Beer Stuff, Measures, Vessels – Page 2

The First And Rather Excitable Beery News Notes Of Yuletide 2022

Finally… nothing like seeing the end of November. My least favourite month. I used to always dread it. Days gloomily shortening. School papers needing to be put properly in hand. Time now to look forward, to the holidays. To life with family and friends, gathering inside. While not directly Christmassy, Max posted two images of insidey painting, each of which illustrate the excellence of non-brewing records to inform us about brewing history. In the first, “Vesnická Hospoda”, a 1863 painting by Czech artist Quido Mánes we have a tavern scene with a discussion being held by all ages. The beer glows. And not unlike today in a way… just the sort of thing that I was looking for in the 2006-15 beer blog Yuletide, Kwanzaa, Hogmanay, Christmas and Hanukkah photo contest. I sifted through hundreds of entries every year looking for a glow just like that to ensure all the pressies were directed to all the wee beer nerds’s stockings. Many of the entries are still saved at the Wayback Machine.

In the world of beer culture politics, British beer home delivery service Beer 52 had to issue a statement concerning some flack it had received over a poor PR decision that received some heat. Click on the image to the right to have a look. This is one of the odder but very consistent themes I’ve seen over the years that perhaps distinguishes UK craft from others – the need to not be too nasty to the competition. At a certain point, craft beer shops and craft beer home delivery service are hunting for the same shillings and guineas lodged in the purses of the nation. But, on the other hand, it is nice to be nice.

The British Beer Writers Guild were also in a manner of speaking required to issue its own statement of sorts, as the Guild’s top judging dog explained the almost Byzantine judging process in response to the howls which usually follow this sort of thing. I’d post a quote from the explanation but it does go on and one. Great transparency. No, I will share two bits:

This year the awards were judged by me, a publican from York, a committee member of the British Institute of Innkeeping, a magazine editor, a brewer, a beer importer, two freelance journalists (an unusually high number) a book publisher, and a cheesemonger. Hardly beer writers slapping each other’s backs… We usually have 13-14 categories, and this year there were a total of 190 different entries. That’s far too much for any one judge to read, so judges are paired up and given a few categories each.

Did you know I used to receive a few abusive responses for the photo contest? No? Did I care? Not much. My only recommendation was that this explanation of the process might have been shared prior to outset but, you know, what can you do? It is an unfortunate situation and in large part based on honest deep disappointment as much as gratuitous slag* – but Martyn has been checking the stats and decided that this year’s British Beer Writer of the Year Jonny Garrett is now the most successful contestant in the award’s last ten years. So that’s something. Oh, and madman Gary crossed the Atlantic to sit in on the awards and enjoyed himself very much.

There, that’s enough of that statement making stuff. Care of Mudgie, we learn of Bernard Bland, 92, of Grimsby:

When Bernard Bland made his first trip to the Nunsthorpe Tavern in 1954, a pint set him back eight shillings and 10 pence – or the equivalent of 45p. Yet despite the rising cost of a pint, Bernard is still going to his beloved Grimsby boozer 68 years later. In fact, the 92-year-old has been going there every day for seven decades – only missing his daily session when the pub closed during lockdown.

Not as regular in his pubbing habits – but who could be – this week Cookie wrote about his relationship to the pub at one of the sadder moments in life, the passing of a parent:

But life adjusts and new normals and patterns emerge. A worry for my father in living alone after 45 years of marriage led to spending much more time with my father to assist in his living, eat a meal or two a week with him, shop and administer things. Run 2 houses and lives in a way. Not a burden in any way, but a rekindling of a friendship that in its way has defined me more than any other. Thus, I ended up on a saunter around the pubs of Reddish. In truth I rarely pop in pubs these days, a couple on a Saturday afternoon in Wetherspoons being more or less it when a quiet couple of hours is needed. People don’t talk to you in Wetherspoons. You can just sink a pint.

Eric Asimov wrote an interesting piece in the NYT on the nature of a “wine bar” – which is also something I have thought about in relation to identifying as a “beer bar” as opposed to a bar:

Are they all wine bars? Or is the term so vague as to be meaningless? It might depend on whom you ask… Good wine bars are informal neighborhood gathering places rather than destinations, with occasional exceptions, like when a wine list is so deep that it draws in the trophy- and rare-bottle hunters. But mostly, they are places to drop in near one’s home. They might take some reservations, but they always have room for walk-ins. Wine bars mostly cater to young people. At almost every place I visited, I was by far the oldest patron there.

Don Cazentre wrote about something I had not thought about before – relative stats on which US community out drinks the others on bars at US Thanksgiving, something his hometown of Syracuse, NY has excelled at before:

The night before Thanksgiving, sometimes called Drinksgiving, is typically one of the busiest evenings for bars across the country. And the Syracuse area is often one of the leaders. That held true again this year, as the Syracuse market once again stood out, according to data from BeerBoard, an Armory Square-based company that manages and collects stats and information from draft beer accounts nationwide.

Do they also use gallon-sized tankards there like in the British Iron Age? The Tand himself has written on the subject of a smaller sort of vessel, Sam Smith’s proprietor, Humphrey Smith and the question of how steady his hand is upon the tiller:

…all is not well. I was told, recently, that no fewer than 120 Sam Smith’s pubs are closed through lack of people to run them. (You can often find them listed in trade adverts for managers) This is an astonishing number given that all of them are managed houses, and while they attract a smallish salary, not much above minimum wage, but they do have heating, lighting and rent thrown in on top. This is not an entirely unattractive package in these dodgy times, so why is there a problem in finding the right people to run them?

Jeff added thoughts from afar including the bluntly stated “no one drinks English ales anymore” which is hard to deny… except for the fact that they do.

Stan’s Hop Queries newsletter for November 2022 has landed on my driveway in a neat plastic wrapper and he has noted the end of the line for one particular strain:

CLS Farms has eliminated Medusa, the neomexicanus-only hop that introduced American brewers to a botanical variety of Humulus lupulus that produces unique aromas in beer, from its portfolio. Plants were “grubbed out” after the 2022 harvest. Before you ask, the future still looks fine for Zappa, a daughter of Medusa, being grown on six farms in five states. “It is time to focus on Zappa and let Medusa go,” CLS co-owner Eric Desmarais wrote via email. Quite simply, Medusa didn’t measure up agronomically. “(Medusa) doesn’t have the yield to be able to be super viable moving forward in a higher inflationary world, and a much more competitive hop variety landscape,” Desmarais wrote.

Bit of World Cup news even with the ban – the soak was on in Qatar and “bars overestimated surge pricing”:

Beer prices in Qatar could fall after some bars “overestimated what they can get away with” charging during the World Cup, according to a fans’ group. Supporters visiting the Gulf state say they have faced prices of up to £15 for a pint during the tournament, although many have found it cheaper and venues have offered deals.

The gouge is one elsewhere too with some UK pubs offering lower alc% beers at higher prices in the New Year.

And, finally, a Mastodon update. Now up to 573 followers after the blog was linked to one of those likely list compilers. Incuration, that’s what I call it. Seems I am incurable. Shocking. Still, I am looking more there than with the Twit. It’s happening. Please join us all at @agoodbeerblog@mstdn.social.

That’s it for this week and that month. As we move into December, please check out the updates from Boak and Bailey hopefully now again mostly every Saturday and also from Stan more now on a Monday than almost ever! Check out the weekly and highly recommented Beer Ladies Podcast. The OCBG Podcast is on a very quiet schedule these days – but it’s coming back soon. 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 (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) 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.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable… not sure this went very far…) 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 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!

*My only peep this year was that the apparently official award night photos were not wonderful at all. Unlike this one which was great. Which is good – as I used to be a right pain in the arse about these things. Transparency is everything in these matters.

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The Mid-Year Checkup

Me. Wednesday morning. I ran out into the backyard in my slippers to cover up the small Romaine plants before 8 am – given there was the dumbest rabbit ever out there, eating some weeds in the lawn about seven feet away from the finest dining he ever saw… if he were to ever see it. It seems it’s hard to get a good class of lawn rabbit these days. I may have triggered the neighbours’ yappy dog in the process. Jings. Life’s rich pageant or what? Breaks up the week, I suppose. It can be a bit of a challenge coming up with things to write about in the good beer world every week. Every once in a while interesting stuff pops up. For example, I had no idea that there was a Malting Barley Committee (MBC) of the Maltsters’ Association of Great Britain (MAGB) that issued edicts but late last week, care of Nigel‘s careful watch, we learned that they have made their decision on crops for the 2023 malting barley planting season. Say goodbye to the Splendor and Tungsten in your ales! As if you noticed…

It is Canada Day down Canada way… or at least it will be Friday. Eight years ago, I told the tale of how our Constitution of 1867 was first described to the leading lights of the future nation by a future Prime Minister. You can go read the whole thing but here is the portrait painted by one present of Sir John A. in his natural state:

…John A. entered bearing symptoms of having been on a spree. He was half drunk. Lunch is always on the side table, and he soon applied himself to it – and before we had well entered on the important business before us he was quite drunk with potations of ale…

Being as I am fascinated by all the tinkery clinkery bits of technology, I had a read through the current online edition of Brewer Magazine, a trade journal that looks like an industry version of the old weekly newspaper that was 80% ads for members of the the downtown business association. Unlike the Gammy Bird, however, the ads seem to be real and are fairly interesting, especially this machine that would seem to be a robot that would take over the middle kid’s 2019 summer job, smashing out of date cans of beer out back of the contract brewery. I could never figure out if it was a good job or not. I suppose being covered in stale malty good spraying from smashed cans on 33C high humidity days may not be exactly how one wants to take one’s ale.

