#83: Against The Grain
The Session
The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic. Each month, a different beer blogger hosts the Session, chooses a topic and creates a round-up listing all of the participants, along with a short pithy critique of each entry. Be sure to check out this month’s Session #82 hosted by Beers I’ve Known!
Before I really got into Beer, I was really into music. I began by taping goofy songs from the Top 40, moved onto liking a band that my friend liked, liking a style of music made by that band and then wandering off into other realms. At various points along the way I have convinced myself that I liked the best music in the world. That I, and only I, had the experience, the background, and the understanding that led to true enlightenment. Some of that spills over to today — I have an inherent distrust of people based on their musical tastes; If you’re into certain things I trust you implicitly.
My taste in music is inherently my own. I rarely read music magazines any more, I buy the occasional book. I like obscure music, but not really obscure music. I like Library records, I like Krautrock. I like these things because I like them, they’re interesting and entertaining. I may have got into these things because I thought it would be a cool thing to do, but I stuck with them because they are of inherent value. My relationship with them has cemented my love for them.
Star Wars is a terrible terrible film. The dialogue is super clunky, the acting is all over the place and the plot is fairly contrived. But there’s something about it, something magical. I can remember watching the end of the film on video disc with my brother at some fair in Midlands. I remember peeking through the window of the theatre that was showing IV,V, and VI in one go (we had come for V). It’s not objectively good but I like it for a ton of non-judgemental reasons.
And so with Beer. There sometimes feels like a status quo exists in beer: That Westy 12 is the peak of brewing excellence, that Heady Topper is the ultimate DIPA, that Dark Lord is the Imperial Stout to end all Imperial Stouts. But brewers aren’t magicians, they’re mixing grain and hops. And some will do it to your liking and some will not.
It took me a long time to realise that I like music but I loved the stories and the quests more and I enjoyed music a hell of a lot more when it became clear to me what music I truly liked and what was just hype and nonsense.
And so with Beer. It’s difficult to understand sometimes that there is no status quo. So things are clear that: Dupont does not makes the best Saison in the world it makes the style defining one. Westy 12 is good but Rochefort 10 and Abt 12 are too easy to get hold of to make them chase worthy. Queueing for beer does not make you idiot, so long as you truly love the beer. Pouring good beer down the drain does not make you a hero, pouring bad beer down the drain does. You’ve never had a bad beer until you’ve tried Smoked Kipling. That there is no “best” beer does not mean that rating sites are useless, not that their ratings are useless. We’re perfectly capable of understanding what types of beer get high ratings and adjusting our expectations accordingly.
Everything is subjective but one thing is clear: it’s just beer.
