Style and Other Constructs – Page 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Jing-Jing-Jingliest Thursday Beery News Notes Of All!!

Here we are. Christmas Eve… Eve… Eve… because the 25th is Sunday and that screws everything up. The kid still goes to school tomorrow, which is insane. I am sorta off but not off as there isn’t much happening now a week after even the staff Christmas parties are over. And… there’s a HAMMER OF THOR snowstorm coming tomorrow. All good. I’m Christmassy and that is all that counts. Fam’s all here, pressies bought and the tree is lit! I thought I would pull back the curtain and give you a sense of the life at my house at the holidays. KIDDING!!! That’s not my house, that’s “The Chess Players” by Gustav Wintzel of Norway from 1886. Look at that beer! Gotta be a litre glass right there plus the colour is key to the entire painting, establishing the triangle with the contents of that shelf… probably a mantelpiece with the firebox hidden by those rugs. Lovely.

Right off the top, how is this for a graph from the Victim of Math? Click on it for more detail. It’s the Health Survey for England’s data showing how young people there are abandoning drinking – and have been on a steady trend of going clean at an amazing rate of change. It looks like in 2017 less than 25% of women 16 to 24 well over 40%. The lads are less less inclined but seem to have gone from about 17% dry to 34% so over the last ten years. Don’t know what that bodes other than it bodes something.

Speaking of boding, Jordan wrote the third in his St. Johnian* Effort in the “boding not too welling in Ontario” series this week, the conclusion of which I will ruin knowing it is not the end… not even the beginning of the end… but more like the end of the beginning:

Let’s see if we can recap: Beer is a luxury good by default, and its cost has outpaced wage growth. As established earlier, we’re dealing with the smallest cohort of people turning 19 in living memory, a cohort smaller than any other group younger than 65. Per capita consumption is going down year over year, presumably due to multiple issues including health and lifestyle choices, but also because of decreased relevance due to affordability. Additionally, this is in the face of greater availability in terms of retail purchase locations in the province’s post-prohibition history.

Add callow youth ditching drinking to that list… Perhaps related, an interesting article in The Times on James May and his pub and the lessons he has learned about the marketplace:

Pubs, for obvious reasons, proliferated in the Victorian era, especially in towns and cities, where they were effectively the communal part of working people’s homes. We know that Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol, “took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern”. But pubs don’t need to fulfil this role any more. They are entirely places where we go of our own volition, rather than out of necessity, and they need to acknowledge this. Note how it’s dreary pubs that subscribe to the old thinking, with their mediocre food, crappy karzis and limited drinks lists, that close down. Good pubs, the ones that have readjusted, are doing fine, and we don’t need as many of them as we once did.

What’s that? “Cheer! Give us cheer!!!” you say, gentle readers. Quite so. the ever excellent Evan Rail shared some wonderful Yuletide info about mulled things and spiced things as well as the celebration of wassail:

While the orchard wassail is closely tied to Twelfth Night on Jan. 5 or 6, hardcore traditionalists will celebrate wassail according to Twelfth Night on the Julian calendar, which was used in England until 1752. By that measure, the proper date for an orchard wassail would be Jan. 16 or 17 on today’s calendar. For the sake of convenience, many wassail events are simply scheduled on January weekends. In the village of Hartley Wintney in Hampshire, England, the annual wassail is set to take place on Friday, Jan. 13, with a torchlight procession that starts at the village pub, the Waggon and Horses, where publican Kaesy Steele will be serving a traditional mulled cider.

Do we still care who owns the brewery? I mean, I was sorta making fun of this idea back in 2015… seven years ago tomorrow. Pete Brown updated the dance card and quite rightly treated craft and not craft as all the same thing:

Many leading craft brands have now been acquired by the giants. That’s just how it is. Now – the ownership structure of the beer industry may be of no interest to you. If you’re already drinking mainstream lagers from global giants and you just occasionally fancy something hoppier, that’s up to you. I won’t judge. However, if one of your motivations for drinking craft beer – or just as importantly, cask/real ale – is that you want to support small, independent businesses, it’s not always obvious whether or not the brand in front of you is the real deal.

Nice. Just remember that ownership is only half the story. Obligations in law like debt and shareholder agreements have as much or more influence over a business’s independence. Folk that promote their independence suddenly find, upon a downturn, that they are quite dependent. Consider the Case of Mr. Musk.

Now… in history making history, Ron pushed the early edge of brewing records and published in 1805 pale stout recipe.

Here’s proof that Stout didn’t always imply a dark beer. An example of the pale malt analogue of Brown Stout. It’s a type of beer which must have died out early in the 19th century as this is the only example I have. I’ve no idea why it disappeared but it may be connected with Porter brewers moving to brewing only dark beers. The grist couldn’t be simpler: 100% Hertfordshire pale malt. There’s really nothing more to say.

And Liam found a reference to India Pale Ale dated 1824 (proceeded by “West”) and set off a bit of speculation as to its meaning and implications. I would only add that Vassar in the 1830s referred to one of his ales as “South” as illustrated to the left – but I am quite sure he did not create something called Southern Ale. Just as “style” is useless before it is defined and defined again by Jackson in the 1980s, the further you go back from that, the less meaning categories have. Ideas can’t flow backwards. I suspect that the predecessors to IPA, both eastern and western classes, were the English strong ales named after cities like Taunton and Dorchester and Derby, both evolving and branded according to given marketplace expectations.

It’s that time of the year. No, not just for Ron’s DrinkAlongAThon. The time for lists!! Best wines and Golden Pints. Here are the ten most read stories on Pellicle. Here’s Lisa’s. Alistair of Fuggles has been putting together his “best of” lists including best pales and best oranges to browns. I like the organizational decision he’s made, abandoning illusion for the actual. I suppose he could have gone with viscosity instead of colour. Perhaps in 2023! Jeff of Beervana has gone in another direction and provided us with his favourite photos for 2022. And the Beer Crunchers have jumped ahead with their US craft beer forecast for next year with some refreshing honesty:

Some brewery owners realized that the bigger they got, the more HR became part of the job, when they just wanted to focus on the beer itself. Other brewery owners turned out to be assholes and represented the HR-risk themself. Regardless of the reason, a significant number of breweries are for sale or have been sold in the past year. Some are of great value and truly worth every penny. Others are worth zero, or worse. Expect to see more interesting sales, depressing closures, and everything in between. You won’t be able to keep up and the action already underway.

Note: I had no idea this sort of thing was done:

In February 1961 Guinness paid the London brewer Watney Combe Reid £28,000 to discontinue Reid’s Stout. This was to secure the position of Guinness’s new nitro-keg product – it was clearly worried the Red Barrel keg beer brewer’s stout could be a rival to keg draught Guinness

Finally, Boak and Bailey added a new feature to their weekly which I am going to copy… literally cut and paste… then slowly build upon, too – a shared list of beer writing resources on Mastodon:

Please let me know when you see more to add to the list. I’ll be back next week with my own “best of” post. Not sure if it will be on Thursday or Friday. There’s a long drive between now and then. And bird feeders to fill. Naps, too. May even need to check the lake temperature to see what’s what. You might not have a weekly update from Boak and Bailey as we usually see mostly every Saturday and also also perhaps not from Stan at his spot on Mondays. Still, check and see if there is the weekly and highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. The OCBG Podcast is on a very quiet schedule these days – but it was there last week! See also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and check out the travel vids at Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable… not sure this went very far…) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel this week on Youtube. Plus Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now gone after a ten year run… no, it is back and here is the link!

*Funner if you pronounce it properly – “SinJinnyIn“!

