A Good Beer Blog: Do Beer Bloggers Have Too Much Influence on Readers?

Bloggers do the homework so that you do not have to....although beer homework is damn tasty.

A Good Beer Blog is exactly that – a good blog about beer. I have always enjoyed Alan McLeod’s writings. They seem to be very engaging and the type that spur a conversation about beer. All of our readers should certainly check these Canadian writers.

Today, Good Beer Blog put up a post in reference to a comment strand that appeared at Appellation Beer. The comment strand refers to whether or not people actually read and acknowledge the writings of beer bloggers. Alan’s article over at A Good Beer Blog discusses a broader theme of whether or not all beer writers – not just bloggers – have an unfair influence. Alan’s point is that there are Millions of people who all drink beer regularly – yet there is a teeny percentage that actually read about beer. Thus, glorified beer writers are just that – over-glorified.

But, we do believe that there is some influence, and that the influence is important to some people. Each and every day the craft beer industry grows and so does the interest in beer. As we all know (and many hate), beer is growing each day and has swelled into a damn fad. Beer is cool all of a sudden.

That being said, if people in that small percentage of beer fanatics want to maximize their time and their wallets – they should look to trusted beer blogs. If readers can find ways to ensure that they are focusing their efforts on the great things in beer – shouldn’t they do it?

We posted the following comment to the article – which can also be seen on the original article. The “Stephen” is a reference to renowned beer writer Stephen Beaumont who writes at the World of Beer. Most of us know Stephen from the opening notes of Tim Webb’s Good Beer Guide to Belgium (which i just spent that past three weeks ogling over).

Here is our comment:

I agree with Stephen (except that we are not paid – we just pour money down a drain). We do it all for the love, but like to think that we have some bearing on what both the pro and casual beer drinker do with their beer experience.

If we can prevent you from wasting one hour of your day by checking out a horrid pub and save you $12.00 from buying that gross new release – all at the same time as making sure that you dont miss that new offering at your local beer shop, that amazing bartender at the Paters Vaejte in Antwerp or the best things you should do on your Tuesday – i think there is some solace in that for all readers.

The reader does not have to believe your opinions, but generally beer reviewers (exception of Tim Webb) are kind and overly accepting. So you typically weed out just the generally accepted bad, and hopefully get good news and reporting. The influence need only be minimal to be important. We are both beer writers and beer consumers – even the bloggers benefit from the writings of other bloggers.