Pairing beer with.... personalities?

November 2, 8:22 PMNY Beer Pairing ExaminerElizabeth Willse

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The talented and beer-savvy Lisa pointed me to an article from AdAge about Psychographics: What Your Taste in Beer Reveals about You.

One by one, the article describes typical personality and marketing data for the following drinkers: Bud, Bud Light, Heineken, Corona, Blue Moon and..."Craft Beer." (Everything else?) Lumping craft beer, from Guinness to Stone Arrogant Bastard, all together in one personality type is at best, oversimplifying, and at worst, decidedly absurd.

The descriptions read more like horoscopes.

"Corona drinkers do more and see more people in one day than most people see in a week. But the life-of-the-party Corona drinkers also have an altruistic side; they care deeply about other people and see themselves as giving and warm."

And then... the entirety of the craft beer drinking demographic gets lumped together "both because there are fewer fans (and thus less statistically significant data) of them, but also because the personalities of one type fairly well describe another." Adventurous, seeking out new experiences? Sure! Sounds reasonable. Takes into account the diversity of tastes, and really localized breweries out there, adventurers in terms of extreme tastes as well as those who love to travel and discover.

But there's got to be more this article could have done in terms of craft beers. There are people who love confrontational, biting hops. Or stouts so malty, dense and opaque they're practically like a meal. Sometimes adamantly so. (Some of my readers may have noticed I'm rather skeptical of hoppy beers.) One drinker's piqued curiosity at a cream stout or a fruit lambic is another drinker's sneer at a "novelty" beer.

What about those who will buy beer based on an intriguing name  or label design. ("Santa's Butt Porter" has a great label but... wow, was that a mistake! But I digress- more on that particular beer debacle in December!) Sometimes being a local beer or a newly discovered beer is enough to get certain personalities to drink it.

Like many of the commenters on the original article, I'd like to see more- at least more consideration of the glorious wealth of craft beer out there!

And of course, I'd love to see a giant study about beer and food pairing choices and demographics.

But in the meantime, I'll keep pairing beers, one meal at a time.