Beer Stuff, Measures, Vessels

These Be The Reflective Yet Exhuberant And Cardigan Considering First Beery News Notes For Q424

I was thinking about these weekly things I write and whether there are themes are not. Mainly because I thought last week’s was pretty theme-y. Thematic perhaps. All about ones relationship with the ancillaries surrounding beer. Sorta. I tell myself that by writing these summaries I am tracing, following patterns. But I rarely go back and look. Behind the scenes, there are no graphs being added to every seven days. Then Jeff posted about an AI widget that Google has posted and I plunked a document I worked on years ago, trying to combine my research on English strong ales of the 1600s, the ones named after cities like Hull or Margate. Whammo. Summary and key points in about 3 seconds. Weird. Yet not uncompelling.

Back to the present, we have lost one of the great experimental US brewers with the passing of Ron Jeffries of Michigan and Hawaii:

A true embodiment of ohana, Ron was not only a loving family man but also a creative genius and lifelong learner. He dedicated his life to sharing his knowledge, serving as a mentor in the brewing industry. As a legacy brewer and the founder of Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, his contributions to the craft are immeasurable. In his final year, Ron fulfilled the lifelong dream of moving to Hawaii where he eagerly worked on his family brewery. He was excited about what the future was bringing and what he would be bringing to the world with Hilo Brewing Company/ Holoholo Brewing. He cherished moments spent on his lanai, soaking in the Hilo rain with a pint in hand.

In 2007, I found myself at Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter and Ron Jefferies gave me a hour of his time at the end of a long day. That’s his barrel room from that visit up there. Frankly I don’t meet a lot of people I write about so I was it was a real treat. My favourite part of the talk was his curiosity in what exactly beer blogging was and might be. He also doubled over with a big laugh at my story about the December 2006 Hair of the Dog shipment with the incompetent capping and how the yeast saved the beer. I visited again a few years later and he was just as swell. Very sorry to hear that he passed.

On a cheerier topic and adding to the discussion about the need for the pint from last week, Liam wrote a very interesting bit about what he calls the “meejum”:

…how much beer was actually in a meejum? The simple answer seems to be a little less than a pint as per the comments from our annoyed Londoner above, but I have come across a couple of others mentions of the volume too. In a court case in Dundalk in 1904 the judge has the same question and was told it was ‘a glass and a half’ (426ml) and another mention in 1901 that says it was ‘two-thirds of a pint’ (379ml). A more recent comment from a letter to the Irish Independent in 2003 looking for the medium to be reinstated, it is said that it was ‘approximately 500ml’. With a pint being 568ml we can see some wildly fluctuating volumes here, but I think we are missing the original point of the medium, which was to give the consumer a drink based on price and not volume, so therefore it is very possible that a medium was a different size in different counties – and even different pubs. It was a portion of beer that equalled a value that was acceptable to the working man.

And we note the announcement of the coming retirement of Humphrey Smith, the controversial Chairman of Samuel Smith’s Brewery and perhaps good beer’s Epimetheus, taking particular guidance from Old Mudgie:

Despite all these problems, it has to be said that Sam’s pubs, when they are open, have a very distinctive appeal that is not matched by any of their competitors. They offer comfortable seating, traditional décor with plenty of dark wood, an absence of TV sport and piped music, and only admit children if dining, making their wet-led pubs adults-only. They are oases of calm. They may not offer the widest choice of beer, or the absolute best beer, but in many locations they are the most congenial pubs around.

A new source to me, Literary Hub published a passage or perhaps a chapter on the history of Pilsner drawn from Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity by Jeffrey M. Pilcher published by Oxford Univ Press:

Few visitors in the early nineteenth century might have guessed that the market town of Pilsen, on the road from Prague to Bavaria, would become world renowned for its clear, sparkling beers. Having grown rich from the business of anthracite mining, residents imported Bavarian lagers. In 1840, the town fathers decided to invest some of their mining profits in the construction of a municipal brewery. The first tasting, held on St. Martin’s Day, November 11, 1842, brought their home-grown beverage local acclaim. But apart from the basic recipe of Saaz hops, Moravian malt, soft water, and lager yeast, little is known about how Pilsner acquired its legendary status. It was prized, at first, as an exotic “Bavarian” beer, and the malting process relied on British advances in indirect heating, like Sedlmayr’s Munich malt, but without the final burst of caramelization. The brewery’s capacity of just thirty-six hectoliters, about twenty barrels, meant that the beer was sold primarily in local markets.

My problem with these things is, of course, whether is it, you know, true – keeping in mind, of course, the degree of abstraction at play. It speaks nothing of Prof. Pilcher for me to point out that Pilsner’s history has been stated, restated and revised and refused and refined and (… you get my point…) so often in the last wee while that it gets one in a big of a fog. But there is a certain compelling style to the passage provided in LitHub that I would invite comment from those closer to the topic.

Speaking of style, I missed this post by B+B last week just at the deadline on spinning LP records in pubs and why it works for them:

The magic that people perceive in cask ale is similar to the magic they perceive in pub buildings which is similar to the magic they perceive in the sound of vinyl. A sense of connecting with something authentic. They’re also essentially nostalgic. Most pubs are embassies of the past. Victorian buildings with plastic Watneys clocks, Bass on the bar, and packets of pork scratchings whose packets haven’t been redesigned since 1981. It’s not unusual to find a pub with a stack of records in the corner or behind the bar. Albums that, if they were sold on Discogs, would not warrant a ‘Mint’ or ‘VG+’ rating. Split sleeves, yellowing inner sleeves, with a whiff of stale beer and cigarette smoke about them.

Writing on FB, Alistair brought my attention to a surprisingly startling and poignant video about the loss of working class neighbourhood and working class neighbourhood pubs as part of the modernization of in Salford, England in the 1960s. Here’s the video from the BBC from the time. It appears the modernization did not fully take. Then I thought… Salford… I know that place. Pellicle posted a podcast about Marble Brewing of Salford back in 2023. And Martin (with an “i”) has been there, too. The juxtaposition of each stage of Hanky Park over the sixty years is remarkable.

And, over on BlueSky, I came across an interesting thread on why hip-hop culture connects with Hennessey cognac and why Lebron is tying his brand to the drink:

During the war, African Americans stationed in France began consuming Hennessy. Afterwards, Hennessy, being French & having a different relationship with Black people than American companies, trail blazed by simply marketing to & employing Black people, carving out an extremely loyal consumer base. WWII saw Black soldiers abroad enduring antagonism from USA, like leaflets being dropped over France claiming they had tails in order to discourage sexual intermingling. Many were dismayed to find that their service in the effort of helping stop genocide abroad had not granted them humanity at home. During that time Hennessy was continuing to cater to African Americans & before we were sensationalizing terms like DEI, they had hired Black Olympian Herb Douglass as their VP of Urban Market Development, a role he served in for over 30 years. This history is why you hear about Hennessy in hip hop.

So it is not too far off the “I Am A Man” protests and declarations in the Civil Rights movement. Very interesting. Staying with history but reaching back further, last Sunday Martyn (with the “y”) disassembled the notion that the “Hymn to Ninkasi” is any sort of Sumerian beer brewing guide and did so with both verve and detail… like this:

Paulette has invented the word “šikarologist” to describe students of Mesopotamian beer, from the Akkadian word šikaru, meaning beer, the cuneiform for which looked like one of those pointy brewing jars laid on its side: 𒁉. I will definitely be stealing that. Strangely, a cognate of šikar in another Semitic language, Hebrew, the word shekhár, meaning “intoxicating drink”, is the root of the English word “cider”, via Greek, Latin and French. Shekhár is also the root of the Yiddish word for “drunk”: I remember my Jewish ex-father-in-law, who came from Vienna, staggering around at his 70th birthday party, surrounded by his extensive family in his large garden in rural Surrey, saying: “Ich bin so shicker!”

An interesting chit chat ensued in TwexLand led by Lars which touched on (i) the title is made up, (ii) it’s a hymn and maybe a drinking song but not a brewing guide (iii) why was the grain covered in dirt? (iv) woundn’t the malt get suffocated? and (v) why are the translations so different?

And Martin (still with the “i”) has been out and about in Filey on the North Sea coast seeking out GBG25 entries:

…the thing that hits you about Guide newbie the Station is the friendliness of the welcome, the Guvnor checking we know that food service has stopped before we waste 10 steps to the bar… I ask for mild and a Pride, and get mild and Blonde in Pride glasses. Four simple and unfussy rooms, a good mix of bench seating and squidgy chairs, we take a table with a reservation for “Bingo” in 3 hours time. “Bingo” was a popular boys name in the ’50s, along with Bunty and Bungo.

Top tip time. You want to make the weekly roundup? Include an accurate use of the word “squidgy” – can’t resist! Speaking of good words, Gary wrote an excellent post on the appearance of “suffigkeit” in mid-1900s US beer advertising:

You want Bavarian beer? Here it is, new and improved – tastier, clearer and more sparkle than your original – that’s suffigkeit, or it is now.

Speaking of clearer and more sparkle, Matt made something of a declaration, the return to voluntary non-paying scribbling:

Yes, I still write. For lots of publications in fact. Not as many as I would like, but a writer is never satisfied. What I crave is that unpolished, flow-state writing, the kind that feels like stretching a limb, or the freedom of trying something new that might be absolutely terrible but you’ve done it anyway and calmed that twitchy section of your brain. Writing like this, which I’ve written in 10 minutes, proofed once, and hit the publish button. I just have a need for a space, a scratchpad, to try a few things out once in a while. I want to write basically, so that’s all I’m going to do. No newsletter, no subscription, just a place to take things out of my head and put them on a page.

Very good. Excellent even. Unfettered scribbling is the best. Compare that to the advice own newletter writing beer marketeer offered this week:

Content that takes you wide has to be relevant to millions of people. It can’t be about the impact of thiolized yeasts on lagers. Wide aiming posts tend to be less about you and your brand, and more about the industry, interest, or setting you’re a part of. They can still find parallels to your brand, voice, ethos, or sense of humor. The point of these posts are to appeal to what most people come to social media for these days whether that’s to shut off their brain, have a laugh, or learn something new. Nobody opens Instagram hoping to be sold a new 4-pack of Hazy IPA, so that shouldn’t be the goal when trying to go wide.

Please don’t go wide. Wide is a euphemism for dull, undifferentiating and disposable. It pandering to other goals outside of what’s written. Jeff (for the double) went very narrow and shared something quite personal which lead me to cheer “Yay, Poop Tests!“:

The rest of the trip went fine, but my body was experiencing a kind of systemic failure. I got back to the U.S. and the rash became permanent. I gave up beer and then coffee and eventually even food. In the past, fasting calmed the itchy nerve endings. Nothing helped until a friend recommended a gut naturopath. She gave me a stool sample and we discovered I had an overproduction of some kind of intestinal yeast. She gave me an antifungal and within days the rash left. Today I am back to my old self, happily eating and drinking whatever is placed before me.

Finally and keeping with the personal, Rachel Hendry‘s piece in Pellicle this week is a rich contemplation of loss through the lens of taste:

I want to know what her wine tastes like.

I can’t think about what is going to happen to her. Instead, I find myself obsessed with whether her perception of taste has changed. I think of whether memory can still come to her each evening when she pours herself a glass of wine. I want to ask someone this but it seems so silly in the grand scheme of things—can she still taste if she can’t remember? Can she feel flavour anymore? Is this why she drinks more now?

What if one day I no longer know what my wine tastes like?

I become selfish in these moments. Thoughts of her quickly turn into thoughts of myself. What if one day this happens to me, too?

Some tests, we all learn as we age, do not lead to a good outcome. Rachel has captured that moment with brave clarity.

That ended up unexpectely bookended. Not really themed. Maybe. Still, until next week, as we consider this shared mortal coil, for more beery news check out Boak and Bailey every Saturday and there is a promise that Stan may be back from his autumnal break starting this very Monday. Then listen to Lew’s podcast and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is thereback with the sweary Mary! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? Check out the Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the BOAS podcast for the bro-ly. And the long standing Beervana podcast …except they have now stood down. Plus We Are Beer People. The Boys Are From Märzen podcast appears suspended as does BeerEdge, too. But not Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has podcasts and there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube. The Moon Under Water is gone which is not surprising as the ask was $10 a month. Pete Brown’s one cost a fifth of that but only had the one post.

*Me, I’m all about the social medias. Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (189) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (931) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,454) hovering somewhere well above my largely ignored Instagram (151), crap Threads (52) with Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear.

Your Definitely Final And Last Chance End Of Summer 2024 Beery News Notes

The next time we meet it will be autumn. Who submitted the requistion for that? Thanks. A lot. At least we get one more Saturday in. We’ve had a good run of weather to see us out, picking a couple of pounds of tomatoes a day. I’ll need a new hobby once the garden slows down. Maybe I could join a men’s pie making groups or something. The American Association of Wine Economists is one of my favourite BlueSky feeds to follow. They seem interesting. That up there? Germany 1920s. Men with a hobby. Comparatively speaking, a better sort of marching in those times.

Speaking of weird, Stan’s monthly newsletter Hop Queries is out for another month and, under the surprising heading “Bitterness and Attitude”, he wrote:

When we moved from the low-altitude flatlands of Illinois 700 feet) to New Mexico (5,320 feet), a professional brewer told me to just throw in a few more pellets when I brewed an IPA. I hope the information in the archives is more useful.

Oh! Altitude. He wrote altitude. That makes waaaaay more sense. Note: rumours of Stan O’Eire. Another bit of a puzzle was encountered in this story of the passing of a venerable Mancunian:

…for ten years straddling both decades there was one constant on the streets of Moss Side and Old Trafford – George Powell, the self-syled Ginger Beer Man. He became a legend too selling his home made brew from his bike. George has died, aged 97, and later this month 500 people from all over the country and abroad are expected to pay their respects and attend his funeral. And his son Glen is going to ensure he will get the send-off the big family man deserves after his perfectly timed win at bookies Betfred. Self-employed handyman Glen won £20,000 from a £4 wager… much of his winnings will be spent on George’s funeral at the Church of God of Prophesy in Moss Side, burial at Southern Cemetery followed by the wake at Bowden Rugby Club.

