Author: Alan
The Greatest Leapday Thursday Of Your Life Edition Of The Beery News Notes
So… today is Leap Day Thursday but tomorrow is March. The second event is more exciting to me even if it doesn’t happen only every 28 years. Careful readers will know that I’ve coaxed along those plants right there down in the basement, a bit of chlorophyll green under grow lamps since November. Click for the deets. But the thrill of knowing I am going outside on Saturday to actually plant actual pea seeds under thermal cover is palpable. Palpitational even. Spring. You know, baseball and outside veg live parallel lives in these parts. March to November if you are lucky. And did I mention there’s a solar eclipse coming? We are on the path. So much doin’s going on.
What is going on with beer? There’s a theme or two forming on the horizon over the last few weeks that I want to explore a bit. For beer drinkers, it looks like a bit of a positive pattern even if it’s a pattern small brewers might not necessarily welcome. And there has been some reflection on the point of being a beer writer that goes a little past navel gazing. Along with a bunch of other stuff. But there are no new drunk domesticated animal stories. Sorry Stan.
Let’s go. First, we received a check-in from France this week from Gary Gillman who’s taking a break from the blog as he only packed his cell phone. He sent holiday snap shots like that one there. We had flash freezing warnings here last night, ourselves. Frig. It’s March Friday, right? This is sort of a category #2 story but it’s a break Gary is taking that is being put to good use according to his emails:
I am in France again… The mountains shown are in Menton, on the Mediterranean, where I stay until next Thursday. Then to Toulon down the coast, til end of month… I checked again on the history of the Abbaye de Crespin and St. Landelin ales… they were brewed by tiny Rimaux Brewery in Crespin, on the French-Belgian border. Jackson lauded the little brewery in the 1977 The World Guide to Beer, and mentioned that the local abbey once had brewed beer. Rimaux Brewery closed forever in 1988. After that, the small Jeanne D’Arc Brewery in Ronchin, and later Enfants de Gayants Brewery in Douai which bought out Jeanne D’Arc, issued these labels, maybe by buying them from the last Rimaux owner – either that or they just started to brew their own versions to keep the names in the market, I couldn’t confirm which. Then, in 2010 Saint-Omer Brewery in Saint-Omer buys out Enfants de Gayants, closing the Douai Brewer, and continuing some of these labels including Abbaye de Crespin and St. Landelin. So one way or another the Abbaye de Crespin Noel I pictured relates back to one of the ales in the Rimaux line, and less directly to an old heritage of abbey brewing in France similar to the Belgian tradition.
So he’s on the hunt. Working it. As is this week’s feature at Pellicle by Jana Godshall is also a romantic romp in faroff Sicily and one, unlike Gary’s emails, that includes the word “Aldo” 33 times – which makes sense because he is the winemaker at the heart of the story:
Aldo has been connected with nature, communicating and listening since he was a boy. As a fourth-generation winemaker, Aldo carries on a family tradition that spans his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, Don Ancilino. This legacy endures as Aldo and his brother, Alessandro, continue to bottle and sell their own individual wines. Though Aldo may not explicitly label himself a winemaker, he embraces the roles of artist, farmer, composer. This symphony of skills defines his approach to his land and illustrates the importance of communication in this trade.
There’s four of them right there! If you want to travel, too, while enriching your understanding, check out the latest Beeronomics conference will take place at University of Milan Bicocca, Italy, 19-22 June.
Main panels and sessions will be held at the University of Bicocca main campus located in the heart of the city. The Conference Organising Committee, led by Christian Garavaglia, welcomes all high-quality research on the economics of beer and brewing. With a strong interest in interdisciplinary research, we are looking for submissions
Papers being presented are expected to cover trends and driving forces in local and global beer production, consumption, distribution; management, marketing, market structure and industrial dynamics; individual beer choice and health; policy and regulation; and the impact of beer on society and culture. Also, have a look at the Historic Brewing Conference being held in Manchester, England on the 5th and 6th of August, 2024.
Always giving a learned air, Mudgie wrote a good post that started me thinking about theme #1 – it’s on the tension in economic terms between premiumisation on the one hand and, on the other, the unfortunate habit of ever rotating novel offerings. He frames the question in terms of guest beers at a pub but I think the same applies for craft in the US:
To achieve premium status, you need to be able to exercise a strong measure of control over product quality at the point of sale. You must make it possible for people to readily find your product, and to be able to make repeat purchases if they like it. And you will need to develop the perception of your product over a long period of time through a carefully considered and crafted marketing strategy. But none of this applies to rotating guest beers. Yes, it matters that the individual pub knows how to look after its beer, but if one isn’t to your taste there will be another along in a couple of days, or even later the same evening.
This is an interesting counterpoint to Jessica Mason‘s report late last week on the price of beer in one higher end Irish pub hitting 10 euros a pint:
Reports highlighted that, currently, in the main bar at the Merchant Arch, drinkers are charged €9.10 for a pint of Carlsberg and €8.65 for a pint of Guinness but these prices are due to rise in the room upstairs at the venue to €9.95 for Carlsberg and €9.65 for Guinness. Additionally, after 10pm, the venue also reportedly increases the prices further to above €10 with a pint of Carlsberg setting customers back €10.90 and a pint of Guinness costing €10.50. As part of the “late hours” prices, reports confirmed that a pint of Kilkenny costs €10.65, a Blue Moon or Chieftain pint €10.50 and a Harp pint €10.60.
See, for me, all things seeming to be equal,* I look at a pint as a unit of personal drink decision the same way a glass of wine is. And there are five 150 ml servings of wine in a bottle. So a pint of Blue Moon at €10.50 is competing with a €52.50 bottle of wine. I am pretty sure I can buy a very nice bottle of wine when out and about for $77.20 CND. For home consumption I can actually buy two at a far higher quality** than any NNY gas station shelf regular offering like Blue Moon. And so, going back to Mudgie’s point, even if we accept premiumisation with these stable standard brands is possible… is it sustainable given the recreational alternatives?
Still… Reuters has published an interesting article suggesting that big beer may have now hit the bottom and is ready for an upswing compared to the spirits trade – which I can believe if we trust the sort of math we see above:
Unsold bottles of spirits are already piling up in some markets, shaking investor confidence in top firms like Diageo as some drinkers ditch pricey spirits for cheaper options… The risks to spirits businesses were possibly underestimated, O’Hara said, adding the stocks were also relatively expensive. “Beer is easier: it’s resilient, there’s very little downtrading…” he continued, adding there was a consensus building around this view. The world’s largest brewer AB InBev… is expected to benefit in 2024 from easier comparative numbers following a sharp drop in U.S. sales of key brand Bud Light last year due to a boycott. Moritz Kronenberger, a portfolio manager at Germany’s Union Investment, which invests across spirits and beer, said some drinkers appeared to be swapping back from spirits to beer.
Building on that confidence (and with a passage that I might have written during 2008 market meltdown) Eloise Feilden has written about beer as the affordable luxury during the UK’s dip into recession:
…people still want to treat themselves, and alcohol is one of the major categories which experiences continued spending on luxury items. Half (49%) of adults bought premium alcoholic drinks in the 12 months to October 2023, including 42% of those describing their finances as tight/struggling, according to Mintel’s research… “brands at the higher end of mass-market like San Miguel and Corona were among star performers in lager.”
So, if we see expansion of macro as micro-craft continues slides, as premium comes to mean Corona and not Hazy IPA made in your own town… who wins? Good at least to see a hint that beer might not actually be going out of style – even if beer that isn’t all that beery might be.
Slightly shifting, we see a different meaning of value for this season of Lent (according to a regular source that Stan and I seem to share) the Catholic News Agency:
The brewery created the beer in collaboration with Father Brian Van Fossen. The priest told CNA this week that he went to high school with Mark Lehman, one of the co-owners of the brewery. “I discovered a doppelbock beer which was rooted with the Paulaner brothers in Munich, Germany,” he said. “The beer consisted of strong grains and an interesting mixture of hops and barley, which provided a strong nutrient content.” The priest said the beer was originally developed as part of the “strict fast of the Paulaner monastery.” The beer “celebrates the history of the Doppelbock beer style and its ties with the Lenten season,” the press release announcing the beer said. The beer collaboration is meant to help fund the diocese’s “Rectory, Set, Cook!” program to help feed homeless people.
And Barry has been on top of his role at Cider Review seriously and shared the news of a piece on a recent tasting of traditional British ciders for the drinks press:
Looking around the room as we assembled at a charmingly re-appropriated high school science lab table-top, complete with obligatory teenage graffiti and holes where Bunsen burners once stood, Adam identified a number of very well-known wine writers. Quite by chance I got chatting to acclaimed drinks writer Jessica Mason, who then sat down with Adam and I for the tasting. In terms of writers with a laser-focus on all things of pomme-based origin, it was just Mr Wells and Mr Toye. Cross pollination in nature, as in drinks writing, is a wondrous thing however, and it was heartening to hear the inquisitive nature of many of the writers in the room, eager to find the similarities and differences between pressing the apple and pressing the grape.
Writing about writers! Speaking of which, GBH seems to woken from its extended winter slumber with the first “Sightlines” column shared beyond the handful from Kate Bernot in weeks (on the “declining sales, layoffs, vacant sales leadership roles, and two packaging rebrands” at Lagunitas) as well as this excellent piece by Kiki Aranita on how Pennsylvania’s strict liquor laws include a fabulous loophole that helps state drinks makers bigly:
It’s clear that this model has the potential to benefit customers like me, and the system works pretty well for winemakers and distillers in the region, too. Without a full rewriting of the state’s liquor codes, not much is going to change for the community at large, but Enswell is showing us that there is another way. Maybe our restaurateurs don’t have to be beholden to obtaining a traditional liquor license, and maybe they don’t have to source and serve alcohol from all over the world when there are excellent options being produced nearby. And maybe that’s the best we can do for now.
No word on the effect of the law on beer. Which is… you know. Perhaps back to theme #2, Ron‘s been sharing some inner thoughts, skipping past that one question that has really bugged me for years:***
One of the questions I get asked most often – along with “Why is your blog called that?”, “Why don’t you get a haircut?”, “Who is this mysterious woman called Dolores?” and “Are you sure you want a pint of Imperial Stout this early in the day?” – is “When are you going to write a book about Ireland?” I think I’ve already got the title nailed down. But that’s about it. Which is why my answer has always been: “I don’t have enough information.” That wouldn’t have put everyone off. In the past, at least. Being positive (however uneasy that makes me feel), writers just making stuff up doesn’t happen now. So much. A second answer is: more research.
Fear not for Ron. He’s off junketeering in Rio. Not ATJ who wrote the partial sentence of the week over at his Substack blog not blog:
…I sat in a somnolent pub, alone apart from a small dog…
And Jeff drew back the curtain and explained – or perhaps started to explain – his obsession with beer:
I’ve spent half a life writing about beer, a decade and a half doing it for a living, and yet I’ve rarely even considered what it means to me, personally. I’ve always mined meaning from those breweries and countries I’ve visited, placing my spotlight outward. Looking back, I realize I have a lot of those Crown Street experiences rattling around my brain. More than that, over those long years—and well before, extending back into late adolescence—I see the ways in which beer has threaded through my life experience. It was there, as a rebellion, in high school. In college it was a celebration. In early adulthood, homesick in Wisconsin, it was a lifeline back to lupulin-green Oregon. Throughout my life it has rarely been center frame, but as my life morphed from wannabe professor to social work researcher to political writer, from single cab driver to married homeowner, from barfly to boring old man, it was never out of frame either. That is true of very little else in my life.
Good reflections. It’s a bit of a different experience from mine but not in any way more or less worthwhile. It’s good to reflect on one’s own singular experience.*** There are so many whys out there. Why is this publication more stable than that? Why does that glaring error get hedged while that one sails through? Me, I only started out doing this to mainly to explain my interest in beer to me. The taverns of youth and all the money we left behind. Why’d we do that? And it turns out, I am lucky that my job gives me a lot of opportunity to unpack anything from criminality to specifications of concrete to the sope of medical consents… and asking every second day “why the heck did they do that?!?!” My hobbies too, including beer but in its place along with plenty of other things. A lot of looking for the why. So, the path of others has been always been of interest to me. Back in the fall of 2020 when Boak and Bailey broke the tension of the pre-vaccine Covid world by reaching out via Zoom by a few people including me, the main question on my mind was “why… why do we do this?” but I am not sure I put it in quite that way when we met screen to screen. Why? It’s a good question to ask.
Finally, we learned Wednesday of the very sad news of the passing of Van Turner retired from leading role with the Kingston Brewing Company, one of the founders of the microbrewing scene in Canada. Even before we lived here, we arranged travel to include the KBC going back around thirty years now. Van always had time to talk about everything from trends to history. Time for everyone. Very sad news.
That was that… And here we are. The 29th. Remember last week when I realized that this was the third time I’ll experience a Leapday Thursday in my life… then last Saturday I realized… could well be my last. The next one will be in 2052. I’ll be 88 – if I make it that far. So… err… on that cheery note… roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (123) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (913) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (up again to 4,456) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (165), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind.
Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan really doing what needs to be done Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link! Errr… nope, it is gone again according to Matty C.
*Check my math. €10 is pushing $15 CND which is an hour’s mini-wage here. In Ireland, minimum wage is €12.70 or $18.75 CND. But it seems average incomes in Ireland and Canada are about the same, say both lining up to about $48,000 USD.
**Like a five year old St. Joseph or a 15 year old Colheita port.
***The haircuts… the haircuts!!!
The Week Baseball Starts Taking Over The TV Schedule Edition Of The Beery News Notes
Did you know that there are five Thursdays this February? FIVE!! I thought I was done for the month today – but I am not. It’s leapday Thursday next week. This will be only the third one in my lifetime, now in my 61st year having lived through this experience in 1968 and 1996. The fifth since the 1800s. The responsibilities for next week’s update have suddenly loomed ominously. Am I up to this rich and rare Thursdayness? The very first leap day Thursday since beer blogging began? Better put an effort in. A big effort. So… I can slack off this week and no one will notice. Excellent.
