musing

Weather on the East Coast has played havoc with our travel plans and — let’s be honest, this is less important — my Plan A for Friday’s round of The Session, Session #25: Lager Love.

We expected to be touristing around Baltimore on Friday, so I was thinking about stopping by Nacho Mamas in Canton, drinking a Natty Bo and writing about the experience. I’ll grant you that many find this place a bit much. The Mexican food isn’t particularly Mexican, for instance. I’ve heard the there can be lines out the door, which is plain silly.

But . . . you have to love a place where if you don’t see a picture of Elvis Presley or a photo from old Baltimore (mostly sports) there’s a National Bohemian item. National Brewing opened in 1885 and resumed production after Prohibition until it was sold to Carling in 1975, then to Heileman.

Natty Bo was still made in Baltimore as recently as 1997. It’s been brewed under contract since, in several different breweries (wish I could tell you where now). But for many it’s still the Baltimore beer.

It’s a light lager. I’m not sure you could pick it out in a blind tasting with Pabst, Lone Star and whatever similar beer you want to include. And when you order it at Nacho Mamas there is no point in asking for a glass. Drink from the bottle or don’t order it.

That said, it would have been great to drink in Nacho Mamas for The Session.

But we won’t be rambling around Baltimore on Friday. On to Plan B.

Yesterday morning Glenn Payne, a man who wears several beer coats, sent a quick question from his UK home to many beer types. He asked, “Who’s the soul, who’s the cutting edge of beer; who’s taking it to the street?”

He explained it will be the topic for his presentation at Mondial de la Bière in Montreal this summer.

Of course I’m interested any time somebody asks about the soul of beer, but I was as struck by the question about who’s taking it to the street. It reminded me of something Manuele Colonna said when we were in Rome. By the time I got around to digging out the notebook with that quote Payne had plenty of answers. Among those was one from Ray Daniels, another guy with many beer coats, and these days known as the Circerne dude. He started:

Everyone in the craft industry takes it to the street by living the life of craft beer. Sure there are stars that the punters all clamor to see. But their popularity isn’t based on a pretty face, a million dollar ad campaign or a name made in some other industry and transplanted to beer. The craft beer industry has been built by authentic entrepreneurs who daily breathe life and spirit into their companies and their brands. The accumulation of that personal passion in all its diversity makes this industry interesting and engaging. And it makes the beer distinctive.

You can read the rest here.

Sure enough, what Colonna said fits right in and is a reminder the US doesn’t have a monopoly when it comes to beer passion. When Colonna and two partners started Ma Che Siette Venuti a Fa, a bar which serves beer from small breweries from Italy to Denmark, in 2001 nobody in Rome sold craft beer.

Bar owners went with “name” beers pushed by distributors. “They weren’t interested in what the people in the streets wanted,” Colonna said. “Not the normal people.”

Payne’s request does suggest another question: Do cutting edge beers represent the real soul of beer? Not going near that one today.

As long as you are picking up the current issue of All About Beer magazine to read Lew Bryson’s article on session beers you might flip to the back page where they let me chat a bit about “The Importance of Drinking Local.”

Considering it was filed from Bamberg the little essay should have been more focused. But more than nine months into our adventure I’m still figuring this out. Asking questions like . . . Does any old beer brewed “in town” qualify as local? Do we think more highly of local beers because they are “green,” because they are fresher, because breweries are locally owned and the profits stay in town, because they use local ingredients? Can you still be a local brewery if ship your beer across the country?

No need to make it that complicated. You don’t have to think about any of those questions if you want to walk into a local bar, talk to local people and enjoy the local beer. Works fine.

Meanwhile, I direct your attention to a series of posts by Rob Denunzio called “Localize it” (I’m linking to the fourth and last, but read them all). One nit to pick, Rob. More pictures of people to go with the beer. That’s a lot of what local is about.

I have nothing wise to write about the random accident that stole Bill Brand from us. Instead I’m leaning on Robert Earl Keen.

I go out on a party
To look for a little fun
But I find a darkened corner
‘Cause I still miss someone

And with apologies for Steve Earle, I’ll add . . . Save some up there for me, maestro.