Valpo Brewfest - Delicious Irony

"It's like rain on your wedding day,
it's a free ride when you've already paid,
it's the good advice that you just didn't take,
Who would've thought? It figures."

-Alanis Morissette, "Ironic"

Wilk: You know, there is an effort to redefine craft beer into "gourmet" beer.
Rob: It's funny, you say redefine, I say ruin.  Beer is for the common man.  People complain about the billion dollar breweries, but you know what, they make a billion dollars because people keep buying them.  It's like wine tasting.  Wine tasting is on the tail end of the bell curve.  It's no longer this bourgeois thing that relates to the upper crust, it's for the common man.  Now craft beer is coming up the bell curve and it's starting to be reserved for...
Wilk: The damn hipsters.

Aside: I only discovered later that when I looked up the word bourgeois to spell it correctly that it is a term to describe a member of the middle class, of which I believe Rob would include himself.  Unless common usage has turned the definition of bourgeois into snobbery the word was used incorrectly in the context (sorry Rob).  In any case, I understood his point perfectly when he was making it.

Rob: Exactly.
Wilk: Well, the hipsters drink PBR.
Adrian: Yeah, but they do that to be ironic.  We drink PBR because we have no problem with how it tastes.  They drink it because they feel they're being cool based on the irony.  "Look, we're drinking crappy beer."

As this dialogue continued into ranging topics, a group of twenty-somethings rambled in.  The most obvious offense was the gentleman wearing a tweed blazer over his t-shirt while a fedora rested on his head.  His black rimmed spectacles and unshaven face complemented his whole look perfectly.  He certainly tried to give the appearance of someone who didn't care how he looked, but the meticulous nature of his clothing selection was very apparent.

Wilk: If anyone ever needed a definition of the word "hipster," there he is.

Rob, Adrian, and Brett nod approvingly and laugh.

Rob: Who wants to go back to the VIP tent and grab one of the specialty beers?  There is one in there that paired beautifully with the smoked gouda.  Oh! and did you try that peppered salami?