As I mentioned in a recent post on this year’s IPA Day, not everyone is excited for a made-up holiday celebrating one of the most popular styles in craft beer today. In the post below, Ryan Self explains why he’s against IPA Day and other “abritrary holidays.” – Daniel
At the risk of being labeled the local beer scene curmudgeon, I have to say I have greeted the latest beer “tradition,” IPA Day, with a yawn and an eye roll. I don’t oppose any reason for people to get excited about drinking craft beer, but I fear events like this may have the opposite effect.
A little background: I work in the beer business, and have worked at about every level. I have been enjoying craft beers since my days of being surrounded by Bud Ice-swilling buddies in college, and ever since then have been known as “the beer guy” among my friends. It was just considered the thing I was into, no different than the guy who was an avid mountain biker or tai chi practitioner (well, perhaps a bit different in subsequent body type). But craft beer shouldn’t be a trend, or a niche interest. Craft beer is only in very small part about trying the newest, most extreme style or flavor. It is much more about choosing quality ingredients, and a product made with care every time. I don’t occasionally drink craft beer, I do it every time. If craft isn’t available, chances are I’m not at that restaurant or pub, and if I somehow ended up there, I won’t order a flavorless beer. I simply won’t waste the calories or money on such a subpar product. Anytime we make a novelty of craft beer, whether it’s IPA Day or that awful voodoo doughnut maple beer, we subtly creep closer to the scourge of any hobby: fatigue.
I’ve already seen it in myself and in friends. When I started in craft, I was constantly trying the next new beer, the next hoppier beer or crazy concoction. “New” was substituted for “good.” I would say I had an interest in craft beer, but it wasn’t a lifestyle. Over the years I burned out on trading for that next brewery-only release, or caring that a brewery was claiming to have released a 120-IBU beer. It just didn’t sound appetizing. I began to find great joy in a well crafted, balanced representation of the style. Phenomenal beers like Great Lakes Porter, Dale’s Pale Ale, Bell’s Two Hearted and yes, Olde Mecklenburg Copper became staples of my beer fridge, and the outlier new styles became novelties at tastings. As a result, I learned to better appreciate both.
When craft beer becomes a task or something that needs to be done, whether it’s eschewing a beer you know you love to try the new thing on tap, or drinking an IPA even though that Porter sounds great because it’s IPA Day, it becomes a job. It becomes something one is constantly having to think about, rather than a lifestyle choice to always demand quality and flavor. In my opinion, it becomes tiresome, and it adds a cheap novelty factor.
On August 2, I may well be drinking an IPA or two at one of our city’s many fantastic beer spots. But it won’t be to satisfy some arbitrary holiday, it will be because, like so many times before, I scanned the taps and a particular IPA caught my eye and just sounded delicious. I’ve been choosing beers that way for years now and it has yet to steer me wrong.
About Ryan
Ok so this part speaks to my soul:
“If craft isn’t available, chances are I’m not at that restaurant or pub, and if I somehow ended up there, I won’t order a flavorless beer. I simply won’t waste the calories or money on such a subpar product. ”
Couldn’t agree more.
This part, however, doesn’t:
“When craft beer becomes a task or something that needs to be done, whether it’s eschewing a beer you know you love to try the new thing on tap, or drinking an IPA even though that Porter sounds great because it’s IPA Day, it becomes a job. It becomes something one is constantly having to think about, rather than a lifestyle choice to always demand quality and flavor. In my opinion, it becomes tiresome, and it adds a cheap novelty factor.”
Just because its new or novel doesn’t mean it doesn’t have flavor or lacks quality. Why can’t people demand quality and balance in an IPA on IPA day? It seems like the assumption here is you’re either a mindless trend follower who can’t make realistic decisions without being guided. Granted, the day does seem a bit tacky (what’s next? IIPA Day? Porter Day?). It’s important to be realistic, here. Some will just drink IPA’s because they feel like they need to, but it’s also going to get a lot more people trying new beers. Or learning more about a style they aren’t familiar with. Isn’t that the point?
Either way, fantastic article. Thanks Ryan for writing and Daniel for posting.
I on the other hand will be out enjoying large groups of friends and enthusiasts, IPA tap takeovers and special kegs of IPAs that wouldn’t be available otherwise if it weren’t for IPA day.
Days like these and specials events are part of the reason I love craft beer and the scene. I do balance out my life with other hobbies and interests too, so maybe that is why I avoid the fatigue that you refer to?
