Respect Beer

The New York Times has a great article on the founders of beeradvocate.com and their quest to bring respect to beer: Overcoming a Frat Party Reputation

(the middle tap in that picture is Founders Dirty Bastard, which I'll be enjoying on Friday night!)

Two excerpts:

"The image of the craft beer revolution of the last 30 years has centered on celebrities in the beer world... but the real action in beer culture takes place on a far more visceral level, in the rants about why so many good restaurants have wine lists as thick as books but only carry three beers, or whether beer lovers have a bias against big breweries, or whether high-alcohol extreme beers are great or ruinous.
...
The popular image of beer drinkers has always been the industry’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The slobbering yahoos at the football game with the bare chests and painted faces; the snarling mud wrestlers battling over “tastes great, less filling,” and the usual array of good ol’ frat house antics are all representations from the mass-market beer industry itself, which has succeeded by aiming low. The cost has been respect, and the result has been a decades-long battle to win it back."