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The Thursday Beery News Notes For Remembrance Day 2021

Today is Remembrance Day, a fairly significant thing here in Canada which is largely apolitical even now well past a century after the end of WW1. The image to the right is a photo I took in 2005 at the naval memorial downtown. We’ve had a naval presence here in town since 1673. And here’s a bit of what I wrote in 2014 about the day on Facebook:

…There are no politics with our vets. More than hockey and donuts, we all actually love our square do-gooder Dudley Do-right military and RCMP. I am lucky to be in a congregation at 51 years of age with a man* who commanded CFB Greenwood near Kingston in NS where I lived when I was 9 years old – and who attended the church where Dad was a minister. We remembered today that when I was a kid and he was in his 40s that all the vets were WW1 and there was even likely a Boer War soldier in the pews…

We government workers in Ontario have the day off but it isn’t a general holiday like it was when I grew up in Nova Scotia. Schools and shops are open. Feels weird. Vets will be at Legions again this year after being shut in 2020. Drinking beer. I’ll donate a few coins into the little cardboard box and, once again, buy maybe the 7th poppy of 2021 – they seem to disappear within four hours after putting one on.

Elsewhere, Mudgie took a trip into the city centre of Manchester and posted a bit of a travel piece on a certain sort of pub. I was taken by this photo to the right, the absolute dream seat, right there in a wee nook in the tiny Circus Tavern. Fabulous:

It has two small cosy rooms with bench seating. The one at the front always seems to have a vault character and is frequented by the regulars, while the one to the rear is more of a snug. I managed to take a snap of the seating opposite in the brief interlude between it being occupied by groups of customers. Understandably, the Circus didn’t reopen until social distancing restrictions were lifted in July, and anyone concerned about getting too close to others would do well to avoid it.

Note: another photo of the Circus Tavern with people added won the top prize in our 2012 Yuletide Beery Photo contest.

The other week I was correctly corrected about the lack of a certain beer fest holding a meeting in person – so giddy was I to realize that an update on another and rather gentle in person event was posted by The Beer Nut this week. The live action photo at the end is helpful for scale:

From Zwolle, we set off further westwards on Saturday morning for Gramsbergen, a small town about 3km from the border with Germany. G-berg, as nobody calls it, is home to the Mommeriete brewery, set in a rustic canalside inn, all oak beams and porcelain fireplaces. We missed getting to see it as its normal cosy self since they were gearing up for a beer festival: one organised to celebrate 20 years of the Dutch beer consumers’ organisation PINT, onto which was tacked the official 30th birthday bash for EBCU. It was a modest affair, beginning in the the afternoon and finishing at 7pm, and only three guest breweries were in attendance.

Note: cheese cutting diagrams.

Beer experts don’t really exist like wine experts do. Well, a very few of the former might while a few more of the latter do. If you don’t believe me and still think your website generated certification means anything like expert, consider the career path of Kevin Zraly including this:

That any American restaurant would have a cellarmaster or a sommelier was a rare thing in those days. In 1978, Frank J. Prial, the wine columnist for The Times, wrote an article about the virtual disappearance of the sommelier in restaurants, citing Mr. Zraly as one of a very few good young ones in New York, “the knowledgeable type, not the wine hustler…”

I followed this link to his courses at Wine.com. Look! No phony academic rhetoric, no layers of prerequisite that would shame a Scientologist. Just accessible authoritative information at a plain price and presented directly and on the level. Why can’t beer do that?** We need to consider the relationship between access to information along with inclusion and levelling and the commonality of those who opposed them.

Resulting question: why do wine educators start with the premise that wine is not as complex as we consumers have been told while beer educators seem to start with the premise that beer is more complex than we have been told?**

Much to the contrary, I spent bits of last Sunday watching presentations from the Beer Culture Summit 2021 produced by the Chicago Brewseum. I found the structure refreshing as there was none of the Masonic mystery gatekeeping guild approach to information that is a hallmark of what passes for too many claims expertise in good beer culture. The difference? The focus on professional and personal experience as a pathway to leveling and inclusion. Call it cred. The presenters had cred. I particularly liked “Under-Attenuated: Women, Beer History Studies and Representation” session: Dr. Christina Wade, Tiah Edmunson-Morton, and Atinuke “Tinu” Akintola Diver on their careers researching brewing history. And not only because of Dr. Wade’s defense of the value of blogging brewing history – depth, accessibility, primary citations and immediacy both in terms of time and audience** even if Stan is still standing there at the graveside. In a time when we see bland generalities devoid of citation but plenty of errors*** win awards for best beer history, it was a call for quality within a call for, you got it, levelling.

Best tweet with beer and meat.

Crop-wise, we saw the 150th anniversary of the first sale of Fuggles this week, as Martyn reminded us:

Today, November 8, marks 150 years since the Fuggle hop first went on sale, in a field in Paddock Wood, Kent, after Richard Fuggle and his brothers Jack and Harry had spent ten years propagating the variety until they had enough, 100,000 sets, to sell commercially.

Wonderful. And we are also seeing a second crop of the heritage barley variety bere in Scotland this year. Isn’t nature wonderful! More on bere here and here.

Taking a break on his book tour, Jeff wrote excellently about what he has seen in America’s downtowns in late 2021:

Most of my adult lifetime downtowns have been shiny, clean, and fun. They’ve always been a bit artificial, but we social beings flowed into these hubs to see shows, get a meal, buy something nice, and mostly, to feel the exciting hum of other people doing the same thing. Now downtowns are listless and depressing, and many of the businesses are boarded up or on long-term hiatus. There’s less and less reason to visit them.. When cities become nothing more than storefronts for the rich, they teeter on a narrow balance point. Did Covid just disrupt that balance?

Possibly the winner for Generic Praise-Laced Brewery Owner Bio Template of 2021. B.O.B.s are the best. But this one has the header “A World-Class Pairing” which really takes it over the top.

More B.O.B. as a Euro male led publication hires Euro male writer to speak to a Euro male bar owner about diversity in the beer scene in BC’s Okanagan. I’d have more trust in the editorial call if the statement “…only a couple of people in the BIPOC community that even lived here when I was growing up…” was fact checked. While there is a reference to a Indigenous family business, here’s the map of Indigenous communities (aka the “i” in BIPOC) for BC. The communities of the Syilx Okanagan Nation are right there in the south centre. The Central Okanagan Local Immigration Partnership Council formed in 1983 seems pretty active, too. Question: why do writers of B.O.B.s never check in with customers or staff to find out if the claims are correct? The subject in this case could be fabulous… but we don’t know.

Beer prices are going up. Beer prices are going down.

Finally, I was sad to see a dismissive response to my comments about Pellicle’s decision to run and highlight a childish cartoon image about an actual ambush of soldiers where many died. Part of a story that is still recalled hurtfully in my region which touches on both my actual job and my brewing history research. It’s also an entirely unnecessary image and adds nothing to the story. At best, it is just a failed analogy. In an era when we are trying to drive out misrepresentation, appropriation and negativity from the good beer discussion, this sort of hyperbolic grasping for aggrandizing analogies is more than unfortunate. Do better.

Oh… and somebody sold their brewery. Good beer. Nothing much will change.

There’s plenty to chew on. To complain about. For more, check out the updates from that same Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now on a regular basis again 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 which may revive some day. And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*This is he
**We appreciate that folk have ambitions but actual earned and experienced knowledge is always more helpful than insta-recognition by those editors with creditors. BTW, EWCs are not levellers. BTWx2: what even is a “certified pro“?
***1500s Flemish farmers?

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The First Frosty Nights

First up this week, reality. We still had a fig tree out in the backyard with all its leaves on Wednesday. Doubt it will have them today. Have to check once it is light out. One way or another it’s almost an eight month growing season here by balmy Lake Ontario. Not something you could say even ten miles to the north. Harvested another load of parsley Monday. Pulled up a frisée endive that was mixed into supper, too. No snow yet. With any luck most of the leaves will be off the trees before it comes. Don’t want to have to deal with sawing fallen limbs. I plan to chop the willow back Saturday, saving the long branches for a bit of wattling next March. Suburban peasant. Suburban pleasant.

