Category: England

The Days May Grow Short When You Reach September, Frank, But There’s Still Time For Beery New Notes

The summer has raced by. We only have a bit of lingering warmish things left. Then false summer comes, followed by the now doubly  questionable Indian summer, then lastly a few surprisingly cool rather than cold days. Harvest is coming in. Season of mellow fruitfullness and all that entails. For the ladies to the right it included rather nice dresses. I saw this image on the Twitter feed of The Georgian Lords but have no idea where it is from. I suppose it indicates all hands on a day where there were deck as it’s hardly The Gleaners of months later on in the cycle. But, perhaps surprisingly, not unlike The Harvesters of 1565.

First up and as an excellent introduction for an effort which seeks to separate from chaff from the grain, Stan wrote about an article about wine writers and junkets and other seductions. Like the author, the excellent Jamie Goode, he uses the word “satire” but, as is usually the case with satire, it is framed as such to make a point about a truth:

Good reading from an author who writes, “Personally, I’d rather drink beer than suffer these dull, dishonest, trick-about wines.” Not sure what alternative he’d suggest for dull, dishonest, tricked-about beer.

Is it the beer that is dishonest? In some cases, yes but not always.  Anyway, excellent thoughts as we seek out the good as well as… the Goode in what’s out there to read this week. A reasonable contrasty comparison is this article that Matt noticed by Alicia Kennedy which in part covered similar ground with less of a satirical veneer and more of a personal reflection:

When I was 31 and used my passport again, it was to go to Spain on a trip paid for by a winemaker. The next month, it was a two-week trip to Italy with family that completely drained my meager savings (until I moved to Puerto Rico, this was the longest I’d ever been out of New York), and the next, it was to Scotland for whisky tasting. From 2017 through my move in 2019, I traveled somewhere pretty much every month. These professional opportunities (some personal), about which the ethics were and are always dubious, suddenly began appearing in my inbox at just the right time: after my brother passed away at the end of 2016 and I needed not to wallow, not to continue having panic attacks. 

Staying at home, Martyn triggered a lot of arge and the barge when he himself wrote triggered about changes to the small brewery taxation laws of England and Wales.* It’s all the same to me in that I think reasonably healthy taxation of beer and other strong drinks is a perfectly normal thing to do but decide for yourself:

Much of the outrage seems to come from exaggerated claims of how many and how much brewers will be adversely affected by the proposed reforms, and allegations that the changes will mean large brewers gaining at the expense of small brewers, though the group that led the call for a change in SBR, the Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition, includes a fair number of brewers making less than 5,000 hectolitres a year among its 60-plus members.

Plus, and I presume some brewers read this so I appreciate it’s not what everyone wants to hear, the idea that the outrage is “manufactured” is not necessarily an accusation. It’s a reality that the discourse is bent and pushed and pulled for any number of reasons and interests. This is one of them.

According to the NME, 99 metal bands have signed up for a ’99 Bottles Of Beer’ charity cover:

The idea for the cover was put together by The Boozehoundz, the moniker of Scour members Derek Engemann and John Jarvis alongside Robin Mazen of Gruesome. It sees 99 musicians all singing a single line of the song, amounting to a mammoth 23-minute song.

All of which is entirely excellent.

Speaking of music, the earlier Matt in my life on these information superhighways linked to an excellent remembrance of being a teen at raves in Preston 30 years ago:

There was an abundance of places to go out to in Preston in the early 90s. The country was in recession but everyone was partying hard. Friday was rave night at Lord Byrons and Saturday was indie/dance. After a grim experience at a club in town when I was 16, Saturday nights at Byrons became part of my life. Most Saturday nights from the beginning to the end of 1991 we were there, drinking cider and black, dancing to our favourite music and forging friendships that would continue for three decades and more.

Reads as true as a witness statement in a criminal proceeding.

Andreas K. wrote about Carinthian Steinbier this week, an Austrian beer that disappeared over 100 years ago, and in doing so gave us a great intro into the world of hot rocks in cauldrons:

Carinthian Steinbier is interesting because it survived for a fairly long time, until 1917 to be exact, despite repeated attempts to completely supplant it with what was called “kettle brewing”, i.e. brewing involving metal kettles. During other research, I recently stumbled upon a 1962 article that is probably the most detailed description of Carinthian Steinbier tradition that I’ve found so far.

“Things You Gotta Try” on NPR’s Splendid Table included dipping Oreos in red wine. Oatmeal Walnut cookies in Imperial Stout anyone?

I have to admit, I have no interest in hard seltzer or hard soda or hard kombuchca and even little interest in most beer writing about cider but I do appreciate Beth’s argument that at least for the business of brewing, non-beer may be one of the ways forward:

They’re not the only San Diego brewery to fully embrace the seltzer craze. Mikkeller’s own line of hard seltzers—dubbed “Sally’s Seltzer” as a nod to one half of their iconic character duo Henry and Sally—launched in January 2020 in response to craft consumers’ changing demographic. “It’s a perfect change of pace for any type of drinker—and a cool opportunity for us to connect with a wide demographic,” explains founder/CEO Mikkel Borg Bjergsø. “It also fits with our desire to be inclusive and reach as many people as possible.”

Let’s be honest. They are end-times beverages, just the same coolers which have been with us for almost thirty years and just gak by another name. As relevant to an interest in good beer as the brand of bubble gum stuck under a pub’s table top. Mr. B. noted the latest abomination: “India pale hard seltzer.” FFS.

Finally, it was with great sadness that I heard the news about the death of Jack Curtin, dean of Philadelphia’s beer writing scene. He was a great supporter of this beer blog from day one and someone with whom I shared an interesting email relationship even if we never met. One of his greatest skills was ripping into his pal Lew Bryson, who I know will mark the loss deeply.

Enjoy the rest of your summer days. As you do, check in with Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (where Jordan shits on church ladies and is dead wrong about coconut macaroons) 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.

 

 

 

*Never sure when these things apply to the whole or the part.

The Nights Have Gone Cool But Thursday Beery News Notes Go On

Achy. A bit from leaving the window open all night despite the forecast of quite cooler air. And me swimming in the big lake when its no longer quite so warm. Winter is coming. I’ve been in the lake maybe seven or ten times over the last few weeks. How long will it last? I grew up swimming in forest rivers as well as the North Atlantic Ocean back home in Nova Scotia. Lakes were always a bit stagnant by comparison. Folk call that “wild swimming” these days. I just call it swimming. Who knew the big water in the nearby big lake would be so big? Beach sand in the car. Beach toys in the trunk. Battered and beaten and happy am I.

First off, before the snow blows, Retired Martin has taken us on a trek to a pub in a lovely traditional thatched roof village in Devon, the Globe Inn in Beaford:

…turns out to be the most crafty of any place I visited in Devon. Plain but welcoming, a good all-rounder whose GBG credentials are a bit mystifying till you taste the beer. That little fridge on the right (below) was packed full of 10% DIPAs and mango sours…

Last weekend, I listened to a repeat of a short piece on the NPR radio show TTBOOK on the changes for the worse that have been imposed upon Bourbon County Stout through the sale of Goose Island to evil big industrial beer. It was particularly gratifying to see guest Josh Noel demonstrating the “nostril in the glass” technique I have been advocating for for about a decade and a half. Not unrelated but to the contrary, Mike reminded us on Twitter of the upside of the buy-out of craft:

You know when a brewery sells to the big guys and they say that it offers them more resources than they would have normally? This example shows that perfectly. Safe place for customers and their employees continue to have jobs. Just sayin.

