If you ever want to bear witness to the encroaching homogeneity of beer culture, simply log on to Twitter and follow a few beer-type people. One thing you will notice is that many of them are always drinking. Pictures. Pictures of cans. Pictures of cans at a barbecue. Pictures of cans at a barbecue with mountains of burnt meat. Often with cats in the background. But this is just their regular life. What do they do for enjoyment?
To discover such things, you have to wait (if you can) until the weekend. This is playtime for Beer People. The whole world is out there to be experienced. It has many wonders and joys to be embraced. And, as you will often notice, it usually has a Craft Bar with numerous taps and a fridgeful of AWESOME beer.
Found rarities will be proclaimed; all their beery mates will be @d (for information purposes, of course, not to provoke envy); love, laughs and fun in the sun. All that cliched nonsense. But most of all there will be a selfie of some bearded member of the "beer cognoscenti" smiling, while holding a glass of something both ridiculously strong and hideously expensive.
They all do it. Whereas some people hang around theatre doors waiting for celebrities to grab a mutual photo with, beer people like nothing better than to be seen with the latest fashionable limited edition. That they could have grabbed an empty can from the next table for this purpose is a situation not usually imagined.
People once had fun with other people when they went out. Now they have to be seen to be consuming the right things and making a permanent record of the fact.
And as long as they're seen, that's the whole point. Dude.
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