Q: is booze collapsing all around? Not in Illinois. Josh Noel wrote about in The Chicago Tribune (perhaps paywalled) wrote an excellent piece about Dovetails’ kolsch service in the Windy City:

While it may not be surprising to find a brewery such as Dovetail, dedicated to reproducing continental European beer styles, also reproducing European beer culture, there has been an unlikely development in Chicago since Dovetail’s first kolsch service in 2019: other breweries have also started doing it. Logan Square’s Hopewell Brewing hosted two kolsch nights in spring, and Double Clutch Brewing, which opened last fall in Evanston, has also done it.

In his mastery of the thing all the beer experts foolishly tell beer writers never to do, The Beer Nut displayed all his skills this week in his considerations of one of my all time favourite beers, Jolly Pumpkin‘s Bam, first encountered around 15 years ago. The resulting observations should serve as a bit of a life lesson for the rest of all you all:

It’s a medium orange-yellow in the glass and quite opaque. The aroma is a fun mix of fruit salad — with pear, mandarin and lychee in particular — meeting a very Belgian saison spicing and a lacing of farmyard fun. That’s a lot of complexity already for something that’s only 4.5% ABV. There’s a floral, perfume intensity in the foretaste, mixing bergamot and lavender with softer white grape. The body is quite thin and that renders the flavour a little harsh, accentuating the bitterness. It’s still very tasty, though. There’s too much going on for it to be refreshing, but it still just about works as a sipper.

Notice the use of observe fact and clear language. No reference to chemistry puffery and not burdened by style. As I read recently, observation defeats theory every time. Or something like that. The human sensory experience laid out plain.

Again with the use of personal eyeball powers, I would never have guessed that beer pub ticking was a jet-setter sort of function but there we are, the lad with the guide in the carry on luggage on an aircraft cabin flying over salty seas:

Right, if you’ve an allergy to the Channel Islands I should come back to this blog in, ooh, October. Twenty-three GBG entries for 170,499 islanders, and I needed ten (10) ticks for the set, having not set foot there since 2014 (before this blog started). If I’m going to finish the Guide this year, I needed to get those ten done in one trip. Nipping back to Sark for one pub in September is far harder than nipping back to Sandwich, and costs ten times as much.

Also: Auld Mudgie linked to a blog of a wandering pub lover that I had not noticed before, Merseyside Pub Guide.

Alistair triggered the sort of interesting discussion that Twitter is still letting you have – this time about the lack of actual special glassware utility, one of those old chestnuts in beer. Best comment? From Max:

I must add the glass I used for smaller servings is the same I use for wines, brandy, and whisky. I got it after judging at a beer competition (which uses the same glass for all styles, go figure).

Similarly, see this consideration of the role of Brett v hops in the transportation of strong ale long distances yoinks ago. So much more interesting information comes out of discussions backed by solid records.

Conversely, we had a sighting of the content control clique movement this week. Same as 2009 and 2016, arises in times of crisis. In the hardscrabble ill-considered beer writing trade, this tendency is sorta like the anti-Christ of the weekly beery news roundups. Leads to bizarre results. Deny the call to obey! Good thing Lew is on the job.

And, yes, the creative if not needy spins on the sale of Stone to mega brewing was the theme of the week amongst a certain set. Beth Demmon, as usual, offered the perspective with the clearest view from a local vantage point:

… this type of deal is a well-worn path. Big business-buys-smaller business in a seemingly mutually beneficial, nine-figure deal. Life goes on, capitalism lives to see another day.

This set of quotes from those attending these days of remembrance is hilarious. Not one using the phrase “decades long cluster fuck!” As noted in 2004, likely the seminal makers of sucker juice. Jordan and Robin prodded the corpse, heroically finding the energy this week to care enough to discuss what are effectively the two stale assets of apparently no value in the Stone deal: (i) the face of the business and (ii) the long term business plan. Neither now needed. Isn’t the deal just a fire sale to avoid further losses if the long descent from the core business as a premium gas station brand allowed to continue further?

Finally – and in a more fact based reality – beer snakes!

Yorkshire’s decision to ban beer snakes, the comically long stacks of empty pint pots so beloved of cricket fans, forced luminous-jacketed stewards to engage in a series of slow-motion chase scenes with unruly cup-collectors, one of whom was amateurishly but unmistakably disguised as Scooby Doo. The England team have been restyled as great entertainers but the fans’ response has been: hold my empty beer. And also this one. And several dozen more. And now run! These races were surprisingly hilarious – though clearly not for the stewards, who, by tea, had completely given up…

That is it! For more, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday but not from Stan every Monday as he is on his summer holiday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (Ed.: me finks the teens are hired for fests because that is all the can afford as the dream of craft continues to collapse…) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has 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 has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now winding up after ten years.

Yet Another Week’s Worth Of Beery News Notes On A Thursday

Here we are. Again. Growing in wisdom. Me, I’ve been reading more books this year and keeping track. Keeping track of a lot of things. Self-improvement? Do more of this cut down on a bit of that. Twenty-seven books so far this year, not one of them about beer. Currently (after reading the highly recommended book The Shipping News,* ultimately a comedy set in a fictional version of small town Newfoundland in which beer – and screech – make appearances) I am on a third by Questlove, this one Creative Quest, an encouraging book about the creative process. I usually avoid self-help books… but then again I avoided books, too… too many law books can do that. You can help decide if it has any positive effect.**

Martin was particularly creative in his photo work, the image right there from his post about a guitar themed pub, Northern Guitars in Leeds. Love the angle.

Just to prove I do occasionally (mostly by accident) take advice, I did take a pub tip from Chris Dyson for my second pre-gig pint in Leeds. Perhaps the pace of change has slowed a little in the east of Leeds, but the Calls District was busy enough, though Northern Guitars was only ticking over. I guess their trade comes from music nights.

For the Jubilee, the ever excellent A London Inheritance posted photos of processions, streets crowded with people and/or bunting from past royal celebrations – including a few pubs covered in banners including The George in the Strand. Some not pleased with last weekend’s events – which is fine. Here is a live action photo of the madcap goings on. We are advised by The Daily Star that the event was pretty boozy as to be expected:

The streets of Soho, in the heart of London, were lined with drinkers and Ripe in East Sussex was just one of hundreds of villages that celebrated with an open-air party. Everywhere you looked, it seemed, someone was enjoying the day. James Heale tweeted: “Horse Guards Parade. Man singing lustily in an England ‘96 shirt, six pack in one hand, fag in another. Union Jack billowing behind him, Tesco crown on his head. The lion roars”. In fact, some people appeared to be enjoying themselves a little too much.

Rooting for an Oaken Joob myself, now. That would be fun. And a bit of a surprise for those most involved. Oh, one last but not least thing – Maureen won the prize so a parcel of goodness shall be sent her way…

Now that the bunting is folded up and put away, reality strikes. First up, why is lager more expensive in London and Northern Ireland compared to other parts of Britain? Less of a puzzle, sanctions against Russia appear to be effectively stopping beer imports:

That has pressured the economy and affected the habits of Russians used to a lavish selection of foreign-made alcohol. “The beer situation is very cheerless,” said Anton, a 36-year-old IT expert who works for a state financial organisation in Moscow. “Not to mention Paulaner, Pilsner Urquell and other tasty stuff, I’m not at all confident if Russian beer is here to stay. There are problems not only with beer imports but even with imports of hops,” he added. Russian breweries depend heavily on imports of raw materials, such as hops.

Another sort of shortage is also at play as the North America is undertaking the rare step of importing malting barley to make up for a poor 2021 crop. Keep an eye on that.

In another sort of dreary news, the iconic Buffalo Bill‘s brewpub of the San Francisco Bay area is shutting – after inflicting the dubious upon us all!

