monday links

Monday beer briefing: worthiness, consolidation and Baas Becking

04.08.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING

Bill Wesselink, Dovetail Brewery
I spent about 21 hours during two days midweek at Dovetail Brewery in Chicago. It was quite noisy as times — I understood that the brewery sat next to the city’s Brown Line, but I didn’t know it had built a nest between two train tracks. Yet, when trains aren’t running it can be flat out quiet, particularly in the coolship room, looking at wort sometimes produced using decoction, and other times with a turbid mash. The turbid mash itself is less peaceful; co-founder Bill Wesselink raised an ugly looking blister doing some of the mixing by hand. Not until I was catching up Friday did I realize what a noisy week I had happily missed much of, one with many stories that intersected. So a different format today, and here goes . . .

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Monday beer briefing: My favorite story is the first one

04.01.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

ADVERTISEMENT: If you haven’t offered an opinion about the most influential hops ever, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

Picking hops in nineteenth-century Wisconsin.
This is such a delightful discovery, and not the first Jennifer Jordan has found in Wisconsin. Maybe wishful thinking, but there must be dozens more diaries like this waiting to be discovered, particularly in New York.

Hear Me Roar — With Magic Rock Purchase, Lion Acquires Second U.K. Brewery in as Many Years.
Boak & Bailey noted, “It’s interesting that of the four breweries involved in the founding of United Craft Brewers in 2015, three have now been bought by multinationals.” I was a bit surprised to see that Magic Rock would be classified as a microbrewery were it selling beer in the United States. The brewery produced 15,500 hectoliters in 2018, comparable to 13,208 U.S. barrels. That’s almost exactly the same size as KC Bier Company in Kansas City, which produces wonderful beer although most beer fans from more than a few miles away have never heard of it. Better known breweries such as Jackie O’s, Reuben’s Brews, Other Half and Port Brewing/Lost Abbey are of similar size, but it is hard to imagine a multinational purchasing them.

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Monday beer briefing: Hyperventilating saliva glands, data dump, and the sorry state of beer publishing

03.18.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

New Mexico cactus
Green chile alert: No links here next Monday. We’ll be visiting friends, human and edible, in New Mexico next weekend.

Brussels beer x Brussels food face-off #4 // Pottekeis.
Before linking to stories about the business of beer, issues of the day, whatever, a reminder that we pay such close attention because of what some people like to call the magic of beer. The aroma, the flavor, and perhaps how a splash of alcohol makes us feel. “Unsurprisingly, the Cantillon accentuates the tang of the ettekeis and of the gueuze, causing my saliva glands to hyperventilate and flood my mouth.”

How hard is it to name a new beer?
And one more for pleasure before getting serious. I would have missed it were it not for ReadBeer.com.

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Monday beer briefing: Diversity, when the moon howls, and the meaning of wild

03.11.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

“I am STILL not the Diversity Police”: Some thoughts on the Division of Labor in Activism and Advocacy in Craft Beer.
When J. Nikol Jackson-Beckman nailed her core values to the Twitter wall last month I did one of those low whistles you save for when you are really impressed. This post is the extended version. There’s a lot to take in, and I suggest reading it more than once. Should you not remember, Dr. J is, among many things, the Brewers Association diversity ambassador.

Related to “prioritizing the development of mutually workable solutions” there is this: The Activist Introducing Intersectionality to Hospitality. Brewpubs and brewery taprooms are clearly part of the hospitality industry, and “inequality is built into the structure of the hospitality industry.”

Widmer Brothers’ Slow Descent.
The descent doesn’t look all that slow from here. Jeff Alworth writes that when he began the research for The Widmer Way (official publication date: March 26) the brewery sold 175,000 barrels of beer. After declining 20 percent 2018 it, sales dipped to less than 100,000. To be clear, Widmer doesn’t look to be going in the way of BridgePort Brewing. Still, not a pretty looking trendline. (More here on Craft Brew Alliance’s fourth quarter report.)

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Monday beer briefing: Authenticity, legacy, and a canary in the coal mine

03.04.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

Huge Beers, Big Ass Beers, and all manor of beers at Mardi Gras

This photo was taken during Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 1996. The ongoing battle of Huge Ass Beers vs. Giant Ass Beer suggests how timeless New Orleans can be.

Reisch family celebrates revival of Gold Top beer with last brewmaster, now 100.
“This is Springfield’s own. It was brewed in Springfield for 117 years. And with the family being instrumental and the last brewmaster turning 100, it was the right time to bring it back.” Profits from the sale of Gold Top will be used to preserve Springfield’s historic sites. There’s something to be said for nostalgia.

Why authenticity is for tourists.
An engaging tale that may cause you to think about what it means to be authentic. Sorry, didn’t mean to give you a headache to begin the week. For a story a few years back about how the words craft and beer began to travel together Mike Kallenberger of Tropos Brand Consulting said, “I’d argue that craft beer as a category has a collective brand identity, and one of the most important values implicit is that identity is authenticity.” And here Will Hawkes writes, “Authenticity appears to be in the ascendancy at the moment because, in my view, there’s only so much worthwhile innovation around before you end up with marshmallows in your beer.”

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