Would that have been an alcoholic ginger beer? I used to brew one based on the CloneBrew recipe. This January 1978 edition local CAMRA newsletter “Whats Doing?” from Manchester suggests (at page 9) that the Salford brewers Walker & Holmfreys brewed a ginger beer along side ale brewing.

Staying there about, you know some things are worth repeating. This same passage in Katie’s edition of The Gulp at the end of last week was quoted in the Boak and Bailey Saturday update but I have to note this fabulous bit of stream of consciousness too:

…I have to check myself before I wreck myself. Tonight is going to be a late one. But it’s just so delicious, so perfect in this moment. Savour it, I tell myself, knowing that I can’t. I’m not a savourer. I eat in big bites, drink in big gulps. I want the best things all in one go, now.

There go I, too. Back here at home, Ontario’s new booze sales in corner stores have attracted all sorts of attention… including the independent accountants:

When the Ford government expanded sales of beer, wine, cider, and ready-to-drink cocktails into Ontario convenience stores and gas stations on Sept. 5, it did so ahead of schedule. A master framework agreement (MFA) signed under the Liberal government in 2015 gave the privately run Beer Store exclusive rights to sell 12—and 24-packs of beer. It was set to expire in 2026, but the government’s expedited plan involves an “early implementation agreement” with the beer retailer that will see the province pay the company up to $225 million. The FAO report will estimate the financial costs and benefits of accelerated expansion “and compare these fiscal impacts to a scenario where the Province expanded alcohol access at the expiration of the MFA on Dec. 31, 2025.”

Listening to CBC Radio 1’s Ontario Morning the other day, they played an audio reworking of this story including interviews with convenience store clerks and customers about the new rules and heard some interest points of view. Shop owners have not been informed about expired product returns so many only place small orders. And a portion of product has to come from small producers – 20 per cent for beer, ciders, and ready-to-drink cocktails, and 10 per cent for wines. Which is not a bad guaranteed return. But there are supply chain issues getting all the stores stocked up. Me, I have not taken advantage of the new world order yet.

Conversely, over on FB, Max has been out and about posted a brief report on his trip to Vorkloster, a brewery in Predklasteri, Czechia… using many words I do not know:

Vorkloster’s pivnice is cute and friendly, it does feel like part of a monastery, and many of the punters are locals dropping by for a pifko. The kulajda was just luvly. The Výčepní tasted jaded, like the feeling of an afternoon after a couple of very rough days at work. Jantarový Ležák is like an otherwise very good sauce that’s just not thick enough. Tmavý ležák has the right balance of coffee and milk chocolate.

Breaking news out of Albany, NY:

Free pizza is almost dead at the City Beer Hall! Long live pizza at CBH! A promotion in place since the City Beer Hall opened in spring 2011 at Howard and Lodge streets downtown provided a small individual cheese pizza for free with every pint of beer sold. The practice is being sharply curtailed, now available only after 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

I will have to check in with Craig to find out of I was ever there. Over at Pellicle, Katie (for the double) wrote about a beer that I used to cross provincial borders* to buy, Theakstons’ Old Peculier:

If it wasn’t for the Steel’s Masher, Old Peculier would not be the beer it is today. The way that the malt is hydrated and mashed by the machine is incredibly efficient, releasing enzymes and raking through the grist before it can form dry-centred clumps. This machine makes short work of stiff mashes. It was invented in Scotland by James Steel, a brewer who, like many of his peers in industry, was making a lot of Scotch Strong and Wee Heavy beers—high malt content, low water content mashes. Getting the paddles around a mash like that is like stirring six tons of day-old porridge, in intense steam heat, in cramped conditions.

Speaking of the good stuff, Matty C wrote about cask ale for What’s Brewing (apparently a play on words of the 1978 Mancester journal of note mentitoned above, What’s Doing) and makes a very good point about the enjoyment of things in the abstract:

I tend to find that foreign visitors who appreciate their beer genuinely revere the cultural significance of cask dispense. But they also find only disappointment when, after months of anticipation, they arrive at last only to be served a tired pint of London Pride that is, well, warm and flat. We’re responsible for that reputation because in so many places where cask beer is served it’s not treated with the care it deserves. I don’t believe in the notion that cask should be some sort of protected appellation though. For me, the problem exists because advocates too often tend to raise cask beer on a pedestal, when really it should be treated like the most normal thing in the world. Yes, it’s a wonderful way to drink beer, but it’s not that special, really, it’s just beer, after all. Care and reverence are not the same thing.

On the topic of keeping the beer cool, one award winning pub has a related issue on its hands with the authorities due to a noisy fan:

Mr Bull took over the listed corner boozer in Gosport, Hants, in 2022. The previous landlady had the cooling unit located in a door cavity close to the beer cellar but after receiving safety advice, he moved it into the courtyard. Following a complaint, he was visited by a planning department enforcement officer last summer and later informed he would need planning permission for the unit. As part of the application, Mr Bull spent £1,500 on a sound survey as part of this in order to prove that the unit was not noisy. However, the survey found that the unit was loud enough that “it would cause sleep disturbance” to someone sleeping on the ground floor of the house next door, and ‘may’ do so for someone sleeping in the upstairs room.

Speaking of a proper pub, I have seen such things in histories of Victorian saloon hellholes… but never in real life:

…see that trough in the pub? That was so blokes didn’t have to leave the bar to relieve themselves. People in London are posh now though; they go to the gents for a piss.

Want a job in beer? Perhaps an open position with the Anderson County Beer Board is for you!

The three members would serve a three-year term expiring in September 2027. The Beer Board was established for the purpose of licensing, regulating and controlling the transportation, storage, sale, distribution, possession, receipt and/or manufacture of beer, according to a county government information. Interested residents can send a resume or pick up a request-to-serve form at the County Commission Office, 100 N. Main Street, Room 118, Clinton, TN, posted outside the office door.

Will Hawkes is doing an excellent job in London Beer City with his extended series on the history of the biggest pub in London from the 1930s to the 1990s, reminding us that the past is a foreign country and that includes the fairly recent past including the era of the rave:

…Fascination at the Downham Tavern took place on Sunday afternoons, taking in not only DJs but also live bands like Natural Life. These all-dayers quickly became a huge thing, according to Wilson, who always played the last three hours, and who played at Bonnie’s on Saturday nights. “We had the best laser show, we had the first gyroscope in [a dance] venue,” says Wilson. “When we first started [in 1988] we had 300, 400 people but it just took off. It got to stage where we had ticket touts … the build-up was massive, ‘I can’t wait, I can’t wait!’” Unusually for a pub, all this excitement was not fuelled by beer. Ecstasy arrived in the UK in a big way in the late 1980s, and it’s fairly safe to assume it was a key part of the Fascination experience. “Oh yeah,” says Wilson with a chuckle. “That was flying about.” The Downham Tavern all-dayers ended in 1990. By that stage, media hysteria about rave culture had reached fever pitch, and policing had become much stricter…

There was a good piece in the Manitowoc Herald Times on a 71 year old ship that has helped make that fine community the “Specialty Malt Capital of the World”, the self-unloading freighter SAGINAW:

The name was changed to SAGINAW on Nov. 20, 1999, in honor of Michigan’s Saginaw River. By 2008, the vessel was repowered from steam propulsion to diesel. Today, the 14,000-ton SAGINAW routinely transits between the ports of western Lake Superior and the Port of Manitowoc at least twice a year. Briess confirmed we can expect to see one more shipments of grain this year aboard SAGINAW. With up to 25 million pounds of raw barley in each delivery, that equates to about 40 million 12-ounce bottles of beer.

Finally, word of two more passings. Many remembrances followed up the announcement of the passing of drinks writer and cider maker, Susanna Forbes:

Forbes, whose long fight with cancer had been known by those close to her, had not faltered over the past few years in her dedication to the industry she loved. Speaking to db last year, she outlined how much she “appreciated people and cherished the perspective that treatment and its challenges had uncovered”. Her generosity of spirit showcased by her constant reminder that “in times of hardship you recognise the people who go out of their way to really make a difference”. Friends and colleagues have come from far and wide to pay their tributes to Forbes for her personality and kindness being at the forefront of their descriptions.

And there was another passing this week of particular note for me, of a craft beer pioneer in my old hometown of Halifax NS, Kevin Keefe of the Granite Brewery:

When Keefe opened the Granite Brewery, it was the second microbrewery in Canada — and first east of the Rockies. That’s a far cry from today as there are dozens in Nova Scotia alone. Keefe first became interested in craft brewing after reading an article about it. In 1984, he went to the U.K. and learned how to do it at a brewery. Not only was Keefe a brewer, he was a savvy businessman. “If I retailed it to the liquor commission, I’d get 50 cents a bottle, but if I sold it in a glass to you, I’d get almost two bucks a bottle, so it didn’t take very much for me to figure out, well, what I want to do is sell it to you,” Keefe told the reporter in a 2017 interview for Halifax Magazine. And thus the Granite Brewery operated out of Ginger’s Tavern.

The Granite of Halifax was a big part of my good beer education. I was a bar rat there in my early twenties as soon as he opened the place. I can smell the Ringwood yeast in my mind’s schnozz this very minute.

There. Until next week, check out Boak and Bailey every Saturday and let’s all see if Stan cheats on his declared early autumnal break from his updates on Mondays. Then listen to Lew’s podcast and get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is thereback with the sweary Mary! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog. Any more? Check out the Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the BOAS podcast for the bro-ly. And the long standing Beervana podcast …except they have now stood down. Plus We Are Beer People. The Boys Are From Märzen podcast appears suspended as does BeerEdge, too. But not Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has podcasts and there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube. The Moon Under Water is gone which is not surprising as the ask was $10 a month. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that but is writing for 47 readers over there.

*When we lived in PEI in eastern Canada, I would stop in Sackville NB when returning from Halifax NS just to grab a few Peculiers.
**Me, I’m all about the social medias. Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (183) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (932) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,457) hovering somewhere well above my largely ignored Instagram (152), crap Threads (52) with Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear.

The Chores… More Chores… It’s The Weeks Of Chores Along With Some Beery News Notes

When last we met, I was happy as anything, wandering around Montreal on a few days away. That’s so last week. The first week of vacation. Then I came home to folk building the new fence and the related 24 foot tall tree removal on my side of the line. The fencing guys did a couple of the main branches with their power saws but I’m doing the rest by hand, sorting* and hauling most of the stuff away. Which is why this week’s beery news notes are brought to you by my Japanese pruning saw. It is the only thing I have ever bought which has each and every promised attribute. Forget that claim that beer makes you feel exactly like you wanted to feel like just before you had that beer. This beauty sits neatly in the cut, eats into the wood in both directions, stays sharp, creates minimal blisters. Japanese pruning saws. Get yours today.

First off, I am really grateful for Stephanie Grant‘s piece on her changing relationship with alcohol. She puts things so clearly, things that I have thought about myself and others over the years – especially this bit:

I haven’t dived into non-alcohol beers or mocktails, and I’m not sure that I will. I’m not someone who necessarily needs to replace beer with a non-alcoholic version. I know that there are some great options out there today, but when I am abstaining from alcohol, I don’t really feel the need to replace it with something that is similar to alcohol. I also feel the same way about meat substitutes. If I want to eat meat, I will eat meat, but if I want something vegetarian, I don’t necessarily need a meat-like substitute… if I really want a beer during the week, I have no problem drinking a beer and have no trouble sticking to one. That level of flexibility feels good to me and has made this new adventure feel even more doable…. It helps that I know other people who work in beer and the beverage industry as a whole that have also cut back on their drinking. I look to them for inspiration. Because of them, I know it’s possible.

For as long as I have been writing about beer my interest in drinking a lot of beer has slowly slipped away… well, maybe let’s say it has reduced. (Apparently, not unlike Ireland.) For a while now, I’ve been a none or maybe one with meals or maybe after mowing sorta person now. I know, sounds like Old Man Day Napper. But that’s now due, you know, to hauling the boughs and branches to the yard waste depot.

Yet… when I do have a drink, I like to drink the swell stuff. So what are you drinking when in Lisbon? Not what you expect you might be, if Jason Wilson is right:

My choice for the first stop of the evening would be Quattro Teste, one of the best cocktail bars I’ve visited in any city. Run by Alf del Portillo, from Spain’s Basque Country, and Marta Premoli, from Lombardia, Italy, at Quattro Teste you can start with a shot of cider straight from the barrel, Basque style. Then move on to Alf’s take on the low-brow classic kalimotxo. It’s usually just a mix of red wine and Coke, but his version has a healthy pour of Amaro Lucano and a splash of Branca Menta to make it a kalimotxo revelation.

I am not sure my meagre daily ration would go in the direction of a kalimotxo but, go ahead, make the case for it. Jeff made the case, unpacking his thoughts on our conversation about the economics of local v regional noted last week as Question #7:

The regional breweries can’t compete with the giants on price, and lose the advantage of “local” affection the further they try to send beer. I recently got to see the barrelage of those regional breweries, and it is mostly sinking as this dynamic squeezes them more. And yet if you zoom in a bit, something interesting is going on as well. If you surveyed the beer cooler at the local grocery store in different regions (not just the U.S., but anywhere), you’d see different retail space given to local, regional, and national brands. Some places I visit have mostly national brands and a sad little pocket of local brands. In other places, the reverse is true.

