by Joe Kinsey September 20, 2022, 9:11 amupdated September 21, 2022, 5:56 pm 6 Comments
Last week, I received a message from Nick Purdy, the president and co-founder of Wild Heaven Beer in Atlanta, Georgia. Nick, an Auburn grad, wanted to have a word with this community over its beer consumption and he wondered if I would be man enough to publish his rebuttal.
Look, I am a content guy. I thrive on drama and if a craft beer guy wants to return fire on the Busch Light community, then I’m all for it. Clearly, I’m not scared.
This morning, Nick P. in Georgia has the floor. Just so we’re all clear, this IS NOT a #sponsored post.
I’m a longtime Outkick reader, Screencaps fan and even a TNML participant. I’ve been reading this site longer than most, I’d expect. I don’t agree with everything on here but enjoy much of it. One thing I’ve loved is seeing a celebration of regular guy fun like drinking beers on patios, in garages, and on back decks with friends, and maybe even a game on an outdoor TV. And a Big Green Egg smoking some quality protein.
However, I’ve been a bit annoyed by one element of all this great content – So I often see talk that a true beer option for us regular guys is a macro lager from one of the big conglomerates, Bud, Miller & Coors and that craft beer is silly, ridiculous or not for us. This letter is not to say anything negative about those big corporate beers but to make the case that craft beer (yes, IPAs, Belgian beers, Saisons, all manner of ales, and of course true European-style Pilsners like the crisp Italian Pilsner I’m drinking right now) are 100% as much a beverage of the regular guy as your Natty Lights, Mic Ultras and Budweisers. In fact moreso, and here are some reasons why:
Do you know that most craft breweries in the country, and there are thousands, are true entrepreneurial startups by a person with passion and skill who wants to create something flavorful and a context to share it? Your local taproom and patio is the true happiest place on earth (seriously, if you haven’t been to a brewery and sat on the patio on the weekend, you’re missing out).
This is the little guy fighting The Man and in this case, let’s be specific about who The Man is: Your Budweiser products all come from AB-Inbev, a Belgian multinational who happily uses its market muscle and financial power to tilt the playing field for shelf space in their own favor, having gone as far as to buy up craft breweries so they can appear to be “craft” and force the little guys out (“Hey Big Grocery Chain, you don’t need to deal with that little local brewery – you can get “craft” beers more simply from us!”). Molson Coors, the parent company of both Miller and Coors, does the same thing, working daily to buy shelf space and ensure that local craft breweries are limited in their opportunities to grow. They work very hard at this. (Side note because I’m fair about this stuff: Thousands of good Americans work for these big beer companies, who for the most part make quality products and are doing their best.)
Think craft beer is too frou-frou? Seriously? We’re talking about beer, the drink of the people, the one that for thousands of years has been made in the home and prior to the industrial revolution, usually by the woman of the house! When we make a hoppy IPA, it’s to show off the incredible aromas and flavors that come from a unique crop (often grown in the U.S. in places like Oregon, Michigan or New York). Do you complain to a chef that his food has too much flavor or is too unique? Beer is something that can be explored like anything else and there are incredible discoveries to be made and tons of easy-drinking daily beers as well, like our own Emergency Drinking Beer (the can art is a tribute to the old Emergency Drinking Water cans from the U.S. Army).
Here’s my pitch: If I asked you if you like beef and you said “eh, it’s fine” and I asked what you had ever had and you’re like “McDonald’s Hamburgers, what else is there?” then we’d know to show you Five Guys, In-N-Out, and wow, you’ve never had a steak? Let me show you beef tenderloin, a porterhouse and of course the glory of a reverse-seared ribeye. Damn dude, you’ve only had a small slice of what’s out there! That’s the experience of the macro beer drinker who hasn’t had the wide range of IPAs, brown ales, Saisons (yes, that’s a French word, get over it – it means “season” and the style was invented for farmworkers) and Belgian beers. If your craft beer complaint is that it’s “too heavy” then you just haven’t sought out the very wide range of excellent lawnmower-type craft beers out there.