Your Slightly Subdued Beery News Notes for Mid-September

I was thinking of what to post as an image this week, given this time of mourning for HM**** QEII. And here it is – the declaration of the passing and proclamation of the new sovereignty… in British Antarctica. The penguins now know. Which is good. Because they told the bees, too. It’s been an unsettling week for a mildly pro-Commonwealthy Canadian like me and some of mine. A cousin stood in line for hour in Edinburgh to pay respect. Others including others of mine are acting as if Thatcher died again.* I get it… though I don’t get Americans (the land founded on and continuing to benefit from genocide, slavery and treaty denial) joining in the kicking – while denying any such assessment applies to them. But this is not about sanity. This is about feelings. And folk have many sorts of numb dumb feels that come forward at times like this. And sad feels. And respectful feels. It’s OK. Feel your feels. But just remember that we have section 176 of the Criminal Code here in Canada, buster. No harranging.

Moving away from that news and a little bit, what has gone on out there this week? Well, one lad named Brad has moved to the future – to the Coronation of CRIII in fact – and has an posted an image of the two bottles he plans to open for that big day: a 1952 paired with a 1911! Click on the image for some crisp labeling action. You may moderate your jealousy safe in the knowledge that the contents taste like cardboard – BUT… it’s the thought that counts.

Regardless of how you are feeling… how about just getting outside. Stonch marched 45 km on Tuesday in the Black Forest. And the season of harvest is still upon us guiding us to visions of the ease of making ales along with the joys of home home growing. Kate Sewell posted an excellent photo essay on her team’s efforts, including a bit of child labour enlistment…

Now… maybe giving equal time in the free time political broadcast sense, we turn to The Beer Nut of Ireland who (like B+B) posted this week about getting out in about… visiting London, England and crawling, as they say, amongst its bars. He shared a very firm recommendation on one particular supp:

A&H London Black is a masterpiece of stouty complexity, absolutely packed with flavour. Not way-out or weird flavours, it’s still predominantly chocolate and coffee as it should be, but present to an intensity that’s almost too much, almost too busy. Yet it pulls back at the last instant, aided by a modest 4.4% ABV. The result is an absolutely perfect balance of porter’s sweet and bitter sides, both represented in a big way but not clashing. It is a very different proposition to Draught Guinness and I don’t get why you’d mention them in the same breath. Regardless, I would be very pleased to see this beer becoming commonplace.

It has its own Twitter identify, too. And speaking of Guinness, the Mudge himself provided some good insights this week on its first UK national competitor when he discussed the business of Bass:

The business model of the original Bass company was to a significant extent based on selling its beer into the free trade across the country. Before Draught Guinness, Bass was the first nationally-distributed draught beer. This still lives on to some extent in areas like the West Country and North and West Wales… Another aspect of this approach was concluding trading agreements with family brewers to sell Draught Bass in their pubs, giving them another string to their bow and Bass more sales. Most of these were swept away by the merger mania of the 1960s, but one that survived into more recent time was with Higson’s of Liverpool.

From the “Is / Not Is” file, Alistair linked to an interesting video on the inflationary pressures brewers face, primarily focused on packaging and energy costs. He made a canny observation:

Inadvertently skewers the whole “our beer is expensive because of ingredients” line. The main drivers of prices are packaging and energy use. In theory, a local brewpub, that goes from tank to tap should be cheaper, at least a little.

Boak and Bailey also raised questions about the lack of critical thinking about good beer may be due to the finger wagging set shutting down voices. For the contrary view, please note: beer is not there for your discussion… it is there for you just to buy along with all the nice trinkets from those who profit from beer. Obey. Buy the tee.** Frankly, Fuggled is the home the best Statement on Style this weeks:

… the hopping is too much for the Munich Helles style. The BJCP guidelines on the other hand have it both to strong and having too many IBUs. As a “Festbier”, which GABF calls “German Style Oktoberfest/Wiesn”, it is just a touch too strong, and again has too many IBUs, but BJCP has it being too weak and with too many IBUs for its Festbier definition. A random thought popped into my head, maybe it’s a Dortmunder….? Nope, GABF says it has too many IBUs for Dortmunder, but acceptable abv. In BJCP world, where Dortmunder is called “German Helles Exportbier”, both ABV and IBU are within the expected bounds. Do we have a winner here then, it would appear to be a German Helles Exportbier? But wait, what about the guidelines for the European Beer Star categories? Basically it could be either a Festbier, or an “Export”. There are times when I have flashbacks to my days studying theology.

You know, all this all discussion about discussion might serve as good motivation to answer the call issued by the Craft Brewers Conference, a request for proposals for seminars at the 2023 get together:

Seminar proposals are reviewed and selected by the CBC Seminar Subcommittee, a group of mostly brewery members of the Brewers Association, selected annually as experts in the specific seminar tracks for that year’s conference…. Seminars are expected to provide actionable takeaways for attendees to help improve their businesses. Proposals should clearly outline the skills and knowledge that attendees will learn from the seminar.

Sounds a bit bureaucratic… but still – send in your idea and get some fresh discussions going at that level. An opportunity for some new voices raise some new ideas.

Related perhaps, Jeff wrote a very interesting piece on many of the ways status affects the good beer world. I generally see this tiny culture as riddled with claims to status, many dubious. So, I was interested to read his thoughts which touch on reputation, signaling, ambitions and traditions:

In the small group of beery obsessives who write blogs or rate beers online, though, status does come into focus. It seems undeniable that the appearance of hazy IPA is one of the reasons it succeeded, especially in Boston, where status is a big deal. People could see across the room what you’re drinking.

That idea of projecting fad status as a goal oriented habit is what my eldest might now call a loser move, by the way, as a keener of experience over the numbing ways of the older gens. This sort of craft as status isn’t really the thing today’s young are much interested in. Hard to believe but that cover of The New Yorker is coming up on its eighth anniversary. But that is to be expected. Status chasing is, as Jeff points out, hunting a moving object. Today, those hazy IPA young are in their thirties now – and you know what people in their seventies now said when they were teens about people in their thirties!

And finally, one of the better sort of shameless junkets I’ve seen so far. But just remember: no one at Peroni is actually your friend…

There. A distracted week in many ways. A few B.O.B.s*** out there to read if you are into that sorta thing. A few strained efforts to identify something as a new style as well. What can you do? Well, we hope for a better future. As you find your bearings, please check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and perhaps now from Stan once in a while on a Monday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the mostly weekly OCBG Podcast on most Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays – and also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable.) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now wound up after ten years.

*These observations from a self-described republican heavy of the “them” approach to understanding illustrate the condition of the smug view, a view describing respect as self-abasement: “They loved the novelty of the switch, but also the continuity it represents. A large chunk of my country seems to revel in self-abasement, and is then delighted to present this subservience to the world as something magical. I wish I knew why we do it, but I don’t. It’s a continuing mystery to me.” Must be swell to be that much better.
**Previous sightings of the control freaks: 2009, 2016.
***Beer Owner Bios. They are all amazing. And the same.
****Crushingly corrected. The shame… the cutting shame…

This Week’s Jam Packed Most(ly) Fascinating Beery News Notes

How I picture you all…

Here we are. A cooler quieter sort of week. Except for those harvesting. The backyard air conditioning units in the neighbourhood are still. Local schools have finally gotten back to the job of public education after two months of focusing on being the warm evening hangouts of bottle smashing teen… I’ll say it – neerdowells. Which means it will soon be sweater weather. Leaves will soon turn colour. Which makes it time for greater drinks options. Need to finish of that G with the last of the T and get in some brown drinks. Mmmm… brown…. soon. On the other side of the continent, Jon (the oldest beer blogger in the known world) has been obsessing about the local fresh hop ales and exactly how, where and when to get them. Jeff covers the what and why. That’s a sign of the season, too.

