Are homebrewers hipsters?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

BlueSunshine

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
354
Reaction score
3
Location
Pittsburgh
So I was reading another forum about hipsters and I searched for the term on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_(1990s_subculture)

There was one section that I found interesting:

In the late 1990s, the term began to be used in new, sometimes mutually exclusive ways. In some circles it became a blanket description for middle class and upper class young people associated with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, alternative hip-hop, independent film and a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local beer (or even brewing their own), listening to public radio, and riding fixed-gear bicycles
Click to expand...

I was a bit confused by this because everyone I've approached have equated homebrewing to a sort of redneck activity. So would you consider homebrewing to be a "hipster" activity?
 
Hipsters do things in a rebellious, counter mass culture type way. But it always catches on to the masses making that thing "uncool". It's like having a tattoo or body piercing. Homebrewing has way to much popular traction to make it hip.
 
I wouldn't consider it a hipster thing. Hipsters drink PBR. Not that I don't drink the occasional PBR, but it's because it's my favorite BMC level beer, not because it's PBR.

Hipsters wouldn't generally go through the trouble of brewing when they could instead buy a cool labeled craft brew and pretend to like it :D

I wouldn't call brewing Redneck either. That's people thinking of shinin' and lumping us into the same genre.
 
IrregularPulse said:
I wouldn't call brewing Redneck either. That's people thinking of shinin' and lumping us into the same genre.
Click to expand...

Yup, I've been homebrewing for less than a year and have been lumped into moonshining several times already.

However, this is the first time I heard about the hipster thing. Pretty interesting.
 
I would bet it depends regionally and by your definition of hipster. I would say judging by the beards and flannel along with many other things that my local brewing culture has a fair representation of hipsters. I am all for it.
 
yeah, my kids think i'm incredibly hip . . . . . I know it because they are always rolling their eyes at me. LOL!!!!!!

^^^^^^^ insert sarcasm
 
I know a ton of hipsters and the answer is no. Not a single one of them brews beer. That would take effort, and most hipsters just want cache that is easily obtained. Claiming to like a band is generally the extent of the effort that they will go to.

Most homebrewers are dorky middle-aged white men.
 
I wrote this a couple years ago when someone brought up something similar.

nvr2low said:
As a noob to this forum and to home brewing i figured i would post some assumptions just to promote some interesting conversation, nothing more!

1. since there is nothing much more American than football and beer im going to assume that most members here spend fall sundays watching a game or two and brewing up some beer.

2. a majority of the members are not nascar fans even though nascar is a drinking sport. reason being, a majority of nascar fans are redneck, budwiser loving americans that love bud too much to try something else!


so do you fit category 1 or 2 or both? as you can probably tell im not a nascar fan even though im about as big a car guy as it gets!

any other noob assumptions old or new, wrong or right?
Click to expand...

revvy said:
1) nope...I watch some football, but don't necessarily go out of my way to plan my Sunday (or Sat. for College)around a game. Although I did watch the Lions today to see if they'd actually win...

I actually spend a majority of my fall Sundays rushing to finish building a haunted house every year at one of my friend's house. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I love building automata for the holiday. The best piece I've done was a an electric chair using a drill motor to animate a dummy getting fried.

I am a big fan Minor league Hockey (IHL,) Nhl, vintage 1800's recreation baseball (which I'm involved in) and REAL futball (soccer).

But I also enjoy the theater (especially Shakespear in the park), museums, and just about any type of live music,(Form classical to Punk/avantgarde/alternative) I spend my summers hitting outdoor music and art festivals in my area. I would probably rather plan and be involved in one of these things, then sitting watching football, or pretty much any sport.

2)Hell no...


So I'd have to say you struck out bigtime on me.
Click to expand...

nvr2low said:
not something i would typically expect to hear from a home brewer, at least from the typical stereo type. but i can respect that, my hobby of choice is photography.
Click to expand...

Revvy said:
But that's YOUR misconception about homebrewers...

