This was so much fun at the beginning of the year I’m not sure why it took this long to do it again.
The goal is to identify the outlier and explain why it doesn’t belong on the list. There may be more than one answer, although I happen to have a specific one in mind.
a) Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
b) Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
c) Il Vicino Slow Down Brown
d) Geary’s London Porter
e) Arcadia Scotch Ale
In case you’ve forgotten: Round one ~ Round two ~ Round three.
Beer made with mango cider, from local grains, with jaggery (sugar) and local berries . . .
“It’s very easy to sell the idea of a good beer,” he says. “Our clientele is typically aged 25 to 35. They are young, working professionals, typically from single- or double-income families with no kids.”
But he says they are not drinking to get drunk.
“It is an identity,” says Mr Talekar. “Saying I drink single malt, vodka or better beer is a way of showing I have evolved, because of the nature of the product I am consuming.”
From another story about the 600 or so American breweries planning to open in the next couple of years? Nope, this one is from India (the jaggery should have given it away).
Bars and restaurants are also stocking a growing variety of beer brands to attract an average of 4.3 million young adults coming of drinking age each year. But here’s the most striking number: “Some 600 to 700 million Indians are below the age of 30… that’s three times the size of Europe.”
The world’s largest brewering companies already knew this, of course. For a bit of perspective, Indian breweries made an estimated 15.6 million hectoliters in 2010, about a quarter of what Japan brews and 3 percent of China’s production.
OK, it makes a nice headline: “8 beers Americans no longer drink.”
Problem is the first example is Budweiser. Yes, sales shrunk 30 percent in five years, and that amounts to 7 million barrels (at 31 gallons a barrel) lost. But A-B InBev still sold 18 million barrels of Bud. So it’s not like nobody drinks it.
Beyond the questionable headline the numbers from 24/7 Wall St. are quite interesting; most notably the demise of Michelob. And the 72 percent drop in sales from 2006 to 2010 to 175,000 barrels just begins to tell the story.
Look deeper and you’ll find that in 1988 Michelob commanded 66 percent of the “super-premium” category (the beers people pay more for, like “microbrews” today) despite losing 46 percent of its sales between 1980 and 1988. Anheuser-Busch sold sold 8 million barrels of Michelob in 1980, 4.3 million in 1988.
And last year 175,000.
I’m trying to figure out how to put that in perspective. How about this? It took A-B only eight days in 1980 to sells a much Michelob as it sold in all of 2010.
I’m not sure if Des de Moor and Alan McLeod were really writing about the importance of brewing history yesterday or something else. Like the role of journalist or the connection between reading about beer and enjoying beer.
But they reminded me I’ve been meaning to mention the latest special edition from The Brewery History Society: “The American Brewing Industry Since Repeal: Large and Smaller Brewers.”
Amy Mittelman (Brewing Battles) wrote the introduction, Sam Calagione provides an imagined history1, Fred Eckhardt a remembered history and Doug Hoverson (Land of Amber Waters) a fully footnoted history2. Just to give you an idea of what’s in the issue. [The contents].
It’s not the compleat history of the industry since 1933, but tells a complete story and is a reminder of at least what I expect from historians. They do more than check facts. They interpret them in a way that history makes sense; maybe even the present and future. For further examples consult Ambitious Brew and The Story of the Pint
1 Calagione’s contribution is an imagined conversation between Woody Guthrie and Charlie Papazian. Several years ago Calagione made Guthrie the centerpiece of a series of beer dinners. In the picture at the top from 2003 he is channeling Guthrie during one such dinner at d.b.a. in New Orleans.
2 A reminder it sure will be nice when he finishes the Wisconsin companion to his Minnesota history.
The guest rooms at Brauerei und Gasthof zur Krone in Tettnang in the southwest of Germany are thoroughly modern, with hardwood floors, whitewashed walls and sleek amenities; yet properly spare. The building, on the other hand, has been around since before the last Montfort, Count Anton IV, lived here in the 18th century.
The Tauscher family bought the brewery, which sits directly behind the hotel, in 1847 and Fritz Tauscher (right) is a seventh generation brewer. The Kronen-Brauerei is the last of 26 breweries that used to operate in Tettnang. It produces about 6,000 hectoliters (something more than 5,000 barrels) a year, about 60 percent of that sold in bottles labeled “Tettnanger.”
Tauscher is one of nine brewers in a group they call “Brauer mit Leib and Seele” (Brewers with body and soul). “All are owners of breweries in the hands of the their families,” he explained. “The beers are brewed with our hands.”
Tradition obviously matters, but Tauscher talks as much about the importance of quality. He buys his hops directly from two nearby farms, one organic and the other not. He uses only cones, storing the bales in one of four lagering rooms eight to nine meters below the brewery yard. He begins fermentation of his lagers between 8° C and 9° C (other breweries might start higher to speed the process). He lagers his beers for six to eight weeks (Berliner Kindl Pils lagers for two weeks). He uses less efficient (smaller and horizontal) tanks because he can taste the difference.
Tauscher attended the Craft Brewers Conference in San Francisco last spring. He drank plenty of new wave American beers, packed with alcohol and aromatic hops. He’s not just being polite when he talks about how much he enjoyed them.
“I can imagine I will brew one or two beers with those (sort of) hops,” said Tauscher, who is 31 years old. “But not yet. The German beer drinkers are not ready for the explosion of flavors.”
Tauscher adds only Tettnang Tettnanger hops to the beers he sells (he recently brewed a special batch for hop growers that included four additions of Tettnanger and then Saphir at the finish). Tettanger has served perfectly well for special celebration beers, such as for Tettnang’s 700th anniversary party and the brewery’s 150th anniversary (a “fresh hop” beer in 1997).
When Tauscher does begin using other varieties they will still be from Tettnang. Tettnang farmers also grow Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Tradition, Perle, Saphir and Herkules, and there will be others. One might well be a variation on Tettnanger. The German hop research center at Hüll this year began a project in partnership with the Tettnang Hop Growers Association and Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Rural Development to breed a new variety with Tettnang Tettnanger as the mother. If a new hop results it will still be 10 years before it’s ready for brewers to use.
At Brauerei und Gasthof zur Krone that doesn’t seem like such a long time. It sits in the center of town, on a square that will be overflowing for a band concert on a Wednesday evening in summer. Although the town may be best known for hops its population is growing because of high tech businesses and tourism. Old world and new world coexist comfortably.
The hotel serves tourists and business travelers equally well. Each room has its own name — thus Bierbrauer, Bärenpltaz and Brau Wasser as well as Hopfen — decorated to that theme.
You can probably guess which one I stayed in.