musing

Beer Lovers, a pub in Cartagena, Colombia – part of a worldwide phenomenon.

“Historians love chapter breaks. COVID-19 will come to be seen as a chapter break.”
               – Robert Kaplan, American foreign-policy expert

“All history is contemporary history.”
               – Benedetto Croce, Italian philosopher, historian

Context is everything, so I think there is value in reading these two blog posts in the same sitting. I’ll wait.

How will we understand the craft era? – from Jeff Alworth at Beervana.

An expedition into craft beer – from Sarah in Dublin, a Nashville native in Ireland.

The first is a sweeping overview, so let’s start with the second. Sarah signed up for the National Homebrew Club of Ireland’s BJCP Tasting Course and wrote about the first of six classes. The result is a delightful, breezy read from somebody who enjoys drinking beer.

Exhibit A: “I also found myself being influenced by what someone else was saying they could sense. Is this more caramel or raisin? I’m not sure. . . Oh, well, he said caramel, so obviously I can totally get that now. Of course, it all makes so much sense. What fool would say raisin? Amateurs.”

Read more

In “Craft: An Argument,” Pete Brown writes, “(Craft) isn’t just about the things we make; it’s about the kind of people we are. And for this, we get to an unspoken assumption we may be reluctant to admit even to ourselves; we believe that makers and buyers of craft products are morally superior to other people.”

When will people quit believing that?

The Kansas City Star dug deep into what has been going on for years at Boulevard Brewing for years but remained mostly secret outside the brewery doors until last week. The headline — Boulevard leaders knew of sexual harassment but didn’t stop it. ‘They were all aware’ — only hints at how bad things were.

To cut to the chase, “Sixteen former and current Boulevard employees interviewed by The Star said an intense and insular culture helped to breed a toxic workplace that is especially unsafe for women — ranging from a ‘boys’ club’ atmosphere to gender discrimination to sexual harassment and assault.”

Notice the difference as this story unfolded between when women were speaking and when men did. Patt Mullin, digital marketing director, Tuesday tweeted: “Behind almost every company crisis or controversy are a lot of innocent people within who are hurting, frustrated, trying their best to do right and just LIVE. Remember those people.”

Read more

The headline itself — The Cultural Triumph of Craft Beer — evokes my questions, but you really should read Jeff Alworth’s post at Beervana from start to finish. It is not easily summarized, but I’ll go with what he wrote for the front page:

“The sense about craft beer right now, with assaults from a global pandemic and hard seltzer, is often morose. In purely financial terms, beer seems to be sputtering. But as a cultural force, it has never been stronger.”

The headline above gives away the questions the post provoked for me. Is (craft) beer changing our culture? Or is our culture changing (craft) beer? Put another way, is (craft) beer keeping up with a changing culture? And, of course, beer is made by brewers at breweries. So we have another set of questions, including, Are brewers and breweries keeping up with a changing culture?

Additional reading
– Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final unfinished struggle.
– Introducing the Imbibe 75.