Monday beer links: ‘Nonsense; unrelenting nonsense’

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING, 04.10.17

FRESHNESS: Can we stop?
“Except it is nonsense; unrelenting nonsense. Suddenly we’re drinking beers unprepared, unconditioned and unfit for consumption. And we’re lapping it up; exclaiming the virtues of de-malted hop water as if the Ancient Babylonians had it wrong from the beginning. It is as though beer only needed one added ingredient aside from water – those green leafy cones – and that the fermentation stage was never an added necessity. Alcoholic leaves became the future of beer; as if yellow bananas were now no good and the bitter skin tasting unripened green variety were preferable.” [Via Beer Compurgation]

In Praise of Budweiser.
This is not click bait. “I didn’t want to be challenged, I didn’t want to prove my craft credentials and feel worthy of drinking a beer, I didn’t want to wrap my head round a muddle of flavours and aromas that may or may not have been intentional. I wanted a lager that was expertly brewed, technically solid, and through which quality brewing science shone, and this was that beer in that moment.” [Via Fuggled]

What It Means to Be a ‘Beer for Women’
With a great subhead: “Modern womanhood is riddled with contradictions, and that doesn’t change in the brewing industry.” As I work my way through Untapped: Exploring the Cultural Dimensions of Craft Beer, I am constantly reminded how much more what’s referred to as the “craft beer movement” should be doing to displace stereotypes that reinforce the cultural marginalization of women. [Via Eater]

Only a Northern Brewer.
[Via Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog]
That Time In 1986 When Mr. Jackson Came To Albany.
[Via A Good Beer Blog]
Pioneers.

When Grocery Store Chains Go Macro.
Very disturbing, although this is not necessarily something I see happening around here. Our regular grocery store has, in fact, added Elysian, Golden Road, 10 Barrel and Blue Point beers, but I haven’t noticed them displacing any from smaller, local breweries. [Via Beervana]

THE COST OF TRADING UP

The Real Reason Coffee Has Gotten So Fancy.
[Via Mother Jones]
No Beer is Too Expensive.
[Via October]
Getting fancier seems to lead to getting more expensive. And I don’t think I can get behind the statement that “craft beer is a luxury item.” Insert the word “affordable” before luxury, as brewers abiding by the Brewers Association definition of “craft” have been for a dozen years, and I am fine with it. But it is an important word. Because if craft beer is a luxury then all beer is a luxury, and that view is too puritanical for me.

BUSINESS

The REAL story behind BrewDog’s ‘sellout’ is that crowdfunding will only get you so far.
“Some have declared the TSG deal a betrayal of all the people who bought shares in BrewDog apparently believing that Watt and Dickie would never ‘sell out’; but this ‘betrayal’ involves a pretty enormous return on those Eqity for Punk backers’ investments.” [Via Zythophile]

How can craft beer companies survive? Use ratings.
“But there was perhaps no better place for (researchers) Malone and Lusk to reach their conclusion about beer information than at a wine bar in a beer-averse state (Oklahoma).” [Via MarkerWatch]

WINE

The Taste Of Wine Isn’t All In Your Head, But Your Brain Sure Helps.
Gordon Shepherd has written several of these “neuro” books (Neurograstromy is in the listed in the bibliography of For the Love of Hops) so maybe Neurozymurgy will be next. But I suspect not, but you can infer plenty about beer from what he has written about wine. [Via NPR]

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