There was also follow up over at their Patreon-based footnotes this week, when Boak and Bailey (Hello Jess and Ray!) looked for just the right word:

The idea of national-regional-local that Jeff Alworth writes about, after a discussion with Alan McLeod (hello, Alan!) feels like an important one. We look here at breweries like Butcombe, which are definitely tied to the West Country, but which don’t feel especially… loyal? Is that the word? They’re not national, exactly, but they’re too big, too remote, and too slick, to feel quite part of the scene. In Bristol, local means from the city. And ideally from the neighbourhood. Somerset and Gloucestershire too, at a push. We need to think about this some more.

I like that reference to “the scene.” A scene is something to which you can have personal affinity. My scene, for example, for a long time pre-pandemic extended much more to the south into central New York than to Toronto to my west. It is about identity as much as anything but there is a clear tension between the economics and the identification with regionality. Put it this way. I support local breweries as much as I do because I can drive to them all. That is a distinct relationship where the economics and identity of local might look like loyal but perhaps it is only practical. At the regional level one needs to make more of an effort, both the brewer and buyer. I probably put a premium on spotting a Great Lakes zone beer. National craft? Might as well be ketchup. I’ll buy it but mainly on based on the price with hard eye on the best before date.

On the subject of scene, it has many facets. We see that in the piece Laura Hadland had published in What’s Brewing which explored the history of beer serving measurements below the pint. It illustrated the hazards to be encountered in place to plane and time to time – as illustrated by the “schooner”:

The two-third pint measure was not legally recognised as a specified measure until October 2011. Despite this late introduction, the measure was not new. A publican in Greenock, Scotland, is recorded as testing the market for the schooner – a glass of American invention – in the 1870s. His tuppeny drink was described by locals as the Wee Pint and seems to have met with relative success, spreading to other venues in the area. The two-third schooner for beer is not to be confused with the sherry glass of the same name – a tall, waisted 3.5oz glass that was popularised in the UK in the 1960s, alongside its smaller cousin, the clipper. To add another layer of bemusement, a Canadian beer schooner is a 32oz super-sized affair!

I like that, the “wee pint” – basically the size you get in the US now when you ask for a pint. What else is going on? Pete Brown posted his take on George Orwell’s perfect urban pub “Moon Under Water” but with the perfect English country pub in mind:

There’s a big open fire at one end of the room. In winter, you have to be here at opening time to claim the table next to it. There’s also a large, shiny-seated wooden chair opposite. It’s the kind of chair you don’t sit in unless you’ve been drinking here since the pub was built. The walls and ceilings are decorated with random stuff – nothing as obvious as horse brasses or old black-and-white photos of the pub. A lot of the décor relates to the name of the pub (which isn’t really the Old Stone House.) But on top of that (sometimes literally) there’s a collection of old scythes. A bowsaw. A 1930s policeman’s helmet. A case full of arrows.

And… wait for it. There is a twist. By the way, R+J of B+B may have found their own new perfect pub even though the first dealt with some well-founded doubts:

…people who are much more clued into Bristol pub gossip than us told us they’d heard Sam Gregory, landlord of The Bank Tavern, was interested in taking it on. You might have heard of The Bank, even if you don’t know Bristol: it’s the one with the four-year waiting list for reservations for Sunday lunch. We filed this news under “We’ll believe it when we see it”. So much can go wrong with plans to revive pubs, as we’ve seen with successive attempts to take on The Rhubarb.

Also extolling the ideal pub this week was ATJ whose A Pub For All Seasons comes out soon. He summarized the goal of the book:

Deep breath, then: A Pub For All Seasons is a narrative non-fiction travel book about my journey through the UK over the four seasons in search of how pubs change organically, unconsciously, without fanfare, almost with nobody noticing. It is about how pubs echo the seasonal drinks and dishes we fancy throughout the year — as they change a pub also changes.

Speaking of which, I received my copy of Martyn’s new book, Around the World in 80 Beers: A Global History of Brewing, a study of brewing history through 80 beers from around the world. Very oddly, exactly 2.5% of the beers discussed were from my homeland, the Canadian Maritimes. The entry on Keith’s IPA is (shall we say) kind but does highlight, as do a number of others, the imperial reach of British brewing. My first skim though did raise one question. Has anyone actually seen that receipe for great-grandpaw’s beer that was the foundation for Sam Adams Boston Lager?

Other than witnessing the praising of glitter beer well after it “glit-ted” its last “-ter“**, I was interested in the thoughts Doug Veliky shared on the effect of Hazy with about a decade’s reflection – and expectually its effects on other style as well as style itself:

The term “American IPA” appears to mean little that can be trusted anymore, at least consistently and nationally for someone traveling, and might as well be shelved completely by the US brewing scene. It’s turned into a filler word to show more intention to the style, but that intention is now be muddy and misleading. The reason I used to like the descriptor is because it could serve as a way to communicate clear and bitter, while letting West Coast IPAs be their more specific versions, still leaving a wide range of variables to incorporate and differentiate with.

In Pellicle, Will Hawkes explored other sorts of fundamental changes in his excellent biography of an important figure in mid-1900s British brewing, Dr. Dora Kulka, and her escape from the Nazi we well as how her work in yeast biochemistry supported the early adoption of lager brewing:

Dora produced a stout (“Your vitamin stout is good,” Erna Hollitscher, to whom she sent a bottle, told her; “In spite of the protest of some English people I still don’t think it is so very different from beer!”), a pale ale and, most significantly, a lager. She probably thought little of it, but for the powers-that-be at The Hope Brewery it was like a lightbulb flickering on. Just a few years later, Claywheels Lane became the first British home of Carling Black Label, the beer that started the British lager revolution, and that has been the nation’s favourite since the early 1980s…. Hope & Anchor began making their own lager—Anchor Lager—very soon after the War ended. “Dr Kulka got us brewing a lager. She noticed Sheffield water was similar to that of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, where her family came from, and suggested we make one. That’s what set us going.”

It will be harder to find a lager in some communities in northern Ontario now that the implications of the new beer sales in private stores are playing out:

The Beer Store has confirmed that the 8 James Bay Rd. location in Cochrane is permanently closing on Sept. 9… In Cochrane, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has approved two licences for convenience stores that will be able to sell alcohol — the Cochrane Truck Stop at 99 Hwy. 11 S., and COSTCAN Liquor at 143 Fourth St. W. Unit B. The Beer Store locations in Geraldton and Nipigon are also set to close next month. Gordon Mackenzie, a former Nipigon councillor wrote to The Beer Store president, highlighting the impacts of the closure on the community, noting his concerns that the closure will add to the long-standing issues of vacant buildings populating the downtown core and the loss of job opportunities. The community has also noted that The Beer Store is the only location to return empties to.

Note: “My bet is the price of beer will go up, especially in northern Ontario.” In suburban southern Ontario, the issues are different, as over licensing as 350 new retailers will open up in one municipality on the same day. Plus: “stores will be allowed to sell starting at 7 a.m. and up to 11 p.m., two hours earlier in the morning and later at night than the current operating hours.” Really? Pre-school beers? How long until we read the “drunk guys in grade 12 first class home room” story?

And, relatedly perhaps in terms of change, in his Hop Queries, Stan shared some news about the German hop harvest that ended up with a bit of an odd conclusion:

Each of Germany’s five hop growing regions (Hallertau is by far the largest) provided estimates as harvest began. Production in the Hallertau increased 21 percent over 2023, to 42,350 metric tons, while overall German production grew 18.8 percent to 48,964 metric tons (98.1 million pounds). Why? Yields in Germany were up 20.5 percent. Although yields in 2023 had improved on 2022’s particularly disappointing harvest, they were still below average… The overall harvest yielded about nine percent more hops than an average crop the last 10 years, which a press releases notes will be sold into a market that is “. . . oversupplied.”

“Oversupply” does no lead to cheering as it turns out. A bumper crop causes concerns in a retracting marketplace for beer.

I am sure there is a bit of a punning opportunity related to the exhuberent abundance of my week’s chores there but I am a bit too tired to try. Timber depot, yard waste yard, worn out fabric drop off, vee vee boutique and, most excitingly, the hazardous waste receiving area. Touched all the bases. So… that being the case… here are the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes and the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections.*** Want to keep up with the news before next Thursday? Check out Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back each Monday… with a top drawer effort this week. Elsewhere go look at then listen to Lew’s podcast. And get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the BOAS podcast for the bro-ly. And the long standing Beervana podcast …except they have now stood down. Plus We Are Beer People. The Boys Are From Märzen podcast appears suspended as does BeerEdge, too. But not Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a few podcasts… but some may be losing steam… until… Lew’s interview! And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube. The Moon Under Water… is gone which is not surprising as the ask was $10 a month. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that but is writing for 47 readers over there. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link! Errr… nope, it is gone again.

*Those straight branches to the right are all around ten feet long and will be next year’s tomato poles.
**Not sure if or even how my disinterest in glitter beer translates into sexism but there you have it. Adulterations and adjuncts are simply gak.
***This week’s update on my own emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (151) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (930) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,469) hovering somewhere well above my largely ignored Instagram (160), crap Threads (52) with Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear.

The Ever Uplifting Beery News Notes For The Beginning Of That First False Canadian Summer

We are hitting the ground running this week. The image of the week up there is from Liam who posted a few shots on #BeerSky of his latest find, a “grubby 1920s silver-plated pint tankard” from Clery’s Restaurant in Dublin. I think it is all very charming. Careful readers will recall my own foray into such matters with a mid-1800s pewter quart pot I picked up in 2012. Just the thing for a very large measure of Porter.

And there was again a lot about beer writing this week. Not sure if that is good or bad. Stan beat me to one particular thought on Monday. A few years back I complained to him in an email that so much beer writing was repetative, timid and sort of dull and he gave me the best advice which he has repeated in his post this week – you’ve been around too long, seen too much… or something like that:

I would add this thought. What is new to me or Evan Rail or Jeff Alworth or Alan McLeod might be different than what is new to somebody finally getting around to visiting a new brewery because one opened in their neighborhood… There are many opportunities to write something new, for both the beer experienced and the beer inexperienced audiences.

Gary writes on a similar note. Yet having heard that and agreeing to a point, I am also mindful of the tweet David Jesudason posted about his current situation. You will remember that he is the current holder of The Michael Jackson Award for Beer Writer of the Year from BGBW. But, if you click on that thumbnail, you will see he says:

I am currently in a position where I am not sure I can continue this type of work.

Because while there may be “many opportunities to write something new, for both the beer experienced and the beer inexperienced audiences,” I would submit, there is little to no support for many types of normal business reporting and investigative reporting that we see in other areas of lifestyle writing. And why is that? Does it leads to things like this? A story about one British brewer with a claim:

Speaking about the expansion, Vault City’s co-founder Steven Smith-Hay said: “Our ambition is to be the biggest dedicated sour beer producer in the world. This new site will be instrumental in achieving that.*

The headling added certainty by way of the “to be” rather than “may become” sort of grammarical structure. And, yes, the author does not write the headling but it all led to the statement “I’ve got a lot to say about that Vault City interview but tough cheese I’m on holiday” as well as the statement “was from a press release anyho” with questions about the reality of that ambition. To be or not to be. But only on social media. Will there be follow up? Will track records be tracked? Is it that we don’t really care and it’s all puffery for… well, you know.

It also may be related to the opinion piece “Hazy IPA Conspiracy Theories” from Andy Crouch. He who upset my world by this article – by leaving me more in agreement with the very Mr. B who Andy sought to criticize. As reported last week, Mr. B pointed at Hazy IPAs as either the cause or at least a key symptom of US craft’s sputtering retraction. Why? Well, in addition to simmering tone of “one does not question craft”, Andy also surprisingly uses that hallmark of a weak argument: poorly dolled out snark. Phrases deployed included “grumpy old craft beer cowboys” and “strawman” and “laugh out loud moment” and especially “55 year old dudes grumbling” as, you know, Mr. B is older than that. Setting such faux juveneilia aside, what he really misses is this:

The popularity of consumer products, including beer, wine, and spirits, ebbs and flows over time. In just the past decade, we’ve seen the rise and fall of cocktails, cider, hard seltzers, and many others. Each will continue to play some role in the drinking landscape but no drink has a right to the public’s attention. Craft beer has many issues but chief among them is a generational disconnect. The audience for craft beer continues to age, younger folks make fun of craft beer dads and their beer samplers on TikTok, and the industry stands in a corner publicly wishcasting for the return of “beer-flavored beer.”

What Andy does not seem to want to admit is that it’s not about the rise and fall of each particular form of drink but a greater overall trend. These sugar bomb beers that are labeled as Hazy IPA are nothing more than the beery sibling to RTDs, coolers and hard seltzers. Interchangible. Forgettable. Cavity causing. They may sell but they are part of that continuum that speaks to a candy fixated palate. Kinderbier. Easy to make and easy to sell with the right cartoony can wrapper. In fact, their rise was perfectly culturally appropriate for the troubled times, a perfect drink for an era of crisis that started with the shock of Trump getting elected and then continued on through the daze of life in the pandemic. They are booze for unsettled people who have bigger things to deal with, those who don’t want to think about it. Any of it. The “eating a box of ice cream sandwiches stnading by my fridge because I can” of beers for folk who no longer can muster the energy to give a shit. What sort of industry bases its long term health on that sort of consumer? By all appearances, this shrinking one called craft.

Speaking on asking why things are the way they are, Steve Dunkey wrote a bit of a exposé of the Good Beer Guide that was publishing in What’sBrewing, describing some of the politics behind the scenes including this bit of a revelation:

There isn’t enough room in the printed book for every pub that could meet new nationalised selection criteria. Each branch has an allocation that it can fill, and it’s well known that the allocation will be filled regardless of the quality of the pubs, because it’s believed at a branch level that if it doesn’t fill its allocation, it might not have as many entries the following year. This would restrict it if it then did have the great pubs to fill the quota.