First up, Boak and Bailey are doing some clever things with their multi-media channels. For one thing, they are posting footnotes to their weekly beery news roundups on Patreon. As you can always see below, I like footnotes but rather than merely wallowing in snark like I do BB2 actually add a bit of context and discussion.* And, as you can see to the right, they play with the graphical display of information like with this table explaining their thought on what has been gained and lost over the last ten years of good beer in the UK. They published that in their monthly newsletter after gathering some thoughts from readers over at Bluesky. Which I received by email. Where do they find the time?
And I wrote something last week that caught even me by surprise: “could it be that beer might actually… be going out of style?” For years that was the quip – it’s not like its gonna go out of style. Did I mean it? I mean sure we all know that democracy and simple human decency are well on their way out… but beer?!?! It seems something it up… or, rather, quite a bit down. Stan posted another graph building on the graphs discussed seven days ago. I can’t just put the same graph at the top of my roundup this week (because that would break the weekly updaters Code of Conduct that B+B control with a ruthless efficency) but his point is worth repeating:
The pink on the right represents barrels of beer that would have been sold had sales simply gone flat in 2020, rather than declining, not completely recovering, then declining again. Obviously, that matters a lot to hop growers. When barrels aren’t brewed then hops aren’t used. In this case, about 20 million pounds of them. Two thoughts. First, indeed, little difference between production in 2015 and 2023. Second, if you draw an arrow from the top of the bar at 2015 to 2019 it looks much different than an arrow drawn from the top of 2019 to 2023. Production might be the same, but something different is going on.
One thing I do not believe is causing all this is the lack of detailed description of the offerings at taproom. Jim Vorel would beg to differ and does so at length:
Case in point: Not long ago, my wife was ordering at a large, well-funded and popular local brewery taproom. Looking at the electronic menu above the bar, she landed on a new beer labeled simply as “coffee stout.” She loves stout, and lightly adjuncted classic stouts such as coffee stouts, so she ordered one. The reality? The beer was actually a stout with “vanilla, caramel flavoring and cardamom” in addition to the coffee, which was the only thing mentioned by the sole source of information available to the consumer. Is that a valid concept for a “Turkish coffee stout,” or whatever? Absolutely it is, but the customer needs to know they’re ordering a stout with that kind of theming when they place the order. You can’t just surprise someone with “caramel, vanilla, cardamom” when they think they’re ordering a relatively dry beer. What if that person doesn’t really care for pastry stout concepts? Are they supposed to grill the bartender whenever they see “coffee stout,” to ask if there are any other adjuncts involved? Just how many questions are we expecting these busy taproom employees to answer?
Theming? I had no idea. Me? I just taste the stuff and make my own mind up. Now, let’s be clear. That graph showing US craft beer (including formerly recognized craft brewers kicked out of the BA) have slumped back to 2015 production levels** does not mean all beer is going out of favour, as Jessica Mason explained:
Molson Coors delivered six years of profit growth, six years of growth in just one year. That focus is a new baseline. We are ready for this moment”. To illustrate the size of the achievement, Hattersley explained: “In 2023, our top five brands around the world drove over two million more hectolitres than they did the prior year. This is like adding the entirety of Blue Moon’s global volume to our portfolio.” Looking at America, Molson Coors has seen a boost in both its distribution as well as its presence in supermarkets with more retailers listing its beers. In fact, this momentum and knock-on revenue spike is what has boosted the business to such great heights and reinforced distributor confidence in listing Molson Coors’ beers.
And Kirin is experiencing a bounce as well according to Eloise Feilden:
Kirin Holdings posted revenue of ¥2.1bn (£11.1m) in the year to 31 December 2023, representing a 7.3% rise year-on-year. Profit was up 4.6% on 2022, and operating profit rose 29.5% to ¥150.3bn (£79.4m). Revenue from the Kirin Brewery division was up 3.2% on 2022 to ¥685m. Kirin Brewery’s total beer sales increased 5.9% to 1.4bn litres. CEO Yoshinori Isozaki told analysts that price changes in October helped to boost beer sales “more than expected”, after the company dropped the price of beer brands including Kirin Ichiban. Kirin raised prices for its no-malt Honkirin and Kirin Nodogoshi Nama beers.
Interesting. So are people really just getting fed up with the craft beer nonsense? Remarkably, it’s been a decade since the cult classic The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer by Max and Myself was published – and this remarkably visionary review (given the interveining rise and fall of craft) by Alistair popped up in my Facebook feed this week:
I’ve been slowly reading my way through The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer by Alan and Max, and finding myself agreeing with most things, especially when it comes to tasting vs drinking. I’ve been saying it for a while now, beer is for drinking, not standing around pontificating about the supposed terroir of the hops, the provenance of your peat-smoked 80/- (as in it has none), or worst of all thinking that Pilsners are just American Light Lager without the rice or corn (have heard that more than once). I guess that’s one reason why I love breweries that make classic styles, and make them well, rather than brewing every gimmick going – you know they can make good beer, worth drinking, instead of random shit to taste a thimbleful of and never want to touch again.
Point. And Alistair (as well as someone in the comments) made the analysis that is often made in tighter times – is home brew really cheaper? Why yes, yes it is:
Thankfully, I don’t have to pay myself to make beer, neither do I pay myself to serve the beer, and so the real cost for a half litre of my own beer at home is about $2. One thing though that is really clear to me from this little exercise is that ingredients are not the bulk of the cost of making the beer, it is a the people, equipment, and place to do so. Obviously I am also not able to take advantage of the economies of scale that a commercial brewer (sorry idealogues, if your favourite beer is made by a company that does so for a living it IS a commercial brewery), especially when it comes to non-linear increases such as the ingredients, and don’t forget to factor in that a single decoction brewday in my garage takes about as long as a single decoction brewday at a professional brewery with the appropriate kit.
But… and I am a long lapsed home brewer… you don’t need the equipment and you don’t need the decoction. A nice pale ale or porter from scratch? Do it. Conversely, care of the BBC, here’s another reason I’ll steer clear of NA beer for the foreseeable future – unlisted ingredients:
UK-based brewer, Impossibrew, which specialises in non-alcoholic beers, uses a different means of arrested fermentation. “We brew it in such a way that we can cryogenically stop the fermentation process,” says founder, Mark Wong… Impossibrew also adds its “proprietary social blend”, a mix of nootropic herbs designed to imitate the feeling of relaxation induced by traditional beer. It is a precise blend developed in collaboration with Professor Paul Chazot at Durham University’s Biophysical Sciences Institute. Nootropics are natural compounds – billed as “smart drugs” – which improve cognitive functions.
Sweet. Playing with the psychological therapies. Here is a 2023 paper on nootropic herbs. Including a discussion of the allergies and side effects*** that one might encounter… if you knew what you had consumed.
Pellicle‘s offering this week is a portrait of Bristol, England’s Wiper and True taproom by Anthony Gladman.**** Spoiler – they have a dealcoholiser:
The second tool is a reverse osmosis dealcoholiser, which the brewery uses to remove the alcohol from beers like Tomorrow, and the low alcohol version of Kaleidoscope, which launched in January 2024. “That’s going to be a big push for us for the next… well, for a long time actually,” Michael says. “That’s what the whole business is galvanising around at the moment.” Installing a dealcoholiser is not something a brewery does lightly: the equipment is a huge expense, but so too is the floor space it requires, as well as the staff training, and the effort in recipe research and development to make owning one worthwhile.
Note: The Beer Ladies Podcast interviewed Lars this week. Have a listen.
Merryn has shifted to Bluesky and is still tracking the research on ancient grain residues. We learn that “interest in bread like, porridge like, lumps of charred cereal residues certainly has increased over the past decade.And quite a lot have been found” like in Ancient bread recipes: Archaeometric data on charred findings from the February 2024 issue of the Journal of Cultural Heritage:
This study examines charred bread-like samples found in several archaeological sites across northern Italy and dating from the Early Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages, some of which are included amongst the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The aim is to investigate differences and homogeneities in bread production processes in different eras and cultures. Bread was a staple food in many ancient societies, but has rarely been found amongst the materials that survive in archaeological sites. When it is found, it is usually because the bread was charred by accidental combustion (falling into the oven during baking) or deliberate combustion (for ritual purposes). The literature on the issue is not abundant, but has been growing over the past decade
It’s beer, isn’t it. Err… wasn’t it. Speaking of was, some bad news for beer drinkers in Nigeria:
The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Hans Essaadi, has said that the economic situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to the extent citizens can no longer afford to buy beer. Essaadi said this on Monday at the company’s investor call following the release of its 2023 results. “It has been unprecedented year for our business in Nigeria. We saw a significant decline in the mainstream lager market as a result of Nigerian consumers no longer able to afford a Goldberg after a hard day’s work,” Bloomberg quoted Essaadi as saying.
Note: no GBH Sightlines for five weeks. Done?
Like clockwork, Stan has posted his February edition of Hop Queries – which is not a quote from Shakespeare, by the way. He built upon that glut of hops mentioned above, twisting the knife just a bit:
My story about why farmers in the Northwest are ready to remove 10,000 acres (about 18 percent of what was harvested last year) from production in 2024 has posted at Brewing Industry Guide (subscription required). Short term, this means there are plenty of hops out there, often at bargain prices.
Long term, think about how many times you have seen the term “soft landing” used when discussing the American economy. How does that usually work out? The market for hops has always been cyclical and landings have not often been soft. It will be a year or more before it is clear if this year is different.
Finally and speaking of honesty, consider this exchange in the comments at Beervana and ponder whether
Reader: Jeff, big fan of your blog and content. That being said, I would hope that we don’t start bashing beers here. The battle for beer should not be within the community but outside of it against wine and spirits. If we bash our own, regardless of how “eye-rolling” the content is we will lose the long game.”
Jeff: “Mason, it’s not my job to promote the brewing industry here. I try to write honestly and entertainingly about beer, and that means I criticize things from time to time. My “clients” are my readers, not breweries. Beyond that, I would argue that anyone who did want to promote the brewing industry would not whitewash negative stories, bad beers, or disappointing news. Concealing faults doesn’t help in the long run.”
Very well said, Jeff. One wonders how much this sort of call to disengagement from reality based reality that craft beer too often promotes has contributred to the slide that we discussed up top. That we see all around us. Maybe that’s what “theming” is. By the way, has anyone brewed a samey Doubly Hazy NEIPA and called it “Self Inflicted Wound”? As things change and interest in craft declines, it’s still good to watch how it falls if only to identify what stands the best chance of coming through the downturn.
OK. Mailed that one in. Didn’t even have to mention BrewDog. Or baseball now that I think of it. Fine… just roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up again to 123) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (913) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,450) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (up to 165), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind.
Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan really doing what needs to be done Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link! Errr… nope, it is gone again according to Matty C.
*I mean consider this: “We have taken note of, and pre-ordered, Dr Christina Wade’s upcoming book The Devil’s in the Draught Lines about the history of women in British brewing. We nearly gave it a shout out (free advertisement) in this week’s round-up but decided to save that for next week. But, blimey, eh? CAMRA’s publishing strategy is interesting these days. You might call it public service publishing, doing what’s right for the good of the beer culture rather than what’s commercial (101 beers to drink before you die… again!). Except Desi Pubs seems to have been a substantial success.” That’s a proper bunch thoughts right there.
**IE: not actually “flat” at all.
***Note: “Plant nootropics are generally very well tolerated, but potential users should consider their overall health condition and consult a doctor about possible contraindications and drug interactions before trying a particular plant formulation.“
****This piece serves as an interesting counterpoint to Boak and Bailey’s thoughts from last July whose words from them bear repeating: “It used to be a ‘beer garden’ – a bare yard full of tables. It felt like having a pint in the car park of ASDA. But now it is a Beer Garden, or at least heading well in that direction. Around the perimeter are tall plants providing a green shield. In the garden between tables, there are loaded beds and planters. Grasses, shrubs and young trees soften edges, dampen sound and create depth. This is now a pleasant place to be, like a park or botanical exhibition.“
The Post Superb Owl Mid-February Thursday Beery News Notes That You Demand Are Here
Well that was exciting. Trick plays and roller skates. And there was a football game too. I heard the overtime on the radio. Sports on the radio is an excellent way to fall asleep. Far less exciting. Someone had a word with Ms. Swift’s potential Bro-I-L to keep the hairy nudie fat lad stuff to a minimum as was on display a few (playoff) rounds ago … but did you see this above? Apparently, on Sunday afternoon the Cleveland Guardians baseball team for some reason decided to edit out the original Bud Lite can on the right and replace it with a Miller Lite one when posting on Twex. As one reply noted: “Wait. What? This is the official account admitting photoshopping a photo for political reasons? WOW.” Not so much – it seems to be the baseball team’s beer sponsor… so…
So, here we are. It is the gap between NFL and MLB. The dullest time of the year. So we need to dig around a bit to see what is going on. First, here’s a bit of good news to start off with. Norm Miller, everyone’s favourite recovering beer writer and crime newsdesk guy in the Boston area, posted this on Bluesky:
Officially signed my contract for my new book today. The publisher asked me if I had a problem writing about beer even though I don’t drink anymore. I said “No, I write about murders for work and I don’t murder anymore.”
Nice. But what will it be about? And Boak and Bailey wrote about the 1930s Labour politician Luke Hogan and his efforts to unionize pub workers:
Hogan angered members of the local Brewers’ Society by surveying NUDAW members employed in their pubs. There’s more on this incident in the newspapers, too: they took Hogan to court. The questionnaire asked pub managers for details of wages, living conditions, weekly sales, and the number of staff. As far as the brewers were concerned, this was commercially sensitive information, and confidential.
And Stephanie Grant shared some thoughts about the history her home state’s regulation of alcohol:
Historically, Georgia isn’t an alcohol-friendly state. It wasn’t until 2011 that we could buy alcohol on Sunday, which infuriated my mom who didn’t understand why the state deemed it OK to go to a bar on Sunday to drink, but not buy a six-pack to enjoy at home. And even though you can now purchase your six pack on Sunday, you have to wait until around noon to do so. In 1907, Georgia became the first state in the south to ban alcohol, 13 years before the nation’s prohibition laws went into effect. And while prohibition ended in 1933, Georgia said, “nah, we’re gonna keep this thing going for another two years.” Even in our colony days, Georgia had a strong intolerance for alcohol, with people calling for alcohol restrictions as early as 1735. At least we’re consistent.
