Anthony Bourdain: Craft beer fans have gone too far

David Maclean
Monday 31 October 2016 14:01 GMT
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A top TV chef has compared craft beer obsessives to the emotionless humans in classic sci-fi movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Outspoken celebrity cook Anthony Bourdain said the biggest criticism he gets from viewers of his various TV shows is over his low-quality beer choice - but he's unrepentant.

“You know, I haven't made the effort to walk down the street 10 blocks to the microbrewery where they're making some f****** Mumford and Sons IPA. People get all bent about it,” he told Thrillist.

Brewer labels casks full of Effra Ale at inner city craft beer makers Brixton Brewery (Getty Images)

“But look, I like cold beer. And I like to have a good time. I don't like to talk about beer, honestly.”

Craft beer - made in a traditional way by a small brewery - is booming in countries around the world including Britain and America.

But some of the more pretentious craft beer pubs have angered Bourdain.

He said that craft beer pubs where people are encouraged to sample small glasses of lots of different beers while making notes and savouring it is what annoys him the most.

“I was in San Francisco, and I was desperate for beer, and I walked into this place… I looked around: the entire place was filled with people sitting there with five small glasses in front of them, filled with different beers, taking notes.

“This is not a bar. This is f***** Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is wrong. This is not what a bar is about.”

His anger was not only reserved for beer snobs, but for wine aficionados too: “I've sat at tables where somebody's bringing out one fantastic, life-changing wine after another. But, you know, just give me the name, tell me where it's from, and that's OK.

“I don't need to know what's out of the f****** hill, or who put the grapevines in, or that they were transplanted. I don't need this. I drank it already, dude. I just don't care.”

He said he doesn’t care abut making TV featuring good wine or beer either, because it all looks the same on camera.

“Visually speaking, it's why we generally don't do winery scenes or brewery scenes. Because no matter how good it is, this might be one of only five remaining bottles left on Earth, Napoleon may have put it in the bottle, but visually, it's red stuff going into a glass.

“There's nothing to differentiate it from a big box of Gallo Burgundy."

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