Everyone’s favourite Midwest bar, the Olympic Tavern, that they have never visited had a rough bit of bad customer experience this week, something that highlights that during times of crisis some folk place having a beer and a Margarita high up on their priorities. Handled well. Along a similar vein, Pellicle has posted the tale of a Scottish drinking habit that, being Scots, I’ve never quite heard of:

The hauf an a hauf is traditional and modern at the same time. It’s a Scottish cultural institution we can be proud of: a combination in which to luxuriate, rather than down in pursuit of a buzz. The hauf an a hauf is about savouring both, two halves coming together to create something new, whole, and wholly wonderful. 

There must be an alt-tartan reality that excluded the generations before me as the idea that there is some long  pervasive history of buzz avoidance going on north of Gretna Green is news to me. Rather than suggesting it is a tradition, in 2014 TheBeerCast described the novelty in this way:

I guess the bottom line here is what do you want from a hauf and hauf? To get loaded, quicker? A US-style ‘Shot and a beer, Dolores’? Or to give a depth of flavour to each drink? It seems, judging from the conversation, that the way half and halves are being seen is changing, as a newer generation of beer/whisky fans indulge in the practice as a tasting exercise, rather than an end-of-shift exercise…

That makes more sense. That’s more in line with Great-Grannie Campbell between the wars being banned for life – a number of times – from the James Watt pub in Greenock even though she lived right above it. Or more likely because. Then the grandchildren being kicked out when they were sent to get a gill on her behalf.

More currently, Matt noted with some hesitancy the creation of something called the Small Brewers Forum in the UK. It is open to breweries:

The Small Brewers Forum has been formed to protect and preserve small British breweries and those who operate them. We have a successful and strong collective voice and campaign on behalf of our members to ‘fight for fairness’ in the industry. We take our campaigning to the highest level at national government as well as local government and within the brewing industry.

The published material indicates that the “only let small brewers join (sub-10000hL) so I can be sure that they represent what’s good for me without any of the big guys pulling the strings.” This makes a lot of sense to me. The numerical majority of brewers are small and have local markets. Their issues are very different from regionals and big craft. Here in Ontario, while there isn’t a second organization after OCB, the membership of that organization represents only the minority of the province’s brewers. Trade organizations structured on “craft” or geography make less sense than those with common issues based on scale.

In the ha ha dumb dumb news item of the week, Budweiser was caught echoing Eco*:

On Friday, the company wrote, in a now-deleted tweet, about two of their brands, Budweiser and Bud Light. “Reject modernity, embrace tradition,” the tweet read, telling consumers to enjoy the original beverage over it’s lower-calorie counterpart. Pictured were the sleek, modern-looking Bud Light can, along with the classic designed Budweiser beer. However, the seemingly simple message raised some eyebrows. One Twitter user, Joshua A.C. Newman, pointed out the origins of the text for the ad. “Are you deliberately quoting the first two elements of Umberto Eco’s 14 elements of Fascism?” he responded to the since-deleted tweet.

There’s that concept of “tradition” again. Calling card of the casually ahistorical.

And, as recommended by Andy, I signed up for the beer newsletter by David Infante – and was pleased to find out it was also a blog. There are a lot of beer blogs holding themselves out as online beer magazines and newsletters these days. It’s a bit sad that self-publishing is that little bit needy that it needs to hide itself behind odd labels and a thin veneer of exclusivity. Anyway, his latest blog post “Hire me, White Claw” caught my attention primarily as it confirmed what I should have known – this year’s trendy cooler White Claw is Canadian!!!** While Jordan mentioned it in passing in his recent post he did not hit me over the head with the fact. Never had one sip myself. Nope. So virtuous I am.  Plus I have Pickled Green Bean Clamato for that.

Stan has been telling tales again – this time about new hops being named and brought to market:

By announcing a name for the experimental hop previously known as HBC 692 the company signaled she is her own brand. “We were getting very significant pull (demand),” said Jason Perrault, CEO and hop breeder for Yakima Chief Ranches. HBC is a partnership between YCR and John I. Haas. “We’ve seen the impact it can have in a beer. Unique, but appealing. It was just time to give it its own identity.” The name, Talus, is a nod to the talus slopes found in the Yakima Valley. She is a daughter of Sabro, the hop formerly known as HBC 438 and commercialized in 2018.

I’m not a hop spotter myself, preferring to drink and think about beer once made but it is interesting to see how in the hop trade these sorts of things matter. Mr Stange even admitted to having been aware of the name (before the name was released) by way of  an embargoed press release – which made me wonder if new shoe lace tech also comes with embargoed press releases. You should also sign up for Stan’s newsletter Hop Queries to really keep up. It’s a blog he sends to you monthly by email.

Finally, Jeff posted a post on Wednesday about the brewing volume stats coming out of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission so far in this very odd year:

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission tracks the taxable barrels sold by Oregon breweries in Oregon. I’ve been watching to see when the June report would drop, because that will give us six months of data to see what kind of violence COVID-19 has done to breweries. The upshot: it’s been bad, but maybe not as bad as we might have guessed back in March. Thirteen of the top twenty breweries were down from this time last year, some substantially. But overall, the top 20 breweries were only down 2% from the same period in 2019.

While that is an average that is great news. If I could go back to myself five months ago, in the middle of the beginning of the stress of what was to come, and say “don’t worry it’ll only be 2% off” I’d be ecstatic. Now, it’s clear that it is an average and some are suffering more than that but for an economic snapshot that’s a pretty sweet picture.

In news of the ancient, Merryn gave me the heads up about a weekly web event put on by EXARC, “the ICOM Affiliated Organisation on Archaeological Open-Air Museums, Experimental Archaeology, Ancient Technology and Interpretation”:

Historical-archaeological Beer Brewers unite! We meet for a chat, this Saturday, 20:00h CET. It’s free, it’s open access and for anybody with a serious interest and / or experience with historic, archaeological craft brewing, anywhere in the world.

You sign up, too! Now!! I may be mowing as that’s mid-afternoon on the best day of the week. The heart of Saturday afternoon which is prep time for the heart of Saturday night.***

Here’s an interesting bit of news. An Albertan laboratory ran a study of beers entered into an awards judge-y thing to see if there were patterns in award giving outery:

The Raft Beer Labs analysis, published on its website, showed a few trends among medal-winning beers. Fresher beer was more likely to win an award. Medal winners were more likely to have a dry-finish than non-winners. Award-winning beers also tended to be clearer, with less turbidity than non-winners. Medal winners were also found to have lower free amino nitrogen levels and tended to be slightly higher in alcohol content than their target. The analysis also showed that both winners and non-winners were less bitter — measured in IBUs, or International Bittering Units — than the listed level, and both winners and non-winners had some microbial contamination, from wild yeasts or bacteria.

Interesting. Clearer, stronger and less bitter beers were preferred. The opposite of trendy low-alc murky hop bombs the blogs and micro blogs and photo blogs and podcast blogs and multi-author blogs are all talking about.

Finally, I am not sure I understand the point of this story. Why care about a brewery that many have written off? Why write and publish “Founders continues to defend its corporate culture”?

Done! For more of the good stuff but from a different view and in a range of blog formats, check in with Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (listen as they shit on Belleville this week!) 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.

