and history and science that goes into production of liquor? Intriguing, to say the very least. I remember, being maybe fourteen, wondering how people — that is, people as a civilisation — even figured out how to produce so many different varieties of what essentially boils down to ethanol and water. Four years later, I turn eighteen and have my first beer: a Heineken. I take a sip, and am more or less immediately revulsed. Do people really like this stuff, or is it an issue of an entire population deluding themselves into enjoyment because that’s what you do?
In retrospect, I’m reminded of a comic by Randall Munroe of xkcd, one that posits that maybe the entire beer-drinking populace are sharing a common lie, that “all beer tastes kind of bad and that everyone is just pretending.” Who knew that just five years later I’d be running a blog dedicated to the intricacies and culture behind the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage.
That being said, I did have somewhat of a foray into cidery after realising that “eugh, gross, Heineken sucks” wasn’t a good viewpoint to have around my friends who were also coming of age around the same time. The first proper drink I ever in a pub was a Two Elk apple cider, and it was… surprisingly nice! I caught a bit of a glare from my father — very much a traditionalist when it comes to drinks — but I enjoyed myself, and it was more or less eye-opening. Two years later, I find myself at Modus Operandi Brewing, with a pint of their Kite Flyer cream ale in front of me, and my eyes are — once again — opened.
Looking back on my first experiences with beer — specifically the standard macrobrewed product that most people think of when you say beer — isn’t that uncommon. When I tell my friends that I’m a beer nerd, or that I want to pursue a career in the craft beer industry, they don’t understand because typically speaking beer production in Australia has been handled by enormous companies with budgets higher than I can count.
An industry where quantity is king, not necessarily quality. An industry where the grain in grain, yeast, hops, and water isn’t always malted barley, but often adjunct grains like rice. An industry where Budweiser can champion their macrobrewed nature and the lack of depth in their product. An industry where the same company can demonise the small businesses that put their life and soul into producing high quality, niche liquid on live television.
But it’s also the industry full of love for a product, it’s an industry where people don’t care about what InBev or any of their affiliates say about pumpkin peach ales — a product that didn’t even exist until Budweiser made fun of it. It’s the industry that isn’t afraid to say “why not?” It’s the industry that operates under the motto of ‘a rising tide raises all ships.’ It’s the industry that opened my eyes to the complexity, the beauty, and the craftsmanship that goes into producing such wonderful brews.