BEER AND WINE LINKS 04.09.18
Q & A: Larry Bell of Bell’s Brewery.
“We’re probably one of the few breweries that uses our family name. There are so many breweries out there but not necessarily a lot of family names. It’s personal — it’s our name on the product,” says Larry Bell (pictured at the brewery in the summer of 1995). And he isn’t shy about continuing to conjure up David/Goliath images. “They have the Death Star, and they are moving it into position. We rebel forces, we craft guys, have to keep sticking together and keep attacking.”
Not everything in Charlotte needs craft beer.
This story is full of tweet-worthy one liners. I chose this, “The rise of the brewery is arguably the biggest social trend of the past decade for young professionals in midsize cities.” Pretty bold. But there’s also this idea, “Tell people that it’s OK for people to meet for a run or to do yoga or to discuss religion or listen to music or linger over flowers without chugging $6 pints while doing it.”
Homage to Catalonian beer tourism.
A PhD in beer tourism. Let that sink in. But the part that intrigues me: Catalan brewers are “attempting to forge a truly local indigenous brewing culture, using locally grown produce – hops, barley, other grains, fruits, even grape must, to make ‘grape ales’ – and locally found wild yeasts, and using resources such as barrels previously containing local wine, sherry, local spirits and the like.”
A Culture of Confusion — The Process, Vernacular, and Challenge of Selling “Sour” Beer.
I can’t quit watching the conversations brewers are having as they try to establish a new beer vocabulary. Bryan Roth writes, “‘Sour beer,’ for its ease of understanding, is a double-edged sword.” Lauren Salazar, the wood cellar director and blender for New Belgium Brewing1, talked about this several months ago at a drinks conference in South Carolina. “Every day, I try to figure out how to break these words apart,” she said.
1Disclosures, confessions, whatever: I have a Bell’s bumper sticker on my car (and didn’t pay for it; they were giving them out at Homebrew Con), which is the sort of relationship that might run deeper than any the Catalan Tourist Board struck by footing the bill for 10 writers to visit Spain. And I’ve linked to my own story in which Lauren Salazar of New Belgium is at the center. And Bryan Roth’s story at Good Beer Hunting is the first in what will be a series (called Into The Wild) underwritten by New Belgium. And I might be paid for a story in that series. We’ll now return to regular programming.
Reasons to be Cheerful.
Steven Pinker was in Atlanta recently, talking about and signing his new book, Enlightenment Now. There are times, honestly, that it seems he is tone deaf when it comes to economic inequality. But his point that the “slow creep of progress is not as newsworthy as, say, an earthquake or an explosion” nonetheless rings true. Some of the reasons to be cheerful that Boak & Bailey cite fall in categories that might be called progress, but my favorite is No. 10, and it has been central to drinking beer for centuries.
Craft Beer Closures: The Shocking Truth.
The death of a brewery does not necessarily signal the death of a brewing company (see: Pabst), but likewise it turns out that the death of a brewing company does not signal the death of a brewery.
MORE BEER; JUST THE LINKS
– Dumb Beer Ad Phrase Banned From The Masters.
– Court backs Rochefort Trappists over multinational.
– What We Talk About When We Talk About “Bitch Beer”
There’s already been plenty of comment about this last one, and you don’t need mine, but on the off chance you missed the story it is worth you time.
WINE
Scratching the Surface of Wine in America.
“Tipping is for restaurants and cruise ships, not for wineries, or so I thought.” Goodness. I can’t imagine not tipping at a brewery taproom.
Women, especially millennials, are driving wine trends.
An interesting point here: The wine industry made some mistakes when it first started paying attention to women. Cute names and labels, and varieties with fewer calories or a lower alcohol content didn’t fare well.
FROM TWITTER
My latest conference poster on my research on the village pub @DrinkingStudies pic.twitter.com/lj7HjeA1ax
— Clare (@culturalclare) April 3, 2018
And for the business oriented:
3/ At the same time, large brands are spending almost nothing on R&D. They don’t have a pipeline of innovation. They have 50-100 years of R&D-less cultures. pic.twitter.com/8BU6sbkJit
— Ryan Caldbeck (@ryan_caldbeck) March 14, 2018
“Goodness. I can’t imagine not tipping at a brewery taproom.”- Here’s a revolutionary idea (not) – pay a living wage to hospitality workers, and do away with the whole stupid tipping system! The second worst part of our recent US trip was the stupidity of enforced gratuity (a textbook oxymoron).
The first? Living near some of the world’s truly great wine country (Yarra Valley, King Valley, Heathcote, Mornington) it’s pretty galling to be charged for “flights” (they’re tastings, you peasants) at a cellar door. The best bit of the Napa Valley was the beer and roadside BBQ anyway.
Okay, I’ll point it out — Larry’s wearing a Hopleaf Bar t-shirt, makes me smile. Sorry for the inside joke if you don’t know Chicago.
Since you brought it up, Steve. The Hopleaf displayed the first Bell’s neon – because they had it made themselves.
Interesting, had never heard that. Did they keep it lit during the “dark” days when Bell’s dropped their Illinois distributor?
You should drop by, ask, and report back.