Why I Choose Craft Beer

Here’s the analogy I use when people ask me why I usually buy craft beer instead of going for a mass-market option

A Bell’s Two Hearted Ale I enjoyed.

Sometimes people will ask me something like, “What’s the matter with Bud Light?” when I choose a drink, or why I spend a couple dollars more to buy a craft beer. This is the best way I’ve found to describe it.

It’s a lot like hamburgers. Pizza works nicely for this analogy too.

Imagine you’re standing at a counter. Behind it, someone is ready to take your order. The location you’re in has 10 or 15 different burgers on the menu, from restaurants all over the world. You can pick from a Big Mac, a Whopper and that square burger from Wendy’s that needs a more marketable name.

You can also have Five Guys, In & Out Burger, Fatburger and options from some independent restaurants. An award-winning burger from a great spot in your town is available too and, if I haven’t listed your favorite burgers in the world yet, this place has at least one or two of those as well.

After you’ve taken a minute to look over the menu and considered all these options — maybe you’ve also asked the person behind the counter for some recommendations — which burger are you going to choose?

I’m guessing most people, though certainly not everyone, went with something other than the McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s offerings. You can get those burgers almost anywhere. They might work best when they’re convenient or because they’re inexpensive, or maybe some people call one of those their favorite and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But, with all these other options at their disposal, chances are good that many people won’t pick one of those three major chain burgers. For them, those pale in comparison to a great, handcrafted burger.

What’s described above is exactly what happens when I order a beer. I pass on the nationwide, fast food versions — the mass produced offerings from companies like Budweiser, Coors and Miller — and go with choices I find more interesting and that I usually enjoy a lot more.

I’m not just talking about beers with “crazy flavors,” which is something craft beer gets pegged as on occasion. Though there are plenty of great beers out there using fruit and various spices that I enjoy, there are many simple options in standard styles — from pilsners and pale ales to porters and stouts — that taste better to me than big-brewed beers.

If I’m really in the mood for a beer and there’s no other option, I might have a Bud Light, Miller Lite or Coors Light. If someone hands me one at a cookout, I’ll probably drink it. But if I’m picking up something to enjoy with family and friends or ordering at a restaurant that has something beyond those common beers on their menu, chances are about 100% I’m going to pick an option that comes with a lot more detail when I sip it.

Sometimes, people like me are referred to as “beer snobs.” This doesn’t offend me, but it confuses me. You don’t normally hear people say, “What are you, a burger snob?” when someone says their favorite is from a hole-in-the-wall you’ve never heard of.

This doesn’t really happen with pizza lovers either, who’d prefer to try something other than Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Dominoes. Those major chains might hit the spot when convenient, but put their products next to finer-crafted pies and I’ll choose the latter over the big box store versions of pizza every single time. I just do this with beer too.

I love visiting breweries, sampling the different varieties of product and seeing how it’s made. I love exploring — within a menu and geographically — to find new beers to add to my list of favorites to seek out again. Discovering new beers is one of my favorite parts about traveling. And I love supporting entrepreneurs who took a chance and opened a small, local business that’s pushing the envelope on the quality of what goes in a glass.

Are all craft beers amazing? No. But sampling them to find the best, and drinking the great ones I’ve discovered, is more rewarding to me than settling for the mass-market beers every time. And if other people prefer the larger, more widely available beers, great. It’s all here for us to enjoy.