*I know – excellent, right?
**Which is sorta like saying “Soylent Green is people!” in some circles.
***Yup.
****The greatest Great Lake is obviously Lake Ontario as it contains all the other Great Lakes.

The Dog Days Of August Offer Similar Beery News Notes

It’s August. If the barley ain’t in, it will be soon. That’s out the outside world. In inside world news, DSL reposted the image above, the interior of C’est What in downtown Toronto. Does it really pose a problem? C’est What is one of my favourite “waiting for the train home” pubs, as noted 15 years ago and again 5 years ago. I haven’t been on a train for five months. No idea when I will again. But I will.

What’s been going on? I don’t know how to footnote a podcast* or quite a passage from one so all I can do is recommend Andy’s thoughts on the needs for independent reportage of the brewing trade. More meta arose in response to Jeff’s further thoughts on the state of making a freelance living from beer writing:

Many hours in a freelance writer’s life are not occupied by the activities that directly contribute to finished pieces, and a level of chaos emerges from all the other odd work that rattles around, inevitably demanding attention at inconvenient, unexpected moments. Let’s spend a moment unpacking them.

Responses ensued** from many including Eoghan, Maureen, Boak and Bailey and Katie. Me, it’s a mug’s game honestly entered into that often leads to this which leads to this and then oddly this.

Elsewhere, Jon Abernathy reports on the Black Is Beautiful project in Oregon:

I just checked, and the number in Oregon is now 37 on the website, though it doesn’t count Deschutes Brewery, which partnered with The Ale Apothecary (as I mention in the article), so really it’s 38 in Oregon. This is a vitally important project that shouldn’t be ignored. If you see a Black is Beautiful beer on tap, or available in cans, buy it—your dollars will help to fund the necessary change we need to see right now.

Some questions arose over the weekend as to how many of your dollars were actually helping fund change as the differences between proceeds and profits were discussed. But elsewhere real money was gathered: $20,000 and $12,000 for example.

Speaking of gathering resources against the forces of badness, I like this bit of brewing industry legal news. Source Brewing in New Jersey has released a beer called West Coast Troll to help raise funds to help Sawstone Brewing in its defense of the odd threat of an intellectual property legal action brought by one of big craft’s top millstones, Stone:

Here at Source, we do not condone bullying and we are all about supporting small businesses. It’s important to stop and remember how we got here, and how beautiful and life-changing the craft beer community is for so many people. Rising tides raise all ships and our collective focus should remain on sticking together and resisting the corporate bullying often exercised by “Big Beer,” and not on picking on one another. We stand with Stone Brewing in their dispute with MillerCoors, but we firmly support Sawstone Brewing in defending their right to exist.

Class. And solidarity. And Stone as a result has earned itself a FB page rallying for a boycott. Brilliant. Surely completely unconnected was the sudden departure of Stone’s CEO.

Historically, Martyn has told a tale again, this time about Flowers Keg ale in the 1950s and an anti-slaver posse in the 1820s in US Midwest:

Let us begin at the beginning. I knew about Richard Flower because he is an important figure in the history of brewing in Hertfordshire, and I knew he had moved to Illinois to join his son George, who was one of the pioneers in developing what was called the “English Settlement” in the territory, which developed into the city of Albany. But I didn’t know that Richard, who was born in London, had trained at Whitbread…

Health-wise, Evan wrote about alcohol and health claims for Wine Enthusiast:

“Many people are aware of the negative effects of drinking, but drink anyway,” she says. For many, she says, such internal conflict can produce a feeling of mental discomfort. “Reading a newspaper article that states that drinking isn’t that bad after all might reduce this feeling of discomfort.” 

Note: there is still no J-curve.

And filed under very pleasant surprises, while it has not often been the case, I really enjoyed something in Good Beer Hunting. I’ve too often been let down by past cut and paste jobs leaning on too heavily on the published work of others followed by the typical “one the one hand on the other” tepid conclusions. But not this week when Kate Bernot really put the old boot in the Brewers Association. Consider this bit of well deserved finger-pointery:

The BA’s assertion that it will not kick out breweries unless doing so has strong support from other member breweries indicates the organization will not take a top-down approach to eradicating racism among members. Yet experts in the business world have said corporate leadership is especially necessary on these issues.

Among other responses, it got me looking through my own archives and found (then, imagine – tweeted) this gem of days now seemingly long gone:

From the archives: “The Eight Years Reign of Craft Beer Ends” (Jan., 2015) [See this timely thought… => “One of the key PR goals of the Brewer’s Association has been control of the discourse.”] 

Not no more. Good news that story. A bit of spine. Now, if we can just get the guild of pro-am beer editors with empty pantry issues stop praising crappy PR cut and paste sweatshops I might be able to sleep at night. Similarly, the Polk says F the guilds… sorta.

Getting back to the actual life of the actual consumer, the Tand himself wrote about the joys and pitfalls of app service as opposed to table service in the pandemic pub scene:

Our next stop Mackie Mayor had similar issues. If you wanted to only have a drink, you had to sit outside – fine – and use the app – not so fine. This time it wouldn’t download on Android, but it liked Mike’s iPhone. Details required were of the intrusive nature. This took 20 minutes or so again and this time, after a ten-minute wait, decent pints of cask, in proper glasses, were brought. Overall though much more bearable. But not that great.

Not great at all.

Worse? Yes, it could be far worse. Well, there is Cowbell here in Ontario. Check out the second half of the latest OCPG podcast for the details but it’s a bit of an ugly initial mess followed by a PR mess followed by not sure what next… ugh.

Well, that is it. 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.

*But is a podcast even a podcast without thirty-five “umms” and a dozen snorts? Can’t wait for the new profession of beer podcast audio producers and sound engineers to arise to follow in the brave footsteps of the post-2018 phenom of beer writing editors.
**Oddly, no suggestion that beer writing editors were the solution…

Your Thursday Newsy Notes For The End Of July In Beerland

After last week’s mess of unified theory of a something or other, it would be nice to find some chat that is (i) about beer and (ii) not about other things. You know, those bits of the trivial dribble that attracted me to scribbling about beer in the first place. It’s not just that good beer got into sectarian schisms, then politics, then laced with the pandemic – it’s that it all got so real. Don’t get me wrong, the real is good and important. But sometimes I like to wallow in, the vital but unimportant things in life. Like that really sad BBQ pack, above, that my pal Brian saw at a Maritime Canadian grocery store this week. Pointless… yet strangely compelling.

As a means to hopefully show what I mean, consider this wonderful bit by Katie in Pellicle on the place of burger vans in her life:

This is where I draw the line between burger vans and food trucks. For me, food trucks bring me images of gourmet falafel wraps, jackfruit tacos, outrageous fried chicken and homemade sauces. They’re run by chefs and dreamers on enthusiasm and aspiration, passion and excitement. I enjoy them, but they are a different beast. A burger van might also be a grill on wheels, but that’s where the comparisons stop. A burger van is a means to an end. The owners are chipper, but brisk and efficient. The sauces are bulk-bought and sharp with vinegar and citric acid.

Lovely writing about what is basically… well, is “…what my mum would call “a waste of money.” I have especially enjoyed following her family’s obsession with Superbike, something which really does not exist in my imaginary North America, something British which I only know through staring at 1930s racing championship programs on offer at eBay.

