Craft Beer Is People

Image credits: Facebook

Check with any group of two or more craft beer fans, gathered online or in-person, and the chatter will likely be about the same thing: new breweries that have opened, new beers that are being brewed, and old favorites of both that have closed or been discontinued.

Craft beer fans tend to follow breweries like sports teams, participating in the subculture spectator drama as much as they enjoy their wares. No doubt, when a local and beloved craft brewery is forced to close, this is felt as a loss for those commercially or emotionally vested in that business, as local breweries can grow into a vital social component for many. But we forget that it is only a business, subject to financial pressures of which we may not be fully aware and, tragic as it may be when it ends, those involved will pick up the pieces and find employment elsewhere. If fortunate, owners of failed breweries may find a chance to brew and sell beer once again.

But sometimes the universe steps in and slaps a hard dose of reality on local craft beer fans. Like any other consumer fan base, the idealized community we enjoy cannot always protect us from certain truths about the world in which we live. Both craft brewers and craft consumers are real people, and sometimes people die.

The North Texas craft beer community was hit hard last month by the deaths of two local craft beer figures just days apart, two men who inhabited opposite ends of the industry spectrum, both physically and figuratively, but whose losses have been felt tangibly across the entire region. (The particular medical details for the passing of each are not important but can be easily found among various social media accounts.)

Dave Kirk was an owner and founder of White Rock Alehouse in East Dallas in 2017, and most recently of their expansion last year into a production brewery west of downtown, White Rock Brewing, in 2023. Along with co-owner Greg Nixon, Kirk’s efforts as a professional brewer reaped not only commercial success but also several competitive awards for his products including the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup, the Texas Craft Brewers Cup, and the US Open Beer Championship.

Charlie Pelletier was not involved in the industry as a professional at all. Instead, he was an avid fan of all things craft beer both local and beyond, managing not only a personal blog but several topical social media boards based out of Fort Worth in which he led the cheers for both Texas and national brewers at every opportunity. Pelletier was practically a universal fixture from the consumer end for all things craft beer in our North Texas area, and was an active figure at festivals and local brewery events across the Metroplex.

As the general consuming public, we should be reminded occasionally that craft beer is just a product, a consumable item like bread or clothing or videos. We enjoy quality beer and the culture that has developed around it but, ultimately, beer is just a physical object in a fancy pint glass (albeit one that we can literally consume). It is subject to excessive geekery like any other fan base, from fantasy novels to music genres to anime to Renaissance fairs or other cultural events. Beer, we forget, is just a thing.

Craft beer tourism is a real interest and industry, as fans travel across the country just to visit a new brewery or attend a rare beer release. Beers are traded and sampled in private homes and shared public spaces, with some fans stockpiling bottles for aging like fine wine. Specialized apps and the blogosphere abound with both professionals and amateurs rating and writing about the beers they taste and the breweries that make them. And each of these activities has the same thing in common: People do these things, not the beer nor the legal entity that is a brewery.

Beer, we forget, is just a thing.

Craft beer is the people involved in the industry, from novice consumer to CEO of a major independent brewery. Craft beer is the brewers sweating over the brew kettle in their quest for taste perfection and fans popping the crown cap off a bottle in expectations of the same. Craft beer is the marketing teams designing logos and labels, the brewhouse staff putting beer into cans into boxes into pallets, the laboratory techs maintaining a clean base yeast culture, and amateurs volunteering a weekend to pour samples at a festival. Craft beer is people on social media arguing and criticizing beers while brewery owners pull their hair out at unfair reviews.

Let’s take a moment every now and then to pause and marvel at this expanding subculture of craft beer fans, often sharing no more in common than our uniting interest yet building a nationwide (if not international) community of like-minded, enthusiastic consumers. Live people do these things—flawed, limited, educated, emotional and biased individuals—and not the companies or commercial products or schwag we collect, consume and enjoy.

Despite my participation in local craft beer, I never had the chance to meet either of these men before they left us, and I regret that. Our time here for enjoying craft beer is short. If we happen to see one another at a local craft beer event, please let’s introduce ourselves and at least make that connection. PH