monday links

Strong Rope Brewery in Brooklyn sends a message

A programming note: Looking at the calendar, I see that Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Mondays, so no Monday links here until Jan. 8.

The year about to end will be the first one, with the exception of Covid-depressed 2020, that the sum of beers produced by the breweries categorized as “craft” did not increase. That goes back to when the Institute of Brewing Studies was collecting the statistics for microbreweries and brewpubs and had not yet defined “craft brewery.”

(The IBS was a subsidiary of the Association of Brewers, which merged with the Brewers Association of American in 2005 to form the Brewers Association.)

A “Year in Beer” summary produced by the Brewers Association and chief economist Bart Watson’s presentation last week for association members and the press both focused on the business of beer. They made it clear that the numbers reflect an ongoing trend, and that 2024 will be just as challenging for breweries.

Why should beer drinkers care? For one thing, if your favorite brewery goes out of business you’ve lost something. So consider Watson’s last two slides. He suggested that “most of the challenges craft faces have opportunities in craft strengths.” Flavor and variety matter, a wide range (including next to zero) ABVs serve different occasions well, and where diversity grows niche and local opportunities do as well.

And on the final slide, he asked, “How will you grow occasions in 2024?”

I was reminded of standing outside one of the tents at the first St. Louis Brewers Festival in 2007. Anheuser-Busch invested considerable resources to pour a few of its beers along with six other St. Louis area breweries at the time — a different time, indeed. The festival was a tiny part of A-B’s “Here’s to Beer” national campaign (the url herestobeer.com now redirects to A-B and the Wayback Machine gets stuck at the age check gate, which is too bad; fun to see that mid-aughts thinking).

Bob Lachky, executive vice president of Global Industry and Creative Development, was an enthusiastic proponent of the promotion. He was a man pretty good at his job, and credited with the “I Love You, Man” and “Whassup?!” campaigns as well as the Budweiser frogs. Bud Light did quite well when he was the brand manager.

(He was less than impressed with everything related to Dylan Mulvaney earlier this year. “It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the No. 1 beer in the country, and it took them one week to dismantle it,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)

Lachky was drinking a Budweiser, watching attendees head out after the taps closed.

Among other things, he talked about young drinkers turning to spirits to celebrate rather than beer. “We can’t keep losing the occasions,” he said.

Deja vu.

Postcript: Primitive Beer’s Hotbierfest is a pretty good example of how to do a occasion right.

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– Colorado Grain Chain. Speaking of Primitive Beer, the brewery uses all Colorado-grown grain. And Primitive co-owner Lisa Boldt is the Colorado Grain Chain project manager. The nonprofit Grain Chain is member-supported and, among other things, helps small-scale farmers to network and market their products. “If we as brewers and distillers want the local community to support us, to buy our products and come to our tasting rooms, I think it’s important that we support the local ingredients that go into our products,” Boldt says.

– New York City’s Strong Rope Brewery and the East Coast Cask Revival. It is delightful to see Strong Rope founder/brewer Jason Sahler get this attention. “When I am giving tours I am the face of the beer,” he told me when I visited him in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood in 2019. “But I tell them all of this is not possible without farmers. The farmers do all the work before (ingredients) touch our deck. It’s easier for me to explain that on a small scale. There’s something more tangible to me when it’s local.”

– Cola Craze: Germans Love America’s Iconic Soda So Much They Put It in Their Beer. Spezi, a blend of Coke and orange soda, was created by Brauerei Riegele in Augsburg in the 1960s. Riegele was founded in 1386. A tour includes the well they draw water from. “This water has never seen humanity. The first thing it sees is beer,” Sebastian Priller-Riegele, a 28th generation brewer, told me when I visited the brewery in 2019. Riegele wins scores of medals for its well-made, Reinheitsgebot-conforming beers, but it seems that award-winning beer isn’t the only reason they have stayed in business for more than 600 years.

– The Best Hidden Gem Places to Drink in 2023. Some of the places sound cool; others not so much. But what I really want to know is if any of the three (three!) spots in Austin, Texas, have a sticker that declares: “THIS IS ONE OF DOUG’S TOP 50 BARS IN AUSTIN.”

You can’t make this stuff up

– HOPnotic spell. A hop water brand has hired a hypnotist “who will hypnotize select consumers to help make sure they stay extra dry this January.” It is a contest, of sorts.

– Blue cheese beer. “We’re always looking for something to ferment, whether it’s sauerkraut or pickles or beer or wine, whiskey, cheese, you name it, it’s all fermented.”

And for the last link of 2023 . . .

I’d rather not point to a post from X, but this seems essential. Yes, do read the comments (replies).

