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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
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- I’m one of the worlds leading buyers of craft gin in the world and a international spirit judge AMA
- I’m blown away…. By how let down I am by this Gin.
- The Botanist 22 Gin Review: Perhaps the most overhyped gin around
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The Craft Beer Conundrum: Talking the Talk Without Knowing the Walk
Have you ever found yourself in a conversation about craft beer, throwing around terms and phrases that sound impressive but leave you scratching your head in confusion? Recently, I attended a bottle share event that illuminated this amusing yet perplexing reality.
As the event progressed, a particular bottle of barrel-aged sour was opened, and I was quick to interject with, “I truly appreciate the characteristic brett interacting with the oak tannins to produce some beautiful phenolic compounds.” The trouble is, I’m fairly certain I only half-understood what I was saying. “Phenolic compounds”? I mean, who really knows what those are? It felt like I was clumsily mixing wine jargon with snippets from a brewing podcast I had listened to a while back.
The funniest part? Everyone nodded in agreement, clearly impressed as if I had just uncovered some deep, brewing wisdom. Caught up in the moment, I decided to embellish my statement further, throwing in a comment about the beer “expressing local terroir through indigenous microflora.” What was I even saying? At that point, I began to wonder if half of my fellow attendees were in the same boat, nodding along while silently contemplating their own mixture of jargon.
Just a few weeks prior, I found myself describing a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity.” In truth, all I meant was that it tasted thick. I realized I was essentially playing a crafting beer version of Mad Libs, stringing together bits of what I’d heard in past discussions in hopes that no one would pierce the facade.
This experience made me reflect. It’s likely that many of us engage in this ritual, echoing phrases we’ve picked up elsewhere, while keeping our true understanding of them at arm’s length. Do you ever feel this way when discussing craft beer? Do you play along, hoping no one challenges your knowledge? It’s a reminder that sometimes, the enjoyment of beer transcends our ability to articulate it with precision. After all, isn’t the joy of craft beer about savoring the experience rather than just the terminology?