Buffalo Bill’s is best known for putting pumpkin ale on the map in 1986 when Owens was inspired by the beer first enjoyed during colonial America. Owens became obsessed with crafting a modern take on pumpkin ale after learning that even President George Washington once brewed the orange-hued beer during a time when pumpkins often substituted malt. Not long after Buffalo Bill’s resurrected the polarizing beer, other brewpubs around the country began to follow suit and devised their own renditions of pumpkin ale.

Jay wrote about the original owner, Bill Owens, and the place calling it “one of California (and America’s) earliest brewpubs.” Pretty sure I had their Orange Blossom Pale Ale once, found in a NY state beer store over a decade ago. But do you think I can find the review? Who runs this place? What a mess!

Enough! Something fun. The screenshot to the right [Ed.: my left] was grabbed from this short vid of an old pre-decimalization penny auto bot thingie – which still works. Called The Drunkards Dream. More info here, here and here.

And something uplifting. Beth Demmon has published another interesting bio of someone in beer, this time April Dove who balances her interest as a roaming brewer with her professional life as a nurse:

For now, that life means remaining a nurse. It “pays the bills,” April says, although moving into beer full-time remains the dream. The first years of working through COVID-19 left April with nightmares and PTSD. “I did things I hope I never have to do again,” she says. “I saw things I never want to see again.” But she’ll continue to invest in a future in beer, setting goals for herself like pouring one of her beers at a beer festival in the next year. Despite the challenges she’s faced, April hopes that by sharing her experiences with others who have been systemically excluded from craft beer, she’ll be able to introduce her passion to many more.

Ron‘s been on a bit of a roll in terms of writing about his experience of beer, he kissed a squirrel… errr… had a Newkie Broon this week and also featured a trip to Folkestone with Mikey:

It was at least three years since I’d last been. The longest gap, probably, ever. Well, since we started going there. Mikey went twice every year. I’d accompany him on at least one of those trips. I became weirdly fond of the place. Perhaps because of its ordinariness. And the really good chippy. Andrew asked on my return: “What did you do other than hang around in pubs and cafes?” “Nothing, really. Other than a little light shopping.” It genuinely was all breakfasts and beer. And the odd whisky.

The story goes on to end up being a neat and tidy description of two classes of pub, the pricy mini and the cheap maxi. Which makes one wonder if the lounge and the public bar have really just relocated. Boak and Bailey and their wise comment makers wrote about the gradations of such spaces exactly one yoink ago.

And there was an excellent example of Twitter as helpful tool in the form of a description – from the hand behind the Glasgow brewery Epochal – of drinking a 126 year old bottle of McEwan’s Pale Ale which was recovered from The Wallachia which sank in 1895 in the Firth of Clyde:

This one still had a good amount of carbonation. It smelled old but in a peculiarly musky, libraryish way rather than an excess of oxidation. It had a pronounced Brettanomyces character with subtle aromatic acids and miraculously retained a clear hop character, clear enough that I could have a guess that they used Fuggles and Goldings. On the palate it was very dry and still had a powerful, clear bitterness.

Connectedly, Gareth Young of Epocal was also featured in Jeff’s well researched article “Lost, Stock & Barrel: The Forgotten Funk of Old Ales” published by CB&B with this wise observation:

The flavors that marked stock ales of past centuries lacked many of the problems that can trouble mixed-culture brewing: excessive acetic acid, intense funkiness, chemical off-flavors. Instead, using what we would now call “heritage” barleys, techniques like long boils, cleansing tanks, and dry-hopping, brewers are edging back toward the refinement for which old stock ales were renowned.

You know… there is a school of beer history writing, now largely retreating in the rear view mirror fortunately, one based too heavily on supposition and assumption. We heard too often that old brewers made smoky even though there is plenty of evidence against it. Competent brewing starts in the 1800s we are told even though there is plenty of evidence against it. What really needs doing is reading some good history books.

Speaking of being in the good books, The Beer Nut is on the job this week examining if one brand extension has succeeded… and was not impressed:

The aroma is sweet and fruity: lots of very obvious hard caramel, sitting next to softer plum and raisin. The flavour is rather less complex. I was hoping that Landlord + caramel would unlock some new dimension of taste, but I could not perceive anything other than a quite hop forward English bitter — meadow blossoms and earthy minerality — spiked with thick and gloopy treacle. It’s sticky, not wholesome, and the two aspects don’t meld well together. The label promised chocolate and roasted malt, like a proper dark ale, but the flavour doesn’t deliver that.

Question: why a lottery? Why not just promote a program you create, find sponsorship for and provide for free with next level resources identified? We have so much green-washing, #MeToo and #BLM cap waving but never quite cheque sending, Ukrainian net profits only giving corporate PR under the guise of charity. The price of the Sam Adams Pride packaging alone would likely pay for the program’s costs.

Apparently, in a case of un-red-tape, the Province of Saskatchewan’s Auditor has noticed that craft brewing is not getting noticed:

…according to the provincial auditor, the province is struggling to keep pace when it comes to meeting its regulatory oversight targets. The auditor’s latest report notes that of 83 approved craft alcohol product lines, over half (43) did not have valid lab test report certificates. These certificates prove products are untainted and that their alcohol content matches the label. Saskatchewan Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett says the SLGA [Ed.: the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority] is failing to follow up when producers fail to submit a new certificate, which is required every two years. One producer, she noted, had not provided an updated certificate more than nine months after its two-year deadline.

Craft brewers are not concerned. The best way to not be spoken about.

Finally: are we tired of discussing mild yet? No! Are we tied of The Tand winning awards? No!! Are we tired of NA bevvie trade associations? Probably.

There… a middly sort of week I’d say overall. For more, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday but not from Stan every Monday as he is on his summer holiday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (Ed.: back again this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has 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 has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now winding up after ten years.

*No, never saw the movie with Mr. Creepy in the main role. The book is excellent even if it can’t really be taken as a documentation of Newfoundland life. [It caused me to buy The Ashley Book of Knots, too, and doubt every half-hitch I make out in the garden.] Yet as in the book Newfoundlanders do, however, shoot off shotguns in their front yards in enthusiastic celebration still in some out ports. My pal, married on Fogo Island, was under attack as they were driven, post vows, about the place, from village to village. BLAM BLAM BLAM!!! Over and over. Were they in a convertible or standing in the back of a pickup? Can’t remember that bit of the story. BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!
**as Martyn helpfully did in last week’s comments.

Here We Are! February!! A New Month Of Beery News Notes!!!

Last week I was doom scrolling about the Ukraine. Earlier this week, it was about Ottawa.* Now it’s just about the blizzard. Today? Well, if my last name was “Event” I could have named a kid “Snow” and enlisted them in the army to remind me of today: Major Snow Event. Nasty stuff all over eastern North America. Good thing I have my internets to keep me warm. Just look at that up there. Bet that didn’t spend useless days blaring its horn to protest nothing and everything. Sweet. From Brewing Heritage, it’s a…

…handsome steam lorry was built in 1916 by Alley & MacLellen Ltd. of Glasgow, and first registered in February 1917.

Neato. Well, what is going on? Dry January is over. That’s something. The Times of London reported (probs paywalled) that…

A record number of Britons have given up meat, dairy and alcohol for January, with demand for vegan foods and non-alcoholic drinks rocketing over the month, according to data from Britain’s biggest supermarket.

An interesting story, actually. Virtue is in… for a few weeks at least. And the British of Britain** are buying things like “Nozeco Spumante, alcohol-free fizzy wine” (sales up over 200%) and “Gordons 0.0%, a no-alcohol gin”! Yikes. Alcohol-free gin sounds like gin-free gin to me. But I own a juniper tree so I can just suck on a few berries for free if I am desperate. Why pay 20 pounds a litre for flavoured water? Holy moly! NA brewers are missing out on a good payday.

Very conversely, this is great news as we walk away from another lockdown. I can now relive the glory of my beery life fifteen years ago and head to a new beer store in Syracuse, NY just two hours to my south:

The store occupies 9,500 square feet, split primarily into two large rooms. On Monday, Singh’s inventory list showed more than 14,000 “items,” such as 4-packs, 6-packs or cases. And there’s still unused space to fill… “They’re definitely making an effort to provide a wide selection,” Hagner posted recently to the Syracuse Craft Beer Enthusiasts Facebook page. “There’s lots of local stuff, some timely national releases (my first sighting of Hopslam), the biggest SN (Sierra Nevada) assortment I’ve seen. … Personally I was pleased with the import/German section as well as traditional stuff that’s often hard to find.”

Elsewhere, the old is also new again in London where Guinness is creating a new destination brewery with some very good timing:

Guinness sales in Great Britain have grown by over 30 per cent in the last six months and one in every 10 pints sold in London is now a Guinness. The new site, to be called Guinness at Old Brewer’s Yard, will include: A microbrewery producing limited edition beers and offering tours with Guinness beer specialists; event spaces and central covered courtyard; a Guinness store selling rare items, and a open-fire kitchen, restaurant and 360 degrees glass rooftop space.