Interesting. I once had to look up the constitution of Georgia as it was the one that the colony of Prince Edward Island’s was most poached from around 1760. Hmm… what else is gone on? Trends? Trends! That’s what is going on. In his excellent roundup this week, Stan posted an excellent graphical representation of data which I have plunked just there. Have a look. It was produced by the US Brewers Association. Notice a few helpful things. The lower brown line shows brewery closing. The rate is now back up towards pandemic levels after a period of grace. But more importantly notice that the chart starts at the beginning of 2019. Over a year before the pandemic. Even then closing up, openings down. They two lines have now come together but the trend was there for years. And Jeff also wrote about the fabulousness of graphs this week:
Unlike regular domestic beer, craft took a big hit during Covid. Particularly when combined with the domestic lager numbers, that illustrates the large shift from draft to package that happened during the pandemic. Beyond Covid, however, what the following chart really illustrates is that the Great Flattening didn’t start at or just before 2020—it dates back to 2015. In that year, the US sold 24,523,015 barrels of craft beer—nearly identical to 2022 (the last year for which we have numbers): 24,273,285.
Laura Hadland might as well have taken that big picture, moved it across an ocean, squeezed it down and applied it in the particular to describe what it all means in one pub when she wrote for the CAMRA publication What’s Brewing on (as discussed last week) what the end of the union sets that produced Pedigree for Marston:
A Pedigree drinker himself, down-to-earth Brad, a tied tenant, cares deeply about his pub and the quality of the beer. It looks like the decision to abandon Pedigree has pained him. I asked how he felt about the loss of the Burton union system. He is a man of few words. “You can tell how I feel by the fact we aren’t going to buy Pedigree again.” I wondered if the move was a bit premature, perhaps he might wait and see how the flavour might change in future casks. He sets his jaw and gives me a simple but firm “no”. No Burton union. No Pedigree. End of.
After reading about that glum chap, Cookie raised a question in response about the quality of the beer as brewed in the new equipment. But then we are not sure if there has been a side by side. Not sure, for that matter, there’s any left to be put to that test.
Is it all about the scramble to find a price point that will save us all? The Tand reignited (as per) the continuing tale of are we paying too little for good beer that looks a lot like the story in 2007 when US craft beer complained that people were not paying enough for their product. In this case, the question relates to cask as the Tand reported:
People will pay more for the certainty, especially if quality is poor elsewhere. The other point that should not be forgotten, is that cask beer is a live product. Usually in premium situations, you price an object higher, but sell less at a greater margin. But pesky old cask doesn’t lend itself to this arrangement. It goes off if you keep it hanging around. So, is premiumisation dead in the water? Will cask continue to be the cheapest beer on the bar? It kind of depends doesn’t it. In theory, quality always sells, but implying that premium pricing can apply to the whole market is misleading. Nobody really wants to spend top dollar on a gamble.
These are undeniably difficult times in the UK brewing scene with prominent Elland and Adnams as well as Brick and Brew By Numbers too all at risk of disappearing. And it’s happening everywhere as you know. In Minnisota with Fair State Co-op and also with Melbourne, Australia’s Hawker’s Beer. I understand but can’t fully agree with Jessica Mason‘s assessment of this moment:
A few observations on the news I’ve posted this morning: No brewery is safe right now. (However good or historic). Rising costs & spiralling post-pandemic debts are showing the sector needs help & quickly. The government needs to save British brewing ASAP.
That may certainly be a part of it but any nation that imposes Brexit and Non-Dom taxation exemptions on itself is not exactly helping keep the tax base diversified. Plus, don’t we have to factor in dropping customer interest which is not entirely due to household wallet tightening? Could it be that beer might actually… be going out of style? One critical factor putting UK pubs in peril might be that the young folk today are incredibly dull hermits, according to The Guardian:
To be young and staying in on the weekend would once have spelled social death. But for gen Z increasingly “it’s the norm”, says E1’s senior operations manager Jack Henry resignedly, when we meet one December afternoon in his office… Its stellar lineups of techno, house, electro and drum’n’bass DJs have made it a London success story, but getting younger clubbers through the door, Henry says, is becoming harder. They’ll come out for something special – like the 30-hour marathon party he organised for New Year’s Eve – but maybe only once a month. E1 employs a videographer to film its events, producing promotional clips for TikTok and Instagram to whet clubbers’ appetites. But lately, Henry says, some seem to be watching these as a substitute for actually going out…
Hmm… make sense. Going out itself is going out of style. Pre-gaming became just… the game. Yet the old golf game is apparently not so associated with hermits:
I guess I have a different definition of civic pride, and it isn’t people urinating in their pants, jumping into bunkers during play or falling dead drunk all over the course. And those were just a few of the non-civic moments during last week’s Phoenix Open. Dubbed “The People’s Open,” the annual trip to Scottsdale is a party like no other on Tour—with clearly little to no supervision. Many who entered the gates as adults were magically transformed into adolescents, with a beer or something harder in their hands to enjoy themselves since golf is clearly secondary to getting blotto.
So we have some good, a lot of bad and even a bit of ugly going on. Want more of that but illustrated in a semi-scientific context perhaps? Err… this ain’t great:
She descended more than 6.7 miles in a two-seat submarine to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where she found something peculiar. “Sitting in sediment at the bottom of the ocean at the Earth’s deepest point: a beer bottle. It had traveled more than 6.7 miles to the darkest depths of the Pacific, label still intact,” Dr Wright explained. “This discarded trash had managed to reach an unsullied part of our world before we actually did – a symbol of how deeply and irrevocably humans are affecting the natural world.”
Erg. Changing the subject, Daniel Croxall aka @GoodBeerLawProf announced that his paper “Legislative Gifts” is no on line and will soom be availble in an issue of the Michigan State Law Review:
This article examines the current state of distribution in the beer market and how distributors have been able to manipulate legislators into providing them with legislative gifts that serve only protectionist purposes. Such laws are premised on the notion that distributors lack market power and are thus subject to unfair treatment from large manufacturers. That justification stems from a time when there were few breweries in the U.S. and an abundance of distributors; thus, the few had power over the many. This article argues that the modern market structure is completely flipped due to extreme distributor consolidation and numerical brewery growth.
Speaking of law… 18 shots!?!? Probably the 60 day suspension is not the end of this situation. Note that s.220 states:
Every person who by criminal negligence causes death to another person is guilty of an indictable offence
And Zak Rotello paid his respects to the passing of a neighbouring bar owner, Mike Leifheit, owner of the Irish Rose, and he shared some anecdotes:
He ran an 100% from-scratch kitchen, drove in to pick his own produce & meats from Chicago’s markets every week himself, and tolerated no BS… You want a well-done filet? Mike will personally walk you out the door before cooking one… Mike would host a free dinner every Thanksgiving for anyone who didn’t have a home or family. The Sad Bastards Dinner. That’s real hospitality… The city installed new art downtown. The one in front of the Rose, although named “The Elephant” looked like a huge silver sperm. So Mike made a FB contest to name the sperm, a lady told him he was unprofessional, and he responded “Please never come into my bar…”
One last question and not about beer. We admit we presumed “Hun” was a slur – but isn’t the slur based on German influence and the Protestant crown (my father was a Scots Protestant man of the cloth, by the way) what with the imposition of Hanoverian rule and faith along with the troops leading up to the whole Bonnie Prince Charlie thing?
OK, not a lot of joy this week. Some weeks there seems to be a balance that one can latch on to. But not so much this week. The time between NFL and MLB. Is that it? Who knows? Pitchers and catchers reported yesterday. Thank God.
Just roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up again to 120) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (up at 912) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,438 – down four) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (down to 163), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind. That being said, check out the race between the rival coders that is going on.
Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan really doing what needs to be done Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
The Thrilling Week When I Got That Head Cold Edition Of The Thursday Beery News Notes
First cold after the pandemic started. Felt very weird. Runny nose. Sneezing. Pretty much gone. Or at least a new thing every day. But, you know, it’s sorta nice to have an ailment that doesn’t mean you are at great risk. And it’s all over the place here, half the folk at work are hit. (No, you’re right… I am struggling with the tie in to good beer, too. Got it!) It makes you appreciate the little things, perhaps. Things without DOOOOOOMMMM in the title. Like how the warm weather this year may see the maple sap running very early… oh, no that is a little doomy. Endtimesy even. Maybe more like this: Jeff, he of Rye, posted that a friend:
…bought an old Victorian frame a while ago. Opening it up, he’s discovered this old brewery advert used as a filler piece behind the print itself! Brewery wound up 1866 so it’s at least 160 years old!
Nice. Click on it. The image is amazingly crisp and colourful for something forgotten at least 158 years ago. A good way to start the week off. Somewhat similarly, A London Inheritance has a great post this week on the history of the Lamb and Flag pub in Rose Street, near Covent Garden. The structure of the blog is updating older photos taken by the author’s father, contextualizing them with current images all to set up wee histories of the City’s hidden gems:
This is my father’s photo of the Lamb and Flag pub in Rose Street, near Covent Garden, taken in 1948. The name Lamb and Flag can be seen just above the entrance to the Saloon. On many London pubs of the time, the name of the brewery was given much greater prominence than the name of the pub. Barclay, Perkins & Co. Ltd were a major London brewery operating from the Anchor Brewery in Park Street, Southwark… The source of the name Lamb and Flag has a religious basis. The “lamb” is from the Gospel of St. John: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” and the flag being that of St. George. The pub was also once known as the Bucket of Blood due to links with prize fighting.
Delightful. I wonder if that was supposed to be an attraction back then? Speaking of which, Boak and Bailey discussed the modern equivalent (perhaps) this week when they inquired into what new trends make a pub attractive these days:
As well as the aforementioned board game cafes, we’ve also noticed in Bristol a growing number of (a) video game bars or grown-up amusement arcades and (b) dessert cafes. The video game places are interesting. In both of those we’ve visited there was draught beer but you were absolutely free to ignore it. You were paying your way by paying to play games with drinks as an additional amenity. And the desert cafes will sell you a disgustingly huge plate of ice cream and waffles, or whatever, and then let you and several friends spend hours picking at it.
I like me a good video game bar. The particular preference is an Atari table to play Asteroids on. It’s apparently called a cocktail table. I usually had a beer when these things were more common. And finding one with wood paneling finish is a big bonus. Stepping back from that dailiance with the modern, Martin is back with a bit of a calculation on how much beer did a 1860s farmer brew for his operational needs:
Going back to Samuel, if he, or rather one of his servants, was brewing 96 barrels of beer a year, that works out at eight barrels a month. If he had a two-quarter brewery, that is, one capable of mashing two quarters, 650 pounds or so, of malt at a time (a reasonable assumption, I think, judging by the sizes of small commercial breweries in Hertfordshire in the 19th century), then he was brewing only once a month, at an average of four barrels to the quarter, to give a beer of six to seven per cent abv. Clearly it would not take much of a step up to increase output considerably: brew once a week, and you are now making almost 420 barrels a year, which you could retail for almost £1,000, at 48 shillings for a barrel of XXX. That’s a fairly staggering £110,000 a year in 2024 value, a healthy addition to a farm’s income.
I’ve just remembered something. I was never very good at math. Pellicle has published an excellent article and photo essay by Jemma Beedie on the The Horn Milk Bar, an old school cafe halfway between Perth and Dundee, Scotland which is preserved itself:
…we have time-travelled. This is the place my parents (and maybe yours) are longing for; the spaces they insist still exist. Instead of the cloying nostalgia of brand-new retro-styling, this place is visibly old. We were expecting the polished vintage world of the music videos by Autoheart and Logan’s Close—this is not that. Shades of brown and beige wash over us. Wipe-clean plastic chairs and tables surround us. Outside it is bright, one of the clearest, bluest skies we’ve had since May, but the sunlight struggling through the wall of windows does not penetrate the suffocating room of wood veneer.
Again, wood veneer is good. I once lived in a town with a veneer factory. Unrolled big logs like they were paper towel rolls. Match factory too. Back to beer! There was a bit of a kerfuffle (yes, I said it) after Jessica Mason‘s story on the revival of Black and Tan was published after last week’s deadline. She updated the story with grace and speed to include the connotations of the name in Ireland:
…in Ireland, the ‘black and tans’ referred to constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. They were nicknamed so because of their uniforms being a mixture of dark green (which appeared black) and khaki. During that time, the ‘black and tans’ gained a reputation for brutality and as such exacerbated Irish opinion of the British. With these elements in mind, despite the beer serve being termed so due to its colouring, ordering a black and tan at an Irish bar could be viewed as a contentious move, especially by a British patron. However, taking a piece of history back, many Irish bars – especially in the US – are now beginning to offer the serve, sometimes with a nod to Irish history, but otherwise simply to upsell more Guinness.
There’s another form of the two level cocktail that you can also see in America in bottled form from venerable micros like Saranac as well as Yuegling. BeerAdvocate lists 77 examples of beers by that name, listed under the American Porter category. I wonder if this dates from the earlier post US Civil War usage as it related to the Republican Party, as summarized by Wikipedia:
Social pressure eventually forced most Scalawags to join the conservative/Democratic Redeemer coalition. A minority persisted and, starting in the 1870s, formed the “tan” half of the “Black and Tan” Republican Party, a minority in every Southern state after 1877. This divided the party into two factions: the lily-white faction, which was practically all-white; and the biracial black-and-tan faction. In several Southern states, the “Lily Whites”, who sought to recruit white Democrats to the Republican Party, attempted to purge the Black and Tan faction or at least to reduce its influence.
Very interesting – or at least so said Artie Johnson. You know, I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Forecasting is a mug’s game, a fool’s errand, a… a… add your own analogy please… but, still, you gotta love how little credibility this sort of listicle entry conveys:
…there’s an expected 8.51% compound annual growth for the next three years, putting seltzers at the forefront of increasingly important alcoholic beverages.
Interesting, too, is how many in the list of trends in “craft” are as devoid of the word “beer” as the title to the article. Just dislocated “craft” is all there is left. And remember: hop water isn’t a style, it’s a recipe.
