Category: Law

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Thursday Beery News Notes For A Normal Mid-October Week

It’s normal now, right? All normal. Despite what we think and do, it’s definitely normal to get locked inside when the cold creeps in around the nooks and crannies in mid-October.  Yet people are still running around outside, the massive idiots. Wear your masks! And don’t complain about sensible pandemic safety processes!! And write short sentences with many exclamation marks!!! Hmm… the only thing that has really ticked me off this week is I haven’t found any good images to plunk to the right of the first paragraph. Bet Max has something… let me check…  nope. Jeff? Yup. Wear your masks.

Now that that is clear, first up we have a post by Stan is always cause for some serious noting, especially as it relates to the sense of smell and does not advise that loss of the sense is tied to Covid-19:

Researchers at Kyushu University found that the olfactory sensory neurons can exhibit suppression or enhancement of response when odors are mixed, meaning that perception is not the simple sum of the odors. In their experiments, mice that were genetically modified to have their neurons emit green light depending on the amount of calcium ions in them — an indicator of activity — upon absorption of excitation light, the researchers were able to record the response of the neurons in the mice’s noses.

Mice. Noses. Little mousie noses. As with most things, I do not actually understand what is going on here but I trust and have a firm belief in science that gives me an abiding sense of comfort. I am also a good smeller. That sort of thing regularly appeared on my middle school report cards.

Aaaaannnd…. I also don’t understand this from an email received from Pellicle… exactly… which states they will be converting from $ to £:

With recent exchange rate fluctuations the amount getting paid to us has become an uncertain factor, and we’re aware that most of our supporters are UK-based, so this will also avoid any extra fees from your bank when you are paying in dollars. It means we’ll get stronger idea of what we’re receiving each month, and can build more concrete editorial plans in advance. 

Govern yourselves accordingly. I do hope they still take my money. And I hope they take yours once you sign up, if only for pieces like this drinky travel piece taking us to rural England by Kate published this week under the title “With Provenance to Guide Us — Visiting The Moorcock Inn, West Yorkshire“:

It’s late February and sleeting sideways; the sky is an impressive shade of gritstone. Smoke plumes diagonally from the restaurant’s brick ovens outside, which have been slowly roasting mutton all night. Hot roast potatoes will be pulled from them throughout the afternoon, served with aioli as the bar snack of your dreams.

Kate also made the news. News? Oh. News! Oh, well. Let’s see what’s going on. Parts of Britain are now shutting again. In Glasgow, bar and restaurant workers dumped piles of ice in the street as a hospitality shutdown came in and the work went away. The commentary by, I assume, Jimmay is fabulous. Pub man Stonch unpacked an interesting aspect of the laws that applied in his area: the meaning of a “substantial meal”:

… this means the Coronavirus regs on this can be interpreted using case law relating to the ‘64 Act. In Timmis v Millman (a 1965 case) “a substantial sandwich accompanied by beetroot and pickles was a table meal”. So there you go. Get your beetroots ready, publicans!

And Mr. Mudge wrote on the same worthwhile issue:

If you are not going to have an objective yardstick such as price, then you will need to resort to a more subjective definition. Government minister Robert Jenrick* tied himself up in knots by saying that a Cornish pasty on its own wasn’t a substantial meal, but put it on a plate and add chips or salad and it magically becomes one. Few would dispute that a burger and chips would qualify, and the health-conscious should surely be allowed to substitute a salad for the chips. If a burger, then surely also a steak ciabatta, which is in principle the same kind of thing. And a cheese or hummus one for the vegetarians. Before too long, you have a cheese toastie with a couple of lettuce leaves qualifying.

You know… I don’t actually know what a toastie is exactly, either. I assume a toasted sandwich. Or a sandwich made of toast. That was on my middle school report cards too: “..the child thinks a toastie is a toasted sandwich… no hope…”

That’s pivoting. Everyone pivoting. Even though we are staying still. Here in Ontario, Ben has been writing upon his blog (taking a break from narrowcast poor radio impersonation) and decided that Covid-19 has been somewhat good for the Ontario booze trade or at least increased consumer access:

But there is an upside to this — if you’re the kind of person who can find the upside to a viral pandemic increasing our substance use – and it’s that the vigour with which we’ve all embraced the drink has actually had an affect on the availability, politics, and culture related to beer. Yes, this pandemic is a lot of things, most of them terrible, but it also might just be the best time to drink beer in Ontario.

Not necessarily a great deal for consumers medium or long term unless wholesale rates come down – but a good survival technique and good for us all to take part in now. New shops like Byward Market Wine Market (fine booze plus small takeaway meals) will be a next model… until the next next one comes.

In other good news here in eastern Ontario – as reported on Canadian Beer News and also discussed on OCBGTP – Slake Brewing in nearby Prince Edward County (just south of the very questionably named county seat of Picton) has opened. I post to remind myself to go.

