beers of conviction

Ales Through the Ages V2.0, virtual edition

Change of plans. The second Ales Through the Ages conference Nov. 12-14 will be virtual, with a shorter, more focused agenda.

Blame Covid-19.

This will be a “taste” of an in-person conference planned for November of 2022, with the same lineup of international speakers who were to attend in November.

I hope that isn’t too confusing. Basically:

– The original plan for 2021.

– A recap of the 2016 conference.

– The amended agenda for November.
“Travis Rupp, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, explores the production of beer in Roman Britain, while esteemed food and drink historian Marc Meltonville will discuss the era of the Tudors. Forbes beer writer Tara Nurin joins renowned author Lee Graves and Colonial Williamsburg’s Frank Clark to discuss the Who, What & How of Brewing in 18th Century Virginia, and Kyle Spears and Dan Lauro from Carillon Brewing Co. will explore operating a historic brewery in the modern world, and more!”

Because it’s Labor Day, essential and other beer-related reading

Labor Day
Today’s Finger’s newsletter from David Infante, “How the Twin Cities became a hotbed for craft beverage unionizing,” is timely and essential reading.

Crushable
Surge (hard seltzer) variety packI still do not understand, but perhaps this will help you figure it out.

Is White Claw Surge crushable?

“‘You can make the argument that ‘crushable’ and ‘sessionable’ parallels with American binge-drinking culture,’ says Elle Holcomb, a Portland, Oregon–based winemaker and alcohol sales representative. But she stops short of this conclusion, offering that the initial intention of ‘crushable’ is less about indulgence than it is an accessory for socializing.”

Change
I don’t usually point to podcasts, but Yakima Chief Hops has started a new one called “Bigger Than Beer,” which each year will explore a new subject. The first topic is “Women+ in the Industry,” and the initial conversation with Tessa Schilaty and Tiffany Pitra from the YCH sensory lab is exceptional.

I visited the “Aroma Dome” week before last and wished I could have spent much longer talking with them. (Technically, we weren’t in the “dome” itself. Pitra was teaching YCH staff members to recognize the aroma of onion-garlic – a lamentable character that may arise in hops that otherwise tropical aromas. She had chopped up onion and garlic, and it smelled great in there although it would not have in beer. We stepped outside.)

Schilaty and Pitra are not necessarily thinking about hop aroma, about evaluating that aroma and understanding that aroma like everybody else. Take notice.

Find it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Neomexicanus
This story wild hops in New Mexico would not be nearly as much fun if I reported it. I’d treat it more like a teaching moment, and insist on adding more facts and more history. It is more enjoyable to read it as it is, and listen to Joe Ely sing Silver City.

Styles
Boak & Bailey nicely summarized the outbreak of posts about beer styles (fourth entry) last week. To that I will add (and pardon the internal link) this post from 2010 about something Fred Eckhardt published almost the same time Michael Jackson’s “World Beer Guide” came out.

Always for pleasure
A fresh hop seminar.

Local man brews white beer

Anybody have an idea who this unnamed brewer is?

(Page 116, The World Guide to Beer, edited by Michael Jackson.)

Page 116, The World Guide to Beer, 1977

Please wait for the answer.

Here you go . . .

Pierre Celis had been brewing beer in Hoegaarden for more than 10 years when Jackson’s beer-changing book came out in 1977, so it is surprising that it appears Jackson knew of him but not his name. I happened to notice this because currently I am reading “Celis Beer: Born in Belgium, Brewed in Texas.”

Your personal definition of craft beer is bound to change

Brauhaus Riegele craft beers

Evan Rail writes today at Vine Pair about “an unexpected literary micro-genre: writing that attempts to define just what is meant by the term ‘craft’ when it comes to food and drink.”

His story is about both the words themselves and what they mean in other countries and cultures. (Rail explored the meaning in depth himself a few years ago in “The Meanings of Craft Beer.”)

I feel like I’ve seen this picture, and I thought again about Mike Kallenberger’s suggestion that craft doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing for many beer drinkers that it once did.

I also thought of something Sebastian Priller-Riegele, a 28th generation brewer, at Brauhaus Riegele, said when I visited the brewery in Augsburg a couple of year ago.

“It means, Not from here.”

(Riegele actually sells its own line of beers labeled “craft” — and at a higher price than its own traditional styles, which happen to be among the best in the word. But that doesn’t make what he said any less true.)

Saturday afternoon with a smoothie-style sour

Three stories to consider for background:

– Pete Brown wished William Morris, who he calls the godfather of craft beer, a happy birthday. Spoiler alert, he concludes:

“Arts & Crafts, like craft beer, was easy to criticise, easy for those who wanted to exploit it and manipulate it to do so, easy to dismiss as being expensive and over-hyped. But a century after its supposed demise, both it and its founder remain culturally vital. As long as we have cheap, mass-market, industrialised production making goods for everyone, we’re going to have niche craft versions produced as a counter-cultural alternative – available for anyone who can afford to buy them.”

– In the newest issue of The New Brewer, Mike Kallenberger asks if the brand of craft beer has been diluted. (The story is available to Brewers Association members online, to the link may or may not work for you.) He writes:

“I’ve long been concerned that, by moving in the direction of ‘drinkability’ that mainstream brewers almost fetishize, the meaning of craft beer itself has become watered down.”

– Josh Noel writes about the sale of Goose Island Beer to Anheuser-Busch InBev 10 years later. Deep in the story he writes:

“The biggest loser during the last 10 years, arguably, has been the consumer. The reason isn’t just the uninspired beers coming out of the Anheuser-Busch breweries — it’s that it’s nearly impossible for most people to tell which brands are made by Goose Island in Chicago and which are made by Anheuser-Busch in far-flung states.”

Pomona Paradise
Pomona Paradise, and ingredients in waiting at Pontoon Brewing.

The draft list at Pontoon Brewing in the large Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs currently includes beers with flavors reminiscent of girl scout cookies, Bananas Foster and cherry cobbler. And, of course, more than one hazy IPA.

Smoothie-style sour is not a category at the Great American Beer Festival, but it is at Pontoon. Saturday the brewery released Pomona Paradise, “Brewed with mangos, blackberries, limes, and raspberries, this beer is a liquid cornucopia of juicy, tart, and delicious fruits. 5% ABV.”

Brewing Conversation Project panel at Pontoon Brewing

Pontoon brewed the beer in collaboration with @craftwomenconnect and @blackbrewbabes. As part of the Brewing Conversations Project, the women talked about the beer with @theatlantapodcast. And Saturday the faces in the crowd at Pontoon, inside and out, listening to the panel and not, looked a lot more like those in an Atlanta grocery story than in most brewery taprooms. Many more people of color, many more women, fewer dudes with beards.

Kallenberger uses Brown’s book “Craft: An Argument” to introduce an idea central to his essay, thus quoting Brown: “As drinkers, we want ‘craft beer’ to mean something, and as an industry, small, independent craft brewers need to mean something.” And those who agree that “craft beer” is an overarching brand should be concerned viewing results of a survey that finds no strong “life values” associated with craft beer. The data “seems to indicate that craft beer is not as relevant, or appealing as it once was.”

What follows is my oversimplification. For thirty years, beer geeks have complained about how once dynamic beers have been dumbed down. Kallenberger points out that brewers may still be pushing brewing boundaries yet but be guilty of dumbing down the conversation; that is, not “reminding people that those who brewing them are challenging authority, celebrating self-expression, and creating something unique.”

For homework, I suggest reading more about Craft Women Connect. This is not a problem for them. Pomona Paradise is unique, there is no chance it was brewed in a factory far away, and if it is a luxury it is an affordable luxury.