monday links

TWTBWTW: Tree beers & other reasons to ask what is beer

Best of show beers Copa Baja

What on tap at El Sume in Mexicali

Welcome to MLX Beerfest in Mexicali

Yes, there is a lot of IPA out there, but as the photo at the top illustrates there were beers of many colors on the best of show table last week at Copa Baja in Mexicali, Mexico. And 17 of the 24 beers on tap at El Sume (where the bottle list is also pretty dang impressive) were not IPAs. The third photo? Well, welcome to the MLX Beerfest that followed two days of competition in Mexicali, Mexico.

Another busy week, so another quick list of reading suggestions:

What is beer? No seriously. Pete Brown wrapped up is keynote at Ales Through the Ages by quoting Hilary Mantel: “History is not the past – it is the method we have evolved of organizing our ignorance of the past. It’s the record of what’s left on the record.” This post is more fodder for that conversation.

Strictly speaking. During the final session of Ales Through the Ages, in which some presenters took questions from attendees, the topic of beer styles came up. And how we should view them at a time when, as Brown wrote on Instagram, “The very definition of beer is highly debatable.” Pretty good timing that Em Sauter posed a similar question – “Do Strictly Defined Beer Styles Still Have Value in the Modern Craft Landscape?” – one day later.

Birch trees that soon will provide water for beer at Scratch Brewing

Liquid assets. Speaking of beers made with alternative water sources, I am reminded of “single tree beers” from Scratch Brewing in southern Illinois. The photo above was taken in the woods outside Ava, Illinois. Those are birch trees and the sap in the buckets ended up in a beer Scratch made in 2015. That’s the first year the brewery took all tree beers to the Great American Beer Festival.

In a place. I write often about “from a place,” but that is only part of the place story. As always, I wonder how what Jeff Alworth writes about might change the beer in our glasses and the places we might choose to gather to socialize over beer.

The Costco indicator. “This time around the Costco gurus looked hard at their customer base … and blinked. They decided to pass on a fee increase, which could mean a lot of things but might mean that they believe even their affluent member base is feeling the economic heat. And that’s not good news for wine, since these are the customers driving the U.S. market these days.” What might this mean for beer?

Corn in Chocolate City. “As the city has changed [in recent years] then the beer culture [has come to] reflect the newcomers.”

And from Twitter:

Best name ever for an unbearably hip IPA

Cheap Idols Dressed in Expensive Garbage

Cheap Idols Dressed in Expensive Garbage.

I’ve been meaning to suggest the title of still another great song from John Moreland would make a great name for a beer. Finally getting it done. [Click to see the video]

I’m in the midst of a 10-day road trip, so just a few links related to the beer week that was, and basically no musing. Road trip ends next Sunday, and then there is Thanksgiving. Things might be quiet on the link front for a while.

Here goes . . .

Drive Thru Brew. Speaking of beer names.

Wah Gwaan: Where Jamaican-Inspired Beers Breakthrough a Broken System. I can vouch for Jerk Drum, flavored with jerk seasoning, peppers, ginger . . . and that’s not all.

Belgian Beer. “Over the last half-decade, Belgian beer’s wattage has dimmed stateside. Saisons have struggled to find traction and comprehension. Local breweries and taprooms have proliferated, negating the need for beer imported from across the Atlantic.” Sadly, this is true. It is a reminder that brewers, who often talk about how much they like the beers and who make Belgium an essential beer destination, don’t actually decide what will be popular.

Bottles. This is a sponsored post advocating for packaging beer in bottles. And now the side of the story (from the viewpoint of winemakers).

TWTBWTW: Beer history, reality check & pub porn

Miller Lite Christmas decorations

Call it Beer History Week. There’s Ales Through the Ages in Williamsburg, Va., and Beer Culture Summit in Chicago. They are both hybrid conferences, that is in-person and virtual.

So first up today, Martyn Cornell — who’ll be presenting at both conferences — digs deep into a new book that “picks up a tall stack of received wisdom on the origins and development of two of Belgium’s most iconic, most revered beer styles (lambic and geueze) and smashes it all on the floor.”

He writes, “for me this is exactly reminiscent of the situation surrounding the histories of porter and IPA at the start of this century: lots of terrific stories, repeated by everybody, all unfortunately powered by myth, misunderstanding and a total lack of actual evidence to support them.”

I’m pretty sure sorting out myths from terrific stories will be discussed in after hours drinking socializing in Williamsburg.

Reality check: brewing is a business, a changing business

Hitting reset. The headline on this story summarizes it well, “The Lost Abbey shifting its model to match current industry trends.” As does the headline on a second story, “Vow of Modesty — Amidst Sales Pressures, The Lost Abbey Downsizes to Preserve a Longer Future.”

Beyond . . . well, something. Lost Abbey made its way into pretty much every trade-related conversation I had after their right-sizing story posted Tuesday. Whether the people I was speaking with were at small breweries content to remain small, at somewhat larger (but not really large) ones in the midst if figuring out how large they should be, or hop vendors who sure as shootin’ need to know how their customers are doing, the news was not shocking.

I don’t doubt there are brewers out there who thought, holy shit, what business have I got myself in to? And others who still consider themselves immune. They just don’t happen to be the brewing types I talk with regularly. It understand this is a luxury, one consumers may also enjoy. So two paragraphs from this story about non-beer from beer pioneers:

– “Today’s craft breweries of a certain size are morphing into multi-threat operators whose foundational fealty to ‘traditional beer’ has been tempered by drinkers’ changing tastes, increased competition, and investors’ demands, too. Or they’d better start soon, because there’s a paradigm shift afoot: The country’s biggest craft beer producers are becoming ‘beverage companies,’ like Boston Beer Company and those dastardly macrobrewers before them.”

