Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The End Of Q3 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s it. For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast (this week… VIKINGS!!!), at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look at that. A good mix this week. A veritable 1974-era ABC Wide World of Sports… of beer.  And not one newbie style guide to drag it down! For more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (again the talk was of awards this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The Middle Of September 2021 Edition of Your Beery News Notes

Where to begin? It’s been a good week in my hometown. CHeery even. The summer is lingering and the backyard crop of tomatoes and grapes has been coming in. Eighteen months in, it is one of the most normal weeks so far even if we see elsewhere things are returning to other more difficult norms. I was reminded of even a third norm by the wonderful image above of the lonely pub by John Bulmer from 1964 that passed by on social media this week. Lovely and evocative. It reminded me of me. Or at least mine. That empty space? Space like that was where my people lived. Or did before they move up and/or away. This norm of today shall also pass.

Update! Lisa Grimm on new bad stouts in Ireland:

…with Heineken recently releasing Island’s Edge, and Guinness rolling out their new Guinness 0.0. Island’s Edge has been expressly positioned as a stout for people who don’t typically drink stout, and to that end, it includes tea and basil in the recipe to make it, to paraphrase, less bitter and more refreshing, though none of the flavours of tea or basil are noticeable in the resulting beer. So, having had a pint of it recently, I can confirm that it does, indeed, lack those flavours…along with most other elements of flavour.

Next, I had to grab a screen shot of this image to the left from Stan‘s weekly round up. You can open it in a new tab for the full size. It’s super tiny because it’s a huge image from the Craft Brewers Conference on an indoctrination education session on lager brewing. These images always make me scratch my head year after year. It was all about hazy beer education a few years ago and massive barrel ales a few years before that. Beyond clubby. Chasing the tail in lock step with every other brewery in attendance. That once again is the business plan for these fiercely independent and sometimes off center breweries. That’s weird.

The same idea is bouncing about in Kate Bernot‘s excellent, subtle and perhaps surreptitious piece on Oregon’s Full Sail Brewing’s perhaps last chance effort to regain some reputation in the craft beer marketplace. The plan? A fantasy of chasing and copying Boston Beer’s now decade or more and well established run as far away from actual beer as possible. There are three references spread across the article to that strategy. It’s like a plan to marry rich. Plus look at this:

… Full Sail’s beers weren’t being placed on shelves in desirable places, primarily because low prices on the Session line of beers led them to be shelved next to light beers, while the drinker Full Sail wants to attract might only be shopping in the craft section… To correct this, Full Sail raised prices on June 1 on most of its beers by a couple dollars per pack to bring them more in line with other regional and national craft breweries. Though it goes against the laws of supply and demand, the switch led to an +11.5% boost in sales on Session beer in Oregon and Washington markets three months after the price change… Tiernan says part of the boost for Session is shelf placement next to other craft breweries, and part of it is a more strategic approach to the idea of “value.”

Entirely anti-beer consumer initiatives like that might be described as the “premiumization of old craft”… or perhaps lipstick on a pig. Time will tell if the bait and switch has a lasting effect with the beer buying public. It’s probably far too late. As Jeff on the ground both tweeted and was quoted: “I suppose a few folks are still kicking around who feel warmly about [Full Sail], but not many…” Dead cat bounce?*

Ian McKellen helps out on quiz nights at his pub.

There was an interesting hour of radio provided by the CBC’s new season of Tapestry and its interview of Edward Slingerland, academic and author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. He also confirms or at least bolsters my suspicions or at least speculations that alcohol pre-dates community discussed here four years ago.

…in the standard account, alcohol’s this kind of byproduct of agriculture, and it happened after agriculture. But once I started doing the research for the book, if you dig into the archaeological record, what it looks like is hunter-gatherers were making alcohol in a serious way, way before agriculture. Probably this goes back 20,000 years or so, but we certainly have direct evidence 13,000 years ago that people were making beer in what’s now Israel. And then we have sites like the site in Turkey called Göbekli Tepe, where hunter-gatherers — this site’s probably 12,000 years old — were coming together, building these massive ritual complexes.