Allistair wrote at Fuggled about a brewery he wrote about in a Pellicle feature last summer, as we discussed, on Virginia’s Black Narrows Brewing. An unfortunate update:
Yesterday, Josh Chapman, owner and brewer at Black Narrows Brewing on Chincoteague Island announced that they have decided to close their doors – their final weekend in operation will be February 16-18th… It was also just last year that their magnificent malted corn lager “How Bout It” was awarded a Good Food Award – the corn in the lager being an heirloom variety, grown on the Eastern Shore, malted by Murphy & Rude in Charlottesville, and fermented with a yeast strain derived from a Chincoteague oyster. Beer does not get much more local than that… In announcing the closure, Josh noted that “we watched our ingredients, equipment and labor costs increase. It was all too much”. In the end, the finances of being a hyper local, community supporting brewery just couldn’t sustain the business…
Relatedly and perhaps conversely, it’s certainly daring to suggest that craft malt is “Central to Taking On Beer’s Industrial Complex” but it might have been nice if something backing that claim up was actually included in this GBH article.* It’s on new small scale malting barley trends methods by Don Tse. I think the nub of the tale is really this, that these new methods may help small farmers and small maltsters:
Farmers are more likely to grow whatever is most profitable, and since so much research has been invested in improving the yield of corn and other crops, old barley varieties cannot yield sufficient income to compete. Indeed, in a typical crop rotation, barley is likely to be the least profitable unless there is a premium buyer like a maltster… Thanks to new barley varieties bred for a broader range of environments and thanks to craft maltsters creating a market for these varieties, Heisel says he is witnessing regions that had been growing feed barley—Maryland and Delaware, for example—switching to malting barley…
Good. A perfectly acceptable point. Speaking of which, the next edition of Prohibitchin’ from Beth Demmon is out and this month’s focus is Rae Adams who works in a particularly challenging location:
Dry January is behind us, and Rae couldn’t be happier about it. “Dry January is a murderous thing,” she says, only half jokingly. “Let’s change it to Dry July.” A month of widespread sobriety during the slowest part of the year for many food and drink establishments is hard enough on its own. But Graham County, where Rae works as the director of sales for Wehrloom Honey & Meadery, is one of the four remaining dry counties in North Carolina. You can still find and purchase alcohol in dry counties, but not much, and not everywhere. Even on a good day, it’s challenging for producers and retailers.
Speaking of dry, a lack of imported beer to Zanzibar‘s spice islands tourist zone has thrown the industry into a mess:
“We are running short of beer at my bar, and I just have a stock of soft drinks,” he told the BBC. “The government has to take action. It is the high season now, it is very hot and these tourists need joy, they need cold beer on these beaches.” An American tourist, who did not want to be named, said: “I love Zanzibar and its beaches. The people are amazing and only challenge I feel now is I can’t get hard liquor. I want to have spirits or even whisky but nothing is found in the hotel – they instead advised me to order it from Stone Town.” The local manufacture of alcohol is banned in Zanzibar, whose population is largely Muslim.
Why? Permits!! And 90% of the regions income is from tourists and, as the Sex Pistols taught us, tourists are money. The BBC reports that Simai Mohammed Said resigned as tourism minister last week, citing “unfavourable and disruptive working conditions.” Heavens. Why can’t everything work as smoothly as in Poulton? And finally… oh dear:
No one really knows why it’s called a “cream ale” as it is more akin to an American lager and does not contain any cream at all.
That’s expertise for you!** And now… once again… roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up again to 118 rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (stalled at 911) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,442 – up again) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (down to 163), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind.
Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan really doing what needs to be done Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*The whole idea of craft beer is taking on industrial beer like it’s, you know, 2011 or so, is sweet and nostagic and charming and all. And it also would be nice to know why “People were still growing it for feed, but any malting barley was going to Canada.” I mean I think I know why it goes to Canada but it need explaining or tightening. And, yes, there are native North American barleys. Conversely, wouldn’t have some publication wanted this piece for publication, Jeff‘s survey of change at Rogue? Neat and tidy and yes pretty trade positive. It’s a weird week. Check out the next footnote if you don’t believe me! [Update: Stan’s BlueSky comment was “There’s even treasure in the footnotes. “The whole idea of craft beer is taking on industrial beer like it’s, you know, 2011 or so, is sweet and nostagic and charming and all.” My first thought as well.” which is really nice but I just would point out as I know Stan agrees that headlines are not written by authors. I know a guy who inserts “bus plunge” in the headline whenever he can.]
**Want to know? Start here, then go here, then look here, then…
The First And So Far Most Februariest Beery News Notes Of 2024
Here we are. The second month of the year. Even though it sorta sucks around here, February is at least proof that dreary January isn’t forever. Sky watcher Jordan noticed, too. Sky watcher. I saw this weird blinding light up there just yesterday afternoon. It was strange. Everyone I know is looking forward to this month, solely to put January behind them. Was it that bad? It was. It really was. TGIF, baby. You know, January’s taking on a certain societal pong. It’s now the crappiest month of the year, isn’t it. Why? Well, perhaps as a first bit of evidence, Cookie puts his foot down about Dry January:
Boozing is part of culture. December is culturally a month of excessive consumption. January is always quiet. This has been a seasonal norm for centuries. Imagine the guy renting deckchairs on the beach, moaning that it’s quiet in winter. Hospitality is seasonal.
That is a reasonable argument. At least a reasonable baseline. Do people believe it? There have been a number of unfortunate tales of businesses doing badly, blaming the times, blaming others and bad luck, blaming the general cutting back. Can we call these exuberance hangovers?* It is a now problem or a back then one? As this handy graph illustrates, there are even exuberences in some sorts of exuberence avoidance, like in the no/lo marketplace:
The pattern was similar for spirits, with people paying more for no/lo spirits, on average, than standard spirits. Again, the gap has narrowed over time, after an initial ‘noisier’ period when the no/lo spirits market was extremely small. There was relatively little difference between the prices paid for no/lo and standard ciders in pubs, bars, clubs, and nightclubs, with no/lo cider being 5% more expensive on average in 2021. Wine was notably different to the other categories, with prices paid for no/lo wine remaining consistently around 25% lower than standard wine.
You are going to have to read that article for the graph to make any sense. But it looks so good I am just leaving it there. I also thought of this question of inordinate enthusiam when I read Jessica Mason‘s piece on the response of certain minority shareholders of Black Sheep Brewing at the brewery’s reorganization by new investor the private quity firm, Breal:
Regarding Breal’s interests in Black Sheep, Sturdy admitted in his letter that he was “glad that most of the jobs of the employees in the company were saved” despite news of redundancies and closures circulating, but queried “how the directors are fit and proper persons to run the new company”. Describing the issue, he highlighted… “most of us are not rich, but are hard working loyal people, including employees of the old company, farmers, licensees and local tradesmen”. He said: “Coincidentally the CEO owned no shares in the company at this time. The MD and export director owned 6,256 and 11,050 shares respectively” and added: “In my view these deals should be outlawed.”
I mean I get it – and there are the empty pocketed suppliers to think of too. A very January-ish story. The month of general public lament. I noticed that The New York Times published stories on the dangers to mental health by taking lots of things as well as on the various other dangers of cannabis however taken. Having given up on dope around 1981, I am a bit amazed that this is newsworthy because it is simply so. Not news. But then the same paper of record published something I found actually new and noteworthy: businesses responding to the challenges of these times head on, by undertaking all sorts of intentional narrowing in beer selection:
“I don’t need five pilsners,” said Olivier Rassinoux, the vice president of restaurant and bar at Patina Restaurant Group, which is headquartered in Buffalo. At Patina’s Banners Kitchen & Tap, a 72-tap sports bar in Boston, the bar turned two taps over to kegged margaritas last year and plans to add additional draft cocktails and wine. Max’s Taphouse, a Baltimore beer institution since 1986, is buying smaller kegs to fill its 113 taps and reducing its extensive cellar of large-format bottled beers. They’ve fallen out of fashion, and lingering bottles are “turning into nostalgic keepsakes,” said Jason Scheerer, the general manager.
Ahhh… Max’s. Got the kid a sweet tee there in 2012. He was 12. Fits him now. Better to be clever and cautious than closed. Relatedly, in his newsletter Everyday Drinking, after describing another sort of exuberance (his own recent training as a honey sommelier care of the American Honey Tasting Society) Jason Wilson posed the question that has parallel this era of gratification through certification:
…over the past decade, there’s been a creeping wine-ification in every realm of gourmet endeavor. Now, in our era of hyper-credentialism, there’s almost no sphere of connoisseurship without a knowledgeable, certified taste expert, someone who’s completed serious coursework and passed an exam. A two-day tea sommelier certification course (followed by eight weeks of home study) from the International Tea Masters Association costs $1,725. A five-day olive oil sommelier certification program in New York costs $2,800. A nine-day water sommelier certification program at the Doemens Academy in Germany costs more than $3,000 (travel not included). These programs prepare you to be a taste authority, a sensory expert, an arbiter and evangelist in the field, though you’re likely not producing anything.
That’s a lot. Was it also too much? Did we ever need all these niche claims to authority? Enthusiasts with paper. Is that also an exuberance passing out of fashion? Didn’t we have enough of authority when we decided to take a pass on the off-taste lessons and beer pairing dinners? Speaking of excesses, Stan published his latest edititon of Hop Queries and gave a vivid picture of of the excess hop production facing the industry:
A surplus of hops continues to hang like a dark cloud over producers and suppliers in the Northwest. Last week at the American Hop Convention, John I. Haas CEO Tom Davis told growers that as a group they need to remove an additional 9,000 to 10,000 acres of aroma hops from of production. Idling about 6,000 acres (including approximately 9,000 acres of aroma hops) in 2023 had no meaningful impact on inventory reduction. The estimated 35-to-40-million-pound aroma hop surplus has not changed… In the Czech Republic, the third largest hop producing country in the world, growers harvest about 12,000 acres, almost all of them planted with aroma varieties. Eliminating 10,000 acres would be much like eliminating all Czech production. It would reduce acreage to not much more than farmers strung in 2015…
Very much conversely, Lucy Corne had an excellent piece published in GBH about a small, succinct and successful Ontario-Rwanda project which I knew a bit about when it was first started by Beau’s Brewing** in far eastern Ontario – but one which I had lost track before it took a distinct turn just about 17 words after this part of the story below:
Beauchesne thought it sounded like a good fit, though it would present obvious challenges. “It was so much more out of our comfort zone than we had intended,” he says. “We flew down to Rwanda to meet Fina and to check out the business climate. The last thing we wanted was to start a project that had no chance of succeeding. I came back inspired. And also scared shitless.” Burying his fears, Beauchesne dove into the project, launching a crowdfunding campaign which reached its $100,000 target within two months. Over the next year, locations were scouted around Kigali, business plans were drawn up, and the team at Beau’s started working on recipes using traditional Rwandan brewing ingredients, including cassava and bananas.
And the very epitome of a balanced approach, the Tand published a neat a tidy story of a beer crawl in London the highligth of which was his vignette of busy normality:
This is an Irish style pub – without the umpteen intrusive televisions – and was severely rammed with after work drinkers. Nonetheless, the service was swift and cheerfully efficient, but it was so busy I could see little of the bar. I’m pretty sure there was no cask and I wouldn’t have had it anyway here, as everyone seemed to be guzzling Guinness. If you can’t beat them, join them is sometimes not a bad motto. The Guinness was the best I have ever had in London. Perhaps a tad cold, but certainly the best since I was last in Belfast, and at least a match for Mulligans in Manchester. So we had another. Seemed the right thing to do, especially since the same barman who’d served me, when collecting glasses, saw us standing in a corner and shifted some office workers who’d purloined the table that should have been there. Thus seated, we enjoyed the busy scene even more.
Note: one sort of beer, not 113 taps. And what a great heaving description. Balance was also a theme in Lily Waite‘s piece in Pellicle this week, a portrait of Ideal Day Family Brewery, a back to basics brewery situated in a rural English business cooperative:
Set in a central run of low-slung converted stone barns around a well-tended courtyard, and a number of other slightly less hashtag-aesthetic, more utilitarian farm buildings around the site, the various businesses work together in harmony. The hospitality centred ones all invariably use produce from the farm: the restaurant’s whole ethos is farm-to-table; the cafe uses and sells the produce; James uses wheat and barley grown on the farm and various miscellany from the kitchen garden in his beers.
And in his newsletter Episodes of My Pub Life, David Jesudason reflected on being included in a Deutsche Welle broadcast to share his thoughts on speakin of how things really were, looking back with clarity through his studies of the imperial roots of IPA while giving us a bit of an insight into his process:
I’m really proud of this podcast put together by DW (the German equivalent of the BBC) on the thorny subject of the IPA’s colonial legacy. It came about after the producer Sam Baker stumbled upon my first piece for Good Beer Hunting, which changed how we looked at how IPAs were marketed. (I have mixed feelings about that article as none of my subsequent ones for GBH ever reached the same mass audience.) The Don’t Drink the Milk podcast seeks to explain a subject ubiquitous but misunderstood. The IPA episode had a huge scope with numerous recordings in different countries but is easily accessible for listeners new to the subject of empire. It placed mine and beer writer Pete Brown’s stories central to the narrative and even gave international listeners a flavour of what the Gladstone in Borough is like. It’s what I want Radio 4 to be when I switch it on – and then quickly turn off as I feel alienated by a lot of the subject matter...
Reality checked. Finally and as reported in December, Jeff was invited to speak at a beerfest in Budapest. In his reportage from the scene, he posted something like that chapter in the middle of Hobbes’ Leviathan that cuts so quickly to the point that the rest of the book is a bit unnecesary. In sum, it is a summary – but to my mind some bits might need a wee edit like this:
What’s different is the internet—now information moves far more quickly. In the U.S., it took brewers 15-30 years (depending on the region) to develop native beer. Brewers weren’t even making the beer they imitated properly because most had never been to Europe and they had no information about how to make those beers.
There’s a couple of things. First, the US has given birth to many beer styles that would please any nativist. The cream ales, cream beers, steam beers or (the most obvious winner of the race… if it were a race) macro lagers have each had their day just as Pete’s Wicked Ale and then extreme beers have more recently. And Albany, Kentucky and California have all sent their distinct offspring out into the world. Which is why I prefer “regional” to “national” as the adjective in these matter.