– “Don’t fret if you’re a longtime craft beer fan who loved the whole small/local/independent thing, either. There are still, like, a bajillion beer-making craft breweries out there for you to patronize.”

Personally, I value the “making a connection” and “brewing interesting beer” thing more than the “small/local” thing, but it does seem the two are often intertwined.

Is this cheating? We used to live around the corner from Jason Pellet of Orpheus Brewing in Atlanta, and I know the lengths he goes to in order to add unusual flavors to his beers. (You’ll find him quoted in this story.) I appreciate the effort, but I’m not going to spend much time worrying about if a brewery I have no connection with is flavoring its beer with an Amoretti product. That is somebody else’s fight. But it seems like a statement from the company that they are working with half of the 9,000-plus breweries in the country requires supporting evidence.

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Kölsch noir. Koln in black and white.

The class of 2012. This story fits under the umbrella of the business of beer, but it also touches upon how what we expect from breweries is changing. Not only what’s in the glass, but what roles they play within the various communities that support them, including financially. As Jeff Alworth points out, more than 7,000 breweries have opened during the 10 years the nine breweries he focuses on have been operating. Together those breweries are part of a big story.

There are hundreds, well thousands, more small stories. They are often similar, but still unique to their place. The neighbors drinking excellent lagers at Fritz Family Brewers in Niwot, Colorado, don’t give diddly-squat that Varietal Beer in Sunnyside, Washington, had four fresh hop beers on tap during hop harvest. I look forward to reading (or listening to, because: podcasts) stories about such breweries. The stories don’t have to be 2,000 words long and it is OK if the people within are as ordinary as you and I. (Don’t take that wrong. You may be special. I can be ordinary enough for both of us.)

ID required. The link may get you past the age gate or you may have to plugin a birth date (your own or a random stranger’s). Honestly, I included the link so I could post the picture at the top. Bigger Beernaments and adding keg functionality to a tree stand? Not on my wish list.

Pubs. The pictures in this new book and the descriptions of the four finalists for Pub of the Year 2022 . . . they seem like magic, don’t they?

Are you prepared to define ‘craft beer culture?’

Horizontal fermentation tanks

Thanks again to Alan McLeod, for keeping me abreast with what I would otherwise miss on Twitter. Two questions popped into my mind after I read Michael Graham’s tweet.

First, wtf is craft beer culture? Second, I suggest reading the book “the conquest of cool” when considering the cool, hip, whatever turns the sliver of the beer industry many call craft has taken in the past 40 years.

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Cultural Moneyballism. “Cultural Moneyballism, in this light, sacrifices exuberance for the sake of formulaic symmetry. It sacrifices diversity for the sake of familiarity. It solves finite games at the expense of infinite games. Its genius dulls the rough edges of entertainment. I think that’s worth caring about. It is definitely worth asking the question: In a world that will only become more influenced by mathematical intelligence, can we ruin culture through our attempts to perfect it?”

Intriguing idea of the week. The question: “What if booze was a public good?” This might entail reducing the density of liquor stores, increasing pricing and reducing industry profits. You don’t have to be a Marxist to read and contemplate, but you need to be a Fingers subscriber to listen to “Drinking Up a Revolution” author James Wilt explain the logic behind this. I suspect a conversation between Wilt and “Cool” author Thomas Frank would be equally interesting.

Wine is agriculture (as is beer). “It is not exempt from the conversations about food justice, soil health, and climate change that have permeated other agricultural sectors.”

Before beer was cool. New York City’s Upper East Side is rich with inviting places to drink that have avoided the hype.

Cringe/cringy. Apparently the word of the week. As seen here and here. Spoiler alert: not for fans of Brewery Ommegang and IPA.

AleBlazer. This is a job for a true believer.

TWTBWTW: Monks, kveik & complexity

Here 'ripens' Westvelteren Trappist beer

When Pete Brown asked participants on Twitter* why they read beer writing and what they want from a book or piece of prose he got plenty of answers. [Hit “read replies” to see them.]

I’m always on the lookout for stories to link to here and what I choose can be pretty arbitrary. I seldom think about what you expect, desire, whatever. Perhaps I should.

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A Paul Simon moment. A story about GABF from my wife and daughter. Of course I’m putting it first. Extra credit because it is at the (thank goodness it is back) All About Beer website. Daria and I first wrote about GABF for All About Beer in 1993.

From Norway with love.
– “Particularly since the dawn of what we might call “kveik consciousness”—the realization that what these brewers do is remarkably rare and interesting—the brewers now know each other, interact, trade yeast, and get together at least once a year to celebrate their old craft. The geography that once created a tradition no longer limits communication, but nevertheless, brewers stick to the ways of their parents.”

– Kørnolfestival is a bucket list adventure.

Impressions of Nuremberg. Also important life lessons, such as “never look up your first love.”

Rhythms, in brewing and in life. Those who have sat in on one of my presentations about monastic brewing have heard me talk about this before (thus the photos from Westvleteren at the top). Mark Dredge finds his own during a week at England’s only brewing monastery.

How long must this keep going on? French Women Are Sick of Waiting for Their Beer Revolution.

Beer travels. Because, pubs.

Word of the week: complexity. The story is about wine, but you will likely find beer connections within. “It took the 20th-century inventions of stainless steel, temperature control and anaerobic fermentation conditions to create purely fruity wines. So, in honesty, all wines once were complex—that is, they were laden with multiple flavors, aromas and textures that were not merely fruity.”

* h/t to Alan McLeod’s weekly beery news.