He does unfortunately use the word “myth” to describe the idea how alcohol makes people aggressive suggesting those people were already aggressive before describing how alcohol just dampens control. That, to me, is describing removing the guard against bad behaviour that would otherwise be left in place. Odd argument. Also uses “neo-prohibition” while advocating for measured control. As in temperance. Which is pretty close to what people mean by “neo-prohibition”…But a good listen nonetheless.

Question: is Matt suggesting that Boursin spreadable cheeses are his perfect hangover cure?

Ron shared a few thoughts on him being compulsive which he believes is the basis for his success as a beer historian:

I realise my head isn’t like everyone else’s. Compulsive behaviour. It’s part of me. When I looked out of my office window and saw someone touching every sign along the road, I didn’t think “What a weirdo”. No. That’s just like me, I thought. A bit more public and odder looking, but basically just like me. Being compulsive has its advantages as a researcher. It means I go through material fully. Really fully. Whenever I see beer analyses or price lists, I have to record them. It’s a pain in the arse, quite a lot of work, but I can’t help myself. Thirty years of such compulsive behaviour has left me with some amazing datasets.

Mostly unrelated, making beer can sometimes remind me of the consequences of drinking beer.

Finally, this quotation from the CBC and Dr. J Nikol Jackson-Beckham gave me pause:

“If you weed out a bad actor but do not change the culture, when the next bad actor comes along, they will thrive in the same environment.” Dr. J, “The unthinkable has happened, finding your way after harassment, discrimination, or abuse has changed everything.”

I paused for the message itself as well as the long haul Dr J. is on. I wrote about her thoughts in 2017 in a post titled “Peter Pan As Craft Beer’s Archetype” and it may well be that not much has changed. Fight!

That’s it. As you start at the bottom of the glass or at the floor before you, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and from Stan now apparently a regular again every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday (the talk was of awards this week) and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Investment concept referring to a late final brief upturn of a plummeting stock. Refers to the fact that even a dead cat will bounce on the sidewalk if dropped from great enough a height. Not sure this is actually true but the image is effective.

The New And Improved Beery News Notes For A Thursday

Take a week off and you get all sorts of ideas. Like packing it in. Like… really… why do I do this? Then, after I read this “see you later, blog!” post from The Kitchenista I remembered – I do this because it is easy! No one picks on me or gives me crap like she had to put up with. Sure, playing the role of an irritated grump helps with that but, really, this is a doddle. Why? Because beer does not matter. Sure – if you are in the trade, it’s your investment or your career but that’s maybe 1% of all the people who encounter beer. There is a whole whack of beer writing aimed at that audience, little of which gets noted here given it’s a yawner. That being said, what is up?

Speaking of not yawner, I like this bit of a major culture backstroking from Dogfish Head on Tuesday. Click on the thumbnail. It’s the response they had to put out after someone had the bright idea to repost Sam’s Big Lie that craft beer is only 1% asshole. It’s not like it’s an apology as that would be admitting how stupid the statement is but still…

Speaking of dinosaurs, I also noted this comment on Tuesday by brewer Jenny Pfäfflin which goes off in another direction:

There’s a huge lack of self-awareness from an older generation of established brewers who have obviously failed to look beyond their own success—but still get a pass because of who they are. 5 yrs ago, I would have killed to work at certain breweries, today I’m relieved I don’t!

There is a whole lot of presentism in the discussion that ensued. Older being five years ago is a bit weird but also weird is the idea that the present is some sort of stasis. 2027? All that you see around you in beer will be like wide leg jeans and 8-track cassette decks. Have a brown ale and think about that for a mo. As the wise Chrissie Hynde once put it, time is the avenger.