That is quite the thing. I had no idea that there was no centralized editing of submissions from the regions. The story raises other questions, too. Check it out.

Stan (for the double) has all the questions and this week shared another Hop Queries where he pointed out again another few trends trend that point to continued retraction:

Hop Products Australia harvested 26 percent fewer metric tons of hops in 2024 than in 2023. Much of that was intentional, taking into consideration that the worldwide supply of aroma hops is greater than demand. Production of Galaxy, which is 65 percent of what HPA sells, was down 20 percent to 879 metric tons. Vic Secret dipped 22 percent and Eclipse 57 percent…. A report from Germany suggests acreage has not been reduced to the extent it has been in the United States. When the numbers are toted up, Perle and Hallertau Tradition will likely decline the most, while high alpha acreage will likely increase slightly.

And apparently the days of food and beer pairing are well behind us. As Jeff noted from a recent newsletter reporting from a conference speech by a commercial investment banker – it’s now all about “the mood management” business! As a banker might, the points being made included a grind that sounds a lot like someone worried about their ROI:

- - If consumer are walking away from beer, Nik asks that you explain Modelo, Pacifico, Michelob Ultra, Voodoo Ranger, Busch Light, and Coors Banquet to him, which are all performing great.
  - We’re not in the beverage business, we’re in the “mood management business” per Nik. He says we drink 8 beverages a day and that alcoholic ones are competing with non-alcoholic ones.
  - “There’s no such hing as lazy markets, only lazy marketers”
  - Prices have been going up lately. Are we doing enough to reinforce that value we provide to command the new, more premium price? (He implies no)…

Mmm… mood management. That’s a lot of “out-Barting” even BA Bart (as recently seen as a few weeks ago) for pushy positivity in a retracting market but RBC (actually my own bank, with those very unAmerican two out of three letters) and its investment bankers have needs. The problem with beer is you, you and you… especially you… are LAZY!!! I know I am. And, yes, so does my bank.

Next up, Millie Bowles writing for Kent Online shared the tale of neighbours fed up with the smells off the neighbouring property, the contract brewers South East Bottling:

Fed-up neighbours say the stench from a brewery is so bad they cannot sit in their gardens – but bosses are urging residents to be more “pro-business”. People living near South East Bottling (SEB) on Northdown Industrial Estate in Broadstairs have complained of a “yeasty, sickly” smell which can even force them to keep their windows shut. Such is the pong, Thanet District Council has now ordered the company to carry out an odour assessment. SEB, which works with brands such as Old Dairy and Tiny Rebel, says it is “unfortunate that in current times, local residents and the council choose to operate in an anti-business manner”.

Stench! Pong!! We read that Marion Langelier, 82, is stopped from going out in the garden because of the smell as well as “noise issues, notably “banging and crashing’ bins.” Giving equal time, we also read that Chris Prentice, 49, says it is “like hot Weetabix. It’s quite comforting. It’s nice.” Hot Weetabix? How spicy! But the real question is this – why do UK newspapers include people ages? Otherwise, solid business reporting.

Not quite as smelly apparently but still irritating is Albania where NHS Martin unpacked** some of the trials and tribulations one can meet when traveling there:

… we sprinted to Berat’s bus station where the bus driver checked 3 times we really wanted to go to Lushnje. “Can we go to the Station please” we asked as the bus pulled up in an unprepossessing centre, the Mansfield of the Balkans, but the driver just pointed vaguely to the west. If in doubt, follow the tractor. Well, there’s a building called “STATION” anyway; five minutes to spare for the 10:38. No bus stops, no timetable, no-one to ask, just (bizarrely) two cafes side-by-side. Resigned to missing (if it had ever run) the 10:38, we resolved to seek advice from the cafes. It’s what you’d do in England, isn’t it, ask in a pub. The chap in one pointed heavenwards, the lady who brought us two espressos borrowed Mrs RM’s phone to point at a roundabout a half mile south, though a bus driver taking a fag break added “autostrada” mysteriously…

There is more. I think they ending up catching the 1:38 pm bus. Me, when I worked in Poland in 1991 I tried Albanian carrot jam. Cured me of making further travel inquiries.

As a follow up on the receive spate of breweries going under, Ed wrote an interesting post on his pre-brewing life as a microbiologist with a firm that went into receivership:

When I worked as a microbiologist the company I was at went bankrupt and managed to re-open a soon after with a slightly different name doing the same business. It had been obvious the company was not doing well for some time. A big customer had been lost so the work just wasn’t there like it once was. When I saw the owners daughter updating her CV on a work computer I thought the company was definitely going under, but despite this it still came as a shock when it finally happened. I’d worked there for years so though intellectually I’d guessed I’d soon be on the sausage it hadn’t prepared me emotionally for when reality hit.

Finally and perhaps along the same line… in my undergrad years over 40 years ago, one entertaining pal would discuss hypothetical washroom fixtures he wanted to see. He dubbed one the VomKing 5000? Apparently they exist for real in Germany according to one posting on the Dull Men’s Club on Facebook. Note: this is a free standing barf station in a public washroom there. Handles and all. I think it only lacks the mist of ice cold water spraying your forehead that my pal had designed into his porcelain dream. His grip handles may also have been refrigerated in his version. But here you can head butt the flush button in this model. Reminder: the internet was made for educational purposes. You have been educated.

And with that great moment in blogging history… from Alpha to Omega… input to output…so… once again… that is it and we roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes and the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections.*** Want to keep up with the news before next Thursday? Check out Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back each Monday. Elsewhere go look at then listen to Lew’s podcast. And get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the BOAS podcast for the bro-ly. And the long standing Beervana podcast …except they have now stood down. Plus We Are Beer People. The Boys Are From Märzen podcast appears suspended as does BeerEdge, too. But not Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a few podcasts… but some may be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube. The Moon Under Water… is gone which is not surprising as the ask was $10 a month. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that but is writing for 47 readers over there. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link! Errr… nope, it is gone again.

*I couldn’t gather the energy to keep up with the Vault City thing further – but Stonch made a great point.
**Travel pun!!
***This week’s update on my own emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (128) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (913) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,474) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (163), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there.

The Thrilling Week When I Got That Head Cold Edition Of The Thursday Beery News Notes

First cold after the pandemic started. Felt very weird. Runny nose. Sneezing. Pretty much gone. Or at least a new thing every day. But, you know, it’s sorta nice to have an ailment that doesn’t mean you are at great risk. And it’s all over the place here, half the folk at work are hit. (No, you’re right… I am struggling with the tie in to good beer, too. Got it!) It makes you appreciate the little things, perhaps. Things without DOOOOOOMMMM in the title. Like how the warm weather this year may see the maple sap running very early… oh, no that is a little doomy. Endtimesy even. Maybe more like this: Jeff, he of Rye, posted that a friend:

…bought an old Victorian frame a while ago. Opening it up, he’s discovered this old brewery advert used as a filler piece behind the print itself! Brewery wound up 1866 so it’s at least 160 years old!

Nice. Click on it. The image is amazingly crisp and colourful for something forgotten at least 158 years ago. A good way to start the week off. Somewhat similarly, A London Inheritance has a great post this week on the history of the Lamb and Flag pub in Rose Street, near Covent Garden. The structure of the blog is updating older photos taken by the author’s father, contextualizing them with current images all to set up wee histories of the City’s hidden gems:

This is my father’s photo of the Lamb and Flag pub in Rose Street, near Covent Garden, taken in 1948. The name Lamb and Flag can be seen just above the entrance to the Saloon. On many London pubs of the time, the name of the brewery was given much greater prominence than the name of the pub. Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd were a major London brewery operating from the Anchor Brewery in Park Street, Southwark… The source of the name Lamb and Flag has a religious basis. The “lamb” is from the Gospel of St. John: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” and the flag being that of St. George. The pub was also once known as the Bucket of Blood due to links with prize fighting.

Delightful. I wonder if that was supposed to be an attraction back then? Speaking of which, Boak and Bailey discussed the modern equivalent (perhaps) this week when they inquired into what new trends make a pub attractive these days:

As well as the aforementioned board game cafes, we’ve also noticed in Bristol a growing number of (a) video game bars or grown-up amusement arcades and (b) dessert cafes. The video game places are interesting. In both of those we’ve visited there was draught beer but you were absolutely free to ignore it. You were paying your way by paying to play games with drinks as an additional amenity. And the desert cafes will sell you a disgustingly huge plate of ice cream and waffles, or whatever, and then let you and several friends spend hours picking at it.

I like me a good video game bar. The particular preference is an Atari table to play Asteroids on. It’s apparently called a cocktail table. I usually had a beer when these things were more common. And finding one with wood paneling finish is a big bonus. Stepping back from that dailiance with the modern, Martin is back with a bit of a calculation on how much beer did a 1860s farmer brew for his operational needs:

Going back to Samuel, if he, or rather one of his servants, was brewing 96 barrels of beer a year, that works out at eight barrels a month. If he had a two-quarter brewery, that is, one capable of mashing two quarters, 650 pounds or so, of malt at a time (a reasonable assumption, I think, judging by the sizes of small commercial breweries in Hertfordshire in the 19th century), then he was brewing only once a month, at an average of four barrels to the quarter, to give a beer of six to seven per cent abv. Clearly it would not take much of a step up to increase output considerably: brew once a week, and you are now making almost 420 barrels a year, which you could retail for almost £1,000, at 48 shillings for a barrel of XXX. That’s a fairly staggering £110,000 a year in 2024 value, a healthy addition to a farm’s income.

I’ve just remembered something. I was never very good at math. Pellicle has published an excellent article and photo essay by Jemma Beedie on the The Horn Milk Bar, an old school cafe halfway between Perth and Dundee, Scotland which is preserved itself:

…we have time-travelled. This is the place my parents (and maybe yours) are longing for; the spaces they insist still exist. Instead of the cloying nostalgia of brand-new retro-styling, this place is visibly old. We were expecting the polished vintage world of the music videos by Autoheart and Logan’s Close—this is not that. Shades of brown and beige wash over us. Wipe-clean plastic chairs and tables surround us. Outside it is bright, one of the clearest, bluest skies we’ve had since May, but the sunlight struggling through the wall of windows does not penetrate the suffocating room of wood veneer.

Again, wood veneer is good. I once lived in a town with a veneer factory. Unrolled big logs like they were paper towel rolls. Match factory too. Back to beer! There was a bit of a kerfuffle (yes, I said it) after Jessica Mason‘s story on the revival of Black and Tan was published after last week’s deadline. She updated the story with grace and speed to include the connotations of the name in Ireland:

…in Ireland, the ‘black and tans’ referred to constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. They were nicknamed so because of their uniforms being a mixture of dark green (which appeared black) and khaki. During that time, the ‘black and tans’ gained a reputation for brutality and as such exacerbated Irish opinion of the British. With these elements in mind, despite the beer serve being termed so due to its colouring, ordering a black and tan at an Irish bar could be viewed as a contentious move, especially by a British patron. However, taking a piece of history back, many Irish bars – especially in the US – are now beginning to offer the serve, sometimes with a nod to Irish history, but otherwise simply to upsell more Guinness.

There’s another form of the two level cocktail that you can also see in America in bottled form from venerable micros like Saranac as well as Yuegling. BeerAdvocate lists 77 examples of beers by that name, listed under the American Porter category. I wonder if this dates from the earlier post US Civil War usage as it related to the Republican Party, as summarized by Wikipedia:

Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and, starting in the 1870s, formed the “tan” half of the “Black and Tan” Republican Party, a minority in every Southern state after 1877. This divided the party into two factions: the lily-white faction, which was practically all-white; and the biracial black-and-tan faction. In several Southern states, the “Lily Whites”, who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party, attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence.

Very interesting – or at least so said Artie Johnson. You know, I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Forecasting is a mug’s game, a fool’s errand, a… a… add your own analogy please… but, still, you gotta love how little credibility this sort of listicle entry conveys:

…there’s an expected 8.51% compound annual growth for the next three years, putting seltzers at the forefront of increasingly important alcoholic beverages.

Interesting, too, is how many in the list of trends in “craft” are as devoid of the word “beer” as the title to the article. Just dislocated “craft” is all there is left. And remember: hop water isn’t a style, it’s a recipe.

Allistair wrote at Fuggled about a brewery he wrote about in a Pellicle feature last summer, as we discussed, on Virginia’s Black Narrows Brewing. An unfortunate update:

Yesterday, Josh Chapman, owner and brewer at Black Narrows Brewing on Chincoteague Island announced that they have decided to close their doors – their final weekend in operation will be February 16-18th… It was also just last year that their magnificent malted corn lager “How Bout It” was awarded a Good Food Award – the corn in the lager being an heirloom variety, grown on the Eastern Shore, malted by Murphy & Rude in Charlottesville, and fermented with a yeast strain derived from a Chincoteague oyster. Beer does not get much more local than that… In announcing the closure, Josh noted that “we watched our ingredients, equipment and labor costs increase. It was all too much”. In the end, the finances of being a hyper local, community supporting brewery just couldn’t sustain the business…

Relatedly and perhaps conversely, it’s certainly daring to suggest that craft malt is “Central to Taking On Beer’s Industrial Complex” but it might have been nice if something backing that claim up was actually included in this GBH article.* It’s on new small scale malting barley trends methods by Don Tse. I think the nub of the tale is really this, that these new methods may help small farmers and small maltsters:

Farmers are more likely to grow whatever is most profitable, and since so much research has been invested in improving the yield of corn and other crops, old barley varieties cannot yield sufficient income to compete. Indeed, in a typical crop rotation, barley is likely to be the least profitable unless there is a premium buyer like a maltster… Thanks to new barley varieties bred for a broader range of environments and thanks to craft maltsters creating a market for these varieties, Heisel says he is witnessing regions that had been growing feed barley—Maryland and Delaware, for example—switching to malting barley…

Good. A perfectly acceptable point. Speaking of which, the next edition of Prohibitchin’ from Beth Demmon is out and this month’s focus is Rae Adams who works in a particularly challenging location:

Dry January is behind us, and Rae couldn’t be happier about it. “Dry January is a murderous thing,” she says, only half jokingly. “Let’s change it to Dry July.” A month of widespread sobriety during the slowest part of the year for many food and drink establishments is hard enough on its own. But Graham County, where Rae works as the director of sales for Wehrloom Honey & Meadery, is one of the four remaining dry counties in North Carolina. You can still find and purchase alcohol in dry counties, but not much, and not everywhere. Even on a good day, it’s challenging for producers and retailers.