Pivoting #2. Or is it #3? Or #4? Something called the Drinking Studies Network (that also looks a lot like a blog) posted “Threat or Opportunity? COVID-19 and Working Men’s Clubs” by Ruth Cherrington:

The post-COVID future of clubs could lie to some extent in drawing upon their enduring ethos and ideals which include their not-for-profit status. The 21st century setting has brought new challenges but also some tools that can help such as social media. With the usual club experience and contact with members impossible, club committee members had to make more use of Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Nearly 9% of those surveyed used social media to build up the club’s community and membership over lockdown. Facebook groups became more important for clubs’ committees, especially to let members know what was happening, when they would be reopening and how.

I’d go to an old farts club if they had them around here. Maybe. Would I? Dad peeling potatoes in Yorkshire during the Berlin Airlift might even qualify me for the Legion. But would I go during these the early dark ages? Do I go anywhere? Well, other than the used record shop…

Unrelatedly, this thread on the habits of those in sports and entertainment who passed through this person’s former job at a hotel bar is fun: “Bob Seeger: Honestly he looked like anybodys grandpa with his flannel and orthopedic shoes“; “Stevie Nicks …difficult.” Remember hotel bars?

Now, in this week’s History Comes Alive corner, Gary is finding the time and steam power to get some of the beer history researched and writ… the opposite of my efforts, a personal failing that gnaws within me. One of many. This week he posted about the first draught beer sold in bottles and began with a handy definition:

Pasteurization is used in brewing, including for most imports and mass-marketed beers, not to make it safe for consumption as in the case of milk, say, but to render it stable from a microbiological aspect –bar  to retard souring in particular. Thus, for modern, bright, bottled or canned beer that is not pasteurized, which is the first?* Coors beer is a notable early case, at least the domestic U.S. Coors.** Coors did not abandon pasteurization in bottles until 1959 though…

Elsewhere in space and time, Martin asked “where does Bristol end?” and found a pub that went all snug for Covid-19. BB2 replied: “One of our guidelines is unless there’s an open field separating it, it’s in Bristol.”

Beer… should reference something beery… The proper brewing of lager was discussed in Craft Beer & Brewing through a piece by Steve Holle of the KC Bier Company in Kansas City, Missouri:

Traditional lager brewing requires “more” than a typical ale fermentation. Because the “more” requires additional costs and resources to achieve very subtle, small, and incremental enhancements to flavor, there is always the temptation to take shortcuts by buying cheaper ingredients, skipping decoction, pitching less yeast, raising the fermentation temperature, shortening the conditioning time, or using artificial carbonation.

This neatly illustrates nicely the need for a separation of traditional lager from macro gak conceptually. I was thinking of that when I was writing back and forth with Jeff yesterday about his excellent SNPA post. Others were also thinking of proper lager brewing. Alistair was asking about if decoction mashing was practiced in Victorian Britain.

And finally, Kate Bernot has written about Canada’s ice beers… though sorta missed the twin towers of the phenomenon, Maximum Ice and all the future goth TV ads especially the one with The Smiths*, in favour of something about… a penguin. Still, it is a handy primer and notes importantly that the ice beer boom never busted as it traveled south:

Ice beers are a Canadian invention dating back to the early 1990s; they’re essentially stronger versions of the domestic lagers North Americans had been drinking for decades. American beer companies swiftly copied this “innovative” idea and mass-produced their own versions including Milwaukee’s Best Ice, Keystone Ice, Bud Ice, Busch Ice, and Natural Ice. 

Why does it live on? It’s richer as well as stronger. So curlers dig the stuff. Goes with rye and K-Tel LPs.

There. Enough! I’m rating this a mid-grade week. Or maybe just a mid-grade post. Either way, another week has passed. Like the grains of sand passing through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. Remember there’s  Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (this week Jordan shits on tweens!!!) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well.  And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick  podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Not to mention Cabin Fever. And Ben has finally gone all 2009 and joined in with his own podcast, Beer and Badword. And remember BeerEdge, too. Plenty of good writing. Only a little journalism. Journalism. Yup. Apparently all writing is ultimately… journalism. Sorry Shakespeare. You aren’t in any give-away trade papers.

*Someone at the Labatt PR firm back then knew the value of good music in a beer ad.

The Thursday Beery News Notes Now That We Are Entering Month Eight

How was this last week for you? I am happy to report I got my hands on a couple bottles of the wonderful Sinha Stout when I was up in Ottawa on my eyelid consult. Did I mention I have one stitch surgery coming up? It’s such a minor adjustment that I find it a bit funny.  With any luck I’ll get some more of the stuff after the actual nip is tucked in a month. Speaking of Eastern Ontario, we are told that this no actual beers were actually harmed in the incident captured in this image tweeted out by the local OPP… aka the Ontario Provincial Police… aka the Official Party Poopers according to the kids.

Speaking of official notices, I received an update… err PR email… from the Beeronomics Society team, a serious academic body looking at the monetary effects of brewing. This was the main bit of news:

…the Beeronomics Biannual Conference in Dublin, Ireland. As you know, the event was planned for Summer 2021 (we were just in the process of announcing dates). However, in consultation with the local organizing committee, we have decided it best to delay the meetings until the first half of 2022. I think we can all agree that a Beeronomics Conference with social restrictions would not be a Beeronomics Conference! 