Cheers!
Good feedback so far, fellas! The idea was and is definitely to inspire a conversation.
I wrote out this long, thoughtful, response that played to the history of craft beer and all of our memories about joining the community – and even tied back into the beginning like a real thesis – but then the website ate it and I lost it.
So screw that, I’m exhausted. Here are the bullet points:
- I fear fatigue too. But not much.
- Internationally, the US is known for its brewing creativity and innovation; do not hide or repress that. It is who we are.
- The market has gotten a taste of a high quality product that is affordable and that should be here to stay.
- Craft breweries have invested considerably into their communities and product, and have been rewarded with enthusiasm and loyalty that any company would trample each other for.
- IPA Day (and its ilk) are a result of our enthusiasm with this product. Celebrate by enjoying a craft beer. If you feel obligated to have an IPA on IPA Day, and it’s a chore, then you’re doing it wrong.
- Enjoy what you want to enjoy; the point is to celebrate craft beer and help expose it to those poor souls that have hidden under rocks til now.
Andrew
Whereas it is wonderful that you (and others like you) personally enjoy kicking back a craft beer or two every day of the week, it is important to look at the bigger picture. I hate to be blunt but frankly dear Ryan, this isn’t about you. Yep, imagine that for one moment. THIS. IS. NOT. ABOUT. YOU.
This isn’t about how you are already a craft beer advocate and celebrate and drink craft beer every day. This is bigger than that. This is about creating global awareness about craft beer through the celebration of one of our most beloved styles.
IPA Day is not just for craft beer enthusiasts and craft beer professionals like yourself. Craft beer is not an exclusive club that only the knowledgeable and “worthy” can belong to. Craft beer is not pretentious, despite your attempts to make it appear as such. As someone who has “worked” all over the industry, you should know that craft beer only makes up 5% of the overall beer market — a number that deserves to double, triple…. hell, I’d love the number to flip the other way one day.
In order to get to a world where the majority of people love and celebrate craft beer, we need to increase awareness, we need to encourage people to put down the yellow fizzy beer and take that next step. And often times, that next step is in fact an IPA.
Like craft beer, IPA Day is not an exclusive event. IPA Day is for anyone and everyone who can legally consume alcohol — and that is A HUGE target market. For many people, every day is NOT in fact IPA Day. Actually, I am quite certain that there are more non-IPA drinkers in this world than IPA-drinkers. And it isn’t necessarily because they don’t like IPA. Maybe they drink wine 95% of the time. Maybe they drink corporate beer and have yet to expand into craft styles. Maybe they don’t even know what an IPA is.
This is an opportunity for the craft beer culture as a WHOLE to collectively unite and promote craft beer to those that might not be within the inner walls of our tight knit group. This is an opportunity to encourage cross-drinkers to put down the martini, the glass of wine, the corporate yellow fizzy lager — and CHOOSE to drink craft beer instead. This is an opportunity for education and global awareness.
This is a movement, a global observation of craft beer. And once you start thinking of it in this way, you will begin to see the bigger picture. Remember, this isn’t about you. Really, this has nothing to do with you.
“If you feel obligated to have an IPA on IPA Day, and it’s a chore, then you’re doing it wrong.”
Well said.
Out of curiosity, is it about me?
Joking aside, IPA Day is an exclusive event, and to me it creates a larger barrier for entrance into the hobby, rather than tearing them down. Ashley, I don’t know you (I don’t think…do I?) but your post seems to take some rather extreme logistical assumptions. You say I make craft beer seem pretentious, but I’m looking to extoll the opposite – keep it simple, stupid. The most effective gateway point for new craft beer fans I have found is to simply extoll the virtues of a well made, full flavored product. No gimmicky holidays, no beers made with brewers beard yeast or marmot poop. How many non craft drinkers do you honestly think will hear a thing about IPA Day? I follow the scene closely and I’m barely aware of it. Of those very few, how many will take action? If someone has found wading into craft beer daunting to date, why would an event they know nothing about, that encourages this non-craft drinker to start with our most bitter style, tear down that barrier?
Regardless, thanks for the comment. It’s a great discussion, something that I think our hobby needs more of. Too often, we simply assume ANYTHING that is tangentially craft must therefore be good for craft beer, and I’d argue that gimmicky marketing takes us farther down the BMC road than the craft road.
One benefit I see from a retail/restaurant perspective is that they scheduled it for a Thursday. This give shops and bars a chance to host a special event on what typically is a slow day.