Speaking of dry, a lack of imported beer to Zanzibar‘s spice islands tourist zone has thrown the industry into a mess:

“We are running short of beer at my bar, and I just have a stock of soft drinks,” he told the BBC. “The government has to take action. It is the high season now, it is very hot and these tourists need joy, they need cold beer on these beaches.” An American tourist, who did not want to be named, said: “I love Zanzibar and its beaches. The people are amazing and only challenge I feel now is I can’t get hard liquor. I want to have spirits or even whisky but nothing is found in the hotel – they instead advised me to order it from Stone Town.” The local manufacture of alcohol is banned in Zanzibar, whose population is largely Muslim.

Why? Permits!! And 90% of the regions income is from tourists and, as the Sex Pistols taught us, tourists are money. The BBC reports that Simai Mohammed Said resigned as tourism minister last week, citing “unfavourable and disruptive working conditions.” Heavens. Why can’t everything work as smoothly as in Poulton? And finally… oh dear:

No one really knows why it’s called a “cream ale” as it is more akin to an American lager and does not contain any cream at all.

That’s expertise for you!** And now… once again… roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up again to 118 rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (stalled at 911) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,442 – up again) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (down to 163), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind.

Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan really doing what needs to be done Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!

*The whole idea of craft beer is taking on industrial beer like it’s, you know, 2011 or so, is sweet and nostagic and charming and all. And it also would be nice to know why “People were still growing it for feed, but any malting barley was going to Canada.” I mean I think I know why it goes to Canada but it need explaining or tightening. And, yes, there are native North American barleys. Conversely, wouldn’t have some publication wanted this piece for publication, Jeff‘s survey of change at Rogue? Neat and tidy and yes pretty trade positive. It’s a weird week. Check out the next footnote if you don’t believe me! [Update: Stan’s BlueSky comment was “There’s even treasure in the footnotes. “The whole idea of craft beer is taking on industrial beer like it’s, you know, 2011 or so, is sweet and nostagic and charming and all.” My first thought as well.” which is really nice but I just would point out as I know Stan agrees that headlines are not written by authors. I know a guy who inserts “bus plunge” in the headline whenever he can.]
**Want to know? Start here, then go here, then look here, then…

The Fabulously Miraculously Perhaps Even Mailed-In Final Beery News Notes Of 2023

What can I say? It’s been quiet. Not sure there’s even going to be enough in the news for a proper update. Me, I didn’t even have one drink on Christmas Day… but only because the celebration falling on a Monday means we have Christmas Eve, Tibb’s Eve and a Friday night after the end of work to get through first. Don’t worry. I was sensible. Not like you lot, I suppose. Or perhaps just like you. I can never tell anymore. I’m a bit tired at this point, bracing for the final two or three events before I can get into the seed catelogues properly. I feel a bit like the inadvertantly hilarious AI generated Santa right there. See, someone did a Santa from every province and the original Nova Scotia Santa was clearly a screw up as instead of being cheery like the rest it looks like the guy hired by Mr. Lahey from Trailer Park Boys for a drunk Xmas party. It was quickly swapped out for something more downtown trade association… aka boring… because… Canada…

Speaking of surprises, Boak and Bailey pulled a surprise – after saying they were taking the rest of the year off but then sending out beer links by newsletter. They even sent me a hello in the fine print.* Cheery them!

Apparently it’s hard to break this habit, especially when this is a quiet time of year for many people, prompting interesting blog posts to emerge. So, just for you – and thank you once again for Patrooning us – here are a few links worth checking out.

They also posted their Golden Pints Awards, which was sort of a bigger thing a few years ago back when – and an excellent thing it was too – when people shared their favourites in any number of categories which fitted their personal experiences for the year. I last did them in 2018 and 2021 which means back when was not so so far back, I suppose. Here’s one for this year by an Australian podcast, too. It’s early as yet so you have until Monday to post your thoughts. Anyway, I did like this observation of theirs which captures the mood one aspires to in such things:

On one occasion we arrived shortly after someone had vomited everywhere leading to an immediate clear out of the premises. The Blitz spirit overtook those who remained. Then a mouse appeared and, high on floor cleaner, began to run in circles around the middle of the pub. On another occasion snooker player and DJ Steve Davis was sitting at the bar. Well, fair enough. And then there was the time someone asked the barman for a saw, hammer and nails and, between pints, made a wheelchair ramp out of a sheet of MDF.

And Alistair announced his beer of the year and it was perhaps less of a surprise given he had worked out three finalists but I do admire his standard for selection:

Choosing a single winner from these three beers is, as it seems to be every year, difficult, as were any one of them a permanent feature of drinking central VA, I would likely drink it an awful lot. However, only one of them could actually claim to have been drunk fairly regularly this year, and so the Fuggled Beer of the Year is…Tabolcloth Vollbier from both Selvedge Brewing and Tabol Brewing. It was simply wonderful, and I hope it makes a comeback when Selvedge open up in their new venue in the new year.

Good. Given all of the beers of the year you read about in most periodicals are frankly just rookie of the year awards, I am rooting for Alistair’s wish that it becomes a regular feature. I wonder how the whole “rookie of the year” as champion thing has led to the novelty obsession which has, you know, let to the superficiality and amnesia.

There’s more! Pellicle posted its top ten stories of 2023 and DC Beer had an extended year end feature on the US Capital scene with many of those involved sharing their thoughts – including this comment from the Brandings of Wheatfield that caught attention:

Moving beyond style guidelines written for another time and place continues its positive momentum. The best is yet to come for truly local beer, wherever your local is. We’re seeing progress experimenting with ingredients from here and methods responsive to them. Local beers will be different than predecessors from afar – even if they share a similar style name – and that’s something to celebrate.

Is that a call for chaos or a call for honesty? Speaking of which, The Beer Nut has wrapped up his series on the 12 top Irish brewers of 2023 with a post on those he ranked 13th to 24th including one making a coffee blonde pale ale that illustrates his excellence in matters reportage:

I’ve never seen the like. It is more or less blonde, with a polished-copper pink tint. The pour seemed a little flat, only reluctantly forming a head and offering no more than a gentle sparkle. There’s an aroma of coffee of a certain kind; a cold pouch of ground beans, with nothing warm or inviting about it. In the flavour it’s predominantly a pale ale: they didn’t go too far away with those hops and there’s quite an old-school American, or even English, tang of earthiness, which tastes like Cascade to me, even though there’s Strata and Amarillo in here as well. I couldn’t taste any of their fruitiness. The coffee is surprisingly complementary to this, again not heavy on the roast, or concentrated or oily; little more than a seasoning, in fact, adding a different sort of dryness to an already quite dry base beer. At only 5.1% ABV there’s not a lot of complexity on offer, and while it’s no revelatory taste experience, the experiment does work, giving you something interesting and worthwhile for your trouble.

And The Mudge himself shared his set of year end thoughts in a two parter including these considerations on one beneficial regulatory change affecting the UK brewing trade:

While one might object to the absolute level of duties, the general principle must be correct. It’s rare to see government carrying out a root-and-branch reform of anything nowadays, rather than merely tinkering around the edges… A significant aspect of these changes was to raise the threshold for a lower rate of beer duty from 2.8% ABV to 3.4%, a level at which it is much easier to brew palatable beers. As I reported earlier this month, there has been significant movement to reduce the strength of beers a little above this level, although it remains distinctly patchy, and the jury is still out on to what extent drinkers will be happy to accept lower-strength beers. The duty savings are so significant, though – over 50% – that the 3.4% category is only going to grow in future.

That’s new analysis right there. Jeff came out with a surprisingly hopeful year ender on the state of beer writing but two cheers for the optimism after this summary at the outset which I share at some length:

Here at the end of the year, a number of folks have been taking stock of their various writing ventures. Three I noted were Boak and Bailey, Courtney Iseman, and the duo behind the recently-launched Taster Tray (Kendall Jones and Adam Robbings), who summed up the mood of the three this way:

“In other ways, the kind of stuff we reported (over and over again) told us that maybe it was a bit irrelevant in today’s craft beer world, where more people than ever drink craft beer but fewer people harbor a deep, hobby-like passion for it. More consumers, less enthusiasts.”

These sentiments get at a reality deeper than just the fortunes of individual writers (or writing teams). It has been hard to make a living as a journalist/writer for—well, forever, but certainly in the cheap-content internet age. But something else is happening as well. As beer goes through the transition I described on Wednesday, everything it touches is transitioning, too. In the case of journalism, two trends in particular made things hard in 2023: people are less curious and engaged about beer (and that means everything from homebrewing to tasting to history and travel to business) at the same time that there is so much already available out there for the interested reader.

I think that last bit is key. For while it is truly amazing how many beer writers (especially those scrambling doing it for meagre pay) do not have a good look at what has already been written about a topic before jumping in (so therefore make some glowing gaffs) the sheer wonder that are these internets is that it is auto-archiving and auto-indexing. Yes, there is still a huge amount of researching and writing to be done but it is being done on the collective shoulders of others whether those standing up there admit it or not! It’s all a collective tree of knowledge. So be a twig! And have aspirations to be a bit of a branch even. I mean, look at Gary. Four posts on the “beer jacket” trend of the first half of the 1900s. Who’s not interested in that sort of digging? Well, paying periodicals for sure… but are you interested in writing or interested in eating? Hmm???

And it’s good to acknowledge that all this re-examination of what we beer scribblers are to do with our brief alloted span on this planet as we stare at our keyboards** is all happening in a contraction rather than a transition, during an overall drop in interest in beer. Business Insider has dubbed this the worst year in beer in a quarter century. With good cause as the always reliable New York Post explains:

Sales declined by more than 5% in the first nine months of the year, dragged down not only by the backlash and boycotts against Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light but the changing habits of younger drinkers, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Overall beer sales have also been hit as millennials and Gen-Zers ditch the brews for other alcohol-infused products like canned cocktails or simply drink less than previous generations. Sales of craft beer, which emerged as a huge growth engine in the late ’90s, have also been down for three of the past four years, according to Steinmann. “This is an industry-wide, five-alarm fire,” Craig Purser, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said in a speech to wholesalers at a convention in October, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

AKA: “fewer consumers, less enthusiasts.“Yikes! Is it too late to start collecting stamps? I could be a stamp expert. Maybe… One thing I can admit is that I like about Cider Review is how it is much more focused on the beverage as agriculture than you see in the beer press – with good reason. I grew up in a world of ag commodity prices and the weather on the zones of the Grand Banks being regularly reported on the radio and TV. So happy was I to see their year end review was as much about the crop than anything:

As we conclude our collective summary of Harvest 2023 here on Cider Review, Hogmanay is fast approaching; the weeks of Wassail just around the corner, followed by the pruning cycle for slumbering fruit trees bathing in their Winter chill hours. It’s as beautiful a time of year in the orchard as any – if you can, do go for an explore in one mid-morning, with a strong hoar frost settled over the skeletal branches of Dabinett and Stoke Red, Porter’s Perfection and Ellis Bitter. You won’t be disappointed. Onto then, the final batch of producers who have very generously taken the time out of their harvest schedule (now mostly finished I do hope) to answer our questions here on Cider Review.

Speaking of ag, The Greenock Telegraph, the newspaper of record in the family’s seat in the old country, has certainly been paying attention and shared some odd Scots law including one related to a coo:

Based on the Licencing Act of 1872, it is an offence to be drunk while in charge of a cow, horse, carriage or steam engine or while possessing a loaded firearm. Those found guilty of this weird ‘Victorian DUI’ law could be jailed for up to 51 weeks.

Govern yourselves accordingly! And with even more ag, Jamie Goode, wine writer, shared some thoughts via Twex on the oddities he has noticed in the marketplace for the grape including this observation:

At the bottom end wine is unsustainably cheap and prices need to rise so everyone can make a living and farmers can do what we ask of them when we insist on sustainability for example I don’t like glyphosate but you are naive if you call for a ban because it costs more to farm without it, so we need to make cheap wine more profitable…

That makes sense. And sort of the opposite of craft beer. Additive and adjunct free should come at a premium. But what really shouldn’t come at a great premium is Belgian beer glass collecting as The Brussels Times reports.

The Duvel glass collecting hobby, once pursued for enjoyment, has evolved into a potentially dangerous realm, with Vanhoeck expressing his concerns about the escalating intensity and financial toll it takes on some enthusiasts. While some collectors are driven by passion and nostalgia, others see it as an opportunity to fund major life events, such as buying a home. Even the designers, like Hedof, grapple with ethical dilemmas as the value of their creations skyrockets, balancing principles with financial realities.

Turning to a starker reality and in a follow up of sorts to an article from a few years back in GBH on Taybeh Brewing located in one of the West Bank’s few remaining Christian villages, The Guardian examines the situation the brewery now finds itself in during a time of war:

The brewery has not been able to obtain export permits needed for international shipping through Israeli ports, and several of Khoury’s employees have been injured in attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. “We’re also just filled with grief – and even fear,” says Khoury, who has family in Gaza. She is determined to keep going, however, hoping for a more peaceful future. “To build our state and economy, we have to invest our knowledge and money,” she says. “And that’s exactly what my family and I are doing. Our brewery is not just about great beer, but about the image of Palestine – one of the most liberal Arab countries. That’s one of the messages I’d like to share with the world.”

