monday links

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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Monday beer links: Roaring in Norway; skulls in Spain

BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 04.23.18

Pardon the brevity, but I was preoccupied with Lagerpalooza this past weekend.

Roaring the beer.
“å brøle ølet.” More tales from Norway.

A Brewer’s Take on Where Craft Beer is Going Next.
“I believe craft is an idea and not an actual product.”

2 Years Later . . .
Still a happy Devils Backbone drinker.

The Westvleteren Hacker.
Does anybody else find this disquieting?

Hi Sierra!
“I can’t imagine any of these beers will be cited as life-changing the way Sierra Nevada Pale Ale frequently is.”

More Beer, More Problems.
It ain’t easy being big.

Christianity and beer marketing.
Who decides?

Craft Beer Skull Watch.
Can you taste package design?

A hops spa grows in Oregon.
For when the doctor orders hop hydrotherapy treatments.

The internet reacts to Waffle House selling beer.
Because this is news where I live. And somehow when we walked past the stand during a game last week we did not realize they had beer.

BEER/WINE/TASTING

Tasting note dilemmas.
“As I often find, whether researching for a book or writing up vertical tasting reports, one of the tough things is deciding how much technical information to include.”

FROM TWITTER

Returning to lager related thoughts (click on the time to read the whole exchange).

Monday’s fermentation links: ‘It’s just beer news’

BEER AND WINE LINKS 04.16.18

I’m pretty sure Alan McLeod was lamenting the use of the term “deep dive” in his commentary on recent beer news last week. Fact is when I see the words “deep dive” I expect what follows to go deep less often than not. The good news is that several of today’s links are to stories that dig decently deep. I might also add that I’m in the midst of three separate dives myself (also known as a bid idea), so posting here will remain random indefinitely.

Has American Craft Beer Taken Over the World?
Lew Bryson asks important questions, including these, “Is the success of American craft keeping other countries from developing their own palate? Is this some kind of beer imperialism?” I also was in Chile to judge Copa Cervezas de América, although I arrived too late for that trip to the coast. Later in the week John Roberts of Max Lager’s Brewery and I made it to Cerveceria SpoH. It is located in a leather-making district, where the air is pleasantly thick with the aroma of tannins. Spoh is hops spelled backwards (because somebody trademarked the word “hops” in Chile) and, sure enough, the brewery is best known for Animal IPA. But we also tasted beers that made it clear brewer Max Ivanovic is good at subtle.

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Monday beer links: It’s personal & other single-sentence truths

BEER AND WINE LINKS 04.09.18

Larry Bell, circa 1995
Q & A: Larry Bell of Bell’s Brewery.
“We’re probably one of the few breweries that uses our family name. There are so many breweries out there but not necessarily a lot of family names. It’s personal — it’s our name on the product,” says Larry Bell (pictured at the brewery in the summer of 1995). And he isn’t shy about continuing to conjure up David/Goliath images. “They have the Death Star, and they are moving it into position. We rebel forces, we craft guys, have to keep sticking together and keep attacking.”

Not everything in Charlotte needs craft beer.
This story is full of tweet-worthy one liners. I chose this, “The rise of the brewery is arguably the biggest social trend of the past decade for young professionals in midsize cities.” Pretty bold. But there’s also this idea, “Tell people that it’s OK for people to meet for a run or to do yoga or to discuss religion or listen to music or linger over flowers without chugging $6 pints while doing it.”

Homage to Catalonian beer tourism.
A PhD in beer tourism. Let that sink in. But the part that intrigues me: Catalan brewers are “attempting to forge a truly local indigenous brewing culture, using locally grown produce – hops, barley, other grains, fruits, even grape must, to make ‘grape ales’ – and locally found wild yeasts, and using resources such as barrels previously containing local wine, sherry, local spirits and the like.”

A Culture of Confusion — The Process, Vernacular, and Challenge of Selling “Sour” Beer.
I can’t quit watching the conversations brewers are having as they try to establish a new beer vocabulary. Bryan Roth writes, “‘Sour beer,’ for its ease of understanding, is a double-edged sword.” Lauren Salazar, the wood cellar director and blender for New Belgium Brewing1, talked about this several months ago at a drinks conference in South Carolina. “Every day, I try to figure out how to break these words apart,” she said.

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