Month: November 2009

Roger was drinking barley wine that night

Indie HopsI’m a sucker for a story that begins . . .

Roger was drinking barley wine that night.

Roger is a lawyer. His partner, Jim, is a former Nike executive whose great-great grandparents farmed hops in Norway.

They are starting a company called Indie Hops to supply Oregon-grown aroma hops to craft brewers.

The Willamette Valley’s rich alluvial soils, long summer days, family operated century farms, and pioneering spirit all combine to create the environment where world-class aroma hops thrive, in a culture that naturally supports craft brewing.

We have invested in the necessary infrastructure and partnered with leading farms to provide 100% Oregon-grown aroma varieties, some familiar and some unique, to craft brewers. Our intent is to earn the honor of being the preferred aroma hop resource for brewers across North America. Please join us in the pursuit of aroma varieties that inspire brew masters to create sensational beer for all to enjoy.

OK, we recently learned the world may be a little long hops right now, but these guys obviously have a long term plan.

And in Oregon, beer makes everything seem possible. The Portland Business Journal has a story about a soon-to-open brewpub, Coalition, one of “15 breweries or brewpubs — which sell beer made on the premises and food — that will have started operating in Portland between summer 2009 and early 2010.” Fifteen new breweries in richest brewery region in the world.

Session reminder: ‘Framing beer’

The SessionSession #33 tomorrow, the theme being “Framing Beer.” Andy Couch has the explanation, because I’ll Have A Beer is the host.

I’m not sure about this part: “Ideally drink something that you don’t think you will like.”

And I’m also not sure if “framing beer” relates to the ongoing discussion about beer as art or the psychological implications of using the words “craft beer.” Actually, I am pretty sure about the latter. There’s a halo around “craft beer.”

How session participants address that could be pretty interesting.

 

More on the myth, or not, of handcrafted

Ashton Lewis, a sometimes book author and “wizard” for homebrewers, but more important brewmaster for Springfield Brewing Co. in Missouri, takes the notion that “manual brewing equipment produces beer with more ‘character’ than beer brewed using automation” to task this week.

His post, titled “Progress Is a Funny Thing”, concludes:

So the next time you take a brewery tour at some a brewery with awesome automation, like New Belgium, Boulevard, Sierra Nevada, Harpoon, New Glarus, etc, etc, don’t bag on this great modern technology. Rather look at all the details of brewing that are given more attention because the brewers are not busy raking out spent grains by hand or manually turning valves that, thanks to modern automation, are being controlled to do what the brewer has pre-determined should be done.

The topic of “hands on” always gives me reason to pause. It’s important to be skeptical about change. But what we should be focusing on is ingredients and process, not if a brewer manually opens a valve or uses a computer to control that valve.

 

Call me irresponsible – I drink ‘craft’ beer

If you are . . .

– 105% more likely than the average person to drive hybrid cars
– 77% more likely to own Apple Mac laptops
– 65% more likely to purchase five pairs or more of sneakers every year
– and 32% more likely to not be registered voters.

Then you are probably a Blue Moon drinker.

I’m not making this up. It’s all in an Advertising Age article headlined “What Your Taste in Beer Says About You,” reporting research by Mindset Media. Of course any story in which the “the concept of beer-as-window-to-the-soul . . . (is based on) psychographics” is required by law to be silly.

What kind of beer do these guys drink?Let’s go straight to the stereotypes: Budweiser drinkers are 42% more likely to drive a truck than the average person and Blue Moon drinkers drive hybrids. Corona drinkers are 38% more likely to own three or more flat-screen TVs and Michelob Ultra drinkers are 34% more likely to buy life insurance.

As you might have already guessed I’m a psychographics skeptic; so much so that I didn’t believe in it even before it was invented. But why let that get in the way of a little fun? Consider this:

[xxxxx] are socially liberal and usually quite willing to go against convention. They really hate moral authorities, and believe children should be exposed to moral dilemmas and allowed to come to their own conclusions. They can also be sarcastic and snide in order to get a point across.

“Blue Moonies” or “craft” beer drinkers?

The former. Real “craft” beer drinkers are lumped together into one category that does not include Blue Moon drinkers.

This group is more likely to spend time thinking about beer rather than work. They are more open-minded than most people, seek out interesting and varied experiences and are intellectually curious. Craft-beer drinkers also skew as having a lower sense of responsibility—they don’t stress about missed deadlines and tend to be happy-go-lucky about life.

Craft-beer lovers are 153% more likely to always buy organic, 52% more likely to be fans of the show “The Office” and 36% more likely to be the ones to choose the movie they are going to see at the theater.

Like looking in a mirror, right?

 

Weekend beer reading: Why the big bottles?

A few links for your weekend beer reading pleasure:

– Shouldn’t stronger beers be sold in smaller bottles? I understand all the reasons why they aren’t, but Don Russell’s discourse on big beer bottles had me asking myself that question.

– You’ll want to put your thinking cap on before considering the questions Alan has, starting with What Is Actually The Enemy Of Good Beer? Give them some thought and leave him a comment.

– Nice that the Houston Chronicle wrote about Saint Arnold’s new downtown brewery. Nicer still that 51 people took the time to comment.

– When trends collide. Alexander D. Mitchell IV relays the news that a) the Baltimore Sun is retiring the “Kasper on Tap” beer blog because “did not attract a large enough audience to sustain it” and b) the Washington Post has made Greg Kitsock’s beer column a monthly status rather than biweekly feature.

Given the recent apparent success of Baltimore Beer Week and the fact that more newspapers around the country regularly feature beer stories this seems a little curious. In Texas, which has been as hard a place for small-scale breweries to get a foothold as anywhere, 51 readers comment on a story about Saint Arnold. In The D.C. area, an early bastion for better beer, the newspapers can’t figure out how to talk with beer drinkers. This is another reminder that newspapers are in disarray.