I know a lot of you don't touch macro brands on principle, but I'm not one of you. When Camden Town was bought out I carried on drinking it Hells because it was still a decent pint and it's in all my local pubs. I said I'd stop when it no longer was decent. Today is that day. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/1LWsvleWRG

— Pete Brown (@PeteBrownBeer) December 13, 2023

Last week the (well, my) question was: What now? This week the question is: Where Are We Now? In this case, Dr. J Jackson-Beckham’s take on the state of social advocacy work in craft beer.

Make time to read this.

Please.

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IPA still travels well. So not only does it work to ship hoppy pale beer from England to India, but China is a consistent top-five market for American craft breweries. And guess what the Chinese are buying. “Hazy and West Coast IPAs are among the most popular styles . . .” and most popular brands include “hop-forward American heavyweights, including Russian River Brewing Co., Tree House Brewing Co., and Other Half Brewing Co.”

(Do you get these beers in the states where you live?)

Making a difference. That’s Kokua, brewed to raise funds for survivors of the devastating wildfire in Maui, on the left, and Black is Beautiful, which raises funds to support the National Black Brewers Association, on the right. Daria and I enjoyed them Saturday at Ex Novo Brewing in Corrales, Nex Mexico. The brewery is located about a mile from a house in which we once lived, unfortunately before it opened. Maui Brewing CEO Garrett Marrero is the driving force behind Kokua. He and NB2A are the 2023 award winners announced by Brewbound.

Another list, I know, but a good one.

Cask beer in 2023. A roundup. Hogshead Brewery in Denver is not on the list, but I am including a photo of foam atop Gilpin Black Gold, a porter, because I can.

The nomads of craft brewing. I’m a sucker for a good headline, in this case on a story about Crossroads Mobile Canning in Hood River, Washington.

Wine, Globalization, and the End of History. Mike Veseth writes that wine had its “End of History” moment in the 1990s. Until then, the history of wine was defined, more or less, by Old World notions of appellations and terroir. Jancis Robinson shook things up in 1995 with a wine series on BBC, in which, rather than organizing a tour of the wine world by historic regions she sorted things by grape variety, and included New World wine producers as well as Old World ones.

Sound familiar?

Veseth also writes that the 1990s were a golden age for wine, and that it didn’t last. I’m waiting for somebody to post a well thought out essay about the golden age for beer. I look forward to linking to it.

I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin’ in the sun
You got that top pulled down and that radio on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone
                    – The Boys of Summer, Don Henley

Has it really been four weeks since I posted links here? Indeed, and it seems as if it would be easy to sort through the headlines since Nov. 6 and assemble a post of only stories about the craft beer apocalypse. I am left searching for a phrase that is the opposite of “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Doug Veliky gets to the “what’s next” question at the end of “Recognizing Hype Cycles” (which, of course, I first read as “hop cycles” when the email arrived.) Dave Infante and Aaron Goldfarb not so much in the Taplines podcast “How Finance Bros Discovered Hazy IPAs.” Unless you think designer gummies are the answer. Anyway, I suggest reading the first and listening to the second, which provides a case study.

Obviously, the Beer Crunchers post is a business story, beginning by stating, “The key to navigating these cycles successfully begins with self-awareness and an accompanying business plan that accounts for the fact that you’re in one.” And concluding, “The number of breweries and the collective output of each will find their proper sizing in each region and at each pricing tier, with less volatility and more stable churn of customers. This is the ultimate end game for this Hype Cycle in Craft Beer.”

So what do things look like after the boys of summer are gone? Veliky writes, “Craft beer will need to reimagine the experience and rely less on beer itself to be the sole driver of consumption by focusing less on people who are into beer and more on people who enjoy good beer with ‘X’.” He follows this with photos of Treehouse’s golf course and other un-brewery-like venues.

And who, in the case of beer, are the boys of summer? Turn to Taplines and the story it references.

That many have moved on to high-end bourbon or designer gummies revealed how badly conceived or operated many small breweries are. It didn’t change the reason that so many breweries that opened since 1976 have succeeded. Is there a reason to believe any of that will change?

In “Nothing Has Been Done Before: Seeking the New in 21st-Century American Popular Music,” Robert Loss writes, “The opposite of the new is not the old, it is sameness, or anything that limits the generation of significant possibilities.” And, he argues, it’s that mediocrity that makes the new possible. Otherwise, “the new would be indistinguishable; it would not exist.”

That’s true for pale lagers, hazy IPAs, and even smoked beers.

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First, the occasional reminder. Each Monday, I begin bookmarking posts I might link to here the following Monday. If Alan McLeod links to one of them the following Thursday or Boak & Bailey do the same on Saturday there is a good chance I will delete the bookmark. I expect you will already have seen them (that’s your homework). Three examples from the past week: chasing beer foam, bar pizza, and exploring Belfast. I am inclined to repeat the links here only if there is a comment I absolutely need to add.

