Craft Beer is For the Generations

As we set forth on another holiday season, and the calendar fills with gatherings created far before we were born in some cases. Traditions of meals, desserts, performances, and holiday drinks are already on our to-do list. Holiday music almost creates a scent of pine in the air even more so then the tree! The lights that decorate our town and homes make our stomping grounds just a little more cozy and the nostalgia for sledding and hot chocolate overwhelms us. Our families, in all sizes and generations, lovingly converge to create memories warmly laughed about in years to come.

Although not a holiday, craft beer and craft beer festivals cause a multigenerational gathering much like our holidays do. At our recent Shore Craft Beer Fest: OCtoberfest, families came out to partake in the event and of course – taste the beer! One of many families that came out were, father, Jim and son, Christopher Silk. Jim had recently moved to Fenwick, DE. Christopher still resides in their hometown of  Shrewsbury, PA, almost 180 miles from Ocean City, MD.  The two told us that they often attend craft beer fest together and on this particular event, much like other fest goers, they brought Chris’s 1 1/2 year old chocolate lab, Oden. We saw families like Jim and Chris all of the festival.  Families of parents with young children, families with adult children, families with their fur babies; the easiest way to say it was, “We saw families.” This is not a trend. In other craft beer events, craft beer breweries, bars and restaurants serving craft beer, a consistent happening has been family groups enjoying craft beer bent elbow to bent elbow.

In the same ways we introduce our family to recipes that “spark joy” (Marie Kondo did not approve this message), when converging on a local watering hole or meeting at a restaurant and drinking a craft beer together, we are making memories. Families recognize that time together, in any fashion, is time well spent. Conversation around the winter ale in comparison to the coffee stout is still conversation, and children that grow up to be the friend on the bar stool next to you is not a bad deal.

Author: Jessica Bauer