Friday, August 11, 2006

An opposing point of view

The following arrived in this morning's email. I'll reserve comment except to say that a) nowhere do I presume to call myself an "expert", and b) the moment I have an opportunity to enjoy beer in Bohemia, I'll be there.



Dear Sir, or Beer Expert (hardly),

I was astounded by your audacity to call yourself a beer
expert, or at least, by your labelling the list of breweries
the best beers...

There is no such thing as the best beer, the impression
one could get from glancing at the list. I made up my mind
to judge your effort as poor and misleading from the very
simple fact that you arrived at some abslute judgments
from drinking (tasting) one beer and that from a bottle,
rather than dispensed artfully from a pipe in a beerglass
of proper size and shape. Bottled beer is an abomination
just one step better than canned beer.

Please do me a favor and stop promoting obscure breweries.
You remind me of the wine promoters, who can describe wine
in the most poetic terms of tastes that have nothing to do
with the ultimate value of wine, drinking from bottles
that travelled half way around the world. You know well
what will happen to a bottle of wine, don’t you? Exactly
the same will happen to a bottle of beer, transforming it
to a liquid very close to a genuine Bud brewed somewhere
in a stainless steel monstrosity in New Jersey.

Come here, to Bohemia, parched on a nice warm day. Then
you’ll see what beer realy is, and never mind the subtle
taste that your buds revoke after a Big Mac.

Regards from J.E.Kalfus
Czech Republic

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like this guy has something painful lodged "where the sun don't shine."

Any idea which article prompted this tirade?

Anonymous said...

Wow. He needs to get out more.

You may not call yourself an expert - but I think you are. You brew professionally with high standards, you judge brewing contests, you've lived and breathed beer for almost 15 years, you've taken classes... What the hell else do you have to do to be considered an expert?? Sheesh!

Anonymous said...

I "enjoyed" this email. I like how on the one hand he derisively refers to Bud and Big Macs, but then in the next breath tells you to stop promoting obscure breweries. Apparently schools in the Czech Republic don't teach about logical fallacies such as "ad hominem" attacks. It is equally apparent that Americans have not cornered the market on hubris. I realize that in that last sentence I did the same thing I accused him of in the sentence before that, but since it didn't bother him, it won't bother me either.

I also agree with your comment about Bohemia. If Mr. J.E. Kalfus would pay for my airfare over to Bohemia, I will partake of pilseners with him until either my liver or his Euros give out.