The assistant managing editor in charge of being cranky at the last newspaper where I worked used to have a note posted on a bulletin board in his office: “All boldface is no boldface.”
For instance, consider just one entry today at beernews.org. Four more rare beers, including one (Brooklyn Sorachi Ace) brewed with now-rare hops. Good breweries all; undoubtedly good beers. And even if we never taste these beers good things may result — when I was at Stone Brewing a few months ago brewmaster Mitch Steele and I talked about how much he learns during one of these collaborative projects.
But I can’t help but remember that quote attributed to Goethe (though I suspect it was made up). At some point being rare ceases to be rare.
Very well put.
And, while we (or is it just me?) are at it, I have never understood how Brewery De Koningshoeven in Berkel-Enschot in The Netherlands becomes a Belgian brewery when the bottles are labeled Urthel. Sometimes what you suggest may be suggesting about the use of “rare” is how I feel about the application of the word “Belgian”.
Same nagging thought I’ve been having for awhile. The inundation of Brewmaster’s Reserves, International Collaborations, Heavyweight Specials or what have you is beginning to have the feel of a stampede of lemmings.
On the other hand, my curiosity compels me to try the damn things one after the other, at great expense!
Yes… perhaps for me… but only if the price is right. I can only give myself the right to recognize so many evenings as “special” or, similarly, we face the problem that nothing is special if everything is special.
Alan, I agree. I have a growing number of bottles at my house for “special” occasions, and I really should open some, but I need a better reason than there’s nothing in the fridge and I’d rather not go to the store.
It’s been said that there is no worse fate for a wine collector than to die with a cellar unfinished. I believe the same applies to fans of fine and occasionally rare ales and lagers, and am going to right now (first) make notes on and (secondly) enjoy a Stone 13th Anniversary that has been waiting altogether too long to fulfill its ultimate destiny.
I agree entirely with Mr. B. Maybe you have started something, Stan.
I am off to rob the stash of something I really thought was going to see a bit more time…
S – I wouldn’t call Stone 13th rare. Widely distributed and doesn’t disappear immediately from the shelves. Besides it’s a beer meant to be drunk as young as possible.
Jeesh. Well, don’t be judging me next, Stan. It is, after all, only Tuesday.
Alan – I don’t know if this is judging, but a fine choice you made and another beer best consumed when the hops are fresh. I do hope that Hops and Glory does not lead to thousands of beer fans aging IPAs. Or taking them on long boat trips.
At $4.60 a 24 oz. jug it’s good QPR, too – quality price ratio.
“At some point being rare ceases to be rare”
Or as The Onion put it:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38830
I hope Hops and Glory does lead to thousands of people taking IPAs on long boat trips.
I can see it now: you, Menno, and the Rotterdam to Hull ferry.
Ron – Aren’t you supposed to be in Franconia?
If citizens start hauling kegs of IPA around with them I hope things go smoothly than they did for Pete Brown.
“It is, after all, only Tuesday.”
Oh m’gawd, I had one of those last week — I didn’t know I was supposed to save it! 😉
ah,,but the chance to brew up a “rare”,,priceless. Who wants those rare hops again? Who cares? What will you do about it?
I understand where you are coming from though it seems a bit misguided. I checked for the word “rare” in my recent posts and found it in a couple of the press releases that I published though I hadn’t personally used the word to describe a beer (at least not in the last several months anyway). None of the breweries in that article billed their beers as rare.
The thing with the Brooklyn person using ‘now-rare hops’ to describe their Sorachi Ace beer seems to be nothing more than semantics to me. Maybe they should have written “now rarely-used” instead. I dont have a full list of hop usage for American breweries though Sorachi Ace isn’t in the top 10 according to Papazian.
Could I do a better job in educating people about the beers and styles featured? Sure, but you’re reading the work of someone who has drank this stuff for only a few years, never homebrewed, and never had any formal palette training.
As far as I can tell no one’s calling anything rare. All I’m doing is writing about what breweries around the U.S. are coming up with during an exciting time for craft beer. Where’s the beef?
Adam, please don’t take it personally. After all, yours is the one of the “new beers” sites I read.
I started to type more and am deleting it. I have no beef with your site. I have no beef with brewers giving new beers to people who must have something new and like to think it is hard to get. I’m just saying value a beer for what it is rather than how hard it is to find.
“I’m just saying value a beer for what it is rather than how hard it is to find.”
Agreed.
And while I know it isn’t personal, I will say for any future visitors of this post that the coverage of beers on my site isn’t all that selective. I go off of new label approvals a lot and one-offs and seasonals tend to be what I see. Obviously most breweries have established their year-round beers at this point and there isn’t much to say about those beers unless you’re interviewing the brewer, researching the beer/style, or writing a review. None of which are my niche. Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis is just as big a deal as Lost Abbey’s latest barrel-aged beer, I just dont see that quite as often.