George Lenker (The Beer Nut from The Massachusetts Republican) presents an interesting take on the subject of beer writing. He's taking issue with the value of the ramblings of amateur hacks, such as myself.
Professional journalists are making their way through the 21st century media landscape as best they can and it's always interesting to hear them explain their value over that of the folks who make up the blogosphere out on the internerd. Generally speaking, I agree with the notion that there's a lot of garbage out there these days and it's not always easy to separate the facts from the opinions of a bunch of blowhards. But when our "professional" media landscape is dotted by (and often dominated by) the Glenn Beck's and Rush O'Reilly's of the world, it's not hard to turn around and point a finger back at the journalists who are supposed to be "fair and balanced" <pukes in mouth a little>...
Lenker's piece is the only one I can think of that is focusing this discussion on beer writing. And I'm interested to read what else he has to say. If he takes the Beer Advocate review nerds to the woodshed, I'm all for it. However, I'm hoping that he acknowledges some of the drivel coming from his colleagues as well.
TAP HAPPENINGS @ANDY'S
3 years ago
1 comment:
I'm interested to see the rest of this serial commentary on beer writing. It's hard to form an opinion from only the first installment, which is a bit vague and not really pointing out examples of what is actually being criticized, which I'm sure there are plenty of.
I usually feel very critical of beer writing that is done by people who have never actually brewed. There are so many glaring mistakes or oversimplifications of the brewing process, misunderstandings of classic beer styles, and too many times when they seem to let a big brewer off the hook for making a shitty beer because they are afraid of backlash.
Some of the beer "reviews" on ratebeer and beeradvocate can be terrible, and I think beer reviews that are not tasted "blind" can only be of so much use. But it can be a good place to get a general concensus of what beer geeks think of a certain beer, so I think they definitely have value.
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