I can’t link to every one of the excellent posts in Eoghan’s most excellent series A History of Brussels Beer in 50 Objects can I? I will, however, for this week’s story connecting Belgian colonial brewing in the Congo with the fight for freedom in the late 1950s:

Brasseries du Congo, or Bracongo, were known for the slender green bottles of their Polar brand. In September 1957 Bracongo hired a former postal worker recently-released from prison following an embezzlement conviction to help sell them. Patrice Lumumba not only grew Polar’s business in the capital, he also used his salesman skills and his client network to advocate for Congolese independence.

Look at this. We all suffer from the unending spam from the glassmakers of each and every nation. Here, however, we see the reality of fancy glassware according to The Times Of New York:

Most wine drinkers, admittedly, will neither want nor need such rarefied glasses. Many casual drinkers are happy these days to use inexpensive goblets or even stemless glasses, which I would not seek out, though I am happy enough on occasion to drink wine from a tumbler.

Speaking of which, Jancis on Boris… who is clearly a tumbler man:

For months, while millions of ordinary people were deprived of a convivial after-work drink with friends, the staff at 10 Downing Street partied on. It could seem, not least because of the late-night dashes to the supermarket, that the aim was chiefly to drink as much as possible. Connoisseurship appears to have played little part. I feel thoroughly ashamed of how this must look to the rest of the world. Downing Street behaviour looks like binge drinking.

Bingy Boris. A notch or two more sophisticated is Gary who noticed his modernist Montreal in 1950s promotional material created for the Dow brewery by Albert Edward Cloutier (1902-1965):

The use of pastels in commercial art was a trend internationally at the time, as, say, some European beer posters show, or those dreamy pink, blue and yellow posters advertising holidays on the Riviera. Cloutier rendered a Platonic picture of 1950s Montreal, one rather removed, as I suppose for any city, from the reality in street and district, whether rich, poor or otherwise for that matter. (We were entre les deux chaises). When I think back, it is his Montreal I will remember, family apart.

And Jim Koch thinks cider is a sort of beer. “Fluids I make profit from” appear to be beer to Jim Koch.

Finally, know your medieval English plowing practices. There’s a good explanation of how it worked – and still works in some localities in BBC’s 2010 series The Story of England. Also learn how Piers the Plowman was worth writing about in 1378 as he is the technical wiz of his day even if he shuns the “best brown ale” unlike those young whippersnappers.

That’s it for now. A quieter maybe saner week in beer land. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Or is that dead now?) There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too (… back this week!) And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (which I hope is revived soon…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*“Organizer“!!!
**“Scottish“!!!

Your First Beery News Notes For A Thursday In 2022

Well, that was a good holiday season, wasn’t it. It wound up with Ontario heading into another semi-demi-lockdown as of Monday so I can’t say that it is all fine and dandy. I still have my stash. And I can settle down into my culturally appropriate assumptions that the stash somehow helps defend against viruses. This is the second in my collection of my “Dewar’s Defeats The Flu!” imagery in addition to this beauty.* Now you have a collection, too.

What is going on in the beer world? Well, there was a ripple of unhappiness about the term “pub ale” which I have no issue with as it fits a certain spot that I recognize as something once called “Canadian export ale” except it isn’t really exported – a sweeter sort of pale ale. Like Left Field brews and calls Outstanding which it is. “Bitter” isn’t an old term. Gary mentioned the question this week dismissing the idea it was novel:

Certainly in export markets, British brewers were alert early on to attune names to market expectations. Boddington’s Pub Ale, a good seller in many markets is a stronger version of Boddington’s Bitter marketed for export since 1993. Back in the 1980s the now defunct regional brewer Greenall Whitley sold a Cheshire English Pub Beer in the U.S. I recall it especially in the Northeastern market.

I am with Mike. Bringing out a craft beer brand called “Leff” without a last letter “E” is just inviting a trade name or copyright law suit. Big faceless industrial gak maker hegemonist ABInBevOfBevAllBev has my sympathies:

“Leffe has an earlier right. Moreover, in both cases it concerns beer. Then there is a risk of confusion. There would be less risk of confusion, for example, if the Leff brand is applied for by a bed manufacturer. Although the protection of well-known brands can sometimes extend to other products.” Moreover, the label of a bottle of the Brasserie Artisanal du Leff also resembles that of the famous Leffe. “The same Gothic letters, for example, and the word ‘Leff’ is very emphatically highlighted. Those logos and fonts are also registered by AB InBev with the trademark register,” says Chalmers. In a French press release, AB InBev says that even in French pronunciation, there is no difference between “Leff” and “Leffe.” Reason enough to send Le Saux a letter.

I love this image to the right of all the various sorts of pints illustrated on a pint glass. Published by Foods of England this week. Pity the Belgian pint.

Joan Birraire in Barcelona, Spain has fired up his coal fed servers and revived the beer blog, no doubt due to everyone saying how beer blogging is dead. He returns with his Golden Pints 2021:

To avoid settling into perpetual criticism and start leading by example, I hope to resume blog activity a bit this year, also as part of a return to good habits that I have definitely lost due to the pandemic and excess work, the combination of which has led me to a terribly monotonous kind-of-monastic life. To begin with, I would like to recover a decade-long initiative that started in the international blogosphere: the Golden Pints awards, which every blogger assigns to beers, establishments or projects that they feel deserve to be praised.

Note: there is no such thing as “too many beer bloggers.” Speaking of which, Lucy Corne of South Africa, not dead, celebrated ten years of beer blogging this week as did Matt Curtis, also not dead. Speaking of whom latterly but not late-rly, Pellicle has published an excellent business plan for 2022 explaining the financials of its operations. Were all the others so transparent:

We run Pellicle on a cash basis. We have no debt, and our plan is, and always will be, to keep commissioning content until the money’s all gone. Thanks to our Patreon supporters, plus our sponsors Hop Burns & Black and Hand and Heart, we’re presently able to publish roughly one or two features per week, plus a podcast every three to four weeks, and both are pretty much self-sustaining as is.

Full marks. This is why I trust Pellicle and I support them at a very modest level. Speaking of excellent, this piece by Kate Bernot captures exactly what we have not seen much of in craft beer business journalism: digging into the business end. And it was accomplished by reading Danish corporate filings for Mikkeller:

According to a company audit, Mikkeller had a total income loss of about $4 million between 2019 and 2020. The report says that last year’s losses were “primarily a result of COVID-19 related restrictions, lockdown and general uncertainty across the globe heavily impacting our retail sales as well as wholesale to on-premise bars, restaurants.” Borsen reported that Mikkeller founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø has relinquished some ownership in the company to Orkila as a result of the most recent transaction.

Fabulous levels of detail to dig up and dig through. Now, let’s have the same approach to other breweries. In 2016 there was some unhappiness that I just mentioned Jim Koch selling off shares, pro-am beer writers telling me I “…didn’t understand, so mean…” despite practicing business law for about two decades at that point. More of the digging please.

Maureen retweeted this image of Jack’s Saloon at Camp Claiborne, L.A., 1940s and it is worth poring over for the details. If you click there is far bigger version. What the heck is a “dude drink” and why were these two fine ladies and their wonderful establishment so against them? I mean you could have one but it cost fifteen times the cost of a home brew. Are they brewing out back? The font of all knowledge explains that “Camp Claiborne was a U.S. Army military camp in the 1930s continuing through World War II located in Rapides Parish in central Louisiana.”

Retired Martyn crossed the northern border thanks in large part to someone else:

A flat tyre from nowhere, but thankfully I have a skilled team to deal with life’s little crises. And no, that’s not the main reason I married her (though her 1991 “Motoring Madams” certification was high on the list).

I was guided to the blog “Paul’s Beer & Travel Blog” which is a fairly plain name if we think about it but no doubt entirely accurate. Paul Bailey is the name (no relation) and what it is really about is Paul’s travels to beer. So there is pleasant train discussion, pleasant pub discussion and pleasant beer discussion as this one paragraph illustrates:

Unfortunately, the trains didn’t connect very well, and as the service from Dorking pulled into Redhill station, I witnessed the one to Tonbridge, pulling away from the opposite platform. The next train to Tonbridge wasn’t due for another hour, which provided the perfect opportunity for a quick, “in-between trains” pint. The question was, with a number of pubs to go for, which one should I choose?’

Remember this next time you read someone saying how negative discussion is on Twitter during the pandemic – it’s much the same in the pub. Current complaints? Dry January…** New York State Governor Hochul? Not so fast:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she will permanently legalize the sale of “to-go” alcoholic drinks in the state, adding that the practice was a “critical revenue stream” during the pandemic.

