Thumbs Down – Seasonal Beer Creep

Last night I had a few friends over to have a few beers and one of my buddies brought over a twelve pack of Harpoon Winter Warmer.  While it’s a great beer, it’s not winter yet!  Halloween was last weekend – it’s definitely still autumn.  We should still be enjoying our  pumpkin ales and other fall seasonals until Thanksgiving.  The official start of winter is about two months away!

Gregg Easterbrook, the author of Tuesday Morning Quarterback at ESPN, often writes about “Christmas Creep,” where people start advertising holiday specials, or selling holiday products way too far in advance (For example: Harrod’s in London selling Christmas teddy bears in late August).  The Christmas celebration seems to creep earlier and earlier every year.  

The same thing happens with seasonal beers, and it drives me crazy.  Last winter, I was home in Milwaukee for winter break, and right after the new year, Leinenkugel’s put up a billboard advertising their spring seasonal 1888 Bock.  In January, I’m still looking to drink their winter seasonal, Fireside Nut Brown because it’s still winter!

I understand why the breweries do it.  They want to sell as much of the seasonal beer as possible, and people are much more likely to buy a seasonal beer before the season really hits, than afterwards. However, seasonal beer creep still gets a thumbs down from me, because it takes the fun out of seasonal beer.  I want to buy a fresh six pack of Winter Lager when it’s winter, not while it’s still fall.

Vuvuzelas – Thumbs Down

The vuvuzelas, the horns that soccer/football fans were blowing at the Confederations Cup tournament for the past two weeks in South Africa, deserve a big thumbs down.  They were given away free to fans, and the fans blew them constantly throughout the game.  It made the broadcasts of the games sound like a giant beehive.  They reportedly drowned out some TV commentary on certain networks, although I didn’t have a problem watching the USA vs Brazil final on ESPN.

FIFA,the world football governing body, has stated that they will address the vuvuzelas before the start of the 2010 World Cup, also held in South Africa.  Players, coaches, commentators, and fans have called for the ban of these horns claiming that they are annoying and making it difficult for the players to communicate and concentrate.  On the other hand, the vuvuzelas are part of the local football culture in South Africa and the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter stated, “We should not try to Europeanise an African World Cup.” 

My take on the matter is that the horns are probably a lot of fun to use and might improve the live atmosphere at the game, but for the World Cup, which draws huge television audiences worldwide, the vuvuzelas negatively impact the viewing experience too greatly to justify their use.  One option that I’ve heard thrown around is to allow them for games in which South Africa, the host country, is playing.  I would recommend this course of action for FIFA to take, as this would allow the local fans to use them in support of their country, but would avoid the annoying beehive noise during the majority of television broadcasts.