Friday

BYCU

Even when I could drink beer, and greatly enjoyed craft beer, there was something about the "craft beer" movement that annoyed me. I don't know if it was the beer snobbery, or the idea that people were entirely too intense on something (beer drinking) that ought to be the premier leisure activity, or because people were putting too much thought into something (beer drinking) that ought to be the premier non-thinking pursuit, or because I actually heard someone say, "I think it tastes a little chocolaty" after taking a sip of craft beer.

I kinda get the impression Frank Kelly Rich at Modern Drunkard Magazine ain't a fan either, especially if this piece, "10 Reasons Why the GABF Sucks," is any indication. "GABF" stands for the "Great American Beer Festival," and Rich, though he no doubt enjoys a good micro-brew, isn't amused by the profiteering deformity that the event has apparently grown into. Some excerpts:

You cannot grasp the character of a beer from a one-ounce pour. It's akin to licking a steak. Furthermore, even if you hustle from line to line like there's a fire in your belly that only beer can put out, you end up paying 80 bucks for less than a six-pack's worth of beer. . . .

Hall F of the Colorado Convention Center possesses all the charm of a Soviet tank factory with the Nazis closing in. All the ugly, hard surfaces distort and amplify the happy babble of the crowd into the soundtrack of the Spanish inquisition. . . .

Natty Ice won the 2013 gold medal in the American-Style Cream Ale category. I'm not kidding. . . .