Monday Rant: We're Very Forgetful

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "respect your elders" at many points over the years. I've sensed over time that I've become one of the keepers/backers of such a phrase.

For whatever reason, I developed an extreme craving for brown ales over the weekend. I had one of Voodoo Brewery's Wynona's Big Brown Ales stocked in the fridge. So, I cracked it and poured it into a glass.

My God was it tasty. Not only because it was actually good, but my body needed a beer that tasted as such for whatever reason. I just craved the chocolate and toffee roastiness of a brown ale. I supplemented all of this by also making a journey to East End Brewing to snag a growler of the very sessionable Fat Gary Nut Brown. That too was satisfying.

Once in a while I grab and open up Randy Mosher's Tasting Beer of the Oxford Companion to Beer and read about the specific styles that I'm drinking or the intricacies of each one.

It was yesterday that I discovered that brown ales are one of the old British cornerstones of beer. Right up there with porter and pale ale. Then I thought to myself that with the ultra creativity we see in craft beer today, we sometimes forget the roots of such a great drink. We're sometimes like children that ignore what our grandparents tell us. Just because a certain style is old doesn't mean that they're boring and outdated!

An End That's Nigh

Yes we have plenty of craft beer trends that are out there. We also have such trends in social media. One of the most popular and visible out there is the boatload of Untappd check-ins that get posted to social media accounts on a daily basis.

Something I've noticed over the past few months is that more and more people are filtering them out of their feeds via certain applications that have such a feature. I brought up the point on Twitter late last week, in terms of the end of Untappd check-ins posted to Twitter feeds and got an interesting response from someone.

@burghbeersnob nope, never going to happen, sparks too many awesome beer convos for me to stop.
— Bub(@BubOhioBeer) March 8, 2013

That's actually an interesting take on the issue. If used correctly, (i.e. not posting every single check-in to Twitter without adding thoughts and opinions) posting some check-ins to your feed can encourage good beer discussion with other users.

So, I no longer think the issue is whether or not the death of Untappd check-ins is imminent. It's whether or not more people will filter them out of their timelines and create an even bigger void that your possible beer discussion is reaching.