Happy Oberon Day

There is a huge difference between a meta beer  (Bourbon County, Black Note, Ola Dubh) and a run of the mill stout.  Its not even close.  There is definitely a continuum though, and discovering the beers you enjoy along that continuum is all part of the fun.  We are in a golden age of craft beer.  You can chose to ignore it as it seems you have or you can get swept up in it as many have.  The picture you paint of hipsters drinking the beer is a tired and inaccurate cliche.   I know far more people in their 30-60's who drink craft beer than 20 something hipsters.  I also find irony in your selection of PBR as your beer of choice when this is the chosen beer of hipsters  (consumed ironically of course).

If people have the disposable income and enjoy the diversion and satisfaction that drinking and evaluating craft beer provides for them, great.  You only appear like an ignorant hater spewing this kind of vitriol.  Are you being who you want to be Herm?

Interesting points.  One thing that I've always noticed is that people do tend to believe that a step up in the "tiers" of beer instantly make it better.  For me, it's more about selectly a specific type I like and drinking that whether it's considered better or worse than other flavors.  For me, that's German beer, but I'm sure it's different depending on each individual.  But I do agree that "tiers" alone don't determine the value.

Craft beer is more expensive because of the ingrediants.  Barley and craft hops are more expensive than rice, corn, and commodity hops that the big brewers use.  Two Hearted Ale probably uses five times more barley than Bud Light and at least five times more hops.  Bud light uses rice in place of barley, which is much cheaper.  Of course if there were no market Two Hearted Ale wouldn't const $10/six pack, but Two Hearted Ale wouldn't exist if the market was only willing to pay $6/six pack.  It would be a money loser.

Wine is expensive for mostly market based reasons.  Barley can be grown anywhere.  Hops need a specific environment but they can produce as many hops as the market demands.  The same is not true for wine.  A given appellation has specific flavor qualities that are passed on to the grapes and then the wine.  In addition, weather in a given year affects the taste.  This severly affects the supply side of the equation, causing prices to climb.  You can reproduce (within reason) the best beer every year so any supply limits are brewery imposed.

There are large differences between beers that are absolutely detectable by even a novice palate.  Generally, price is good discriminator of beer quality.  Of course there are outliers.  The story is similar for wine but I don't think the quality/price ratio is nearly as linier.

Honest question for those of you with seemingly vehement opinions on people who enjoy good beer: do you actually think most people who drink craft beer do it to look cool or do you think maybe there is actually something to it?  Maybe they actually enjoy it?

I find it funny how your post seems to criticize a group of people for being arrogant and snobish, and yet you have just acted that exact same way towards an entire group of people.

If you were really interested in the answer to your original question (whether craft beer is discernable from macro-breweries) you would go out and buy a couple six packs of craft beer, and taste it against your PBR.   You very well may still like the PBR better, a lot of people do, but you will most certaintly tell the difference between the two styles. Yet, for some reason I highly doubt that that was actually the intention of your post.

At least you have more than three (equally terrible) choices.