So, put away thoughts of travel for another 20 months if that was your plan. Also attached to my personal communication was a series of links to papers issued by their membership like this, this and this – Papers in Applied Geography, Volume 6, Issue 3 (2020) Special Issue: Space, Place, and Culture: An Applied Geography of Craft Beer which included this handy disclaimer:

We recognize that craft brewery and microbrewery are defined differently in different countries. In this guest editorial, we use the term craft brewery as a universal term to denote a brewery that produces small volumes of beer and is independently, and in most cases, locally owned.

Conversely, there were a number of academic books on beer listed. The Geography of Beer costs $150. I wish I had the moolah to buy them all.

So… we’ll that’s all handy for present purposes but just don’t tell the US Brewers Association. Speaking of which, BA Bart issued a econo-tweet on the state of certain things based on the graph to the right:

…to me, this suggests Seltzer is showing its seasonality (which got hidden a bit last year with all the growth) and starting to slow from the torrential pace it has been on. AB thinks similar things, guessing it will “only” grow 50% next year…

I dunno. The drop seems to coincide with the bad news about the US economy and the failure to agree upon a stimulus package that would supper average working Joes… meaning they have less of an expectation of survival therefore less moolah to spend on White Claw. But that’s just me. But then BA Bart mentioned another factor that I don’t know if he sufficiently considered linking – not enough cans:

Ball Corp estimates that US market is short 10 billion aluminum cans in 2020. That’s not all beer (soda, other beverage also seeing shortages), but it is equivalent 30M barrels of demand going unfulfilled. Unclear how much of that volume will find a home in other packages.

Unfulfilled. I’ve been there.

Disaster is also on the horizon in Belgium as Eoghan Walsh noted:

Brussels slides towards lockdown – bars closed for a month from tomorrow. “The lamps are going out all over Brussels, we shall not see many of them lit again in our life-time…”

He noted this in response to reading an article in RTBF which I will leave as an acronym on the pretense that I know what it stands for. The article explained new measures announced by Ministre-Président Of Brussels Rudi Vervoort who “confirme la fermeture à partir de ce jeudi 8 octobre et pour un mois.” Included in the closures are:

(i) des cafés, bars, salons de thé et buvettes. Resteront ouverts seuls les lieux où l’on sert exclusivement la nourriture à table; (ii) les salles de fête devront fermer leurs portes; (iii) les clubs sportifs amateurs devront fermer leurs buvettes: les matchs se dérouleront à huis clos pour le “indoor” and (iv) les communes examineront un certain nombre de protocole et mesures à prendre pour ce qui concerne les salles de douche et vestiaires des salles de sport; and (v) l’obligation de fermeture des night shops et salles de jeu à 22 heures déjà décidée précédemment est prolongée pour un mois.

So, it’s not just the liquor establishments but a lot of other things. Frankly, me, I like the idea of rotating lockdowns to disrupt the propagation of the virus but I might be aiming for ten days straight a month. Then there would be both economic certainty as well as a good chance at medical efficacy. Conversely, Scotland. Surprise! But that’s just me.

Glenn Hendry is sharpening his skills. I liked this piece of his about the state of beer here in Ontario and latched onto the importance of recognizing loyalty during these hard times:

Erin Broadfoot, the co-owner and co-brewer at Little Beasts Brewery in Whitby, says loyal customers have been the secret to her business making it this far into 2020. “Lots of people came out at the onset to support us. There were large orders; they were sharing posts and they were telling friends to come out,” she said. “It was an amazing few weeks where we were blown away by our community’s level of support and compassion. But we know that can only last for so long.”

Speaking of Ontario and as reported by Canadian Beer News, take away beer and wine and hard liquor is now part of my forever. If the price point narrows, this could be interesting…

Just to the south, Don Cazentre told the odd story this week of a non-Covid related brewery failure… at least according to its owner:

GAEL Brewing Co. opened (in 2015) as an “Irish-American” brewery, with a focus an Celtic ales like stout, porter and Irish red, plus many of the standards of American craft brewing at the time.  Last weekend, GAEL Brewing closed, permanently… “The failure of the business rests entirely on me,” he wrote. “It was not NY State, Governor Cuomo, COVID-19 or any other excuse. The failure is because of me solely. The market has spoken loudly and they rejected our brand. I have failed.”

That’s harsh but perhaps realistic. The sort of beers I like… the sorts of things I recognize as beer have fallen out of favour. Sign of the times in these sweet tangy alcopop days. Me, I like the sorts of beers The Beer Nut likes even though most of them I will never see. He wrote about fifteen just on Monday. I don’t try fifteen different beers in a month. Not only do we fail to reflect on what The Beer Nut does, The Beer Nut may fail to reflect on what he does not do.

Where is Max? Who is the guy with the accordion?

