Art of
Craft ~ brews and reviews
By Greg Richardson
April
is a month which can make a real contribution to the craft brewing
community.
As I talk with people about craft beer and
brewing I am learning the community has something of a perception
problem. Summarizing what I have heard from a number of people, they
think people who love craft beer are working too hard. Their
perception is craft beer people have taken something they think
should be fun and made it too serious.
I hear terms like “beer snobs” and questions
about the difference between ABV and IBUs. People seem to think
craft brewers invent new terminology just to confuse them. They do
not understand why “growlers” are called that, and are even more
lost when it comes to crowlers. Some people think craft breweries
make up names for new styles of beer just to make themselves sound
more important. For example, just what is the difference between
porters and stouts?
Fortunately, April can make a significant
contribution to helping us solve this problem.
April is the month of foolishness. We could
use a little more of April foolishness.
We live in a society which seems to be
flooded with foolishness. The people overseeing our efforts to
improve housing and urban development have no problem spending over
$31,500 for dining room furniture. The secretary of the interior
sees no reason not to spend $139,000 on office doors.
It seems ironic when people think craft
breweries are too serious.
How can we put April’s month of foolishness
to work for us improving our reputation?
Fortunately, there are craft breweries in
Southern California who are pioneering the use of foolishness.
Several tasting rooms are demonstrating steps we can to include more
foolishness in what we do.
A potential first step appears to be trivia
contests. There are few night of the week when we cannot find a
trivia night at a local craft brewery.
Angel City Brewery in
the Arts District in Los Angeles has Tacos & Trivia Tuesdays each
week. This is in addition to Comedy Night on Sundays.
Both Mt.
Lowe Brewing in Arcadia and
all three Congregation
Ale House locations in Long
Beach, Azusa, and Pasadena have trivia on Wednesday evenings.
Left Coast Brewing Company in San
Clemente has trivia two nights a week, Wednesday and Saturday.
Every Thursday is trivia night at Hangar
24 Brewing Company in Redlands.
In addition to trivia nights, more and
more breweries and tasting rooms are hosting game nights and
providing games for their customers. Both Mt.
Lowe Brewing in Arcadia and Yorkshire
Square Brewery in Torrance have
a healthy selection of games. Choices at Mt.
Lowe Brewing include an
oversized Jenga set which kids apparently love to knock over and
make noise.
Several places offer darts. Mt.
Lowe Brewing in Arcadia and MacLeod
Ale Brewing Company in Van
Nuys both offer darts, and MacLeod offers darts tournaments
on Tuesdays. Just try to remember enough beer, even great craft
beer, and darts can be a particularly foolish combination, even in
April.
Take the opportunity this month to help your
local craft brewing community fix its perception problem. Find a few
places close to you and explore what they are doing during April.
Encourage them to practice more foolishness and frivolity than last
month.
You might want to have a list of foolish
questions to ask them right off the bat.
What is the difference between a porter and
a stout?
Have an excellently foolish April. No
fooling.
Greg Richardson is a leadership and
organizational coach, and a spiritual life mentor, in Pasadena,
California. He is passionate about craft brewing, listening, and
monks and monastic life. Greg is a recovering attorney, executive,
and university professor. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com and
co-hosts the #WordsToLiveBy chat on Sunday evenings on Twitter. You
can email Greg at StrategicMonk@gmail.com.
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