Second, even though there weren’t 100 microbreweries and brewpubs in the USA until around 1988 (making them an oddity for most of the decade) in the 1980s there is no question that US craft brewers had access to plenty of information about brewing the good beer they were imitating. There were imported books and magazines as well as beer supply stores and beers of the world bars as meeting places. We see from one document that there were festivals like the Great American Beer Festival in 1982 at Boulder Colorado where Fred Eckhardt, Michael Jackson, Ken Grossman, Michael Lewis, Bill Newman and Charlie Papazian met with British brewers who all spoke and no doubt spoke with each other and anyone else who cared to listen. We learn from another primary record from 1986 that Michael Jackson was delighted with the Winter Ale brewed by Bill Newman at Albany, New York. Newman had learned his stills during the months in 1979 he worked under the tutelage of the father of the British independent brewery movement, the recently departed Peter Austin, at his Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire England. Alan Pugsley of Shipyard also trained under Austin and then trained others. Greg Noonan later of the Vermont Brewery was out there researching his first book “Brewing Lager Beer” before 1986, the same year the Buffalo Brewpub was opened by Kevin Townsell who “imports his malt from England via Canada, and gets hops, a fragrant vine that determines aroma and bitterness levels, from the Yakima Valley.” And, of course, Bert Grant had been in the brewing trade since the 1940s working his way up at E.P. Taylor’s Carling brewery in Toronto before later emigrating and opening Yakima Brewing in 1982. Suffice it to say, they all had the information. And shared it. And understood what they were doing.
That’s a lot. The clear and unclear. The plain and the cluttered. The unexpected and the shoulda seen coming. Ways that are fair while others are rough. Enough!! Once again… roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up again to 116 rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (static at 911) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,437 – down one) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (down to 163), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat, relocated the links and finally accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex even while way behind.
Fear not! While some apps perform better than other we can always check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!)*** to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back at his spot for 2024 on Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*any number of the misheard lyrics of “Video Killed the Radio Star” may apply – we did country wine! Plus I knew a guy called Hubert. That explains everything.
**Disclosure: Steve B has been in my house at least twice and drank my beer…
***Thesis: podcasts and newsletters are a great way to minimize correction, criticism and citation by others so… playgrounds for affirmation. Antithesis: then why do I /you quote from them, numbskull?
The Slightly More Exciting But Definitely Final Beery News Notes For January 2024
Can you believe this month? What a month, you know, as months go. Last week it was in the -20C range with the wind chill but now it looks like we are preparing for spring. Nutso. Just remembered I planted tulip bulbs out there in the fall. Hope the squirrels enjoy them. What’s that? You don’t care about that and want some beer news? Let’s go!
Perhaps unexpectedly or at least unusually for me, a listicle of sorts right off the top. This week VinePair published a very interesting article which caught me eye. It proposed a list of “The Most Overrated Beer Styles” in which they included the following – hazy IPAs; heavily fruited smoothie beers; New Zealand pilsners; sweet, opaque double IPAs; non-alcoholic beers; lactose-heavy beers; pastry stouts, kettle sours, and sour IPAs. Notice something? I would suggest that these are also the most heavily promoted styles of beer over the last few years. This is not a list of obscure faddy fan favourites. This is sorta basically something like the US Brewers Association’s recommended focus in model business plan 2018-present. It is, isn’t it. “Brew these and you will hit the ground running!” Hmm. Isn’t that a little problematic?
Another interesting but problematico trendo to note – fewer people want malting barley:
Beer sales in the United States declined in 2023, and that, combined with a robust supply of barley on hand has resulted in a decreased demand for malting barley, Mark Black, Malteurop North American procurement and trial manager, told farmers… Younger people are drinking seltzer, mixed drinks and other liquors instead of beer, said Black, who works for Malteurop in Great Falls, Montana. Draught beer sales have decreased by as much as 20% and during the first half of 2023, craft beer sales dropped by 2% and commercial beer sales by 3%, he said. Malteurop had not yet offered farmers 2024 contracts as of Jan. 16, 2024, but that could happen “any day,” Black said on Jan. 16.
Whatever is going on… has gone on… it doesn’t seem to be really about Dry January. This was made even clearer by a comment made by Richard Hughes, head of the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility as reported in The Telegraph this week:
Clean-living youngsters threaten to blow a multibillion-pound hole in public finances as alcohol and tobacco tax income declines, the head of the spending watchdog has warned. Richard Hughes, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), has questioned whether assumptions about future tax income from what are often dubbed “sin taxes” are realistic. He told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee: “There are some bits of the tax system which are themselves not sustainable. In a few decades’ time we won’t collect any fuel duty because every car will be electric, and they don’t pay any fuel duty. “Nowadays, you have to ask whether young people are drinking and smoking enough for us to be collecting alcohol and tobacco duties at the current rate that we are.”
Wow. See also this story in The Guardian which leads one to consider how perhaps those pesky sober kids are further undermining the ecomomics of concert venues. With that as the background context, in their monthly newsletter Boak and Bailey asked about what they frame as a “healthy beer culture”:
When it comes to beer styles, despite the dominance of c.4% hazy pale ales, we reckon we could go out this afternoon and find decent, locally-brewed versions of almost any beer style we fancy, from best bitter to Rauchbier. If it feels unhealthy, despite all that, perhaps it’s down to how the direction of travel skews our perceptions. A growing scene feels healthier than one that’s consolidating, or shrinking, even if what’s left is objectively better (terms and conditions apply) than at any point in the preceding 70 or so years.
According to those sorts of considerations, I probably have never lived in a healthy beer culture. The selection just isn’t there. Which is fine. The considerations appear to be what you might find in a larger city than the one I live in. Plus brewery closing and consolidations give a bit of a tone to the whole experience. And perhaps the concept really doesn’t translate well as English-speaking Canadians are far more excited by the retro doughnuts at Timmies than any innovations in beer.
Perhaps considering a Dutchie himself, Jordan wrote somewhat relatedly about being an observer also looking for a healthy beer culture while at a no- lo-alc beer fest:
Entering the festival, I noticed something that bothered me: with a small amount of alcohol on board, a crowd undulates. There is a little flux to the crowd, and pathways form as people try to get to the booths. I would attribute this to the slight loosening quality alcohol has and the urgency of people wanting to use up their tickets. Because of that people develop an awareness of their surroundings. In this instance, people stood firmly planted and clear-eyed and generally didn’t get out of each other’s way. For the most part, they talked to the people they showed up with. There was live music, but not much toe tapping. It reminded me of nothing so much as a United Church Tea Social; a genre of social activity that certainly provides fellowship but infrequently gets referred to as a banger. It led me to wonder, “What is the purpose of a beer festival?”
And Ron was also waxing anthorpological but also in a sorta retro doughnut way when he looked back to what people in 1970 thought the futre fifty years out looked like for brewing:
…neither of those predictions turned out to be true. Whitbread’s ill-fated Luton plant probably wasn’t the best example of a new brewery to pick. Bass Charrington genuinely had a plan of serving the whole of the UK from just two breweries. Neither did concentrated wort factories appear. So, 100% miss in the first paragraph. The other extreme – small, local continuous fermentation plants – didn’t happen, either. Mostly because continuous fermentation couldn’t be got to work. At least, it couldn’t be made to produce beer people actually wanted to drink.
One thing happened this week that folk in 1970’s UK brewing industry may well have assumed would have been gone long before 2024. Carlsberg Marstons is mothballing the Burton Union system that had been been used less and less in recent years. As Ed reported:
I used to work with an ex-Marston’s head brewer. Even in his time most Pedigree was brewed in stainless fermenters. They kept the unions for yeast propagation but did use the beer too. Owd Roger was the only beer made entirely in the unions as they’re the smallest fermenters.
Jessica Mason summarized the situation: “The move by CMBC has been cited as a bid to cut costs, along with the decline of the cask ale market meaning that brewing using them no longer makes fiscal sense, is reportedly a way for the brewing giant to move with the times.” Plenty of outcry – but what is to be done with outdated tech? Is there anyone lobbying for the return of the “ponto” system? Nope. “Inevitable” says The Mudge. One of the things small scale brewers can do is replicate mini-systems like the one operating Burton Union left (we are told) that can be found at California’s Firestone Walker. It would be interesting to know if that is effectively subsidized by other forms of production.
On the upside, Jeff published a lovely photo essay of his wanderings around U Fleků in Prague and a bit of the Old Town neighborhood that surrounds it including the clickable one right there to the right. Next door, almost… not really, Will Hawkes wrote about Störtebeker Braumanufaktur for Pellicle this week:
This is a North German brewery, an East Germany brewery, a Hanseatic brewery, a brewery right on the edge of Germany—and yet, in a nation where per capita beer consumption has been falling for years, it is remarkably successful, having tripled production to 350,000 hectolitres (close to 62 million pints) in the past decade. From packaging to non-alcoholic beer, Störtebeker is as confident and innovative as many German breweries are conservative.
Speaking of the new, there’s exciting archaeological news out of the studies from the recently announced findings of a BCE Ecuadorian civilization. Along wih canals and public urban architecture, they found brewing as explained by James Evison in TDB:
…it is believed that jugs discovered were used to consume “chicha”, a type of sweet beer. The beer, which has a full name of Chicha de jora, is a corn beer which is prepared by germinating maize, extracting the malt sugars and boiling the wort, like a traditional barley beer, and then fermenting it in large vessels. These were traditionally large pieces of eathenware, and would be fermented for several days before consumption.
You know and I know that I do mention wine regularly. And not only because the Pope said so. No, even as a good Scots Presbyterian I regularly look to learn more and more from wine writers including from Jancis Robinson’s books and opinion pieces. And this review posted at her website of an unexpected restaurant experience really struck me as a warm and thoughtful bit of review writing:
Named after a city in the province of Shanxi, north China, the restaurant offers a broad window frontage (one panel of which had been smashed when I lunched there recently), and a sign for Hungry Panda riders (the Chinese delivery service) of which at least a dozen came in to collect their orders while I was there. The interior of the restaurant is long, deep and slightly more modern and comfortable than many in Chinatown. Although it was only 12.30 pm, it was already crowded with many Asians of whom the majority appear to be smartly dressed young women. The waiting staff are also young and, again unlike too many of their counterparts in Chinatown, smiling, extremely charming and willing to communicate.
More positivity in the Reuters report that the Austrian Beer Party is aiming at gaining a seat in upcoming parliamentary elections:
It ran in the last parliamentary election in 2019 and secured just 0.1% of the vote but its leader Dominik Wlazny, a 37-year-old doctor and rock musician with the stage name Marco Pogo, came third in 2022’s presidential election with 8.3%. To enter parliament, a party needs 4% of the vote… The Beer Party’s egalitarian message also appeals to left-wing voters: the leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Andreas Babler, has said he voted for Wlazny in the last presidential election.
Just for Stan: “16th Century Astronomer Tycho Brahe Had a Drunken Pet Moose“!
And some good health news from Polkville aka The Hammer where the Drunk Polkaroo discusses not being quite as drunk:
Somehow, fate intervened again, and I was let go from a toxic, degenerate workplace that had helped me manifest the very worst of who I was each and every day, a path leading me to an early end and a decidedly tarnished one at that. I took a few weeks this summer to just be, to let go of a lot of the internal self hatred that often manifested itself in way too many drinks and seek perhaps a new path forward. I found a job that was exactly what I needed, a place where my most valuable asset was myself and slowly began to climb up and poke my head out of the hole I had created over the last half decade. I felt that it was time to find a way to change my own relationship with this character I had created and when Covid finally came calling on December 9th, 2023, I put down my phone, my glass and stopped the tap for the first time in 8 years.
Good. Really good. We see a fair number of people in beer that are not doing well and the culture… well, the culture isn’t exactly about interventions… is it. Happily, we have watched Norm get healthy after a very close call. My own issues were not related to my innards so much as blowing out my knee and all the carbs. I’ve now lost over 10% of my total weight as I work away at being better to myself. Others haven’t been so lucky. All the best for the Polk as he goes forward. This stuff isn’t just messing around.
Finally and somewhat to the contrary (even if also in the eastern Lake Erie-Niagara-western Lake Ontario zone as Polkalopolis), your moment of zen from last Sunday night’s NFL game between the Bills and the Chiefs. Note: the gentleman featured in this excellent New York Post (…via USA Today via Reuters…) photo is (i) a pro football player himself as a Philadelphia Eagle, (ii) the brother of one of the stars of Kansas City Chiefs, the visiting teams but (iii) he still adopted the natural plumage behaviours of the fan base of the home team, the Buffalo Bills. Already a contender for the best beer photo of 2024.*
There. Sweet product placement, too. That’s it for now. So once again… roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up one to 113 rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (static at 911) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,438 – another week with a gain!) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (creeping – literally – down to 164), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. I now have admitted my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat and accept that BlueSky is the leader in “the race to replace” Twex. Even so and all in all, while it is #Gardening Mastodon that still wins, I still include these links to these good folk over there waiting to discuss beer with you:
Alan McLeod | A Good Beer Blog (… me…)
Stan Hieronymus | The Man!
Boak & Bailey | The B² experience
Curmudgeon Ale Works | Jonathon is Brewing
Katie Mather | Shiny Biscuit and Corto
David Jesudason | “Desi Pubs” (2023) author
BeoirFest | They say “Let’s Talk Beer”
Ron Pattinson | The RonAlongAThon Himself
Al Reece AKA Velky Al | Fuggled
Jennifer Jordan | US hops historian
Andreas Krennmair | Vienna beer and lager historian
Beer Ladies Podcast | Lisa Grimm and colleagues
The Bar Towel | Toronto’s chat zone for beer lovers
Chicago Beer Society | Folk in Chicago getting social over beer
Jay Brooks | Brookston Beer Bulletin
Joe Stange | Belgian beer expert, beer magazine editor
Cider Bar | Barry makes Kertelreiter cider
Laura Hadland | CAMRA historian and beer writer
Brian Alberts | US beer historian
Jon Abernathy | The Beer Site
Maureen Ogle | US Beer Historian
Lars Garshol | Norwegian Beer Historian and Kveik Hunter
James Beeson | Beeson on Beer
Carla Jean | MAINER!!!
