With all the talk of bubbles and schisms, it is good to be reminded that the path to success for any good brewer is normalcy. If a brewery is accepted and its beers stand along taps and bottles of well accepted beers and bought along with them does anyone care what those other beers are?
That is what I saw at the Loose Moose in Toronto last night. Local craft brewers lined up again macros and imports. Local beer drinkers having whatever they liked without a sneer either way. People were paying attention to the game, the food and their friends without any concern for appearances. Loud music but not too loud for the smallest kid. Uncle Jordan picked a good spot. Not a snifter was in sight, thank the Lord. I had an Eephus by Left Field as well as Nicklebrook’s Headstock with my burger. Two of my favourite Ontario craft brews. I could have had a Coor Light, too, which is or is close to Ontario’s best selling beer. Peaceful coexistence. The food was good sport pub fare and the prices reasonable for the city.
So, if good beer is absorbed without being assimilated, if it takes its place without insisting others leave… isn’t that victory?
[Original comments…]
Walter Lenckos – February 17, 2014 1:08 PM
http://coffeeduringthedayscotchatnight.blogspot.com/
Great comment. We are seeing the same thing in Northwest Indiana now. There has been such saturation of craft breweries and nano-breweries that it is the new “normal” to see their taps next to MGD and Coors Light.
Walter
Thomas Cizauskas – February 18, 2014 9:06 AM
http://www.yoursforgoodfermentables.com/
The ‘main-streeting’ of ‘craft’ beer. At which point, the quotation marks may also become superfluous.
Alan – February 18, 2014 1:03 PM
The word “craft” will too. It will be just beer made by the producer once it is well understood that there is no umbrella, no category any more than there is one called “premium”
Ethan – February 19, 2014 5:46 PM
http://communitybeerworks.com
“Like” I am much more interested in seeing cans of The Whale in my local taverns, inns and corner-bars than in the fancy-pants places. Because it is in those establishments that the beers not the thing- but good quality beer should still be available in your local Third Space.
That said, I don’t think “beer” bars are going anywhere, and I wouldn’t want them to. There is equally a place in the world for the snifter, the bourbon-barrel aged whatever, and the upscale experience.
Nothing mutually exclusive about those two ends of the spectrum of beer, to me.
Alan – February 20, 2014 8:44 AM
I want the Whale in my hometown. You will be pleased to know that once consensus after the weekend in TO was that we should have tried B-lo instead. Or returned to Montreal.
Beer bars are like cocktail bars and the recurring fad for kids dancing to big band music that comes around every 15 years. They will morph but like any wave of interest, it will wane just as it waxed.
Ethan – February 20, 2014 5:55 PM
http://communitybeerworks.com
And wax and wane and wax again; totally fine with me if so, so long as the demand for fresh, quality & local/regional beer doesn’t abate wherever it is drunk, I can feel ok about life.
B-Lo beers are ascendant alright, we got two breweries opening this spring/summer and one brewery pub what just did. Excelsior!
Alan – February 20, 2014 6:47 PM
I need to get to see a AAA baseball game there this summer.
Ethan – February 22, 2014 1:08 AM
http://communitybeerworks.com
That can certainly be arranged, in style even- with some advance notice!