There is a nice post about Beer-Evangelism over at the New School Beer Blog. It is about Ben’s attempt to show some of Portland’s finest beer offerings to people who did not necessarily like or care to drink beer. My comments are a nice anecdote to the blog post, but I’ll also copy and past them below. I’m curious about beer-evangelism because I have found myself doing it. I grew up in a Christian household and evangelism was something that was seen as normal and good, but as I’ve grown older I’ve developed a distate for it. Now when I develop a strong interest in something I find myself still trying to “convert” the nonconverted, trying to get them to see something that I see that they don’t yet see. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it when it comes to beer, or when it comes to attempting to share your interests with others. I think that common-experience and shared interest is a huge part of why it’s done though. People want to feel connected to other people; it’s part of human nature to band together and find some kind of idyllic value in the groups we form. I’m sure I will have more to say about this in the future, once I start writing for this blog again.

One last thing before I post my comments is that if you don’t already know I recently returned from Glasgow, Scotland where I built a temporary pub that served homebrewed beer. I was acting as a type of curator, working with Scotland brewers to represent their beer as best I could and to offer their handiwork as a type of art. I can post images on the blog soon, but if you want a sneak peak, please visit glasgowbeerandpubproject.blogspot.com.

Okay, now for my comments on the New School’s Beer-Evangelism post:

I took some of Portland’s best to a bunch of homebrewers that I met in Scotland. They loved the stuff, and were very curious and delighted by the overhopped beers and CDA’s but I too have found that dropping a heavy beer or hop bomb (with someone who does not love beer the way I do) on the table is not good.

My dad, who never really liked beer, was very impressed by Laurelwood’s Free Range Red but only after he had done a taster tray at Laurelwood. There he got to see one brewery with about 8 different beers, different in color, taste, and weight. I think in terms of beer-evangelism, this is a good strategy. It’s too bad that they (the reporters) did not have time to tour a number of breweries to see the different ways Portland brewers set up their systems and the different beers they each produce.

But I think you’re observation regarding the challenging of your belief that everyone can enjoy the right beer is a good observation. I think everyone can experience moments of utopia, bliss, or whathaveyou but in different forms. For some, lifting weights is the be-all and end-all and they always want me to come lift weights or go running with them. I’ve tried it before and I can’t stand it. They tell me that I need to just keep doing it, that I need to break some sort of invisible barrier but I have come to the point where I just say no. I wouldn’t say that I’m being stubborn, I just don’t want to continue spending my time trying to find something that this other person has found when I’ve already found it in beer, books, or something else. The same might be true for others, just in reverse. They may not want to take the effort to understand the beer the way you have because they have already found something that gives them what they need.