WISE WORDS AND WHINES FROM A BEER CONTRARIAN

You need to find an hour in your schedule to listen to this 7-week-old podcast from CRAFT BEER RADIO, in which they interview an importer named Dan Shelton from SHELTON BROTHERS. Shelton, for all his pomposity and over-the-top, I-can’t-stop-talking rants, is my new beer world hero. Listen as he lustily debunks the Beer Advocate Top 100 beers, Belgian beer in general, extreme beer, beer aging, American craft beer, and you, me and everyone else. Not only is he right-on at least half the time, he’s a welcome antidote to much of the groupthink that seems to be creeping its way through the modern beer, uh, “underground”. The first 10-12 minutes are boring – these are the guys who generated headlines by bringing in the “Santa’s Butt” beer last year, and there’s lots of chatter about first amendment rights, yadda yadda – but then Dan really gets rolling after that. The interviewer can barely get a word in edgewise. It’s a blast, as these things go (which is to say, if you have something better to do, you might want to do that instead). If not, you can download it right here.