{"id":152,"date":"2013-10-17T22:37:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T22:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beer-syndicate.com\/blog\/?p=152"},"modified":"2016-12-13T18:20:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T18:20:23","slug":"why-is-geek-culture-attracted-to-craft-beer-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beersyndicate.com\/blog\/why-is-geek-culture-attracted-to-craft-beer-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Geek Culture Attracted to Craft Beer Culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to internet legend, the term \u201cgeek\u201d originated from the traveling carnivals of the early 1900s where, among other bizarre spectacles, the \u201cgeek\u201d was infamous for biting the heads off of live chickens. The term has evolved since then to embody a nearly universally embraced, largely popular, distinct subculture of modern society.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the road to the cool table wasn\u2019t always paved with smiley face emoticons and unicorn farts.\u00a0\u00a0 Much like any movement, geeks didn\u2019t wind up at the epicenter of the new cool<\/i> without their share of social bullying and ostracization.\u00a0 (By the way, because there\u2019s so much crossover, I\u2019m basically using the words \u201cgeeks\u201d and \u201cnerds\u201d interchangeably.\u00a0 I acknowledge<\/span> there can be some differences, so please don\u2019t get your glow-in-the-dark Superman underwear in a knot.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the days of their carny past, and up until about the end of the 1900s, geeks in the U.S. were ridiculed, harassed and generally cast as social pariahs- the very antithesis of cool.\u00a0 Geeks struggled.\u00a0 They gathered in quiet circles, incubated, grew, banded together, discreetly made inroads, endured and eventually came to dominate nearly every facet of modern life.\u00a0 These were the geeks that were geeks before it was cool to be one.\u00a0 Rebels of the mainstream.\u00a0 Brainy, nerdy punks, who instead of sporting some variation of a Mohawk and spike studded black leather jackets with stitched on patches promoting anarchy and the Ramones, these geeks rocked the iconic nerd<\/i> classes, mismatched outfits, and highwaters.<\/span><\/p>\n

More so than punk, the geek subculture of old has been so Borgly assimilated into the modern cool that most people can\u2019t go a minute without updating their fb status, snubbing non-wifi establishments,\u00a0 gorging themselves on bandwidth, or showing off that shiny new i-whatever<\/i>. \u00a0The forefathers of geekdom have undeniably spawned this reeling sci-fi world we find ourselves in today.\u00a0 And in an\u00a0epic twist of fate, it\u2019s the OGs (original geeks) who can stand tall with their bloodied badges of honor and deliver a smoldering hot \u201cFrak you\u201d to the world.\u00a0 Without question it\u2019s the modern-day geek who owes a teraflop of gratitude to the geeks who came before them and helped pave the road to the mainstream.<\/span><\/p>\n

So on behalf of all the geeks who’ve had it easy, to those OGs, I say: Qapla\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Geek is As a Geek Does<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s probably more subculturally sensitive to say that the modern usage of \u201cgeek\u201d has come to mean someone who is passionate or unabashedly enthusiastic about something (hence \u201csports geeks\u201d), it seems, however, that on the whole, geeks tend to gravitate towards a certain specific set of subject matter\u2026 \u00a0subject matter that\u2019s just, well, geeky. \u00a0(Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that!<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Call me a generalist geek, but for the most part a geek can be identified by their above average to clinically obsessive interest in any combination of the following: Star Wars, cosplay, MMORPGs, nerdcore, fighting robots, Ren Fest, Linux, Battlestar Galactica, board games, Star Trek, hacking, MST3K, leetspeak, fantasy, collectables, LARPing,\u00a0Stargate, Rubik\u2019s cubes, conventions, D&D, Anime, Doctor Who, comics, sci-fi, gaming, Monty Python, geek rock, action figures, LOTR, LAN parties, and now\u2026 craft beer.<\/span><\/p>\n

But why craft beer?<\/em> Hold on to your coke bag Freud, it\u2019s time for some psychoanalyzing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like geeks, at one time brewers of beer, including craft beer, were ostracized and bullied in the U.S and abroad.\u00a0 Back in the U.S. though, it wasn\u2019t the jocks administering those character building wedgies and swirlies.\u00a0 No, this time it was the Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Movement, American Temperance Society, and all the other teetotaling, hatchet wielding maniacs the likes of Carrie Nation who blissfully dunked the heads of craft brewers in the swirling toilet that was Prohibition.\u00a0 Such groups applied so much social pressure upon anyone who had anything to do with the production or consumption of alcohol that, to a degree, the entire industry (brewers included) became social outcasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even worse, because the Prohibition movement was at its peak during and just after the First World War, propagandists would spew fallacious arguments insinuating that beer was the drink of \u201cthe German enemy\u201d, and somehow money spent on beer went to aid the enemy. \u00a0So now not only was it unpatriotic to drink beer, it was an act of financial terrorism.\u00a0 (Just thinking about that makes me hungry for some Freedom Fries\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

From 1920 to\u00a01933, people in the U.S. witnessed as the once-thriving craft beer industry was recklessly flushed into near extinction. \u00a0Prior to the so-called \u201cGreat Experiment\u201d of\u00a0Prohibition, nearly 4,000 breweries were in operation in the U.S.\u00a0 But by 1932, that number had dwindled to fewer than 200. And though one might think the 21st<\/sup> Amendment, responsible for repealing Prohibition in 1933, was the end of the plight of the brewer, a critical oversight occurred which severely stunted the growth of the craft beer movement in America for nearly forty-five more years.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see, much like the origin stories of so many of the greats of \u00a0modern geekery<\/em>, brewing beer is a hobby that often originates in the garages, basements, and\u00a0college dorm rooms across the United States.\u00a0 Without homebrewers, the craft beer revolution probably would have never taken place, at least not as we know it today.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while it\u2019s true that the 21st<\/sup> Amendment repealed Prohibition and allowed for the legalization of home wine making<\/em>, in an epic fail of our legislative system, home beer making was mistakenly left out of the law.\u00a0 Take a second to imagine where we\u2019d be today if there was a law that said \u201cNO ONE<\/span> is allowed to build computers or software UNLESS done so on the premises of a commercial computer or software business<\/span><\/strong>\u201d. \u00a0At the very least, you could kiss Apple, Microsoft, Google, and yes, even our beloved Facebook goodbye.\u00a0 Is it any wonder that for generations only the mega corporations of brewing were the ones defining what American beer was?<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully though, it seems that we\u2019re finally starting to shake that fizzy, watery, yellow, flavorless hangover. \u00a0A credit which in large part goes to the patron president of homebrewing, Jimmy Carter, who in 1978 signed H.R. 1337 into law, effectively legalizing the brewing of beer at home.\u00a0 But for some 58 years, and certainly during the early days of Prohibition, homebrewers were outcasts, at least legally, and it\u2019s partly in this sense that both brewers and geeks share a common heritage. \u00a0And since most craft beer brewers started out as homebrewers, without the legalization and acceptance of homebrewing, there would be very little craft beer culture in America today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more…<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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