Next, the coolest thing of the week was seeing that small object to the right. It’s a 1,000 year old, 14-sided die from Korea with carved instructions for a drinking game. One side says “let everybody hit you on the nose” while another says “drink a big cup and laugh loudly” all of which indicates a state of civilization far advanced from my youth spent playing caps and sticking playing cards on my forehead. DSL was pleased at the find.

Good news. Movement on the unionization of craft front with the creation of the Brewery Workers Union in the UK under the IWW banner. A bit of a manifesto explains why now:

Why do we need a union? As the interest in and sales of craft beer has risen significantly in the past 10 years it has also meant more workers are being exploited, suffering harassment and abuse, working in unsafe conditions, working long and unsociable hours leading to serious injuries all on insufficient pay, leading to physical & mental strain, burnout and fatigue. We have seen the ongoing issues with BrewDog and a wealth of other breweries in the UK, as well as active organising from other trade unions, in the US and across Europe.

On the other side of the economic divide, Brewdog has updated* that its plans for global domination are well on track:

Despite facing numerous challenges in 2021 we have managed to continue growing strongly and our UK wholesale sales for October are up 48% on October 2020 (which was also in growth). As well as growing strongly we have also created over 600 brand new jobs this year. We are determined to continue to share our passion for great beer with as many people as possible and to do all we can as a business to fight climate change. And we are determined to use every challenge we face as a catalyst to become better as a business.

Passion. Climate Change. Better. Growth. Perfect setting for a union. Relatedly, this message from Ren is the same as it ever was. Craft is a haven of cheapskates:

“Hi! Can you basically give us a ton of free info that we can use to improve our brewery, our charitable endeavor, and help us make more money?” *Sends them my rates* *Crickets* I would love for this to stop happening once a week. Pay Black people for our knowledge.

See also Ron circa 2014 when it was shocking for brewing history research to be considered a paid consultancy. Speaking of whom, he has some good advice if you happen to live in an empire a few months away from total collapse. Pay attention to the beer supply:

The more observant among you might have noticed that I’ve started writing about Germany and Austria in WW I. There’s a good reason for that. One that I’m not going to tell you quite yet. It is very revealing, though, to look at the war from the other side. The food and booze situation at home for the Central Powers made Britain look like the promised land, overflowing with milk and honey, Or at least bread and beer.

Ever look at a small brewery tax credit regulation? He’s one recently issued in Ontario, good old Ont. Reg. 711/21. All you really need to know is the formula [(A × B) ∕ F + (C × D) ∕ F] × G × H × J × K! Works on a sliding scale from more than 4.9 million litres but not more than 20 million litres of beer. Which is a lot of beer for businesses called small beer manufacturers. Is there anywhere where small means small?

As mentioned the other week, the Chicago Brewseum’s Beer Culture Summit is happening this weekend. Here is the list of events. I’ve signed up for Sunday if anyone wants to chat in the comments. Looking forward to this presentation:

Archaeologist and historian Dr. Christina Wade, archivist Tiah Edmunson-Morton, and organizer, attorney, author and documentarian Atinuke “Tinu” Akintola Diver discuss the unique experiences (both successes and roadblocks) they have seen throughout their careers researching, collecting and documenting beer and brewing history in a man’s world. This session is moderated and hosted by co-founder of the Albany Ale Project, Craig Gravina.

Speaking of the “ye” and the “olde” did you ever wonder why there is still so much old oak still around in the forests for booze barrels? It’s not because of booze barrels.

Once upon a time, I used to make home brewed ginger beer at about 1.3% based on a recipe from Clone Brews by the Szamatulskis. Great slurping by the bucket out in the garden. I was reminded of that by this rather extended commercial business news item on one Jamaican drinks maker bringing a similar if stronger sort of thing to market. I am not sure how you could ever make money on the 1.3% version – except it was so simple to make yourself who would bother buying it?

Stan and Jeff are having a bit of a parallel chat about the hop varieties which most attract a buyer’s attention. I have to admit something. I don’t have any interest in which hop varieties which most attract a buyer’s attention. I find folk rhyming off hop varieties as they sip a beer to be entirely missing the points. Most beer drinkers don’t care. But govern yourselves according to your own interests. Me, I like 1400s beer shipping records from the Baltic Sea. So go figure. Here are Stan’s questions:

Jeff Alworth posted a question yesterday from Atlanta (hey! we used to live there); more than one, in fact. So here are two I am thinking about: a) Is Citra/Mosaic becoming a marker of style in the way Saaz is in Czech pilsners or EKG in bitters? and b) Do [brewers] feel like the pairing has become so successful it’s constraining the style?

Beer price hikes coming in the US, in France and around the globe. I think things may be worse than this bit of PR gobbiltygook from Sam Adams might suggest, especially given their botch of the seltzer market by over-producing their Truly gak:

Truly is still in a premium position in the fastest-growing area of the alcoholic beverage industry, and it will be a strong platform to use in launching other products. “We are well positioned to succeed in 2022 and beyond,” founder Jim Koch said, “as consumers look to drink more ‘Beyond Beer’ products.” That success will come partly from raising prices across its portfolio by 3% to 6% in 2022. Those hikes reflect rising costs on raw materials like aluminum and glass, but they’re also designed to shore up its profitability now that the industry is maturing. Management had been prioritizing growth and market share, but now that focus is shifting toward achieving a stronger earnings profile.

See that? Raising prices to “shore up profitability” means paying more for less and covering up mistakes with the new cash. Craft. Reminds me of an ancient Korean saying: “let everybody hit you on the nose”!

Once again, a week of the good, the bad and (just above) the uh-guh-lee. For more, check out the updates from that same Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now on a regular basis again 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 which may revive some day. And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Where did I put that link. Nov 1 at 11:20 am if you have it handy. Along these lines, it was. What a crap news service this is. No, here it is. Martin Dickie on LinkedIn. Why the hell do I follow him on LinkedIn. Why the hell am I on linked in?

The Beery News Notes For The End Of 2021’s 10/12ths

Here we are. November looms. I’ve never thought Halloween was all that scary given November is right there behind it. The dreariest month. If it snows, winter will be too long. If it rains, the rain is bone achingly cold. Dreich. But a big month for beer. Big beers, in fact. I’ve been laying off but maybe it’s time to lay on again. Treat yourselves nice in November. It’s like it needs its own month to celebrate itself. Like gag-tastic #RauchBeerMonth but with, you know, the prospect of someone actually being made happier. And that’s what we want. To be happy. Despite the dreich.

This November marks the seventh anniversary of perhaps the high point in the craft phase of good beer, circa 2003 to about 2016. The cover of The New Yorker from November 3, 2014. Mere months after the publication of the cult classic The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer. Josh Noel‘s comment was spot on – a moment in time before hard seltzer. And perhaps a moment that had some aspects we are well rid of – if this article on Colorado’s New Image brewery is anything to go by:

The idea that brewery employees should expect less money because they are “doing what they love” is a cliché that needs to go away, he adds. “We are trying to take that out of craft-beer culture. It’s about damn time we have good benefits and good pay for people making beer.” Having a second taproom with higher margins on sales will help that effort as well, Capps says. And New Image is now “aggressively” seeking out locations that it can buy to add a third or even a fourth taproom.

The past is a foreign land. Conversely, there are a lot of words that come to mind in this story of today. Gall. Cheek. Privilege. Arseholes probably the correct term as the Manchester Evening News reports:

The Pack Horse, which is in the Peak District village of Hayfield, was visited by a group who didn’t flag any problems with their food when staff checked in with them, but chose to complain when they’d already eaten most of the meal, staff said. They allegedly tried to demand a new dish – which was refused – and eventually left without paying their bill. Owner and chef Luke Payne said that one member of the group then had the nerve to wink at him as they left.

