Starting with the last word, and returning to a favorite book

MONDAY BEER & WINE LINKS, MUSING, 07.25.16

THE LAST WORD

Notes from a beer-travelling man.

The craft beer revolution – meaning the global demand for more interesting well-enough made beer – has become the first strongly affirmed objection to the pointless globalisation of the food and drink business, or any other business come to that.

It is more important than it at first appears.

It represents the gradual triumph of individual aspiration over corporate convenience. It is the expression of one desire of humankind as it is, rather than as it is projected to be.”

[Via Tim Webb]

BEER

This is how Terrapin quietly sold out to Big Beer and betrayed its fans.
[Via Atlanta Magazine]
When Your Favorite Winery Is Sold To A Large Outfit, What Questions Should You Ask?
[Via Forbes]
Fill in the blanks.
[Via Beervana]
OK, we’ve got that out of the way. But seriously, it matters when it happens to you.

Bartenders in D.C. are learning how to stop sexual assault, and so far, it’s working.
It reads and looks like an advertisement, but that doesn’t make Safe Bars less important. [Via Upworthy]

Defining a ‘Classic Pub’
An abstract idea, agreed, but yes to a quality that “goes beyond mere function, and to which the drinker has a reaction deep in the soul.” Thinking about this I grabbed Ken Wells’ marvelous book, Travels with Barley, off the shelf. A search for the Perfect Beer Joint is at the center of his narrative, but it’s really about what the subtitle — “A journey through culture in American” — says. My Sunday morning started to disappear as I scanned familiar parts of the book. The only way to move on to other things was to put the book in the pile beside my reading chair in the living room. [Via Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog]

Q&A: Is There a Beer of the Somme?
And the rest of Sunday morning disappeared when this post popped into my feed reader. But a beer from a place question … I can never resist. [Via Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog]

On the IPA Cutting Edge…
Maybe Breakside Brewery is “doing more to push the evolution of IPAs forward” and maybe not. But, with considerable help from Ben Edmunds, Jeff Alworth pulls back the curtain to reveal the how and what behind Breakside’s Back to the Future IPA. Science has a little catching up to do when it comes to the why. [Via Beervana]

WINE, WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR BEER

Winemakers may be able to select cork according to its phenolic content.
“A cork in a bottle will release slow amounts of compounds into a wine that will react with the wine and produce complex compounds that probably have a role in colour stabilization and reducing bitterness and other roles we don’t know.” [ViaThe Drinks Business]

Can you “train” a palate?
Thoughts about “Taste memory” and parlor tricks (among other things). [Via Steve Heimoff]

FROM TWITTER