My pal Beth, who I have never met and may never meet*, has written a fabulous knife twist of an article about the Brewers Association for VinePair, entitled “Not Heard, Not Supported, and Let Down: How The Brewers Association Lost Its Way”:

But to date, Oliver says she has received no funds, no explanation of when to expect them, and no suggested alternatives from the BA. Oliver reached out to the BA via email in March to inquire about the status in light of Covid-19, noting she understood there may be delays. The BA’s office manager, Alana Koenig-Busey*, replied to Oliver, saying she was unable to provide an ETA for grant checks.

That asterisk leads the reader to this statement: “*Ed. note Oct. 6, 2020: Alana Koenig-Busey is no longer employed by the Brewers Association.” Jings! The only quibble I have is the notion that the organization has lost its way. I’ve been mocking it for over a decade.

Stan wrote about the ownership of yeast strains and included this very “Stan found the notes from his writer’s note book because he does that” moment:

Acknowledging the source of every kveik culture is valuable for several reasons, but the suggestion that one might have an “original owner” caused me to remember a story Troels Prahl of White Labs told me a few years ago about fellow Dane Per Kølster. Kølster grows his own raw materials to brew beer in the countryside outside of Copenhagen. He is a founding member of the “New Nordic Beer Mafia” that in 2012 set out to establish a category for beer parallel to New Nordic Cuisine. Kølster headed east several years ago to learn more about traditional farmhouse brewing. In Lithuania, he made beer with a local farmer, and when it came time to pitch yeast they walked to a neighboring farm to collect what they needed. On the way the first farmer told Kølster not to say “thank you” for the yeast. He explained that because no one owns yeast it must be available to anyone and saying “thank you” would disrupt this system.

That is frikkin’ excellent. And in line with Canadian law.** Much interesting comment followed led by Lars. I am on Team Lars, too. Stan, Beth and Lars. With me in nets. We’ll take ya.

Finally, National Geographic ran a piece on Osaka that is surprisingly gritty yet references craft beer:

…I meet up with a local man, university professor Momotaro Takamori, and longtime Kiwi expat Rodney Smith in the Nishinari District, notorious for its homeless population and flophouses, not to mention periodic riots by the area’s day labourers — often targeted at the local police. “This is Japan’s biggest slum,” says Rodney, a food and drink guide, “but it’s still safer than where you or I come from.” We sip glasses of Nishinari Riot Ale at Ravitaillement, a little bar pouring pints from neighbouring Derailleur Brew Works, a micro brewery that employs former addicts and the disabled…

Not your average craft beer PR puff.

There… that is it! Remember there’s  Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (this week they shit on Nickelback with the worst attempt of an impression of anyone ever) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well.  And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick  podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Not to mention Cabin Fever. And Ben has finally gone all 2009 and joined in with his own podcast, Beer and Badword. And remember BeerEdge, too.

*Go Beth! She takes shit, deals with it and I like that about her.
**Yes, I have dabbled… and would dabble again if I had to, God damn it!

The Blursday Beery News Notes, Your Only Certainty in October 2020

Records. I have been known to hate records. But up there? That’s my undergrad bar in the fall of 1985 by best guess-timate. The image popped up on the ’80s alumni FB page by a classmate. I’m not in the picture but I can name half of those who are in there. Packed. Happy. I’ve been trying to sift clues to gleaned within the photo and the others that accompanied it. LL Bean boots were a thing. And I think a beer was $1.10 during Happy Hour according to the posted price list. We only had 200 in residence at the place and most of the marriages amongst we wee Blue Devils started off during Friday Happy Hour. We even had a song. OK, I did. You just sang It’s Happy Hour Time! over and over to “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay” which was easy to remember. Duh. Two thirds of my life ago. Note: McEwans Strong. Apparently an 8% treacle based syrup. Had too much of that too often. Ephemera. But very important for some reason.

From within a similar ballpark, ATJ shared an image from just eight years later, the agenda for a conference on the state of IPA in 1994:

Rooting about in the attic where there are hundreds of books, magazines and beer pix and press releases going back to the 1990s I came upon this @Britbeerwriters agenda for their IPA conference – a little bit of history perhaps? Only drunk beer then, beer writing was 2 years away.

Much comment ensued. And more images of the detritus of that day have been located. I was quite interested in who spoke, including four PhDs… or podiatrists… plus Jackson and Protz and Oliver. Heavens. Beats the hell out of a Zoom-cast with influencers.

And last Friday, I listened to Andy Crouch’s interview on BeerEdge with Dr. Theresa McCulla, curator of brewing history at the National Museum of American History. I really liked it. Good production quality for one thing. No umms. No scoffs or chortles.  In terms of substance, I mentioned this:

Having written and researched 1600-1830 brewing history, I’m not sure I fully agree with that given the wide range and the depth of the US records that are available. But they are ephemera, from shocking slave sale notices to banal self praising poetry about brewerys owners… My main takeaway from your excellent discussion was the hope that the same primary transitory records are preserved along with objects. Email data bases and boxes of invoices are as interesting as oral histories from decades after the fact – and perhaps a wee bit more factual.