The article goes on to suggest that manners have dropped in these later pandemic months. Arseholes, I say. Matt C. explored other forms of late pandemic angst in an article in Pellicle this week:

Before the pandemic, one place in particular I would find both solace and kinship was at a beer festival. In my search for remembering what it was like to feel more normal, I fondly recalled the deep-seated warmth I felt from head to toe as I travelled home from Cloudwater Brew Co.’s Friends & Family & Beer in February 2020. While there I had a wonderful time enjoying many delicious beverages, and spending quality time with friends old and new—some who had travelled half-way across the world to attend. The festival took place in Manchester, too: a city my partner and I had decided we would soon make our home. I felt ready for the next chapter. Then the wheels came off, the world grinding to a halt at the mercy of the bastard virus.

I’ve never liked beer fests myself. Don’t miss them. Too many drunks. Perhaps I differ in this regard from The Beer Nut who celebrated 30 years of the European Beer Consumers Union, the sort of institution North American beer culture lacks. No fest to back up the celebration, however. Just Zoom.

Another venue for drinking that’s much more to my liking is also disappearing as The New York Times reports:

Several decades ago, the beer bar, with its dozens of draft options and deep bottle lists, delivered a liquid education in bitter I.P.A.s and monk-brewed Belgian ales alike. They were places “where customers discovered craft,” and helped the genre grow, said Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association trade group. But with growth of the taprooms, craft-bar release parties for special beers dried up. What was once “a prime way of bringing people into bars was gradually taken away by the breweries themselves,” Mr. Black said.

No, beer bars were not where folk discovered craft. They predate craft. (You’d think people would get it. Obey the chronology.) In their finest form they are a dive with very good stock. Like Max’s in Baltimore. Conversely, craft is the taproom. But it is true. Craft killed the beer bar. Including by aggressively opening new taprooms, as we read above. (I know… I’ve been quoted as an expert in the subject. Sorta.) But I was quoted by Stan who posted a follow-up post (a post that poses possibilities predicated on the prior post) on the question “wuzza beer bar?“:

Two names I heard more than others were Rino Beer Garden and Finn’s Manor. Finn’s has a shorter tap list — curated, as the kids say — and a cocktail menu. Rino has more than 60-plus taps. Would both be classified as beer bars? Pat Baker provided a definition in his “Beer & Bar Atlas” in 1988. His classifications included classic bar, neighborhood bar, beer bar, Irish bar, German bar, English Pub and fern bar. (Yes, neither wine bar nor sports bar.)

At this point, I pause to consider this week’s candidate for the wonderful graph award. Gaze upon this for a moment:

Look at that graph. I have stripped a few identifiers from it to get to the nub of the matter but it is from Colin Angus as posted under his handle @VictimOfMaths and came with this message:

The UK’s approach to taxing alcohol is stupid. In the budget next week there is a strong possibility the chancellor will overhaul it. Before we find out what he has planned, here’s a thread on what is the current system and what exactly is wrong with it?

Thread. And it does all look stupid when put that way. Why is beer taxed at a higher rate as it strengthens while wine moves in the opposite direction? The actual changes to taxation were announced Wednesday. CAMRA wrote of games being changed. Matt had a summary as well as particular view as to the taxed event within the supply chain which is useful:

…the consumer doesn’t pay that duty, nor does the pub. The producer does. So on a 9 gallon cask of 72 pints, that’s £2.16 off costs. Maybe a bigger saving if its below 3.5%…

Speaking of the graphical representations of data, Lars has updated his yeast family tree based on a number of recent studies and included lots of wonderful graphs as well as new info:

They also found a separate subgroup of African beer yeasts, which is very interesting. Africa has an enormous variety of traditional farmhouse brewing going on in many different countries over much of the continent, and many of those brewers still maintain their own yeasts. (Martin Thibault spoke about Ethiopian brewers and their yeast at Norsk Kornølfestival in 2020.) Now it looks like they, too, have their own genetic subgroup of yeasts.

Note: be flexible.

Finally, Boak and Bailey’s post this week on the Stokes Croft Brewery, Bristol, 1890-1911 contains this fabulous image which goes a long way to explain the gradation of late Victorian stouts and ales. I got all excited when I saw it. Lovely. Place a laminated copy in your wallet for handy reference.

There you go. A bumper crop this week. For more, check out the updates from that same Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now on a regular basis again 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 which may revive some day. And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For A… For A… I Dunno…

You can get in a rut about things can’t you. These headers for example. It’s just a thing. But a thing almost in a rut. Is craft beer in a rut? I dunno. It didn’t do anything new and stupid this week, did it? It is, however, like a thing that could find itself in a rut, isn’t it. Makes people say odd things… like: “…not me, not my part of the thing… my thing is really a separate thing…” When things are actually fairly bad, people still take time to say that sort of thing. Because this thing is not like that thing. Not my thing. Can’t be. Never.

First up, the views shared by Alistair at Fuggles on home brewing around little kids ring true for me as I packed in my questionable home brewing hobby completely once we were well and truly surrounded by rut rats :

This weekend was the twins 4th birthday and with time speeding by at a fair old clip, it feels difficult to justify taking 8 hours, give or take, to brew an all grain batch of homebrew. While there is no shortage of decent beer to be had in the central Virginia region, either locally produced or from further afield, there are still times when I just want to drink something I have brewed myself. Enter pre-prepared malt extract.

Speaking perhaps of my home brewing, I found this piece on on imposter syndrome as suffered by women in the drinks trade interesting but I was particularly interested as I have known many men who admit to suffering from the experience as well, especially in law:

Imposter syndrome, according to the American Psychological Association, is a psychological phenomenon wherein you doubt your own skills, abilities, and inherent worth, no matter how much you achieve or accomplish. For many, it’s an inner voice that whispers, “you’re not good enough, you don’t know anything, and one day, everyone is going to find out… storytelling has the power to combat imposter syndrome; however, it will take a proactive effort to tell stories that go beyond the bylines, brewers, and old-boy’s networks that have dominated both breweries and beer journalism.”

Come to think of it, a lot of what sucks about craft beer sucks about law. Stress. Alcohol. Irrational expectations. But not the 50 kg sacks of grain. Even in my early 40s when folks wanted me in on a brewery I knew there was no way I could hack hauling around 50 kg sacks of grain. I wasn’t ever going to go there once I grew used to the seeming reassurance of the hard tight black shoes.

Next up? Just last week I wrote:

Thing never said in beer: “…and certainly thanks to all those who nominated the winners…” Oh…

And this very week I am pleased to read:

Oh wow, this is huge. A massive thank you to whoever nominated me and a huge congratulations to all the other incredibly talented people on this list!

Which is great. More of this, please. And congratulations Charlotte Cook aka @ilikeotters along this the others who were nominated by even further others who, as nominees in the Best Brewer of Britain category, likely can in fact haul around 50 kg sacks of malt, nae doddle.

How to quit in style. Fabulous.

Careful readers out there will recall that I have a particular thing for the role of alcohol in early victualing of ships‘ holds. This week VinePair shared what dear old Ferdie Magellan was packing:

Documents from Magellan’s expedition cite a hefty 203 butts (barrels) and 417 wineskins — from the Jerez wineries in southwest Spain’s Andalusia region — made it onboard. Today, this amounts to nearly 243,000 liters of booze. Magellan and his crew must have really needed the extra liquid luck on the expedition, seeing as the cost of wine and other provisions amounted to 1,585,551 maravedis. Taking inflation and conversions into account, Magellan brought about $475,665 worth of booze on board. Researcher and crew member Navarrete noted in Document No. XVII that this number accounted for 20 percent of all costs on board.

Speaking of the ancient of days, Garrett Oliver himself guided me to this story in The Harvard Gazette about the scale of brewing in ancient Egypt:

Thanks to his recent excavation of a brewery in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, the senior research scholar at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts may get his wish, and soon. But the excavation revealed far more than a way to reconstruct an ancient recipe for suds. The industrial-scale production — on par with today’s best microbreweries — offers direct evidence of the kind of power wielded by Egyptian kings.

I would have thought sustaining an empire for thousands of years might have been evidence enough of the power of Egypt but… you know… I am not a guy who went to Haaaa-vaaaard. Where they call beer suds!*

Evan Rail on hard seltzers: “I thought most of them were gross. A few were harmless but boring. Several were close to nauseating.” Exactly.

