Remember what it was like to buy beer at a brewery five years ago? This was taken during an April 2020 shopping trip to Halfway Crooks in Atlanta
A couple of weeks ago, Ted Gioai wrote about The State of the Culture, 2025 and that the first rule is’ “The culture always changes first. And then everything else adapts to it.” Keep that in mind during the suggested reading first up today.
This Bud’s not for you. Wednesday, Dave Infante dedicated almost a thousand words to express his dismay with an op-ed piece in the New York Times that served to promote the recently published “Last Call for Bud Light,” as well as whatever author Anson Fericks is doing to make money these days. Spoiler alert, Infante concludes, “In service of his political project, Frericks blamed the wrong bogeyman for ABI’s woes.”
I did not read the op-ed, but I am willing to agree because I have read (skimmed) the book. I was one of six books, now four, that I had on hold waiting from them to move from “on order” to “in processing” to “ready.” It arrived two days before another book, and it didn’t take me too many pages to realize I would rather be reading the second one.
Were I to write about it for The Session #145 — Critique not Criticism — in the spirit of what Matt Curtis has asked for, I would forego the easy criticism to focus on something that isn’t there. (Beyond an index. I don’t think you can call a non-fiction book without an index a real book.)
What is missing is a conveyed understanding of the culture that existed when Budweiser/Bud Light became what is was, how it shifted as it became what it wasn’t.
Local woke mob. Infante (that guy again) writes about the dramatic rise and fall of Armed Forces Brewing Company. A “strange story from Virginia’s Tidewater region is part comedy, part tragedy, and utterly bizarre.” Bonus link: some local residents embrace the “local woke mob” label.
Five years in. Jeff Alworth writes “I think a huge amount of beer’s (sales) troubles can be laid at Covid’s feet,” and makes a list. Cultural shifts, in come cases, and “I think everyone can agree we’re never going back to the before times.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Marston’s were more interested in selling you insurance, getting the price of your gas down and your rubbish disposal down than they were [selling] you beer.,”
— Neil McCulloch
From The Boar They Butchered — The Demise of Ringwood Brewery
ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE
Seeing God? The list in the lede is more than a bit showy, and if I had a beer bucket list hand-pulled Heady Topper would not be on it. But this is how you write about pleasure: “Intensely aromatic, bursting with tropical fruits, and luscious in body, it was the most eye-opening beer I’ve had in years. Oddly, it’s been available for some time, though it only seems to have developed substantial buzz this year. In fact, it might just be the best beer in the country right now.”
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
Rule #3: Novelty Is A Two Way Street. Jordan St. John writes, “So much of craft beer depends on novelty. Here’s a new IPA for this week to get them through the taproom door. Here’s a new hop variety. Doesn’t it taste like tangerine? Here’s a sour beer that reminds you of a childhood treat. Here’s a beer brewed with Maple Sap. What if it was a Peanut Butter Cookie? You’ve got to try it!” To this I will add, “Novelty has a very shady reputation, redolent of dime stores, corny songs, and practical jokes.” (From “Novelty: A History of the New.”)
Really? The success to date of Zahra Tabatabai’s Back Home Beer is a feel good story, but I hope the future of her company does not require a forecast that “craft beer market (will) grow by 10.83% a year until 2028” will prove accurate. It won’t.
Which supermarket chain has the best beer? Pete Brown answers the question for shoppers in England. Is there an American chain doing anything like this? “Jourdan Gabbini has the freedom to develop real relationships with brewers. Last year he even co-created a new beer with the Lost and Grounded brewery in Bristol and Caravan Coffee Roasters — a coffee pale ale that was exclusive to Waitrose.”
FROM BLUESKY
Modern monks
Big changes at In de Vrede café, Westvleteren. Completely new layout. Looks very stylish. Impressed.
— daveratkins.bsky.social (@daveratkins.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 3:52 AM
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