This edition of The Session is sponsored by Stonch.

Beer People

On Friday 4 April, the date of the next Session, I’d like you to write about people. Choose someone you know personally. That person might be a brewer, a publican, someone who sups at your local, or maybe just a friend who is passionate about beer. Let’s read some pen portraits of your companions on the path to fermented enlightenment.

Can’t argue with Stonch there. Heck, when we sponsored The Session, our topic was “Atmosphere”; in other words, describe the ideal place to enjoy a beer. Most of the people who participated said it was all about who they were with.

The easiest thing for me to do for this incarnation of The Session would be to write about Ron and Max and Don. We all love good beer. Our annual (and usually only) get-together is largely the four of us sharing new and interesting beers we’ve found. I’ve known Don his entire life (he is my brother, after all). Max I’ve known for twenty years now. He still waxes on about his several trips to Belgium and the goodies he had there. And I met Max through Ron, who is himself so passionate about good beer that he helps write a blog about it.

But I’m not going to do that.

The second easiest thing for me to do would be to talk about the guys in F.O.A.M. You couldn’t find a friendlier and more helpful bunch of guys (and gals) who all have one thing in common: a passion for brewing good beer.

But I’m not going to do that, either.

No, I’m going to deviate from the topic a little bit. I’m going to focus on how beer can break down social barriers and let people, who would normally never interact, find common ground for conversation.

Wil Wheaton is something of a modern-day Renaissance Man. He is an actor, starring in such feature films as Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers, not to mention probably his most famous role, that of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is a successful author, penning memoirs Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek. He has written Manga, written TV show, video game, and culture reviews for multiple websites, and is a voice actor, playing roles such as Aqualad in “Teen Titans”, Kyle in the upcoming “Kyle + Rosemary“, and a radio newsman in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He is even a fairly accomplished poker player, advancing rather far in the 2005 World Poker Tour and is a uniquely funny public speaker. Of course, he writes his own blog, Wil Wheaton DOT Net (in Exile) (currently ranked about 2200 on Technorati).

I’ve never been paid to act (unless you count pretending to work), never been on television (except for a 1 second shot of Times Square for New Year’s Eve 1987 shown on a local newscast), never been published (except a letter to the Editor of my local newspaper), never had my voice talents featured in anything (except stories read to my children), and never made big noise in a poker tournament (although the last time the guys in the neighborhood got together I won forty bucks). He’s a California guy, while I’m strictly East Coast. I’m five years his senior. The idea of public speaking turns my stomach into knots. This little blog barely makes it into the top 100K on Technorati.

But, we do have a few things in common. We’re both married, with two kids (although his boys are much older than my girls). We both have a more than passing interest in technology, especially computers. We both really like Science Fiction and hold special affection for Star Trek. We both came of age in the Eighties. We’re both gamers (although, sadly, my gaming has been seriously curtailed as responsibilities increased and friends moved away).

We’re both geeks.

Wikipedia’s article on Wil says, in part:

Wheaton has emerged as a vocal member of the geek/nerd community…

It’s true. Wil has embraced his geekhood. He’s an inspiration to geeks everywhere. Not to sound like a fanboi, but WWdN is one of the blogs that I make sure to read every day.

Speaking of geeks, one of the definitions from Wikipedia’s article on that topic:

A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. This definition is very broad but because many of these interests have mainstream endorsement and acceptance, the inclusion of some genres as “geeky” is heavily debated. Persons have been labelled as or chosen to identify as mathematics geeks, engineering geeks, sci-fi geeks, computer geeks, various science geeks, movie and film geeks (cinephile), comic book geeks, theatre geeks, history geeks, gamer geeks, music geeks, art geeks, philosophy geeks, literature geeks, and roleplay geeks.

Recently, you may have noticed a bit of a tumult in the beerosphere over the term “beer geek”. It started when beer writer Lew Bryson suggested that “beer geek” does more harm than good for people with a “deep, intense interest” in beer and wonders if there might not be a better term to use. Some rather spirited discussion then followed in the comments. Then Alan at A Good Beer Blog weighed in, suggesting “beer nerd” (and then more spirited comments). I tried to stay out of it, but then Boak (or was it Bailey?) weighed in as well, suggesting they don’t mind the term and don’t find it denigrating at all, in spite of what Stonch says (and then later embraces…sort of).