Gary Gillman (aka Gee-Gee… OK, not) went off on an interesting wander around what is/was and what is/was not the North American hop known as Neomexicanus care of a part called part one (including below) and part (…wait for it…) two:

…the sources mentioned seem to reserve “neomexicanus” for the Rocky Mountain, American-origin hop while “Manitoba” or “Canadian” describes another hop from North America. While classification as such for regional examples of North American wild hops is beyond my scope here, it might be noted that location – terroir, if you will – plays an important role for all hop attributes, even relatively locally as Stephens explains in her article.

I just don’t believe in #RauchBeerMonth.

Throughout the Commonwealth we hear comments about the news that Vanity Fair has reported: HRH The Sovereign Herself has got to cut back:

According to two sources close to the monarch, doctors have advised the Queen to forgo alcohol except for special occasions to ensure she is as healthy as possible for her busy autumn schedule and ahead of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations next June. “The Queen has been told to give up her evening drink which is usually a martini,” says a family friend. “It’s not really a big deal for her, she is not a big drinker but it seems a trifle unfair that at this stage in her life she’s having to give up one of very few pleasures.”

I dunno. Ninety-five? That’s when I start smoking menthol ciggies regularly. I’ve beaten the odds by then. No filters either. Something else is killing me by then.

Daniel Craig‘s choice of bars makes perfect sense:

“I’ve been going to gay bars for as long as I can remember,” the 53-year-old actor told Bruce Bozzi on the “Lunch with Bruce” podcast. “One of the reasons (is) because I don’t get into fights in gay bars that often. … The aggressive dick swinging in hetero bars, I just got very sick of it as a kid because it’s like I don’t want to end up being in a punch-up. And I did. That would happen quite a lot.”

Nice. Still, can’t go a week without reminding you all of how craft has failed once again, with some pointing out how BrewDog seeking to redefine arsehole ridden work environment with the phrase “high-performance culture” which guides one’s mind to the article on imposter syndrome up there… and perhaps thoughts on who exactly is the imposter in these cases? The burdened worker or the poser jet set whiner?

I can’t even imagine how horrible having a fruit lambic with eggs benedict might be.**

In the category of “discussions of places I will never go” I came across this fantastic example of a buried lede in this quotey piece on a Cornish rarity, Spingo, in Pellicle by Lily Waite:

“Spingo is the definition of a cult beer. It stands outside the ‘scene’ and, like [local annual festival] Flora Day, is about Helston doing its own thing,” says Jessica. “They bring out a new beer every twenty years or so and that’s it. The locals seem happy with Middle and, from our observations, seem to regard Flora Daze as a dangerous innovation. You haven’t really experienced Spingo until you’ve had a pint at 8am on Flora Day, dispensed from a hosepipe into a plastic glass. Magic.”

Speaking of Jessica, she and Ray visited Kirkstall Brewery in Leeds and provided a first hand report. The story illustrates how superior the web based beer writing can be if only that it is current. Like radio reporting on a sports event, it’s fresh and immediate even if a snapshot of a weekend trip I wasn’t on and can’t realistically replicate. By contrast, the piece on Stingo above refers to a visit in June. Why the backlog? Why wait for Waite? Worse, of course, is when you have to read through something that comes out of a physical printing press. Stale and via mail. Viva hands on laptops! Vivi!!

Viva indeed. For more check out the updates from that same Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now on a regular basis again 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*I love knowing that someone’s ass is burning by someone else calling beer “suds” because it totally disrespects their mild addiction cloaked as a hobby.
**Not to mention which fruit was lambicized before the eggs benedict was held hostage.

The First Thursday Beery News Notes For Rocktober 2022!

Me? I love Rocktober. No, not that beer. That’s just for show. A middling beer from the middle of the Baltic. I am talking about the month. Yes, that’s where we are all now. Rocktober. When recreations start to shift indoors. Fun. And if I call it that I will forget for a moment it’s also when all the leaves die and the ice first forms. Better to rock. Speaking of death… wasn’t it great when Facebook died this week – even if only for a few hours? Some may live in an upside-down world but, really, Facebook is a cesspool of anti-democratic and anti-science lies lies lies… and Twitter is just fun even if chippy… but blogs are sweet and charming. Web 2.0 > Web 3.0. So welcome aboard for another week. What’s going on?

First up, this looks like an interesting hour on “Under-Attenuated: Women, Beer History Studies and Representation” at the Chicago Brewseum’s Beer Culture Summit on the first weekend of November with a few familiar faces:

… while beer history studies is a newer field recognized in the academic landscape, it’s no surprise that it too is a male dominated area of study. Archaeologist and historian Dr. Christina Wade, archivist Tiah Edmunson-Morton, and organizer, attorney, author and documentarian Atinuke “Tinu” Akintola Diver discuss the unique experiences (both successes and roadblocks) they have seen throughout their careers researching, collecting and documenting beer and brewing history in a man’s world. This session is moderated and hosted by co-founder of the Albany Ale Project, Craig Gravina.

Nice to be referenced: “co-“! There are a whack of other topics, too, with loads of interesting speakers with loads of different points of view. No wonder the “Males on Ales Through the Ages” conference scaled way back.

Next, the Mudge himself wrote of the state of pubs and cask ale in the UK this week:

Heavy-handed Covid safety protocols largely seem to have gone by the board, although a few Perspex screens at bars and pointless one-way systems remain. I have walked out of one pub where it was clear that the full works of safety theatre were being applied, and declined to go in another because of a sign outside saying the same, but those were isolated examples. In general, rural and semi-rural pubs seem keener to retain restrictions than urban ones, maybe because they feel they have a captive market who can’t take their trade elsewhere so easily.

Note: The editorial board of A Good Beer Blog lean heavily towards the screen and mask ethos but we are a full service blog of many opinions. And we just don’t want to die of Covid-19 personally. Mask up and take your needles.

“Ancestral beer“? It’s the new thing that turns out isn’t actually a thing at all:

“If you want to sell something on a large scale, you’ve got to have a standard flavor that’s replicable from one bottle to the next,” Juárez said. “Whereas, with a wild beer, no two are ever the same.” Her quest: to bring the old world into modern times. “We’ve brought flavors that were being left behind back to life,” she said. Ancestral beer is determined by the type of yeast used as the main ingredient…

Apparently the proponents of ancestral beer have slept through the micro and home brewing movements entirely. The phrase “it’s not off, it’s Belgian style!” ring any bells?

Josh Noel has been doing a great job in the Chicago Tribune covering the union busting ways at Goose Island:

Several people active in the union drive say they don’t doubt the company was under financial strain at the time. But they also believe Goose Island used the layoffs to target leading union activists and to finish off their efforts. According to current and former employees, the idea of unionizing Goose Island has withered away.

Then Josh linked to the Guys Drinking Beer social media feed where a brewery tour manager seemed to be facilitating a creep making pervy moves on a fellow member of staff. He “told the employee to let said harasser kiss her… apparently gave the harasser her cell phone number.” Now that is an actual grade A asshole.* Remember that next time some beer writing bootlicking hack drools over the keyboard next time there is a Bourbon County Stout junket needing a press release parroting.

Suddenly, I don’t feel well. Why oh why? Oh… it’s this.

Of higher note, I came across a fascinating paper this week, “Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340)” which discusses the new first reference to the Americas in southern European literature. Here’s the only bit of the sort I was really after:

Further northwards there is the Ocean, a sea with many islands where a great quantity of peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons live. These islands are located so far north that the Polar Star remains behind you, toward the south. Sailors who frequent the seas of Denmark and Norway say that northwards, beyond Norway, there is Iceland; further ahead there is an island named Grolandia, where the Polar Star remains behind you, toward the south. The governor of this island is a bishop. In this land, there is neither wheat nor wine nor fruit; people live on milk, meat, and fish.

