What Happens When Normal People Vote in a Craft Beer Poll

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It turns out that American beer geeks see the world quite differently than the other 90% of beer drinkers.   A series of events unfolded over the past few days that demonstrated this point to me quite clearly.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Last Thursday morning I posted an Olympic-themed poll here on B&WB, featuring a list of countries that brew beer and have athletes in the 2012 Games. The poll was simple – vote for all the countries that you think brew good beer.  Over the course of the voting, the countries who got the most votes would rise to the top.

As a beer geek, I had expectations how this would turn out, and as our beer-obsessed readership chimed in, I was proven right.  At the end of the first day of polling, the following countries had the most votes, in this order (I call this the beer geek vote):

1. USA
2. Belgium
3. Germany
4. Britain
5. Ireland

This poll was created to be a companion piece to an article I wrote about British beers for the Today Show (an Olympic-themed cry for attention, to be sure).  The Today Show post went up Friday morning, and as the votes streamed in, the poll stayed pretty much even.  But one thing did change – the lead enjoyed by the U.S.A began to narrow as the Today.com readership voted in greater numbers for Britain, Germany and Belgium than beer geeks did.  Still, as of Friday afternoon, the results remained the same (I call this the beer/food enthusiast vote):

1. USA
2. Belgium
3. Germany
4. Britain
5. Ireland

Then things got a little crazy.  The poll was featured on the “Freshly Pressed” section of the WordPress homepage on Friday night, which always drives a huge amount of general-interest traffic to the site.  These are mostly fellow bloggers, who love to leave comments and participate in stuff like polls, and participate they did.  After thousands of page hits and even more votes, the poll looked like this yesterday morning (I call this the beer appreciator vote):

1. Germany
2. Belgium
3. USA
4. Britain
5. Ireland

German and the USA had switched places.  So it looks like the voters’ outlook on beer is quite different depending on their level of enthusiasm for the world’s greatest beverage.

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The Top 10 results from the poll as of this morning

• Beer geeks think overwhelmingly that the United States brews the best beer in the world (and they’re right, dammit!), followed by Belgium, and then it was pretty close between Germany and Britain.
• Beer/Food enthusiasts tend to give more weight to European brewers than us beer geeks do, but many still voted for the USA, perhaps out of an appreciation for America’s craft beer movement.  Still, America’s lead and Belgium’s separation from the Brits and the ze Ghermahns narrowed quite a bit as the votes flowed in from Today.com and MSNBC.
• Then the WordPress-reading Beer appreciators came in great numbers and voted like it’s 1999!  That’s not a knock on them, but I can’t believe that Germany would so handily trounce the USA if these people knew of all the wonderful things that are happening in this country.  It’s like they’re unaware of all of our great craft breweries.

I think there are two factors at work here. One is that some of the people who voted over the weekend were from foreign countries (WordPress apparently has global reach), and maybe German and Belgian exports have tickled their taste buds while the only American beers they know are the macro crap.  The other factor is that regular people living in America simply aren’t aware of the craft beer revolution that’s sweeping the country.  It’s easy to forget that when craft beer is such a big deal in your own little world.

Either way, it looks like us geeks have our work cut out for us, both at home and abroad.  Now let’s get out there and annoy people the way only a real beer geek can!

And don’t forget the proper glassware!!  Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.