What we offer is this: incredible quality, a wide variety of flavors that should appeal to anyone who likes….you know, flavor, and the knowledge that you are supporting real American manufacturing jobs when you drink your local craft beer.
So let’s see those craft beers in the pictures you send in and if you’re in Atlanta, come by our Avondale Estates brewery anytime and show this email to the bartender and your first Emergency Drinking Beer is on us – we’re open every damn day.
Cheers from Atlanta and #WDE,
Nick’s even serving beers with a hint of cilantro, pink peppercorns and lime. Someone go over to Wild Heaven & drink one of Nick’s beers and let me know how it is. I’m sure there’s no way it’s as good as a Busch Light after layin’ down some stripes, but I’m all ears.
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Pools closed for the season yesterday and every year on the day after they have a dog pool party. No lifeguards. No rules. Just dogs being dogs.
• Brad M. in Charlotte, NC would like to have the floor:
Gerard W. asks ‘Has Cris Collinsworth always been a pompous ass?’
The answer, in a word: No.
I won’t bore you with a Wikipedia-style bio full of stats but people like me (and likely you) who saw Collinsworth as a Bengals rookie (or even a Florida Gator standout) recall a naïve character with his honey-dipped accent and surfer-boy hair.
Cincinnati was starving for football success after 12 years as an expansion franchise. They had their bright spots in the mid 70s with some quality teams led by Ken Anderson but had the misfortune of playing in the same division as the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers. On the baseball front The Big Red Machine was sputtering after the departure of several star players including local hero Pete Rose and the inexcusable firing of Sparky Anderson.
Collinsworth, then, arrived at a key moment for the Bengals and Cincinnati sports fans in general as the team, reeling from a 4-12 mark, then a coaching change (Forrest Gregg was hired) then a 6-10 record in Gregg’s first year, adopted their striped-helmet look in 1981 and went to the Super Bowl in Collinsworth’s rookie year.
In a position often occupied by speedy black players (even in 1980) Collinsworth was something of an anomaly at WR like his counterpart Steve Largent who also wore #80. But Collinsworth was tall and fast whereas Largent was compact and a technical route runner.
Collinsworth was gold dust to local and national media who quickly learned they could rely on him to provide raw emotion (positive or negative) and gee-whiz aw-shucks reactions delivered with a broad smile and in all apparent sincerity – similar to Don Meredith who parlayed these traits into national fame on Monday Night Football. It garnered him loads of press, video clips, magazine covers, endorsements and female attention.
As he approached retirement he was recruited by dominant local radio station WLW to co-host SportsTalk – a show established by another longtime Bengal, Bob Trumpy. Trumpy was fiercely opinionated and confrontational and in many ways established the format most of these local radio shows follow today. Collinsworth was friendly (natch) and sunny and mostly the anti-Trumpy, often deferring to his co-host (a bombastic Brooklynite named Andy Furman). Collinsworth even had to referee what amounted to an on-air (verbal) fight between Trumpy & Furman one night.
But the good ol’ boy was no dummy. He enrolled in law school. One broadcasting peer advised him to eliminate his Southern twang in order to expand his opportunities in media – the result was the somewhat bombastic frequently-mimicked flattish Midwestern delivery still heard today. He ended up part of HBO’s coverage of Wimbledon, of all things, and later, as we know, joined Inside The NFL in addition to his network gigs.
On the business front, Collinsworth became a partner in a company that provided mobile MRI facilities when that diagnostic technology was relatively new, relatively rare (especially mobile versions) and rather expensive. He had two eager, frequent and well-funded clients straight away in the Reds & Bengals.
As many know, he became the majority owner of Pro Football Focus, mavens of statistical and analytic geekery and obsessive compilers of lists.