I've met everything from artists, doctors, bluecollar types, firefighters, engineers (lot's of them for some reason) hell the Mayor Pro-tem of my town is one of my brewbuddies, and he is an 1800's historian (and the founder of our vintage Base ball team.)

You can't judge a book by it's cover no matter what category you are trying to fit anyone into...

Look at me, I'm a minister, but I'm also an audio visual specialist who works in medical education, and has worked in televsion and radio. And in my 20's I worked in the music industry.

I also have written and published erotica and hosted an online discussion on sex and spirituality on a porn site. I also have taught human sexuality, led men's retreats, made african drums and flutes. Hot air balooned a few times. I have been a clown. I directed and shot 3 sex educational films for use with medical residents. I did freelance photography for a number or years.

I've worked with just about every self help author and guru that has ever been on Oprah at one time or another.

I accidentally became listed internationally as an expert on school and workplace violence because of two articles I wrote about Colombine, one of which became an internet viral article for awhile.

I even came this close to being on "Be the next food network star."

You can't pigeon hole anyone based on any single aspect of anything, especially a hobby such as brewing....I know ALL ABOUT people trying to pigeon hole me into somebox (especially the one labeled minister) and quite frankly it pisses me off when people do it...

The one thing that I have found is that everyone who homebrews that I have met, no matter what their educational level, or job, or background is, is that they are intensely and insanely passionate about beer, and brewing, and even the one's with the least amount of education, can be very articulate when talking about beer or brewing, and they all seem to get a childish gleam in their eyes when talking about it.

And that's the ONLY thing I've found we have in common...but guess what, that's all we need...Love of beer and brewing seems to melt down walls of differences. And that's one of the reasons I love it.
Click to expand...

Here at the Medical school, I know a bunch of biochemists who brew, there are a few first and second year med students who brew. One of the ministers I interned under brewed. There's really no one socio-economic group that could be considered the prototypical brewers.
 
lots of my friends are hipsters, and only one has expressed any interest in brewing. the rest just want to drink mine.
 
Well, I'll go ahead and break these down for me personally:
alternative culture - No
particularly alternative music - No
independent rock - No
alternative hip-hop - Heck NO!
independent film - If it's good (Primer, Hal Hartley films, and a few others), but not just for independent film's sake
a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping - NO!
eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food - Heck NO! My personal view on this organic nonsense is when you show me something made from nothing, I'll concede it's not natural. Until then, everything is natural.
drinking local beer (or even brewing their own) - Yes
listening to public radio - No
riding fixed-gear bicycles - When i was a kid, I used to ride BMX bikes but not anymore

I don't think I qualify as a hipster. Besides, I'm a 30 year old male. Everyone listens to me. Want proof? Last year they made a major motion picture out of the Watchmen, brought back the good Captain Kirk Star Trek, put Stormshadow and Snake Eyes on the big screen, and started putting real sugar back in sodas. The world revolves way too much around me right now to put me in any sort of counter-culture.
 
rexbanner said:
I know a ton of hipsters and the answer is no. Not a single one of them brews beer. That would take effort, and most hipsters just want cache that is easily obtained. Claiming to like a band is generally the extent of the effort that they will go to.

Most homebrewers are dorky middle-aged white men.
Click to expand...

Yep. On all counts.

Hipsters (well, urban hipsters, at least) generally disdain hippies, and homebrewing is still considered more of a hippie thing. But as being a "foodie" is rapidly becoming part of the prescribed hipster identity, my guess is that we'll see more hipsters homebrewing.

It's only when they hit their 30's that hipsters realize that they've actually been been dorky white people all along.
 
mullenite said:
How are hipsters supposed to get stuff from the LHBS on their fixed gear bikes?
Click to expand...

Imagine this is a rims setup instead of a kegging setup..

large_chrisup.JPG


Actually maybe it is a rims setup. :D
 
All my hipster friends come to my house to drink my beer. Hipsters want to pretend to care, but they're too lazy to actually brew. They'd much rather say, "Yeah, I have a friend who brews his own stuff. It's the best beer. No, you can't find it anywhere else." The hipster mentality is something of a "I'm cool enough to know where the cool things are before you know about them."
 
