musing

Monday morning musing: Got a beer question?

Wednesday I am off to the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

Yes, this involves drinking beer. It also involves a lot of asking questions. In my case many will be wheat related, since I’m starting work on the previously mentioned book for Brewers Publications.

But if you were going and could ask craft brewers or brewing industry suppliers a question (or questions) what would you ask?

Here’s the lineup of speakers and topics.

The week begins with judging for the World Beer Cup, with awards handed out Saturday. That means brewers from around the world will be on hand to judge.

Feel free to use comments or email the question(s).

– The St. Louis Post-Distpatch visits “extreme beers,” mostly locally produced and including the area’s micros as well as brewing giant Anheuser-Busch.

Great quote from Pat McGauley, vice president innovation, who is talking specifically about A-B’s 8% blueberry lager but makes what’s really a general observation.

“It lives in a much different world than most of the beers we deal with.”

Ready to settle down with one beer?

Research commissioned by UK brewer Greene King found “35 is the age at which British men typically settle on their ‘usual.’ ”

So I guess I’m a little slow. I don’t even have a “usual” style.

On the other hand perhaps I’m precocious, because “they trial an average of seven different brands before developing a loyalty to their favourite beer.” Only seven beers? Check out Luke Nicholas’ Twitter feed from last night. (And he’s from New Zealand.)

Obviously some across-the-pond cultural differences here. Nonetheless, more from the survey:

– One in five men try up to 14 different kinds of beer before settling on their favorite, and that is determined “on quality and taste above all other factors – including price, brand, strength and peer pressure from friends.”

– Peer pressure? Twenty-nine percent of those 18 to 24 order the same beer as their friends. Just 7% of men over the age of 35 are similarly influenced.

– While men in London are the most likely to rate quality as the key factor in their beer preferences, Londoners are also most influenced in their choice of beer by their mates (16%), and men in Yorkshire the least (4%).

If this is Beer Heaven, what are they drinking?

I was hoping that the new Miller Lite commercials would run during the NCAA basketball tournament because that’s the best chance I figure to have of seeing them for a while.

Turns out Miller has posted them at its website (you’ll probably have to do the age check thing along the way), but not at YouTube.com.

BrandWeek has the details:

The other effort, “Ultimate Light Beer,” features a man walking into beer heaven. It’s a bar where the bartender recognizes him by name and he has a monogrammed stool, which turns into a recliner upon sitting down. Two patrons are playing air hockey on a table that also is broadcasting a basketball game. Others are shooting pool at a table with moving pockets that catch any shot. When our protagonist orders two Lites, two waitresses deliver.

Beyond the theological questions the commercials pose they got me wondering . . . Why, if this is heaven, is there a need to drink low-calorie (i.e. light) beer?

Young’s Bitter: Red Tractor guarantees it’s all UK

Red Tractor Assured food standardsRed Tractor beer is not a brand in the UK (as opposed to the Palisade Red Truck IPA from Colorado), but a stamp that assures it is made only with British ingredients that have been checked for quality assurance.

Wells and Young’s has become the first major brewer to promote the Red Tractor logo.

Red Tractor “is a food assurance scheme which covers production standards developed by experts on safety, hygiene, animal welfare and the environment amongst other things.”

Reacting to Wells and Young’s announcement all bottles of Young’s Bitter will carry the Red Tractor logo, Jonathan Tipples, vice chairman of Assured Food Standards said: “The Red Tractor logo signifies that the ale has been brewed in the UK using hops, malt and barley produced to high standards on the farm and checked by independent inspections.”

The current barley and hops crisis (both prices and availability) has reminded many drinkers of the historically strong links between brewers and farmers.

Head brewer at Wells and Young’s Brewery, Jim Robertson, said: “It is incredibly important to us that we work with our farmers and suppliers and knowing that every drop of Young’s Bitter will be made with Red Tractor approved ingredients is a strong provenance message for our consumers.”

Monday morning musing: Are you a geek?

Whiting Brothers

Zion National ParkThe photo on the left was taken at our destination last week — Zion National Park in Utah — and the photo at the top on the way there. Whiting Brothers businesses, motels and services stations, operated along Route 66 from 1926 into the 1990s (though their presence was severely diminished before the end).

These remains are located between San Fidel and McCartys (New Mexico), on one of the short patches of 66 you’ll occasionally find paralleling Interstate 40 in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. There’s no motel in sight and what’s left of the gas station is in the background.

Sierra will be talking about climbing Angels Landing at Zion long after the WB sign has disappeared, but there’s something to be said for being able to make the little stops as well as enjoying the destinations. They are both part of our plan for the next 15 months.

Now back to your regularly scheduled beer programming.

– Cerevisaphile? Lew Bryson asks if it is “time to stop calling each other “beer geek?” And solicits alternative terms. Alan McLeod picks up the challenge, advocating “Beer Nerd.”

You’ll find plenty of ideas in the comments at both blogs.

So far nobody has brought up a suggestion that beer writer Gregg Smith made years ago: “cerevisaphile.” Perhaps just as well.

Lew suggests beer fan. I like that. In fact, we used the term in “Beer (Eyewitness Companions).” You can be an avid fan, a casual fan, a bandwagon fan (you are either on the wagon or off the wagon).

– The Session. Another suggestion that pops up in comments is “beer people” — a good excuse to remind everybody that’s the theme for The Session #14 on Friday.

– From the business pages: MarketWatch has an update on hop shortages. Mostly dreary. And from “Brew” Blog: Land Grab and Shakeout in Craft Beer?