While you do that, consider how fine a thing an endorsement from NHS Martin is. He recommended a very minimalist blog with the URL of evoboozyscribbler.co.uk this week and I might just add it to the bookmarks if only for its rather earthy tone:

With Liam working yesterday and needing to head off early we moved onto The Royal George. Bit of history as this is the first pub that I ever fell asleep in. Not through booze, a secondary school friend lived here and I stayed over a few times back in the 80’s. Nice cool pint here, sat outside in the impressive seating area with Euro 2020 bunting flags still in position flapping around merrily. And there is a Dyson Airblade in the toilet so it’s win win here.

Perhaps conversely, an interesting set of arguments were made by Courtney Iseman during my brief sabbatical which I think is worth noting even though it is a reflection on something I avoid – fests:

People, Kimberley and I both express in our conversation, seem to have forgotten whatever sense of social etiquette and what’s right they may have had during the pandemic. Now that some events are happening again and folx have been getting back to gathering at bars and pubs and breweries, it’s been a rude awakening: it’s like some people have pent up energy that they’re letting out in problematic, discriminatory, even dangerous ways. With this in mind and certain big festivals, in particular, looming on the horizon, Women of the Bevolution founder Ash Eliot reached out to me a couple of weeks ago with the idea to take a deep dive into the current state of safety at festivals…or the lack thereof.

See, I am one of those guys who also find drunk guys piggish and fests often a bit of a flaming mess so, you know, I agree but I don’t seek to make them safer. I just avoid them like the sensible avoid anti-vaxxer rallies.

I would also be remiss and a false friend to Lew Bryson if I didn’t link to the story of the white hot, a upstate NY phenomenon he introduced to me via a side bar in his book New York Breweries a decade and a half ago.

Few food items are more synonymous with summertime in Rochester than the White Hot. Though Zweigle’s is the most famous manufacturer of the local delicacy, it was first produced by a lesser-known company. The details of the White Hot’s origin story lie largely with the recollections of Frederick Tobin, the first president of the Tobin Packing Company (formerly the Rochester Packing Company). According to the meat magnate, the iconic tubular treat was first dispensed at the Front Street establishment of the Ottman Brothers.

From the archives I would note that fifteen years ago I posted about an early encounter with a Tobin’s hot. The comments from old employees and feuding family members are charming.

Beer styles: genres, agreements, important or just unimaginative puffery? As a means to that end, consider the meaninglessness of IPA as you think about that question and this newbie guide:

Safe to say, IPAs are a beer universe unto themselves. Brewers are continuing to push the limits of what this style can encompass, both in terms of the ingredients and the techniques used to brew them. But there is one unifying factor to IPAs: hops.

See, I think that is another sustaining fib of this present framework, as sustaining as the 99% crap was for the big craft set. Me, I got suckered into drinking an IPA the other day and, there it was, another Sunny D clone. Nothing hoppy about it. It could have been labeled a fruit beer – which would have been most truthful. It even had “sour” on the can even though it was all sweet and sugary fruit candy. Cloying gak. But it also had the magic three letter I-P-A and that was all the buyer, a pal, needed to know when he bought it to proudly hand to me one evening in his back yard.  If that is the present that Jenny Pfäfflin is happy about, well, call me Dino.

Update: compare and contrast with Ron’s guide to IPAs:

I’ve been thinking a lot about beer styles as I pound the local streets two or three times a day. Dodging dogs as much as possible. IPA is incredibly popular. But what is IPA? After much thought, I think I’ve cracked. It might be a bit too prescriptive so I may have to loosen it up a little.

That’s it for now. We can benchmark this week’s roundup with the observation that good beer seems overdue for the next big thing. Perhaps it will be something other than beer. Perhaps it already is. Should we care? Not really. It’s just not that important.