See that – wine. Or actually no wine. Now, it’s written by an Italian for an Italian crowd but what I am looking for is some contemporary reference to ale drinking in the Viking North American experience. Not in this paper…

What is this poll even about? Best comment was the one to the right…

Liam wrote about Coopers, Ireland’s first beer brand:

The most important point perhaps is that I think that Cooper may have been the first Irish – or at least Irish brewed – beer to be marketed with a brand, jingle (I know I am taking liberties here…) and editorial advert? I am not aware of any others that existed this early anywhere else on these islands in fact, although I have not overly researched it to be fair. I would guess that it was certainly the first trademarked Irish-brewed beer …

First brand? Well, consumer product branding as we know it only came about in around 1800. When adjectives like “cream” started getting added to descriptors. When the breweries rather than retailers posted most of the notices in the papers. (Somewhere I had a paper that explained it all… where is that…)

Finally, Bloomberg is reporting** that ABInBevBigCo is considering getting its Teuronic off:

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV Chief Executive Officer Michel Doukeris is considering a sale of some German beer brands it has owned for decades as the world’s largest brewer aims to prune less profitable businesses and trim debt. The brewer is exploring the sale of labels such as Franziskaner Weissbier, Hasseroeder and Spaten, and the portfolio could fetch about 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion), people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Interesting (if really badly edited) stat in that article: “Although Germany brews about a quarter of all beers originating from the continent, it exports less of the drink than both the Netherlands and Belgium…” Is that “either” or “combined”? Who knows?!? Thanks Mr. Editor.

Done. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now on a regular basis again 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Unlike one former beer writer when apparently drunk. Note also, however, that the Beer Culture Summit’s final event is at the Goose Island Brewpub. Watch out!
**Or as GBH would say after reading the same article: “GBH sources have stated that Anheuser-Busch InBev NV Chief Executive Officer Michel Doukeris is considering a sale of some German beer brands…” Again, no one responded to GBH’s inquiries.

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The End Of Q3 2021

Do you ever find yourself on a Wednesday evening and realizing you didn’t note a lot beery news in a week? No? Me neither. No way. What’s been going on? I can tell you for sure. Because I have been attentive. Saw stuff like this: Curtis walked into a 2005/2010 central New York beer store cosplay event this week. That was something. And I cracked a new databased to dig through for new 1700s New York brewery information as part of the work on Empire Beer. Just typing “Lispenard” gave me, like you, a rush as well as a renewed sense of purpose. I found a reference that pushed the brewing career of Mr. Leadbetter back one whole year. And Craig found Albany beer for sale in Boston in the 1730s. Inter-colonial beer shipments almost 300 years ago. Neato. Oh – and I didn’t drink beer in a graveyard. So there.

First up, I had no idea about France… keeping in mind the first thing that comes to mind with much beer industry writing is the question “is that really true?”:

It may be famous for its wine, but France is also the country with the largest number of breweries in Europe. This is how French beer changed its image from a “man’s drink” to a refined beverage worthy of an apéro… The number of microbreweries here has exploded over the past decade. The country went from having 442 active breweries in 2011, to 2,300 today, meaning no country in Europe has more breweries than France, according to the trade union Brasseurs de France.

Next, an update on the Umqombothi situation. You will recall that in June a man took the prize for making the best Umqombothi, right? Well, now the traditional South African beer faces regulation:

With the newly-amended Liquor Products Act that came into effect last Friday, there are now strict production requirements that traditional beer merchants will have to abide by in order to stay on the right side of the law. Thembisile Ndlovu has made a name for herself as the queen of brewing umqombothi the natural way it was done by grandmothers back in the villages. The 36-year-old from Zondi in Soweto, who is owner of All Rounder Theme events that organises themed parties and provides catering, said the new law regulating the making of umqombothi would not affect her business.

Odd seeing Pellicle win second place in a “best blog” award this week. From Beer 52 which fulls wells knows what Pellicle is. It’s not that it got an award or came second. It’s that it recognized that the drinks website was a blog. There is an interesting comment hidden in the explanation of the award:

…Pellicle has stuck to a founding principle that I recall finding quite radical at the time: kindness. Next to the toxic dumping ground of rivalry and acrimony that is Beer Twitter, Pellicle has been unremittingly positive in choosing what to cover and how to cover it.

I don’t disagree but I also find it weird that the fairly barren wasteland for any beer discussion on Twitter is set up as the comparator. Having made a hobby of reading this stuff every week, beer Twitter died off a long time ago. May still be general jerk Twitter, sure. And both GHB Sightlines and Dave Infante’s Fingers have recently seen the need to put up a paywall to make ends meet. Is “beer blog” the last phrase standing? Maybe so – if that is what Pellicle is. Speaking of which, they published an excellent piece by Will Hawkes on hops growing in England:

Crucially, the hop gardens sit on rich, fertile Brickearth soil, windblown loam and silt, deposited during the Ice Age. The Thames Estuary is just three miles away, and the hops, which grow on a gentle east-facing slope, are frequently buffeted by wind. This proximity to the sea is part of what makes East Kent Goldings what they are, although John regards it as a mixed blessing. “They can end up a bit bashed and brown,” he says. “The German hops are always pristine! They must get no wind there.”

Speaking of which, Stan’s Hop Queries blog by email showed up this week including observations on the Colorado hop market:

MillerCoors (now MolsonCoors) subsidized Colorado’s mini-hop boom in the teens, paying much more for Colorado grown hops than the brewery would have for the same varieties from the Northwest. They were, and are, used in the Colorado Native line of beers. That includes seven year-round brands and four seasonals that are brewed with 100% Colorado-grown ingredients. However, a few years ago MolsonCoors cut back its hop contracts to “right-size” inventory. Many farmers weren’t ready to compete.

Stan also noted that the Ales Through the Ages beer history conference has gone Zoomy and yet, even after scrapping the junket side, has also ditched all of the original speakers. Did ticket sales bomb for what many thought, as I observed last April, could have been called “Males on Ales Through the Ages”?

And Andy Crouch guided me to an article in Wine Enthusiast on the tepid performative solidarity craft beer is displaying in response to bigotries in the craft beer trade:

“… I keep getting messages and emails and calls, and people just stopping by the brewery, every day, just being like either this person apologized to me, or this person was fired, or the company just did this for everybody, and just letting me know all these really positive changes that people are actually sticking to and doing what they say. “It is heartwarming to know that it actually is helping people and creating lasting change.” To bring these issues to light in the customer sphere, in July, Allan announced a collaboration beer called Brave Noise. Its aim is to promote a safe and discrimination-free beer industry. At press time, fewer than 100 breweries had committed to the project.

Craft fibs category ticked. Back in England but still about forms of ticking, Mudgie guided me to the post at Real Ale, Real Music about an excellent pub crawl in Preston:

I retraced my route, passing dozens of takeways, a few restaurants, vape shops, beauty salons, and the odd pub as Saturday evening came to life. I had decided I would visit one more place before getting the train home. It was back across town, back to Fishergate, where down the side street by Barclays Bank was the Winckley Street Ale House, another recommendation from earlier in the day. There were tables outside, as there were at other spots on a pleasant side street, and as I walked in I joined a queue to the bar. It moved slowly, but finally it was my turn.

Reality. I believe what I read in that story more than I believe that France has more breweries than any other country in Europe. Or that much of craft cares. Facts! That’s what we need.

That’s it. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast (this week… VIKINGS!!!), 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

“When Autumn Leaves Start To Fall…” Edition Of The Beery News Notes

OK – summer is done. Really. Six months to spring. We can handle this. Really. I knew autumn had come because I had a little private moment for the seventh anniversary of the release party in Albany with Craig for Upper Hudson Valley Beer where I got to meet that very nice young lady… right after we saw her go over to our box of books in the corner and then helped herself to a few. I think I bought her a beer as Craig stole our books back from behind her back. Community.

First up, Robin Leblanc wrote a very good piece on how the pandemic has unexpectedly introduced a number of positive changes in the craft beer scene:

So in looking at all of that, having to work as a professional and sum up the experiences of the beer world through its accomplishments, I began to see why this matters. Because for the first time in what feels like ever, it seems that the industry is actually trying to live up to the ideals that it set for itself. Progress has been slow-going, but something seems to have kicked in the past two years to create a newfound perspective.