Now and finally for 2023… looking forward… The New York Times got the jump on Dryanuary… or is it JanDulluary?… with a exeedingly sensible article on how to go about it.

There is no data suggesting that those folks won’t be able to abstain from drinking, said Dr. David Wolinsky, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with Johns Hopkins Medicine, who specializes in addiction. But starting the month with a few strategies in your back pocket — and with a clear sense of your goals — may help you get the most out of the challenge. “Most of the benefits of Dry January are probably going to be related to the intention with which you go into Dry January,” Dr. Wolinsky said. The challenge isn’t a stand-in for treatment for people with alcohol use disorder, he stressed, but those who are looking to get a fresh start to the year may benefit from the mental and physical reset it can offer, and the opportunity to adopt new habits.

I’m all for that. I track everything every day now and have for a few years – fasting hours, drink downed, exercise done, books read, chores chored. Pandemic habit I suppose but it works. So I don’t necessarily think I am going to do a dry month. For the curious, here’s where I was after 2021 and 2022 and here is a summary of 2023 as we near the end of the final month. I’m quite pleased with it all. I have moved roughly speaking from around 1.95 drinks a day to around 1.8 without any sort of inconvenience. That adds up to maybe 50 less over the whole year. Who misses one a week? No one. I’ll probably aim for a similar drop in 2024 but it is all in the sensible range. Remember: however you do you – make sure you pay a bit of attention.

There. There was enough out there worth getting all linky over. Things are looking up. And you should, too! The darkest two weeks of the year are now past us. Yes, the days are already getting longer. And remember, ye who read this far down to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up three to 101) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (911 – down one) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,429 – another week with a gain!) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (creeping – literally – up to 164), with unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. All in all I now have to admit my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat and accept that BlueSky is the place in “the race to replace.” Even so and all in all, it is #Gardening Mastodon that still wins but here are a few of the folk there perhaps only waiting to discuss beer:

And remember to check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!) to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan at his spot on those Mondays when he is not SLACKING OFF! Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now much less occassional but always wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!

*And a Happy New Year to you!
**OK, that’s a bit too close even for me!

The First Tentatively Autumnal Beery News Notes For 2023

Lots going on this week. I am a bit surprised that there is a lot going on this week. Not a lot of good stuff, to be honest. “Good” in the sense of rewarding, interesting and new. See… umm… that which is going on includes some goings away as well as some goings on and some other stuff the needs to be long gone. Raspberries are still going on, however, I can tell you that. Look at that! That’s really good. That’s just out by the shed. Mere feet away. You know, September is ending with warmth in the low 20s C as well as a bit of a drought. Both welcome and a bit odd. Still nothing near frost forecast out into mid-October.

Speaking of things which are welcome and maybe a little odd, Martin guided me to a new beer blogger, the Beer Moose (no, I don’t know) who is covering the pub scene in Cambridge, England:

Is this something I’ll forget to do or give up on in a month’s time? Maybe. But I’m going to try! I’m also not doing this for financial gain, but if you fancy giving me a big bag of money for writing about something then I’ll likely do it. Where does the name Beer Moose come from? Is it linked to Cambridge United having Marvin The Moose as a mascot? Well I like beer and from an early age my sister called me Moose, it kind of stuck as my family nickname. The Cambridge United bit is just a coincidence. Let’s see how this turns out.

Now I know! Welcome aboard! And, also always welcome, Liam has shared another of his pieces on Ireland through the lens of 50 distinct brewing artefacts, this time (a bit of a cheat by my math) two objects:

These are the last relics of what was a huge industry of the past, where most of the beers consumed on this island were served in pint, half-pint and one-third-of-a-pint bottles, and when bottling companies as well as the publicans themselves bottled huge amounts of the output from Ireland’s breweries… So in most of Ireland the bottle was the most common way of drinking beer both at home and in the pub, but our love for the pint bottle is a relatively recent affair, as the half pint version was the most popular way of serving most beers for decades here, and certainly for a long period after the formation of the state in the 1922. It remained so until Draught Guinness and other draught keg beers became popular, and took over the pub beer sales in most of country. So these bottles -especially the smaller size – would have been a familiar sight in pubs, grocery shops and homes throughout Ireland.

Speaking of Ireland (…you were, weren’t you? I know I was…) the Beer Nut* there situated has reviewed** some fruity drinks from Lithuania which attracted these firm conclusions:

It doesn’t keep the beer from being quite boring, but at least it gives it some level of character. I guess I should be happy it’s not a sugary mess, but I don’t really see the point of it… I will award it some credit for not tasting like toothpaste, but it’s also not far off it. I think the concept is sound but the execution isn’t great: everything should be brighter and fresher-tasting, even allowing for the ten months it had been in the can… I don’t know if the brewery has other versions of this but I think the recipe could be a good fit for all sorts of other fruit. Sometimes the crazy recipes work, and sometimes they don’t. Guesswork based on the description is pointless.

I also mention the firmness of conclusion due to my own unhappy conclusion which I shared at Boak and Bailey’s last weekend. I don’t really don’t like to do that (a fact which some of you may be surprised to learn) as it comes across as such a downer in this discourse… except, however, that this exactly the point that needs to be made and what sets The Beer Nut* apart. I wrote:

“…which are all very well made of course…” Not a comment on the post as a whole – but there’s the issue with taking beer cultural serious right there, neatly summed up. Nothing in human experience qualifies for that sort of blanket statement.

No need to go hunt out what I was responding to, given that this sort of flappy flap flap is such a pervasive understanding of what is appropriate when discussing good beer – and yet it’s the opposite of what we get from TBN. We need to be aware that the centralized, homogenized and definitely authorized “Hooray for Everything!” approach circa 2009 may as well be a call to “Keep Craft Dull!” I mention this also because of the really odd revisionist piece posted at GBH this week that wants to reverse engineer (again) the history of US craft, even as it now lays in splinters about its feet, to praise those who frankly wielded the hatchet on their way out the door:

Ogle has also tracked this fracturing. She points out that for decades, the Brewers Association (BA), under Charlie Papazian’s leadership, was as much a unified craft beer marketing and public relations organization as it was a lobbying group. The BA was also an unofficial kingmaker, elevating certain figureheads to speak on behalf of craft beer to the public and the media. She calls the BA “the axis” that oriented the craft beer industry for 25 years. “It was a smaller pool, so very flamboyant people like Greg Koch [of Stone Brewing] or dead serious people like Jim Koch [of Boston Beer] and Kim Jordan [of New Belgium Brewing] and Carol Stoudt [of Stoudt’s Brewing] rose to the top,” Ogle says. “I get the distinct impression that the BA’s role is now lobbying more than marketing and PR.”

(Note: the BA under Papazian has been around for just 18 years.) For my money, many of those named in large part represent the fantastically unfortunate cult of personality which, yes, may have revived US microbrewing’s fortunes after the slump and scandals through (i) the formation of the merged BA as PR voice around 2005, (ii) the shift from micro skills to craft evangelizing in the parlance and (iii) the adoption of haigiographic leader praise comms. None of this has to do with Maureen Ogle’s correct historical statements (including the telling use of “unified”) yet… framing them in a larger story that suggests a lost Golden Age has passed (rather than a botched plan by a few to control the marketplace, to achieve the 20% in 2020 for big craft, to sucker the new entries and inflate costs to the consumers) is, well, really not all that palatable given how we now know these times and the players also watched as industry wide bigoties and false great white male hero narratives continued while plans were being made to cash out were being prioritized. It’s all one: making that money and having a sweet sweet comms team structured as a trade association. Thank God for the return in recent years to the actually small and skilled – the nanos and the taprooms – which has sent off that ugly era and opened up the trade to some fresh air. Still… a bit depressing seeing that these three particular voices are losing interest due to the lingering pong. But we can all understand why they’ve lost the love. Which leads us to this week’s piece in Pellicle by AJ Cox, I suppose. Yes, I suppose it does:

We are potentially on a slippery slope of exclusion and exceptionalism that is being enabled by people who are focused on building reputations built on marketing, hype beer, and the extreme hero worship of both legendary head brewers and “beer experts”. The awards, the accolades and the influencer culture surrounding beer are not inherently problematic on their own, but as we examine the impact on real people and the demographics of taprooms we can conclude that there are unintended consequences as we strive for elitism in an industry whose main product is a foodstuff that was originally made and consumed by the working class.

Excellent stuff – but why “potentially” when “self-evidently” will do? Hmm. It all makes clear that, as David Jesudason points out, taking a supposed neutral stance is just another form of complicity (as the Cask Ale Week folk learned this week):

…this is where a ‘neutral’ industry body found itself when it was approached by GB News to help promote cask beer by filming a piece with the White Lion pub in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. By not taking an anti-racist stance it allowed itself to be attached to a far-right operation that on the same day spouted conspiracy theories, misogynist bile and the usual attacks on anyone who isn’t a white male of a certain age. Any low level due diligence on GB News would bring to light its various platforming of hideous voices, its numerous Ofcom investigations and its vitriolic campaigns against protected groups, such as the trans community.

Exactly. What a mess! Still… there is good out there. Which makes the piggish bigorties so irritatingly unnecessary. Matt, as he often does, gives hope in this opinion piece in What’s Brewing. There is an opposite end of that line to which global craft is tied, the local tradition:

Somehow, the combination of these pubs, and their welcoming atmospheres, combined with this quintessentially traditional beer, gave me those same feelings of both excitement and contentment I felt when touring American taprooms more than a decade ago. Perhaps this isn’t about getting older, in a numerical sense, but finding a different level of maturity in terms of beer drinking. When the new wave of American-inspired breweries opened in their droves across the UK, we called it “craft beer”. To them, being disruptively different to the norm was the point. As they’ve gotten older both these breweries, and the people, like me, who drank their beer, have realised that, actually, we had it pretty good all along. Traditional British beer, and the pubs that sell it, is the very essence of “craft” beer.

I might have concluded that thought a bit differently (ie “cask” is all that “craft” isn’t) but you can see the point. The stuff is quite nice in itself. And there are , of course, other lovely things as Martin* shows us over and over, this time an excellent essay with accompanying photos from the hometown of Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor of Motörhead:

It was very quiet. Two old boys studiously ignored me as I tried to gain the attention of the bar steward who seemed to be in the cellar. “Am I invisible ?” I wondered. I walked from one bar to the next, contemplating whether to cough or go “Hulloah there“, but I couldn’t muster either. In most situations like this one of the locals will intervene on your behalf and shout “Customer, Dave” (it’s always a Dave), but here I was studiously ignored for 5 minutes before being asked “You looking for someone ?“. Er, no, just a beer.

And Gary is still sifting for clues through the 1900s and came up with this interesting piece on British military drinking habits round about WWII: “Pink gin is the navy drink, scotch and soda is the army drink and beer is the R.A.F. drink…” But what is the drink of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports? One should write and ask.

And there is plenty of good advice being shared, too, to make you a more thoughtful consumer and less of a gate keeper – especially for those considering learning more about wine. Just look at this bit of info on being a better host sharing the good stuff when people you like are paying a bit more attention:

It’s easy to get eight pours out of a standard 75-cl bottle. Don’t worry about the level of wine in the glass; for maximum pleasure (swirling, sniffing and all that), no glass should be more than a third full. At a professional wine tasting – as opposed to drinking wine with food at a table – wine producers and merchants reckon on a good 20 pours a bottle. For a more social wine tasting, an early-evening get-together of people trying to learn a bit more about wine for instance, roughly 15 pours a bottle is a useful allowance for six to eight different wines. But that would make about half a bottle of wine available to everyone, and social tasters are much less likely to spit out the wine than wine professionals

And, perhaps even better, look at the gentle day that Barry had this week at the press making his cider and perry:

Anyone else who says they like working with bletted pears is either a liar or some kind of masochist. All other runs got 70L in 25 mins from each pressing. This paste has yielded less than 40 after an hour. I fucking hate it. Letting it run tho, I want 50 at least!

Such Joy! And how to figure out if you are getting the best information in your hunt for the best? As B+B noted a few weeks ago, the rules of scribbling behaviour offered by cellarman and writer, Steve Dunkley are valuable but perhaps more so is this observation:

I wanted to be a beer writer many years ago. But I got disillusioned by the articles I was reading. I knew the people and the background to the stories, but I had a completely different experience and view to what was being written by respected journalists. How could that be? Obviously I was missing something, so I carried on as a cellarman, and eventually as a brewer. But during those intervening years I learned what I was missing, or rather what I wasn’t missing. And that was different views.

That’s it. We want different views, we want a vibant and rish ecosystem. Yes, there is a massive bit of intertia between here and there for the most part – vested interests and the “I’m all right Jack” dullards. Will we get there? Who knows! But that’s one thing that keeps me reading. That and the spicy infighting. By the way, if you like spicy, check out the bad language in the lead up to a great interview on Beer & Bullshit this week with Troy Burtch of Great Lake Brewery in Toronto. Then check out the great interview.

But be honest: we also want all the agricultural news, like this:

The global supply outlook remains tight though, and quality too is in focus considering the difficult harvest for many across the EU and UK especially. In France, most winter barley has been meeting malting requirements according to FranceAgriMer. But specific weights are varying following stormy conditions over summer. Spring barley results look more variable. In the UK, rain at harvest caused difficult conditions and germination data varies by region. With harvests finishing up, more data will be coming available indicating quality of barley crops.

