The Common Table, craft beer gastropub in Dallas, Texas let their feelings about the state of craft beer and some of their clientele fly on Facebook today. It’s pretty amazing.
Now, I know that with constantly writing about beer, traveling to breweries and more, I get my share of rare beer. Luck favors the bold. On the subject of negativity however, this is pretty great.
Everytime I click post to Beer Street Journal, or send a tweet or an Instagram, I have this feeling that washes over me for few seconds. A feeling that someone is going to hate this. When I say hate, I mean, the beer, my post, my writing, my grammar, my phrasing, or a combination of all of it.
Negativity bleeds across all my timelines, from Twitter, to Facebook and everything in between. I’ve had readers tell me to kill myself on multiple occasions. I’ve had Redittors call me retarded, fat, uneducated, even called my mother a whore. (A note to those people: You aren’t going to hurt my feelings. I was nerd growing up, and got the shit kicked out of me for years. You can’t hurt me. Someone should hug you more.)
A bar calling out the negativity in craft beer is incredible. These folks understand the hatred. Yelp, Beer Advocate forums, Reddit forums, email listservs. There really is no perfect way to distribute a case of rare beer. They are basically set up to fail, but they keep doing it for the love of beer. I’ve seen people complain in places that have an amazing tap lineup, that there’s “nothing new.”
I started Beer Street Journal more than six years ago, because I wanted people to get excited about all this amazing beer being made. Maybe help the industry grow a little. It’s my life.
BSJ is news based, and very little editorial. I will say, if you are reading this. You are surrounded by some of the best, and most creative beer in the world. You won’t like every one of them. That doesn’t mean someone else won’t. Plus, if they do, and you don’t, that doesn’t make them wrong. In that glass is someone’s hard work, passion, life savings, even a kid’s college fund.
Experimenting (and tasting) is what makes craft beer fun. If it was the same thing over and over again, none of this would exist.
I say this with all sincerity. Drink. Be Awesome. Be Positive. Most of all… Be Happy.