As you start at the bottom of the glass or at the floor before you, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and (if I dare say) from Stan mostly every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The Last Of August’s Thursday Beery News Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note: craft.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There. That is it for now. Not sure if there will be an edition next week as I am driving to the sea. We will see. During these last lazy days, for more check out the updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday and (if I dare say) from Stan mostly every Monday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

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

The Panicky Two Weeks Left In Summer Edition Of Thursday Beery News Notes

“Of course, you know there are more weeks in summer than that” say all the really boring people. No, that’s it. Soon it is corduroy and scarf season. And you will ask yourself what it was you did with those two last weeks of summer. You know you will. Here in Canada, we are having a national election all of a sudden – or at least now that the coming fourth wave is leaving a very small window for these sorts of things. As the photo above from the PM’s campaign shows once again, you can’t campaign for election in Canada without being seen with a beer. The choice of the can is clever – can’t see how little he’s had.

First up, Jeffery John linked to a story in The Observer this week asking the question “Can hospitality’s recruitment crisis ever be fixed?” which mentions the twin issues faced by the UK: (i) pulling the visas on much of your hospitality working cohort right before (ii) bumbling and stumbling with the regulation of the hospitality trade all through the biggest pandemic in a century. So people move on and likely should:

In March, former London restaurant manager Sam Orbaum decided that, after three years, he was done with regular restaurant shifts. Previously, he sailed through weeks of long hours but the freedom of furlough prompted the 30-year-old to question that lifestyle and, particularly, the “strain” of stop-start Covid-era reopenings. A lot of the pressure, insists Orbaum, was “self-inflicted. The team [at my employer] were always very, very supportive.” Rather than owners or managers cracking the whip, he observed a tendency among young, ambitious staff to “take on burdens voluntarily”.

Yeah, that sucks. Jeff noted that he “…mothballed the kitchen at my pub and just do drinks and snacks partly because of the chef shortage, but also because as a publican providing a ‘gastropub’ (hate the word) offer is more trouble than it’s worth.” Could it also be that the public has also revisited, reviewed and revised its own needs… and gastropubs didn’t make the list?

What do we need? In Scotland, apparently pubs need beer according to the BBC but they can’t get it because something has run short:

Scottish Hospitality Group spokesman Stephen Montgomery said a broken supply chain for an industry already under pressure following lockdown restrictions was “an utter disaster”. “Piling this stress onto the already existing anxiety of recruitment, the pingdemic, debt and HMRC starting to knock on business owners’ doors, this is beginning to push people over the edge,” he said. The SLTA has raised concerns over a potential shortage of carbon dioxide supplies, three years after the industry – along with others – was hit by a previous CO2 shortage.

[What’s a pingdemic?] While we are at it… you know, it might be good if some brewers could get behind promoting another type of CO2 shortage:

During a routine quality control panel, we identified that some cans have undergone secondary fermentation, causing higher levels of CO2 in the cans which has resulted in higher than normal internal pressure inside the cans. With this increased internal can pressure there is the risk of these cans leaking, coming apart at the seal, or potentially bursting at higher temperatures.

Matty C. asked the question “why add CO2 when cask make the stuff itself?” OK, he didn’t ask this question but recently he went in search of cask in pub and found other questions:

Personally, I’ve really taken a shine to table service and the more relaxed, dare I say more continental approach to service we’re currently being treated to. The reality is however, that many British establishments simply aren’t equipped to operate this way, and will continue to lose revenue until they can trade as normal.

Normal? Nice try. Jordan’s all over you when it comes the coming endy times:

Day 521: Say, listen: Import beer sales were down 39.4% in June. Supply chain on grain from Europe is looking real dodgy. One of the threads I follow suggests that China’s ports are temporarily closed and shortages of goods are likely to be a thing. If you think you’ll need items six months from now? Stuff you know you need? Maybe start thinking ahead in a non-panic kind of way. They may be more expensive later. To quote a deep voiced fellow: things are going to slide in all directions.