Thandi Guilherme | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Lisa Grimm | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Roy of Quare Swally | Beery ramblings from Northern Ireland
Rob Talksbeer | Podcaster and Youtuber
Anthony Gladman | UK Drinks Writer
Jeff Alworth | Manna Of Beervana
Northwest Beer Guide | Fairly self explanatory… but not NW Latvia…
Evan Rail | Prague based GBH editor, freelance writer, NYT etc.
Todd Alström | 50% of the Alströms
Jacob Berg | Beer talking librarian
And remember to check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!) to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back at his spot for 2024 on Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*You may also play “Where’s Waldo” with Taylor Swift in the same image. She may be in there.
The 43 Days To March Edition Of The Beery News Notes
Can we call these the dog days of winter? The evil cousin of August’s dullest days? Storms and snows came this week with a keen intent this week putting the end of a rather warm and grey winter. Six weeks to March. Just about. Just six. I can do that. I hope I can. But how? Where to start? Well, Will Hawkes published the January edition of his newsletter London Beer City and reflected on a slightly surprising positive effect of the pandemic that he thinks he is seeing:
…amid this gloom something interesting has happened: I think London’s best pubs are as good as I’ve ever seen them. Covid-19 has done a lot of funny things to London hospitality – not least Heineken’s increasingly iron free-trade grip, a grip currently manifesting itself in a mini-Murphy’s revival – but one is the impact it’s had on our attitude to pubs. We missed them, and, as a recent Evening Standard list demonstrates, we’re keener than ever to celebrate the best ones – where hospitality, warmth, a sense of historical continuity and an unfussy approach to good drinks are the norm. After Covid, drinkers understand better this is what makes a good pub. Even service, that persistent bane of the London pub-goer, appears to have improved in our best pubs. Martin Taylor, pub-goer extraordinaire, wrote in December that “Pubbing in London is brilliant, and I can honestly say both the beer quality and the friendliness have got better since Covid.”
The Tand, no stranger to pubs, wrote about another sort of surprise he’s learned about:
Hot on the heels of me writing about the difficulties some pubs are facing, causing them to operate on reduced hours, I read with a degree of astonishment that the number of applicants to run pubs is running rather high at the turn of the year. It seems January is the peak time for this optimistic attitude, with, according to the good old Morning Advertiser, numbers up by over 50%. As the MA puts it,“New year, new me.
Martin found another critical factor in the sucess of a pub in these troubled times – brownness – as exemplified by the Royal Oak in Royal Tunbridge Wells:
I’d rather pay a premium for a top pint, and the symphony in brown that is the public bar is worth a quid of your money. That table of six was generating some proper banter. “Jane was standing there with her rolling pin“ “She should get off her ass and get down that catwalk“. Sorry, no context for Jane’s theatrics. In the back bar, billiards ruled.
Oh and one last thing as Jeff described found in a pub – others like you:
Mid-session, two of us found ourselves waiting in that orderly line. As you do, we struck up a collegial conversation with two women in front of us that lasted until they reached the front of the line. In an inversion of typical cultural norms, in drinking establishments it’s almost considered rude to ignore a stranger you’re standing next to. Bars encourage people to forge momentary social bonds, which make them quite special in a country where mistrust is increasingly the default position. In bars, you look for common ground, usually finding it through a joke or two.
So warmth, a convivial crowd with welcoming staff and keener management wanting their jobs and lots and lots of brown? Is that all it takes? What ever form it takes, it sure sounds good to me here stuck inside in the land of slush.
But apparently things are not good for everyone as the bad news for good beer (and allegedly good beer) has continued into the new year. Closings, sell offs and temporary renovations that just never quite end are all around us. We hear those damn kids are too damn sober, no doubt further turned off by drunk uncle’s bad language. Heck, even Uber is eating a $1,000,000,000 investment in an alcohol e-commerce delivery platform. But, if you think about it, those who spun on the way up are now just spinning in the other direction as we face the unravelling. Consider the situation at the makers of that 2007‘s special bottle in the stash, 3 Fonteinen: “It is with deep sadness that we announce that we are saying good bye to part of our team…” Sounds like a retirement party invite. Bummer. More so if it was 15 years ago. But is this the critical point:
Not to kick a brewery when they’re down, but I never warmed to 3 Fonteinen. Sky-high prices for product that I often didn’t think warranted it. They seemed happy to pursue a cult following, which is another way of saying small and of dubious economic viability.*
Me, I’ve been recommending less expensive gueuze for (soon enough) coming on twenty years. With 3 Fonteinen up to $15 bucks for a half bottle around these parts – when you can find it – I am quite content to pick up Timmermans when I am out and about for as little as half that price.
Speaking of the ghosts of hype past, here’s a name from the past – Mikkeller! Remember them? Been years, right? Bear with me as this takes unpacking. Well, just like they asked beer buyers to run through all their spare cash back then, it appears – background care of Kate Bernot in GBH back on New Years Eve 2021 – that they had taken the business model to heart and had found themselves short on dough. So they sold off some of the family silver – maybe:
What this multimillion-dollar infusion from Orkila means for Mikkeller—a global beer company with dozens of locations worldwide—is made less clear by the company’s ownership structure. In a 2018 analysis, Good Beer Hunting found dozens of different companies had been formed over the years, each with varying degrees of ownership in different bars or businesses under the Mikkeller banner. This expansive network is presumably necessary given the company’s different owners, partnership structures, and the many countries in which it does business. At the time, Bjergsø described the number of companies he owns around the world as “more than 25.”
I say “maybe” (having stirred the corporate law pot a bit in private and public practice) because with a nutso corporate model like that who know what was bought for what – and who know who’s left in charge! As far as the “presumably” goes, sounds to me like someone along the way met a clever corporate lawyer who knew a clever corporate accountant. And then they went to work on Mikkeller. It is all a lovely opportunity for holiday second homes for consulting business professionals. And perhaps it is happening again. Anyway, now over two years later Jessica Mason for The Drinks Business seems to now have had more luck finding folk to speak on the record** as well as off the record, too, to explain what’s really been gone on behind the scenes since then:
Speaking to the drinks business, Mikkeller CEO and founder Mikkel Bjergsø, said: “We can confirm that Carlsberg has acquired a 20% stake in Mikkeller. Carlsberg has bought the primary stake from our current co-owners, Orkila.” The sale, which was made for an undisclosed sum, has been rumoured by insiders close to the scene as a significant amount, but nothing compared to the amount that Carlsberg offered for the entire Mikkeller business. According to industry sources: ““Carlsberg offered DKK1 billion (£115 million) for the lot [but] the US company which owns 49% weren’t prepared to sell their shares just yet… the insider hinted that “regardless, Mikkeller becomes a Carlsberg brand” and “Mikkel walks away with a big wedge and still owns shares”.
Carlsberg! So… a frankly tired brand with a confused corporate structure, likely fleets of professional consultants and a lot of baggage is being taken over effectively by a big brewery no doubt care of a carefully crafted shareholders’ agreement. See, shares aren’t equal if the shareholders’ agreement makes some more powerful than others.
Note: before there was Boak and Bailey there was…
And I was a bit surprised by comments related to the UK government not offering beer in diplomatic settings as I am pretty sure that was not the point about this story on the government’s wine cellar:
The report in The Guardian on the UK government’s wine cellar was published on Thursday after repeated delays. It showed that 130 bottles were consumed during the year to March 2021, while a further 1,300 were drunk during the year to March 2022. The consumption was a drastic drop compared with the 3,000 to 5,000 bottles of wine and spirits usually consumed in a year as the government scaled back its activity during lockdown and the lack of international travel. The cellar is meant to “provide guests of the government, from home and overseas, with wines of appropriate quality at reasonable cost”. But a large amount was still spent during the Covid crisis on topping up reserves. From March 2020 to 2021, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of red bordeaux wines, costing about £28 each.
What the report in The Guardian misses is that for 12 or 13 years, the government wine cellar has largely paid its own way. How they do that? Mine doesn’t! But by selling of some of the old stock that’s been selected and stored since 1908 of course – as the government report itself explains:
The first sales from the cellar stock took place in March 2012, delivering a £44,000 return to off-set the 2011 to 2012 purchases of new stock, which totalled £48,955. The difference was covered by additional funds paid back to Government Hospitality by other government departments for work under-taken on their behalf. Between 2011 to 2012 and 2018 to 2019, the cellar was self-financed through sales and additional funds paid to Government Hospitality for work under-taken on behalf of other government departments. Sales were not possible in 2020 to 2021 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in February to March 2020. Sales resumed in 2022 to 2023 and we anticipate further sales during 2024
What an excellent government program! Self-supporting, generous as well as prudent. And, as was pointed out, Bordeaux averaging £28 a bottle is pretty savvy buying. Oh – and no one wants ancient cellared beer at the diplomatic reception. Except if it’s a beer trade association lobbying effort. Speaking of Bordeaux, The Beer Nut went a visiting and tried the beer:
Bordeaux was not as I expected. My assumption was that a city so closely associated with one particular product, one which has an arcane and highly-specified quality control procedure, would be a bit of a monoculture as regards food and drink. Far from it. There is a vibrant, varied, multiethnic food scene, although of course high quality French food is very easily come by. And the wave of microbreweries that began to sweep the country a decade ago is very much in evidence here too. Though the city is easy to get around, beer places tend not to open until later afternoon, and several were taking an extended January vacation, so what follows is a very far from comprehensive guide to the Bordeaux beer scene.
Far less tempting but even way more surprising for the fact that it is extremely odd to be asked to read about the drinking habits of Russian and Belarussians without any real mention of, you know, the frikkin’ genocidal war to explain why the story was published … aren’t tomato beers a pretty clear signal we have entered another sadder phase of post-craft?
The tomato mix includes both puree and ketchup, and it goes into the tank post-fermentation. “We found that using tomato puree solely [gives] us too bitter and sour a taste,” Vasin says. “Adding ketchup to the mix [smooths] things out. We source it in bulk, so it’s easier to use with our volumes.”
Mmm… ketchup. Bulk Belarussian ketchup beer. Newsworthy for sure. I remember when I worked in Poland back in 1991 there was Albanian carrot jam still being sold at the state run grocery store. For more appealing was the news that The New Scientist reported on the make up of Guinness yeast strains this week:
The Guinness strains were also found to produce a specific balance of flavour compounds, such as 4-vinyl guaiacol, which produces a subtle clove-like aroma, and diacetyl, which imparts a buttery taste. The team also found that the two strains currently used by Guinness are descendants of a strain used to brew the stout in 1903… “What is particularly unique and exciting in this work is that the company has quite detailed records on the historical handling of the strains,” says Brian Gibson at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. “This information could potentially be used to further develop these yeasts or other yeasts used in industrial applications.”
Great point, Brian. Lars took the time to get into a little (…well, a lot…) more detail than that, unpacking and unpacking like… like Lars. And then Martyn jumped in too:
Between 1810 and 1812 alone, the St James’s Gate brewery pitched with yeast from seven different breweries (David Hughes, ‘A Bottle of Guinness Please’: The Colourful History of Guinness, Phimboy, Wokingham, Berkshire, UK, 2006, p69)… according to a writer in 1884: “Mr Edward Purser [one of Guinness’s senior brewers] informs me that yeast from Bass’s brewery at Burton on Trent is extraordinarily active when transferred to Guinness’s fermenting vats in Dublin, but in time its action becomes tranquil, being… modified by the surrounding circumstances and probably by some difference in nutrition.” (Journal of the Society of Arts, London, England, vol XXXII, no 1,659, Friday September 5 1884, p998)
And as we near the end this week, speaking of Guinness, and perhaps nearing his own end if he keeps this sort of behavious up, the tale of “man drinks 81 pints of Guinness“:
A Guinness-mad bloke who went viral for bragging that he downed 81 PINTS in one weekend has shrugged off those who branded him “moronic” for risking his life – claiming he didn’t even have a hangover… The 33-year-old says he began drinking at 1pm on Friday December 29th at his local boozer and continued over the next two days finishing his 81st pint at 9pm on New Year’s Eve – before heading to bed before midnight. Sean said he spent a whopping €400 on beer across the three days and says Guinness is his favourite alcoholic beverage.
Pfft! Try that on thick Belarussian ketchup beer. Finally, Pellicle utterly refutes the notion of the phrase “not a sausage” this week with a story of the links, a personal portrait by Isabelle O’Carroll:
Although pork is an ideal candidate for a sausage (because of its flavourful fat which cures well,) the earliest kinds of sausages tended to be a blood sausage, a plentiful byproduct from the slaughter of animals. The infinite types of sausage that exist attest to the creativity of humans. There are dried types, like the French saucisson or Chinese lap cheong, fermented, such as Italian mortadella or German Bierwurst, and smoked, such as Corsican figatelli, a sausage made from pork liver which is smoked for four to five days. “Chopped or ground up, mixed with other ingredients, and pressed together, meat scraps can provide one of the heartiest parts of a meal—and even one of the most luxurious…”
And so say all of us!!! And now, once again – roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up a nudge to 113) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (holding at 911) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (still at 4,434) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (hovering at 164), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. All in all I now have to admit my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat and accept that BlueSky is the place in “the race to replace.” Even so and all in all, it is #Gardening Mastodon that still wins but here are a few of the folk there perhaps only waiting to discuss beer:
Alan McLeod | A Good Beer Blog (… me…)
Stan Hieronymus | The Man!
Boak & Bailey | The B² experience
Curmudgeon Ale Works | Jonathon is Brewing
Katie Mather | Shiny Biscuit and Corto
David Jesudason | “Desi Pubs” (2023) author
BeoirFest | They say “Let’s Talk Beer”
Ron Pattinson | The RonAlongAThon Himself
Al Reece AKA Velky Al | Fuggled
Jennifer Jordan | US hops historian
Andreas Krennmair | Vienna beer and lager historian
Beer Ladies Podcast | Lisa Grimm and colleagues
The Bar Towel | Toronto’s chat zone for beer lovers
Chicago Beer Society | Folk in Chicago getting social over beer
Jay Brooks | Brookston Beer Bulletin
Joe Stange | Belgian beer expert, beer magazine editor
Cider Bar | Barry makes Kertelreiter cider
Laura Hadland | CAMRA historian and beer writer
Brian Alberts | US beer historian
Jon Abernathy | The Beer Site
Maureen Ogle | US Beer Historian
Lars Garshol | Norwegian Beer Historian and Kveik Hunter
James Beeson | Beeson on Beer
Carla Jean | MAINER!!!
