This week industry folk have been forwarding us posts from the Brewers
Association Forum, including a hot debate about our Feb 2007 Extreme
Beer Issue of BeerAdvocate magazine. It was started by a Mr. Ashton
Lewis of the Springfield Brewing Co. (MO), who basically doesn't
consider us to be advocates of beer and thinks that we should be
coddling the beer industry.

Now, we have no plans to jump into the debate on the Brewers
Association Forum, but we wanted to point out some great comments by
Lew Bryon on the topic, who did jump into the debate and posted a
portion of it on his new blog:

http://lewbryson.blogspot.com/2007/0...-industry.html

Bryson is spot on. Unfortunately we've been plagued by this "ass
kissing wannabe friends with everyone in the industry so I don't upset
someone who might wanna advertise or give me free beer" journalism for
decades now. It results in fluffy press. It doesn't help the industry
learn and grow. It's simply an old attitude that needs to be retired.
Honestly. Just because it's "craft beer" doesn't mean that it's "good
beer." People need to hear-constructively-both the good AND the bad,
lest they be none the wiser. We'd also be providing a serious
disservice to everyone involved, and our credibility as critics would
immediately go down the crapper.

Welcome to true BeerAdvocacy, Mr. Lewis.

Todd
Founder & Chief Executive Advocate
BeerAdvocate