My personal opinion...the reason homebrewing is associated with the hipster is because most hipster's (that I Know) are college kids. All too cool for school. They buy a pre-made can of Mr Beer, boil some water and call it brewing. A lot hipster's I know that find out I brew, all say "yeah, I used to brew in college all the time". But as they learn what it is and how I brew they come to realize they were just adding sh*t to hot water! Both of my borthers are perfect examples. Of course, as they have gotten older they're not so much hipsters anymore either.

For the record, I really enjoy Nascar. I used to think it was about the biggest waste of time ever, until I attended a race. It's pretty amazing. Now I'm hooked. Still take football and baseball over it first, but there's nothing like camping out at the track for 4 or 5 days with 200,000 of your closest friends! As my brother once said, "I'm not a redneck, I just like doing redneck sh*t!"
 
olllllo said:
Funny, I just read this last night.

Why there are no hipsters in China or fixie bikes.

http://www.slate.com/id/2250893

My takeaway is that homebrewing would have to be ironic and that someone would get the joke. So I think this would depend on you local culture.
Click to expand...

I bought 2 nice bikes in Beijing once (I expensed it). I tried to give them away but the chinese dude wanted to keep his old rustbucket bike: "It would just get stolen". For all I know they are still locked to a rack at a train station.
 
Homebrewing is not a Hipster thing.
Pounding $1 Olympia's during a Dive Bar Happy Hour or Trivia Night is.

Homebrewing is BeerGeekery and is to be avoided. It is a gateway to cheesemaking, coffee roasting, gardening and general hippiedom.
 
I think most homebrewers are in the DIY class of folks who happen to like good beer. This would include fixer uppers, gardners, cook who really work it, garage mechanics, and people who just generally like doing thing for themselves because it is better to them. I mean I love good restaurants, but I generally believe if I made it for myself it would be better. Anyone else?
 
thataintchicken said:
Homebrewing is not a Hipster thing.
Pounding $1 Olympia's during a Dive Bar Happy Hour or Trivia Night is.

Homebrewing is BeerGeekery and is to be avoided. It is a gateway to cheesemaking, coffee roasting, gardening and general hippiedom.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this. I was thinking how fun it would be to make my own cheese. :p Hi I am Brew-Happy and I am a Geek!
 
If I eat it or drink it, I think I should give a shot at producing it on some level. Helps me understand, and with luck improve it. Living in Canada means no growing my own bananas, and the government doesn't want me to indulge in whiskey experimentation, but gardening, cooking, brewing, cidermaking, for sure. Although I have shopped in thrift stores, love obscure documentaries, and had ill-advised facial hair for much of the winter, so your call.
 
I think we lean more towards, the garage DIY'er, the professional Engineer/Scientist, or the Naturalist Hippie (not to be confused with the hiptster hippie).
 
I swear Long Beach, Ca has to be the hipster capitol of the world. So many V-necks-showing-man-cleavage, fixie-riding, and too-obscure-for-you-to-have-ever-heard-of-them band listening hipsters, its unreal. I guess you know my thoughts about hipsters by now. Some of them are cool people. Some of them are jerks with their constant cooler-than-you bout.

That said, I haven't come across many hipster who homebrew. I brought a hipster friend of mine in when I started but he has stopped homebrewing. Although it does have a large DIY base I think the homebrewing community is so diverse that it also happens to include hipsters.

And for everyone's entertainment...

Look at this f-ing hipster
Warning: some nudity and many disturbing images.
 
My friend that first exposed me to homebrewing is part of the hipster culture.

I'd call him a hipster flat out, but he's in a stable relationship, has a good job and his bike has all its original gears. He left a PBR in the back of my fridge once... I found that lonely PBR to be even more ironic than a normal one.

Anyway.

