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Steven Coulson
Steven has been drinking beers, wines and spirits for decades and has a propensity to go about them at length after a few drinks.
Latest Posts
- 57/m: Love beer, but it doesn’t love me as much anymore
- No Stupid Questions Wednesday – ask anything about beer
- Does anyone else get treated like a beer snob for ordering literally anything that isn’t a macro lager?
- Is there a polite way to refuse a beer that’s being served in the wrong glassware without making everyone at the table uncomfortable?
- # What’s the most pretentious thing you’ve ever said about beer that you secretly didn’t understand yourself?
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The Secret Language of Craft Beer: Confessions of a Pretentious Taster
Craft beer enthusiasts often find themselves in a fascinating yet intimidating world filled with intricate terminology and sophisticated flavor profiles. It’s an environment ripe for deception, especially when we feel the need to impress others with our knowledge. I recently experienced this at a bottle share event, where I couldn’t resist the urge to adopt an air of expertise that, frankly, I didn’t have.
As a friend uncorked a barrel-aged sour, I felt compelled to contribute to the discussion. I confidently proclaimed my admiration for how the “characteristic brett interacted with the oak tannins to create some beautiful phenolic compounds.” The only problem? I had little to no understanding of what phenolic compounds actually are. I suspect I merely pieced together bits of wine lingo and fragmented knowledge from a brewing podcast I had listened to previously.
To make matters worse, the group eagerly nodded in agreement, entranced by what they assumed was profound insight. Fueled by this affirmation, I ventured even further into uncharted territory, adding how the beer “expresses local terroir through indigenous microflora.” The absurdity of my pretentiousness was not lost on me; I was essentially crafting a paragraph of craft beer jargon without truly grasping any of it.
And this wasn’t an isolated incident. Not too long ago, I found myself articulating my thoughts on a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity,” when in reality, I was simply trying to convey that it had a thick texture. Such moments reveal the fine line we walk in the craft beer community—where it can sometimes feel like we’re participating in a game of verbal charades, reciting phrases we’ve overheard and hoping no one calls us out.
Do you find yourself in similar situations? It seems that many of us are caught in this delightful conundrum, where a desire to sound knowledgeable collides with the reality of our understanding. Perhaps, in the end, what truly matters is the enjoyment of the beer itself rather than the complexity of our commentary. So, let’s raise a glass to authenticity—no pretentious jargon required!