Thandi Guilherme | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Lisa Grimm | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Roy of Quare Swally | Beery ramblings from Northern Ireland
Rob Talksbeer | Podcaster and Youtuber
Anthony Gladman | UK Drinks Writer
Jeff Alworth | Manna Of Beervana
Northwest Beer Guide | Fairly self explanatory… but not NW Latvia…
Evan Rail | Prague based GBH editor, freelance writer, NYT etc.
Todd Alström | 50% of the Alströms
Jacob Berg | Beer talking librarian
And remember to check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!) to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back at his spot for 2024 on Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*And… is there really “a big difference between having a private conversation and publishing a statement on a public microblogging website” these days? Gotta think a bit about that.
**See in GBH: “…Madsen declined Good Beer Hunting’s request for a phone interview, and did not address specific questions about the transaction posed to him by email. Orkila Capital also did not respond to a request for an interview…” Gotta love that J. Jonah Jameson tone but the transparency is most welcome.
The Mid-January Blues 2023…Errr… 2024 Edition Of The Beery News Notes
You know what is weird? I write these posts weekly but because of that my mind frames the passage of time in thirds of a month. So today is the eleventh which means we are in the second-third. Freaky, right? I can’t figure out if it slows or speeds the pace but with this messy weather week happy to have a sense of moving on. Even with a bracing feed* at No. 900 on Notre Dame the night before, as illustrated with the Habs looming in the background, I had a bit of another sort of moving experience getting back from Montreal where we bid bon voyage to the eldest who is now the blog’s Euro-correspondence for the winter. Maybe I’m just getting old but I don’t recall speed racers on the highway coming up from behind as I am passing and then passing me on the outside shoulder. In the slush and low visibility on the Ontario-Quebec border I actually had to hit the gas to given them enough space without hitting me as they performed their Grand Theft Auto XXIII fueled manouver. I clearly don’t know what it means to be cool these days.
Where to begin? Talk of the town! Especially if your town toddles, the talk was was the price of a pint in one Chicago establishment, as noted in Paste magazine:
Well, the one really catching people’s eye does seem to jump off the page: $16 pints of many of the beers on tap, including not only DIPAs but a few single IPAs as well. Suffice to say, that was more than some of the local beer geeks could stomach, and the idea of a $16 pint immediately raised a plethora of questions. Why, for instance, does it seem that Other Half prices in Chicago are significantly higher than what the company charges for the same beers in its other taprooms in New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.?
As Paste wrote, the price in question was questioned by Chalonda White and got pretty swift response as noted by HopNotes himself:
The short-lived $16 pint thing at the Other Half/Ramova taproom was weird, and kudos to them for fixing it so quickly (those pints are now $8 and $9). Seems like that was rooted mostly in being a concert venue and thinking they could get away with airport/stadium pricing.
At the other end of the scale, ATJ posted an exploration of intoxication** as a concept on his newsletter:
It is perhaps the moment when your voice seems to become distant as if being spoken by someone else, though sometime during the next day we will hopefully feel patched, retreaded, and approved for the road, but you do wince at the behavioural altitude you reached.
Conversely, on the health beat as always The Mudge has been tracking the interesting angle on NA beer that has come into the news recently – that it’s got an issue with wee bit of the old switcheroo:
The annual Dry January campaign inevitably turns the spotlight on non-alcoholic beers, which in recent years have been the subject of a growing amount of publicity and hype. Obviously in terms of the specific objective of reducing alcohol consumption they have an undeniable advantage. Many people, though, have come to see them as being a healthy option in a wider sense. But does this belief really have any substance? A recent study has found that many of them in fact contain considerably more sugar than their normal-strength equivalents.
This is going along with another bit of recent news that there may be more than sugar to worry about in them there NA beers:
The experts investigated the survival of bacteria like E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, and Listeria monocytogenes under different conditions. They found that while L. monocytogenes eventually perished, E. coli and Salmonella could thrive for over two months, especially in non-alcoholic variants. These findings point to non-alcoholic beer as an especially conducive environment for pathogen growth, though bacteria managed to survive in both non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers under various conditions. By contrast, regular beers, with higher ABV percentages, didn’t exhibit this vulnerability and are often safely stored at ambient temperatures in stores.
Yik. Or is it a “yikes!!”? The authors stressed the necessity of pasteurization along with the use of sterile filtration and preservatives might be prudent. Might be nice to confirm on the label, too. Also, The Times reported that Dry January may be triggering some price hikes:
The average price of nine brands, including Birra Moretti Zero and Guinness Draught 0.0, have increased by 22.3 per cent at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose since the start of December, according to research by The Grocer magazine. The biggest single increase was at Waitrose, where bottles of Erdinger Alkoholfrei Wheat Beer increased 75 per cent from £1 to £1.75. At Sainsbury’s 12-packs of Heineken 0.0 jumped 64 per cent from £7 to £11.50. The trade magazine noted that the average price of low and no-alcohol beers had risen faster than full-strength beers over the past year despite not being subject to any duty increases.
I do get most aspects of the NA thing being at least aimed at a generally healthier yet tasty (but, as illustrated, not always) outcome (even if I am very rarely going to participate given cheaper tasty options) but I really struggle with non-alcohol spirits and resulting cocktails. Pretty much spiritless by definition for me but you be you if that’s something you like. This was a handy if code-laden primer that passed by my eye this week:
Long derided as “mocktails,” alcohol-free cocktails (aka NA, zero-proof, or spirit-free cocktails) are increasingly stepping into their own, driven by changing consumer behaviors, a surge in alcohol-free alternatives, and good old creativity. But what distinguishes a great NA cocktail from a run-of-the-mill soft drink? “There are plenty of nonalcoholic drinks—but why is tea or juice or soda alone not a nonalcoholic cocktail?” asks Derek Brown, a longtime bartender and bar owner in Washington, D.C… “It’s because a cocktail is something specific, and there are sensory characteristics we assign to it that are really important.”
Convinced? Important? Speaking of posi-comms, here’s a good example of potentially unnecessarily creep in the scoring of wines which, as with beer PR, actually may not assist some of the wines in question.
Excitement and quality abound, Canada saw its best Gold (95-96 points) performance to date at the 2023 competition – dry and sparkling wines carrying a mass of the nation’s 19 accolades in the category, with the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia represented. ‘These days, Canadian wines are getting a lot of attention,’ explained DWWA judge and Ontario native Andrea Pritzker MW. ‘There are some really excellent smaller regions, both in southern Ontario and of course British Columbia, that are really producing some phenomenal quality wines, white and red.’
Don’t get me wrong. There are many excellent Canadian wines and I am lucky to live near one of the primo regions – but how helpful is a “96” for a sparkler relatively speaking when this is the price of another with that same score? And, for present purposes, will good beer ever get anywhere near these sorts of relative value considerations?
And, speaking of wine, next time someone uses wine terminology like terroir to describe beer, here’s a handy primer from Eric Asimov of the NYT which explains the clearly distinct concept as well as a number of other things:
Jean and Pierre Gonon make the highly coveted Pierre Gonon wines in St.-Joseph, in the Northern Rhône Valley of France. Jean once explained to me the difference between Gonon’s St.-Joseph, made from an excellent terroir that requires arduous farming, and its Les Îles Feray, a wine from the easier-to-farm flatlands in the Ardèche. The Îles Feray tasted like syrah, he said, while the St.-Joseph, also made from syrah, tasted like the place in which it was grown. The wines provide different experiences for different occasions.
That’s terroir in a nutshell.
CNN has a story about a pub that surely must always get top marks from the customers:
At first glance, The Keys looks just like any other much-loved UK pub, with leather banquettes, rectangular wooden tables, and an ornately decorated carpet. But its décor boasts unique regal features, including a 16th century ceremonial ax and cabinets displaying Yeoman Warder uniforms. The pub is run by the Tower’s 35 serving Yeomen Warders, who get their “Beefeater” nickname from the daily meat ration they were traditionally given. Only they and their invited guests are allowed to enter. With lodgings for resident Beefeaters and their families, a doctor’s office and a chapel, the Tower can feel like a village for those living there. And like any proud village, the pub is an important part of the community – a place they can go to celebrate special occasions or unwind after a busy day.
I’ve bought a beer on a navy ship and walked into a pub built into a veterans’ hospital but sitting down for a pint there would be rather special.
Strangest boozy Scots law news of the new year: “Port Glasgow man acquitted after telling of cheese taunt.” We are assured that drinking was involved. As it so often is when the taunted with cheese defence is raised. The actual not at all strangest Scots boozy news is that BrewDog continues to refine its craft as little more than a personal money machine.
The better sort of beery news from a Scot is from Alistair who wrote about that big rauchbier revival… no, not now… that’s never happening. He wrote about the oen that could well have happened 115 years ago:
…smaller breweries in Bavaria were going back to malting their own grains because the cost of the raw materials was sufficiently low to make this economical again, rather than buying their malt from the likes of Weyermann, whose maltings is massive pile right next to the railway station in Bamberg. What jumped out most to me though was that the relative low cost of barley could lead to the return of “the old Bavarian smoked beer”. This raises the question then, did rauchbier die out in Bavaria in the latter 19th century and only revive when breweries starting taking back the ability to make their own malt…
Finally, two questions about forms of writing as illustrated by two unquestionably reliable sources. First, notice the structure of the paragraphs… call and response… lob and hit to the outfield. Not necessarily my favourite type of article but clearly open about what it is. Second, for Pellicle Matthew revisitied, rewrote and greatly unpacked a previously published piece according to the emailed newsletter:
…a Director’s Cut of sorts, a longer, more detailed version of Matthew Curtis’ erudite love letter to RedWillow Brewery. First published in a more curtailed form in SIBA’s “The Independent Brewer” industry magazine…
Also not fully compelling to me. But no one other than Jeff likely gets that interview. And no one other than Matthew should unpack that story even if it is a brewery bio, admittedly not my thing. (Or, as we saw before, perhaps should.) And both clear about what was happening. So… i say how they developed does not matter as each expands the whole of the written beery record. It is not like the old K-9 v. Turner and Hootch problem or anything. Or is it? Or is it the post holiday publication cycle reality? Or is it filling in info gaps?
Ponder that would you? And now, roll the credits… well, the credits, the stats the recommends and the footnotes. There is a lot going on down here and, remember, ye who read this far down, look to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up eight to 112) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (911 – back up one) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,434 – another week with a gain!) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (creeping – literally – down to 164), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. Stan’s take on it all?
I look at X once most days, which means I only see a sliver of what I might. Plenty of interesting people are still there, and I wish they’d move to Bluesky. I occasionally will retweet something to be polite, but I’m doing my best not to post
All in all I now have to admit my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat and accept that BlueSky is the place in “the race to replace.” Even so and all in all, it is #Gardening Mastodon that still wins but here are a few of the folk there perhaps only waiting to discuss beer:
Alan McLeod | A Good Beer Blog (… me…)
Stan Hieronymus | The Man!
Boak & Bailey | The B² experience
Curmudgeon Ale Works | Jonathon is Brewing
Katie Mather | Shiny Biscuit and Corto
David Jesudason | “Desi Pubs” (2023) author
BeoirFest | They say “Let’s Talk Beer”
Ron Pattinson | The RonAlongAThon Himself
Al Reece AKA Velky Al | Fuggled
Jennifer Jordan | US hops historian
Andreas Krennmair | Vienna beer and lager historian
Beer Ladies Podcast | Lisa Grimm and colleagues
The Bar Towel | Toronto’s chat zone for beer lovers
Chicago Beer Society | Folk in Chicago getting social over beer
Jay Brooks | Brookston Beer Bulletin
Joe Stange | Belgian beer expert, beer magazine editor
Cider Bar | Barry makes Kertelreiter cider
Laura Hadland | CAMRA historian and beer writer
Brian Alberts | US beer historian
Jon Abernathy | The Beer Site
Maureen Ogle | US Beer Historian
Lars Garshol | Norwegian Beer Historian and Kveik Hunter
James Beeson | Beeson on Beer
Carla Jean | MAINER!!!
Thandi Guilherme | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Lisa Grimm | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Roy of Quare Swally | Beery ramblings from Northern Ireland
Rob Talksbeer | Podcaster and Youtuber
Anthony Gladman | UK Drinks Writer
Jeff Alworth | Manna Of Beervana
Northwest Beer Guide | Fairly self explanatory… but not NW Latvia…
Evan Rail | Prague based GBH editor, freelance writer, NYT etc.
Todd Alström | 50% of the Alströms
Jacob Berg | Beer talking librarian
And remember to check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!) to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan back at his spot for 2024 on Mondays. Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now revitalised and wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass which is going back to being a blog in this weeks best medium as message news. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*Unfrikkin’ believably good! That little black pan behind the pizza is creamy polenta with gorgonzola and a spicy sausage all as a dip. Servied with little herby cheesy buns. Twelve bucks but everyone scraped their pizza crusts through it. Fabulous addition.
**Not in the legal sense. This is a bit of an exploration of that around these parts: “Canadian law recognizes three degrees of intoxication for the purposes of the intoxication defence. Mild intoxication, if raised, might be useful for attempting to mitigate the severity of the offence but has no bearing on the mens rea intent needed for a conviction. Advanced intoxication can be used for specific intent offences to raise reasonable doubt about the mens rea. Even when successfully used as a defence, offenders are often found guilty on lesser charges. For example, if successfully used to secure an acquittal on murder charges, offenders are typically found guilty of manslaughter, a general intent offence that cannot consider the intoxication defence. Extreme intoxication refers to intoxication that puts an offender in a state of automatism in which they are lacking self-control and self-knowledge. When successfully used as an affirmative defence, it effectively negates the mens rea intent and renders a conviction impossible. While Section 33.1 of the Criminal Code had dictated that this intoxication defence could only be applied to non-violent offences, that requirement was nullified by the recent Supreme Court decision.“
The “Look Maw I’m A Futurist!” Edition Of These Beery News Notes
It takes a lot to be a really good futurist. First, a short memory so you forget all the failed claims you’ve made. Second, a globe and a flashlight. That’s it. Makes sense as every January, tryptophan-fuel prognostications by holiday break junior interns flood the media as we seek to live in an alternative reality. Beer is no different but just because the filla is flowin’ doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean there’s nothing interesting being said. I think of it as fan fiction. As we canvass those who took the time to mail in a “best of what’s never gonna happen” listicle, let’s just recall how we were promised in 2019 the best has yet begun for Brut IPA, in 2020 White Claw and Truly had established themselves as cool in a can and in 2021 more and more young drinkers would become fans of craft. Yup, there is a definite skill set behind the beer futurists.
