Stan Hieronymus

What is wrong with this picture?

Nuevo Mundo Draft Bar, Lima, Peru

Jennifer Talley judging beer in PeruWhy do so many beers on the menu board at the Nuevo Mondo Draft Bar in Lima, Peru, contain 6.1% alcohol by volume? Yes, that is a 6.1% Berliner Weisse on the board and elsewhere I drank a 6.1% beer called “Kolsch.”

Because in Peru breweries pay less tax on alcoholic beverages (not just beer) with 6.1% abv to 12% abv than they do on those with less than 6%. As you know, in the rest of the world beverages with more alcohol are generally taxed at a higher rate.

Which might be why Jennifer Talley, author of Session Beers, began her presentation at Copa Latinoamericana de Cervezas Artesanales wondering out loud why she had been invited to judge and speak.

The Session #136: Farmhouse Brewing

The SessionHost Dave S has announced the topic for The Session #136 is Farmhouse Brewing.

He’s left options pretty wide open, among other this suggesting this:

You could talk about how the word “farmhouse” is used in modern craft breweries, or about historic brewing traditions. You might want to think about how, if at all, the two are related.

And this:

Conversely, if you think that the modern idea of a farmhouse brewery is largely just about marketing and aesthetics then you could have a go at dissecting and deconstructing it. Where did it originate and what are its roots? Who popularized it? How is it constructed and signalled? Most importantly, why are people so keen to buy into it?

Or you could write about the 200-plus operations in New York the state officially recognized as “farm breweries.”

Meet me in Asheville

Hops for the future, beers from the past. My kind of weekend fare.

Mike Karnowski at Zebulon Artisan Ales in Ashville, N.C., has invited me to ramble on at a couple of events during Asheville Beer Week. So we rounded up a bunch of experimental hops to try in beers one evening, and grabbed some recipes from Brewing Local and elsewhere that Mike turned into beers I’m certainly looking forward to tasting the following afternoon. He’s done the hard part.

We’ll taste beers made with sexy hop names like CF212 and Auss 016 from 5 to 7 p.m. May 27 at Zebulon (details). The lineup of 1800s beers (1-3 p.m. May 28) includes early American porter, Albany Ale, Brilliant ale, pro-Prohibition pilsner, Kentucky Common and Swankey. Yes, the elusive Swankey. (Details.)

In case you are wondering, a clip from the Newport, Pa., News, March 24, 1910:

Swankey clips

Monday beer links: Will work for diversity

Administrative note: Monday links will be on hiatus until June 4. Get your links fix from Alan McLeod each Thursday and Boak & Bailey on Saturdays.

BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 05.07.18

The digital revolution is leaving black people behind.
Nothing about beer or brewing in this story, but Thursday morning the North American Guild of Beer Writers announced the winner of its first Diversity in Beer Writing Grant. And the topic came up more than once in panel discussions at the NAGBW meeting that followed. As often as not it was about diversity in the marketplace, but this story and one about women and STEM jobs in brewing Bryan Roth wrote about 18 months ago seem directly related to something the Brewers Association’s new brand ambassador J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham said during a presentation later in the day.

If you’re going to grow, you cannot simply sell beer just to white dudes with beards,” she said. According to Jackson-Beckham, beer companies have three main growth opportunities: their customers, their employees and their brand’s packaging and marketing.”

Their employees. A series at Good Beer Hunting (next link) should make anybody realize that working in the beer world does not necessarily equate to getting rich. However there are STEM opportunities, long term and short term (trainees or entry level employees who are going to move on to better paying jobs). Brewing companies should be actively recruiting more than white dudes for both.

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Monday beer links: Diversity done right, and wrong

BEER AND WINE LINKS MUSING 04.30.18

Thanks to Alan McLeod for nicely summarizing much that was written about CAMRA and cask last week, so we can pass on it here. And because Boak & Bailey commented on Mark Johnson’s essay about the beer bubble I’m mostly inclined to pass. But I will ask you these questions. Do you occasionally notice something noteworthy in the “real” world and think, oh, yeah, that’s just like beer? Or see something in the beer world (within the bubble of your choice) and think, there’s a lesson in here for my life?

Hop Take: It’s About Time Craft Beer Focused on Diversity.
The Brewers Association obviously made a great hire by recruiting J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham as its diversity ambassador. This is a fact: “As much as I love the [beer] community and feel at home, it’s always been pretty apparent that there [are] not a lot of folks that look like me,” Jackson-Beckham said. And that needs to change. But I’m not sure how I feel about a headline that suggests its time to focus on diversity. Maybe the difference is semantic, but it feels like the focus should be on assuring a process is in place that makes diversity commonplace. (And, no, I do not want to get involved in another Twitter discussion about semantics and this topic.)

Melvin Brewing’s Founder Discusses Sexual Harassment and Future of the Company.
Backlash in Bellingham.
Melvin Brewing was not the place to be for Bellingham Beer Week. This might be related to J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham’s mission.

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