Oh – and Stan mentioned the Patreon thing. Let me play with it a while before I figure out if there is any point to it.

There – a modest offering for this more modest first week of the new year. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Or is that dead now?) There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. (That’s a bit now and then now.) And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (which he may revive some day…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*This blog is not sponsored by Dewar’s. This blog is entirely open to being sponsored by Dewar’s.
**For the double!

Your Final Thursday Beery News Notes For November 2020

Time flies when you are having fun. I’ve likely started more than one of these posts with that quip since this all began, haven’t I. Probably should have my head examined. Except. I have. Twice this week. Drove a pleasant drive to an hour and a half to a sleepy rural district hospital for one sort of probing on Monday and another sort nearer by this week. Nothing serious.* Poking and prodding. The joys of middle age with the next stage coming into view. If I get a third test this week, perhaps I might be given a top hat like the gent above. The image from the West Sussex Archives triggered a lot of interesting chat about the nature of their outfits and that clay pipe but it’s the beer mugs that are the show stopper. Are they pints or quarts? I have one smaller version, a 1940’s green Wedgewood which sits proudly on a shelf.

Speaking of which, the distinctions and differences between a Czech dimpled mug and an English dimpled mug were excellently explored this week by Casket Beer:

Yes. The distinction between these two glasses matters based on history and tradition. Aside from the subtle differences in design, they come from different places and have been vessels for different styles of beer. Further, getting it right adds to our experience when we drink, which is important for breweries in today’s market.

Me, I prefer to get some things wrong and take pleasure in how well they work out – like having IPA in a weissebier glass. Or in a frozen one. Speaking of being one’s own master in small matters, Matthew L wrote about the state of his personal nation as another lockdown struck from a consumer’s point of view:

The final straw for me was the aforementioned Tier 3 announcement. All pubs not serving a “substantial meal” were to close. That kiboshed most of my typical weekend. I contemplated walking to Spoons, or any of the nearby places that do food, sitting on my own with a pizza and 2 pints, then going home (how many “substantial meals” can anyone consume in one day). Any fun I’d have just wasn’t worth the effort on top of everything else I’d have to do.

Also from one consumer’s point of view comes this post from Kirsty of Lady Sinks the Booze on the moments she has missed, including missing the train:

Since getting a promotion and a pay rise I have done what many working class people do and tried desperately to avoid working class people. Instead of the bus (albeit the wifi enabled fancy express bus with nightclub style lighting) I now get the train, and pay over a ton for a monthly season ticket. Of course since privatisation there are three different trains home and because I’m tight I will never pay extra to get a different company’s train if I miss mine. Hence I will spend £9 on beer, to save the £5.60 train fare.

Vaccines soon. That’s what I’m thinking. Others too – rather than pretending that owning a brewery means you know more than public health officials, Kenya‘s Tusker is sharing the safety message:

Speaking on the campaign, EABL Head of Beer Marketing, Ann Joy Muhoro, said, “Tusker believes that Kenyans can enjoy their favourite drink with friends in a safe and responsible manner, in line with the set protocols. That is why through the “dundaing” campaign, we are encouraging our consumers to adhere to the set health protocols, as they enjoy their Tuskerat home or at a bar.”

Historically-wise, Bailey and Boak studied the introduction of the jukebox into the UK pub and shared their findings:

This turns out to be surprisingly easy to pin down thanks to the novelty value of these electronic music boxes which guaranteed them press coverage. We can say, with some certainty, that the first pub jukeboxes arrived in Britain in the late 1940s. Even before that date, though, the term ‘jukebox’ or ‘juke-box’ was familiar to British people through reportage from the US.

Best “political tweet with a side of beer” of the week. Second best “political tweet with a side of beer” of the week. Best tweek of the week:

Currently slightly obsessed with TGL-7764, the East German standard for beer. It‘s basically a beer style guideline with some brewing instructions. Only thing I struggle with is colour, though, it‘s provided in NFE and „Einheiten nach Brand“ and I have no idea what these are.

And then he followed up with a link to the TGL-7764. Neato. Similarly mucho neato, Stan wrote about the 107 words to describe hops but neither “twiggy” nor “lawnmower driven into a weedy ditch” appear so I am not sure I can give it all much credit. But that’s just me.

In China, new fangled hydrogen fueled trucks are being used to deliver beer:

The Asian subsidiary of beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, meanwhile, added four hydrogen fuel-cell trucks to its fleet, the company announced Sept. 28. It plans to deliver beer using the trucks, making China the first nation where the company has deployed such vehicles for beer shipments.

Martyn found an excellent cartoon from 32 years ago, framing the thoughts from the time about low and no alcohol beer. I have to say I am of the same mind. It can lead to things, that sort of thing. Just this week I watched as two fully grown adults who have always appeared to have a complete set of marbles going on about the wonders of sparking water. Which they seem to be paying money for. Money they earn. With effort.

My thoughts, as always were, “historic beer style” is an oxymoron. “Style” is a modern international construct, a form to which brewers brew. As Ron has effectively proven, forms of beer in the past were brewed to brew house standards to meet local market expectations. Different names for similar things and similar names for different things were far too common.** Andreas Krennmair*** explored both the oxy and the moron in his post this week about Dampfbier which has that added excitement of relating to a variant of “steam” – a word so many want to own but never seem to understand:

The problem here is… if a beer style’s origin story sounds too good to be true, it probably is not actually rooted in history. Naive me would simply ask why other beers like Weißbier brewed with wheat malt wouldn’t be called the same name because supposedly, the yeast would ferment as vigorous. When we actually look at historic sources though, an entirely different picture is unveiled…

And lastly, Matty C. had an article published this week on a topic near and dear to my heart – the disutility of all the artsy fartsy craft beer cans:

Important stuff like beer style and ABV is too often – in my opinion – printed in a tiny font to make space for more artwork, or isn’t even featured on the front of a can at all. And while this isn’t an issue for most hardened beer fans, for those who exist outside of beer fandom’s bubble (and let’s be honest with ourselves here, that’s most people) it’s actually making it more difficult for people to differentiate between brands. The result of this? Consumers turning back to old, faithful brands – probably owned by big multinational corporations – and turning away from craft beer.

The phrase I shared was “barfing gumball machine” for these things. Much other similarly thoughtful comment was shared.

Done! Soon – December!!! Meantime, don’t forget to read your weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword. And remember BeerEdge, too. Go!

*Weirder and weirder I am. Seems I have a fully formed molar deep set up into my cheek bone. It is not doing anything. Just sitting there. Thanks for paying your taxes so that could be confirmed.
**I linked it up there! Why are you looking here, too?
***Pour le double!!!!

The Thursday Beery News Notes For The Second Third of The Tenth Twelfth

It’s hard coming up with new headlines every week, isn’t it. Look at that up there. It hardly makes any sense at all. And it’s getting a bit hard coming up with light entertaining content about beer to share. It’s usually all about something other than beer or like beer or nearly about beer. Like the best thing I saw this week – the tweet accompanied by the image to the left, captioned:

Toddlers in the 1970s looked like pensioners waiting for happy hour in a working men’s club.

This week, let’s look at stories about beer. Beery stories. You bet. Not about something related to beer or something just associated with beer. Hey, Jordan wrote something about beer… or actually drew it. He has created a map and a spreadsheet of all the current breweries and contract beer companies (firms which by beer from actual brewers, including on contract) on Ontario. It’s on his site and over to the right under the dropdown thingie. There. Help him by sending corrections… err, updates. Everyone likes that.

That’s about beer, right? Sure… well, maybe. Is this about beer? Ron wrote about UK cask during WW2 – not cask ale, just the wood in the casks:

In normal times British brewers would never have used American oak as it imparted too much flavour to the beer it contained. Unlike today, brewers wanted to avoid any trace of oak in their beer. Its presence was seen as a fault. But, with the supply of Memel oak dried up, brewers had little choice. When supplies of American oak in turn began to evaporate, brewers had to turn to a more local source.

OK, may be not but it was about something touching beer. Stan! Stan writes about beer like he did last week. He wrote again and got published again – this time about hop creep… which is not actually about the loud loser at the end of the bar in the crafty tavern:

“Hop Creep” isn’t the name of a beer-themed horror movie—just a real, ongoing mystery that brewers and hop scientists are still sorting out. Oregon State University’s Tom Shellhammer, one of the country’s top brewing scientists, says that his earliest moments of being introduced to the phenomenon were about five years ago, although he didn’t realize it at the time. “I was giving a talk at the 2015 Craft Brewers Conference, and somebody in the Q & A asked, ‘Hey, do you see people getting diacetyl when they dry hop?’ I was like, ‘No.’” Diacetyl is one result of hop creep. Beer with more alcohol than a brewery intended—which brewers call “out of spec”—is another, as are bottles or cans with dangerously high levels of carbonation.

