musing

5.12.25 beer links: Generations and cultures

Buckwheat Zyedco Jr. and his son playing on the Fai Do Do stage at Jazz Fest

That’s Buckwheat Zydeco Jr., son of the late Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural), above, playing accordion, with his son on the frottoir at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Below, C.J. Chenier, son of the “King of Zydeco” Clifton Chenier, fronts a celebration honoring his father. That’s two more generations on the frottoir. Other members of the band included Marcia Ball (on the keyboard), David Hidalgo (in the background) and Sonny Landreth (not in the frame). A tribute album to Chenier will be released June 27, two days after what would have been his 100th birthday.

CJ Chenier and bandmates (including Marcia Ball and David Hidelgo) during a tribute to his father, Clifton Chenier, at Jazz Fest

Now, let’s get to it . . .

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LEAD OF THE WEEK

March’s second day this year was a Sunday. My brother and I walked the Sussex South Downs. Almost three months since midwinter, the freshly peeled air drenched the leafless woods and hills with pale light. Yellow crocuses quietly exploded in the grass; the first larks unspooled their ribbon of song above. At lunchtime, we dipped down to the Ram in Firle. We sat at a bare table in its dark, womb-like dining room with our beloved hatchlings: two pints of Harvey’s.

I have lived in a thorny, stone-strewn Mediterranean biotope for 15 years, and visitors to my home in France sometimes ask what I miss about the UK and its latitudes. Broad-leafed woodland, birdsong and the British landscape, for sure: its endless seasonal costume changes; its soothing sweetness; the quiet nourishment of its rises, falls and folds. And with it, at the end of the path, cask-conditioned ale. Glorious and tragic.

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Cyril Neville

Cyril Neville looking good at Mission Ballroom in Denver

Random Friday post that has nothing to do with beer. This is what happens when you are taking a picture that your phone says will take 3 seconds and somebody behind bumps in to you. Cyril Neville on the bongos during “Life is a Carnival: The Last Walz Tour ’24” at Mission Ballroom in Denver.

Monday beer reading: Brewing flavors, describing them

Schell's Peanut Butter Chocolate Porter

You should read all of“Beer-Flavored Beer Can’t Save the Category on its Own,” but I am focused on the term beer-flavored beer and Dave Infante’s kicker:

“People like to drink stuff that tastes good, and beer can taste good even if it isn’t marketed as such. Convincing people to want beer-flavored beer is a vocation; brewing them the flavors they want in a beer is a business.”

I confess to typing beer-flavored beer in the past, and perhaps speaking the words out loud. And 13-plus years ago I when I hosted The Session I made the topic “Regular Beer,” a synonym for beer-flavored beer. (Those were the days. Three dozen bloggers chimed in on the topic. Warning: clicking on a link within that post often leads to a broken link.)

I was wrong to use the term. It can be used to exclude, wielded as a weapon by drinkers who imply they know something others do not. “I can appreciate beer-flavored beer, the complex flavors that result from the interaction of malt and yeast in a simple helles. You are not worthy.”

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Monday beer reading: Stay safe out there, plus regional, local & fancy beer

Smoky hop peparedness workshop at the World Brewing Congress in Minneapolis.

Greetings from Minneapolis, where the World Brewing Congress will continue through Tuesday. The photo above was taken during a smoky hop preparedness workshop.

Today there will be three presentations related to making sure non-alcoholic beers are safe to drink. This is important and was already on my radar when I read “How Mash Gang is Breaking the Alcohol Free Mould.” That is not to imply that Mash Gang beers are not safe, or that the story should address what the company is doing to assure the beers are free of pathogens. It simply reflects my current fascination with what brewers might do to make non-alcoholic beer better without the many useful functions ethanol performs. One of those is making beer safer to drink.

I’ve written about how adding hop character may make NABs taste better and about putting flavors back into NABs that may be lost in the production process. Both stories are behind the same paywall, but the list of benefits alcohol provides appears before you hit the wall, so to speak, in the second.

Making flavorful beer without the help of alcohol, and often without got-to-love-them compounds that result from the fermentation process, is hard. Shouldn’t the challenge appeal to a crafter of crafts?

Granted it is better to start the Mash Gang story at the beginning, but it really kicked in here:

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