Up first this week, The Beer Nut found a beer branded with three unrelated geographical locations this week. Which was great. It also has a “D” in there which might be Danish… so who knows. He also* opened my mind a bit with this post about a thing that he thinks might be a new thing:

Fruit-flavoured sour beer, as brewed by modern craft breweries, is not something I get very excited about. There are a lot of them out there, reflecting how easy they must be to produce in assorted varieties. I like sour beer to be sour and these are very often not sour at all. Nevertheless, my curiosity has been piqued by the sub-genre that Brazilian brewers have made their own: the Catharina sour. Reports from jaded old cynics like myself have been positive, so when a brewery closer to home slapped the label on one of theirs, I was straight out to buy it.

What I would like to know is about process and percentage. How much fruit is added to the base beer, what is the base beer and what’s in the fruity stuff other than fruit. Apparently we can fret about IBUs and SRM hues but no one has any idea what’s in the fruit purée. See… I am allergic to certain surprise preservatives hidden in the sauce at the wholesale level. And it is not just me. Check out what Eoghan wrote this week. Label your beers please.

This week’s craft brewery sell out news really isn’t news:

Beer news: Heineken have bought the 51% of Beavertown Brewery that they did not already own. Was always gonna happen really but that’s another “craft” brewery taken out by the big boys. CEO Logan Plant steps down to become an “advisor”.

Beavertown really sold out when they gave away the 49% subject likely to a shareholder agreement that gave the practical oversight to Heineken. But it likely really sold out when it was created and structured in a way to sell, born as it was at the outset of the “craft loves to sell itself” era. But it really sold out when it was just a brewery as selling breweries has been part of the entire history of brewing as Thales would have predicted.

Beth Demmon has released another edition of Prohibitchin’ – this month focusing on Gabriela Fernandez, host at 1440 AM / 96.9 FM in Napa, podcaster at The Big Sip and host of Latinx State of the Wine Industry Summit:

Using storytelling as the medium to expose would-be wine lovers to the beauty of it, as well as promoting representation within the industry, became paramount. She was already the first Latina producer to be a part of Wine Down Media, the Napa radio station behind her MegaMix morning show, so building a bridge between the local Latino community and the wine community was something already well within her skill set, starting with the very words used to describe wine.

This is an interesting exposé on a UK developer focused on converting old pubs into luxury homes:

A property tycoon is continuing his quest to gentrify London by closing down pubs and other community assets that could make more money as luxury flats. The Junction is one of the only places in south London where you can watch live jazz for free most nights of the week – but not for long. It was reported recently that the venue in Loughborough Junction is not being offered a new lease by its landlord, Manlon Properties Ltd. Manlon Properties Ltd. is linked to Asif Aziz, a multi-millionaire landlord with a reputation for closing down pubs and redeveloping them into luxury housing.

Apparently it all relates to money… but perhaps there is an anti-jazze theme… perhaps only… anti-free jazzers… which is about money…

Note: Martyn has teamed up with a brewery, Anspach & Hobday**, to preview via tweet some porter facts in the lead up to the publication of his book on the stuff. A cheap and cheery approach to getting the word out.

Lisa G and Matty C made the same joke about Bell’s on their respective jaunts around Northern Ireland. On the broader topic, Lisa was keen on a number of motivations:

We had been told that it was a magical city full of cask ale (OK, I confess, that’s a slight exaggeration – we were told we could find some without looking around too hard, and that it would be in good shape) and that there would be some interesting museums. Also: ice hockey, though we aren’t quite there yet, season-wise. But perhaps the most exciting part of the journey itself was that we were promised an actual trolley on the train, with tea and snacks – something sadly still absent from non-border-crossing Iarnród Éireann trains since Covid began. As it turns out, much of this was, indeed, true.

London pie and mash, as seen today. London pie and mash, the archives.

When you have finished the pub tick marathon that Martin has, there is an accompanying soundtrack.

Many of you* have asked me what bangers I’ve been listening to as I rack up hour after hour on the UK’s motorways and single track bumpy roads this year. 96 hours in August, says Google… Now if this was BRAPA you’d get a selection of punk (‘s not dead) classics like “Oi ! open yer frecking micro NOW !”, “Don’t dribble on my GBG, Twild” and “Time for a third (3rd) ESB, then“. But stuff that. These are five records I’ve played on repeat this year.

Speaking of loads of travel, would you go to Qatar’s 2022 World Cup with the intention of drinking so much beer that the slightly limited access to beer would be enough to not go to see Qatar’s 2022 World Cup?

“Beer will be available when gates open, which is three hours before kick off. Whoever wants to have a beer will be able to. And then when they leave the stadium as well for one hour after the final whistle,” the source said. Additionally, Budweiser will be permitted to serve beer in part of the main FIFA fan zone in central Doha from 6:30pm to 1:00am every day of the 29-day tournament, which kicks off on November 20…

Now, check out Boak and Bailey on the history of Smiles Brewery, Bristol (1977-2005). Then, check out Gary post about the First Lager Brewing in India: 1928. Then, check out Will Hawkes on Munich’s Giesinger Bräu in Pellicle. Then check out the Canadian soldier having a very good afternoon until later. Then, check out the only 226 words GBH published this week.***

And, finally, best comment of the week: “I just asked who he was. Not for a biography.” Second best: “Huh?”

There. Not that much happening in the world of beer this week. As we wait for more entertainments, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and perhaps now from Stan once in a while on a Monday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the mostly weekly OCBG Podcast on most Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays – and also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable.) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now wound up after ten years.

*For the double… el doublay… bardzo podwójnie!!
**A brewery apparently named after two popular but now forgotten Georgian poultry roasting techniques.
***No, I have no idea either…

These Are The First And Most Exciting Beery News Notes Yet For September 2022

So… me and we are back from holiday. And I’ve been away and back on the road for work already. Before the before I was roadlying it a lot but the big project is in the final strokes and, happily, it seems all turned out fabulously. To the extent I understand. We are well past the gravel, moved on from the concrete and are thinking asphalt. School starts next week, too. Just a few first days of school left in this family. Days are being squeezed by the junior ranks. I am looking forward to the big holiday one day, a life with days like Martin has been enjoying on his wandering retirement. He’s in the Isles this week, westering home, land o’me peeps, the Local Hero zone. I hope Alistair has been able to reach for the Kleenex. Plenty of pub social commentary and observation.

What else is going on? First, expect a fresh breakout of the usually high quality amateur medical science* from the brewery consultancy classes as we have received harsher worser news about booze health wise in Canada:

Any level of alcohol consumption had a net negative impact on health for almost every disease reviewed by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA)… The health risks become “increasingly high” when someone has six or more drinks per week. And for women who have three or more drinks per week, the risk of health issues increases more steeply compared to men, research shows.

Note: four years after the j-curve was dumped, those cardio benefits have now been ditched. You are on your own now. Ben takes the right path and suggests it is time for more consumer focused health info for drinks.

Stan shared more bad news. The Euro hop crop has been hit hard by their drought:

Estimates made as harvest began — late, in many cases — indicate that the German crop will be down about 20 percent from 2021, and 18 percent below and average year. The Czechian crop, which is almost entirely Saaz, will be down 43 percent from last year’s record crop. BarthHaas reports, the “early maturing German varieties (Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Northern Brewer, Hallertau Tradition, Perle) are affected and will yield poorly. Rainfall towards the end of August are giving hope for the later maturing varieties that still have time to recover.”

I am thinking of a GoFundMe for the new book a copy of Egypt’s Beer: Stella, Identity, and the Modern State by Omar D. Foda. $120.75 USD is like what… 24 bottles of wine? Have we had reviews that I missed? I need to know if I need to know.

