brooklyn hipsters are definitely getting onto craft beer. i was just in brooklyn this weekend, and it's unrecognizable relative to even 2 years ago regarding beer (all the bodegas advertising like 20 brands of once-obscure beer, all the craft options at cushy hipster bars).
craft beer isn't hipster though, nor is craft beer "beer geeky". i'm a beer geek, which is just one example of my overall obsessive / "otaku" type personality (not that i'm a social outcast, but that i hyperfocus on things and try to get as deep into them as i can, often at the expense of some other socially important things). however, the craft beer market (which i believe is about 15% of the overall beer market) is pretty diverse.
being a hipster is a fashion thing, and a money thing, so i doubt america is in good enough economic straits for the hipster demographic to be bigger than the aficionado demographic (though they're *definitely* distinct; "hipster" is inherently superficial), but it might be. a larger craft beer demographic is much more casual, and includes most homebrewers (you'd think they'd be beer geeks, but they usually aren't), lots of locals who support the breweries and brewpubs around them, and just normal ass people who liked beer before, tried some sam adams / sierra nevada / belgian/german/english imports and "moved up from there", etc.
in other words, liking craft beer doesn't really mark you out as anything. there are particular craft beers that might (for example, it was apparent to me after one look at the tap list that
double windsor in brooklyn was a serious aficionado bar, as opposed to most of the others i've been to in brooklyn which just sort of ride on the growing wave of craft popularity). it's like anything else; anime, videogames, music. you think that if someone likes joy division, they probably like new order, but they really may never have heard of new order.
Edited, Mar 15th 2012 11:27pm by milich