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.”
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.
– 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.
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]
One silly thought to get out of the way, then a few links related to “What did AB InBev buy most recently and what does it mean?” so Monday links can be focus on other matters.
I think Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder gets credit for coming up with the term “indie craft beer,” an obvious play on “indie music.” But watching this made me think we could use more categories, starting with “outlaw beer.”
#RateGate
Does anybody know who should get credit for coming up with the hashtag?
This from the first article: “We’ve created an API through which other brewers, industry watchers, journalists and others can view the same ratings information that ZX Ventures does,” (Joe) Tucker told SFGATE. And there’s more details in Rate Beer Weekly.
So what is ZX Ventures buying if even us lowly journalists can access the information we want? According to Rate Beer Weekly, “ZX gains access to insights around consumer trends, a better understanding of the beer consumer and beer markets around the world, which enables them to keep a finger on the pulse. They believe RateBeer is the tool to help beer drinkers best navigate the sometimes overwhelming beer market, better informing them of all the beer selections so they can make the best choice for their tastes.” I’m still confused.
Anyway, I’ve heard stories like Craig tells (last two links) dozens of times. He writes, “It’s been a part of my Life for Over 10 Years and despite recent developments i hope it can continue to bring me many more years of joy.”
Rate Beer has provided the landscape/architecture and like-minded people have created communities (plural). It does not appear that ZX Ventures will be getting the loyalty of those various communities. Obviously, that would be more valuable than the data, no matter how Big.
Brewing Records and Why They Matter.
This proposal from Mitch Steele may appear simple. “I’m wondering right now if a concerted effort could be made by the industry to preserve some brewing logs from early craft brewers in a safe place, like a library or a museum, where researchers in the future could go back and learn about the techniques and ingredients being used today.” It is not simple. No surprise, I love the idea and agree how important it is. But I sleep with an archivist, so I understand how difficult finding the right home, then collecting, organizing, and maintaining those records would be. Perhaps an alternative is to remember the local connections beer creates and support regional archives like OHBA. Fact is I think the simple solution might be to clone Tiah Edmundson-Morton. [Via The Hop Tripper]