Note: the new knowledge embraces the new not knowledge.**

Our pal Evan has writing another great piece, this time exploring the sherry cask trade:

Those two legal rulings led to the growth of an important new business in the Sherry Triangle: the sherry cask trade, which produces sherry-seasoned casks for export. Today, Work notes, there are really two types of sherry casks made in the Sherry Triangle. “One goes into the solera process, and that stays in that solera for years and years and years. It grows patina around the outside, from the ambience of the mold and fungus growing in the area, and it gets the sherry flor inside,” he says. “And there’s another kind of barrel that the coopers are making, and basically these coopers are making an export-style barrel.”

Judging of the Scottish Beer Awards are underway and one of the most interesting thing is how the judges are not picked from the all too familiar international floatplane-assisted consulto set but are representatives of the actual local scene. Top marks for that. Bonus for actually naming the judges on line.

Speaking of jingoism, the question of whether something is related to a culture or not is a semi-spicy one. You may, for example, recall my own review last February of whether Japanese lager is all that much Japanese. Things are not as they seem. So the question of China‘s relationship with beer from Tsingtao to craft was immediately a topic I would find interesting:

Before resigning ourselves to understanding Chinese beer as—broadly and imperfectly—a beer brewed in China by a Chinese company with a brand recognized as being Chinese, there is still the question of style. No broadly-recognized Chinese beer style currently exists. Is it possible to create one? Considering how Cascadian Dark Ale became a Black IPA, despite having no historical connection to India, there is a possibility of it being co-opted by others and turned into a generic category.

Hmm… the problem also could be that trying to frame beers as national in nature is a bit of a dead end.

In England, Ed wrote about signs that he has seen that the pubs in his village are threatened:

…the natives of Ripley have long been staunch pub supporters. I mean it’s not like they’ve got anything else to do apart from stay in and watch DVD boxed sets. But it seems no more. The two evenings I’ve been down recently the number of people in the pub apart from me and my friends varied between nought and two. This is not good. If pubs in Ripley are quiet what hope is there for the rest of Britain? As a #PubMan I fear for the future.

Also much discussion of the another threat to another pub, the Compton Arms in Islington district of London. But it isn’t just another pub. It’s the pub George Orwell described in perfect in 1946, all as unpacked by Kat Thomas in The Spectator:

…the Compton Arms could soon be consigned to the history books. Four neighbouring households, having grown used to a more tranquil setting during Covid times, aren’t relishing the return of us locals – the people who give this pub its purpose and personality. They’ve successfully obtained a licence review, having pieced together a few claims around the pub being a public nuisance and a threat to health. Which, as a regular, seems an almighty stretch.

Time Out joined the response to the situation as did Roger Protz and many other voices.

Odd corporate brewing news out of India where seeking compliance with regulatory rules is cause for getting the boot:

Carlsberg said it is removing “certain” board representatives from its India unit that come from its partner Nepal-based Khetan Group, accusing them of acting against their joint venture’s interests. The move represents a deepening of a long-standing dispute that first came to light in 2019, when Carlsberg India board members from Khetan first protested internally before asking the Indian government to investigate what they said was Carlsberg’s non-compliance with laws on trade discounts, advertisement and sales promotion.

Finally, I was a little surprised by this response that I got from Mikkeller when I asked if their reputation restoration efforts would include a public compliance and improvement reports:

It’s not a part of our current action plan, but definitely something we will look into. Are you familiar with some relevant ressources or providers of public compliance and improvement reports, we should reach out to?… If you are familiar with a HR consultancy that is specialized in retail dominated companies like ours with a split between national and international locations, please let us know. We would be very interested in getting in touch with them.

I was particularly surprised as I thought they had a consultant and that this would have naturally been part of their response to acknowledging harassment claims but when I went back to the GBH report on their approach I saw that it really isn’t really about restoring public confidence:

“…we’re also trying to facilitate a process that doesn’t involve courts and extensive legal action that wouldn’t be good for anyone. We’re able to do that because we have the cooperation of the company.”

Not sure how consumer confidence is supposed to be restored if making outcomes public weren’t considered whether through the courts, an HR comms plan or otherwise.

Suddenly wish I had access to these sorts of beers…

There. Probably a dog days week. as there was not a lot of news and not a lot of wonderful this week… but life is life! As you ponder that bit of wisdom, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and perhaps now from Stan once in a while on a Monday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the mostly weekly OCBG Podcast on most Tuesdays or Wednesdays or Thursdays – and also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to 404 bloggy podcast heaven… gone to the 404 bloggy podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable.) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now wound up after ten years.

*…swapping one dependency for another…
**See footnote three for more of the same.

Your Mid-August Mailing It In From Vacation Beery News Notes

So, I probably should have skipped this week’s post given I have paid less than my usual not paying all that much attention. But walking past Montreal’s statute of Edward VII, the best of him that I can think of,* has inspired me to do my duty. So much nicer that the somewhat ignored statute of his mammy, Vicky, turning a cold shoulder a couple hundred yards further south. These little imperial spots are joined by other odd wee hints like we see at the Bell Telephone building on Beaver Hall built in 1928, where we can see a little hint of the rose of England there above the main door. Very weird. Makes one a wee bit more sympathetic for the nationalist cause, doesn’t it.

Well, enough imperial politics. What has been going on with beer? I have had one or two but I like my vacations without beer as much as with. Not so with others out there. For example, Ron has been on the road again, the descriptions of which travels are always some of my favorite things of his to read. Luckily he has not forgotten his need to describe his first meal of every… frikkin’… day:

We don’t rise very early. Well, the kids don’t. Me and Lexxie head down for breakfast at 10:30. And just miss breakfast. But they are serving brunch. Luckily, I can get something with fried eggs: pork hash. It’s quite nice, but the broccoli is almost raw and very tough. As we eat, the dining room fills up a bit. Still far from full, though it is pretty big.

And Stan has taken a break in his vacation to do a bit of a round up on Monday but he is in no way not not not promising to do it next Monday. I liked this comment he made:

I pass it along not only because I think the combination of five words at the top should be put to music, but because it helps explain why the speed at which beers that don’t taste like beers that came before are being introduced.

Speaking of beers that don’t taste like beers, I liked this thought by Mr. B as to perhaps the why of it all:

Allow me to add a reminder that, back in the early days of microbrewing, what gave rise to the craft beer industry we know today was specifically NOT listening to what people wanted, but rather making good beer and educating people as to why it was so good.

Speaking of which, please note that fresh beer was very common before the days of micro brewing. It was called draft. Ask your uncles. Everyone drank it. And please also note that in 1997 imported beers were not hard to find and often in quite good condition if you had any interest in finding the store or bar that had them. Unlike revisionist histories so common today, reading reports from the time will quickly confirm that the main impetus for the micro brewing revolution was not to take on big beer but to make beers like those widely available imports. I have no idea why so little effort goes into researching a certain class of article when they reference the recent past – but it shows. I can only appease my disappointment with another entirely gratuitous shot of another fabulous building in Montreal. Just click on the link for the fine details. It’s some sort of bank… or a hotel… or a hotel for bankers… Have I mentioned I’m in Montreal?**

Trying to make sense of another sort of misinformation – the adulteration of the concept of IPA – Matt wrote a long piece on the classifications of beers falling under that shadow… err… label and I was for the most part a very useful thing. There is still too little critical consideration of hierarchical, chronological and taxonomic legitimacy… but… what a lovely bit of truth telling is this:

A session IPA is not an IPA. It is a marketing term designed to sell you lower strength beer on the premise of it being as intensely hoppy as its stronger cousins. In reality, these beers are pale, or golden ales. In the past I have been told by brewers that a session IPA is brewed with the same amount of hops as an IPA, but some of those brewers also make beers called DDH pale ales, so which is it? Call it pale, call it golden, call it a hoppy bitter for all I care, but please let’s stop giving these low strength pretenders the credibility of a true IPA.

