Another voice heard from. But will anything good really happen?
Aside from the Don Russell co-authored stories in the Philly Daily News, today’s column by Inquirer food columnist Rick Nichols appears to be among the most “mainstream” of print coverage so far and adds to the heat and spotlight being put on the PLCB for its recent insanity. That’s good.
However, agnostic that I am, I still believe nothing much good will come out of this, and the only real changes will be in the mindsets of publicans and wholesalers, especially the latter. I’ve made the point several times and several places that the embrace of crafts by major wholesalers has been a real benefit to growth and acceptance.Most of us didn’t see that coming.
The thing is, when the Brewers Association/National Beer Wholesalers Association “2009 Craft Beer Wholesaler of the Year’ (Origlio) is targeted, the timid will grow more so.
In short, as I write in an op-ed piece which will run in the next Mid-Atlantic Brewing News (end of the month, early April), we have heard this song before. Not with such volume and with so large a chorus, admittedly, but the entrenched who benefit from the current setup are very entrenched and very powerful. What appears to be a great groundswell from our perspectives is but a hiccup in their eyes.
I join you in hoping that I’m wrong.
I try to do my part, I really do. If it means consuming more beer than I should, albeit Very Good Beer, I am willing to rise to the occasion. Whether I can now rise from the couch is another matter entirely.