The Craft of Pretension: Confessions from the Beer Enthusiast

In the world of craft beer, passion for the brew often meets the language of sophistication—sometimes to a hilarious degree. Recently, at a bottle share event, I found myself swept up in this pretentiousness when someone popped open a barrel-aged sour. Without thinking, I launched into a mini-lecture about how I “truly appreciated the characteristic brett interacting with the oak tannins to create some beautiful phenolic compounds.”

Now, let’s be honest: I have no real grasp of what “phenolic compounds” are. It seems I merged wine jargon with some vague snippets I picked up from a brewing podcast I vaguely remember. The truly amusing part? Everyone around me nodded in agreement, seemingly impressed by my unoriginal musings. Riding the wave of my own bravado, I ventured further, claiming that the beer “expressed local terroir through indigenous microflora.”

Reflecting on it later, I realized that just last month, I had resorted to describing a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity” when all I meant was that it tasted thick. It hit me that I was essentially creating a craft beer version of mad libs.

Often, it feels like many of us are relaying bits of knowledge we’ve heard from others, hoping to blend in without revealing our lack of understanding. Has anyone else ever found themselves in a similar situation? Sharing the experience might just make the craft beer community a little more relatable—and perhaps a bit more genuine. Cheers to honest conversations over a good brew!