Hops! Hops are in beer. And, in his return to London pubs and the blogging of same, the Tand put the beer into the Tand:

…there was a mission to accomplish. A visit to a Sam’s pub to establish London prices following the recent price increase. We chose the John Snow… a nice little boozer and trade was steady on this Wednesday afternoon. I had the stout, which needed the gas changing, while E had a half of Pure Brewed. The price list was snapped when the barman wasn’t looking and duly posted to a certain Curmudgeon. Prices are on the wickedly high side and now by no means a bargain. It does make you wonder how they’ll compete on this basis. One other thing. The notices forbidding this and that, which are found all over Northern Sam’s pubs, are conspicuous by their absence. I know. I checked everywhere. Double standards from Mr Smith it seems.

Hardly anything about the excellent Pellicle post this week by Helen Jerome on a cidery in Devon was about beer, but it did start with expected traditional character profile on the person behind the operation in question, deviating only by finding someone who was not first an unhappy accountant:

Spool back to late 2015, and Polly decided she’d had enough of sitting in an office. She needed a fresh challenge. Growing up in Devon, she gained a foundation in science with A-levels in chemistry, physics and biology; taken a module with Master of Wine Susan McCraith while doing a degree in Equine Business; studied Sustainable Agriculture at postgraduate level, then completed an EU-funded ‘slow food’ study tour in Tuscany. She’d never really been into cider though…

Speaking of science and even a bit about beer, Ed wrote about the scourge of taking the free case of beer and how that ethical flaw of his gnaws at his very soul – except there was a twist:

As every beer blogger knows getting free beer is the easiest thing in the world. Though breweries might grizzle about it, threaten them with a bad review and they’re sending you a case of beer as fast as their little legs can carry it. But despite this due to my insatiable greed I immediately said yes when offered a Hobgoblin beer and bugs snack pack.

Speaking of which, BBC News itself ran an excellent piece on social median influencers – aka what used to be called blegging – and the associated cap in hand:

Like many businesses during Covid-19, Reshmi has seen a change in her customers’ behaviour. Although many people cut back on unnecessary purchases, her bakery was busy as people carried on ordering her celebration cakes. Yet she also noticed influencers were asking for more freebies too. It’s something she has done in the past – looking at the influencer and their posts, who follows them, how they engage with their audience, but says it didn’t work for her. “We have never had a sale off someone [saying] they saw our cake on someone’s post or profile, it’s always been through word of mouth, from paying customers.”

This is interesting. Even if cake is not beer. I have heard many a chortler and scribe announce that “it’s not like anyone could think I have compromised myself by the free samples” but it’s not something you can really say for yourself. And it never plays out that way. Best to pay your way. Folk notice and note. Unless there are edible bugs involved.

Related, the question of free food in pubs. Discuss.

Suzy Aldridge posted something of a goodbye to all that in response to a BrewDog franchise opening up in her English city of Lincoln:

Now I’m out. It’s surreal. I’m looking in from the outside and seeing the struggles in the industry, seeing how friends are marching on. I almost feel left behind, lost, but also that I’ve escaped. I’ve sidestepped into a new career path by pure luck. It’s not something I love like beer but it’s interesting, it pays the bills and, unlike hospitality, the rug won’t be swept from under my feet, then shoved back, then removed again. I’m comfortable, even as I drink some of the very last bottles of Lincolnshire Brewing Co that are in my fridge.

Eoghan Walsh posted a new podcast at Brussels Beer City featuring an interview with Jean Van Roy of Brussels brewery Brasserie Cantillon. He wisely avoided raising my accusations of 2006 but, still, had a good beery chat:

On a scorching hot early September day on the eve of brewing season for Cantillon, we met at a bar influential not only for the city but also for him, and his family brewery. We talk lambic evangelisation in a country that still doesn’t really get it, his youthful escapades drinking crap beer with friends, how is approach to brewing has changed thanks to his relationships with winemakers and chefs, and how the brewery’s corridors ring hollow and lonely in the absence of American, Italian and other foreign accents.

Elsewhere, you know there is nothing going on in beer in some corners if the discussion turns to flat flavoured water with vodka added.

Speaking of beer and corners, in this week’s edition of That Sorta Happened in Beer History, Mudge the Elder asked this question and got answers:

It’s before my time, but does anyone remember (or have talked to those who do) whether waiter service was commonplace in pubs across the UK in the 50s and 60s, or was it primarily a Northern thing?

A whole new world was revealed to mine eyes. Someone identifying themselves only as “[Bx2-B=R]” stated:

Primarily northern, my Lancastrian mum says, and common enough there that she didn’t find it weird; down south, mostly seems to have been an inter-war fad in big new pubs and died out with WWII. [Ray]

Talk of bell pushes, tipping and waiters in burgundy jackets with “silver” trays ensued. Sit down before you start through the thread.

Beer crime of a newer sort happened over in Michigan, as noted by the worst beer blogger ever:

…there was no money on the premise, and luckily no vandalism, but the intruders were there for more than a half an hour. “They ended up pouring nine beers,” he said. “It’s not somebody having a quick beer and leaving.” One of the men called someone and then soon, a bunch of kids entered the premises, running around and looking through the brewery’s merchandise. Luckily, the kids seemed to only have pop, not alcohol…

Another sort of loss is happening in bars like this out of Winnipeg that I don’t think I’ve seen reported in this way before even though it is very 2020:

It’s enough to make a brewski aficionado weep while sudsy hops are poured down the sink. An enormous amount of beer is going to waste in Winnipeg thanks to some bars and pubs being forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. Other establishments operating at reduced capacity are also having to dump hundreds of gallons down the drain…

I love the first sentence. If you hate sudsy and brewski, then you at least have to admire the proper use of aficionado.

Anyway, finally and speaking of which… perhaps… no, not really… there were comments made after the announcement of the NAGBJ awards… what’s that?… oh, it’s back to a “w”… BAGNW… is that it? Anyway, my comments were limited to “Third?!?!” and “Third?!?!” given I was mystified at certain outcomes. But I used to judge these things as part of panels, too, and I know that there are limits and these limits are realities. As I have noted before, these quibbles mainly hover around process and in particular nominations being from the authors and/or publishers. It would be easy enough to just send all members ballots rather than the filtering function of judging panels. They are also limited in audience as many folk don’t need or care about awards, especially once an “award-winning” adjective is already allocated to the bio.* Yet:

I just want people to know it’s totally normal, okay, and valid to wish for recognition and acknowledgement of a job well done. I don’t write about the things I write about because I NEED those things, but darn if it doesn’t feel good when it happens.

Boom! As with all the medals, I presume it is a stepping stone for the aspiring – which is good and normal and to be encouraged. And a small reward in a field without much recognition.

But, unlike during the years of my own experience, concerns and even unfair slags were raised about it all being too GBH focused or even bad back scratchy. In homage to 1830s British Parliamentary politics, lobbying continues for the establishment and the reformers. While many entries or entrants have appeared on that bloggy space’s webby pages… well, what is wrong with that? Especially as other outlets have been disappearing for years? Small pond. That’s where we swim. I do say that while acknowledging (having sifted through it all week after week now for years) I think there is a sort of beer trade writing of a sort not only is a bit samey and a bit goal oriented or even formulaic (the last paragraph often seems written first, as it were) but still a sort which may attract praise within a circle of co-aspirants. Well? So what!?! Why be a grump in all things? It’s just, yes, light entertainment – and we have to remember that much beer writing is actually very good, including, yes, even at GBH.** Perhaps not as much as they would say… but, in the end, Beth did entirely the proper thing and set the record straight in vivid technicolour. Go Team Beth.***

That’s a lot. I’m done. As always, remember there’s more out there. Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (this week Jordan touts discount ham!!!) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Not to mention Cabin Fever. And Ben has finally gone all 2009 and joined in with his own podcast, Beer and Badword. And remember BeerEdge, too.

*No one cares about being “awards-winning” do they?
**Let’s stick with very good, shall we. Superlatives are so… not superlative. Plus, I’m a Pellicle sort of person.
***See the “*” here.

Your Mid-August Beery News Notes For A Thursday

Wow. I thought last week was dull. Not much happening but it’s mid-August, right? Starting out this week’s drafting I wondered how I’ll fill the page. That’s sorta like any August, right? It’s not the pandemic, right? Not at all. Right? To the right is an image that popped up on Twitter which I liked so much I bought the same hat. Maybe. Remember: winter is coming.