I’m too much the crank to be so hopeful but it is good to see hope seen and shaped as well as Robin has in this piece.

From the science desk, Matthew reminded us of his July 2018 gaseous observations: “A few years ago, I was blamed for being excessive and causing global warming through trapping heat in the atmosphere. But now, apparently, there’s not enough of me to go around.” Apparently it is news again as Mr. Protz advised:

CO2 shortage impacting beer. No need to go without. In pubs drink real ale: handpump operates suction pump that draws beer from cellar to bar without applied gas. For home drinking seek out bottle conditioned beers with natural carbonation. #LiveBeer

See, that’s what I call supporting the actually traditional. The British co2 shortage is dramatic and touches on many parts of the supply chain, requiring government intervention:

Meat producers and food industry chiefs had called on the government to step in and warned that if they didn’t then food shortages would soon follow. Ian Wright, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, warned on Tuesday that consumers would start seeing shortages in poultry, pork and bakery products within days.

At least one UK pub lad seemed to be on Team Protz as far as letting the beer supply its own gas:

Colin Keatley, of the Fat Cat pub and brewery group, said the shortage was yet to bite but that it would have a significant impact should it hit. “It’s amazing how so many businesses do rely on this one product and we rely on CO2 both in some of the beers we make and dispensing some. We do still have beers on gravity and pork scratchings – so if we have to just rely on them we will.”

Aside from science, the politics of the drink continued to be top of the discourse. I saw this bit of solidarity bruvvah! news last week and thought to myself “…wouldn’t that be nice if craft beer bars were like this…”

Employees at one of the country’s largest distillers have been striking since Monday after 96% of union members agreed to a strike. “I’ll be out here however long it takes to get what we deserve,” union member Katie Gaffney said… Workers gained support from a local restaurant. Buffalo Wings and Rings will stop selling Heaven Hill products until an agreement is reached. “What were asking Heaven Hill to do is nothing short of what we do for our customers,” Buffalo Wings and Rings District Manager Jessica Raikes said.

Somewhat along the same general lines, the essay of the week was definitely this excellent set of facts and opinions presented by Ruvani de Silva on the forms of gratitude expected from the historically marginalized:

Quebec-based beer blogger and influencer Amrita Kaur Virk, who also works in the baking and restaurant industries, has had similar experiences. “When diversity became cool… I felt like there were a lot of white beer advertisers that were creeping up on my profile and following me, but also expecting me to fully embrace them and be grateful that they finally noticed me,” she says. “I remember being approached by them like they were some kind of knight in shining armor and them asking for my experiences… I really feel like there are some white folks who are looking to just harvest my own personal experiences to appear to be ‘woke’ and virtue signal. Even the act of approaching/following me seems very performative. Like I should feel grateful for even being considered and approached”.

Boom. That is really particularly boomtastic. Boomeriffic. Like you, I’ve seen a fair few non-marginalized majoritarian pasty scribbly folk like me in beer (no doubt out of a sense variously mixed of story FOMO, cultural guilt and good intention) taking it upon themselves to elbow into view or play that knight over the last couple of years but that quote above nails it. Gratitude like this relates to manufactured passion in craft beer which sets itself apart from the Buffalo Wings and Rings approach mentioned above. Fabulous.

Perhaps relatedly, historian Doug Hoverson (whose book on Minnesota Land of Amber Waters sits in view every night) wrote about the idealized images of Indigenous North Americans in beer branding over the years:

How prevalent has the use of American Indian imagery in beer advertising been? An extensive though by no means exhaustive survey of labels, coasters, signs, newspaper ads, and other “breweriana” (any item with a brewery’s name or a beer brand name on it) shows that nearly half the states (and all the major brewing states) had at least one brewery that used Native imagery for identification or advertising. Nearly 100 breweries portrayed American Indians in logos or other illustrative contexts—mostly in the pre-Prohibition era, and almost exclusively in the pre-craft era.

Appropriation and pre-Disney Disneyfication abounded and was not limited to brewing. But did extend well past pre-craft as it was used by “Leinenkugel Brewing Co. of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin from 1933 to 2020.” I do wish there was more than one Indigenous view included as well as a little standardization and modernization of the terminology in the piece as using “Indian” as a stand alone or “vanquished” for Chief Abraham Meshigaud or “Mishicott” who died in old age on his own people’s lands is a bit uncomfortable – but it is a welcome survey.

Speaking of questions of appropriation, a wonderful debate broke out between Martyn and The Beer Nut over Irish Red Ale as being a 40 year old US marketing term or a far older organic term from the Gaels themselves:

Fact is, Smithwick’s was an ale, Irish and red, prior to 1981. I remember it. I was there.

Beer business law? You got it. A wonderful procedural legal situation is setting up as Brendan P. Esq. explained this week as Boston Beer Company has sued NY distributors over its efforts to terminate Dogfish Head distribution deals. Wonderful unpacking:

The rub is that if a brewery terminates a distribution agreement in this manner, it still has to pay the distributor the “fair market value” of the distribution rights that are being terminated… Big money time. Counsel for distributors Boening, Oak, Dana, and Dutchess claimed to Boston Beer that the FMV of the distribution rights as $56 million, and that if the agreements were terminated in violation of ABC law, Boston Beer’s liability could be $100 million… This will be fascinating because FMV is almost never calculated in public view; it’s usually subject to a NDA or calculated behind closed doors.

Look at that. A good mix this week. A veritable 1974-era ABC Wide World of Sports… of beer. And not one newbie style guide to drag it down! For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (again the talk was of awards this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The Last Of August’s Thursday Beery News Notes

What was that? Summer 2021? Done? It’s still going on here as I am on an actual holiday and doing fun stuff like getting new spectacles for my face and a new electrical panel for the basement. Wooot! This is the dream and I am livin’ it. I even had 330 ml of a 3.8% beer yesterday and watched a Netflix show about the Korean buckwheat noodle dish naengmyeon, as recommended by DSL.* Both a drinking and then hangover dish apparently. Now I know why my buckwheat noodles suck. I didn’t immediately rinse and rub them in ice water. And, yes, a hundred other reasons. Never again. Probably. Maybe.

First off, it was good to read “The Ancient Magic of Malt: Making Malt Sugars and Ale from Grain Using Traditional Techniques” by sometimes reader Merryn Dineley in the journal EXARC.net,* 2021 (vol 2) who set the record straight:

This paper is presented as a historical narrative as well as being an explanation of basic ‘mashing in’ techniques. I aim to tell the story of the development of my understanding of how to make malt and malt sugars from the grain. I have learned from other experimental archaeologists, from ancient technologists and brewing scientists as well as from ethnographic research and the study of traditional style malting, mashing and fermentation techniques. One of the common myths about the origins of beer thousands of years ago is that grain was perhaps left in a container, it got wet and, somehow, turned into beer. This is impossible. The conditions for making malt and malt sugars do not exist in this situation.

A bit later in time but still in the past, Rob Sterowski at “I Might Have a Glass of Beer” wrote about Epochal Barrel Fermented Ales, a brewery intent of brewing the old fashioned way:

Possibly the most erudite of Scottish brewers, Young deserted the world of academic philosophy to devote himself to a study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century brewing literature instead, and Epochal Barrel Fermented Ales is the result. A skilled home brewer, he has set up his small brewery in Port Dundas to make beers influenced by the way it was done two hundred years ago. His beer is fermented with a multi-strain yeast, cleansed to rid them of excess yeast and then allowed to mature to completion in oak barrels with a handful of whole-cone hops. The finished product is naturally carbonated in the bottle.

As Boak and Bailey noted, suggestions that the #MeToo and #BLM movements’ efforts to expose craft beer’s ugly side have faded were found wanting with the news of an open letter to England’s West Berkshire Brewery. You can click on the image to the right to read the complaints yourself. It is certainly one of the long failings of the drinking entertainment pleasure trade to address the piggish attitudes that go along with booze. So it is good to read that folk won’t be bullied to keep quiet when it comes to bigotry and harassment even if a lot of the privileged voices have wandered away.

