Stan Hieronymus

The Session: Considering the 21st century beer garden

Augustiner Braustubl

Augustiner Braustubl

The SessionHost Tom Cizauskas has a rather sad tale to offer for the The Session #134, concluding:

“To us, a beer garden has a mythical ethos, like a German outdoor sibling to the coziness of a British pub. But there, that day, the fable seemed extirpated, the expectation denied. Had we been so wrong? Is a beer garden simply a place for beer drinking minus any trappings except for an outdoor setting?

“So, today, we’re enlisting the aid of others. Help vivify our myth.”

Boak & Bailey do just that in a delightful way.

I know there’s nothing mythical about places such as Augustiner Braustubl, the top two photos (in the second customers are rinsing out their mugs before having then filled). There’s something more than nostalgia that draws regular customers to them. They aren’t only tourist attractions.

Read more

Lager diversity: Beyond pilsner and ‘lite’

The drumbeat supporting lager as the new new thing seems to be getting louder, but I’m pretty certain I heard such chatter before anybody suggested Juicy or Hazy IPA would become a defined style. And certainly before glitter beer began to glitter. Patience seems necessary. Nonetheless there is evidence of change almost hourly on my Twitter feed. For example (click on “talking about this” to read the conversations that followed):

But what comes after pilsners and light/lite beers? Burial Beer’s Ambient Terrain series looks encouraging. And there will be plenty of ideas to repurpose on display at the Urban Chestnut Brewing LagerFest in St. Louis.

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company LagerFest logo

Recipes for most of the beers that will be on offer came from Ron Pattinson’s wish list.

Firestone Walker Brewing, which you will recall makes a very popular pilsner (Pivo) and recently began shipping an all-malt lager (Firestone Lager) that is basically a helles, picked 1896 Munich Lagerbier. The only malt in the grist is Munich.

Read more

Monday beer links: Whimsy, weed & whatever

BEER AND WINE LINKS 04.02.18

Two Jacksonian Scholars Debate NEIPA.
Frivolous in a refreshing way. Some weeks it seems like most of the stories I see related to beer pretty directly involve the business of beer (for instance this, or this, but also several below). “Jacksonian Scholars” is not one of those.

Ah, as so often he presents us with a mirror reflecting our own prejudices.”

How should beer types and styles be organized taxonomically?
You know this will not end well.

When Craft Breweries Bite Back | Summit Brewing’s Unique Approach to its UnTappd Reviews.

Next up from Summit Brewing: A Glitter IPA that files your taxes.”

Read more

Making lagers cool again

Ron Pattinson posted a bit of history Thursday about lagers from Barclay Perkins, plus a recipe for 1932 Draught Lager. And Kristen England added notes about brewing the version from Bent Distillery he’ll pour April 22 in St. Louis at LagerFest.

Cool stuff. Also this week, I’ve been trading email with other brewers about the lagers they made for the event. More cool stuff. But the highlight of the week was discovering that the Bolzen Beer Band has been added to the program. Only the addition of Brave Combo and some sort of battle of the alternative polka bands could make it better. They might bring down the brick walls at Urban Chestnut Brewing Company.

Recipe for Kulmbacher Export, brewed by August Schell Brewing Co.

Pattinson provided most, but not all, the recipes used to make the beers that will be served. Here’s the log from the December day that August Schell Brewing in Minnesota brewed an 1879 Kulmbacher Export. When I asked David Berg at Schell’s why he picked this particular recipe he replied, “My love for Oberfranken.” Although the recipe targets 80 IBU this beer is closer to the high 40s and “pretty dang bitter.”

For further reading he suggests digging into “Beer Brewing in Bamberg, 200 Years Ago.”

Hops 2018

Johann Barth & Sohn, which today has grown into the Barth-Haas Group, was founded in 1794. Hopsteiner was incorporated in 1845. They sell hops. They are German. They are traditional. These are not flavors they talked about hops adding to beer a decade ago. But here we are now. Their advertisements in the current issue of The New Brewer.

Barth-Haas advertisement, The New Brewer

Hopsteiner advertisement, The New Brewer