Beer reviews. That is pretty old school straight forward beer blogging, right? Well, Alistair over at Fuggled has renewed his blogging activity and shared his thoughts on one old friend, London Pride:

There are times when I drink this that I really understand why American brewers and drinkers have such a hard time grasping the fact bitter should be, well, bitter. It’s not that it is terribly sweet, though the mouthfeel feels a little like undissolved jelly cubes, it’s that the hops are nudged out by the famous Fuller’s yeast character, as well as not being the same kind of citrus as folks are used to here. So many breweries here use very clean top fermenting yeasts that the character of the beer is so different, and I wonder if American breweries under hop the tyle as a result?

And when the conscientious beer blogger is not writing reviews, she or he should be discussing pubs like the Tand himself did this week when he wrote about one of his “…favourite pubs in the UK, the Coalbrookdale Inn in, well Coalbrookdale…” and included this fabulous paragraph:

After a few minutes – the pub has a more or less square bar – the landlord shouted “Phone call for Peter”.  We all ignored this. Now to explain to my younger reader, back in those days – pre mobile phone – it wasn’t at all unusual to call a pub and ask to speak to “whoever” if he is in.  Now nobody knew we were there we thought and therefore the call out in a busy pub could not possibly be for any of us and could be safely ignored. We carried on supping. Having got no response, the barman returned to the phone, presumably to relate the lack of success to the caller.  A few seconds later he appeared in front of us. “Any of you lads Peter Alexander?” quoth our hero. I stammered “Me” while we all looked on in astonishment. “Phone call for you” he said.

Do you like brewing history? Good news for all! The UK’s National Brewery Centre’s archives have gone online:

Two years ago a project began to produce a digital catalogue and this is what launches today. At a cost of £50,000, it was funded by generous grants from the likes of the Consolidated Charity of Burton on Trent, Staffordshire Community Foundation, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Brewers’ Research Education Fund, additional funds were raised from corporate and individual donors as well as via a crowdfunding campaign. The archive system was designed and built by Shrewsbury-based digital heritage consultants Orangeleaf Systems, whose other projects include The Parliamentary Archives and the Royal Mail Archives.

More fabulousness!

Lars opened up a small can of worms in a very small pantry when he asked “What counts as a farmhouse ale?” in an actual blog post:

The most common question I get in interviews is “what do you consider to be a farmhouse ale?” and since the answer is a little involved I decided to write it up more fully. There is a fairly clear-cut definition, but it takes a little explaining.

I think the only issue is that Lars has to have one footnote to the first paragraph that reads “*supra, Lars” given he is both the reporter and the compiler of the information in the topic. I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that there is a thing called “farmhouse ales” which is an umbrella noun under which all styles fall. But I do like it as a process description that is identifying similar practices playing out in sheds and kitchens in disconnected locations. As a function of what the life of a farmhouse includes.  As Lars notes in his piece:

In the 18th and the 19th Centuries, you had plenty of farming treatises being published. In most if not all of them you have a chapter on brewing.

Brewing as a farming function as much as managing the manure pile or tilling the fields. Note: the wonderful Girardin grows its own grain and has done so for generations… but it may not be brewing farmhouse ale.

Perhaps less monumental that van burgers or les bieres des shed, is the story told by B+B of pubs collecting pennies for charity in post-war Britain:

Looking through old brewery in-house magazines from the 1950s and 60s, one recurring image is inescapable: a monstrous pile of pennies on a bar, in the process of being toppled by a celebrity.

Jeff wrote about losing his blog’s sponsorship to Covid (sorta like I did in the aftermath of the market crash of 2008) which is a very brave admission and not really fabulous at all:

The first question was whether I should even continue with the site. Most writers don’t maintain blogs. They would rather put their effort into procuring and writing paid gigs. It was kind of crazy that I hadn’t monetized the site at all for its first decade, and I realized I couldn’t put the hours of work into it for free anymore. Either ditch it or—sorry for the crass jargon—monetize it. I decided to try the latter before resorting to the former, and considered how to do so in the way that would minimize my conflict of interest while maximizing revenue.

Keep the blog. Writing gigs may make money but the writing is Dullsville.

And lastly, Stan went into the woods this week and he sure got a big surprise.

Enough unreality for you? Fine. OK…. here are the top real news items for the week:

1. JJB took a side on the small brewers’ tax credit reforms in England and Wales. Matt is angry over the same thing.

2. Jeff has split off his political writing from his beer blog to share what he is seeing on the front lines of the fight in the US’s pro-democracy movement in his hometown.

3. Alcohol use, especially heavy use, weakens the immune system and thus reduces the ability to cope with infectious diseases.

4. And today would be a great day to arrest those who killed Breonna Taylor.

Don’t forget it is real out there.  The cool sip of a mild legal intoxicant that is wearing down your internal organs prematurely should not distract you too much from the real. Beer isn’t real.*

There. Done. Some great pro-am and am beer writing for the week. A bit of a side show but, still, worthy in itself. For more, 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.

*The latest blurt from Stone should be enough proof of that.

The First Thursday Beer News Notes for A Q3 2020 Week

See, we made it to Q3! Now we can sing all the Q3 carols, dance the Q3 dances and enjoy all the hot mulled ales of Q3s of old. It’s stinking hot here. Nutty hot. +40C with the humidity hot. Too hot – I might add – even for a beer. At a certain point, I’m just of the iced club soda sorta guy. And busy. This has been a nutty week already. I’m writing this wearing a tie in my laundry room waiting for my chance to answer a question over the next five or six hours on another Zoom meeting. Oh, no… a Webex meeting. Choppier Webex.

The return to pubs in Britain, as Mudgie noted, led to a lot of chat about whether we are being fair to all our brothers and sisters in ale and lager when we think of who got to the newly reopened door first. I liked the image above tweeted from that good day which included the comment ” Jimmy hasn’t gone to bed after his night shift tarmacking the roads.” Nice. I’m on Team Jimmy. Jeff marked the last day of carry-out at his pub with another great image and I am convinced he, too, is on Team Jimmy. We all, however, hate the no-shows and, as Katie noted, hate the bad reviews on day one. But beware the worst beer garden in Scotland.

Jeff at Beervana has been sharing some stories provided by the breweries and brew pubs and bars in his part of the world and what Covid-19 has meant for their businesses. Matt Van Wyk of Alesong Brewing shared some thoughts about the problem that his clients are mainly human beings:

…if you don’t work very hard to keep order in your facility (rules, signs, verbal herding) people will certainly move toward chaos and do whatever the heck they want without remembering we are in a world pandemic. “Please don’t touch that water pitcher with the sign ‘Staff only!’ on it.” Most people are very respectful of what we in the industry have to deal with but it’s hard to serve both sides of the “caution spectrum.”

The US Brewers Association has been in the news – but not perhaps for one item that caught my eye, the salaries paid top staff:

CEO Bob Pease earned $341,950 in compensation in 2018, plus $44,370 in “estimated other compensation from the organization and related organizations.” That’s down from the $409,000 he earned in base compensation in 2017, and more than Charlie Papazian earned in the same position in 2014. Papazian’s salary at that time was $258,000.

Yowza!*  That’s hospital chief executive coin! And a hell of a lot of coin for an organization which in its hymnal offers the regular refrain “there is no money in craft beer.” GBH much to my surprise did some good digging, letting Kate Bernot do the job properly and and did a follow up with a post contextualizing recent staff shifts in a very neat and tidy way. Others raised other issue related to the value proposition including this:

I’ve been vocal about my concerns with @BrewersAssoc harboring racist members recently, and in response they followed me (perhaps to spy), and I’ve been ignored here and on Instagram while white folks both places get responses.