In sum, Cris has done all right for himself and may be entitled to a bit of ego. He still occasionally phones into WLW where longtime host Bill Cunningham teases him mercilessly about being a big-timer or about fumbling in the Super Bowl and Collinsworth is a self-effacing good sport about it.
He obviously isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but he is for the network suits and his colleagues and it’s their opinion that matters most.
Brad M. knows his WLW. For us Cincinnati fans, it’s always great to be reminded of how lucky we’ve been to have The Big One in our lives all these years along with all the characters who’ve made it great.
You won’t get an argument out of me on Collinsworth being an ass. He’s a Bengals hall of famer. He’s one of us.
• Pat M. wants SeanJo to get focused!
Joe, don’t be too hard on yourself and the Bengals. It might not be a jinx but it does happen.
https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bears/how-do-nfl-teams-fare-season-following-super-bowl-loss?amp
Also, I appreciate SeanJo’s Screencaps on Sunday but feel he needs a roadmap. Keep the babes in the middle. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster ride!
Thank you for the seven days of SC.
SeanJo’s still getting comfortable with the controls to the Screencaps empire on Sundays. People think they could do Screencaps in their sleep and replace me in a heartbeat. Not SeanJo, he’s very humble. Let’s just say there might not be a more humble employee at OutKick. Frankly, SeanJo personifies the “no I in TEAM” mindset.
That said, learning the history of Screencaps and the operating procedures is a learning process.
• John C. in Bowling Green, KY writes:
Hey Joe! TNML/Screencaps veteran here with a screencaps appearance Aug 2021 (https://www.outkick.com/2021-miss-hooters-gianna-tulio-stops-by-ladies-fight-at-braves-game-the-field-of-dreams-looks-awesome/)
A close cousin of the garage fridge is the patio/pool bath fridge. It serves both the hot days lounging in the pool and double MNF nights. You can see 3 key components of the setup. First, a stocked garage displaying the diversity the left is always screaming about.
Second, the bonus TV setup for multiple game scenarios. Third, the “must-have” for efficient power drinking: the urinal. No “lid up” or “lid down” arguments in this house.
Nick P. in Georgia is going to be completely triggered over that patio/pool house fridge.
• Greg S. in Pinetop, AZ writes:
I have some suggestions for those who are having trouble streaming TV. (I have no issues here in the White Mountains of AZ which in known for questionable internet)
I hope this helps! I had no trouble with the LAC – KC game Thursday, it was like any other Sunday NFL broadcast.
Here’s my set up at the cabin. The top TV is dedicated to NFL Redzone on Sundays.
Finally this morning, Lee D. in Florida always sends me weather-related emails and they’re typically very interesting tweets from weather guys. This one is wild.
HOW CRAZY IS THIS?! 🌪️🤯 Rare *four* waterspouts close together on Saturday evening offshore of Sanibel, Florida. That's the most at one time I've seen for our area in a long time. Credit: @WINKNews viewer Blane Garrett @spann @StephanieAbrams @JimCantore @StormHour pic.twitter.com/fTU1RTk4Pp
Now let’s get out there and have a great day. Summer is hours away from ending and your wives are about to get their comfy vests out of the closet. Meanwhile, I need to see more garage fridge setups. It’s about that time when you voluntarily get kicked out of the house for the winter. Let’s see what you’re working with during the dark months.
