Angry Ill-Informed Snobs Ahoy!

Several of my friends work for Devils Backbone, on the business side of things as well as the brewing. They are all really nice people, and I love it when I have the opportunity, or more usually the happy accident, to hang out with them and talk beer. You would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and generally positive bunch of folks, and it helps that Jason shares my love of decocted and bottom fermented beers.

Yesterday, one of my friends was visiting another brewery taproom in Virginia, whose beer and staff are apparently awesome, and she was wearing her Devils Backbone sweater as the weather has been a little cold of late. On seeing said Devils Backbone sweater, some customers in the establishment began to harass my friend, including this delightful comment:

"Fuck those corporate sellouts, and fuck you for working for a bunch of overrated corporate dicks."

Charming eh?

Of course the root of this animosity is last year's news that Devils Backbone are now partially owned by AB-InBev, I am not aware of the full details of the deal but I vaguely recall hearing that AB-InBev don't own the entirety of Devils Backbone. If I am wrong I am sure I'll be corrected soon enough.

It would appear then that in the mind of some craft beer purists it is acceptable behaviour to accost someone you do not know, verbally abuse them, and basically be a total twat of a human being because that person works for a successful brewery. Part of me wouldn't be too surprised if the wanker in question used to drink lots of Devils Backbone beer and is all butt hurt because of the sale, or has a palette so refined that they can taste the corporate structure in the beer.

Whichever way you look at it, and I can understand people choosing to spend their money on whichever brewing company is most acceptable to them, this is completely unacceptable behaviour, the kind of thing you would expect in the school yard from 7 year olds, not from people legally old enough to drink.

One of the things I love about Devils Backbone, and the folks that work there, is that they live by their motto 'beer positive', craft beer fans would do well to do likewise.