The Art of Pretentious Beer Talk: Are We Just Playing Along?

At a recent gathering I attended, a delightful bottle share transformed my casual appreciation for beer into a veritable performance art. The highlight? A barrel-aged sour that prompted me to enthusiastically proclaim, “I genuinely appreciate how the unique brett interacts with the oak tannins, creating some exquisite phenolic compounds.”

Now, here’s the catch: I have little to no understanding of what phenolic compounds truly are. It seems my attempt at wine jargon collided with fragments of information I’d gathered from a brewing podcast. The engagement of my peers—a chorus of approving nods—only encouraged my pretense. I quickly added that the beer was “expressing local terroir through indigenous microflora,” completely unaware of how little substance there was behind my words.

Reflecting on my verbal escapade, I found myself chuckling at an earlier moment from the previous month where I described a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity” when, to put it simply, I really meant it was just thick. It dawned on me—was I engaging in a game of craft beer Mad Libs?

It seems that among beer enthusiasts, many of us might occasionally fall into the trap of echoing phrases we’ve heard, hoping others won’t catch on. It raises a question: Are we all just playing along, crafting elaborate narratives around our favorite brews? If you’ve experienced a moment like this, you’re not alone. Let’s share our experiences and embrace the playful side of beer appreciation, where sometimes, it’s not about what we say, but how much we enjoy the drink in our hands.