The Curious Jargon of Craft Beer: Are We All Just Pretenders?

Craft beer enthusiasts often take pride in their knowledge and appreciation of the intricacies of brewing. However, a recent experience at a bottle share made me wonder: are many of us simply engaging in pretentious banter without fully grasping the terminology we use?

During the event, someone unveiled a barrel-aged sour, and without hesitation, I found myself rambling about how I “truly appreciated the characteristic brett interacting with the oak tannins to create some beautiful phenolic compounds.” The truth? I have little understanding of what phenolic compounds actually are. It seems I amalgamated some wine vocabulary with snippets from a brewing podcast I had listened to, hoping it would lend me some credibility.

To my surprise, the group around me nodded in agreement as if I had just delivered an insightful critique. Emboldened by their reactions, I went on to discuss the beer’s ability to “express local terroir through indigenous microflora.” At that moment, I couldn’t help but feel like I was trapped in a craft beer version of Mad Libs, stringing together phrases that sounded impressive but lacked substance.

Last month, I found myself using the term “mouthfeel complexity” to describe a beer that simply tasted… thick. It dawned on me that many of us might be mimicking expressions we’ve heard from others, hoping to avoid being called out.

Do you share this sentiment? It raises a thought-provoking question: how much of our enthusiasm for craft beer is based on genuine understanding versus performing elaborate verbal gymnastics to seem knowledgeable? Perhaps it’s time for us to peel back the layers of craft beer jargon and embrace a more authentic appreciation of what we truly love: the taste in our glass, regardless of the terminology we use to describe it.