Stan Hieronymus

Session #122 announced: Imported beer

The SessionChristopher Barnes has announced the topic for The Session #122 will be “Views on imported beer.”

He has seen that as craft beer sales have surged across America sales of imported beers have suffered. So he has a question (really alternative questions):

For American and Canadians: What place do imported beers (traditional European) have in a craft beer market?

For Non North Americans: How are American beers (imported into YOUR country) viewed? What is their place in your market?

The next Session will be April 7, and information about how the participate is at I Think About Beer.

Monday links: When beer fails, the line life & authenticity

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING, 03.06.17

Sometimes when hyperlinks start firing around here on Monday morning it might appear I have an attention problem. So here a road map. Jeff Alworth writes about the failure of a cloudy, murky beer in transit, JR Shirt about CloudyMurky and the line life, leading us to who’s looking out for beer quality (parts I and II), and back to Heady Topper, which may or may not be to blame for the accession of CloudyMurky. But that’s not the rabbit hole. Authenticity is the rabbit hole.

Granted, CloudyMurky is as well. I was in Minnesota last week, primarily to talk to the Minnesota Hop Growers at their annual meeting and workshop, where I heard the words “downy mildew” more often than you might in your lifetime. But en route I also had the chance to ask several people who know lots about brewing science the question that will soon have people running the other way when they see me coming: “How cloudy-murky, if at all, must these beers be to retain the magical flavors and aromas attributed to them?” Sometimes I use less polite language. My question is focused on the hop component although I know there is more, but that is the gist of it. I’ll get back to you when I find what looks like an answer.

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What the Cryo?

Cryo hops, hop powder, LupuLN2If everybody’s Twitter feed looked like mine then Cryo Hops definitely would have been trending yesterday.

YCH Hops rolled out details about what are really multiple products. If you subscribe to the digital edition of Beer Advocate magazine you can read a story I wrote focused mostly on LupuLN2, referred to as lupulin powder before the trademarked name kicked in. I won’t rehash that here (update: now available online), except to repeat that it has plenty of brewers who have tried it very excited.

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Monday beer links: ‘Essential questions’ still matter

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING, 02.27.17

“It’s a Shopping Mall for Alcoholics Out There”
Beer in context and the context is life. As the following links will suggest I already had storytelling on my mind when I read these 412 words Saturday morning. When you start looking for subliminal messages or find yourself noticing how similar the stories within the stories really are – well, 412 words like these will shake the cynic right out of you. [Via A Good Beer Blog]

STORYTELLING

– Does Your Historic Site Communicate A Subliminal ‘Make American Great Again’ Message? [Via Peak experience Lab]
– The art of wine storytelling. [Via Meininger’s Wine Business International]
– Let me tell you a story… [Via Sediment]

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Significant beer digits iii

Courtesy of CityLab (with a h/T to Tim Holt) a terrific map of “Liquordom in New York City” in the 1880s and these numbers:

– One 32-block section of what’s now the Lower East Side had 242 “lager-beer saloons” and 61 “liquor saloons.”

– There was one saloon to every twenty five families in the city.

– 63% of all the criminal arrests were for intoxication and disorderly conduct.

– Food sellers — butchers, bakers, and grocers — totaled 7,197. Liquor sellers totaled 10,075.

– Twelve of the 24 aldermen of the city were liquor dealers.