It’s a funny time of the seasons. Photos on social media from the mid-Atlantic and southern England definitely look like spring to me but it’s going to top out at -15C here on Friday. One last kick from the angry gods, just the one I hope. Hope. Oh… and just don’t fall for the matchy matchy beer and candy stuff. Don’t be hoping that is going to work out. Unless your spouse is already bought into good beer, don’t ruin your relationship by mixing hope with your hobby addiction.
Speaking of dopey, drunken History posted this century old ad up there and it sorta speaks to the moment. Maybe. Not a lot making sense these days. Odd times. So please remember that image next time some half-read blab goes off over the temperance movement. Temperance won. Winter won’t win but temperance did. If you are reading this, you happily live in a temperance-based society.
Except perhaps… well… anyway, the Beer Nut discovered a media campaign that makes also absolutely no sense at all. And… there was this odd story of a beer release line up facing off with a man and his Glock:
No shots were fired during the squabble outside the Other Half Brewing Company in Carroll Gardens — and a suspect was being questioned Saturday, police said. The gun-slinging skeptic struck around the corner from the brewery, on Garnet Street, where beer lovers with camp chairs and hand trucks regularly line up overnight to buy limited-run, $18 four-packs in collectible cans, sold when the doors open Saturday mornings.
Even odder, he waited around until the cops came. Odd times.
Conversely, Life After Football painted portraits of favorite characters he has met on his pub ticking travels in England:
For me, the best boozers are ones that are full of characters and not necessarily for the faint-hearted. A pub where you can walk in, have a chat with a complete stranger and time flies. O[f]* course, you also have the riotous evenings where pubs are jam packed and anything goes! Over the past 500+ pubs there has been plenty of characters and I’ve uncovered a few photos from the Lifeafterfootball archives to recall some of the Midlands’ finest #pubmen.
Matt posted another in his thoughtful and open posts about how breweries should deal with beer writers, this time on the topic of samples. I don’t know if in a 10,000 brewery world the idea of chasing a very few folk paid to write 100 word notes for newspapers makes all that much sense – especially given the apparently urge to give repeat attention to a handful of blabby brewery owners or their PR staff** – but the post is full of realistic good advice like this:
Consider how much beer you are sending out. One can or bottle is enough. Seriously. There is no need to send out a case to try and curry favour among your selected media. Consider what I said earlier about the limited amount of time said media has to work their way through the amount of samples they might be receiving. One is plenty.
Exactly. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the sad puppy face on a brewery or brewery owner when I take far less of the sample than offered whether in the tap room or the store house. Hint: your favorite pet thing is often not going to be the favorite of others.
A sad bit of news out of central New York with the passing of Joe Fee but an excellent obit from Don Cazentre that explains his family’s business was in bitters for your drinks:
Fee Brothers got its start in the middle of the Civil War, when Joe Fee’s great-grandfather and his brothers began making and importing wine in a location overlooking the Genesee River. That led to the company’s long-running tagline, which Joe Fee liked to recite: “The House of Fee / by the Genesee / since eighteen hundred and sixty-three.” The company evolved over the years, and moved to its current location on Portland Avenue after a fire. During Prohibition, it survived by producing altar wine. It also started making flavored syrups or cordials with flavors like Benedictine, Chartreuse, Rum and Brandy.
Jancis, who we all should follow, shared an “Australian bushfire report through the eyes of our winemakers” including this assessment of the situation from Stuart Angas, Hutton Vale Farm wines:
In the Hunter region it is perhaps a different story with some producers (Tyrrells for example) declaring their 2020 vintage lost, but let’s keep this in perspective, the Hunter region is over 1500km from us! For the media to paint us all with the same brush…is so irresponsible. We have the utmost respect for what the Tyrrell family has done, we ourselves declared our 2015 vintage unsuitable for our quality of wines and didn’t make any red wines that year. (Our next release will be 2016s).
Another, Alex Peel, Greenock Creek wrote:
Very fortunately, the Barossa Valley was not in the direct fire front of any South Australian Fires and our vineyards are in great shape. We expect to harvest in the next 2-3 weeks and already colour intensity, tannin development and flavours in the berries is indicating a very strong, quality vintage. We just had 20mm of rain over the weekend and this has been received at the perfect time in our vineyards to see us through to harvest with some water reserves for the vines to ripen the fruit evenly and un-stressed.
Speaking of wine, Katie put her thoughts on spending extended quality time with one winery in the Mosel last summer in order for Pellicle this week including encountering the noble rot:
On my next bunch—smaller, but beautiful all the same—a lacing of powdery botrytis [or noble rot, a fungus that sweetens and intensifies the flavour of the grapes as it wraps them in decay] turns plump, shining berries luxurious velvety shades of lavender and mauve. On my first day, Rudi had told me about the magic of this fungus. No doubt reading my reactions (I have no poker face) he’d encouraged me to eat the nobly rotten grapes I’d picked to understand their value. The flavour was spiced and honeyed—much richer than I expected from a grape—and the tang that came from the seeds as I crunched reminded me of sherbert.
Next time you read someone raving on about the “just add fruit syrup” sort of brewing or how wine all tastes the same, think of Katie and her prized fungus.
Martyn shared his thoughts about sitting along in a pub in an excellent piece he published yesterday:
Of the thousands of hours I have spent in pubs over the past half a century, in a fair proportion I have been on my own, and I’ve enjoyed them all. I love the sociability of pubs, I love the interplay between people, the crack, in groups small and large: I married the woman who is the mother of my child in part because she was the person I most enjoyed going down the pub and chatting with. But I also love being a solo pub goer, sitting, sipping and thinking.
Speaking of pubs and care of Mudgie, the Morning Advertiser struck a slightly paranoid note with this piece by on the point of the pub being about alcohol:
Dry January may be behind us, but I’m sure many in the trade will agree that the booze bashers seem set on pouring cold water on enjoying a drink all year round. The cynic in me has started wondering if all the noise around the alcohol-free category is less about marking and more focused on manipulation.
“Bashers”? “Manipulation”? Play to audience much? This rivals the independent eye found in the 1940s journalistic style of baseball writers. Hard to carry on with the article at that point.
Finally, as Alistair wrote, something surely worthy of a shout out in @agoodbeerblog‘s weekly round up: a Scots Gaelic language beer reviewer. Slàinte mhath!!
That’s it. I keep meaning to get shorter and shorter but these hings keep having a life of their own. For more, check out Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays and sometimes a mid-week… or Friday… post of notes from The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, too. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast now as well! Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. Anyone else? Let me know!
*Sic. Sick!
**Hint: find those actual thoughtful expressive people to foster an actual continuing relationship with.
The Fizz has moved to Fridays.