Monday beer links: Cicerones, distribution, Rosé

BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 06.18.18

Over a Decade in, Have Cicerones Actually Made Beer Pairings Relevant?
“The Cicerone program has certainly been valuable. But the future of beer and food pairing is not Cicerones. It’s not competing with wine, either. It’s being wine.” True some of the time, I agree, but there are other times — say when you are in a crowded bar watching Spain versus Portugal with a bunch of people you didn’t know when the match started — you just want beer to be beer.

It Was Then That I Carried You — A Defense of Distribution.
Reality check. “Own premise” means nothing to most people. If they are drinking local beer it is because they bought it at the grocery story or a similar outlet. “The economic impact of breweries on their local communities is massive, which means ceding wholesale to the unimaginably large conglomerate breweries is limiting the benefits of local breweries.”

‘I am not the diversity police’: A post factum explanation.
Big questions from Dr. J. “What do we do when a group of people trades in the symbolic economy of its own oppression? Where do we draw the ethical lines to guide our responses when doing so is profitable for those who have been stripped of, and then denied access to, the foundations of profit-making (or even basic subsistence) for generations? If we are to invest in accountability, who do we hold accountable–individuals who are complicit in their own subjugation by embracing harmful stereotypes or the culture that makes doing something so counter to the basic drive for self-preservation a rational course of action? How do you hold a culture accountable?”

Erfolgsstrategie mit regionaler Positionierung.
Bear with me. This is in German, but Google will translate for you, providing sentences like this. “The craft scene is still in its infancy in this country, but is now bringing plenty of momentum to the industry. While 15 years ago, when talking about beer, it was mostly about the price, it is now discussing varieties, flavors and raw materials.” It seems not every traditional German brewery is stuck in 1516.

Dairy Farms Find a Lifeline: Beer.
Crazy fact: “The farm opened Stone Cow Brewery in 2016, making beers like the Roll in the Hay I.P.A., which sells for $7 a pint at its taproom. That makes the beverage much more profitable than the dairy’s raw milk, which currently sells wholesale for about 16 cents per pint, even though it costs more to produce.”

The Bronx Was Brewing.
The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource for a Lost Industry views the rise of the Bronx through its beer culture and why it was an impetus to the evolution of the city and its drinking habits. By beginning with the location of the breweries, we will explore why the Bronx, for a time, became part of the lager capital of the world.”

How Becoming a Dad Changed the Way I Drink Beer.
Talking sensory. “Think about all the ways we discuss the flavors of beer: Smells like ripe pears, tastes like stone fruit, I get tropical notes from the hops. Then think how many 25-year-old haze bros are ever eating slices of pear or peaches or mangos all by themselves.”

WINE

No Way! It’s Time to Rethink Rosé.
So is it time to rethink “rose” beers?

FROM TWITTER

1 thought on “Monday beer links: Cicerones, distribution, Rosé”

  1. Ref distribution: Since when, distribution needs defending. For starters, the “local” argument is disingenuous, given that they can sell the distribution business to a non local conglomerate, and just like that, it is no longer local. How about mentioning the Texas mandate that mid-size breweries MUST sell through a distributor even the beers at their tap room, “thanks distributors”. Main reasons for distribution, eg big-beer taking over bars, are obsolete. Distribution, as it is now, is bad for craft beer and we need to do what we can to shrink them to a size that does not impact the growth of small breweries.

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