beers of conviction

Lagers, lifestyles and F. Scott Fitzgerald

Two stories, both rather long, to be considered in tandem:

Why Is Screaming Eagle’s Winemaker Making $90 6-Packs of Lager?
The headline nicely summarizes a 2,700-plus-word tale. After signaling he might not think much of the story on Twitter, Jeff Alworth followed with a blog post making that real clear. Paul Jones at Cloudwater Brew and Chris Lohring at Notch Brewing were equally unimpressed. But nobody is denying that this is a story about lifestyle as much as beer.

No Bad Days — Island Brands Wants to Cash in on “Cool Vibes” to Challenge Michelob Ultra, Corona
Did somebody say lifestyle? “[The founders] say they want their beer to function as a lifestyle brand, citing the pricey outdoor gear company Yeti as a successful example. The lifestyle Island is targeting is coastal, active, fitness- and sports-oriented; the brewery’s ambassadors—who are compensated via discounts and free beer—include wind surfers, kayakers, and Crossfit influencers.”

Make no mistake, authentic/traditional/craft beer is also about lifestyle. Thinking about that I tracked down a conversation I had with Saint Arnold Brewing founder Brock Wagner in 2003.

“We’re trying to add 10 customers at a time. The big brewers are trying to add a million. We’re in different businesses,” he said. “We both make something called beer, but they don’t really taste much alike. The big brewers are of a completely different mindset. A-B has more in common with Coca-Cola than they do with us. That’s not to say their beer is bad. It’s just different from what we make. If you look at their advertising you see they are trying to sell lifestyle.”

I asked him what Saint Arnold was selling.

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Is it possible to be ‘a little too New Orleans?’

Dixie Brewing 2016Abandoned Dixie brewery, five months after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans

The New Orleans brewing company formerly known as Dixie announced this week that its new name is Faubourg Brewing.

The name comes from the French term for settled areas outside a city. As New Orleans grew in the 18th century expanding neighborhoods were called faubourgs and many still are, such as Faubourg Marigny and Faubourg St. John.

You’ll recall that in June, Dixie was one of several brands (think Dixie Chicks becoming The Chicks or Uncle Ben’s rice becoming Ben’s original) to retire its old name. The company asked consumers to submit possible new names (5,400 did) and conducted focus groups.

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Some best and otherwise Very Important Beers

American Brewer magazine 1999

Back in the day I yielded to temptation and posted lists. I also railed against them. So you might figure there is no reason to trust me.

But two lists (the second is really multiple lists) that showed up last week sent me to the files to dig out a couple from the days of print that I will share them here.

The headline on the first—The 25 Most Important American Beers of All Time—screams bring back a Jay Brooks takedown (another back-in-the-day thing in which Jay would dig deep, point after point, about something written). I commented in one Twitter thread, and otherwise have three questions.

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More than one kind of thoroughly modern pilsner

Pilsner: How the Beer of Kings Changed the WorldA couple of days ago, Jim Vorel went on a bit about how he was troubled to find “‘IPA-ification’ creeping into one of the greatest lager styles of all: Pilsner.”

Several Twitter threads followed, including this one (scroll up and down to catch the whole discussion). In it, David Berg at August Schell Brewing has a specific request, “Define Pilsner.”

Coincidentally, Thursday the European Beer Consumers Union posted “the most comprehensive guide to the growing range of beer styles found across Europe and beyond – their origins, differences and how to spot the best.” Tim Webb is the lead author and curator.

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Where have all the bitter beers gone? Gone to hazies everyone

An interesting dispatch from Brews News in Australia begins, “One of New Zealand’s leading brewers forecasts the ‘destruction’ of bitter beers” after judging the Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge in Wellington.

Kelly Ryan, head brewer at Fork Brewing and a World Beer Cup judge, has a lot to say.

We don’t have many beer drinkers with a knowledge of bitterness anymore because there are so many beers out there that are not bitter.

We’ve entered a whole new realm of brewing – I say it jokingly but in 10 years’ time if we keep going like this there will only be lagers, the odd pilsner and the rest will be hazies, fruit beers and pastry stouts. That’s what people want.”

Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewing, also a World Beer Cup judge, agrees. “So many entries were distant from style because so many lacked hops. The bittering level was quite low for style,” he said.

Ryan and Nicholas collaborated for a recipe in “For the Love of Hops.” The 5.6% New Zealand pale ale was nicely and firmly balanced with 40 IBU.

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