What is up? USA Today published an article on the state of racial diversity in brewing in America this week. It got a fair amount of attention, including weirdly stated attention, for what it stated but I find it as important that it was published where it was published. USA Today sits in hotel lobbies and piled next to the door in gas station convenience stores when you travel the interstates. It is lightweight and cheery and has a lot of things called info-graphics. Yet it is pretty specific in the specifics:

Just 1% of craft brewery owners were Black, the survey found. There about 60 Black-owned craft breweries out of more than 8,000 craft breweries in the U.S. By comparison, that survey found that the population around breweries was about 12.2% Black. The U.S. Census lists Blacks as accounting for 13.4% of the population.

Along those lines, GBH has published three pieces on racial discrimination on craft this week. Beth, the named editor, mentioned this passage in Part II by Toni Boyce:

A community excluded from craft’s evangelical crusade can’t seriously be expected to carry on the industry’s message or inconvenience themselves to support the industry that excluded it, let alone convince others to do so.

I mention this in particular as it connects in my mind with another reality pointed out by Josh Noel (published along with the rest of his book) that a goal in forming the Brewers Association in around 2005 was to cope with the separate – and not all savory – identities being expressed in micro brewing at that time and to form one message of one semi-plastic community.

Matt published a helpful commissioned guide to current understanding of what IPA is. Of course it’s riddled with the normal quibbly inaccuracies but, unlike most matters related to beer expertise, it actually acknowledges that it’s riddled with inaccuracies. Because beer expertise is about intentions, right? And desires. And not admitting. Anyway, because it’s self-aware its a very good guide to current perceptions:

For now I want to provide you with my own personal list of IPA styles, developed by analysing existing style guidelines published by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and Brewers Association (BA) and then adding my own whimsical spin on them. I have used US definitions rather than those developed by UK bodies such as CAMRA and SIBA as I feel these are the most up to date and accurate with regards to what is actually being brewed in terms of IPA specifically.

This is good. There are a few styles missing, of course, but that’s quibbles. Pre-craft* macro IPAs still exist. Beers like Harpoon IPA which were sometimes called NEIPA before NEIPA. And beers like Keiths IPA which are macro lagers but which are also somewhat popular. And Deuchars. What the hell is that, anyway? And North America has almost 180 years of continuous autonomous IPA brewing history.** But these are quibbles. As is a snapshot of what the marketeers are making you believe these days, it’s great. Play Ron’s game, too!

I might be more sympathetic to this effort to raise awareness about greenwashing published in Forbes if the brewery were not owned by a firm that supplies a murderous military dictatorship.

Josh Noel*** published the story of that darling of that past brief era called “craft” – Goose Island Bourbon County – in this the year of pandemic:

The Bourbon County show must go on. Exactly how it will go on during the coronavirus pandemic is unclear. But as it has for the past 10 years, Goose Island Beer Co. will release its flock of barrel-aged Bourbon County beers the day after Thanksgiving across Chicago and beyond… But if the COVID-19 pandemic persists into November — which seems likelier than not — those crowds may become a public health hazard.

Of all the things that aren’t worth it these days, somehow a beer release event is very low on the list yet also very high on the list. Like: (i) who would go… (ii) and who would go? NowhuhImsayn?

Jeff complained and complained in a piece he published on the craft era Franken-glass curiosity that is the IPA glass by Spiegelau:

According to designers, the elongated snout-like bowl creates an aroma “cannon”; the Michelin-man bubble-ridges at the base agitate the beer into further aromatic heights. Curves can be nice, but these are jejune—they don’t flow naturally, but rather bulge foolishly like the barrel on a 1960s toy ray-gun.

I again remind the most careful readers that the whole thing was a bit carney as the glass is just a relabeled existing design with a few ml more in volume. Racket. Better to use a jam jar.

For some reason, the Brewers Association is keeping data it has published related to Brewery opening and closing hours private, available to the membership. Unnecessarily Masonic. And I should know! I expect it is similarly a bit pointless as Le Bart may have been foreshadowing. Kinda comforting to be excluded, too.

Well, that is it. OK but no award winner. Hah! Who needs awards? For more of the same but different, check in with Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Not to mention Cabin Fever. And Ben has finally gone all 2009 and joined in with his own podcast, Beer and Badword. And BeerEdge, too.

*If anyone calls anything before around 2005 “craft” you have to remember and sympathize as they might be a beer expert so, you know, that has to be taken into account. See if you can find a US brewing historian specializing in the 21st century instead.
**The reality is there were at least three coexisting sources acting routes to US micro IPA brewing. So far I have: (i) UK home brewing and brewing encountered on 1970s and 80s personal and professional travels both ways across the Atlantic, (ii) Bert Grant and his Canadian roots and routes in strong hoppy ales, (iii) SNPA as a clone of Ballentine as Foster explained. But don’t be looking to others to tell you that.
***Pour Le Double!!!

The Thursday Beery News Notes For The Last Of April 2020

Hello again. It’s been another week. We seem to have all hit some sort of peak with our experience of this pandemic, if only for this phase one. I sat in the yard last Saturday mainly by myself. Had a beer or two. Pretty grateful for that yard. Still, knowing it all sits heavy on the shoulders, it’s not a bad idea to seek out light entertainment and isn’t that what good beer is? In moderation? Or just as prescribed. It’s not easy. Emma Inch has had a personal essay on her particular challenges published in Original Gravity and it mirrors the experience of my few friends who are especially vulnerable. It is certainly not easy.

Now, a public service announcement. Alistair at Fuggled has declared a special edition of The Session is to be held this very Friday. The Session was one of the best ideas in beer blogging* that ran for over a decade. On the first Friday of the month everyone who was anyone had to write a post about the designated topic. Alistair has continued the concept:

In there is the genesis of the theme for the Quarantine Edition of the The Session, in these unprecedented times, what has become your new drinking normal? Are you drinking more? Less? Have you raided the cellar regularly? Is there a particular brewery whose beer is keeping you company while you are confined to barracks? Has there been a beer revelation in these times?

Write!

Brewery folk are having to redirect their attention, as described in a piece by Josh Noel for the Chicago Tribune. And in Atlanta in Georgia, Monday Night Brewing has released the results of its survey on intended return to the taproom with some fairly specific and graphically displayed results:

While taproom visitors have some trepidation about the immediate future, they are cautiously optimistic about medium-term. 61% of respondents expect their visitation frequency (vs. their reported frequency pre-COVID-19) to go back to normal within 3 months. Still–28% of respondents expect a decline in their brewery visit frequency lasting at least 3 months.

Not unrelatedly, The Tand himself has written a very interesting post on the question of what happens to the pubs when folk get wise that drinks at home are not shabby and no where near as expensive based on his own experience of this new world order:

I’ve enjoyed a different kind of beer o’clock. Around five in the evening E and me have had a beer or two in the sunshine in our garden. Not every evening, but certainly most if the sun is still shining. We have had to wear fleeces on the odd occasion and once, given the rather spiky wind that generally accompanies sunshine in the Grim North, we reinforced our outer apparel with blankets. We have remarked, like everyone else, about the perfect blue skies, the absence of vapour trails and aircraft and enjoyed the birds singing. Not so much though the whirring sound of wood pigeons, but you can’t have everything, can you?

As a bit of counter-measure (and when not wanting help in finding the best British lager), JJB joined the discussion on how pubs in England (he owns one) should deal with the question of pubco tenant rents:

…those getting the grants should indeed apply them toward rent, as the government intended, but pubco should forgive any shortfall if the rent is too high or the closure protracted.

Others are finding that there are things to do in a pub if you live in it:

Dom, 29, said: ‘I moved in just a couple of months before lockdown which has worked out well, considering.’ He is the assistant manager at the pub after starting there as a barman and has been passing the time with Steve, 39, by playing improvised crazy golf inside. They place chess and cook barbecues on the roof when the weather is nice and have been enjoying the fresh beer on tap with no customers to serve.

When will the pub return? Cookie himself says in England it might happen in steps – but is that fair to the little loved places?

A staggered pub opening strategy could see large chain pubs with app ordering and table service and capacity for social distance open first as a trial an then traditional pubs open around xmas and micropubs by summer 2021.

Future forecasting done. For this week’s look at somewhat recent history, the blogwerk** at Seeing the Lizards continues with this installment on the Dutch lager of the 1980’s Oranjeboom 8.5:

Belying it’s current reputation a black-tinned cornershop-stocked super-strength filth, Oranjeboom pilsner was once quite popular in the UK, and was promoted with ads such as this, rammed full of all the Dutch stereotypes the copywriters could think of.

In other history notes, Martyn has been tweeting about gruesome deaths in breweries of yore, a crushing and a boiling so far.

