musing

Monday beer links: Context for authentic, Anchor, and what’s lost

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 08.07.17

First, thanks to Alan McLeod for getting into the Monday linking business while I was out of it.

How capitalism cornered the market on authenticity.
Christine Sismondo — who wrote the terrific book America Walks into a Bar — tosses some history at a few words in vogue these days, like traditional and authentic.

The call to return to ‘traditional values,’ which includes taking aim at women in the workforce and denying people access to abortion and assaults on same-sex marriage and transgender rights, among other things, is part of the same anti-modern impulse, albeit a fairly extreme expression. Then there’s the current religious revivalism; a nearly obsessive love of medieval fantasy books, films, television and games; an obsession with all things ‘craft’ and the never-ending quest to find the most authentic of everything, from travel destination to taco.

[Via The Washington Post]

What the Anchor Brewing deal means for craft beer.
[Via San Francisco Chronicle]
Anchors up and away.
[Via The Beer Hunter]
The first story I read about Japanese brewing company Sapporo buying Anchor Brewing is still the best I have found. I am waiting for one that polls regular Anchor drinkers or a new interview with Fritz Maytag. Instead, crazily enough, the best historic context (concise and linkable) resides within something Michael Jackson wrote almost 30 years ago.

Read more

Rhino poop

White rhino midden at Rietvlei Nature Reserve

In the week between talking about the intricacies of brewing at Beer Boot Camp, first in Johannesburg and then in Cape Town, our traveling band of presenters had time for some sightseeing. Urban Soweto one day and definitely not urban Rietvlei Nature Reserve were equally stunning.

This isn’t the place for photos of shacks with TV dishes attached or white rhinoceroses. However, I thought about this picture of a rhino midden while I was catching up with what I had stashed in Pocket during the long trip home. From a distance I see a lot of marking of territory in beer. Beer brewing, beer drinking, beer writing, beer services.

Delightfully enough, it turns out that white rhinos are not simply marking territory. They “Use Poop Piles Like a Social Network.” I will leave it to you to make the beer analogy analogies. I’m packing for the next trip.

beer wrestling. beer wrestling. beer wrestling. please.

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 06.26.17

George Carlin, beer judge
George Carlin, beer rater (see below)

Administrative note: There will be no more weekly links here until August. Not a complaint about upcoming travel, but there simply won’t be time to collect and organize them, and my body likely will have no idea what time zone it is in by the time I link again. As an aside, I hope that when posting does resume I can link to a story about “beer wrestling.”

Finally, a Low-ABV-Themed Beer Bar With Bidets in Every Gender-Neutral Bathroom.
Headline of the year. [Via Willamette Week, h/T @Beervana]

Read more

Beer stuff I’m making time to read

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, 06.19.17

Because a good time was had by all last week at Homebrew Con, the annual gathering of members of the American Homebrewers Assocition, in Minneapolis I am a bit short time heading into the week. So are some of the things I’ve been reading or plan to read when I get caught up. I leave the musing to you.

– Historic–or Just Old? This is important enough that I will add a comment that, if you haven’t been paying attention, Jeff Alworth nicely summarizes why it is important.

– Craft beer’s big impact on small towns and forgotten neighborhoods.

– “Bourdain HATES craft beer!”

– The Future of Blogging in a Social Media World.

– Why Aren’t Other Big Beer Corps Vilified Like AB-InBev?

– Hieronymus, Commentary on Isaiah 7.19-5-11.

WINE

– Making wine Instagram-mable again.

– Canned Wine Is the Drink of Summer 2017. Passed along because last week I heard about a brewery ready to sell its very expensive bottling line because when consumers have a choice they pick cans. They’re cool.

We need more adjectives for smells & other things you may not know

MONDAY BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING, 06.12.17

And the themes this week are . . .

AROMA AND FLAVOR

Talking About Talking About Taste And Smell With Linguist Ilja Croijmans.
“The Jahai, a hunter-gatherer community in Thailand, have about 12 words for smells that can be compared to our words for colors. Those words are short, abstract, used very often, and can be applied to many different smells. For example, ‘the smell of bat droppings, smoke, ginger root, and petroleum are all described with the word cnes.’ Those are missing in Western cultures. [Via Sprunge]

Vaping Hops With Lagunitas.
The lessons learned here (which is what you’ll care about) are new, but the idea of collecting hop vapor it not. In 1788 in England, William Kerr patented a device that used a pipe to collect vapor leaving the kettle, then cooled the vapor before brewers separated the hop oil and water. They returned the oil to the boiling wort. [Via October]

Rocky three.
They may have been past their prime. “I think I can see the gap where the bright and banging citrus hops are meant to go, but they’re gone.” [Via The Beer Nut]

Read more