Not good. Dr J. invited folk to step up and get in there to make the change. Similarly from Beth,

…whoops just wrote a 1,500 word critique about San Diego beer for a local beer magazine, brb gotta go prime my inbox for hate mail.

Timely and excellent news, then, on the creation of a scholarship fund to increase diversity in brewing and distilling:

Renowned Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver announced the formation of the Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling (MJF) to help people of colour in, or who wish to join, the brewing and distilling industries. The MJF will be helping ‘predominantly people of colour’ by funding scholarship awards to ‘directly fund a more equitable and dynamic future for brewing and distilling’, Oliver said on Twitter…

Happy to see that the brewing scholarship is named as Sir Geoff Palmer Scholarship Award for Brewing. I have been following Sir Geoff on Twitter for a while but have to admit that I did not do so for any reason related to brewing. My parents came from Scotland, Dad from a sugar refining city, and I found him solely through his writing on racial discrimination there and through Scotland’s connections to the sugar slave trade. Fabulous decision.

Crowds of actual modernists – some wearing boaters! – flooded the streets of Dublin as noted by Monsieur Noix du Biere himself.

And Matt C himself had something dear to my heart published this week – an essay entitled “How to Start a Beer Blog“!!

The first piece of doubt you’ll form when you consider starting out as a blogger is that there are already loads of beer blogs in existence, so why does the world need another? In truth there really aren’t that many voices in beer, and there is no such thing as too many beer bloggers. Sure it might take a few good posts to earn your stripes from some of those who’ve been doing it for a while, but people love reading about beer, and a new voice providing fresh content is always welcome.

Boom!!! I’ve been saying that all month… or more… probably more…

Finally, traces of Iron Age beer have been found in Sweden.

Another week in the books. And as Matt said, keep writing and tell us what you see. Be brave. Do it! And 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.  In their latest episode, Robin and Jordan are showing signs of losing it from da ‘Vid… or they just really have an odd sense of geography and time. Never mind! 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.

 

*Ms. Ogle did not share my thoughts.

 

Thursday Beery News Notes For These Shortening Days

OK. Going to share a little something. I now really like the idea of just getting past 2020. There. Said it. Unless 2021 is worse. Like “human farming alien invasion from outer space” worse. That’d be bad. Regardless, time marches on and we are now that bit closer to the future than the past. Here we are. The summer of being snaky. Myself, I have taken to buying stuff I don’t need and driving around town once or twice a week, burning gasoline listing to Motörhead. Never sure if having a drink will help or lock in the funk. It’s a weird year. Has anyone ever mentioned that to you? Thought so.

Fine. Now, we might as well jump right back into the Covid-19 observations. Because 2020. Lisa Grimm shared her thoughts on visiting a pub in Ireland this week:

I don’t think I’d chance a busy, crowded pub with a non-family group at this point, but a relaxing meal, seated far from other people, worked well. Obviously this is only going to work for a subset of pubs, and there are no easy answers there, but hopefully this is a small step forward, and COVID-19 cases will continue to go down, allowing more flexibility. But until there’s a working vaccine, it seems like it’s possible, with some sensible precautions in place, to support local pubs and breweries in person from time to time.

And Cookie had some interesting thoughts on reopening as a general matter:

In deciding whether to go back to the pub, I confess to mixed thoughts. Pubs are not necessary, and they are unlikely to be able to provide the type of relaxed hospitality I enjoyed for some time yet. Nevertheless, the regimented hospitality of Perspex, masks, gloved hands, app ordering, disinfected tables and whatnot is something to experience even if it is to report back here how utterly terrible it is. Like visiting a craft brewery tap under a railway arch in a shithole district of a northern city. Something to do at least once just so you can moan about the ridiculous price for poor crap. Imagine being a pub and beer interested person and not experiencing one of the big forced changes to hospitality in a generation and not be in a position to comment from your own experience?

This is good. Because so much drinks writing is written from the perspective of name dropping boostering folk, who seem to mainly want to be palsy with the supposed cool people who run breweries, bars and trade associations rather than to ask the tougher questions,* we often forget that the stuff is bought and consumed by actual people not involved with the trade. And that this is the only part of the chain of economic events that keeps the rest going. Right now that means putting safety first. And while me, I was happy in the haze of a mildly drunken hour at a patio a few weeks back but I am now told my accomplices were not. Quite disturbed by the standards, in fact. Maskless waitress hugs for old customers returning. Yig. We apparently won’t be going back anytime soon.

Startling news out of Scotland as Sir Geoff Palmer recalled the foundation of the Scottish Brewing Archive:

Scottish Brewing Archive: As the late Prof. Anna Macleod and I entered the brewery yard 1977 in Edinburgh, I saw a skip filled with paper. I noticed signatures of brewing giants…Pasteur and H. Brown, so I jumped in the skip and rescued them…this was the beginning of the SBA.

Thanks for that! Records are horribly misleading things in large part because of the huge gaps caused by dumpsters. Or barrel fires. Or mid-1900s home insulation alternatives. Records managers love to ditch what is deemed in the now to be transient.  Archivists haaaaate that. Archivists and records managers must have periodic uncomfortably tense arguments at the dinner parties to which hosts unknowingly invite both.

Ray Daniels makes shoes as his hobby.  Which is entirely excellent.

I have a personal interest in urban wine making as I like in a city and I grow grapes. So, it was with mucho focus that I latched onto a story by Matt Curtis on a winery based within London… but then read:

“We are a winery, we are specialists in making wine. We are not a vineyard. We know a lot about viticulture, but this isn’t our focus,” he says, as he explains what he feels sets a more traditional, farm-based winery apart from his own. “We should not expect grape farmers to be world class winemakers. Just as we should not expect a grain farmer to be a world leading brewer.” 

This has nothing to do with Matt’s role but I don’t know how one deals with the fact that we in fact do expect and celebrate grape farmers who make world class wines.  Plus some of the best beer here is made by MacKinnon, a family that farms seed grain.  Wine sans terrior, this. I thought it was going to be a story about urban grapes for urban wine like this story out of Paris in 2018.

Then, this week, Lars posted this picture of an ancient drinking horn and a Twitter chat ensued about the nature of the beast in question. I am on team bear… which is natural as we apparently descend from berserkers:

Along with the general form, teeth, snout, small ears, claws, sturdy arms and slight hump on the back, the stumpy tail pointing downwards also indicates it’s a Eurasian brown bear. Someone could argue that it was a fighting dog with clipped ears and a docked tail but I wouldn’t.

Stan gave us the heads up to this sorta egg-head study of yeasts in a  scientific journal  which has this fabulous and entirely correct conflicts statement up front:

We declare a financial interest in the success of the breweries associated with the authors of this manuscript. No direct funding from these breweries went into the research herein presented beyond the production of the beers sampled. Otherwise, we declare no competing interests.

Would that the world of trade beer writer were so clear. Anyway, the real point is Stan’s reference to the question of the Ballantine yeast creation myth at page 11 of the study:

The history of the American brewing strains as told by brewers originates from just a handful of breweries. The Chico yeasts are specifically thought to originate from a ‘house-strain’ of the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s isolate of BRY-96, which is sold by the Siebel Institute. BRY-96 itself is thought to originate from P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company, which started in 1840 in Newark, New Jersey. The strain has since been distributed to a large number of breweries and yeast propagation companies.

