beers of conviction

‘The category formerly known as craft’

Jeff Alworth wrote about “the role of status” and beer last week. When he posted a link on Twitter, Mike Kallenberger dashed of some quick thoughts you should also read. And I had to smile when in summary he wrote: “Status isn’t a small thing in beer more generally. But it’s a smaller thing in the category formerly known as craft.” (My emphasis.)

In the midst of his essay, Alworth suggests the popularity of hazy IPAs could be linked to the fact people across the room can see what you are drinking. I’m a bit surprised he does not mention how important cloudy presentation was to the success of Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen in the 1980s. After all, he wrote a book about the brewery.

In “Brewing With Wheat,” Rob Widmer tells the story about how he and his brother, Kurt, offered to let Carl Simpson at the Dublin Pub in Portland sell an unfiltered version of their wheat beer as a Dublin Pub Brand.

“Carl took the time to explain the cloudiness to people,” said. “The pub served the beer in a 23-ounce glass garnished with a lemon, and Simpson would have his waitstaff load a tray with glasses and walk through the pub. Other customers would ask about what was on the tray and order the same.

A decade later, the story was repeated in the Midwest when Boulevard Brewing found success with Boulevard Wheat.

You might also enjoy
– Post Magic: “Human Cannonball no longer tastes like being skullfucked by the entire hop store but rather a quick peck on the lips. It isn’t a riotous celebration of aggressive bitterness but rather an afternoon hop tea with the grandparents. It is rounded and cleaner and therefore not remotely as intense or tasty.

“This is the Cannonball Run made for your cousin who thinks they share the same passion as you because they bought a 4 pack of Barry Island IPA from the supermarket once. This is the Run made for people who appear on BBC documentaries with brand tattoos and willingly perform raps that they have written about breweries that they like. This is the Run for people that would still queue for a burger from Almost Famous.”

– No, those were not weeds. Philadelphia city workers destroyed all the hops in a small yard growing beside Philadelphia Brewing Company. This is not a heart warming story, but you still might smile at this: “In the meantime, the local community has come together in ways that situations like this often inspire: Since it was reported in the local media, [the brewery has] been receiving calls from local home-brewers offering to help, offering to drop off hops that they grow themselves.”

– The Great American Beer Festival has added a list of beers that will be poured Oct. 6-8. There are a lot. But the first GABF in three years is going to seem strange without long-time regulars such as Alaska Brewing (except for an appearance from Alaskan Smoked Porter in the “Wish We Were Here” taproom), New Glarus Brewing, Bell’s Brewery, New Belgium Brewing (except for its Trippel), Boulevard Brewing, Stone Brewing, Goose Island . . .

– Cultural vandalism. Molson Coors plans to close the National Brewery Centre, the former Bass Museum, in Burton. h/t Boak & Bailey.

– Revolution Brewing in Chicago has released CaramelCrisp, a 7% ABV brown ale made with caramel popcorn from Garrett Popcorn. Good luck with the paywall, but perhaps this is all you care to know.

Pubs
– London I.

– London II.

– London Future?

Headline Gussie Busch would not understand
30 Under the Radar Breweries in Maine.

Ales Through the Ages redux

Ales Through the Ages

You will be forgiven if you think we must be on Ales Through the Ages III or even IV by now.

The first one was in 2016. Read Martyn Cornell’s recap here.

The second was to be in 2018, but was canceled.

Then the second was to be last year, but the in-person conference was postponed until this year.

A shorter virtual conference was held instead.

So I’m not sure if we call this II or III, but it is happening Nov. 11-13 in Williamsburg. The agenda is here.

I might have been a bit optimistic when I provided a title for my presentation — Breaking the Lupulin Code. Scientists are still working on mapping hop genomes, complicated by the fact there isn’t just one and each of them is larger than the human genome. And then there’s the reality that hops may not follow Gregor Mendel’s principles of inheritence. But I’ll do my best to explain why Citra is so much different than her grandmother, Hallertau Mittelfrüh. And to answer Frank Clark’s question about what modern hops are most like those colonial brewers would have used.

Registration information is here.

Prelude to a beer

Maypop plant at Scratch Brewing

This is a maypop flower. The picture was taken a couple of weeks ago at Scratch Brewing in southern Illinois and showed up in my email this week when I asked how this year’s “crop” is looking.

Scratch Maypop is one of the best beers I’ve had this year. It is simple, but not-simple, not as sweet and juicy as passion fruit, but with a how-do-I-subscribe-this fruit flavor moderated by elusive “wheaty” character, more tart than sour. It is not as electric as the flower, which is fine.

I drank it in a brisk March day, with fruit from 2021 harvest obviously, and it tasted like summer.

Maypops (Passiflora incarnata) are native to the United States, grow wild in southern Illinois and can become invasive. Scratch harvests them in the woods surrounding the property the brewery sits as well as from vines growing on the building.

The flowers bloom from early July through mid-September. “The fruit will ripen from late August until mid October,” said co-founder Aaron Kleidon. “The fruit is hollow until it’s nearly ready. Then it turns yellow and shrivels a bit. At this point the fruit loses most of its tartness and begins to have tropical flavors. It will fall from the vine and we harvest it from the ground. We scoop out the pulp and freeze it as they all ripen over the month.”

#nottwitter 14 (post-craft beer)

What qualifies as luxury beer?

Asked because in the second paragraph of this story you will find the term “luxury wine.”

And there is also this statement: “Robert Mondavi’s vision was to create wine from Napa Valley that could stand among the best in the world. Once he actualized that goal with his namesake winery, he had a new vision: for everyone in America to be able to afford a good bottle of wine.” During the past 40 years, a new wave of breweries have established beer brewed in the United States can stand among the best in the world.

And, to quote Steve Earle, who will be singing at the Boulder Theater next week, “You know the rest.”