musing

These guys know where to find the good stuff

Jeff Bagby

This is the way it is supposed to work, but when you interrupt your beer culture for about 100 years then some things – like ongoing addition of “new blood” and thus innovation – start to fall through the cracks.

Food and wine magazines are constantly featuring the hot new chefs, new winemakers and even new sommeliers. In an interview in the New York Times wine authority Jancis Robinson was asked what she sees as the most important change in the wine world.

“Oh, the upgrade of quality, and the enthusiasm and ambition of winemakers everywhere,” she said.

That’s also happening in beer, although you’re less likely to see brewers’ mugs in glossy magazines.

Instead San Diego Union-Tribune illustrates the point with a feature on Jeff Bagby (pictured above at the 2003 Great American Beer Festival) of Pizza Port Carlsbad.

The author calls Bagby one of the county’s most intuitive brewers (how do you measure that?), “willing to base a beer on a hunch.”

“A lot of it is a shot in the dark,” Bagby tells him.

Perhaps – and if so his aim is still pretty good – but his beers are no accident. In part because it seems he’s always in “research” mode. The easiest way to find the new and interesting beers at the Great American Beer Festival is to ask Bagby – or another of his generation of New American brewers like Will Meyers of Cambridge (Mass.) Brewing – because he’s out talking to other brewers and tasting beer.

Now go back to Robinson’s quote. Do you think we could say this?

“Oh, the upgrade of quality, and the enthusiasm and ambition of beermakers everywhere.”

OK, not everywhere, but Robinson probably wasn’t including Yellow Tail either.

Where are they now?

Microbrews: A Ten Year Retrospective looks to be an interesting project.

The premise:

The whole premise of this blog is to see how many of the 200+ microbrews and brews featured in MICROBREWS: A GUIDE TO AMERICA’S BEST NEW BEERS AND BREWERIES have survived the craft brew infatuation of the last 20 years or so. I’m using this book because it is ten years old and is the only book I have of its sort.

My choice likely would have been to start with Steve Johnson’s “ON TAP: Guide to North American Brewpubs” because Steve chronicled the comings and goings of breweries with the zeal of a librarian (perhaps because he is a librarian), but it would appear this book is alphabetical and that lends itself well to this undertaking.

Today’s post features the brewery formerly known as Adler Brau and now called Stone Cellar Brewpub. Adler Brau made some excellent German inspired beers – in fact winning four medals at the 1991 Great American Beer Festival.

What we really liked was the cellar pub, which included what we refer to as a “Wisconsin bar.” These exist elsewhere, but we always associate them with Wisconsin. Basically the area behind the bar is recessed and the bartender is pretty much face-to-face with seated customers. Very friendly.

Beyond the sexy tap handles

Meantime taps

Nearly 100 news outlets have picked up the Associated Press story about the art of tap handles. That’s understandable, because tap handles can be pretty cool, although you’ll notice I chose to illustrate this story with the simple but elegant tap handles of Meantime Brewing in Greenwich. The photo was shot at the Brew Wharf, part of the Vinopolis complext in London.

But I’m not sure that I ever ordered a beer because it had a great handle. Handles certainly have grabbed my attention at a pub, and if I already knew something about the brewery (or even the beer) then I may have ended up drinking a beer from that tap.

Thus I wish I had written what Roger Baylor offered at the Potable Curmudgeon. Be sure to read clear to the conclusion:

You can’t read a book without cracking the cover. Admire the tap handle from afar, but delve into the true significance of what it represents, and become knowledgeable.

Words to drink by.

Beer for the Baskin-Robbins crowd

Chocolate beerChances are that neither you nor I will ever see Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager because it’s only due to be distributed in the Midwest.

But it has attracted a lot of attention than any of the excellent chocolate beers brewers have been producing for years. The latest is this story from the Associated Press, which is looking for an underlying trend. That would be beer with more flavors. Not just beer with more flavor, but different flavors.

Thus the story consults Felicia McClain, an analyst with Mintel Research. “They’re trying to do something to bring some spice back into beer,” she says. And Mintel has a list of the top 10 selling beer flavors from 2005. Presented here without further comment:

1. plain (regular)
2. pumpkin
3. honey
4. vanilla
5. nut
6. pomegranate
7. brown sugar
8. spice and spicy
9. lime
10. orange

Beer naturally

Real aleFirst, beer. Tomorrow a New York Times tasting panel will report back on porters. Eric Asimov writes in advance he “was impressed with the high quality of porters available today.”

Second, wine. In his blog, The Pour, Asimov writes today about what winemakers are really saying when they describe themselves as “non-interventionist” – pretty important if we are to accept the concept of terroir. The post was provoked by an interview he did with the Michael Rolland, the flying winemaker villified in the movie “Mondovino.”

In it Asimov mentioned the names of some California winemakers who favor moderation when it comes to the balance between restraint and fruit bomb. Rolland replied:

“Are they as successful in the marketplace? No,” he said, warming to the subject. “Wine is done for what? The public! Wine is a business. They want to make wine to sell wine. In the U.S. they are honest enough to tell you they want good ratings. They don’t want loser wines.”

Now, back to beer. Asimov’s post could lead to a discussion of why bigger, bolder beers get so much more attention than classically restrained beers (Double IPAs vs. a German hell from a countryside brewer, but not here, not today.

Instead, consider the statement “Wine is a business.” Now replace the word “wine” with “beer.” We simply have to accept that. Beer is business, but – here’s the good part – it can be more.

Asimov’s post sent me to the bookcase to pull out a copy of Beer Naturally, co-produced by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in 1976. Primarily a book of loving, mostly black-and-white, photos – hops twine being strung, vines, harvesting of barley, floor maltings, well-worn kettles – the book illustrates how beer can be brewed naturally while also acknowledging the ways brewers break with tradition.

But the strongest message is the photos and the first words of the book:

“Beer at its best is a reflection of a golden field of barley, a reminder of the rich aroma of a hop garden. Scientists can argue endlessly about the merits of the man-made concoctions which go into much of today’s beer but the proof of the pint is in the drinking … the best of British beer is produced from the gifts that nature gave us and by methods which have been proudly handed down over the centuries. The story of beer is a story of nature and of craftmanship; a story of farmer and brewers who join forces to greate beer naturally.”