That is a strong statement. Perhaps to save the day, locally our prog heroes Rush are making a beer. Perhaps that will save the day… Perhaps…

Interesting trend. Two weeks ago it was InbevABBigThingie saying the money is coming in just fine and now Carlsberg is doing the happy dance:

The world’s third-biggest brewer said beer volumes in key markets China and Russia had risen to “well above” pre-pandemic levels while European markets such as France, Switzerland and Sweden remained below levels achieved before the coronavirus crisis. “While the uncertainty about the remainder of the year continues, we’re satisfied with the strength of the first-half results and the good start to the third quarter,” Chief Executive Cees ’t Hart said in a statement.

Wow. So… is macro winning?

Jeff wrote an ever so slightly hyperventilated piece about the beer known as  Pliny the Elder – but perhaps I feel that way as I have never had one. There are two sightings of “important” as well as a “more important” and a “very important” in there but I will defer to Stan who says it is so that is fine.* And at least there is something being written. Even unending newbie identi-guides like this are sorta something. But you know how it is. You point out how little actual writing is going on and people get all uncomfortable and weirded out. Weirded. Out. Don’t be doing that. It is just beer.**

Speaking of which… Stan was active again Monday. I think he is getting almost regularly active on almost every Monday. I hope he is OK. I do like how he was clear on this point about the former brewery known as Sam Adams:

…not caring about Truly, robot waiters and beers from a brewery I don’t patronize is perfectly OK. Climate change is something to pay attention to. Hard seltzer is not a threat to the world our grandchildren will live in.

What I find most amazing in the whole conversation related to the brewery is how Sam Adams continues to get a pass despite its pervy past. But folk don’t care about that either.**

Much more open and honest, Ron published an ever so slightly concerning account of his weekend in that place in Germany where those things fly over the river taking you from this place to that place and back again:

Just around the corner, there’s a little pub. Im Kipchen. Quite a few football fans, but also quite a bot of space right at the back. Mikey goes in search of beer. Weissbier and Alt, as usual. When he gets back, he asks: “Do you fancy a shot?” “No. I’m stopping all of that. It’s unhealthy.” “What? You were knocking back the rum merrily enough this morning.” “Just kidding. Of course I want a shot. Several, in fact.” “You had me worried there for a minute.”

It all gives pause, doesn’t it. Still, things could be worse, as the image to the right reminded me as it slipped by on the river of social media this week. As the all the grim news this week seems to remind us. Hmm. Best go out and see if there is a tomato or two lurking out there waiting to be found under a lower leaf. As I do, remember there are always updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. The AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Unlike this very ungentlemanly comment in, you know, the comments: “Just reading about this swill gives me a headache. Ugh… When will the IPA trend end?” That’s a bit much.
**“But these are my friends on the internets you speak of?!?! My internet friends?!?!??!” BTW good luck with the quality of the entries this year. I’d have more confidence if the word “prorated” was used correctly. And, yes, I meant to drive two **’s to the one footnote…

These Notes Are Beery And Newsy So It Could Well Be Thursday

If these comments come off as rushed and last minute, there is a reason. Long busy week – even as it looks like it might well end soon enough this being Thursday. And I’m bummed out by the Red Sox choking. And… much bigger a bummer… even though there are upcoming weeks off, there is the good old delta just a’rushing in, trying to block my way to the rooftop patio bar with the apps menu. Or just wanting to go to a game like Stan wanted to …. and just have a beer bat‘s worth. Now, I wake in the night with visions of carefully reserved hotels rooms, where I want to go for the first break in two years… finding myself again blocked by travel restrictions. Boo.

First off, just a few months after it was argued that beer guilds could not should not be considered to have a role in responding to the bad behaviours of some of their members, the New York City Brewers Guild gave one the boot:

“We are aware of the recent allegations against Gage Siegel of Non Sequitur Beer Project. These allegations directly contradict the core values and mission of the New York City Brewers Guild,” the guild wrote on Instagram last week. “In order to ensure a safe space for our guests, members and community at large, the guild has revoked the membership of Non Sequitur Beer Project; and they will not be participating in any upcoming guild sponsored events, meetings or collaborations.”