Why not go to the Kentucky source? Perhaps it is the headline that bugs me. “Central Machine Works Resurrects Kentucky Common Beer With Help From the Smithsonian.” I don’t think resurrect is the right word to use because Leah Dienes at Apocalypse Brew Works in Louisville has been brewing the lone example of the style cited in the BJCP guidelines since 2014.

That’s Dienes’ cat snoozing on brewing logs from the beginning of the 20th century provided by Conrad Selle, co-author of “Louisville Breweries.” Kentucky Common might not have ended up in the BJCP guidelines — leading homebrewers and commercial brewers thousands of miles from Louisville to brew a type of beer they had never tasted — were it not for research by Dienes, Selle and homebrewer Dibs Harting. Credit where credit is due.

Making connections. There is a story here that combines business and culture: brewery incubators give people of color an opportunity they might not have otherwise. There is a well-worn origin story: homebrewers go pro.

There is also one about the future, and reimagining experiences. For instance, the founders of Casa Humilde “started with parties and homebrew, and they have continued to host events, bringing in their other passions with good food and music. All of this appeals to their community that, like Funkytown’s (the other brewery featured in Jeff Alworth’s post), has been overlooked by craft beer.”

An Out of Prague Pilgrimage. “If you’re ever in Prague, take the time to make the trip out to Únetice for some of the best beer on the planet and if meaty snacks with rye bread are your thing, that too.”

Field beer? “The name ‘Field Beer’ came to us because we wanted to put focus on the fields and agriculture of the regeneratively grown wheat which plays a big role in the beer.”

Beyond listicles. A couple of lists that are actually useful. A guide to happy hour deals at Portland, Oregon, breweries. The 10 best beers in Costco’s advent beer calendar.

In September, Dave Infante interviewed writer Burkhard Bilger about his 2008 story in the The New Yorker “that would change the direction of craft beer forever.” Friday, Alan McLeod hauled out a 2014 cover from the magazine and wrote, “On reflection, this cover of the New Yorker that I posted nine years ago today (when it was first published) celebrated the peak of craft. Before the haze craze, before the glitter, before the buyouts and before the bursting bubbles . . .”

Before asking a few questions about “peak of craft,” two quick asides. First, Jeff Alworth was not particularly impressed in 2008 by The New Yorker story. Second, we are long, long time New Yorker subscribers and ardent readers. However, having lived in the central and mountain time zones a very long time, I think it is important not to overstate the cultural sway of a publication operating more than 1,100 miles from the population center of the United States.

Back to “peak of craft.” What does that mean? Is that peak sales? Peak quality? Peak choice? Peak cultural sway? And if the peak has come and gone, how does post-peak beer compare to post-industrial, postmodern, and post-Fordist beer?

Can’t wait until Thursday to see if McLeod has answers at A Good Beer Blog.

More to talk about
Are Beer Festivals a Waste of Time and Money?
This is, in fact, already a conversation — between Doug Veliky and Chris McClellan — readers can join, and a few have (see the comments).

What price a pint?
Tabol Brewing in Richmond, Virginia, is selling pints for $3.50 in its taproom. Alistair Reese writes:

“I also love the fact that Tabol don’t shy away from the fact that beer is the everyman drink rather than a niche product for the upper middle classes. I realise every brewery is different, and for many where their primary outlet is a brewpub, dropping prices so dramatically might not be possible given the added overheads of being a restaurant. But where a brewery’s taproom is exactly that, a place to drink a brewery’s beer, in situ, as fresh as fresh could possibly be, without the additional logistical steps that drive up the price, then cheaper than draft or packaged retail should be the norm.”

This lead me to ask on Bluesky (I might have an available invite code if you are interested) if c***t beer really is the everyman drink or if it is, in fact, a niche product for the upper middle classes?

But how did everybody else rate them?
Untappd’s 13 Beers With the Most 5-Star Check-Ins of 2023
Hop Culture posted the list Friday, leaving me to wonder about the average assessments of these beers. Is it more impressive that King JJJuliusss has 2,382 5-star check-ins or an average rating of 4.70? If the lowest rating were 4.0 that still means there were 7 5-star check-ins for every 4-star. So, because I was curious, here are the 13 listed, with the number of 5-star check-ins followed by the average rating:

Pliny the Elder 9,057 (4.50)
Heady Topper 7,570 (4.53)
Westvleteren 12 4,167 (4.50)
Duvel 3,625 (3.73)
Zombie Dust 3,441 (4.24)
Focal Banger 2,761 (4.40)
King JJJuliusss 2,382 (4.70)
Spotted Cow 2,377 (3.89)
Weihensteophaner Hefeweissbier 2,337 (3.78)
King Julius 2,306 (4.62)
Orval 2,149 (3.69)
Samuel Adams Octoberfest 2,147 (3.61)
Pliny the Younger 2,085 (4.65)

That’s five beers at 3.89 or lower and eight at 4.24 or higher.