Actual nerds interested in actual history may want to block out May 11-13, 2023 to hold a spot for a virtual lecture or some such experience on experimental archaeology and medieval brewing. Those so inclined can also watch the archives of past beery discussion panels from Ireland’s BeoirFest here.

Excellent reportage of London’s past from Boak and Bailey this week with a story on the Star of the East pub as well as an oral history from Robin Davies, a worker at Godson’s Brewery in the 1980s. Fabulous.

Finally, Beth wrote another good article on the continuing systemic pale old boy control of craft – which, come to think of it, does remind one of the keystone above the entry way to that Bell Telephone building:

… according to those interviewed for this article, even if some people do begin to accept their role in beer’s exclusionary hierarchy, marginalized folks in craft beer will still likely face insurmountable barriers to equity unless organizational leadership and decision-makers relinquish their need for control. “There are a lot of spaces in which white people, and especially white men, still hold power,” says Lay, who notes that history has shown that redistribution of power rarely comes by asking nicely.

Indeed. There. Just a short report this week. I am sure I missed the most interesting stuff but I am out of here. Well, and then I will be over there by Friday. More later on my movements. Until then check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and perhaps now from Stan once in a while on a Monday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the mostly weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays or Wednesdays – and also sometimes, on a Friday, posts at The Fizz as well (Ed.: we are told ‘tis gone to podcast heaven… gone to the podcast farm to play with other puppies.) And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… in 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable.) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now wound up after ten years.

*Only one I’ve ever seen. Such a bragger.
**I am in Montreal!

The Beery News Notes For When You Dream Of Sweater Weather

As you all know all too well, I taught English to rude high school kids and bored adult evening classes in Poland in 1991. So sweater always strikes me as a word that should raise and eyebrow or two:

Student: “You wear that just to sweat in it!?!?” Teacher: “No, it’s for when it’s cold.” Student: “So… you don’t have something to wear when you sweat?” Teacher: “Well, there is a sweatshirt, sure.” Student: “Wait, a sweater and a sweatshirt and different things?” Teacher: “Yes – but a sweatshirt is not a shirt.” Student: “WHAAAAT??”

(Next class… you have to explain what a “bunny hug” is.) I was thinking of sweaters, sweatshirts and bunny hugs as I did crofter cos-play all weekend out in the yard. I should feel guilty for wishing away the warmth as I dig, haul, dig, haul, get lightheaded, sit, get up, dig, haul… repeat… daydream of sweater weather… have a cold beer… plan putting the garden to bed for winter… shorter nights… and sooner or later nap. And to dream of sweater weather. Cooler weather. OK, maybe not that cold.

Good to have dreams. Many are living theirs at the Great British Beer Festival. Not Matthew sadly – but many others. Lots of happy faces at the hashtag even if Des de Moor can’t find enough mild. Ruvani held court. And Ed posted this excellent cheat sheet clearly created in some sort of trade feedback meeting setting. SWOT. About cask ale. See? I can read the big letters up top. It’s interesting in a direct sense but also in an indirect one.* It’s an interesting sign of hope that something can be worked out. Best line. “Lost Expertise From Staff Leaving” under threats. And the worst? “Learn From Craft.” Don’t be doing that sort of thing.

Speaking of doing, Ontario small rural brewer John Graham of Church-Key Brewing in Campbellford continues to volunteer as a driver of goods and people in and out of Ukraine. I am absolutely struck by his dedication to humanity and the effort he is putting in towards that end. Here’s a video from Monday of what he doing. What’s he doing? Doing good.

What else went on this week? The Morning Advertiser in the UK published** a very messy argument in favour of ramming the square peg of today’s range of beers into the round hole of the reasonably now long departed concept of “craft” referencing such terms as “real craft” “craft-washing” “craft-style beer” “craft-influenced beer” and “in the style of craft” for fear that otherwise “the craft beer scene will be watered down”! I am not sure if I missed the time loop portal but that argument is about a decade too late. Stop digging up the empty grave! It’s all about fruit sauce, adjuncts and scale these days. And money. And, by the way, who would have predicted back in 2005 that the much maligned too sweet and reasonably sour and slightly funky dud known as Chapeau Exotic would have ended up as the archetype for craft beer in 2022?

And there may not be enough money going around these days, according to Heineken:

The company recorded 24.6% organic growth in operating profit, while it generated sales of €16.4 billion, a rise of 22.4% on an organic basis. However, Heineken said that while consumer demand has been resilient in the first half, “there is an increasing risk that mounting pressure on consumer purchasing power will affect beer consumption”.

But while Molson Coors is forecasting a similar low coming in from the horizon they have taken that possibility into account:

A year ago, Molson Coors began trimming its portfolio of lower-priced beers to focus on more other options. Some investors wanted the company to ditch the segment altogether and instead focus entirely on more expensive beers, which have performed better in recent years. “What some would regard as an Achilles heel, in the past, has positioned us perfectly at the moment,” Hattersley said. “Some of our competitors only operate in the premium space, which is obviously not a place I’d like to be as we’re heading into what’s clearly going to be tough times.”

Always interesting to see beer businesses seeking to be where the beer buying public is going to be. People can’t buy what they can’t afford.

Note: Canada waaaaay over invested in pot. 425 million unsold tons destroyed in 2021.

The scene. The poem.

Breeze Galindo is the focus of this month’s edition of Beth Demmon’s Probibitchin’. She’s a west coast turned east coast brewer who is also involved with the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling:

“Garrett had never heard of me at all,” Breeze laughs. That changed when an acquaintance on the West Coast reached out to Oliver to recommend her as an MJF Board member. (Note: boost! your! friends!) With Other Half’s blessing — and a glowing reference — the position was hers by October 2020. Now with the Foundation’s resources, Breeze hopes to take it to the next level by chairing a brand-new mentorship program, slated to formally launch this fall.

Jess of Boak and Bailey published an excellent piece on a disappearing aspect of pub architecture – the function room that served as the location of many of life’s milestones in the past:

You’re dealing with customers who are struggling emotionally and can’t or don’t want to have boring conversations about logistics. Undertakers are trained to deal with this; publicans not so much. And they can’t be sure about how many people are going to turn up – “No, we’re surprised too, we didn’t think he had any friends!” – and so fixing a price that works for both parties is a challenge. Because of a general trend towards hosting weddings in posher places (country hotels, stately homes, the Maldives) it’s also harder to justify holding a room that only does any business when someone dies.

Long time pal of this here blog and fellow Scot abroad Alistair Reese of Fuggled fame has had a very interesting article published in Pellicle this week on the rise of Murphy & Rude Malting Co in Charlottesville, Virginia:

Sitting by the open roll door of an industrial unit in the historic Woolen Mills district of Charlottesville, Jeff, owner and maltster at Murphy & Rude Malting Company tells me how he started learning about craft beer’s supply chain as a result of the new law. Jeff had assumed that in a state in which agriculture plays such a significant role in the economy there would be several malting companies already in-state ready to work with the coming tsunami of new brewers. What he discovered shocked him, there was not a single malt house in the entire state.

Note: the image next to the story above is not related to the story above but I liked it so much when I saw it this week at a store in town that I added it anyway. Sorta ag, though, right? Rude ag. What would the children think it meant? Rude. Ag rude.

And finally in sadly negative news,*** a small brewer in Canada’s tiniest province received a whack of play hate cowards this week when it posted images of the Prime Minister’s visit.

“So within a few hours, we had thousands of comments, we were getting hundreds of private messages, we are now getting phone calls to the brewery and all of these comments are extremely negative, vulgar, there is a lot of profanity being used, sexualizing our staff,” Murphy said in an interview outside the pub.

Nutso.

