Am I a beer snob for adamantly asserting that beer variations, particularly when dealing with beer brands, should not be referred to as "flavors?"
No, I think not. I'm just a fella who likes real beer and thinks the variance label that is "flavor" belongs to the malternative, juice beer stuff that's way overpriced.
Beer on the other hand is probably the most diverse beverage on the face of the earth. With literally dozens of styles to choose from, beginning with whether or not it's an ale or a lager you're going to be imbibing (...maybe another column I'll vent on the public misconception related to ales and lagers), beer is far more complex and therefore should be more highly regarded when advertised/promoted than say...soda pop.
With a few exceptions, most microbrew beers are not a simple concoction of a bland canned pilsner and a [you fill it in] flavoring extract. No, all one needs to do is leave that up to the big domestics who are currently deluding the public with faux microbreweries and brands. That being the case, why promote real micro products like they're sitting on a shelf next to a case of Capri Sun?
By using an adult word like "style" instead of the kid friendly noun that is "flavor," you--advertising distributors--are speaking to the right market (people 21 and over), avoiding frustrating the women (and some men) that thought [you fill it in] was going to taste like juice beer and, most importantly, helping to enlighten the many people still out there that think of beer in the most simple, barely nuanced way: light, heavy, dark.
And on that note, I could really go for a munich dunkel lager right now.
By my estimation this gentleman is likely drinking an Irish dry stout (an Irish ale like Guinness Draught)
