For The Love Of Port

I think Kramer misunderstood Asimov's point.

I think what Asimov was saying is that beer drinkers, for the most part, are just happy to drink beer. They'll happily point out a good beer or steer you away from one that's not so good, but most of them don't feel the need to write tasting notes or critically analyze their beer while they're drinking it. (I have to keep saying "most" because, well, we have Eric. )

Wine drinkers tend to be the opposite, even in those wine bars that Kramer refers to. There's an air of pretentiousness to drinking wine even it's a chardonnay in a wine bar. You have to choose your wine from a fancy list. It's a little bit snooty. It makes you feel grown up, or sophisticated, or something.

I too think Kramer missed part of Asimov's point.

Mr. Asimov's comment about the purported confidence of beer lovers—who apparently are able to comprehend the finest subtlety of beer without ever cracking open a book or hearing even a whisper of instruction ...

I don't think the beer lovers Asimov is speaking about comprehend most of the subtlety of beer. They can't tell you if the sweetness in their beer is toffee flavor from a lightly kilned malt, caramel from a stewed-caramelized malt, or maltose from a mash conducted at a higher temperature. Asimov's point is that they know the like a beer or don't, and are fine and happy to just drink a beer and make that evaluation without knowing all the subtleties.

Today, we're given to believe that, somehow, every beer lover in America knows, thanks to a mysterious "solid grounding," presumably in the womb, about IBUs and Hallertau hops. They are confident!

They are confident drinkers, and that is Asimov's point, not necessarily that they are confident evaluators, nor that they need be. And for the record, there are a lot of different Hallertau hops out there. I personally love the German Hallertau Mittelfrüh. US varieties of Hallertau are o.k., but don't taste the same. US Liberty is in fact closer in chemical composition, and I use that in some of my Americanized lagers.

Wine drinkers are just geekier than beer drinkers. As Eric states, most beer drinkers don't differentiate the exact field in which the hops are grown. They don't differentiate the various malts. Wine drinkers will argue which subarea of a single vinyard will produce the best fruit.

No wonder why wine aficionados are looked at as snobs.

Beer drinkers look at the "end", wine drinkers consider the "means". Server a good beer, a beer drinker does not care where it was made. Wine has much consideration along with it.