Foodies, pretentiousness and "a pox on your loft."

Yes, the mag's mentioned.

Wait -- you don't think a few of Powell's razor-sharp observations (well, only two or three dozen of them) are applicable to "craft" beer?

Substitute the words "beer snob" for "foodie," and have a deep think.

Curb Your Foodieism: How pretentiousness undercuts Louisville’s food scene, by Michael C. Powell (LEO Weekly)

... Additionally vexing, many people who fall somewhere on the spectrum of the creative class often toss around this term carte blanche, even though there’s nothing particularly creative about being a foodie. You’re not creating something — that’s what the chef just did, even though “foodie” is a badge worn proudly with at least a modicum of self-congratulatory importance by the same folks. Identifying as a “foodie” does not define anything about an individual, save for one simple fact — it is a public proclamation that a certain amount of disposable income is available for you to eat at trendy restaurants at will. And that, friends, is an odd thing to brag about in the same sentence as your preferred sports franchise, unless actively posturing a sense of exclusivity based on your means is worthy of note. In which case, nuts to you. A pox on your loft.

__

If you care about whatever "craft" remains in beer, then Firestone Walker's "deal" with Duvel Moortgat means absolutely nothing.

Rolls eyes, yawns.

The unspeakable tedium.

Then inevitably, someone must "reach out."

Acquired, invested in; semantics, gymnastics and pyrotechnics. Human being are incrably predisposed to speak in terms of euphemism. We slept together, had sex or had conjugal relations, though never just plain "fucked," when the latter describes it far more elegantly.

Yes, the article is updated.

[Update] Firestone Walker Brewing Makes Investment Deal With Duvel Moortgat, by Dan at the Full Pint

7/17 Update — 17 hours after we posted this, David Walker of Firestone Walker reached out to me regarding the headline “Firestone Walker Brewing Has Been Acquired by Duvel Moortgat.” He said the headline was causing trouble and if I had any questions, to send them his way.

After asking both David Walker and Simon Thorpe of Duvel flat out if this was an acquisition or sale, I was not given an admittance or denial.

When I pressed Mr. Walker harder, I was given the quote “It’s more an investment than an acquisition.”

So with that said, as a trusted platform for all craft breweries, we have altered the headline to accurately represent the public information available. Stay tuned as I share my thoughts on these current events.

(Paso Robles,CA) – Firestone Walker Brewing Company has just announced that they have been acquired “invested in” by Duvel Moortgat. This will be the third American based craft brewery that Duvel has acquired, joining Brewery Ommegang and Boulevard Brewing. We hope to have more questions answered in the near future, here is the official press release sent out by Firestone Walker.

I was asked about this on Facebook.

Was I aware that Firestone Walker and Duvel-Moortgat were fucking?

Yes. I can't even muster a strong opinion, apart from this: Now that this wonderful thing we built is about money, and money alone, it actually interests me very little. During the remaining years of my beer drinking life, insofar as possible, I'll seek to spend my money with brewers who still exemplify the foundational ideals. Life's just too short to care about Firestone Walker. The end.

An interesting exchange followed.

JM: Firestone rubber and tire is a 2 billion dollar company. You think Duvel buying the brewery is only about money?

Me: You think my comment was about this transaction alone?

Diary: I'd rather see their asses starve than let them have Trojan Goose money.

Two fat cat AB InBev shareholders are at the teller's window cashing their dividend checks, and one says to the other: "You know what's funny?"

The other says, "No, what?"

The first one says: "All the beer snobs used to call us crap, and now they say we're craft, and all we did was buy one of their breweries."

As I wrote last year, and seeing as nothing has changed in what increasingly appear to me as diametrically opposed "craft" camps of localism and narcissism:

You’re free to deny reality until the end of time, but Goose Island is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the beer world’s largest extortionate conglomerate, and it contradicts virtually every tenet of my daily business existence.

Of course, if one is not engaged in owning an independent business and seeing what economic localism means on the ground, in this place and time ... well, you know.