So there you are. Have fun. But not too much fun. You know what I mean. While you exercise moderation, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday but not from Stan every Monday as he is on his summer holiday. Check out the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the mostly weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. And the long standing Beervana podcast (Ed.: which I have missed from this list for some unknown reason.) There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now… nope, there was a post on July 25th… 2022 even.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s (Ed.: now very) irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Still gearing up, the recently revived All About Beer has introduced a podcast, too. (Ed.: give it a few weeks to settle in and not be as agreeable.) Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given… still not on the radio dial…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water. There has also been the Beer O’clock Show but that’s now winding up after ten years.

*No, I don’t know what I meant either.
**Word spread through a Mudge-Alert!
***Finally more unnecessary neg – or perhaps just this week’s clangers – conveniently all lumped together down here for easy and brief reading. Or ignoring. First, we have a complaints department update… I am not sure which complaint is worse: the beer, the scoring, the basis for the scoring or caring about the first three. And perhaps relatedly, there was a sighting of the denialists oath this week – craft beer working conditions are apparently A-OK… so stop your complaining… as if that makes a difference. And, sticking with the theme of wasnotwas, the style experts have now determined (in a bit of a bizarre twist) that style is not a construct so much as a result… meaning any trending branding label can go on any old thing. Takes experts to tell you that there sort of thing… or not thing… beware! Beware too those who think appreciating this all stuff requires professional expert guidance! This too!! The fruits of these scholars are a glory to behold. Also really beware of the long thread that makes something pretty simple look reeeealllly hard – you can usually spot one of these by first going right to the end to see what the point is. In this case, trying to sell you consultancy services! It’s a frikkin’ dog and pony show! Because there is no way anyone in the trade could figure out the tap configuration of their bar. PS and finally… it’s like there’s a few sentences missing, with all due respect, as doesn’t this only make sense if books, beers of the world bars, pencils and note books, trade gatherings of any sort, telephones, word of mouth and you know humans talking to humans did not exist prior to 1990?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Thursday Beery News Notes For May Two-Four 2022!

May two-four. Back again. I explained it back in 2014 when I included the photo to your right (my left) of Bob and Doug McKenzie who were Canada’s #1 export forty years ago and whose 1983 movie, Strange Brew, is the last cultural statement about beer before microbrewing struck in earnest. Even though the movie isn’t set on the Victoria Day holiday in the second half of May, you can see many aspects of our drunken mildly retro-pro-monarchist celebrations replayed in Canadian homes as well as at campsites and cottages throughout the land this weekend as people feign gardening and practice inebriation. And it’s a big year for our top dog, our numero uno, our favourite anti-Nazi. Speaking of which… you know what broke? That cap thing on my whippersnipper that keeps the weedwhacker’s string coil in place. How the hell does that break? Spool went flying and the lawn’s all half haggy still. Didn’t so much break as ‘sploded. Now I have to hunt down a replacement lawn trimmer line cap or I have to buy a whole new thing-a-ma-jig. Pray for me.

Now… to the beer news. First up, a set of photos posted by the Glasladies Beer Society of a recent Glasgow beer fest set up in what looks like a somewhat permanent outdoor space. Being who I am, a child of children of the Clyde, the event looks like a mass gathering of aunties and uncles and masses of cousins. The use of steel container boxes is interesting as a relatively cheap but cheery but secure set up. Looks like it was held at the Glasgow Beer Works in the Queenslie Industrial Estate. This may be a common site for some of you but sometimes that’s still remarkable.

Next, Ron wrote a piece he titled “The Future of Mild” which serves as an interesting counterpoint to the fan friendly writings on the style mentioned two weeks ago. Ron provides an interesting set of thoughts about Mild itself and how styles may or may not make a comeback:

I’d love to go to Cross Green and drink 10 pints of Tetley’s Mild again. But it isn’t going to happen. The world has moved on. Beer styles come and go. And almost never return. I’ll just cherish the memories of a time that’s gone forever. Like a Porter drinker in the 1940s. The same fate, incidentally, awaits Pilsner and IPA. All styles have their day.

The fate of Mild has been formed he suggest as “it’s harder to throw all sorts of random shit into a Dark Mild.” That would seem to be where we are at. The post also lead to an interesting considered discussion on the nature of revivals. Jeff wrote:

…I wonder if a style that was once quite popular ever came back as a major style, perhaps not as popular as it was during its heyday, but with significant production. It’s probably happened, but I suspect it’s very, very rare. Once fashions change, styles sunset.

TBN reminded us of the classic example of style revival – Hoegaarden. I expect this is as much framed by the word “style” and its imposition limiting structure but the entire micro (1980-2003)) and craft eras (2003-2016) were based on revival of lost beers. Hoppy malt rich ales were descendants of earlier strong ales like Ballantine IPA and Dominion White Label as much as they were clones of imports. So… revivals common enough in the days when brewing was not so wound up with novelty and amnesia. We always have to remember how quickly we forget. As recent at 2011, SNPA’s place in the pantheon was still somewhat speculative. Now, of course, it was always the source of all things including those that came before it – thanks to the nation’s PR professionals!

Speaking of perhaps one revival or perhaps homage that has not lasted, one bit of news that I was a bit surprised to learn about this week was how St. Joseph’s Abbey of Spencer, Massachusetts is no longer brewing its beer. This was all the news in 2015 and I reviewed their first beer as you can read here. The monks announced:

After more than a year of consultation and reflection, the monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey have come to the sad conclusion that brewing is not a viable industry for us and that it is time to close the Spencer Brewery. We want to thank all our customers for their support and encouragement over the years. Our beer will be available in our regular retail outlets, while supplies last. Please keep us in your prayers.

Jordan thought it a particularly worrying development based on their low labour expenses. Greg reported that the equipment was already listed for sale before the announcement. I gratuitously added the 2015ish image up there from the celler’s stash for Stan. Pretty sure the bottle has move about six inches in seven years.

Des generated a wonderful cascade of comments related to cellered casks with this big barrelled beery buttery – including these cautionary ones:

Not being funny, but going on that photo, “immaculate” is a strong word. Serviceable, cleaner than many, maybe. And as I’m sure has been pointed out, a 36 (massing the best part of 200kg) is a H&S nightmare. You romantic.

Note: please don’t send out bleggy emails saying “ I don’t have limitless cash on hand to subsidize this project, but it’s reality nonetheless. I need at least [XXX number of] paid subscribers…” Listen to the wind… the marketplace of ideas is speaking… write for joy or get a job to support your hobby interest in booze.

Boak and Bailey elaborated something at their Patreon widget-a-thing that was evident in their (lovely and highly recommended) account of Ray’s out for hike and stopping at rural pubs with pals:

…at least part of the joy we took in drinking it on this occasion must be down to having “earned it”. The same goes for that first beer of the weekend, after a tough week at work. Or, as many people have observed, almost any mediocre lager you drink on holiday. How do you compensate for this effect? Well, you don’t, unless you’re a Top International Beer Judge. Instead, you report the context when you give notes on a specific instance of drinking a specific beer. And you make judgements about the overall quality of a beer based on mutliple encounters in multiple contexts. A beer that tastes good every time you bump into it is probably a good beer, full stop.

I wonder if we have become so enthralled with these beer judging events for hobbyists that we miss the obvious – that those beers actually do taste good in those contexts. And that judging contexts make beer taste bad. Because they are geared to ensure failure. Because that is what institutionalizing human experience does, makes you distrust and then outsource your own experience of life. Stop feeling bad because someone who has a certificate for passing the equivalent of a grade 11 history class says so.* Not to suggest TBN is not correct when he explains “Beer is weird. You’re lucky to have me here, putting things straight.” It is. We are.

