Double Standard

In case you don't know me all that well, and you're looking to buy me a gift, I happen to be a fan of just about anything fermented laced with alcohol. I'm not an alcoholic. I don't drink every day, and only drink enough to enjoy, not get drunk. Those days have disappeared with the dinosaurs, which, could also give you a clue as to how old I am. It is true, along with age comes wisdom. Another thing that comes with age is good wine. Beer also, but in a much shorter time frame, which is beneficial for me, because I tend to enjoy a beer more often than wine. But getting to my point of discussion, you may, at one time in your life, bought your favorite bottle of grapes, and it didn't taste quite how you remembered the previous 23 bottles. Since wine is made from a natural product from the earth, wine makers are subject to whatever the earth decides to part with for that growing season. A wine maker has the right to a disclaimer that says in part, 'It was an off year for our harvest'. It could be influenced by lack of nitrogen filled rain, too much rain, an unbalanced PH level, etc. There's a LOT of science involved, which I'm not even going to attempt to understand. I'm going to take their word for it. It has to be tough battling nature just to get the 'close to perfect' crop. So when this occurs, wine experts and amateurs accept this explanation, and just swallow hard until the next year's yield. This is where it gets difficult. I recently attended my second tour of the LUCKY BUCKET brewery. Afterwards, I had some questions, and happened to find the ear of one the brewers. He was sitting with a pile of paperwork in front of him, pretending to look busy, so I interrupted his 'good intentions', to talk about beer. If he's anything like me, which he apparently fit the description, he shoved the paperwork aside, and talked to me about something he felt passionate about. Paperwork will ALWAYS be there - my desk can attest to that fact. So I started my borage of questions, many times resembling a 3 year old. "But why?", "But why?". One question I had was, "Have you ever had to dump a batch late its stage, due to unacceptable taste or some other reason?'". After five years of brewing, they had to dispose of their first batch recently. I could tell this was a painful subject, but I pried further anyway. He proceeded to tell me how the beer industry is affected much in the same way the wine industry is affected. In order to make beer, it requires grains the earth produces. You have barley, wheat, hops, and whatever else you 'mash in' to achieve your desired taste. Once again, a huge amount of science, and total reliance on what the earth is going to give you to work with. One small? difference though. Beer drinkers will NOT tolerate a batch of beer that didn't taste identical to their previous twelve pack! They know what they like, and just because the label is the same, if the beer is off, they're searching for a new resource to appease their tastebuds. The brewer divulged a little info about this year's barley yield. He said the crops weren't as plentiful as the previous year's, so the heads of grain were smaller. You have to account for that in the recipe, because it's all done by weight. Smaller grain means you need more grain to accomplish the desired taste. More grain, means more expense to achieve your finished product. More expense, means less profit. But they can't jack the price up to recoup some of that cost, because every craft brewer is out there vying for your business, so they have to remain competitive.When it boils down to it (little play on words there), beer drinkers are more demanding of their source for a buzz, than wine drinkers. They're not tolerant of excuses, they hold their brewery to a higher standard. Wine drinkers appear to be more sophisticated, and seem to have a finely tuned palate, but I'm questioning whether that is the case, or they just have cheese recommendations to help disguise the beverage of an 'off' year.