And here is the longer term forecast according to The Financial Times:

Atsushi Katsuki, who has headed the Japanese brewer since 2021, said analysis conducted by the company found that global warming was set to reduce barley yields and the quality of hops significantly over the next three decades, and warned of a beer shortage. France’s spring barley harvest could decrease 18 per cent by 2050 under the UN’s 4 degree scenario, the most severe, while Poland’s harvest would shrink 15 per cent. The quality of hops, a key component for the preservation as well as the flavour of beer, would decline 25 per cent in the Czech Republic, one of the world’s largest hop producers.

Fuck… what a drag. But on that cheery note… that is that! Finito!! Again!!! Unbelievably, still no new drunk elephant stories this week. I looked, I tried Stan. Here’s a vintage situation from Ireland of all places. And you can serve yourself under the sign of the elephant in Michigan… but it’s not the same thing.

Still, as per always and forever, you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via social media and other forms of comms to connect. How do they rank today? Well, TwitterX is still the first stop followed by (for beer, not cousins) Facebook but BlueSky has rapidly moved past the beery Threads presence. Mastodon also ranks above Threads with IG and Substack Notes really dragging and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence just sitting there. So the rankings are T/X, BS and Masto maybe tied, then Threads with IG close behind then Substack Notes and Patreon at the bottom. Seven plus a blog! I may be multi and legion but I do have priorities. All in all, I still am rooting for the voices on Mastodon, like these ones discussing beer, even though it is gardening Mastodon that really wins:

Anyone else? And, yes, we also check the blogs, podcasts and newsletters to stay on top of things (though those things called “newsletters” where 1995 email lists meet the blogs of 2005 may be coming to an end of value if the trend with so many towards the dull dull dull means anything) including more weekly recommendations from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan at his spot on those Mondays! Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on many Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now much more occassional but always wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and check out the travel vids at Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast. There’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube soon celebrating a decade of vids. And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!

*…aka THE Beer Nut, aka The Beer Nut…
**also noted by B+B but no less noteworthy now due to that, your previous pre-notification.
***For the double!!

The Rushed Beery News Notes For A Bloggy Hangover Week

Not my hangover! The beer blogosphere’s hangover. Some weeks like last week have so much happening that it takes a few hours over a few days to put it all together… even thought you know you’ve missed stuff. Weeks that follow those one, like this one does, are not so much dead as hungover. The world takes a little breather. Plus it is the time of the great watering. My spare moments from the reading and writing is, as you know, caught up with tomato patches and peas in pots. June will be June after all. Climbing beans are now climbing for God’s sake.

Speaking of matters agricultural, on the whole I am not one for beer writing about drinky scribbling personalities but I definitely take exception to my exception when it comes to this article in Pellicle on Barry Masterson, founder and maker at Kertelreiter in South-West Germany’s Schefflenz with whom I have chatted on line for years (and in whose project I have invested a tiny wee bit of Canadian coinage):

Since Barry began harvesting pears from ancient trees on those morning walks with his Border Collie, Anu, he has become not only one of Europe’s finest perrymakers, but a leading authority on this most mysterious and understudied of drinks. “His passion is irresistibly infectious,” cider and perry writer Chris Russell-Smith says. “He has spent countless hours presenting at online cider events, engaging with cider lovers on social media, writing about the history of perry, and promoting the International Perry Pear Project.”

Barry himself was also published this week, in Cider Review on the question of “the winification of cider”:

…every so often on social media there is a kind of kickback against the apparent winification of cider. Some appear to fear this as a kind of erosion of the traditions of cider and argue that cider is cider (and I do agree) and can stand on its own two feet. But is this really something that is happening at a meaningful scale that changes anything? Or is it something that cider has actually lost? What does this idea of winification really mean?

So many questions. Read the piece for some answers. Sticking around in Germany, a tip of the hat to Jeff who alerted us all to this piece on Köln / Cologne and its beer scene from A Tempest in a Tankard:

Unlike the fairly marked variations between the Altbiers of Düsseldorf just downriver, Kölsch is like a ski race. Yes, there are differences between the Kölsch from different brewhouses, but for the most part, the quality is measured by the fraction of a second. You won’t leave disappointed. There’s way more to the story of Kölsch — the Kölsch Convention of 1986 that granted the beverage protected status, for example, or the difference between Kölsch and a local historical style called Wiess (not to be confused with Weißbier), which was the precursor of Kölsch. There’s also the Köbes, the illustrious beer servers of Cologne. But I’ll leave all of that out here and just give you a quick run-down of pubs and brewhouses for your next visit to Cologne.

The Tand posted this week on the sticker shock one finds when out drinking in London these days and sometimes the experience of stickerless shock:

Prices of course vary, and here, as you can imagine, I’m talking about prices in pubs. Oddly, though, prices of beer, as often as not, aren’t clear as you’d hope. It is not at all uncommon – yes, I’m looking at you Stonegate as a main culprit – to list the price of everything but beer on table menus. Is beer pricing so volatile that it can’t be committed to print? I’d have thought not, so what could the reason be for this omission? There are laws of course about displaying prices, though I think these are rather loosely complied with generally and for sure can’t be relied on, though again this varies and in most of the places I go to, the prices are out in the open, but when you go of piste, rather less so.

Martin posted a post this week with some excellent coverage of the gull nesting scene in Newcastle Upon Tyne which is really worth recording here for posterity – just in case his blog gets shut down by the North East Gull Community Personal Data Privacy Protection Commussion (hereinafter “the NEGCPDPPC”) or some such administrative entity. Not really beer related but, having seen The Birds, I think it is important to keep an eye on these things.

Here’s a new twist on the Bud Light botch – was it intentional? Warning – check the source:

The whistleblower stated on “Tomi Lahren Is Fearless” that “nobody’s happy” about the fall in sales and “everybody” considers the move a “very bad idea.” However, on the corporate level, he claimed that this could have been part of a strategy to undermine the American company. “When the company was bought over by InBev, a lot of things changed when it was owned by Anheuser-Busch. You know, it’s an American brand,” the whistleblower remarked. He explained that the company previously offered many benefits prior to its purchase by InBev. Through the fall in sales for the Bud Light brand, the former employee stated that the corporation could restructure both employee benefits and its company standards through layoffs and renegotiating contracts.

This week’s obits: Skagit Malting, Brick Brewery, O’Fallon. Relatedly, another indication of the times from GBH on the sadder sort of old school in craft, a throwback to twenty years ago in the form of another glut of second hand brewing equipment:

Now is an opportune time to be a U.S. brewery looking to score a deal on used equipment. Brewery closures and an increase in mergers and acquisitions have led to more used brewing equipment on the market than in years prior, with low prices as much as half-off new equipment. The glut of fermenters, canning lines, mash tuns, and more is a symptom of a mature market facing a low- or no-growth future—and it could be a harbinger of even tougher times ahead for craft breweries.

Well, an opportune time if there was any hope of an expansion of beer sales. As per, no one would answer the phone when the GBH call was placed to equipment manuacturers but that might because the repo man has already been by and removed all the office equipment.

More pleasantly, Katie Mather published another excellent edition of The Gulp this week under the title “My Favourite Bar Is A Petrol Station Forecourt“:

The buzz of the bikes coming through and past the petrol station is only part of why I love drinking here—because drinking here is what is done. All along the spectator side of the barriers and buffers are fans with cans, dressed in racers’ merch and sponsor hats, listening to the local radio’s coverage of the race. I love the strangeness of the situation, of spending time somewhere that was never intended to be used as a space for people to linger, a place I shouldn’t really be. I like the atmosphere that strangeness creates, a kind of collective in-this-together spirit, where everyone is sound, everyone chats, everyone realises the absurdity of the situation and relishes it.

Casket Beer did a bit of a service to pre-craft microbeer history reaching all the way back 23 years to revisit Michael Jackson’s Great Beer Guide with a particular eye to the glassware used:

Published in 2000, the Great Beer Guide is a fantastic book and offers a nice snapshot of what the beer world was like at the time. It does this by offering a brief overview of 500 beers from around the world. While many think of the United States beer culture as still being in the dark ages in the year 2000, there’s an impressive number of beers from the States represented in the book. Though Jackson may have been a bit polite in some cases, there are many that are or were, excellent.

I relied on this book heavily in my earliest days of writing about my own beer hunting and gathering two decades ago and always liked that photo of Fuller’s 1845 – snazzy, thought I. The scene in 2000 was definitely more about the imports than the locals . The disassembling of the glassware offered in the book points out how developed the marketing was even if the US market had not at that point been on par with the rest of the world.

I wish we had more lower alcohol actual ales (mild or ordinary bitter, for example) so I am a bit of two minds about the effects of the new UK taxation scheme that is driving breweries to lower the pop of some of their mainstream brands as the Daily Mail noted this week:

…the ABV for Old Speckled Hen is down from five per cent to 4.8 per cent; Spitfire Amber Ale is down from 4.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent; and Bishops Finger is down from 5.4 per cent to 5.2 per cent. While the reductions may appear small, they generate a tax saving of 2p to 3p on every bottle and can made. Rather than passing this saving on to drinkers, the cash is being pocketed by the brewers and retailers. They argue the cut protects them against rising costs, rather than profiteering, while some say they are cutting alcohol levels for the ‘good of public health’.

Boak and Bailey’s monthly newsletter had a wonderful bit of the old vignette this time around:

The area around the Arnolfini arts centre is a particular hotspot for bag-of-cans drinking. Wander around there on any summer night and you’ll see plenty of people sitting on benches, or on bare stone, with their supermarket carriers. As Shonette observes, they might dangle their legs over the water, or sit cross-legged in a circle. Some of them might be dressed smartly, straight from the office; others in more typical stoner-student style. And there is usually, of course, a background hum of weed, along with music being played from phones or USB speakers. Something about this habit strikes us as pointedly democratic. Even if you can’t afford £5+ pints in one of the harbourside pubs, you can still be out in town, feeling the buzz of the city.

There’s some concern about the resulting detritus… but how does that compare to the wreckage caused at another economic snack bracket attending an all-you-can-drink prosecco brunch as reported in The Times?

“It doesn’t matter, anyway. I’m here to get drunk,” she hollers. The rest of her table chant in agreement. “More prosecco! More prosecco! More prosecco!” Brunch trudges along. You’ve managed to escape for two cigarettes. Three women have vomited. One man had a fight with the DJ. He stood beneath the ladder hurling abuse as the DJ danced to Afraid to Feel by LF System and waved him away. You told the man to sit down. He called you a “snake” and stared you down as he drank a whole bottle of prosecco in a few gulps. You told a manager. They said: “It’s brunch. What do you expect? Just give him some free doughnuts.”

Finally, the King has commissioned a portrait of Scottish brewing educator @SirGeoffPalmer along with nine fellow members of the Windrush Generation. What a lovely thing.

That’s it! That’s enough from me. I’m off to the garden now. Gonna transplant a tomato from one spot to another. Because I can. As for beer news, it’s back to you all for now as always. And as per, you can check out the many ways to connect including these voices on Mastodon, the newer ones noted in bold:

Anyone else? And, yes, we also check the blogs, podcasts and newsletters to stay on top of things – including more weekly recommendations from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan at his spot on those Mondays! Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by David Jesudason on many Fridays. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now more occassional but always wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and check out the travel vids at Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast. There’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube soon celebrating a decade of vids. And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!*

*And finally the list of the departed newsletters and podcasts or those in purgatory. Looks like both Brewsround and Cabin Fever died in 2020, . We appreciate that the OCBG Podcast is on a very quiet schedule these days – but it’s been there now and again. The Fizz died in 2019. Plus Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch seems done and the AfroBeerChick podcast is gone as well! The Fingers Podcast packed it in citing, umm, lack of success… as might have been anticipated, honestly. Did they suffer a common fate? Who knows?

The Gloriously Reduced Redacted And A Bit Recycled Thursday Beery News Notes For Mid-February

A plague upon ye, poor internet services. A plague I say! My Wednesday was rooon’d by bad internet service. Not something I usually suffer from. No, it’s usually a clear path for these my cranks. Not this week. I’ve had to set up antennae, hot spots and coaxial cables just to get this week’s beery news notes to you. It’s tragic. To be so modern yet soooo dependent. Thank God for my AM radio and old New Yorkers, I say, too. Anyway, if this week feels like less value for your hard earned dollars, write Mr. Internets of Internetsville. Ah, the critic’s life is full of troubles. (Update: RIP Mr 2017 Modem.)

But when it does work, this is why the internet was created: a photo that answers questions:

Repurposed malt kiln tiles at St Andrew’s, Foxton. Over time the air holes have ended up being filled in which has created a rather attractive pattern of tiny flowers.

Check out the deets. Tiny wee holes for the warm air to waft up and amongst not quite so tiny malt. And that’d be in a church not a pub, by the way. Tiles were made in the parish near the church as recently as 225 years ago.

Not quite so ancient of days but I also loved the book report submitted by Boak and Bailey this week, extracting lots of pubby goodness from Winter in England by Nicholas Wollaston, published in 1966. This is a sort of thoughtful post on both the book and the genre that makes it worth opening the laptop each week. Genre! Genre:

Wollaston’s idea was not especially original. We’ve got quite a collection of similar books in which a university-educated writer, academic or journalist hits the road to take the temperature of the nation. There’s sometimes an angle, such as a focus on a particular region, or on small towns, or social problems. More often than not, though, they feel quite random and organic – the record of a kind of purposeful drifting. And because they’re supposed to record reality, taking middle and upper class readers to places they perhaps wouldn’t go themselves, pubs feature more frequently than in other types of writing.

I might again recommend Ronald Blythe’s Akenfield for a less perfumed view of 1960s England, one where many farm workers remembered never having enough for the pub – or even shoes – even though they worked upon the land of the wealthy.