Handy example: print off and cut into separate burger and beer images. Throw all in air and match the beer with the nearest burger. Equally valid. Every. Time.

Rolling Stone put out a story about beer prices this week under their “Culture Council” tab, not something I have notice from them in all my years at the coal face. The author, Kevin Weeks of Anderson Valley Brewing (who actually follows me on Twitter so I feel extra bad for not noticing before), argues interestingly that any increased costs faced by brewers are likely not going to justify the level of price increases that consumers are going to see on the shelf from the big brewers so…

For the smaller craft breweries facing this dynamic, this is an excellent opportunity to differentiate their brands by both managing pricing and clearly conveying priorities to the consumer. The most obvious tactic is to hold price (or implement only slight increases) to create an opportunity to increase market share through a comparable pricing advantage over the larger brewers that are grasping for margin.

And this passed by my eye this week, “It always rains on Monday” by Ian Garstka. More of his work can be found on IG. Prints available from the artist.

Perhaps relatedly at least atmospherically, Gary posted about “Birmingham Beer Detectives, 1937” who in plain clothes were sent out to protect the interests of the beer-drinking public and augment lab testing quality controls:

It seems therefore, at least for a time, a two-track beer-tasting inspection system existed, city and industry, to control beer quality in pubs. Perhaps the whole thing, at city level, collapsed with the Second World War – bigger fish to fry, if you will, but this remains to be known. Certainly at industry level, tasting onsite continued into the postwar era. A number of press reports, one pertaining to Ansells in 1949, attest only too graphically, a conviction of an inspector for drunk driving.

There’s a BBC historical drama script right there for the taking. I can smell the damp tweed and ashtrays now.

Note: “Finnish brewery release new beer celebrating Finland joining NATO“!

Note also: “TikTok star says Wetherspoons ‘scammed’ him out of £2,000 of food and drink.” Star!

Finally and falling under Stan’s reminder “no one cares what you think, Alan” I upset Maureen a bit a tiny bit (which I never like to do) when I commented about this article on Hogarth’s Gin Lane and Beer Street as I mentioned it amounted to was a bit of a sneeky apology for mass drunken frenzy. My observation was quite specific so I should explain so that all you all can correct me. The first half of the article is fairly straight forward GBH-style with loads of quotes from other sources framing the well understood topic. But then it goes in an odd direction mid-essay with the statement that those “in positions of power in England sought to create an all-around negative image of gin.” According to the article’s own previous paragraphs rightly describing the generally understood hellscape unleashed by gin at the time, I was left wondering if it could also be said that people in power now are perhaps creating an all-around negative image of the Covid-19 virus. My wonderment didn’t last. I found this key angle within the article odd. Odder still the suggestion that the works of Hogarth were for an elite:

Because of the timing, “Gin Lane” and “Beer Street” are often viewed as a work of moral propaganda, and some have speculated they were commissioned by the government to help reach gin’s working-class imbibers. Tonkovich points out this is not the case, however, because that working-class target couldn’t have easily accessed these prints. “These prints would not have been affordable for the working class,” she says. “They might have seen them in a tavern or through a window, but they couldn’t buy prints, so who is the audience for these? People of the press and the merchant class.”

The thing is… I just don’t think that is correct. Because I don’t think that is how mass communications and specifically those on virtue and vice worked at the time. If you look about at English political pamphleteering in the 1600s and 1700s, you see a wide-spread, robust and even salacious debate within a highly literate population. Vibrant grassrootism. You also see in the first bits of the 1700s, the development of the First Great Awakening and proto-Methodists sermonizing to many millions.** Consider, too, 1751’s Essay on the Characteristicks and the “frenzy” of gin. Ideas related to a proper and healthy society were flying about. These and other Hogarth pieces fit into that scene. And, as the Royal Academy explains, fit into it in a very specific and intentional way given Hogarth’s process:

Hogarth aimed the prints at the popular, rather than fine art market, stating in his prospectus for the prints that: ‘As the Subjects of those Prints are calculated to reform some reigning Vices peculiar to the lower Class of People in hopes to render them of more extensive Use, the Author has published them in the cheapest Manner possible’. As a result the line in these prints is thicker and less sophisticated than in other prints engraved by Hogarth, both to enable the printing of more impressions without significant loss of quality, and to approach the characteristic style of popular prints.***

We are assured, via the hive, that the two prints were in wide circulation and that Hogarth’s works were even used for moral instruction by schoolmasters. So if they are not luxury items but rather something of a targeted public service announcement to those at risk, the paragraphs that follow seem strained, racing through the Victorians and US Prohibition then on to us today with a suggestion of the elites guiding government overstep. And, on the rebound, inappropriately sewing doubts as to Hogarth’s good faith intentions under the guise of some sort of shadowy social engineering as opposed to improving public health. Had gin been slandered? Seems all a bit goal oriented.****

There. More fodder for a good general public debate. Away you go! And for more, check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday but no longer from Stan every Monday as he’s on another extended leave of absence. Plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, and at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. (Ed.: that seems to be dead now.) There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s irregular newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword (Ed.: …notice of revival of which has been given…) And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*If you are unaware of this phenomenon, I recommend the works of Ivan Illych to you, starting with 1973’s Tools for Conviviality.
**and they themselves mocked in return.
***See also “The marketing techniques of William Hogarth (1697-1764), artist and engraver” by Mark McNally at page 170 “The conscious decision to set the price of prints according to the theme and the intended audience was further demonstrated with the distinctively didactic Gin Lane, Beer Street and the Four Stages of Cruelty which were advertised twice in the widely read London Evening Post on 19 and 26 February 1751 priced at one shilling each being ‘done in the cheapest manner possible in hopes to render them of more extensive use’ with an alternative set priced at 1/6d being done ‘in a better manner for the curious’. Despite the relative lack of sustained advertising for these key prints, which formed the basis of Hogarth’s campaign with his friend and magistrate Henry Fielding to draw attention to the moral decline of the lower classes, they became as popular as many of his more heavily publicised prints. This was perhaps due to the fact that they were primarily meant as social commentary and evidence of the need for reform rather than for commercial interest…” and also especially at footnote 123: “Hogarth noted with satisfaction in how ‘some masters gave their apprentices sets of the prints as Christmas gifts’ and that ‘he had even heard of a sermon preached on the prints’.”
****PS: a word about disagreement. If we are going to take beer writing seriously at all, we need to get used to the idea that a reader may either (i) disagree with aspects of what they read (as I have above with backing supporting research) or (ii) call out poor writing (which I have not done above.) One of the saddest things in good beer culture is the “hooray for everything!” mantra and, its cousin, the abusive response for those who who don’t buy in to the hooray. Let’s be honest – rooting for booze is weird. I blame too much booze and good folk struggling for not enough money as the commissioning organs do just fine. In this case, my comment to Maureen attracted the less than attractive, the dropped turd. Let’s be honest. I get negative comments and labels all the time and have for a couple of decades from publications high and low,***** sometimes from people I can’t imaging deserving one’s full respect. One scribbler who has my respect once even told me “hear that – that’s all the beer writers in Toronto mocking you” to which I responded “who gives a fuck about beer writers in Toronto?” We don’t worry about such things, especially now that the beer writers in Toronto either either have moved on now and are mowing the lawn somewhere in the suburbs, arguing with themselves. None of which relates to the article above that, in small part, I disagreed with. It is a well enough written if skimmy summary with a mild expression of the standard beer writer political slant on public health (“…nanny state! …neo-prohibitionists!! …folk putting my income at risk but mentioning health!!!“) but, no Maureen, it is not an example of something that did not exist before. The wheel that was invented long ago still turns round and round. Which is good. Because it gets thoughts going and leaves conversations enriched. Which is why I do this every week – to think about what is being written. If you aren’t doing that, why do you bother?
*****Funny ha-ha joke…no really… just kidding… footnote to a footnote, too! Very light and amusing, right?