Being the author of a book on the subject, and as Craig noted in detail here, the story of Ballantine started well before 1840 and passed through Albany. In Albany for the two centuries prior to Ballantine showed up, brewers pretty much used surplus brewers yeast. Not sure why it was ever considered particularly historically stable or special other than just being tasty.**

Remember: it’s a total vile dumbass move to refer to genocide to sell your sucker juice. Others not pleased. Boycott worthy move. Doubling down doesn’t help. Update: unbelievable thickheadedness.

There you are. July. Who saw that coming? Keep writing and tell us what you see. Be brave. Do it! And 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.  In their latest episode, Robin and Jordan are showing signs of losing it from da ‘Vid… or they just really have an odd sense of geography and time. Never mind! 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.

*Like “why?” or “really, you don’t think that’s really frigging stupid to refer to Srebrenica and all these other horrific events to explain how you are in a sales lull?”
**TL;DR version?  Page 12: “[W}e suspect that the Ballantine strain is not the literal genetic ancestor…”

The Thursday Beery News Notes For The Time Of Reopenings

Odd thing, openings. Last weekend here in Ontario I was at a favorite outdoor patio. I sat with my back 12 inches from someone else’s back, separated by non-medical garden latticework. Not like the space on offer at Chateau Stonch, above. No, the server wore no mask. The sign said we were to have sanitized ourselves before coming and going. It was great. But we have not had community spread in out city and region. So were they – was I – irresponsible? Dunno.

These concerns are the central topic of the week in beer land. Well, there does seem to be an odd whisper from pro-am editors about the need for pro-am editors and the Toronto… umm… World Beer Club… err… Cup* is having it’s closed set of non-accredited tasting notes aggregated somewhere. But no one really notices. It’s all about the patio this week – and should one stay or should one go. Consider this bit of wisdom from another UK pubby person:

I’m gonna give the flag shaggers a couple of weeks on the piss before I open my place.

It does rather get to the point, no? There will be a number of approaches to being a demanding consumer in these new times. Perhaps as many as there are US states, going by the available data. Boak and Bailey have offered some thoughts for the thinking fan of drinking in pubs round there way:

…we think it’s a no-brainer for pubs to share their risk assessment, or at least evidence that they have done one. It’s a really good way for them to reassure customers that they have thought about everything from a customer and an employee perspective.

Exactly. Making sure folk know what to expect allows the consumer to make the decision. While some go on about “community” it’s important to know that too often that means do what you are told. No sense in that these days. And, if we are being honest, this is one of the best ways to get folk back in the habit of liking what you offer:

Remember, if you have any @BohemBrewer lager in your cellar, we’ll send complimentary fresh replacements for your re-opening on #July4th – get in touch today.

Retired Martin has been visiting the outsides of pubs. He may well be ready. Robin’s not:

Hey, still don’t feel good about going to a bar or restaurant during this pandemic because it’s kind of clear that we’ve done nothing and are all out of ideas so we’re just going to muscle through! That’s a really bad idea!

Elsewhere in the world of alco-health news, helpful thoughts from NPR on how to tell of your new relaxed standards due to Covid-19 are affecting your health:

Despite the lack of dine-in customers for nearly two and half long months during the shutdown, Darrell Loo of Waldo Thai stayed busy. Loo is the bar manager for the popular restaurant in Kansas City, Mo., and he credits increased drinking and looser liquor laws during the pandemic for his brisk business. Alcohol also seemed to help his customers deal with all the uncertainty and fear. “Drinking definitely was a way of coping with it,” says Loo. “People did drink a lot more when it happened. I, myself, did drink a lot more.”

Aside from matters of health, Jordan has taken on the role of critic in chief when it comes to a very odd bit of jingoistic marketing where macro in Canada is appropriating craft:

Great. How long will it take you to find people who want to give up their licensing rights and product for that process? Is it immediate? “Oooh, who do you, the public wanna see in it? Let’s create awareness for something happening next Wednesday?” Horseshit.

I like this question, too, in relation to the degree of actual “jing” in the jingoism:

In the interest of transparency, how many Canadian jobs were shifted from Molson’s Toronto office to Milwaukee’s this year? I heard 200.

Elsewhere, macro-owned Camden Town in England appear to be similarly offering to assist some as they kick others in the shins. As Le Protz noted:

Other brewers, not bankrolled by a global giant, can’t afford to do this….

It’s happening in Belgium, too. But, the good beer world being what it is, some get cold feet apparently when principle rams up against future prospects.

As someone who became an “Esq” master at a certain age, who holds a LLM in addition to the LLB and also (don’t tell anyone) is a lapsed Master Mason, I suppose I should be concerned even though I ain’t really if it all fades away, like this:

The Court of Master Sommeliers is getting rid of the word “master” in common practice. It’s typical for master sommeliers to be referred to as “Master” followed by their last name, but the prestigious wine organization is changing that in an attempt to make the wine industry more inclusive.

Just to be clear, I would never call someone “Master” based on a wine course. And you needn’t worry about calling me that either. Unless your a Mason… because we know what happens when you don’t… but we can’t talk about that, can we.

Street toast!

A quiet week. But it is now summer. Remember. We made it through spring 2020. Live goes on even if we are not sure what sort of life it will be. Keep writing and tell us what you see. Don’t wait for another to tell you and for God’s sake, don’t wait for the pro-am editor to approve. Be brave. Do it! And 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.

*I’m so confused…

As We Bid Adieu To Spring 2020 These Are The Thursday Beery News Notes

I usually like spring… but…  well, let’s say no more about that… I also have to admit that it has been a crazy last few work weeks and the news selections might show it. As justice seems to have begun to regain and even resettle upon the nations, not a lot new in the beer news. But let’s record that for posterity, too.

And it is Father’s Day this Sunday in these parts. I’ve never understood it as usually it means teens doing a bad job at mowing the lawn or little kids destroying the kitchen to make you a bowl of their favorite cereal. Yet, the year they all forgot I went and got a burger by myself, fuming. Drunken History shared this ad to the up and the right as a reminder that “Pops” likes beer on this special day.

We start our notifications of events this week from an unexpected but interesting class of plea from the Tand himself:

I’ve been contacted by a local brewer whose yeast has died during lockdown. If any brewer is willing to help out and get the brewery re-started, please follow me and DM in confidence.

I guess the need for discretion arises should the yeast ranchers of the region find out this brewer dropped the ball… or the flask… or something… Conversely, this brewer is back to work and throwing off the shackles of a bad social media habit:

Well the time has come to hang up my internet fingers…with bars and restaurants slowly coming back my brewing duties are getting back to normal so this will be my last Twitter I send out. Thanks everyone for putting up with me Sincerely Smitty poundsign bye.

I had no idea that this space, these information super highways were some sort of filler in the lives of others, that there are more meaningful things to do. How odd… though I do approve the L’nL’ rankings. Just don’t tell Ren that it’s odd. She updated her website with maximum internet finger utility and the results look good:

Beer. Diversity. offers in-person consulting for a variety of businesses, in the following areas of expertise:
– Beer/alcohol purchasing for restaurants and bars
– Staff training (including staff tastings, tasting notes, how to pour product and line cleaning)
– Liaise with sales reps and order handling
– Assistance with creation of a Diversity & Inclusion policy

Also not odd at all is the news that Ron is staying home – and is all the more comfortable for doing so:

Three months it is since I last visited a pub. They’ve been open a couple of weeks here. With distancing rules. Not been tempted, myself. I can wait. It might have been different if they were a bit cheaper. Or offered cask beer. My social drinking has been limited to a few cans down at the “beach” with my mate Mikey. At opposite ends of a park bench. All strictly according to the rules.