Speaking of tight times, Beth gave us the heads up on this story of the SoCal craft scene. Note: cyphers and code abound so please remove your rose coloured craft glasses first to read what is really being said:

Highland Park Brewery near Dodger Stadium emerged from the pandemic in relatively good shape. But Marketing Director James Sullivan says times are tough for a number of local craft brewers. “I think it’s going to be a difficult year,” he says. “I feel like we’re going to see a lot more closures. I feel like we’re going to see a lot more turnover.” Sullivan says the thirsty local market may not yet have hit peak craft. But that day is coming. “I think we’re getting there,” he told me. “I think, you know, starting this year, we’re going to see a lot of our locals unfortunately closing, and it’s tough to see.”

Lisa’s been out and about in Dublin and has set the scene in a very comfortable and not at all closed familiar spot:

The White Hag’s Little Fawn is another excellent go-to, and I had a wander around the entire space, eventually settling in one of the snugs, which now has not only a sofa and comfy chairs, but books of an especially eclectic thrift-shop selection – something I am very much here for. Some may find the upcycled church fittings in this part of the pub a little too ‘hipster’ for them, but I’ve always had a soft spot for that kind of thing, so I am a fan. They are now definitely ticking all the boxes for ‘great spot for solo pint and book’ and as they are mere steps from my door, I am not remotely mad about this.

Not sure – but also not remotely mad – but is a lager is a lager when it isn’t lagered even if the yeast is what it is:

As lager brewing became more popular, ale and porter brewers reacted to the new competition with beers such as cream ales—essentially, pale lagers made with ale yeast. That brings us to an example of where things got mixed up: Once this style became established with consumers, some brewers began making them by blending beers made with ale and lager yeast. Others who were used to brewing lagers also wanted in on this trendy style—so they simply brewed it with lager yeast.

Probably the better argument is that as Germanic immigrants, especially those who came to North America before that tragic rebellion, brought their yeast and continued to use it in all conditions, with or without cold storage. And it did the job, lingered and took on many names.

Jeff (when not thinking about AI aka “Eh? Why?”) has explained a very odd mirrored arrangement by Pacific shores:

The US Department of Justice decided that the deal would create too much consolidation in Hawaii, and demanded that ABI spin off the Kona brewery before they’d approve the CBA acquisition. ABI complied, and the result is a very weird situation in which there are two separate businesses selling the same beer. They use the same branding. Google one and you might find yourself on the webpage of the other. Yet the beer they make is sequestered—with help from the Pacific Ocean—one brewery serving just Hawaii, the other everywhere else.

Speaking of AI, interesting to see that it has now also relieved beer writers from personally participating directly in the standardized but still quite hyperventilated circle of praise.

Breaking and conversely: GBH has added to its random ramblings of reshaping press releases mixed with fan fiction beer travelogues seemingly funded by a shadowy global backwater tourist bureau association** by branching out into an orphaned essay on sports journalism. The word “beer” appears twice so…

Finally, I do hope this is the end of this part of the story. I fear that this sort of salvation might have sidetracked folk from available recourse, maybe made things worse or unnecessarily muddled. The lack of much interest* in the finale was neatly in contrast to the conclusion’s self-assessment:

Our work with the platform has highlighted the shortcomings and systematic failures of labour law in Scotland, the UK and internationally, leaving many affected workers with no legal protection or recourse. These learnings have informed our positive action petition and campaign, called “Retaliation Legislation Reform” which stands as a positive legacy.

That’s it! Now… what to do… with these lists… They are getting to be almost 600 words each week and I am not sure how useful they are. Still… Stan joined Mastodon this week so it must be useful. I mini-ized the list for greater dynamism. Sweet move, right? So what song this week? What would I play if this were a movie and these were the scrolling credits? Could it be this? I’m reading the startlingly excellent autobiography of Nile Rodgers so that works just fine…

You still need to check out Mastodon. It’s so nice. You need to take the time and have the patience as regular posting attracts the audience as per usual. While you are at it, check the blogs, podcasts and newsletters for more weekly recommendations from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and sometimes from Stan at his spot on those Mondays, you know, when he can. And, yes, also gather ye all the podcasts and newsletters. Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. We appreciate that the OCBG Podcast is on a very quiet schedule these days – but it’s been there now and again. See also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast but it might be on a month off (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and check out the travel vids at Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very much less) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: still giving it a few more weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable…) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel this week on Youtube. Plus Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has had his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now gone after a ten year run… no, it is back and here is the link! The Fingers Podcast has fully packed it in citing, umm, lack of success… as might have been anticipated, honestly.

*A single person really shouldn’t be an “it” should they?
**It’s still a thing – even if the glory days of Catalonian sausages are no longer with us!!!

The Beery News Notes For The False Promise Of An Early Thaw

Thaws. They deceive in February. Being unwise, I have started seeds. Thaws also jack the walkway tiles and bricks outside, too. Spent lunch Wednesday discovering the front step tiles are stuck on with stuff that’s now the consistency of chocolate pudding. So things are getting loose, a bit cracked and sorta smashed. But not quite as badly as these late 1600s and early 1700s manganese mottled tankards from Ireland posted on the internets this week. From Newmarket in Dublin we are told. Others have showed up in the colonies, in Maryland and at Harvard Yard. Lovely things. But most won’t hold beer.

Mid-morning Update: Jordan decided to post an homage to Toronto’s Godspeed and its pitch-lined Sklepnik project – posted at 2 am Thursday morning I would add, well past the time this weekly normally goes to press. But it is not worth waiting around another seven days to bring it to your attention:

Every piece is as important as every other piece. Not everything that Godspeed has done has been a triumph, and the situation has been challenging. It was the potential that excited people, and the pitch-lined Sklepnik represents years of earnest effort, not just in the brewhouse, but interpersonally. A month spent learning from people who have spent their entire careers on a single style, and whose trust creates possibility. Functionally speaking, the odds against its existence are such that it is construable as a miracle, and that’s before the first sip. The only way you can get here is trial and error. There’s no ironic posture as a brewer. It’s not a hobby. The secret ingredient is your life.

Also lovely. Now, back to our normal broadcasting…

Unlike our man in The Netherlands (when he’s not in transit.) And, while we are speaking of lovely, Ron, who, yes, often holds a beer, has posted an image of a 1930s ad for Barclay Perkins lager along with his discussion of their 1941 brewing techniques:

Good news for me, as it gives me a chance to preview (use a recipe I’ve already written) a recipe from “Blitzkrieg!”. Though for any of the four options I could have found a recipe in the book. For a book about UK brewing in WW II, it has quite a lot of Lager recipes. 37 in all. Though there are well over 500 recipes in total. Not that huge a percentage, really. Lucky old Dark Lager has seen its gravity increase by 0.5º compared with the previous year.

Elsewhere and also with increasing gravity, the continuing concerns that Guinness has or has not slipped under the radar and ended up in first place somehow in the UK diet… continue. A call for anecdotal evidence was sent out by B to the B and a summary was posted earlier this week. There was a whole lotta comfort out there as far as I could tell. My thoughts?

Had one two weeks ago in an unfamiliar pub in Toronto. Old reliable friend, tasty with most pub food, creamy savoury with the tang and the roast – and not an alcohol bomb. Might have one or two a year.

It’s all good. Sure it’s made by a faceless international conglomerate. But so is vestigially produced Fat Tire – both the new phony and old – and at least Guinness doesn’t buddy up with Myanmar‘s murderous dictators! And at least it’s actually something not made on the same equipment as automotive window washer fluid. By the way… I don’t understand. Aren’t hard soda and boozy seltzers the same thing? I suppose it doen’t help that I don’t give a crap about this… crap. But I have no idea. Thankfully.

Note: not one craft buzzword bingo square was left undaubed in the making of this story.

Beth Demmon released another issue of Probitchin’, this month featuring the work and career path of Jacque Irizarry:

Her interest in art coalesced during college, after she realized how many years of (expensive) education it would take to become a lawyer. After switching her track from becoming an early childhood education art teacher to visual art, she dabbled in photography and painting before graduating with an art degree. With student loans looming, she worked in customer service before landing her current full-time position handling the graphics and design for a company involved in online education, where she’s been for eight years.

Beth’s newsletter is one of my favorites in the beer world. There is a lot to be said for good writing that avoids the unending wanderings and isn’t hip cool and 45 potty mouth serving as cover for cap in hand recycled PR. Mucho looking forward to Beth’s upcoming book on cider.

Speaking of newsletters… they are all the cool kids talk about these days… Kate Mather fabulously unleashed at The Gulp about unleashing at the pub!

Tom and Phil left for their teas, and we made a move too. On the way home I waved my arms like the two-pint revolutionary I am, telling my Tom how important it is to have common spaces for people to freely share ideas, to congregate—and the more that these places, like pubs, are restricted, taken away, closed down; the more the hospitality industry is left to wheeze on without support, the more suspicious I get.

That is what we like to see: two-pint revolutionaries waving their arms. And, speaking of revolutionary, the future continues to be defined in Japan:

… convenience stores can start selling alcohol and tobacco through self-check-out immediately, as long as they’re set up for compliance with the corresponding required regulations. Under Japanese law, a person must be at least 20 years old in order to purchase alcohol or tobacco. In order to confirm the buyer’s age, convenience stores that want to sell such products through self-check-out will have to equip their registers with a device that can scan either the purchaser’s driver’s license or My Number Card, a government-issued ID card that’s not yet mandatory and which the Japanese government is eager to accelerate the adoption of.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is also cooler in the future. And, doing a chronological 180, Nigel altered me to another good piece at the always excellent site A London Inheritance, this time about a street called XX Place:

To try and find some history on XX Place I carried out an online search on the Tower Hamlets Archives, and armed with a couple of reference numbers visited the archives on a Saturday morning… My first source at the archives was a small booklet published in 2001 by Ron Osborne titled XX Place. The booklet provided a description of XX Place. It was built in 1842 for locally employed workers. It was only a short street of 10 small terrace houses running along one side of the street. It was about 10 feet wide and the majority of those living in the street were employed at the nearby Charringtons Brewery.

Interesting observations on the three grades of Oregon hops in 1910 – fancy choice and prime. Seventy five years earlier there also seemed to be a three tier grading system in New York state’s hop trade but named with a bit less of the marketing spin. In 1835 there was just first sort, second sort and third sort hops. Which suggests sorting. And a certain order. Choice? Fancy? Who knew what they meant! Fancy sounds all a bit “My Little Pony” in a way. By the pricing I can only presume that in 1910 “prime” was not actually… prime. But I suppose thems that knew at the time were in the know back then.

I missed this excellent observation by Ren Navarro on the nature of plans to bolster human rights in brewery work places:

While heady political questions are essentially baked into mutual aid work, a more immediate focus of all such groups remains meeting the needs of people who’ve been left out by existing power structures. For Navarro, industry-sponsored programs designed to address inequities are too often structured from the top down, and create barriers for applicants who really need the help. Applications that require resumes and essays, for example, require time and computer access and reliable internet.

And Pellicle has a good piece this week about cider makers Lydia Crimp and Tom Tibbits of Herefordshire’s Artistraw Cider. You know, I usually don’t go for producer bios with beer but somehow the more immediately agricultural nature of cider makes for a more interesting read:

Observing that some apples lend themselves better to certain seasons, they reckon the bright acidity of dessert fruit works well with the freshness of Spring in Beltane—which boasts the Yarlington Mill, Reinette D’Obray, Chisel Jersey, Browns, and Kingston Black cider apple varieties. Whereas Knotted Kernel (with a dash of Kingston Black, Lambrook Pippin and Foxwhelp) has “cherry brandy” notes conjuring up images of roaring fires for their wintry, Hallowe’en release, Samhain (pronounced SAH-win.) Lammas marks the end of Summer and boasts Dabinett, Browns, Yarlington Mill, and a little Strawberry Norman. Imbolc is all about renewal and promise, with Major, Bisquet, Brown Snout, Chisel Jersey, and Ellis Bitter.

Why, I had a bit of the old Kingston Black myself just the other month.

Aaaaannnd… the coal fired generators at Beervana are back on line now that Jeff is back from holidays and he’s shared a tale of fruit coating yeast of a most natural sort:

The riper [the fruit] is, you’re getting ferments that are starting right away. That’s what the yeast and bacteria like. That’s when the birds start to eat it, and that’s when the insects come out and all these things. Nature is showing us these fruits are in their optimum time right when they’re ripe. The more time the fruit spends on the bush or the tree as its ripening, the more organisms are going to be there.

Hmmm… and finally… nice to see that Carlsberg has got its geopolitical ethics so completely all in order:

Danish brewer Carlsberg… warned on Tuesday that a possible slowdown of beer consumption in Europe because of increased prices could dent profit growth this year. The world’s third-biggest brewer also said it is buying out its partner in India and is seeking an option with the buyer of its Russian business to re-enter that market at some point in future.

Dastards. As the Danish military helps arm the Ukraine, Carlsberg makes plans for appeasement.

That’s it! Now… what to do… with these lists… They are getting to be almost 600 words each week and I am not sure how useful they are. Still… they do slowly mark the shift in the discussion. Podcasts dying, newsletters in flux, Mastodon perhaps peaked… As we think on that… hmmm… and song this week? What would I play if this were a movie and these were the scrolling credits? Could it be this?* Yup. That’ll do…

You need to check out Mastodon. It’s so nice. You need to take the time and have the patience as regular posting attracts the audience as per usual. While you are at it, check for more weekly recommendations from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan spot on Mondays. And, yes, also gather ye all the podcasts and newsletters. Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. We appreciate that the OCBG Podcast is on a very quiet schedule these days – but it’s been there now and again. See also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast but it might be on a month off (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and check out the travel vids at Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very much less) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: still giving it a few more weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable…) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel this week on Youtube. Plus Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has had his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now gone after a ten year run… no, it is back and here is the link! The Fingers Podcast has fully packed it in citing, umm, lack of success… as might have been anticipated, honestly.

*The setting is real.