(Other beerosphere reactions)

Go ahead and get caught up. I’ll wait.

Back? Okay.

Well, at this last I decided to drop Wil an e-mail and point him to Bailey’s (or was it Boak’s?) article. He’s mentioned a love for the amber nectar before, and is up on the whole “geek is bad/good” dichotomy. I thought that, at best, he’d read my e-mail, read those blogs, and have a good chuckle.

But he wrote me back.

This famous dude who I will never meet and, Kevin Bacon be damned, is separated from me by more than six degrees, responded to my e-mail message because of a shared passion for beer.

This is what he had to say about the whole “beer geek” thing:

*facepalm*

I’m with you. People who think “Geek” is a pejorative term don’t understand it, and that makes me sad. It makes me so sad, I need to kill those emotions with an Arrogant Bastard right now. At 11 in the morning.

I don’t know if I qualify as a beer geek, because I don’t brew my own, but I’m certainly a beer lover. I’m nuts for a good IPA or stout, and I’ve been turning people on to microbrews and steering them away from fizzy shitty yellow beer since about the third day I was able to actually drink beer legally.

Patton [Oswalt] and I have had that exact conversation [Ed.: referring to a quote from in Boak and Bailey's article]. I didn’t know it was in his act. And “Beer Expert” is the most pompous and annoying term I think I’ve ever heard this month. Experts sneer at everyone and look down at people who don’t share the same amount of knowledge they think they have, while geeks are just so excited about the object of their geekery, they can’t help but try and share that enthusiasm and knowledge with anyone who will listen. Who would you rather have a beer with?

You know how I know you’re talking about geeks? Because geeks are experts (see what I did there?) at taking something we all love, and turning it into something to argue about.

- Wil

(He took the last part of his e-mail to me and turned it into a comment with Boak and Bailey.)

We then chatted a bit. Wil likes IPAs and pale ales, primarily. A bit of a hop-head, even. He also asked for recommendations for stouts, which I was happy to oblige. Just a couple of regular guys–beer geeks–talking beer.

What else can do that?

(Photo of Wil Wheaton with brewer Greg Koch at Stone Brewery courtesy of Wil Wheaton; that’s Wil on the right)

Update: The Session: Beer People - the round-up

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While Ron and Al take a little break, please enjoy this guest post from Bill at Beer Janglin’.

Things were so much simpler when I was younger.

There was a point in my life at which there was but one solitary bit of criteria I had in order to make the perfect beer selection: price tag. Back then I could walk into any grocery store, or even a cruddy convenience store, and promptly choose a case of beer that would be approved by all my beer-swilling colleagues. I simply had to take a quick inventory of all the beers that the establishment had to offer, find that beer with the lowest unit price, and make my selection. None of my buddies would tsk-tsk me for taking something low-end, nor would anyone else bring a six-pack of their own because they wanted something quote-unquote “good.” It was quite an easy process. In fact, the hardest part was trying to find an adult who would go back into the store and buy it for you in exchange for cigarette money.

That was back when all beer tasted the same. [Note: most beers you will find an a grocery or convenience store DO still taste the same.] Beer was beer. If someone asked me to get Miller Lite and I came back with Coors Light, they wouldn’t send me back out the door to fix my grievous error. Beer was beer. Any of it would get us inebriated — which was, naturally, of paramount importance — and it didn’t make a lick of sense to pay more a cent more than we had to for the privilege of feeling light-headed and obtaining a temporary speech impediment.

But that was then, and I’m not 8 years old anymore.

