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The Art of Beer Talk: Have You Ever Pretended to Know More Than You Do?

Recently, while attending a bottle share event, I found myself swept up in conversation about a barrel-aged sour beer. In an attempt to sound knowledgeable, I confidently proclaimed how I “truly appreciated the characteristic brett interacting with the oak tannins to create some exquisite phenolic compounds.” In reality, I had no true understanding of phenolic compounds—I believe I’d merely stitched together jargon from a wine class and fragments of a brewing podcast I once listened to.

What struck me as particularly amusing was the collective nodding of heads around me, as if I had shared an earth-shattering insight. Sensing their approval, I dug myself deeper into the rabbit hole, remarking on how the beer “expressed local terroir through indigenous microflora.”

Reflecting on these moments, I realized just how absurd it is to describe something as nuanced as a beer’s “mouthfeel complexity,” when at its core, I was simply trying to say it was thick.

This made me wonder—are we all just swapping craft beer jargon in a game of verbal charades, hoping that nobody will expose our lack of understanding? I can’t be the only one guilty of this! How many of us play the part of the beer enthusiast, throwing around phrases we’ve heard, but don’t genuinely grasp?

It turns out that discussing beer can feel a lot like a game of mad libs—the more convoluted the terms, the more profound we think we sound. Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Let’s share our stories and embrace the chaotic brilliance of the craft beer community!