I can appreciate that. I have been hardly out and about at all, not yet checking out the newly opened patios. Andy is now nervously gearing up for a first step into the brave new world of practicing safe patio. But JJB is having none of it and is now taking a firm stand, announcing he is opening up his southern English pub’s beer garden with sensible safety measures one way or another by July 8th.:

And yes, I’m willing to accept the consequences if I’m in contravention of the law. I’m not just a licensee but also a solicitor. I take the rule of law very seriously. However the time comes to make a stand when government fails completely.

It’s all Matt wants, his pub back. Elsewhere, I briefly thought Jeff had closed up shop but he was speaking of Beervana is the greater sense of his bit of Oregon, his geographical rather than digital homeland and how the law has not been any more helpfully applied than for that pub above:

A couple weeks back, Multnomah County (ie, Portland) started making preparations to join the rest of the state in Phase 1 reopening on Friday, June 12. Businesses were given no caution as the date approached (or any information, actually), and began making preparations last week for what they assumed would be their first weekend of business in three months. And then, at 7:15 on Thursday night—less than twelve hours before owners would hang up “open” signs—Governor Kate Brown said nyet. “In order to ensure that the virus is not spreading too quickly,” she wrote, “I am putting all county applications for further reopening on hold for seven days.”

Yeesh. A bit more within the lines and according to the rules, Nate has written about one UK brewery has successfully refocused to deal with the pandemic:

Having furloughed the majority of their bar and HQ staff – and having a team of people working on every grant and loan possible in order to help save the business – North focused on online sales which have increased by over 1,000% since lockdown began, making up for the trade lost through selling to pubs… North has worked tirelessly on how they can reopen their bars as bottle shops in Leeds – and in a way that’s safe for their customers and staff alike.

Good. Also good is the news that Pete Brown is self-publishing a new book and wants your money!

My new book Craft: An Argument is out next week! My new Patreon has some exclusive book-related offers. – £3+: access to a deleted section – £6+: a preview of first two chapters from today – £10+: copy of the book, and your name in the back.

This is funny. Apparently it is Ontario Craft Beer Week but the organizers are so disfunctional, not promoting is the new what’s what, as Greg noted:

So, hey, apparently @OntCraftBrewers Week is happening right now even though ocbweek.ca website is gone & it’s not mentioned on the main OCB website & they haven’t tweeted in a month & haven’t posted to Facebook since last July.

[Style. Just sayin’.]

A tie this week for the best two White Claw mocking tweets of the week. The photo to your right and this below:

White Claw tastes like you’re drinking tv static while someone screams the name of a fruit from another room.

Finally, I know it is unkind but I can’t shake the feeling that there is a subtext to why this story was chosen out of all the examples out there:

Disclosure: Brewery Bhavana has been a client of GBH’s brand studio, a separate team based in Chicago… the actual brewing facility—located a mile from the restaurants—did not close. Patrick Woodson stresses the independence of the brewing operations, saying that he had little to no involvement in management of the restaurant and taproom…

There. It’s summer next time we meet. I’ll be happy to put spring away for this year. Worst ever? Maybe. 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.  See you next week!

Thursday Beery News Notes For The Week The Patios Reopened

A better week. Not a perfect week in any sense but a better week. Here in Ontario, more coming back to life. As of this Friday, where I live I can get a haircut, go to a church that is 30% full and hang out with ten people at a time. Things are moving forward. One key issue: should pubs still have a proper level of grot as they reopen? Hmm… And when Her Majesty the Queen told us “we will meet again” did she imagine it would be on asphalt in a parking lot?

Furthermore on the hereabouts, on Monday the AGCO announced the expansion for outdoor service on Monday, effective in most of Ontario this Friday. Toronto and the surrounding areas as still considered too much at risk and will open at a later date. The rules for creating a bigger outdoor area are interesting:

1. The physical extension of the premises is adjacent to the premises to which the licence to sell liquor applies;
2. The municipality in which the premises is situated has indicated it does not object to an extension;
3. The licensee is able to demonstrate sufficient control over the physical extension of the premises;
4. There is no condition on the liquor sales licence prohibiting a patio; and,
5. The capacity of any new patio, or extended patio space where the licensee has an existing licensed patio, does not exceed 1.11 square metres per person.

Even more interesting, those who meet the above criteria are not required to apply to the AGCO or pay a fee to temporarily extend their patio or add a temporary new licensed patio and they are not required to submit any documentation to the AGCO to demonstrate compliance with the above criteria.  We aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Elsewhere, Boak and Bailey have celebrated another step towards liberation with the takeaway service at their local micropub being now a going concern:

…the reopening of The Drapers is definitely next level, game-changing stuff. Not necessarily because every single beer is utterly brilliant, but because [w]e suddenly have access to a range of cask beers, not just one at a time; [w]e don’t have to decide a week in advance what we want to drink, and we (probably) don’t need to worry about running out between deliveries[; and T]he range that’s been on offer so far includes things we would not have been able to get hold of easily. It also includes new-to-us beers that we wouldn’t have wanted to risk buying in bulk, on spec.*

Stonch tweeted about one of the pains in the neck he has to deal with as he moves to reopening:

The shysters trying to cash in hospitality operators’ anxiety about re-opening at the moment are something else. Steady trickle into the inbox offering weird, unscientific and unnecessary products and services in the name of “COVID-19 secure”. Fuck off, spivs.

The timing and rules for reopening in Britain remain murky at best but Mr. Protz celebrated one  wonderful milestone, the return to brewing cask at Timothy Taylor’s:

We are incredibly chuffed to announce that today is the first day since lockdown that we have produced CASK!! Thank you so much to every single one of you for your support through this incredibly difficult period! Slowly but surely, we are getting there!

Katie wrote an excellent bit on the lockdown’s effect on small brewers… when they weren’t brewing including preserving, returning to home towns and this:

For the synth-aware, Adrian’s current kit (at the time of writing this) was his Eurorack, AKAI Pad controller, Yamaha mixer and Roland Boutiques SH-01, TR-09 and TB-03. If you fancy hearing his creations in action, find him on twitter at @wishbonebrewery.

Catching up elsewhere, Gary has been busy and I particularly liked this piece of his on a 1935 conference which added helpfully to the question of 1800s adjectives in North American beer labeling:

Rindelhardt stated that cream ale and lively ale, which he considered synonymous, were devised in the mid-1800s to compete with lager. He said they were ale barrelled before fermentation had completed to build up carbonation in the trade casks, or krausened in those casks, and sent out. In contrast, sparkling ale and present use ale – again synonymous – might also be krausened, and later force-carbonated, but were a flat stored ale blended with lager krausen. This form, provided the lager krausen was handled correctly, still offered an ale character but in a fizzy, chilled way as lager would offer.

“Cream ale”  and “cream beer” are of special interest as careful readers will recall. Check out his thoughts on the revival of Molson Golden, which I can only pronounce as if I were from Moncton, New Brunswick.