Used Car prices are down 13% over the last 9 months, at their lowest levels since last September. Was a leading indicator of higher inflation rates in 2020 and the recent downturn is likely a leading indicator of lower inflation rates to come. pic.twitter.com/Aq271SYMlU
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No House of the Dragon live reaction show tonight because @LaraTravis has turned our 8 year old’s birthday party into a giant foam party, circa Cancun 1998. See y’all next week. pic.twitter.com/X1TaoDNAjo
You’re silly if you don’t think I’m motivated, after everything I’ve been through 🧡🍊#GBO pic.twitter.com/nHgsk77i4R
Who did this??? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/5U2Tuc164g
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Buffalo is off to a fast start. This guy is ready to give Josh his right arm if needed. pic.twitter.com/nGT8VSXiiB
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That Victory Monday coffee hits different pic.twitter.com/lFkTSA9LQx
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Brian Perry shared this great photo of his grandfather, Johnnie Bryant from Crosby, Texas standing on top of the Houston Astrodome as it was being built in April, 1966. He worked for an elevator/escalator company that did the installation of the escalators inside the dome. pic.twitter.com/fpdA9sATv0
V8 mailbox is a power move. pic.twitter.com/1dZJfElkOi
Bettie, an AG Detector K-9 at O’Hare, got a whiff & alerted to a traveler’s bag. The passengers said they had not food, but on the baggage floor 2 bags of pork meat concealed in dairy bags were found. Visit https://t.co/i4FJiZUKwX & review Prohibited & Restricted Items. pic.twitter.com/L4OUrnVtZ1
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For #zgwmansionmondays, here’s a 14,500 sq ft home on 2.51 acres in Powell, OH. The home has 5 bd, 6.555 ba, a gym and best of all according to the listing the HOA fee is only $295. Currently listed for $4,950,000. pic.twitter.com/Yr6Je3Fcg2
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sad sign downgrade pic.twitter.com/iDONfaWmLi
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This dog has a digestive issue so his family made him a chair so that he can actually eat 😭 pic.twitter.com/9XBqv8Kkgo
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I'm an Ohio guy, born in Dayton, who roots for Ohio State and can handle you guys destroying the Buckeyes, Urban Meyer and everything associated with Columbus.
Great stuff today. The craft beer guy makes some good points about small businesses and being pushed out by the big guys. That is a problem and we can get behind that. Buying canned beer from real local breweries (not the ones that have been taken over) should be a bigger issue and I bet if half the people buying craft at a grocery store knew they were actually buying from In-Bev, they would pick a different beer. I hope more info like this gets out there.
But on another note, why is it that every small brewery has like one pilsner/lager and like 24 IPA’s? I know lagers take a couple weeks longer to brew, but come on. It seems like local breweries are too busy showing off their range of brewing skills to focus on what the regular beer drinker wants, and the craft beer guy’s response kind of supports that theory. Just put 3 or 4 lagers/pilsners on there then do what the hell you want with the other 20 taps. And don’t tell me that brown beer that looks like soup “is technically is a lager.” Get the hell out of here with that. With all that said, I have found a couple local breweries that I like that I hit a couple times a week, and it is possible to make an easy-drinking “craft” beer. But even then, I rib those guys daily on the lack of selection and when the lager runs out, I ask when the next batch is and let them know I’ll see them in two months when it’s ready.
Advice to contributors: each typed word costs $5.
Pretend you’re not submitting something to the national archives. Pretend you are submitting something to guys who want to see hot chics and *may* stumble across your witty/funny/interesting and most importantly concise thoughts.
I can make a 6-pack of beer last a year in the back of a refrigerator so I’m hardly an authority on the subject. That said … I put “craft beer people” in the same category as vegans, cross-fitters, AmWayers, and anyone who works for IBM … when they say ANYTHING all I hear is that blah blah sound adults make in Peanuts tv shows. .
I enjoy craft beer. I primarily drink big name beer (because i live in the middle of nowhere), but when travelling I always enjoy tasting the local micro brews at restaurants and pubs. In regard to Sean Joseph, I enjoy his format! It keeps it interesting, and you never know what you’re going to see when you scroll down to the next pic. Perhaps I’m adhd, but sometimes i get bored looking at a bunch of 18-year-old fake girls for 5 minutes. His format breaks it up enough for me to enjoy it.
I don’t drink anything but “craft” beer. Not only because it is far tastier than the beer-like-substances produced by Globe-spanning conglomerates like In-Bev, but because it is made by, as the brewer above says, by guys like us who cashed in their other careers and started a brewery.
Long time reader/contributor here. Nick P’s email is one of the best I’ve ever read.
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