I wasn’t familiar with English comedian Sean Lock. He passed away this past week but I am glad to know he had a hobby.

Update: I failed in not mentioning “Empire State of Mind” by David Jesudason published in GBH (thereby upping their average significantly) who looks at IPA from the point of view of the “I” as in India:

My father’s love of empire, and his belief that Britain was a civilizing force, was mirrored in the drink he called his own: the India Pale Ale. Of all of his beliefs, this one was particularly confused. His friends were Lager drinkers, and his adoption of IPA was a way of pretending to be refined in the days before the craft revolution had taken hold. But where he saw a drink that was emblematic of genteel, colonial India, I see something very different: Owing to the beer style’s association with the East India Company and its brutality, I can’t help but think of bloodshed, oppression, and enslavement.

I noted that it was an parallel to “Britain’s Idyllic Country Houses Reveal a Darker History“, the recent NYer piece on England’s National Trust but also cause for reflection on my own family’s path. One side included servants at big houses like that of the Collins publishing family as well as a great-grandfather who was a Sgt Mjr British army out in the empire while the other side, displaced highlanders in Greenock, built the ships that shifted the sugar that came out of the colonial system. Many died young, many had lives of if not poverty then at best modesty – with much drink caused troubles in industrial towns before many emigrated the hell out of there. If you have any doubt as to the way that IPA is code for empire consider this from that NYer article:

“At the end of the day, we went to a very, very, very rich country and transferred a lot of its wealth to this country, by trade, entrepreneurship, and looting,” Dalrymple said. In 2003, Angus Maddison, a British economist, calculated that India’s share of the global G.D.P. went from 24.4 per cent to 4.2 per cent during two and a half centuries of colonial rule. In 1884, the British state had a total income of two hundred and three million pounds, of which more than half came from its overseas territories, including seventy-four million pounds from India. Taxes were levied across the world and sent to burnish the metropole.

Good for someone to finally point out in depth the obvious issue with IPA as a placeholder for good beer. Might as well brand US craft lager Berghof.

Note: craft.

One of Canada’s few pre-Confederations tavern/inns/hotels, the Queen’s Inn, is up for sale in my fair town. I wrote about it in 2004 when it was just 165 years old and I was only 41: and is ripe with history and charm:

…he remembers one particular customer who continued coming in until he was in his 80s. The gentleman, Mitchell recalled, was blind and had a booming voice. “Give him two drafts,” the bartender told the younger Mitchell. “We just put the price up to 50 cents. Have fun.” “I didn’t know what he meant. I put the two beers down and said, ‘That’ll be 50 cents.’” “Forty-five is all you’re getting,” the man bellowed back.

Another pandemic affected business. And, on that theme, Josh Noel pointed me in the direction of the tale of overzealous expansion which ended in the collapse of Ale Asylum of Madison, Wisconsin:

Dilba said the pandemic “didn’t help” the business but added, “there were other extraneous factors, which I won’t get into, but the pressure applied by the pandemic was significant. And we’re not alone in that. Everybody in this world is in this fight together that really made moving forward very difficult.”

Factors cited elsewhere in the article include too many local beers, too many out of state beers in local bars and rent increases. Maybe also it’s because Americans are just drinking less, according to VinePair or, rather, the authors of the polling study they echo:***

Sixty percent is down nearly five percent from 2019. It’s down even more compared to 2010, when 67 percent of U.S. adults replied “yes” to the survey. There seemed to be a shift in drinking habits from 2019 until now. The average number of drinks per week (3.6) dropped to its lowest since 2001. Additionally, men (63 percent) reported drinking at a higher rate than women (57 percent).

Good reason to find another career than drinks writing! One person who does not care is likely Sister Doris Engelhard, the brewing nun in Germany whose story as told by NPR was the retweeted topic of the week:

“I only brew beer that I drink myself, so if the other sisters want to drink a wheat beer, they’ll have to buy it themselves,” she says. She also waves away any question about the intersection of her faith and her beer. “Beer is part of the Bavarian soul. If you’re not happy with yourself, you won’t be happy in a cloister,” she says. “And eating and drinking are part of that life. It’s not about being pious. All I need to do is believe in a higher power that accepts me as I am.”

Speaking of good stories about good outcomes, the BBC reported this week on the life of Cesar Kimbirima, a child soldier in Angola who found himself left for dead, now running a Wetherspoons pub:

…as the sky started spinning, and his consciousness faded to black, he thought it was over. His life would end in the long grass, while his blood poured into the dry Angolan earth. More than 20 years later, that dying soldier pours pints at the pub he manages in south London. As he chats to punters, and waves to babies in prams, there is no hint of Cesar Kimbirima’s former life.

There. That is it for now. Not sure if there will be an edition next week as I am driving to the sea. We will see. During these last lazy days, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and (if I dare say) from Stan mostly every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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 – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*who once posed as me just to be nearer Lars.
**an archaeological foundation of some sort out of The Netherland with an address on the fabulous street, Frambozenweg!
***Hah! I’m one to talk.

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The Quietest Week of Summer

Crickety chirp chirp. Not necessarily in the beer world but certainly in this part of Canada. Holiday long weekend leading into the first week of a summer month? Everyone is gone. I am even holding the fort solo as others jump in a lake at a family cottage. O sole mio. Naps followed by long sleeps abound. Fortunately, the amusements never end in boozeland as the exchange above best illustrated this week.

First, take a moment this week to remember Florencio Gueta Vargas who died on July 29th in a hops field in Yakima County, WA. He worked for decades in the fields but was overcome by temperatures in excess of 100F that day. He leaves behind a wife and 6 children. Workers like Vargas endure conditions most of you would never accept.

Archivally, interesting news out of North Carolina:

We’re in the process of picking up a HUGE donor collection of national importance. A research collection and personal archive going back at least until the late 1970s. Historians of modern US craft beer history and brewers are going to drop their jaws as much as we have.

I know of one other particular private collection which would be likely mind boggling if released but these are the realities of this sort of hoardy hobby world. The recipient of the donation of 20 boxes describes itself this way: “Well Crafted NC documents beer and brewing history in North Carolina from the breweries of the 1700s to the craft breweries today.” They are also colleagues in the same publication series that includes my two histories. Likely need more of those sorts of landing pads created in more jurisdictions as a form of careful succession planning.

Not unrelatedly, Gary has written another fabulous post on aspects of eastern European brewing in the lead up and during WWII. This time it’s an interesting bit of research related to the hops trade up to early 1941:

…American cotton might be paying for hops ending in American hands… Such cooperation between Russia and Nazi Germany was not inconceivable. The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty, was still in force between the two countries. It only terminated when Germany invaded Russia in June 1941… It does seem clear America imported no, or very few hops from Germany after the European war started on September 1, 1939. The Royal Navy imposed a blockade of Germany that was generally highly effective, for one thing.

Stan popped in this week for a few Monday musings on three topics. “Why We Drink” caught my attention:

A bit of context for the “hard seltzer is dead, no it’s not” flap. “How Big Beverage poured empty promises down our throats” (from The Goods at by Vox) barely mentions beer, but you can connect the dots.

The two points he highlights from the article (and you will have to go to Stan’s to find the link… bloggy etiquette must be observed) are (i) “we’ve created an entire category of ‘functional’ beverages that claim to have the ability to make us better in every single way, from our brains to our beauty” and (ii) “Instead of collectively admitting that we love drinks… we would rather fool ourselves into believing that drinks can fix us.” It’s interesting as the entire ethos of craft has been build upon personal improvement, a step up. But this is intentional as before craft was created as we know it today, micro-brewing was being led down the pervy and wastrel path. It needed cleaning up… but has it gone too far with, for example, the nutso health claims?

Beer law news? Bloomberg Law reports that Bell’s Brewery has settled a law suit in another copyright infringement situation:

Michigan’s Bell’s Brewery Inc. reached a confidential settlement of a suit alleging its “Deer Camp” beer infringes a “Deer Camp” coffee trademark held by hunting goods company Buck Baits LLC.