And in very very recent history, Pellicle has published a piece by Will Hawkes on a trip to a hop farm in Kent in 2019… which all seems like a dream to me now:

It’s the end of July, the start of a key period in the Kentish hop-growing calendar. August is when the volume of the harvest is decided: plenty of sun and rain, and all will be well. But rain, like sunshine, cannot be conjured or cajoled. In 2018, during the UK’s hottest summer on record, just 15 millimetres came in August, and the harvest suffered. The year before there was 95mm and it produced the best yield that Haffenden Farm, Hukins’ family plot, has seen in 100 years.

This twitter thread promises an academic dissection of the imagery on a can of sorta Chicago‘s Old Style beer. But it is exceedingly silly.

Escaping the Covid-Blase** Beth Demmon has shared a wonderful portrait of one of the world’s most accomplished beer judges – and in doing so has explained a fair bit about what being one of the world’s most accomplished beer judges means:

Cockerham took her first exam in March 2007 and steadily moved up the hierarchy. In 2012, the same year she achieved Master level, she also became an official mead judge. She reached Grand Master in 2014 and has moved one level higher each year since. And last year, she reached her current level of Grand Master VI. She also became a certified cider judge in April 2019 and is currently the Midwest region representative and assistant exam director with Gail Milburn, whom she laughingly calls her “best beer friend, my BBFF.”

See, that is way better an explanation that the “I went to a fest in [pick a country] and saw all my pals… and we got into it… and it was fun… and some of us made the judging session” sort of tale we see more often.

The Beer Nut himself reached his fifteenth anniversary as a beer blogger this week and celebrated with a beer from Ontario:

Like an increasing number of people, this blog is spending its birthday in lockdown. Happy 15th oulfella. To mark the occasion I have retrieved something from the cellar that, honestly, I meant to drink a while ago and now seems the perfect excuse. I bought this bottle of The Exchange Δ Spontaneous Ale when I was at the brewery in Niagara on the Lake in 2018. It came lauded by local expert David Sun Lee, with a recommendation that it be let sit for a year before opening. Well, it got that, and a bit more.

And finally this week, at Boak and Bailey, Jess herself shared a review of Mûre Tilquin, a lambic with 260g blackberries per litre and it turns out she is a bit of a fan of the fruit:

I have Strong Opinions about them, too. For example, I strongly believe that urban blackberries are better than rural ones and that the best of all come from Walthamstow Marshes; should have Protected Designation of Origin status; and ought to be the subject of lengthy essays about terroir.

I like that. very pro-blackberry. Fight! And keep writing and keep reading. Check in with Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Thanks for stopping by.

**Name twelve!!!
**Not an actual German word.

Fine… It’s March And Here Are The Thursday Beery News Notes

I thought the new month would have made a big difference. But a couple of twelve hour days in hard black shoes and a snow squall meeting me as I got off the bus that finally made it through rerouted traffic and, well… well… well, at least it ain’t February any more. Let’s see what is going on!

First, there was much fretting in Engerlant over the shadowy Portman Group issuing an edict against a beer label. Now, I’ve beer posting about the shadowy Portman Group’s edicts since at least 2008 so I don’t really care that much now. But the fretting of others was remarkable. SIBA objected to the lack of much due process. The BBC covered it like it was an actual news story. Martyn wrote: “Running with Sceptres is not the ditch to die in over the Portman Group and its bans…” and then wrote more. Folk were cloyingly superior, spitting angry and even spent all the rent money. Pete went all Pete and shouted from the barricades that we need to “…check out the beautiful, sometimes strangely moving, artwork.” See, that is my issue. To me, that label on the can looks like panels stolen from a 1950s Rupert the Bear book. And me, I don’t buy beer for the artwork and especially not Rupert the Bear rip-offs. In fact, if the art is too good, I assume they are cutting corners on the actual brewing resources. The money can only be spent once after all. Watch yourselves out there.

In another chapter of the tale how craft goes bad, we learned that Goose Island tri-packs with bottles of 2017, 2018 and 2019 Bourbon County stout have been marked down in the US Midwest to about 20% of their original inflated price. Imagine how many casks of the 2020 and even 2021 are sitting there in brewery warehouses… err… cellars with operating managers knowing how little it is really worth now. With such bad value, maybe they will be candidates for that #FlagshipFlotsam* thing one day.

In yet another sign of craft’s collapse, I had originally thought that this was a parody post from Ben, the tale of a overly-branded vegan brewery in Toronto shutting:

It’s like gentrification on human growth hormones, delivered by “The 5700,” a company that “manages a growing portfolio of lifestyle and entertainment brands that live online.” Now excuse me while I clean up the rage-induced blood-vomit typing that phrase has induced. Vegandale Brewery, which seemed to actually just be a coat of paint and a new name for the main floor of the existing Duggan’s Brewery, who officially moved to the basement of the location six months ago, wasn’t helping the image of veganism. Vegandale Brewery launched with the slogan “Morality on tap” and poured beers like Morally Superior IPA and Shining Example Stout. Yikes.

One last bit of endtimesy-wimsey news from CNY:

The Gordon Biersch Restaurant Brewery in Destiny USA closed today, joining a growing list of locations the national chain has been shutting down across the country. The brewpub — a restaurant with an attached brewhouse — opened in the Syracuse mall in 2012 and occupied a space on the first level, near the Hiawatha Street entrance.

I went there once as the family shopped out in the unending megamall for transitory branded objects. I came away with no actual recollections of the experience. Apparently, I was not alone… or at least not as alone as the bartenders were.

More in line with the “get in line” section of the news, I was glad to see this bit of law enforcement in Ontario’s news this week:

Jason Fach, 38, pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death in December. An agreed statement of facts says that he had had four 20 oz. beers in a little more than an hour at St. Louis Bar and Grill the night of the crash. Fach has been sentenced to six years in prison. On Feb. 28, police announced that they had charged the restaurant, its owners and two staff members. The charges include selling liquor to an intoxicated person, permit drunkenness on licensed premises and failing to facilitate inspection. Under Ontario law, an establishment and its ownership can be held responsible for overserving someone.

The liability of a licensed establishment is distinct from social host liability in which responsibility is much reduced here in the land of the maple and the moose.

On another sort of establishment in another land, Retired Martin posted a lovely photo essay, a snippet of one of which sits above, on a very specific topic this week:

“Should it be open ?” I asked the chattiest of the group, all of whom had OS maps in plastic wallets round their necks. “Oh yes, I phoned them up before we set off. They SAID they’d be open”. Hmmm.

Even more elsewhere, it was Icelandic Beer Day last Sunday.

A nice posi-post of a piece on a lager was sent out via the internets by Pellicle this week:

Thankfully, there was Keller Pils, a lemon-bitter pale lager from Bristol brewery Lost and Grounded. The first barely touched the sides: one gulp, two gulps, three gulps, gone. The second, golden and glistening with condensation in a Willi Becher—a classic straight German glass that tapers elegantly towards the top—took longer. It was crisp but rich, toasty and bitter, direct and deeply rewarding.

One problem with these sorts of nice posi-posts is how they remind you of other positive experience unrelated to the subject matter. I can think of fifty other beers that have happily let to “one gulp, two gulps, three gulps, gone” which is not, I suspect, the point of writing about a particular thing. I did notice the pretty can, however. And this rather honest comment from a co-owner of the brewery:

“It’s like a Rubik’s cube, you know?” Alex says. “It’s about the branding. It’s the communications. It’s the quality of the product. It’s about people out on the road talking about it. It’s about how you work with the wholesalers … it’s all sorts of everything.”

And speaking of nothing in particular, here’s an interesting bit of spam by email:

I am the marketing director for Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales. As you may know, Jolly Pumpkin is an all wild, oak-aged brewery. We are announcing the launch of a new canning line for our wild ales and thought that your readers might be interested in the news. The first beers off the line will be year-round favorites, Bam Bière and Calabaza Blanca. We will also be canning Hyrrokkin, the first release of a new fruited seasonal saison series.

Jolly Pumpkin in a can! Long term readers will recall when I spent a happy late afternoon in the company of owner/brewer Ron J back in 2007 when beer bloggers were still unique enough to not have the parking lot lights turned off and all the doors locked when one showed up to check out a brewery. Now they sell the stuff in a can. Pretty cans. Life comes at you quickly.

Speaking of the most fabulous thing I heard related to the drinks trade this week…

The bartender at the Radisson Kingswood Hotel in Hanwell, near Fredericton, helped deliver a baby in a snowstorm on Thursday night. Storey said she got the call when she was closing down the bar for the night. “The person who works the front desk, Nick, comes over and says, ‘There’s someone having a baby in our lobby,'” said Storey. “At first I thought he was kidding.”

That’s enough. Once a child is born we have hit peak beer news for the week. And remember, if you want more beer news, check out Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, too. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast now as well! Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. Check them out. They are like blogs but with people speaking and saying “umm” a lot instead.

*…which is still really better than #JetsamJanuary if you think about it.