Lets hop back into the way back machine and head back to the February 1st 2015, the night of Super Bowl XLIX in which the Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 earning Tom Brady his fourth Super Bowl Ring. I remember watching that game and the one thing that seemed to stand out, at least in the craft beer community, more than anything was this commercial.

The next day I got up and like most days started browsing through social media. As expected I saw plenty of memes and commentary about how the Seahawks should have ran the ball at the end of the game but what was more prevalent was debate about this commercial. Of course those comments were laced with plenty of “Budweiser sucks” and but at the time I remember my thoughts about the commercial were as follows;

Budweiser does not care if it pisses off craft beer drinkers. We’re not buying their product so why waste the millions of dollars making an add that will cater to a demographic that is already adamantly against them. This is the first time that I can remember Budweiser outwardly addressing a, “Us vs Craft Beer” mentality. It advertised a divide between craft beer drinkers and macro drinkers.

In the years since Budweiser has released several ads taking aim at craft beer and the craft beer community of their own, regardless of the fact that they continue to buy up craft breweries as quick as possible. Some of those ads have actually been fairly funny, but do they have a point? Have craft beer drinkers become so fussy that it actually legitimizes the claims Budweiser has made? Next time you’re sitting at the bar of you’re favorite brewery on a Saturday night take a few minutes and listen to some of the questions that the clientele asks. I’m not talking about the guy that says “I don’t like things that are too hoppy”, that’s fine. Wait for the guy that asked about the style of cake used in the boil of a pastry stout and spends several minutes examining his glass before he even takes a sip of his beer. Take a few pictures, check in on Untappd, and then finally… try the beer! It’s overkill to do that while you’re by yourself but to see people do this in a group, usually with people who are not also level 96 craft beer warriors, is kinda crazy.

Then you factor in the lengths that some people are willing to go through to buy certain beers. I was recently listening to an episode of the Better on Draft Podcast that did a pretty good job detailing what might be a perfect example of going too far. Check it out-

$380 for a $16 bottle of beer. Granted, Drafting Table’s Mallow is a pretty amazing beer but I really can’t understand or justify paying $380 for a single bottle of any beer. That’s more than more than my car payment. Imagine trying to explain that little expenditure in the bank account to your significant other. Paying that kind of money for a beer takes the idea of a craft beer hobby and immediately escalates it to obsession.

Then we have the super popular mid-evil Bud Light commercials that run through every sporting event and given us catchy phrases like “Dilly Dilly” and “To The Pit of Misery!” I actually laugh at these commercials, even though they’re directly making fun of an industry that I support. There is some truth in this advertising though. The level of snobbishness demonstrated by the craft beer drinker in those commercials can be a real thing. No one likes it, but it’s a real thing. So that leads to the question, how do we get past it? I guess the easy answer is don’t be that guy, which almost sounds to simple to be the solution to this problem. What we all need to remember is that it’s just beer. You can get excited about it but keep that excitement in perspective.

Special thanks to the Better on Draft Podcast for hooking us up with that video clip! Make sure to check out their Podcast every week, they do a great job and interview many interesting people in the craft beer world. You can find them at www.betterondraft.com, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

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