If your friends jumped off a cliff would you follow them? Who hasn’t heard this phrase stated by a well meaning parent? There are all sorts of benefits to fitting in with the crowd. I mean, you can all look, act, and think the same. It’s really like having a thousand yous around…I know I amuse myself. Who’d a thunk it? Our parents were right. Don’t we all have the typical crisis of trying to fit in when we are young and then spending the next 20 years analyzing who we are, our meaning and place in the world, our…? You get the picture.
I admit that this is probably a similar post on a beer that I wrote about craft beer zombies about a year ago, but it’s also a bit different. In that post, I mentioned that proclivity to keep drinking the same thing. This post is more about those of us who simply follow the crowd. A good word from a friend or someone you trust or respect is one thing. Sound advice is sound advice. But it’s blind to follow off the cliff of destruction. Perhaps this is overstating the case a bit, but it is undeniable that there are lemmings among us. Drink this, not that.
Some would have us believe that their top beer pick is along the lines of Nirvana, Enlightenment, and rolling on ecstasy at the same time. I’ve been fighting with the idea that listening to the “experts” is the best course of action. If you want the reputation of expertise, you have to earn it. So, my encouragement is to listen to the experts with a grain of salt, listen to the proclaimed ones with a mountain of it, and, above all, become one yourself. I don’t want to imply that I’m one, but I want to be…that’s just an aside to what I really want to say.
Exploration is key when it comes to discovering. I like to think the reason why some of us love to learn is because we explore for ourselves. The path of discovery isn’t well trodden. When I listen to too many people about the hundreds of beers I have to try, I miss out on many of the ones that I should. All this to say, which I think is consistent with what we’ve said in the past, don’t listen to us about a beer (or anyone else for that matter), see for yourself. Blaze a path and tell us about your hidden treasures, not as “you have to try this beer.” Maybe as “you have to try trying.”
I didn’t have any of our readers in particular on my mind when I wrote this post; I just had what was on my mind.
The question that comes to my mind is “who are the experts”? Is the expert actually a person someone with decades of experience brewing and drinking craft beer or does it become the machine that is a collection of anyone who has the capacity to formulate and type out a thought into a web form? Are there any experts out there? There are a couple people that I may consider experts because of their knowledge of what is and has been out there. In my book you don’t get that by writing a blog or posting to some forum for the last couple years.
On the flip side, there are so many new beers coming out, I do enjoy seeing and reading about beers that are not available in my area, but rarely do I jump out to my regular trading buddy’s to get a bottle.
Would you consider yourselves experts? I don’t you actually do, but I would guess that some of your readers do. It’s a double edged sword, the more that one talk about something, the more vocal that person is, some how that starts to translate into expertise…
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Good post. I think the real beer experts are hesitant to call themselves by that title, but you know who they are when they speak or write about the subject. Those who self-appoint should be viewed with, as you say, a little salt.
Its also very relative, the spectrum of knowledge in the field. For example, I know more about beer than say, my wife, but someone like you or Peter knows so much more than I do. So, to my wife, perhaps I am a beer expert, but compared to you guys, I’m still an apprentice!
I guess the important thing is to find people whose opinion you trust, and use them as a guide. Nobody has all of the truths – you need to find your own, but a trusted guide can certainly help.
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michael reinhardt Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
You raise an important point, which is really about credibility. I think experts are reluctant to talk about it a lot. Something about knowing what you don’t know is a humbling experience and people of intelligence can pick up on that idea.
That’s not to say that different levels of knowledge don’t have their own credibility…they do. However, calling oneself an expert should be used with reserve. Think about it, calling yourself an expert about something implies that you are extremely credible on the breadth of that topic or much of it.
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Me and Jim are Idiots. No one should listen to us! Just using your space as a public service. Don’t listen to us, Don’t read our stuff, just pretend you never heard me say this, or anything…just forget. You’ll thank me. That you can believe…
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michael reinhardt Reply:
August 5th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Here’s the thing about what you are saying. Whether you mean what you are saying (of course, you are using my favorite pastime of hyperbole), the recognition makes it possible to really learn and care about it.
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@Peter, I agree that just because you put stuff out there that it makes you an expert. Anybody can put something out there. Agreed also about being vocal can make ones seem like a pundit. I don’t mind reading the reviews or ideas. I do get bothered by a few people who self-proclaim or readily accept it.
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I use the term expert very carefully. Fred Eckhardt, Randy Mosher, Charlie Papazian, Garret Oliver would be on my short list. I prefer the term beer consultant for myself. It’s less judgmental and more friendly in my eyes.
As far as beer recommendations go, I will try pretty much any beer that I see on a blog or YouTube review but I will definitely rank by how much I know about the reviewer. A positive review from Thank Heaven for Beer would count for much more than some anonymous post.
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michael reinhardt Reply:
August 15th, 2010 at 9:51 am
I do, too. I really get annoyed when people use it flippantly. Thanks for the confidence that you have in us vs. some other posts. I have to say that I’m not an expert but I’m trying to be one eventually.
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