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I saw this post on the Beer and Whiskey Brothers blog recently. It’s a pretty funny infographic on how to tell if you are “slipping into the dark waters of beer snobbery.”
Now, clearly this is tongue-in-cheek (like a lot of their other content), but it got me thinking.
The craft beer community is quick to point out the distinction between “snobbery” and “geekery” (the latter is more desirable than the former), but is being a “snob” really all that bad?
I mean, would this same conversation be taking place if we were talking about food? McDonald’s is very popular and very tasty to some, but I would never call it “good food”. Does this make me a food snob? Or just someone who knows the difference between quality food and crap? Furthermore, is demanding quality food (being a snob) a bad thing? I really don’t think so. So, it stands to reason that the same should be true for beer. When I drink a beer, I want it to be quality…otherwise, why drink it? Why waste my time on something I won’t enjoy? I don’t NEED to have a beer. I WANT to have one.
I suppose, though, that there is a fundamental difference between demanding quality for myself and demanding that everyone else adhere to the same policies. I don’t think that I am better than those who drink Bud Light exclusively, I simply think I drink better beer than they do. I do consider myself more enlightened because of this fact, but I am more than willing to spread the good word around. Then again, I wouldn’t consider wasting my coveted Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA (which is not available in Missouri) on any of my friends who are exclusive Bud Light drinkers…unless they asked….nicely.
Of course, merely writing this post makes me in violation of #10 on the list, so I clearly can’t win. 🙂
The Hopostle 
I think it would be more like if you were with a group of kids…let’s say a sports team on a bus after a game, and they all decided to go to McDonalds after the game. And lets say you were the coach, and they wanted to buy you dinner, and you said, “no no, this food is crap, but you all go ahead and eat it”. That would be food snobbery. So You can call it what you will, but If you violate these “regularly” you probably are one. 😉
I’ll agree with that. One minor caveat that I left out of the post was my firm belief that there is no such thing as bad FREE beer. If you’re giving it to me, I will drink it (I’ve got a Winter Moon in my fridge right now for just that reason). Oddly though, that philosophy doesn’t extend to food for me. It would take a lot (read starvation) for me to eat McDonalds…even if it is free.