The Beery News Notes For The End Of January And Perhaps Of BrewDog

What an odd week. Very bad stuff about craft beer in the UK then more about very bad things in Ontario craft beer. Didn’t help that I was reading Motherwell, a recent memoir about someone about my age whose family didn’t emigrate from the same bit of Scotland mine left behind for Canada in 1956. Grim pain and judgemental negativity pulsing through a hardscrabble family living through hard times in an industrial town near Glasgow. We dodged. Just a few phrases I heard growing up echoed. I hated “know your place” the most, especially as I didn’t have to. Why bother? Why should anyone? Why in craft beer now? Who are these assholes?

MindbogglIng. Let’s start somewhere else. Stan’s latest edition of Hop Queries came out this week with good news from the Czech Republic:

Czech farmers harvested 18.2 million pounds of hops (for perspective, that’s about as much as Americans grow of Citra alone), 40 percent more than 2020 and 34 percent more than the 10-year average. Average yield of 1,467 pounds per acre was an all-time high. (American farmers average 1,900.)

Gary updated a series of posts that he began in 2020 – who hasn’t been up to that sort of thing? – and included the image to the left. It’s not a super huge .jpg but worth a click. I love the name of the beer – PICNIC BEER. It needs an exclamation mark. It needs to be on every brewery’s list of brands. Anyway, Gary was actually not writing so much about PICNIC BEER out of Minnesota as the use of the term “sand porter” in Montreal brewing in days of yore – by which I mean the late 1800s aka The Gilded Era:

Until recently I felt the sand-topped lid idea made the most sense (some English brewers still practiced it into the next centuries, using “marl”, a similar idea). However, in studying recently the history of a Minnesota brewery, Fleckenstein, I now have a further idea what sand porter meant.

Speaking of yore, the free web service known as A London Inheritance included a post on the George Inn in Southwark which was, as we all recall, the subject of Pete Brown’s book Shakespear’s Local. Lots of unconventional photographic views and mapping, like this one to the right giving a very unromantic vision of what you actually see from across the street. It is actually a massive post. A data fest. Well worth reading. The post includes this astute observations about the value of certain second hand books:

Old books help as they provide information closer to the time they are recording. Some care must be taken to double check, but they are a good source of information. These books also have their own history as they pass from owner to owner over the years, accumulating a memory of their time with some of the owners of the book.

The post then goes on to highlight photos and even a letter relevant to the subject that had only been stuck in copies of books that he had found over the years. All fabulously illustrating the unique archival value blogs. Much praise to the author… whose name is not particularly highlighted on the site. Freddie?

On a similar theme but in a colonial context, I saw a reference on Facebook to Ten Mile House in Halifax, NS (my old home town) this week and wondered what shape that was in:

The house was located ten miles from Halifax on the Bedford Highway. It was built in the late 1700s for Colonel Joseph Scott on land granted to him in the 1760s. In 1798 it was called Scott’s Inn, and opened as a House of Entertainment by John Maddock. Joseph Scott died in 1800 and his widow Margaret conveyed property to John Lawlor. Who opened and operated Lawlor’s Inn from 1802- 1809, possibility later.

Nice image at the Nova Scotia Archives website. As you can see from the thumbnail it is now sitting well back of the main road, the Bedford Highway, but looks from photos on Google to be in very good shape right by The Chickenburger. There are plenty of these colonial taverns and inns out there if you know what you are looking for. Like a favourite of mine, the Fryfogle. Interesting note: at the time Ten Mile House was in operation as Scott’s Inn in the late 1790s, it was just down the road from the estate of Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent. The tavern not the Chickenburger. The Chickenburger is old but not that old. I will pay it a visit when I am back there in early March.

And in one last note about built heritage of pubs, taverns and inns this piece in Eater Chicago was interesting in terms of how one preservation project was undertaken:

While Lincoln Square reconfigures during the pandemic — across the street from the Brauhaus space, the Huettenbar has quietly closed (owners hold to hope that it could eventually reopen) — fans can take solace that the Brauhaus has returned in a slightly different format. The bar, at least in spirit, is now located on the second floor of the DANK Haus German American Cultural Center.

In a less physical form of preservation, Edd Mather posted this bit of video on facebook, a fabulous step back into the near past of Ireland and the question of corks v. crown caps which relies on any number of associated technologies:

OK – the bad news. I have mentioned this before so let’s be upfront. Once upon a time, BrewDog sponsored this blog. When they were tiny, not the £2 billion international corporation they are now. I still have that label from a sample they sent at the time and it was put on with Scotch Tape. Well before the stupid squirrel and certainly well before BBC Scotland News detailed what apparently everyone in the trade knew but too often was not willing to put into print. The main allegations so far:

a. James Watt owns a massive amount of shares in the global beer brand Heineken hypocritically contrary to his “big beer is bad” stance.
b. James Watt is accused of being a pervy boss;
c. BrewDog falsified paperwork submitted to allow it to import into the United States; and
d. BrewDog carefully structured the Equity for Pinks fundraising to benefit the brewery and not the investors.

This reaction to the first bit of news is gold. Deals between breweries started to come apart. Punks with Purpose said the fight goes on. There were also calls for a resignation. Also questions: “why the obsession?” I will leave it there* as you all know this – and my job is to root out the unknown and beery for your reading delight.** BrewDog has not been delightful for many many years. But we need to remind ourselves, while they are big they are just one of many – as @esbroadfoot helped remind us by inviting and sharing stories of rotten treatment, largely in the Canadian craft scene.

Still, by Wednesday, it all seems to have put JJB/Stonch in a reflective mood:

Placing orders to fill an empty pub cellar has made me realise what an amazing choice of absolutely superb beer from independents I have. Yes, the craft beer industry has its bad sides, and faces daunting challenges this year, but let’s not forget how brilliant it is.

He’s always hated BrewDog pubs (“…Awful aesthetic, odd places….”) but appreciates how others feel cheated. He also reminds us to be kind to the good folk who distribute our beer. He also posted a link to a 15 year old post about the horrors of a pub crawl in St. Albans, home of CAMRA, for a fair and balanced set of thoughts.

Elsewhere in space and time, Ron has been exploring the colour of milds and has come across a new unit of measurement – tint!

The biggest problem is the lack of hard data. It’s tricky calculating the colour from the ingredients, especially when sugar is involved. As this is mostly only described very vaguely. There are very few records of beer colour before WW I. Occasionally chemical analyses will include a number for the colour, mostly in some weird scale that died out 100 plus years ago. Only a handful of Barclay Perkins records from the Edwardian period include the beer’s colour. At least that’s what I thought. Until I happened to notice that line in a Fullers brewing record. That “Tint” number looked like it was in an understandable scale. The type of Lovibond used before WW II.

Even further afield, does Syracuse have a low estimation of its own worth in the beer world? Like Toronto? As bad as that? I spent a lot of time in Syracuse up to a certain point… the point at which the Canadian dollar collapsed from parity to 75 cents frankly. For AAA baseball. For the beer shopping day trips. For bars now long gone like The Blue Tusk and Clark’s Ale House. For Wegman’s. I love Syracuse. I used to cross sometimes just for the white hots. Je me souviens… but more to the south…

Finally, note: union made. Nova Scotian beer cases always said that too. Plus health tax included. So by drinking beer you knew were doing your part. I might do a bit of that when I head out east in March, too.

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

*But if this is correct and such acts are common in craft beer, well, we can all agree that anyone who knew this and is claiming to be reporting on the beer trade… is pretty much a fail, right? If not complicit… right?
**Plus I am aware of my own little realistic chance of not ending up in HELL!!!