Of course TheBeerStench had to chime in, being that it’s her official holiday and all. Though she’s right about one thing – IPA Day is not all about Ryan. It’s about HER.
After IPA day was announced last year, several people reacted to it just as Ryan did above. TheBeerStench offered a similarly lengthy rebuttal claiming that IPA Day was not about self-promotion, but anyone paying attention knows that’s a lie. In the midst of celebrating IPA Day 2011, TheBeerStench posted a self-congratulatory tweet about reaching however many followers that day (10,000, I believe). Any day of the week tweeting about your own follower account is already douchey enough, but doing it on the day of an event you organized clearly shows the real intentions behind it all.
IPAs don’t need global awareness, but TheBeerStench wants global awareness, so now we have IPA Day. The only good thing to come out of IPA Day is that beer bars use it as a way to tap special brews and get people in the door (which they’d do anyway on any of the other 364 days of the year, but now they’ll just do it in unison). Most beer geeks are great people and don’t like to rock the boat, but I’m glad we have people like Ryan willing to point out the absurdities of an arbitrary holiday created by self-promotional blogwhores. As for TheBeerStench, good luck with spreading global craft beer awareness using one of its relatively least approachable styles. “Oh, you normally drink Corona? Try this Stone Ruination on a randall of fresh Simcoe hops – it should be right up your alley!”
I trust you wont be selling any olde meck octoberfest for the same reasons?
Yes the company that employs me will be selling our seasonally appropriate beers this season and every other. As will I imagine every other brewery. I’m not sure how that relates to this topic, though. Is seasonal beer a novelty as well? I don’t think so, but it’d certainly be an interesting discussion.
I really liked the fatigue point in the original post. I’m glad to hear that others experience that. When I “got into” craft beer a few years ago, I a was on ravenous quest to try more, new, different, bigger, hoppier, more crazy, more rare, etc. I was blood thirsty for more hops to the point where I could barely enjoy the beer I was drinking if I knew that I had something better stashed away. Like Ryan, I have found myself making repeat purchases this last year, which is something that was unthinkable in the past. I still enjoy a new beer or a different style from time to time, but craft beer is not an especially cheap hobby and I know what I like these days. I’m not going to take a run at a $10+ six pack of something JUST to notch my belt. However, if that’s your interest in the craft beer realm, I certainly don’t think that it’s a bad reason to buy something either. I finally realized that you can easily obtain hops by the oz and chew them if you want to…and there is no beer in the world that will top that punch in the mouth. I have settled nicely into my own peace about this whole issue. I too seek out balance and quality more often than new and hype.
Local is another big motivation for me. 10 Blocks South is a solid pale ale, I love it. Have I had better pale ales? Yes, I have Alpha King and Zombie Dust in my fridge right now…there will always be the promise of greener grass out there. I almost want to never try Pliny just so that I can dream about it forever. Point being, there is something really cool about hometown beer. I am proud of it. I want to take it out of state (and have) to my brothers. One of them is coming this weekend and I can’t wait to show him what we have right here in Charlotte. (This is not a suck up) I always cite OMB as an example of qulity+rounded+sessionable. I say that because I don’t particularly like German beers, and yet nothing quite hits the spot like Copper when you want something refreshing and delicious without the lingering mouth rape. It’s a very well made product that is high quality and fresh, and that makes it stand out.
My closing argument is that I understand and comply with the idea that craft beer is an art, and should be respected and treated as such…but it will always be beer…and it will always be sold in bars…and it will always have gimmicky “main-stream” marketing…and it will always be a little rough around the edges so to speak. By and large, and no disrespect to anyone on this blog, craft beer enthusiasts could use a reality check from time to time. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Not all of your friends are super into it (and I’m preaching to myself as well). There will always be those people who are willing to stick their toes in the water without becoming a crazy possessed mad man that can discern (or thinks he/she can discern) the hop schedule that was used to craft a particular beer…That’s ok! I would hate to see the craft beer movement drift toward this ultra elitist attitude. Do we really want it to be like wine? Do we want to go through the chore of specifying undertones when we have a beer…talk about fatigue!! I personally have stopped approaching beers with this grab bag of vocabulary that is ultimately boring: biscuit, cereal, hop, fruity, zesty, peppery, soapy, and so on; but I also don’t regret that period of forced education either. When one of those descriptives is a standout, I know that I’m having something special.