Question of the day
Why don’t more Texans drink Jester King beer?
Jester King only sells about 17% of its beer in Texas, the brewery’s home state, which is very big.

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Given the number of entries I will forego descriptions/comments. Be brave, click away.

– The first queer/Women-of-color owned tabletop role-playing game brewery in Portland
– Mosaic Taphouse fuses LGBTQ, Filipino, Vietnamese, & Craft Beer Culture
– Impressions of Berlin: a tale of 5 pilsners
– A very biased guide to Berlin beer and pubs
– The right cheap beers for any occasion or activity
– The Future of Craft Beer
– Bathroom Essentials at Breweries Have Come a Long Way
– Japanese brewer fined for selling “imitation beer”

When you consider it, business stories focused on the fermented beverage made with malted grain and hops are almost always about The Future of Beer. That is capitalism in progress. In that sense, they are about pleasure; what may be available to drink, what we want to drink, how much it will cost us. There seem to have been an above average amount of such stories last week, but before listing them, a few just to read for pleasure itself.

Overthinking It: PB&J Mixtape
Actually, PB&J Mixtape isn’t a beer at all. It is “totally gluten-free (on a seltzer base) and made with real roasted peanuts.” Nonetheless, Jacob Berg writes, “The aroma transported me, Anton Ego-style, to a specific place and time. Boom, I’m a latchkey kid again, getting home and opening the crinkly plastic wrap on an after-school snack.” Definitely some overthinking going on here, including about Untappd ratings.

How a Chicago Brewery’s Staff Builds Authentic Connections with Latinx Communities
“Creating partnerships with Latino-owned businesses and having them come to Marz and be here has helped a lot. When I first started here, it was definitely a way more white-centric customer base, but I have seen a super huge increase in more Latinos coming here.” Marz is located in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood, which is roughly 55% Latino.

The Shirker’s Rest is “the silver bullet to the heart of” exclusion
Consider this a bit of foreshadowing to discussions about The Future of Beer, particularly the investigation (links in business section) into what the next generation is drinking. “In London you don’t get multi-generational spaces very often—apart from a Wetherspoons on a Friday night. When you get the mix right of the young, the old, the poor, the rich, then magical things are going to happen.” Related, a Q&A with David Jesudason, who wrote this article.

The Wonderful World of Women Brewers
People not males spotlighted at Shondaland. Which is great, although if you’ve been paying attention these are the “usual suspects.” There are a lot more women brewing beer who also deserve to be written about. Anyway, these names are likely new to most readers at Shondaland, and perhaps you, so this is a good thing. In it, Celeste Beatty speak a sad truth:

“There has been little change at all in terms of any significant increase in Black and brown home brewers, brands, and commercial operations. There is certainly a lot of discussion about diversity and plenty of culture incorporated in branding, but a lot of work [is] yet to be done.”

The business pages
Start with the Big Picture and that Despite ‘Sober’ Reputation, Gen Z’s Eclectic Tastes Are New Force Within Alcohol. Move on to Young Drinkers Won’t Settle for Beverages of the Past, and that this is not your father’s beer . . . or maybe any beer.

Meet people like Amanda Thomas, a 23-year-old junior copywriter in Seattle, who agrees that a person’s alcoholic beverage of choice signals something about them. “In general I feel like people my age are drinking for a personality. There’s a beer girl personality that’s pretty fun and I love meeting beer girls. But there’s also seltzer girls,” she says. “I’m a beer girl. It’s fun, it’s grungy.”

Boomers and maybe even members of younger generations may not think she has earned to the right to be taken seriously. I disagree.

In Seattle. Pike Brewing is ending their decades long in the First & Union Building attached to the Pike Place Public Market hall. The 34-year-old craft beer pioneer, Pike Brewing, moving to a state-of-the-art facility located in the SoDo neighborhood in January 2024 for beer production. The Pike Pub and Pike Fish Bar will continue to operate in their current locations. The photo at the top looks down on a bar at the pub.

Across the Atlantic. “American Craft Beer Sales — and Influence — Fizzle Out.” I’m not sure the story totally supports an assertion that beers from America aren’t influencing change. But there is no doubt “their economic power has rarely matched their cultural cachet.”

In Vietnam. “Brewers get creative as economy loses fizz.” Reading this story I learned what “Khong say, khong ve” means.

In Texas. “They’ve been dropping like flies since last summer.”