Good. And speaking of which, I know I post a lot of links to Martin’s posts about beer ticking and UK pubs but they really are fabulous what with a bit of wit and a bit of photos, both from unusual angles. But this is one of his best and it has nothing to do with the drink:

Enough pictures of beer. Let’s do a curry. As always, let Glaswegian legend Curry Heute be your guide. His website is to Chicken Dhansak what BRAPA is to John Smiths Smooth. But he’s little positive to say about Sheffield, and to be honest there do seem to be far more Chinese than Indian/Bangladeshi options in town. Curry Heute’s pick is Apna Style, just south of Bramall Lane, which seemed to justify a return visit.

Conversely, the jerk of the week award may well go to British Columbia’s Minister of Agriculture, Ben Stewart who tweeted:

Business owners across BC are struggling to stay open as Gov’t programs don’t encourage workers to seek employment. This is wrong!

How does this connect to a boozed up blog? He also runs a winery that has taken government subsidization and sells pretty pricey plonk while hunting down low pay labour. Nice.

Relatedly, Kate B. wrote a good piece on a similar situation for CB&B entitled “Help Wanted: Breweries Rethink Employment to Adjust to Staff Shortages” with this intro:

Portland, Oregon’s Von Ebert Brewing estimates it has thrown thousands of dollars behind employee recruitment this summer. The brewery has given away merchandise at job fairs, promoted its job postings on websites such as Indeed and Facebook, and offered $500 signing bonuses after 90 days of employment. The return on that investment hasn’t been good. “It’s moving the needle almost zero,” says Dom Iaderaia, Von Ebert’s director of food and beverage.

What to do when people want to do what they want? The follow up tweeting leaned a bit to the “raise the red banner high!” side with a number pointing out craft breweries avoiding unionization is part of the question.

We had a good long Lars post this week that ends with the unusual statement “I want to make it very clear that this is not my work. I’m just repeating what’s in the paper.” Which is good and all fine as the post is an explanation of a very science-y bit of science related to particular properties of kveik.  Just look at this:

The seven octagons are genes. Let’s start with the upper four: the yellow ones turn glucose into trehalose inside the cell, and the orange ones are regulatory genes that control when trehalose is produced. The kveik strains have changes in all four of these genes, but particularly in the regulatory ones. That’s very likely the reason they make more trehalose.

I know, me too! I have no idea what it is all about but it is neato for sure. And if you like trehalose, check out Stan on the thiols.

Somewhat conversely or perhaps similarly, Jenny P. wrote this:

The quest for “authenticity” in beer has always been something that has bothered me—for one, most of its history has been captured by white men, through a European lens. Who are the critics who get to say a beer (or cuisine) is authentic? It’s a limited scope.

…and then this:

I think it’s more than that—authentic is never objective. Authentic has always been decreed. Who made the decision which tradition or method was authentic?

…then this:

I think there’s a very big difference when talking about Tradition vs Authentic.

It’s very similar to the heritage v. history thing. I think. Does the man known as The Driver have it right? Perhaps. I know who has it wrong – the maker of shit. Speaking of shit, a Halifax NS brewery is offering folk a whole $1 coin (and that’s Canadian) for a social media post:

…you have to pick up one of the five eligible brews at your local liquor store. Then you have to post a photo or video on Instagram of the beer with @goodrobotbrew and #sponsored or #ad in the caption. After that, Good Robot will slide into your DMs to confirm your email and then e-transfer you $1 for each post.

What a stupid idea. Unless they aim to destroy the local market for beer influencers.  Then it’s dumb and stupid.

This week on GBH: a middling post about hops in Italy accompanied but some really weird blobby art. Much better at Pellicle: “…The Inherent Whiteness of British Beer Writing“!

