The Session #60, Let’s Talk Growlers, is in the record books.
Now we begin Year Six of The Session in Indiana. (Year Six, meaning we started five years ago. Pretty amazing. “What Goes Around… Comes Around” was atop the music charts.)
Hoosier Beer Geek Matt Robinson asks we consider this question over beer: What makes local beer better?
Of course I think this is a good idea. www.drinklocalbeer.com is one of those stray URLs I’ve given a home (don’t bother with the link, it brings you to the Appellation Beer front page). So to Matt’s marching orders:
We are hosting the March edition of the session. The topic I’ve been thinking about is local beer. The term is being used by just about every craft brewer in the country. What does it really mean though? Is it more of a marketing term or is there substance behind the moniker? This month I want to think about what makes local beer better? I’m not just talking about the beer itself, although it’s the focal point, but what makes local beer better? My connection to local beer is far from thinking that my beer is actually “local.” Maybe you don’t agree with me, and you can write about that. Bonus points for writing about your favorite local beer and the settings around it being local to you.
I just realized that last year for the March Session we visited Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis. It wasn’t local then. We were still paying property taxes in New Mexico. Perhaps I should hum “What Goes Around… Comes Around.” If I only knew the tune. The fact is, though, there are two breweries closer to our house than UCB, and in addition three breweries opened in the months after UCB. Local has taken on new meaning in St. Louis.
I guess most of my store-bought beers aren’t local these days — I’ve moved more to drinking favorites than exploring. But I love love love brewpubs, from the highly-renowned to the brew-with-extract. There’s an aliveness in the brews that I recognize from homebrewing — maybe just a sense of small batches are likely to change from batch to batch, maybe the yeast is still doing something because filtering (if any) is minimal, maybe a freshness factor. I’ve had a higher percentage of “wow” from brewpub brews than from bottles, cans or draft. And many of the “wows” have come from smaller styles. Bitters, or American versions of pilsners, or cream ales, or steam beer, or pale or amber ales. That doesn’t happen that often with commercial versions.
I used to head up to the Great Taste of the Midwest annually, and had wonderful times. But a day spent exploring Madison’s brewpubs was even more wonderful. I’m in the Chicago area, and hitting a brewpub always is more exciting than hitting a beer bar. My family lives in Burlington, VT, and it’s awash in local beer and has one of my favorite beer bars, but I always prefer to visit places that brew and serve their own.
I think from my homebrewing experience, my favorite bit is drinking the barely-a-hint-of fizz-if-any beer just prior to (and during) bottling, and maybe brewpub brew gives me a hint of that.
Bill — I’m not sure how far and wide they’re distributing, but the (Wild) Onion pub in Barrington (Lake Barrington?) is canning their beer now and the couple I’ve sampled taste terrific and fit that character you speak of.
Try the Jack Stout Oatmeal Stout — watch how dense and wonderfully brown the head builds and how thick and syrupy the beer looks pouring into your glass — let alone the flavors.
Thanks. I’ve never seen their stuff in stores, and will keep an eye peeled for them.
It would seem that “what makes local beer better?” is a loaded question. Should the question maybe be “is local beer better?”
Luke – Isn’t beer blogging all about loaded questions ;>)
I don’t know what I’ll write, but it could well address the matter of what is local, when it is better (and when it’s not) and/or why it is better (or not).
Stan — the Jack Stout was everything you said it was. Thanks so much. Of course, now I want to get the the restaurant/brewery!
Bill – Steve deserves the credit on that one.
I think he might have mentioned it w/o giving the name on Lew Bryson’s blog today, which prompted me to tell _him_ about it in the comments, and to mention some other brews like that…