I took a 6-pack of homebrew to his house for a party once. He hadn't brewed in a while due to moving and working a lot, so some of his newer friends and especially his wife's friends hadn't been exposed to much homebrew.

These hipsters thought it was just about the coolest thing ever that they all tasted different things in their unlabeled longneck bottles of Alaskan Winter Ale. One said she tasted flowers, one thought he smelled coffee and chocolate, etc etc...

I almost didn't want to tell them they were all drinking different beers.
 
JediJoel said:
I swear Long Beach, Ca has to be the hipster capitol of the world. So many V-necks-showing-man-cleavage, fixie-riding, and too-obscure-for-you-to-have-ever-heard-of-them band listening hipsters, its unreal. I guess you know my thoughts about hipsters by now. Some of them are cool people. Some of them are jerks with their constant cooler-than-you bout.

That said, I haven't come across many hipster who homebrew. I brought a hipster friend of mine in when I started but he has stopped homebrewing. Although it does have a large DIY base I think the homebrewing community is so diverse that it also happens to include hipsters.

And for everyone's entertainment...

Look at this f-ing hipster
Warning: some nudity and many disturbing images.
Click to expand...

I now have a new definition of disturbing. Are those pictures recent? Are hipsters putting something "special" in their PBR?

I am happy to not count myself in the hipster category after that montage.

Edit: BK, not hating just not relating.
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
Wow... there is a lot of hate for hipsters on this board. That's sad. I am sure all of you are amazingly interesting though.
Click to expand...

No hate here. One of my good friends is pretty much King Hipster himself in Columbia, MO. He is actually talking about starting a hipster bar in an old warehouse building that features home brew from local brewers in the area. Nevermind the legality of it.
 
rexbanner said:
I know a ton of hipsters and the answer is no. Not a single one of them brews beer. That would take effort, and most hipsters just want cache that is easily obtained. Claiming to like a band is generally the extent of the effort that they will go to.

Most homebrewers are dorky middle-aged white men.
Click to expand...

I know a bunch of dorky middle aged white men, and none of them brew. Unless I'm now middle aged, which I don't think I am yet.

It kinda fits the defenition. We're rebelling against the mass beer culture.
 
I don't think homebrewers are hipsters.

However, I'd rather be compared to a hipster than one of those damn emo kids.
 
EMO kids don't survive past puberty... lol. Just kidding, I love EMO jokes, and hipster jokes, just seems odd to me since I have always thought of brewing as kind of a hipster hobby. If not done by hipsters then at least very enjoyed by them.
 
rexbanner said:
Most homebrewers are dorky middle-aged white men.
Click to expand...

Possibly true, but I wouldn't assume that's necessarily so.

passedpawn said:
No. It is not "hip" to homebrew or everyone would be doing it. It's nerdy. We might as well be building our own crystal radio sets.
Click to expand...

Well, when I first heard of "homebrew", I did have some thoughts of college kids trying to make cheap alcohol. Once I started, I found that it was way too much work (and too expensive) for it to be a cheap and easy hobby. When I met other brewers, I found that most of them are engineers or other engineering types. Some of the "nerd stuff" appeals to them. One of the reasons I still love brewing is because it makes me think. Water chemistry, ingredients, fermentation, temperature control, kegging, etc, all require some thought and planning. Even my love of great beer comes from a nerd point of view, not a cooler-than-cool point of view.

I most assuredly am NOT cool. I am also not a middle aged man. But I am a homebrewer.
 

Similar threads

M
  • Article
Craft Beer And Homebrewing In Italy
Replies
14
Views
3K
juszaias
J
TasunkaWitko
Cream Cheese Kit from FarmSteady
Replies
6
Views
3K
HausBrauerei_Harvey
HausBrauerei_Harvey
F
Female Club Leadership and Misogyny Problems
Replies
39
Views
2K
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
A
  • Article
Brew & A: Jessica "Hello" B.
Replies
21
Views
1K
Roadie
Roadie
wps-hbt2

Latest posts

Back
Top