When I wrote this piece on racism craft brewers face in the beer industry I was surprised that such a bold investigative report requiring a lot of time, guidance and investment was given the green light, considering it was the first story that I had approached Pellicle with. But why am I one of the lone minority voices who write about beer compared to other sectors, like food, which sees far more writing from people from diverse backgrounds?

One interesting suggestion in response: overhaul writing award categories “which currently favour print media and target influencers and bloggers.” Where have I heard that before!?!? But the real truth is shared by Pete Brown: “I’m chronically in debt…” There is no moolah in any of this.  Does that make the hardscrabble harder? Less welcoming?

Hmm… let’s leave it there. Lots to think about. For more and maybe even something else, get ye into yon updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

Your Thursday Beery News Notes For The Quietest Week of Summer

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

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

Archivally, interesting news out of North Carolina:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…and…

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

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

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

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

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

As you nap away the hours, too, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The End Of July Heralds These Thursday Beery News Notes

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

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

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

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

Expected result? Less supply of the most desired varieties.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I miss what my life was before beer.

Probably more common a thought that folk would admit. As you contemplate that, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

The Thursday Beery News Notes For Summer’s Sprint

Here we are. The second month of summer. Soon it will be halfway through summer. Spring takes its time. Lingers. Summer is a sprint. To keep pace, I ran a couple of breakneck polls on Twitter asking you good folks about the biggest lies told by craft beer. Hard to narrow it down after writing this weekly column for so long. One immediate finding from the first poll was that the “craft is 99% asshole free” lie is a lie of general application. Whether it’s the bad boss, the sexist and the racist on staff at the bar, the beer writer spreading health myths or assigning blame for beer can hand grenades to the consumer… the general rule has wide application. So I ran it again with that option removed. We’ll see. Tune in for continuing coverage at 11.

Out there in the world beyond my own mind’s wanderings, Andy Crouch posted a really interesting audio interview at Beer Edge with actual reporter Norm Miller this week. Their chat starts seven minutes in but it is well worth the wait. Andy and Norm discuss things like their respective court room experiences – but the real angle on the story is their views of the unhealthy relationship with beer seen too often in the craft beer scene:

Norm wrote that he was giving up beer writing because he needed to stop drinking. He talked about the impact his tasting was having on both his physical and mental health. It was a bold and honest piece of writing and should be required reading for everyone in the beer industry. Spend anytime at a beer event or industry get together and it quickly becomes obvious that some and perhaps many in the beer business have an unhealthy relationship with the product they sell. Whether it’s overconsumption, drinking and driving, or forgiving behavior that would otherwise be unforgivable but for the presence of alcohol, it’s the third rail of the American beer business, one that few dare to touch.

Well, one of the third rails along with observed sexist behaviours, observed bigoted behaviours, the actual financial status of breweries,* the pervasive packaging of canned craft hand grenades….

Less ominously, here’s a lovely and witty visit to the Welsh town of Builth Wells presented by a very busy Martin which includes a portrait of the Greyhound Hotel. Less Welsh by far and over in the cyberverse, on Sunday, Ron and Mitch Steel and a few other guys are talking on your computer screen about IPA. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Looking into recent brewing history, Ray and Jess of the B and the other B wrote extensively about Harp Lager with lots of quotes and imagery  and then get some great comments providing further detail.

The brewhouse was fitted with a Steinecker Hydro-Automatic system which meant that “from a control console… the whole brewing operation is controlled by one man, from the selection and transfer of the grain to the pumping of the finished wort to the wort receiver”. The formal opening ceremony took place on 28 June 1963 with an inaugural brew started by the Queen’s cousin, Lord Mountbatten – a sign that this was a big deal.

