Brewed with love: Are traditional brews enjoying a renaissance?

A recent get-together ended up being my lab.  It became a contest of drinks. On the table were water, soup, beer, tea and various types of alcoholic drinks: spirits, beers, and wine.

A traditional brew arrived late. To avoid pigeonholing, I will not disclose the name of the traditional brew, but you are free to speculate.

The standard drinks were “abandoned” once the traditional brew arrived. More surprisingly, this was an upper-middle-class group, elites on the outskirts of the city.

Why the popularity of the traditional brew among the elite?

One “connoisseur” could even tell where the traditional brew came from and its “age.”  Within no time, the traditional brew was finished and replenished by a well-wisher. It too was finished. Only then did the “standard” drinks get attention.

Why the popularity of what is considered a low-end drink among high-end consumers or elites?

One possibility is novelty; such traditional brews are not widely available; you can’t pick them up in supermarkets like beers and spirits.  That rarity makes the drink exotic.

Two, I sensed pride in cottage industry; the get-together members could easily explain how the brew is made; they felt like co-creators. It gave them a sense of belonging, just like the English ales or Russian Vodka.

Three, and more perplexing: is branding becoming a liability? Are we preferring the anonymous brands, the generic names? Are we yearning for freedom, away from the tyranny of brands? 

Four, Maslow's hierarchy can explain the renewed love for traditional brews. Once you get to the apex, self-actualisation, you get time to notice the “bottom,” the small things you missed as you went up, like traditional brews.

Is that why we love and patronise noisy meeting places or joints?

Five, life is stressful, and we yearn for simpler things, including drinks. A get-together should allow us to relax and be ourselves. We yearn to be ourselves.  That includes taking a drink of your choice.

Six, the use of traditional brews in ceremonies (including church) could be raising its profile as we push back against other cultures and search for identity under the gale of globalisation.

Finally, that choice made me feel it’s time we formalised traditional brews make them part of our social and economic systems. This will make it easy to monitor, maintain standards, reduce counterfeiting and reduce health risks.

The formalisation will give us more choices. After all, alcohol is alcohol, whether in beer, spirits, wine, kaluvu, muratina or busaa. The rising popularity of traditional brews is not just about hard economic times. It's about new identities.  What is your take on that? Talk to us.