Which is exactly the point of scrap of paper ATJ found. Just a scrap of paper. And the photos. Not a spoon. I don’t get the spoon thing at all, frankly. There is a difference between symbols and records. Records matter more. So brewers, get those early emails and photocopies onto a disk or a stick or some other thingie and get it to some archive somewhere.

In other news, the shut down hours inspectors are out in England. The comments section in last week‘s noted post at The Pub Curmudgeon offered up this observation on one aspect of the new… rather, latest rules:

It’s table service only. This will be a real pain with only one member of staff, and we can’t afford to have two on at once. If there is anyone with Coronavirus, table service will help spread it through cross contamination. Instead of people coming to the bar – where we have a screen – one at a time then going back to their table, I will be going from table to table constantly taking orders, ferrying drinks and taking payments. Those pubs who have put in ingenious one way systems with collection points and screens because that’s what their risk assessment concluded was safest will have to re-think and implement a new system. In two days.

Conversely, The Sun newspaper-like object has found the one workaround at a highway stop:

…it is classed as providing an essential service because it provides food and drink to motorway drivers. The exemption means the pub — the only one at a services in the country — is not bound by the curfew and can serve between 10pm and 5am. But it is open only until 11pm — although that is still an hour longer than other boozers. Nobody from the Extra Motorway Services group was available for comment last night.

Also about wandering the roads, Boak and Bailey reached back into the letters of a Romantic poet and found out he was “Samuel Taylor Coleridge, beer geek and pub crawler“:

In Llangynog, Wales, in July 1794, he had lunch at the village inn, enjoying ‘hashed mutton, cucumber, bread and cheese and beer, and had two pots of ale – the sum total of the expense being sixteen pence for both of us!’ Note the distinction between beer and ale, there. In 1801, he briefly became obsessed with the idea of making productive use of acorns…

Time passed, and nineteen years later I found myself once again changing trains in Cambridge. I still had my notes from last time, too. Finally I was standing in front of the Free Press. Expecting to be disappointed, I took a deep breath and opened the door. I was not disappointed.

In beer writing critique, Ed posted like it was 2008 when he posted a post about someone else’s post:

…at the end, to sound a little crass, I couldn’t help but think so what? Beer might be described as hyperreal or a simulacra but if I’ve got a pint in my hand why should I care? Postmodernism might by sceptical towards reason but my reason tells me to be sceptical towards postmodernism. 

I thought the post was entertaining, a bit of a romp. My only other comment was similar but hopefully positive: “What isn’t simulacra in craft culture?” Perhaps somewhat related, another beer blog – Look At Brew out of Sussex, England – has declared that it’s time to stop:

I’ve been blogging as Look at Brew on and off for the past eight years or so, mostly focusing on the UK beer scene, a scene which has become an incredible beast. Sometimes that beast is something I want to be around, research and interact with, other times it’s something which I don’t recognise. It has changed beyond what I thought it would in such an incredibly short time.

Many have come and gone. Beer writing has always been a tough gig. Start with limited resources, search hard for a point and/or status – then wash it all down with a lacing or lashings of a generally socially mood altering drug which comes with its own gaps in understanding of the long term consequences. Then add the criticism. Hard on the head if we are looking at our writing as the end of a discussion rather than the beginning. And like many weeks, logging this stuff week after week seems even pointless sometimes…

But that, I think, misses the point. The logging creates an aggregation that displays a pattern. Last Saturday I woke up in the middle of the night and I was thinking about Blursday. Here we are. On the one hand we’ve made it six months in – with about another six until we know what is up with the vaccine roll out.  On the other, it is a Blursday. Day after day of the same. If you are as lucky as me. The boring same is pretty good. Other have not been… what… as immune. The million plus dead worldwide. The millions more now ill without any understanding of the long term consequences. And even millions more hammered economically. Makes beer blogging seem insignificant.

And you know all that already. Because we are all in this Blursday together. Sure – it’s like everyone has the same haircut… or all jam came in one flavour. So, like you I am having a difficult time determining if beer has gotten extra boring or if it is just that a receding tide lowers all boats or if my get up and go got up and went. But then I realize that it’s just Blursday and that better things are coming. Imagine the fun of vaccine day. It’s going to be a happy happy hour. I am almost… perhaps… excited by the idea of looking back at all this, all these weekly news notes posts, once Roaring Twenties V.2.0 starts up in 2021. Which is why I guess I write this. To create a record.

With that glimpse of possible cheer in the late short term, early mid-range… that is it! Enjoy yourself while you are in the pink… and remember there’s  Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (where Jordan shits on the decline of Fullers rep in Ontario but then celebrates the likely return by other means) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well.  And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. Plus the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick  podcast as well! And have a look at Brewsround‘s take on the beer writing of the week. Not to mention Cabin Fever. And Ben has finally gone all 2009 and joined in with his own podcast, Beer and Badword (where this week a bigger bum to behold on a brand is discussed. And remember BeerEdge, too.