I will never think of the phrase “Steinecker Hydro-Automatic system” the same way again. By they way, did I ever mention that my grandfather had a heated chat with Lord Mountbatten – right after he had told Lord Louis’s Admiral to go fuck himself? During of a naval engagement in WW2. Probably told you already…

Across the Irish Sea, Marble Beer Ltd., seemingly sensing that BrewDog was getting all the attention in the “how not to respond well to crisis” contest, came out with one of the best semi “sorry not sorry” admissions seen in a long time:

…we believe we owe it to not only our team but also our loyal customers and drinkers to set out how we are going to build and nurture a positive, inclusive and fair Marble community now, and in the future. However, before we continue we feel it’s only fair to our previous management that we first state that some of the allegations made on line were outright falsehoods, but that does not mean we do not wholeheartedly accept that the company fell far short at times…

Wow. There are a lot of moving parts in there. Cookie gave the heads up and a fair commentary, too. Unnecessary and not a wholesome part of any apology.

In industrial packaging news, once again another week sees another complaint about incompetent packaging errors in the drinks trade. Not quite the beer can hand grenade situation (as seen above) but the expensive bottle of cider that empties half of itself before you have a sip as reported upon by CiderReviewAdam:

There are too many ciders, particularly but not exclusively, pét nat ciders that are frankly explosive. This was marketed as high end and sold at, for cider, a premium price. It should not be losing half of itself on opening… The average consumer’s tolerance for this sort of thing is a lot shorter than mine is, and this sort of incident, happening with the regularity it does, comes across as amateurish.

Note: amateur is not the opposite of professional in this context. This is not amateurish. It is incompetent professionalism. As are beer can hand grenades. Unless you are you just pretending you are a journalist, tell this story.

My patronage recipient, Matt, linked to a story of his posted a few weeks ago at the Ferment 52 blog on the question of whether beer can be too fresh:

… I decided to speak to brewers about it. And while some denied it was something they had experienced, others said they found it to be a common phenomenon, and referred to it as can, or bottle shock. The idea being that the very process of packaging and shipping beer can cause its flavours to destabilise—albeit temporarily—and that giving them time to properly rest before serving is what’s required for maximum enjoyment. Some even took this view further, admitting that their beer didn’t taste quite how they wanted until several weeks after it’s packaged.

This reminds me of good wine having to sit for a day after travelling as well as coming in and out of point on a 6 to 12 month cycle. But it’s really also pointing out that very fresh beer is a different thing. Also good but different.

Over there in the wine world, the winner of the inaugural Crap Tasting Note of the Year awards has been announced:

From the very opening, with the rhyme of ‘bright’ and ‘light’ to the pointless alliteration of ‘excited effervescence’ (have you ever seen a lethargic effervescence?)  it’s clear that we are dealing with tasting gibberish of the very highest order. Yet the writer sustains it throughout. There’s more garbage in 97 words here than some writers manage in notes three times that size. There’s unnecessarily archaic language (‘writ’), more alliteration (vigour of the vintage), and garbled imagery. Why would a soloist be monochrome, for Chrissake? What does it even mean? And why have you mixed up sound and colour? 

Less honestly wholesome yet somewhat indistinguishable is one of the more embarrassing examples of the blog-for-pay** GBH self-promotion was published this week but it was not in GBH. Looks like Washington Post journalist Julia Bainbridge was pestered by emails from the cheap seats and gave them some space at her personal blog… oh, it’s a newsletter. Things we learn include: (i) “…we (the media) need to be clearer about the numbers and what they really mean…” (ii) “…Beers brewed with fruit have had a crazy last couple of years, and Bryan is like the only reporter I have seen cover this…” and (iii) “…American psyche for food and beverage is unique in the world…” Grab easily available stats, repackage the obvious as insight and – Voila! – expertise. Amazeballs.

I think that’s enough for now. Have to go gaze at the Twitter polls for another few hours. Hey, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness! And remember BeerEdge, too, and The Moon Under Water.

*Remember when seeming adults presenting as seasoned beer writers but dependent on continued access to craft brewery owners insisted over and over that there was no money in brewing craft beer? That was great.
**“It’s a magazine… it’s a real grown up magazine… it is!!! I just have three other jobs to maintain access to my sources…“