Hops are Ruining Craft Beer and Other Dirty Lies

A recent article on Slate.com entitled Against Hoppy Beer made the case that over-hopped beers are causing people to be turned off by craft beer and advocated deemphasizing hops and bitterness in polite craft beer conversation. The post caused a firestorm of online reactions that continued well into the weekend. And even though the article is full of glaring oversimplifications, displays discomforting prejudices, and gets several things downright wrong, it did get craft beer fans riled up (and we always enjoy that!) and generated a lot of worthy discussion…

So why stop now…

First, let’s get the article’s mistakes out of the way. The original post tried to explain that “beer is made by boiling grain to turn its starches into sugar” and although the article has since been corrected, that mistake speaks to the lack of care and research that was put into the article’s content. The post also takes an extremely loose interpretation of “Session beers” and suggests that they should not be strong in flavor. However, the term “Session beer” as broadly understood has more to do with a beer’s alcohol content than its effect on the palate.

The article is also a complete mess when discussing hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma. It gives an oversimplified explanation that a higher IBU number means the beer also contains other hop attributes. As with most things, it’s not that simple. IBUs represent bitterness only. But bitterness can be further subdivided into “softer” and “harsher” expressions (which are thought to be the result of humulone and cohumulone content in hops, among other things). In addition, hop flavor and aroma don’t necessarily move in concert with bitterness, or even one another. It depends in large part on how a beer is made and on the hops that are used. A beer could have plenty of hop flavor and aroma with little bitterness or vice versa.

Finally, the article makes an uncomfortable and glib derision of the pilsner style in its question “Do friends let friends drink only pilsners?” As many of us in the craft beer community know, the pilsner style is completely undeserving of such an uninformed affront. Perhaps the mass-produced American pilsner was the author’s target, but a well-crafted pilsner can stand with the best IPAs. Victory Prima Pils or Firestone Walker’s Pivo Hoppy Pils are both exceptional craft beer pilsners.

Ok, enough with the mistakes…What can be learned from this article?

Snobbery Sucks

If there’s one thing craft beer drinkers should avoid, it’s the caricature of snobbery that has beleaguered the wine drinking community for so long. Craft beer isn’t about elitism or thinking that one beer is inferior to another just because it doesn’t fit a certain definition. Sure, beers can be judged, rated, and critiqued until we’re all falling down drunk, but just because one beer is hoppy doesn’t inherently make it worse than one that is lightly hopped.

Knowledge is Power
As craft beer fans, we all have the ability to share what we’ve learned with those new to the scene. But inevitably, the journey is the individual’s. We all have favorite beers and breweries that we’ll want to recommend, but learning comes from trying what’s out there. Only then will you learn what you like (or don’t).

Respect the Tastes of Others
This is so basic to the spirit of craft beer that we shouldn’t have to mention it. Sure, we all want people to like what we like, but it just doesn’t work that way. Some people love their hops – others not so much – but there’s no “wrong” here…right? We’re more excited about people who are excited about craft beer than we are about whether they’re hopheads or not.

Bottom Line
Suggesting, as the Slate article did, that craft beer might attract more fans by being less hoppy or that brewers should stop trying to push the envelope because some people might not like the result is just plain wrong. Craft beer’s enormous success is the result of brewers following their own muses, not responding to polling data in hopes of attracting more fans.

Thom Yorke from Radiohead allegedly once said that “You don’t make art by asking others what they think would be best…You just do what you do and hope that someone likes what you’ve done.” It’s the same for craft beer.