 

Your First Thursday Beery News Notes For Autumn 2020

A quieter week. As I napped, I saw this image passing by on the internets screen this week and grabbed it for posterity. One reason it struck me was that it passed by soon after  I read somewhere how craft beer was a response to 60 or 70 years of light pilsner. Hmm… that’s an image of Ballantine ale being delivered in downtown New York in the 1950s. When the ale maker was the third biggest brewer in the U.S. of A.*

It slightly boggles the brain bucket sometimes how limited the recollection of the recent past is. A cursory reading of 1970s and 80s interviews with micro brewers makes clear that they were positively and opportunistically cloning existing beers, especially locally available imports but also beers like Ballantine ale which still existed or were recalled in very recent memory. And catching up with the good food revolution of the 1960s and 70s. Fine followers all. Sure, industrial pilsner was part of it all but, even then, aggregation and lightening the light macro lager continued parallel to the first micro wave that took off in the ’80s and into the ’90s. Anyway, it’s a lovely photo reminding us of the twenty years of maybe a perhaps arguable US ale gap. Here’s some info on the Hudson Theatre.

In the U.K. o’ G.B. etc., the upset centers this week on the new Covid-19 measures and especially the new early 10 pm pub closing order. The B and the B summed up the feeling that someone somewhere is flailing about this way:

What would help is if the Government would get into the habit of providing evidence and rationale for policy decisions. As it is, this latest feels like what you get when half the cabinet wants to close pubs, the other half doesn’t, so you agree to meet halfway.

Stonch has finally been given his proper place as a spokesperson, being interviewed on Times Radio,  opining that pubs got off lightly with these pre-announced changes, that it could have been full closure. His statement that the table service requirement and 10pm closing should not inhibit sensible trading in safe venues was at least a hopeful one. These things have been all over the place in all jurisdictions so it appears to be as much as what approach to the rules is taken as it is what role you play in the system: publican, staff, drinker. Does it work best if the place is small? Cookie has posted a post and suggested a suggestion:

Let’s adopt British Timbo Time. It’s simple. We all set our watches an hour earlier. We get Timbo to turn the smooth bitter taps on an hour earlier. Time is what we say it is. Boris may say it is 10pm. We know it is 11pm BTT. Why should we let the government dictate when it is 10pm? It is 10pm when we want it to be 10pm. If enough of us decide that right now this minute, it a 6am then by hell it is 6am.  British Timbo Time. By the people, for the people!

Elsewhere, we are told that the next months coming could be disastrous for all sorts of breweries – perhaps depending where you live and what sort of economic policies are being followed as, for example, in the US:

A report commissioned by John Dunham Associates claims that 651,000 jobs in brewing, distributing and retail “will be lost by the end of the year”, while overall beer sales could fall by as much as US$22 billion by the end of 2020. Brewing roles are expected to be the hardest hit, with the report warning 3,600 brewers could lose their jobs by year end. “The beer industry has seen a dramatic decline both in sales and jobs that rely on our nation’s most popular alcohol beverage,” said Jim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute.

Perhaps as illustration of candidates, this is classic – but, still, pretty sure the owner was not laughing. How much financial loss does a stacked pallet of cans represent? In much more dangerous occupational health and safety news…

A barman who had his arm blown off in a horror beer keg explosion will receive a compensation payout after reaching an out of court settlement with a former employer. Jye Parker, 29, was seeking more than $2million in damages from Bar Beach Bowling Club in Newcastle, two hours north of Sydney, claiming the venue breached its duty of care. He was helping a friend set up and test a portable beer keg system in October 2014 when it suddenly exploded and changed his life forever.

Yikes. Well, yikes is a bit of an understatement, isn’t it.

Note: only about half his weight.

Quitting blogging. Haven’t we all dreamed of being released from the pinching shackle. Me myself, I passed my 17 and a halfth anniversary this month of beating the pick axe against the face of the blogs.** Anyway, “Life After Football” is packing it in but has gifted us all with a list*** of his favourite blogs of a similar sort of interest:

…there is still plenty to cheer as I can recommend all of the following blogs at the bottom of this post, as they are a terrific read.  If you can’t find something beer or booze related in this smorgasbord then you really don’t like reading about beer or pubs!

The Beer Nut is not quitting and his personal travel ban has him seeking out the what remains of the real and the well thought out:

Pleasingly, it does taste of blueberries, fresh and juicy and real. The hibiscus brings the red fruit too, of course, and it’s quite fun to explore the flavours. This is helped by the beer being neither too sweet nor too tart, the sourness level just enough to make it invigorating without trying to be a full-on enamel-stripper.

Conversely, while I agree with Jordan about what might be considered the amateur hour of micro branding, I also have little interest in the excessive time and money spent on artsy craft packaging and other surfaces where this era’s branding is place – but if you disagree with me soon there will be a book for those with an interest… though perhaps one with a wee bit of confirmation bias behind it. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure that beer Advent calendars have been around for a while. But what is old is apparently new again to the Daily Record.

