Stan Hieronymus

Pre-eclipse beer links: Craft lies? What went wrong?

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 08.21.17

I spent the weekend talking about beer at various locations east of the East River in New York, and am headed a wee bit south of St. Louis today to watch the sun disappear. If it returns as scheduled I will be off to South Carolina before dawn tomorrow. Pardon the brevity.

The White Lies of Craft Culture.
Not a lot here about beer, but a lot here about beer.

Instead of living up to the vibrant, unique histories that food and drink have to offer, craft culture’s commitment to lifting itself away from its origins has made it monotonous and predictable. From product to product and industry to industry, artisanal quality seems to generate the same set of descriptions — small-batch, local, sustainable, vintage, heritage, farm-to-table, nose-to-tail, crop-to-cup — even though the point of consuming craft products is to enjoy something unique.

[Via Eater]

Can Craft Breweries Transform America’s Post-Industrial Neighborhoods?
[Via CityLab]
Death of the Backstreet Boozer’
[Via Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog]
A lot of differences between the US and the UK, but interesting to read these two in succession.

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Session #127 announced: Oktoberfest

The SessionHost Alistair Reece has chosen Oktoberfest as the theme for the 127th gathering of The Session.

He writes, “Feel free to dress up for your tasting, dirndls, lederhosen, that Australian backpacker outfit you keep in the back of your wardrobe for special occasions. Hire yourself an oompah band, play the birdy song, and …” you get the idea. Of course, it starts with an Oktoberfest or Festbier or three.

The first Friday of September falls on the first day of September this year (so before Labor Day). All bloggers are invited to participate. Simply drop him a line or leave a comment with a link to your post

Monday beer links: festivals, witchcraft & independence

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 08.14.17

Farmhouse ale festival 2016.
[Via Larsblog]
An Ounce at a Time — Are Festivals Fatigued?
[Via Good Beer Hunting]
Compare and contrast.

The best kind of beer festival, I’ve found, is where the drinking public is at least as interesting as the commercial brewers and the speakers. And this was definitely that kind of festival. For one thing, farmhouse brewers are not like modern home brewers. They are country people, not hipsters or IT professionals. And the beer enthusiasts who travelled to the festival were not your average beer drinkers, either.

Witchcraft, Alewives, and Economics.

While we may never truly know if alewives were accused of witchcraft simply because they were alewives, it is clear that women who brewed were perhaps particularly vulnerable to the witch-hunts.

[Via braciatrix]

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We might have been wrong about first wort hopping

If similar stories about hops interest you consider signing up for Hop Queries, my monthly newsletter.

I haven’t been out there alone, suggesting first wort hopping, a process in which brewers add hops to wort as it is being lautered into the brew kettle, results in beer with a “finer” bitterness. Even though we can’t explain why. But the fact is I did write more than a few hundred words about it in For The Love Of Hops, based on evidence that was anecdotal as much as documented.

So it is with a heavy heart I report that recent research at Oregon State University finds “no perceivable sensory difference between the two treatments at a 95% confidence level.” Christina D. Hahn, a student at OSU, and Dr. Thomas Shellhammer, who leads the brewing science education and research programs there, presented the results as a poster at the International Brewers Symposium on Hop Flavor and Aroma in Beer last month in Corvallis.

That’s pretty much all you need to know. But a bit more about the study, for the record, and then some background. From the introduction:

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Monday beer links: Context for authentic, Anchor, and what’s lost

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 08.07.17

First, thanks to Alan McLeod for getting into the Monday linking business while I was out of it.

How capitalism cornered the market on authenticity.
Christine Sismondo — who wrote the terrific book America Walks into a Bar — tosses some history at a few words in vogue these days, like traditional and authentic.

The call to return to ‘traditional values,’ which includes taking aim at women in the workforce and denying people access to abortion and assaults on same-sex marriage and transgender rights, among other things, is part of the same anti-modern impulse, albeit a fairly extreme expression. Then there’s the current religious revivalism; a nearly obsessive love of medieval fantasy books, films, television and games; an obsession with all things ‘craft’ and the never-ending quest to find the most authentic of everything, from travel destination to taco.

[Via The Washington Post]

What the Anchor Brewing deal means for craft beer.
[Via San Francisco Chronicle]
Anchors up and away.
[Via The Beer Hunter]
The first story I read about Japanese brewing company Sapporo buying Anchor Brewing is still the best I have found. I am waiting for one that polls regular Anchor drinkers or a new interview with Fritz Maytag. Instead, crazily enough, the best historic context (concise and linkable) resides within something Michael Jackson wrote almost 30 years ago.

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