Note that the wording used is identical and the offended party may have deeper pockets, h/t MK.

Sir Geoff Palmer has been appointed Chancellor at Heriot-Watt University, home of Scotland’s great brewing college. I came to his writing through the human rights side first and, in particular, have enjoyed his use of social media to argue for a new interpretation of many historical Scots matters including many of the same figures whose names pop up in Canada, like Dundas and Picton. But, yes, he knows more about beer than any of you, too.

What else is going on in the world? I like these cardboard six-pack holder thingies from Norway, especially given the way the plastic ones are killing the planet:

The WaveGrip carrier has been developed in line with Berry Global’s Impact 2025 sustainability strategy, which aims to work with customers to help meet and exceed their sustainability goals. Each carrier weighs just 7.95g for a standard six-pack and is recyclable in most paper and board waste collection streams. Despite its light weight, it is strong and easy to use, while delivering excellent pack retention.

Note: “Excellent Pack Retention” was the name of my folk-punk band in the 1990s.

Not speaking of which, interesting to read that Anheuser-Busch InBev revenues are up even if profits are not matching the full trend. So much for (again) craft the destroyer. That being said, likely they are selling seltzers and auto parts somewhere out in the world, making up for the general disinterest in beer.

From France, two views of the new vaccination passes to get into shops and bars:

“Long live the health pass!” said Chastelloux, who, like the others interviewed for this story, spoke in French. “You have the right not to get vaccinated but not to stop other people [from] getting on with their lives. Shopkeepers need to work, and we need to be able to treat other medical conditions than COVID.”

…and…

“Show a pass in order to drink a beer with your friends? In France? The so-called country of liberty, equality, fraternity? I’m giving up going to restaurants. I’ll boycott cafés. We can eat with friends around each others’ houses. And shop in small stores, not supermarkets,” he said.

Retailers line up on both sides, fearing lost sales in either case. Were this to come to pass here in Canada – with our local double jab rate approaching 75% – there might be less disagreement.

Finally, here is a bit of a bizarre take from Alaska on the problems facing brewing and other hospitality trades in terms of get employee levels up:

Virtually every brewery in the state is looking for help. Like in all industries, it seems like Americans aren’t returning to work post-pandemic like labor and economic forecasters thought they would. There are a lot of reasons for this, and I’m not about to go into the political side of the issue – that doesn’t fit my singular writing objective of “making people thirsty for good beer” – but the bottom line is that, if you want in, now’s the time. Servers, publicans and tap room attendants seem to be in high demand, but there’s room in the brewery, too, if you want to get your boots wet and stir the mash with the big boys and girls in the industry.

By “not getting into the political side” I assume the author means the low wages, health and safety questions and non-unionized environments. Claptrap from a trade shill it seems.

As you nap away the hours, too, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The End Of July Heralds These Thursday Beery News Notes

August. It’s coming. Even though it’s the month of my road trip holiday, the first in two years, no one says “Yay! August!!” do they. It’s the last gasp, the slipping away of the sands of summer. The first hint of sweater weather. Darker beers to suit darker days. The crops are coming in, as the scene in Norfolk, England shows.

How is that barley crop doing… for those of you still drinking grain based beverages. Not well. Bryan R. tweeted a very graphic graphic, shown to the right. The US barley crop is collapsing under the heat. Canadian farmers planted 8.3 million acres of barley in 2021, up 9.7% encouraged by last year’s crop but it’s been dry and hot here, too. Northern Ireland looks to be in better shape. France looks fine, too. The rest of the western EU may be dealing with too much rain.

How’s the hops? Stan has issued his latest update on the hops markets, Hop Queries. And it contains an interest discussion on the effect of heat waves on the NW US crop this year:

“One variety that could cause issues is Cascade, as other growers have seen it hit hard.” This comes at a time that farmers have reduced Cascade acres because brewers cut back contracts. Brewers who are counting on buying fresh Cascade at below contract prices on the spot market, which has become standard operating procedure for many smaller breweries, maybe be unpleasantly surprised. (There will still be older Cascade around, but perhaps available for a good reason.) As is to be expected, the heat was hardest on “babies” (first-year plants) because they aren’t yet established. And, of course, the babies tend to be in-demand varieties, because growers are going to plant what brewers want. For instance, a field with Chinook will include only a few babies (replacing plants that grew old or became diseased), and Chinook stood up well to the heat.

Expected result? Less supply of the most desired varieties.

Lingering or revived pandemic blues got you down? Missing the many still delayed fests? Head east!

The 31st Qingdao International Beer Festival, one of the largest beer festivals in China, opened on Friday evening in the coastal city of Qingdao, East China’s Shandong province. The 24-day carnival has gathered more than 1,600 beers from over 40 countries and regions, according to the tourism commission of the Xihai’an (West Coast) New Area, where the festival is taking place. There will be over 400 activities covering international exchanges, economic and trade exhibitions, fashion shows, parades and performances during the festival.

These things are apparently a thing. Room to grow, too. Ten tents in 2022, I say!

Martyn wrote about the development of the water supply for brewing in the City of London in one of those pieces on history that does not make you yearn for the earliest of the good old days:

…despite the mythology that surrounds the river’s historic alleged unwholesomeness, brewers made use of its water to brew their beer for centuries: In 1509 the Bishop of Winchester (who owned considerable land alongside the river in Southwark – much of it occupied by brothels) and the Priory of St Mary Overies granted a license to the brewers of Southwark to have passage with their carts “from ye Borough of Southwark until the Themmys … to fetch water … to brew with,” so long as the brewers did not try to claim the passage as a highway, a license renewed by later bishops. (The Thames at Southwark is surprisingly shallow at low tide, and horse-drawn carts could be driven some way out into the stream to collect water in casks.)

Speaking of water, here as link to an interesting piece by BBC Scotland on the changing attitudes younger folk have towards alcohol. Apparently, 29% of youff are dry, up 10% over the last 15 years. If you can’t access the BBC Scotland site, here’s a brief intro. Bottom line – don’t be planning your business on an expanding beer market over the next few decades.

Elsewhere, the young folk are being less sensible as this report from France of the situation in Mexico explains:

Like all businesses in the capital — home to around nine million people — customers in the bars of Zona Rosa have their temperatures checked and are asked to use hand sanitizer. “People want to drink,” said bar owner Ernesto Castro. “The truth is that young people don’t care if they’re going to be infected or not. They want to party,” the 55-year-old said. “They feel that they’re not going to be infected and it’s a problem because the pandemic is still there and getting worse.” Last Friday the authorities raised the pandemic alert level in the capital, but did not impose new restrictions on economic or social activities.

Jenny Pfäfflin drew my attention to claims made about “natural beer“:

I’m not against alternative beers, but marketing it as more “natural” or “wholesome” than barley beer is a lot to unpack.

Seems similar to the idea of “sustainable” beer in Australia. The natural stuff is based on banana and honey and seems to be yet another weird beverage that flies the banner de jour, including the “heritage” banner. Note: “heritage” is the word for history where you leave out the bits you don’t like and rearrange what’s left to maximize comfort levels. In this case, it seems to be a tribute to craft’s heritage of banging things in to a pot and making up a back story to sell the stuff.

By the way, I never know how to react to a majoritarian/ privileged voices presenting a selection of minority/ under privileged voices. Curated protest? Appropriation of anti-appropriation? Seeing it a lot this year. But conversely, at least it is better than the bizarre branding we see in Poland: “White IPA Matters”!

The company has not responded to the allegations and complaints yet. Mr Mentzen, the owner of the brand, is a member of Poland’s right-wing Confederation party and has contested two elections – local elections in Poland’s Torun city in 2018 and for the European parliament in 2019 – both of which he lost, according to the Daily Mail.

Finally and perhaps related, a fairly sad observation to read:

I miss what my life was before beer.

Probably more common a thought that folk would admit. As you contemplate that, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, 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. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly 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. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.