Speaking of which, it is good to see that international brewing corp. BrewDog hasn’t got full rights to appropriate “Elvis” as it has “Punk”:

…the brewer initially lost its battle to trademark the beer in the UK, but later it was overturned and Brewdog was given permission to trademark ‘Brewdog Elvis Juice’, but not ‘Elvis Juice’.  However it has come unstuck in its latest attempt to trademark the beer in Europe. EPE first opposed Brewdog’s European application back in 2018. Brewdog launched an appeal in the following year which has now been dismissed. In the case documents, the EU Intellectual Property Office ruled: “It is clear that the applicant’s submission based on the peaceful coexistence of the marks cannot succeed. No evidence actually demonstrating such peaceful existence on the pertinent market has been shown. In short…there exists a likelihood of confusion… A likelihood of confusion for only part of the relevant public of the European Union is sufficient to reject the contested application.”

Ontario Beer Store good news. Ontario Beer Store not so good news.

In far worse news, we knew this in general terms but I missed this Amnesty International press release which dives into greater detail related to the connections between the military of Myanmar and many industries including craft brewers:

Pan-Pacific announced that it is terminating its business partnership with MEHL in the wake of Amnesty’s findings and the publication of the UN Fact-Finding Mission report of 2019. KBZ and Kirin have stated they are reviewing their relationship with MEHL, while others did not provide such commitments or did not respond at all. Full copies of responses can be found in Annex I of the report. These companies all partner with MEHL in operations inside Myanmar. However, a few have global reach. Kirin is one of the world’s largest beer brewers, and its drinks, such as Kirin, San Miguel, Lion and Fat Tire are sold in bars and shops all over the world.

Govern yourselves accordingly.

And that is it! Enjoy these last few warm days – and days that you may still be allowed out of the house – and remember there’s  Boak and Bailey most Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (where Jordan shits on the second wave) 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 this week rants about why beer awards are stupid.) . And BeerEdge, too.

*Get out your Tremblay and Tremblay. Economists always make the best contemporary brewing historians.
**Never enough mining analogies. As good as any forced if entertaining argument. Zima. Sweet Lambics. Coolers. Alcopops of one sort or another have been around for decades under one label or another. Heck, there was Lemon Beer in Schenectady in the 1830s. Marketing works.
***What the heck… here’s the list… Pub Curmudgeon, Martin Taylor, Colston Crawford, Pubmeister, Pete Allen, West Midlands Explorer, Shove It, Chuck It, Toss It, The Wickingman, Garden Hermit, Citra, Paul Bailey, BRAPA, Jane Stuart, Real Ale Real Music, The Beertonian, Mappiman’s Real Ale Walks, Tandleman, Food, Travel, Football, Beer is the best, The Travelling Barman, The Cask Connoisseur.

Thursday’s Beery News Notes For The Clampdown

What are we going to do now? It appears the summer has ended with a thump. The clampdown. The BBC reports that social gatherings above six are banned in England from 14 September.  The nightclubs of British Columbia are now shut. Greece has shut down.  Kinda makes reading about beer a side show… kinda. Jeff, however, connected the dots and spoke for all of us when he wrote:

I’d like to raise a mug to all those workers out there who make possible the pint of beer it contains. This has been a rough year. Depending on how you count, the pandemic put somewhere between thirty and forty million people out of work. Many breweries were forced to lay off staff as volumes fell.

The BBC (again) published about the why for those being displaced in shops, restaurants and bars serving the now empty high-rise office block with particular attention paid to the underground network beneath much of downtown Toronto:

For businesses in areas like the PATH, the Covid emergency phase is not over,” says Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Yes, the government is no longer imposing closures, but effectively you may be closed because you have no customers.” While no agency has calculated the estimated cost of these closures yet, the businesses in the PATH typically generate $1.7bn in revenue annually and generate about $271m in tax revenue, according to the city of Toronto, and many have been shuttered since mid-March.

What is a bar to do when its whole model is predicated on the presence of humans? Maureen asked a similar question. I answered: “goats!”

What news of beer otherwise? First, some law and an application for municipal planning approval for the replacement of everything on one (again) Toronto City block has caused great upset. Because it is the location of a dive bar called Sneaky Dee’s:

Local Toronto bar Sneaky Dee’s could be torn down after the city announced it has received a proposal for a 13-storey building in its place. The proposal, which was submitted Sept. 4, calls for a mixed-use building that would cover the current residents of 419, 421, 423, 429, and 431 on College Street. It would also consist of a total of 169 units and more than 13,000 square metres of “combined residential and non-residential gross floor area.” Some Torontonians took to Twitter to express their unhappiness about the proposal, and a petition has been started calling for it to be rejected.

In other legal unhappiness, much has been made of the implications of the firing of many staff by Surly, a craft brewery in Minneapolis, coincidental to a union drive. “Arise, Surly Workers” wrote Dave Infante who noted an obvious trend:

In the few instances where workers in the craft brewing industry have seen through the charade and decided “lol this sucks, let’s organize,” owners have dropped the #oneteamonedream pretense with the quickness. It happened at Rogue Ales in Newport, OR in 2011; and again at Pyramid’s Berkeley, CA brewpub in 2013; and in 2019 in San Francisco, where workers at Anchor Brewing, the country’s oldest craft brewery faced a decidedly corporate union-busting campaign that featured high-powered anti-labor law firms and managers shouting “fake news” at workers exercising their federally protected right to unionize. Very cool shit, nice work all around. 