Now, a so-called quick trip to the beer store takes no less than 45 minutes. In the amount of time it takes me to commit to a microbrew 12 pack, or — God forbid! — a mixed six-pack for those few wonderful stores that stock them, I could have already been at my destination with the hiccups and a lampshade teetering atop my drunken head. In one trip to the beer store, I will see at least a half-dozen people waltz in the door, grab a 30-pack of Busch and leave, on their merry way to a cheap night of drinking safe, bland beer. I, on the other hand, am taking chance after chance with all sorts of beers with funny names and crazy labels. And paying more for it. For a moment, I am slightly jealous of the Busch drinker, so happy and sure, so expedient with the completion of his purchase. Then I realize he’ll be drinking Busch all night and I won’t.

It was an odd, gradual process to go from beer philistine to beer geek. I don’t know when the change took place exactly, but I started to actually understand the differences between a pale ale and an India Pale Ale, or between a lager and a pilsner. (I still can’t tell a stout from a porter for the life of me, but that’s another story.) At the early phase of my newfound passion for beer, I did play the part of the snob. When someone would be drinking Miller Lite, and I was enjoying a craft-brewed six pack from Middle Ages or Stone, I would often make smarmy comments about the contents of the Miller Lite drinker’s glass. The words “swill” and “pisswater” and “fizzy pisswater swill” were often bandied about.

But had I become that which I despised? Had I become some sort if elitist? Was I abandoning my blue-collar Genny Cream Ale roots? I went through an internal struggle. I felt as if I was someone who was looking down on those who succumbed to the mass-marketing of macros, as if there was something genetically inferior about their taste-buds. Or perhaps even their character! Should I perhaps embrace the lowbrow end of the spectrum, like Joel McCrea in “Sullivan’s Travels”? Should I shed the stuffed-shirt and go back to homogeneous 30-packs of the Silver Bullet?

And I have come to my answer: A resounding “no.”

Just as I can’t go back to playing in the sandboxes and jungle-gyms of my youth, I can’t go back to macro-lagers. Every once in a while, I will partake, if one is offered to me at a party, or if I am in a restaurant which has a limited selection. But for my own personal use, craft brews are the kinds of beer I want to explore. It’s not about being a snob; it’s about growing up. It’s the same reason we go from watching Stallone and Schwartzenegger action movies to foreign and indie films. It’s why I traded in Aerosmith for Aesop Rock. In college I could have eaten at McDonalds 14-18 times a week, but now I enjoy a large dinner at a nice restaurant. And sure, it costs more than the 99 cent Big Mac, but isn’t it worth it?

I have come to a peaceful place regarding my so-called “snobbery” — which I prefer to call “enthusiasm” for great beer — in that I will not belittle or criticize one’s choice of alcoholic beverage, but rather helpfully suggest an alternative, or offer a sip of what I’m drinking. It may spark an interest, and it may not. That’s not for me to decide. But at the same time, I will make no apologies for my own high standard of beer drinking. After all, I’m the one who has to drink it.

Oh, and even though it’s fancy beer, it can still get me drunk.

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As I began to make the transition from a non-discerning beer consumer into someone who sought out craft-brewed beers, many times my companions would characterize me as a “beer snob”. Even I referenced myself that way once in a while.

I mean, really, given the choice between Budweiser, Miller Lite, and Sam Adams Boston Ale, which would you choose? Sam, of course.

But then I got to thinking, is that really true? After a long, hot day of mowing and trimming my lawn, by golly that Coors Light tastes like the best beer in the world. Not to mention one of the closest things to Nirvana I’ve ever experienced: The tailgate party before (and after) a New York Giants game, eating things like buffalo wings and sausage burgers and nary a vegetable in sight (except perhaps the salsa) and drinking Red Dog. From a can.

Wouldn’t a snob refuse to “lower” himself to drink one of these “unworthy” brews? Sure, I’d rather have a good beer instead of a bland beer, but when the choice is bland beer versus no beer, well, a man gets thirsty.

I was learning about beer and was eager to learn more. Knowing what it took to brew beer, from malting the barley, to the mash, to hopping, was, and is, fascinating to me. I like knowing what kind of hops a beer uses (I really like Cascade) and what kind of style it is.

So, I started referring to myself as a beer geek.

One definition of a geek is:

[A] person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination.¹

Sounds like me.

What do you think? Snob, or geek?

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