Beer snob
May 15, 2008 by prairieflounder
Finally the true sign of the times has arrived. I wasn’t convinced that the economy was in trouble until I read the latest news. Sure gas prices are on the rise. Ok, food prices are increasing. Some people are even considering public transportation to get to work. But the last straw for me was when I read that some people are willing to lower their standards in beer just to save money.
My jaw dropped. This must be serious. Screw a recession, there must be a down right depression to cause people to drink Bud, Miller, Coors, or heaven forbid, Pabst blue ribbon!
Can you imagine how strapped a person has to be for money to change from a good quality micro brew to miller light? Can you imagine the depravity that would even initiate such a sacrifice?
Let’s examine the circumstances behind such depravity. For me to lower my standards in this way I would have to have already removed every luxury spending item in my budget. No desert, no steak, no chicken, in fact I would have to be down to eating noodles and vegetables grown in my yard. Fuel and driving in general would already be replaced with riding my bike to work 10 miles each way, up hill both ways, in the snow. Then I would give up cable TV, and go back to a dialup for my internet access. Entertainment would be down to listening to the radio and picking up aluminum cans on the road sides. At home the water heater would be set for 98.6 degrees, and the home heater would be set to 50. The AC would be disconnected all together. All laundry would be dried on a line in the back yard. Only then, would I conceder reducing my taste in beer.
My coffee of course would not suffer in the least; coffee is at least as important as beer. They are after all two sides of the same coin. Coffee and Beer are the yin and yang of the beverage world.
So people who claim to have changed their beer brands according to disposable income are not true beer drinkers. They are at best being dishonest with themselves and at worst hypocrites who have no taste in beer and only drink quality micro brews for the appearance of having taste. If someone likes the taste of Budweiser or Miller, that’s fine with me. Just don’t say you love some micro brew then run home and drink a Bud light to save a buck. You obviously haven’t sacrificed enough of your disposable income yet.
Even worse in a related story it appears that there may be a connection between cheap beer and STDs. This is just another un-intended consequence of higher prices.
When will this madness end?
Don’t even get me started on Whiskey.
I am completely with you on this one. At this point, I refuse to buy any beer that costs less than a gallon of gas.
Ditto for coffee, and being a gal I’m pretty upscale about my toilet paper as well. :)
I think you may have uncovered the three indispensible items in any modern household.
You can live with out TV
You can live with out even a computer.
But with out good coffee and beer and quality TP a person is truly lost in the wilderness.
-pf
I was just in my local beer store (the same one who gave me the freebee the other day) and winced at the price of the 6 pack of local micro brewed I picked out of the cooler… Then I bought it.
As you say, there are some things that MUST be purchased to maintain a good and upstanding civilization. It can not be shirked.
BTW, I’m with both of you on the need for high quality TP.
I’d also add good footwear to the list. Gotta keep the dogs comfy!
Turkish Prawn
http://foxandmaus.wordpress.com/
What’s the best beer?
PABST
BLUE
RIBBON!
Then there are the lucky few, whose taste in beer allows them to indulge themselves with out taking a bight out of their budget. They are the truly blessed. It is difficult to have good taste, to have to work harder and sacrifice for quality is indeed a heavy cross to bear.
Good for you Kings, Kevin, Jim, and all the others out there who are fortunate enough to not be burdened with the demon of beer snobbery. Pabst Blue Ribbon is second only to Buckhorn Lager or the famous white can of “BEER” in affordability.
If I could only overcome my snobbery I could afford to drink a twelve pack instead of having to settle for only a six pack. If there was only some kind of beer snobbery re-hab then I too could enjoy a good old fashioned PBR or Miller light.
There is a certain nostalgic feeling I always get from some of the cheap brands. For a while, when in my early 20s I drank Lucky Lager, in the 10 oz bottles, with the little rebus puzzle in every cap. Then Shaeffer, $3 per twelve pack. Then, for a while in my late 20s, Black Label. I’ll never forget the taste of Pabst, I think, or Hamms, because they were what Grandpa bought at the McClellan Air Force Base commissary for (who knows?) probably a couple of bucks a case. And then there was that nameless, urine-colored, hoppy slop they served at The Pine Cove in Sacramento, near the place where they maintained the Greyhound buses, which they served for 25 cents a glass.
And after two or three of the good beers, I can’t really tell the difference anyway.
Beer snobs no longer have to pony up the $ for Chimay or other high-quality imports in order to get great beer. American microbreweries are producing some of the best beer on the planet right now, and there are thousands of them in this country.
Pick your poison- American microbrewers are producing it, usually for a lot less than equivalent imports. I’m partial to ale, stout, and porter, so I’m really enjoying the explosion in the microbrewery population.
Beer is not a luxury- it’s a necessity. If you like cheap beer, drink up. But there is no need to give up drinking good beer just to save a few bucks.
[...] caveblogem in Other. trackback I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to post this, and prairieflounder’s beer post pushed me over the edge today. (I guess it might not be obvious exactly why. It was because of [...]
Here are some great quotes about beer, for your edification and amusement:
Drinking beer doesn’t make you fat, It makes you lean …. against bars, tables, chairs, and poles.
- Anonymous
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin
A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.
- Czech Proverb
Do not cease to drink beer, to eat, to intoxicate thyself, to make love, and to celebrate the good days.
- Ancient Egyptian Proverb
“I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night.”
- Greek Proverb
The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer.
- Ancient Egyptian Proverb
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.
- Dave Barry
Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer.
- Henry Lawson
He was a wise man who invented beer.
- Plato
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
- Dave Barry
You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
- Frank Zappa
There is nothing for a case of nerves like a case of beer.
- Joan Goldstein
Milk is for babies. When you grow up you have to drink beer.
- Arnold “the Governator” Schwarzenegger
It’s better to have beer in hand than gas in tank.
- Unknown
Beer, it’s the best damn drink in the world.
- Jack Nicholson
This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our maker and glory to his bounty by learning about… BEER.
- Mike McShane as Friar Tuck
Beer is the Danish national drink, and the Danish national weakness is another beer.
- Clementine Paddleford
Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer.
-Frederick the Great
Give my people plenty of beer, good beer and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them.
- Queen Victoria
Beer, if drank with moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes good health.
- Thomas Jefferson
It was as natural as eating and, to me, as necessary. I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking a beer.
- Ernest Hemingway
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed - Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.’”
- Jack Handy
Excellent quotes, Archvillain!
Oh, and I also dig the use of the unique fingerprint pics. When did Gravatar start using those?
Actually, mine was a nod to Frank Booth in the film Blue Velvet.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a PBR.
Sapporo or Asahi, “super dry,” especially while rolling up a batch of New York rolls, inari, and tamago. A two-hour process, so one can get truly looped.
PF, I think the title of the post is very appropriate.
Spudgun, I never said that being a snob was a desirable attribute! It’s a curse, an expensive curse.
-pf