Speaking of history, I was reading through Canadian artist Tom Thompson’s diaries of the summer he disappeared over a century ago and was struck by this:

June 7, 1917: I had a hell of a hangover this morning. The whisky we had yesterday hit me hard but at least I didn’t go blind. That happened numerous times after the Temperance Act went into effect and people started making their own alcohol  Sometimes the alcohol wasn’t right and people would go blind drinking it.

Note that he did not say prohibition and indicated activities not akin to prohibition. Never really right to use the US term and apply it to the Canadian context.

Closer to the present, Jeff wrote about the great Bert Grant (and I added my two pieces in the cheap seats of Twitter replies), Canada’s true gift to craft beer:

The West Coast was divided into segments, and the cities of Portland and Seattle followed a parallel but separate track. The breweries there had their own founders and in one is a historical lacuna that explains a great deal about the influences that guided hoppy ales in the Pacific Northwest. That forgotten figure is Bert Grant, who left the hops business to start his own brewery in 1982 and whose first beers created an instant appetite, decades ahead of the rest of the country, for hoppy ales.

Read all three pieces as you only understand 1982 if you understand 1944.

Jordan celebrated a milestone, hitting a decade in the beer soaked life.  What did he learn? “Soylent Green is people!!!” No… let’s check that… no, beer is people:

If you wanted to play around with ingredients, you’d be a home brewer. A professional brewer, by default, brews for someone else. One assumes that a professional brewer does that because they enjoy it. One assumes that they make a product they believe in to the best of their ability and share it with the world. One assumes they are mindful of all the collective effort that goes into that.

Speaking of home brewers, in 1973 the BBC sent the fabulous Fyfe Robertson in search of the perfect pint made in an English basement. Have I posted this before? If I have it’s worth a second look. Speaking of Auntie Beeb, Merryn linked to a BBC 4 story on bere barley in Orkney.

One last thing. I have seen a few calls from part time editors feeling adrift who are encouraging vulnerable beer writers to turn to them in exchange for the usual pittance and a scraping of your voice in exchange for theirs. Do not be fooled! This is the time for you to be you:

Beer writers! What have you wanted to cover that might not appeal to a mainstream site? An underreported subject that merits a quick dive? An aspect of beer culture that deserves a closer look? Get a blog!

[What is a “quick dive” anyway?]

There. A better week. Keep writing and reading and keeping up with the chin uppitry. 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. Thanks for stopping by while not leaving the house. Except now you can leave your house a bit more. Do it!

*Edited only to make things as I wish they were.

The “All Stories Have Ground To A Halt” Version Of The Thursday Beery News

Things are slow out there. True, I was no paying much attention but the beer news is a bit dribbly. So dribbly in fact that I did not realize I had been blessed with a comment from Tandyman himself five days ago.  To tell me I was wrong about something. So slow that I post this picture to the right* in a desperate attempt to drum up the slightest interest in this week’s edition of the news notes. If this whole thing goes on long enough, it might be what the dapper gent will once again where to the pub. Might be wrong about that, too. Who can tell these days? Other than the Tand.

Note: a salad bar now filled with booze minis. [“Nippy sweeties” according to Billy Connolly and his skit “The Jobbie Weecha !!!!“] And Nate is apparently doing very well in all this. Perhaps, Robin not always so much. And Katie is very much on the doorstep. Boak and Bailey are mini-kegging it at home… with maps.

Elsewhere, Stonch was figuring out the rules for English licensees without folk propping up the bar, rules about how to sell their beer, like he does by delivery in milk cartons, but closed with some of his best legal advice ever:

I’ve written a lot of replies there (sorry Matt!) but in general I think I agree with Matt that pubs should be careful doing this. It doesn’t *feel* right, even if it’s legal – and in any case we’ll all be open again properly in a few weeks so why jump the gun?

This tweet purported to show how 2 meter distancing would not work in an English pub but, to my eye, I would assume removing a few chairs could make it possible.

To the east of Stonch, Max wrote a series of tweets about the joys of the reopening of pubs in his Czech hometown, of the first meal on a patio (right) and the first pub visit (below):

I thought a lot about which pub will be the first I would walk into and when. But, sod it! I was in the neighbourhood and simply couldn’t resist…

Nearby, Evan wrote about a few Czech beers, too – but from there, still in his lock down. He was not so thrilled but gave an update on what was allowed:

Flash forward 10 weeks and it feels like we’re over the (first?) hump. Things in the Czech lands are cautiously reopening, at least for now, with pubs and restaurants allowed to serve drinks and food indoors as of May 25, and mask usage no longer required outside, provided you can maintain a 2-meter distance from others. (Masks do not have to be worn by customers while eating and drinking indoors, though they still must be worn by servers and there are new restrictions on customer counts and spacing between seats. Masks still must be worn on public transportation and in shops.)

We can all agree that we need to hate the Astros, right? Now there is a beer for that. Conversely, GBH has decided that beer price rises are not gouging and took the trade association’s word on it:

Uhrich attributes the pricing spike to reductions in discounting. Retailers are simply putting less beer on sale than they normally would at this time. 

Really. Never saw one that coming. Somewhat similarly, I was sent links to this story about how the Black Death created the pub. It’s OK but it feels a little like someone took a jigsaw puzzle and gave it a good shake before packing it in a pile and telling folk it was complete:

“The survivors [of the Black Death] prioritized expenditure on foodstuffs, clothing, fuel, and domestic utensils,” writes Professor Mark Bailey of the University of East Anglia, who also credits the plague for the rise of pub culture, over email. “They drank more and better quality ale; ate more and better quality bread; and consumed more meat and dairy produce. Alongside this increased disposable income, they also had more leisure time.” Not every establishment looked like a modern pub: Alehouses were often still literally brewers’ homes, inns offered ale and accommodation, and taverns were a sort of medieval wine bar, a lasting legacy of the Roman Taberna.

I blame the editors, as always.  Refresh yourself with Jeff on the fragrant and rich thing that is Italian Pilsner.

Westwardly, Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham wrote a post about, first, what a horrible job she did at social media polling but then how it gave rise to unexpected considerations on how craft breweries might address inclusivity in terms of employment practices:

I was curious if there might be some correlation between perceptions of inclusion and equity and the level of formalization of any given part of the employee journey. As expected, performance reviewing was reported to be the least formalized. Without standard operating procedures that make inclusive and equitable practices transparent, it’s less likely that these practices will be used at all or perceived as such by employees…right? Wrong.

To her east over in Glasgow, Robsterowski wrote about having a 42 year old beer, a 1978 Courage Russian Stout:

First waft of the 1978 bottle on opening: well they certainly didn’t forget to dose this with Brettanomyces. The secondary yeast has completely taken over, leather, prunes, balsamic vinegar. Residual sugars have almost completely dried out since 1978, but the beer is still drinkable: still some carbonation, still quite viscous and oily, though lighter than it once would have been, yet no sweetness. Blackcurrant and some empyreumatic flavours reminiscent of wood smoke, perhaps a little smoked beef, any acrid or chocolatey notes long since mellowed out. There is still quite a bitter aftertaste on this, though it is camouflaged by the massive Brettanomyces aroma. Would probably have been better not quite so old. If you happen to also have a 42 year old bottle of Russian Stout, drink it fifteen years ago.

Fine. That’s enough. Cooler weather by the weekend around here. It’s been like August for a few days so it will be good to see late April again. Keep writing and reading and keeping up with the chin uppitry. 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. Thanks for stopping by while not leaving the house.