UPDATE: despite the footnote below, GBH seems to have woken from its slumber and posted David Jesudason‘s piece (adding to a theme this week) on the traditional Belgian brewers of Hof ten Dormaal:
Since its founding in 2009, Hof ten Dormaal—located on a 12th-century farm in the village of Tildonk, deep in rural Flanders—has charted its own stubborn course and defied expectations. It’s not just that unusual founding story that defines it. The brewery’s perspective is informed by its owners’ strong opinions about what it means to make and sell “farmhouse” beer, and the beer they produce reflects their characters as well as their struggles.
First, however, a little tidying up with noting Ed posted his Golden Pints with a special nod to his final category for I suppose three distinct reasons:
Simon Johnson Award for Best Beer Twitterer: Sadly the decline of twitter is continuing but I think Jessica Mason has been best for news this year so @drinksmaven
And, speaking of tidying up afterwards, The New York Times posted a piece on the history of the word “toast” in the drinking sense:
The word came to us through the Middle English “tosten” in the 12th century. The noun, meaning bread that had been browned with heat, and the verb, “to brown bread,” may have derived from the Old French toster, “to roast or grill,” or the Latin torrere, “to burn”… But in the Middle Ages, toast was used to flavor a drink… the practice of “toasting” someone stemmed from the days when people would put “pieces of spiced toast into your mead or your wine.” Toasting a person, he said, is like “putting their name in your glass,” as if they add spice or sweetness.
And Martin posted his awards for the best experiences and the best pubs of 2023 including this transporting revelation:
The rail companies are my Villains of the Year. Which is a shame, as I’ve used rail a lot this year, as relentlessly slogging up and down the A1 to see parents has taken its toll on my desire to drive much at all after taking the campervan round the UK to complete the Guide last year. I wondered if I’d get a bit bored of this blog after finishing the GBG, but it started as a travel diary and I still love the writing, and your comments, and the views from (nearly) all over the globe. 813 posts this year, scarily that’s 3 less than 2022.
So… unless I have missed anything else that is soooooo last year… what is the story of 2024 for the perspective of all we all standing here in week one? First, Matthew shared his thoughts for the newsletter of homebrey supply shop Get ‘Er Brewed including this theme I’d be rooting for personally – a Belgian beer revival:
Purists may argue that these sorts of beers haven’t gone anywhere, and they’re probably right. But I don’t think the excitement around Belgian beer is what it was five or ten years ago. In my early days as a beer blogger, I’d enthusiastically take trips to Brussels and Bruges, merrily sipping away on strong beers inside the country’s famous brown cafés. I don’t quite have that same spark at the moment. Although, the other week I got myself a bottle of Oerbier from De Dolle brewery, and thought to myself “I need to start drinking more of this again.”
And Eoghan Walsh shared some thoughts actually from Belgium as well:
A crunch looks to be coming, and soon. It’s not a radical prediction to suggest that some of the first places to go will be the zombie businesses – those that have survived the post-pandemic recovery in a sort of a limbo with their base motor functions intact but without much prospect of a meaningful revival. In 2024, expect the definitive blow to arrive for more of these kinds of bars of cafés. For some of these, time was already called in 2023. The Old Hack, in Brussels’ European quarter, was one such zombie put out of its misery for good.
Sweet anecdotes about needy Nigel Farag hovering included! And Richard Preiss of Escarpment Labratories, perhaps a bit of a cheat given his access to commercial orders and in house R+D, presented his own set of predictions including one that fully deserves the label – “rent beer”:
The idea here is to ensure that your brewery’s lineup has a “rent beer”, a beer that helps pay the rent bill (or mortgage, or glycol chiller maintenance bill). It might not be the top seller, but it’s beer you can produce and sell in volume, with low production costs. This means it shouldn’t be aggressively full of hops or malt, shouldn’t take 10 weeks to ferment and condition, and shouldn’t require any excessively complex processing methods. Luckily, a lot of styles fit into this mold. And luckily, there’s probably not a “go to” option in your local market for all of these styles, so you can carve out a new niche.
Next, WineEnthusiast finally broke with what I had long presumed was largely a dour Scots Presbyterian base with this prediction:
Saturdays traditionally have accounted for 28% of the total weekly value in the market. However, Fridays, Saturdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are all losing their share to Sundays. In other words, more people work from home on Fridays and Mondays, returning to the office during the middle of the week. “People seem to be more inclined to enjoy themselves on Sundays—perhaps because they don’t have to worry about work the next day…”
And Michigan business writer Abby Poirier nibbled around the idea that chasing the tail of a new flavour every week is no longer going to be enough:
And finally the Tand has forecast something very exciting for the next 12 months – more Tand!
The blog will certainly be back a little more often, and I’ll be returning to short sharp posts like I used to. I’ve been reading a lot of my previous stuff, and you know, it isn’t that bad. I recommend particularly my stuff on Sam Smiths, and I’ll be resuming my trek round the ones here and those I visit in London. I’ll also tackle the issue of what might be called “opening hours deficit”. I note quite a few pubs here, have simply closed for parts of January, and while understandable, it isn’t really a healthy sign.
Is any of that going to happen? Some of it will… some won’t… but none of it not one bit of it is going to happen if you all take January off from your boozing!!! Dryuary or whatever it is called is reliably the biggest threat to the world of beer again this first week of the year. Aspects of post holiday season return to common sense sobriety include: (i) CAMRA asking “charities running challenges or fundraising: please ensure your messaging doesn’t encourage people to avoid pubs and social clubs altogether” because it is not “responsible or evidence-based“, (ii) Mudgie proclaming “it’s a deliberate, calculated attack on the pub trade“, (iii) from the Irish Independent: “I don’t know anyone planning to drink more in 2024 than they did in 2023” with “planning” doing a lot of lifting there, (iv) And on Twex “Not January! It’s dark and cold and this is when we NEED alcohol!” which is probably the most honest response. Always the voice or reason – or close enough to one for jazz – Jeff suggests an alternative:
Make this month #PubJanuary. Stop in for a quiet pint, grab dinner out, spend the afternoon playing a board game. It doesn’t really matter what you do—you don’t even have to drink alcohol—but if people kept up their July pace of pub-going, it would make a big difference. We’re not talking the salt mines, either; going out is fun! Consider it a vacation in an evening. In fact, January is typically the deadest time of the year—a perfect opportunity to connect with friends. Enjoying other humans is good for your soul.
Perhaps indicating that there might be another reasons for the problems breweries may be facing, venerable Mid-Atlantic craft brewer Flying Fish seems to be going under weighed down by an incredible level of debt compared to the value of its assets:
Flying Fish Brewing Co., a Pennsylvania brewery that operates in South Jersey, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a deal fell apart that would have seen the company sold to Cape May Brewing Co. Flying Fish “listed $1.3 million in assets and $9.3 million in liabilities in its Chapter 11 petition, which was filed in late December in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey. The company is owned by Elk Lake Capital, a capital investment firm in Scranton that acquired Flying Fish in 2016,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Wow. Now that is an assets to liability ratio! Never one for the liable, the award for the first best bit of beer writing of 2024* goes to Katie Mather in Pellicle:
Clouds hang low in the grey of March midweek, obscuring the peaks of New Mills’ surrounding cloughs when we arrive. Through a hollow of rich black soil and slippery rocks is a barely-contained river, pouring its peat-bronzed waters white over weirs, down past the Victorian mills that gave this town its name. Across this gully is where the monsters of Torrside dwell, by the still channels of the canal marina, restless and glimmering in the gloom. The owners of Torrside—a brewery founded here in Derbyshire’s High Peak in 2015—are also its brewers, a team of best friends and their partners. .
From our overseas desk, we learn from Uganda that one form of traditional beer is under threat:
At least once a week, Girino Ndyanabo’s family converges around a pit in which bananas have been left to ripen. The bananas are peeled and thrown into a wooden vat carved like a boat, and the patriarch steps in with bare feet. The sweet juice he presses out is filtered and sprinkled with grains of sorghum, which converts the juice into ethanol, and left to ferment for up to a day. The result is a beverage Ugandans call tonto, or tontomera, a word in the Luganda language that alludes to drinkers’ poor coordination… But its production is under threat as cheap bottled beer becomes more attractive to drinkers and as authorities move to curb the production of what are considered illicit home brews, which have the risk of sometimes deadly contamination. And because tonto production takes place outside official purview, authorities are unable to collect revenue from its sale.
Errr… drinking like Mummy and Daddy is exactly what the pub manager said it is – whether you care or not is another question:
Dr Renée Hoenderkamp, the television doctor, was dining in the restaurant at the Old Bull & Bush in Hampstead, north London, on New Year’s Eve with her husband and daughter when she made a request for all three of them to clink their glasses. She and her husband were drinking wine in champagne glasses, so they asked a waiter for apple juice to be served in one too so their daughter could join in the celebrations at around 7pm. But Dr Hoenderkamp, an NHS doctor who hosts a show on TalkTV, says that a manager at the gastropub told her “it could encourage her to drink alcohol and it’s not a great look” and served it in a tumbler instead.
Of course giving a kid something in a wine glass is mimicking wine drinking. Me, I actually thought the parents should have then ordered Manhattans and let that kid something something in a similar tumbler, too.
There. I said it. Time to get real. Get a move on. The darkest month of the year are now past us. Yes, the days are already really getting longer. And remember, ye who read this far down to see if I have edited these closing credits and endnotes (as I always do), you can check out the many ways to find good reading about beer and similar stuff via any number of social media and other forms of comms connections. This week’s update on my emotional rankings? Facebook still in first (given especially as it is focused on my 300 closest friends and family) then we have BlueSky (up three to 104) rising up to maybe… probably… likely pass Mastodon (910 – down another one) in value… then the seemingly doomed trashy Twex (4,430 – one more week with a gain!) hovering somewhere above or around my largely ignored Instagram (creeping – literally – up to 165), with sorta unexpectly crap Threads (43) and not at all unexpectedly bad Substack Notes (1) really dragging up the rear – and that deservedly dormant Patreon presence of mine just sitting there. All in all I now have to admit my dispair for Mastodon in terms of beer chat and accept that BlueSky is the place in “the race to replace.” Even so and all in all, it is #Gardening Mastodon that still wins but here are a few of the folk there perhaps only waiting to discuss beer:
Alan McLeod | A Good Beer Blog (… me…)
Stan Hieronymus | The Man!
Boak & Bailey | The B² experience
Curmudgeon Ale Works | Jonathon is Brewing
Katie Mather | Shiny Biscuit and Corto
David Jesudason | “Desi Pubs” (2023) author
BeoirFest | They say “Let’s Talk Beer”
Ron Pattinson | The RonAlongAThon Himself
Al Reece AKA Velky Al | Fuggled
Jennifer Jordan | US hops historian
Andreas Krennmair | Vienna beer and lager historian
Beer Ladies Podcast | Lisa Grimm and colleagues
The Bar Towel | Toronto’s chat zone for beer lovers
Chicago Beer Society | Folk in Chicago getting social over beer
Jay Brooks | Brookston Beer Bulletin
Joe Stange | Belgian beer expert, beer magazine editor
Cider Bar | Barry makes Kertelreiter cider
Laura Hadland | CAMRA historian and beer writer
Brian Alberts | US beer historian
Jon Abernathy | The Beer Site
Maureen Ogle | US Beer Historian
Lars Garshol | Norwegian Beer Historian and Kveik Hunter
James Beeson | Beeson on Beer
Carla Jean | MAINER!!!
Thandi Guilherme | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Lisa Grimm | Beer Ladies Podcast Co-host
Roy of Quare Swally | Beery ramblings from Northern Ireland
Rob Talksbeer | Podcaster and Youtuber
Anthony Gladman | UK Drinks Writer
Jeff Alworth | Manna Of Beervana
Northwest Beer Guide | Fairly self explanatory… but not NW Latvia…
Evan Rail | Prague based GBH editor, freelance writer, NYT etc.
Todd Alström | 50% of the Alströms
Jacob Berg | Beer talking librarian
And remember to check the blogs, newsletters and even podcasts (really? barely! This era’s 8-track tapes!) to stay on top of things including the proud and public and certainly more weekly recommendations in the New Year from Boak and Bailey every Saturday and Stan at his spot on those Mondays when he is not SLACKING OFF! Look at me – I forgot to link to Lew’s podcast. Fixed. Get your emailed issue of Episodes of my Pub Life by this year’s model citizen David Jesudason on the odd Fridays. And Phil Mellows is at the BritishBeerBreaks. Once a month, Will Hawkes issues his London Beer City newsletter and do sign up for Katie’s now much less occassional but always wonderful newsletter, The Gulp, too. Ben’s Beer and Badword is back with all the sweary Mary he can think of! And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. There is new reading at The Glass. Any more? Yes! Check to see the highly recommended Beer Ladies Podcast. That’s quite good. And the long standing Beervana podcast . There is the Boys Are From Märzen podcast too and Ontario’s own A Quick Beer. There is more from DaftAboutCraft‘s podcast, too. All About Beer has introduced a podcast… but also seems to be losing steam. And there’s also The Perfect Pour. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And the Craft Beer Channel on Youtube and remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water… if you have $10 a month for this sort of thing… I don’t. Pete Brown’s costs a fifth of that. There was also the Beer O’clock Show but that was gone after a ten year run but returned renewed and here is the link!
*Perhaps it would be more of a contest had GBH not apparently taken all those weeks off (and still not updating the home page from the Signifiers of 2022 by January 3, 2024 even though the 2023 version was posted over ten days ago.)