Friday, May 17, 2013

In Defense of the Hop Bomb (It's Not What You Think)

I suppose I knew that commenting on Jeff's Beevana Facebook post—about Adrienne So's indictment of hop bombs and the beer industry on Slate.com—would lead me to writing my own blog post today. Deep down I think I knew it from the very first keystroke of that response. I didn't want to do it. It's beautiful outside, and It's Friday afternoon and nobody reads blog posts on Friday afternoons. Yet here I am, defending the hop bomb—or rather the inalienable right to brew the hop bomb.

Here's the long and short of So's position—from the last paragraph of her article.
Craft brewers’ obsession with hops has overshadowed so many other wonderful aspects of beer. So here’s my plea to my fellow craft beer enthusiasts: Give it a rest.
Every so often a statement or article, such as this one, emerges where a fan-boy—or in this case fan-girl—raises stink about "The way things should be". 

There in lies the rub. 

Someone is, yet again, telling me why I should, or why I should not drink one beer over another—be it hop-bombs of craft versus krafty, or whatever. 

I have grown tired of this tactic. 

Moreover, quality it seems has very little to do with it. I read her closing statement as rallying cry to topple the hop bomb—not as a call for better beer but rather, a call for the de-mainstreamification of those kinds of beer. Which to me seems a little ridiculous, because realistically hoppy beers—bombs or otherwise—are still pretty niche.

Now, here's the long and short of my position.

I don't see the need to do way with any beer—regardless if I like them or not. 

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