In the April 20 edition of the Washington Post, the newspaper's editors saw fit to run a 1544-word feature on the latest brand of beer to capture the hearts and minds of hip, happening Americans. The brand? No, it's not a new, groundbreaking Belgian ale like the Bosteel-brewed DeuS, which is fermented and bottled and aged like Champagne. Nor is it the latest potent, super-hoppy offering from the Dogfish Head Brewery, 120 Minute IPA. It's not even the Frankenheimer Alt from Germany, highlighted and misidentified as a bock in a recent edition of Time Magazine.

     No, according to the Post, the latest hot brew is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

     Yes, PBR, the same beer Dennis Hopper, as the insane Frank, famously lauded in the 1986 David Lynch movie, Blue Velvet. The same beer I saw barely legal drinkers flocking to buy in a southern U.S. bar earlier this year, mainly because it was on special for $2 a tall boy. And the same beer that my learned colleague Michael Jackson once described as "chewy."

     That Pabst Blue Ribbon.

     According to the Post story, PBR is the latest favourite on the art gallery circuit, a prime pick among snowboarders and the new sure-seller at Chief Ike's Mambo Room in Washington, DC. Overall, the story states, sales are up 5% over the past year.

     All of which sounds impressive enough, and certainly would seem to warrant the considerable space the Post devoted to the subject, except for one thing: PBR is but a blip on the U.S. national beer radar screen. Buried deep within the story, Benj Steinman, president of the industry journal Beer Marketer's Insights, casts a little light on the situation when he places Pabst sales within the context of the industry.

     "The Pabst Brewing Company as a whole is still declining at a substantial rate," says Steinman, adding that "Pabst Blue Ribbon is a small component at this time. It's not their biggest brand."

     So why the Post space, then? My guess is that it's another exercise in the promotion of what I call 'lowbrow chic,' an ongoing and unofficial campaign to suggest to consumers that flavour and quality are passé and that there is honour and dignity to be found in eating and drinking the foods and beverages of the past, those faux nostalgic days when Schlitz was considered full-flavoured and the height of the suburban epicurean ideal was the t.v. dinner.

     Well, sorry, but I'm not buying it.

     In the thirteen years since I started writing about beer, which is to say since I discovered the full range of flavours to be found in food and drink, my life has improved dramatically. That improvement can be directly attributed to my heightened appreciation of taste, which has in turn led me to fabulous gastronomic experiences ranging from frites stands in Belgium to three-star restaurants in France, hotdogs in Chicago to foie gras in Montréal. My culinary goals have shifted from eating and drinking the 'right' things to an on-going and never-ending quest for both new flavours and unique ways in which to enjoy familiar tastes once again. Given the choice between settling for something bland or continuing to search for something exciting, I will choose the latter ten times out of ten.

     Which is not to say that I don't 'get' retro. I do. There are elements of retro that I quite like, from the triumphant return of the diner (with good food, of course) to the swing revival of a few years ago. But there is also such a thing as wrong-headed nostalgia and, within that category, punishing yourself with, at best, bland or, at worst, nasty-tasting beer just has to rank pretty high. Particularly when there are now so many better things to drink out there.

For a more tongue-in-cheek look at the Post story about PBR, please see 'Reasons for Drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon.'

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