I now approach a beer with a couple things in mind:
1. Does one drink evoke another?
2. Have I finished this beer in 5-6 drinks while it is still “alive” and cold?
3. Do I feel wrecked when I’m done?
Kyle’s Allstar Beers: Red’s Rye, Emmett’s Victory Pale Ale, New Glarus Moon Man, Daisy Cutter, Great River 483 Pale Ale, Bitter American, Edmond Fitz, 3 Floyds (anything, no brainer), New Glarus Black Top, Schlafly IPA, Sculpin & Big Eye, Two Hearted, Hoppyum, Peacemaker, 10 Blocks South, Free Will, Copper, Stone IPA, Westbrook IPA, Dale’s, ok you get the idea.
I just realized my “closing argument” really doesn’t have to do with the original post at all. It was just a pent-up rant, so thanks for listening. I still stand by it, haha.
In a more direct response to the theme of the original post, I would have to agree almost fully. However, I also don’t want to shun IPA day with an attitude akin that of a 15 year old emo kid that hates top 40 music because it isn’t “underground”. I get that vibe from people sometimes…is IPA no longer cool? I’m being facetious of course, but I think you know what I mean. So what, IPA Day…it’s a little corny, but its fun. You know you want one!
Kyle, don’t apologize for the rant at all! I agree with so much of what you wrote — especially regarding having respect for beer and yet not taking it too seriously. I went through the same growth and evolution that you and Ryan talk about, and I think many others do as well.
Thanks very much for reading the blog and leaving such an insightful comment. I really appreciate it!
-Daniel
Hey Ryan & Daniel,
First off, this is a great thread, and as a lover of reading comments, I must say that these are wonderful ones to read. Second, I have to say I’m noticing more and more of the expansion of ‘craft’ events due to facebook, twitter, google+ and, most especially, Untappd (the app). I actually found out about IPA Day because of Untappd myself, though by mere moments did it beat out Facebook. I dabble in craft beer tasting posts and reviews, and I have to say – I absolutely hate trying to define them like a wine with all the flowery descriptions. I do like making and reading notes about the flavors tasted, though, and that is partly to do with knowing that I have a lot of friends (’cause, really, who but friends would read my ramblings?!?) who are terrified of spending $5-15 on 6-packs of beer that they ‘think’ they will not even enjoy. So I like having that out there in comments about specific beers so that people (myself especially) can get a feel for IF they even want to try something.
I think the ‘fatigue’ part is something that definitely hits people differently, but I know that I will go through phases (am I alone here?) where I am in an IPA zone, or a Stout frenzy, or a “different” craze. And I think many people that like different types of beer aren’t going to really care if it’s IPA day if they really want a Stout. Unless, of course, said IPAs are on specials for that day, or have some unique stuff you can’t try anywhere – in which case, the palatte may well decide to defer to the wallet. I don’t really see IPA Day as a “let’s let everyone know about IPAs” in practice, yet, but I think there could be potential there, if it becomes marketed well enough. I think the hardcore “over-produced-and-marketed” beer (*blech*) drinkers are going to stick to said beer (*gag*) no matter what new stuff brew crafters come out with, ever. But I think potential is there to actually open new eyes with these days IF you do it right. So far I’ve not seen a ton of that, though, as it’s mostly done at the craft-beer locations. And really, that’s not reaching new people…
Okay, I’m done with my rambling, promise! Thanks for reading, and I hope to enjoy reading more comments on this topic!
Hey Beth,
Thanks for your comment! I think you pretty much hit it on the head: you can build awareness of craft beer through days like this, but at the same time it won’t matter if you’re “preaching to the choir,” so to speak. And I do think Ryan’s point still stands that IPAs aren’t always the most approachable styles for craft beer newcomers.
I will say that I went out to World of Beer and NoDa Brewing for IPA Day and had a blast. Would I have if it wasn’t IPA Day? Most assuredly so. But at the same time, it gave us something to talk about (and a wonderful Amarillo-randalled NoDaRyeZ’d, of course).
I know when IPA Day comes around next year I’ll be writing about it and always welcome opinions on the day. Ryan’s right that it merits discussion — that’s ultimately how we’re going to grow this community.
Thanks again for reading — it means a lot!
Daniel
Agreed completely, and I really do think that the more ‘presence’ anything has, the more awareness and trials the product gets from all demographics. So I’m interested to see how this all progresses in the future. I look forward to reading more, and thanks for doing all of this. Makes me grin inside to see all this wonderful information and discussion about Charlotte Beer going on publicly!