T-Rex understood what was what as illustrated to the right. Beth, too. And GBH published something a wee bit adrift on the topic but, surprise, could not come to clear conclusions. In sum:

The tension between the two narratives shows that despite businesses reopening, the pandemic’s dramatic effects on the hospitality industry are far from over… It’s currently unclear whether the Unite Here union has any legal avenue to fight the layoffs or planned Beer Hall closure.

Displaying greater clarity, this explanation about pouring central Euro lager is excellent. Effective use of social media. Twenty-seven 600 word articles on the subject could not have put it so well.

Note: not a brewery. A beer company, sure.

Note: not small. Not really even a beer company anymore, either.

More law. Ron wrote an interesting post on a question of Scots law, circa 1948 in the case of more than one case of “Dodgy crown corks”:

The defect in their condition was due to being kept in the damp cellar since February 1948. Dunn knew that corks should be stored in a dry place, and that dampness encouraged the growth of various moulds. Moreover, he failed to use the corks in the order in which they were sent to him. Further, he or his servants ought to have inspected the corks within a reasonable time after delivery, and in any event prior to using them.

Nice touch in the report on the use of “various moulds” indicating, perhaps, a particularly unpleasant multi-coloured effect.

Completely separate from either the situation today and the law, Merryn published a piece on the conclusions drawn in her thesis on pre-historic brewing – very high on the neato scale:

Brewing uses few ingredients, only requiring malted grain, herbal preservatives, water and yeast. These ingredients may survive in the archaeological record in a number of ways. Accidents in drying the malted grain, as happened at Eberdingen-Hochdorf can occur. Residues or sediments of the brewing process may occasionally survive in unusual contexts, such as in the sealed Bronze Age cist graves at North Mains and Ashgrove. Residues of barley without any other plant remains indicate the residues that result from washing the sugars from the mashed barley or ‘sparging the wort’. Those barley residues that contain pollen or macro plant remains indicate the addition of herbs during the boil prior to fermentation.

Again, and without a thought for the law, Retired Martin has again taken us to a place without the cares of the day… except in this episode of his series entitled “287,392 UK Pubs” he explains how those at the Blake Hotel in Sheffield are managing the Covid-19 social distancing rules:

3 pm on a Saturday, filling up but quieter than you’d think, a landlord giving the now customary speech. “Take a seat, fill in the track and trace, follow the one way system, one at a time in the loos, leave glasses on the table“ I felt sorry for him. “I’m sounding like a stuck record !“. “We’re trad drinkers, we miss the interaction at the bar” said the next group. I know how they felt.

Speaking of ye olden times, Eoghan Walsh published a good story of a gruit revival, something I may now have lived through two or three times. While a nod to Unger‘s clarifications on the important role control of gruit played in medieval society would have been nice, I love this level of detail:

Invaluable input came from a most unexpected source: a rich seam of human excrement mined by archeologists from the bottom of a medieval latrine. “They found the remains of hops, juniper, caraway, and bog myrtle, and they asked me how this could be possible that in one stratum of this toilet are these four ingredients appearing together at the same time,” Overberg says. “They thought this clearly had something to do with brewing.” And Overberg naturally agreed. “They have excavations for a period of 300 years, and it is all the same. It’s always hops and bog myrtle, caraway, juniper.

Lastly, The BeerNut wrote a review (no, really he did!) that contained a passage that triggered another thought:

Pyynikin has really missed the mark on “Pacific” here. There’s not an iota of tropicality about this, and nothing American either. Maybe it’s a Finnish take on New Zealand’s ubiquitous Canterbury Draught, because that’s about the only way it makes sense. As beer in its own right it’s inoffensive, and might even be enjoyable as a dark-evening sipper. I couldn’t deal with the surprise, however, and resented it for the rest of the glassful. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

My first thought was it was clearly a tribute to the possible first brewer in Quebec,  Brother Pacifique Duplessis. But then I thought… how little I care about branding of beers. Then I realized how much I have to wade through every week is basically (i) folk writing about the branding of beer especially as displayed on the container. As opposed to the beer itself … and clearly unlike the TBN above who makes note of the  missing connection. Then I wondered what else are similar categories for me: (ii) fun and pozzie but samey brewery owner interviews, (iii) conversely, greater important questions of rights contextualized in brewing,  (iv) then, conversely again, dreary cut and paste posts of others’ research labelled as “reporting” and… (v) all the superlatives. Always the superlatives. Each theme has its audience I suppose and certainly varies in ultimate value… but what percentage of the weekly collective output isn’t one of the five categories above? Sure, these things come in waves – like yesterday’s topics of food pairing and sell outs – but more would be good to add. Please advise by next Wednesday. A fella has deadlines, you know. Next big thing could be canals. Could be.

There. Done. For more please check in with Boak and Bailey Saturdays, plus more at the OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays (where Jordan points a particularly pointy finger at the letter “B”!) 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.

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 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…

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.