The Birth
of the Beer Snoobs
One evening
in March 2005, four friends in Vancouver, BC,
were drinking beer in a Main Street pub, and
it was good. It tasted
good. It smelled… kind of good,
like a good beer should. But try as they might, no one could
say
anything intelligent about it. Rather than cry in their
beers, they vowed to educate themselves on all things ale and
stout. The fearless quartet created an informal club—Beer
Snoobs: for noobs who want
to
become
snobs.
We, the
snoobs, began by meeting once a month to sample beer
and discuss different styles and flavours.
It wasn’t long before other friends, family and random
strangers joined
in. Through word of mouth, Craigslist
postings and flyers at the pubs who host our get-togethers, our
membership has
grown to over one hundred beer-knowledge thirsty souls.
Despite our name and original focus, our
members are diverse. Some are new to
drinking beer, some are geniuses at drinking beer but don’t
know much about it
and some are already full-fledged brew-sipping snobs, affectionately
known as
the beer seers. Our monthly meetings
generally have turnouts of around 30 eager suds enthusiasts.
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The B.S.
Collection
In addition
to our monthly meetings, Beer Snoobs has
developed a collection of beer reviews gathered from magazines,
newspapers,
books and websites. We also focus
heavily on generating our own reviews, each of which include both noob
and snob
reflections, thus acting as guides for elevating language. As
an organization with little
infrastructure, our collection, sadly, currently resides in a few
cardboard
boxes in
a founding member’s basement. Since most
meetings have a particular beer style as a theme, the relevant reviews
are
pulled and brought along for members to read at the pub or borrow until
the
next meeting.
Needless to
say, locking up beer reviews in a basement is
less than ideal. We are thus pleased to
announce our upcoming digitization project of all our own reviews,
which after
only two years number nearly 500. (The non-member reviews will not be
digitized
due to copyright restrictions.) It’s exciting to see how much more sophisticated we’ve become in
our
descriptions—and
appreciation—of beer, as evinced by the quality of the reviews;
we’re eager to
share our collective knowledge, not only with one another, but the
whole wide
interwebbed world.
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The
B.S. Thesaurus
Even with
the reviews stored in boxes, we realized we needed
a better finding mechanism than memory alone but stopped short of doing
anything about it. With the digitization
project on the horizon, we understand the necessity of a searchable
database,
especially if it’s available on the open web.
Though we realize the only thing nerdier than a club called Beer Snoobs
would be making a thesaurus for it, a contingent of zealous library
school
students were up for the challenge.
This
website contains the first installation of the Beer
Snoob Thesaurus. In addition to acting
as an indexing and finding aid for both the online and print
collections, the
thesaurus serves as a tool for the noobier of the snoobs to get a
handle on
appropriate terminology for beer. Since
this is a massive undertaking, we narrowed in on a few beer realms as a
pilot
project to help us determine what levels of specificity we ultimately
want to
include.
The alpha
version tackles beer styles, flavour and aroma,
ingredients, mouthfeel and appearance. These were
included on the basis of member interest and need, and as the typical
domains
included in the beer reviews of our collection.
Although the reviews often refer to brand-name beer, our thesaurus
focuses on beer styles,
and we do
not
intend to include name brands at any time.
The online database will, however, be keyword searchable, so people
will
be able to find reviews on particular brands.
Flavour and aroma are closely linked sensory perceptions, and are
generally treated as one and the same in our thesaurus. Mouthfeel
characteristics can greatly contribute to the overall beer experience
and often appear our reviews. The
ingredients we chose to include are those
considered fundamental to beer and contribute most significantly to its
particular style and flavour. Lastly,
appearance terms have been selected because they also play largely in
reviews.
Please
remember that none of
our chosen, initial aspects are comprehensive. The frameworks
we've established will be refined and greatly expanded in conjunction
with the digitization
project.
The
Beer Snoobs being a club with limited resources, establishing and
maintaining the digitial collection and
the thesaurus is largely a labour of love.
Helpful amounts of capital are
generated, however, through “by donation”
membership fees and the sale of official Beer Snoob T-shirt and beer
stein swag. Other
fundraisers in the works include a Beer
Cheese Soup Blowout and a community car and bike wash.
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The Users
When
serving as an indexing tool, the thesaurus will only be
used by the Beer Snoob librarians who determine the appropriate terms
for
indexing the reviews. Thus far, selection of terms and
relationships has been accomplished by committee discussion; with a firm
groundwork established, subsequent
expansion will be done individually but always by a member with a solid
understanding of indexing concepts and professional practice.
Because these members are also founding members and
particularly
enthusiastic, we don't expect to lose them and their specialized
knowledge anytime soon, but if so, interested volunteers may be trained
in their stead, or the work may be offered as experience-rich
internships to local library school students. Member
volunteers
may also be used to ease the workload of entering terms.
When acting as a
finding and educational aid, the thesaurus is intended for all Beer
Snoob
members, but we anticipate and welcome other users who find us and our
collection on the internet. We’re also
excited about our new sister chapters in New Germany, Nova Scotia, and
Eula,
Texas, both of which boost several prolific review writers.
We look forward to collaborating and possibly
merging our resources, but first we want to concentrate on developing a
robust
and useful thesaurus for the Vancouver Beer Snoobs.
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