musing

Don’t these people understand the term ‘craft beer’ has no meaning?

And these are just the headlines.

– Beer on demand: Craft breweries like Piece, Half Acre start delivery service
– Bordeaux wine for craft beer drinkers
– What’s it like when your startup craft brewery gets bought by Anheuser-Busch?
– Hopsteiner picks its top hops for craft brewing professionals
– Hopping mad about craft beer
– Illegal Alcohol: Where to Drink Thai Craft Beer in Bangkok
– 10 California Craft Beers That Cost a Bundle on the Black Market

This is not an argument about the validity of whatever definition of “craft beer” you want to use. I find it generally easy to simply use the word beer myself. When I write a story for one of the Brewers Association publications (Zymurgy or New Brewer) I use the term because it is defined within that context of the magazine. I just wrote a sentence in a story for All About Beer magazine where it would have been easier to use the term than not. But I found a way not to, because that’s the AABM philosophy.

But, and you knew that was coming, as the headlines that took me litttletime to collect indicate the term must mean something to somebody (even though you can easily strike the word craft from most of them).

pH is the new IBU

Wicked Weed Funkatorium

This beer menu board at Wicked Weed Funkatorium in Asheville, N.C., should look familiar, but not quite the same. That number following the alcohol by volume is the pH, not the IBUs (International Bitterness Units) you see elsewhere. A useful bit of information for beer drinkers, one indicator of how sour a beer might taste.

What might the downside be? Brewers pushing pH levels lower just so they can (or maybe because they don’t know any better). Kinda like previous IBU wars. (See New Beer Rule #2.)

American Sour Beers author Michael Tonsmeire made the danger clear Saturday during the Asheville Homebrewers Conference when he made it clear he said brewing a beer with the lowest pH is like making an IPA with the most IBUs.

Monday beer links: Why we shouldn’t be surprised if 500 breweries close

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING, 08.15.2016

Craft Beer’s Looming Crisis.
[Via The Daily Beast]
Phil Olson of Longman & Eagle — The Gray of Pay-to-Play.
[Via Good Beer Hunting]
The Awkwardness of Middle-Aged Breweries.
[Via Beervana]
Sam Adams’s Secret Weapon For Winning Back The American Craft Drinker.
[Via Fast Company]
Four stories that remind us that brewing is a business. There are a ton of takeaways, but I pick this from Lew Bryson (Link No. 1): “… the change will be a correction, and the surviving brewers will have the opportunity to grow into large national brands. Unfortunately, we could lose as many as 500 breweries in the process, though eventually the industry will emerge even healthier—just like it did the first time around.”

To which Brewers Association economist Bart Watson had this to say on Twitter: “Some interesting points. 500 closings would be 11-12% of 2015 brewery number. Actually pretty typical 3-yr rate.”

Richard Boston on beer – archive.
If all that business talk wore you out here is a welcome respite. It is Richard Boston’s first Boston on Beer column from 1973, and it is just lovely. Consider this: “What was apparent from my rapid survey was the high general level of interest and awareness on the part of beer-drinkers. For many years they have sat on their high stools at the bar in a state of deep lethargy. Doubtless this state was induced by the beer, and perhaps the reason for their new alertness is that the beer isn’t doing its job properly. At any rate, they’re waking up, they’re looking around and drinking their beer, and they’re not uncritical of what they’re seeing and tasting.” You can read more from Boston by tracking down a used copy of Beer & Skittles. [Via The Guardian, h/T Boak & Bailey]

Hop Tourism: It ought to be a thing.
I endorse the idea and suggest you plan on being in Wolnzach for Volkfest (just getting going this year), remembering that the hop queen is always picked the Tuesday of the fest. [Via DRAFT]

Building a Brewery, Chapter 2: The right tools for the job.
I’m not sure how I missed Part 1, but suggest you catch up (like I am). Oakhold Farmhouse Brewery gets a mention in Brewing Local and Caleb Lever, who wrote the story, somewhat more. He understands yeast and fermentation far better than I do and introduced me to Laurens Bass Becking’s tenet that, “Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects.” [Via The Growler]

Fieldwork Changed One Thing and Discovered an NEIPA.
Coincidentally, Mike Karnowski at Zebulon Artisan Ales gave a fascinating presentation on West Coast and Northeast IPAs Saturday at the Asheville Homebrewers Conference. It included a lot of how. But as any hop scientist I’ve talked would say, the why needs a lot more study. Until then it is best to be skeptical about suggesting a relationship between murky and yeast viability. [Via BeerGraphs]

MOVING ON TO WINE

How Do You Make a Wine That Costs $3.50?
“Where does that come from? Think what must be in there! Think how much the people who actually make it must be paid!” [Via Punch]

FROM TWITTER

Because you might have been wordering what Boak & Bailey look like.

IPAs, dive bars, a craft definition & more beery links

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING, 08.08.2016

We Changed The World … For This?
[Via All About Beer]
An American Story.
IPAs as National Tradition.
[Both via Beervana]
I pointed to all of these Friday during The Session, when the topic was pilsners. But this is also about place. Hops might be an American story, but let’s not forget the Albuquerque story or the Bucyrus story.

What makes a dive bar?
[Via DRAFT]
The Real Drinker’s Guide to St. Louis’ Best Dive Bars.
[Via Riverfront Times]
Maybe the Riverfront Times doesn’t answer Joe Stange’s question, but it does provide 63 examples. I particularly recommend the photo from the San Bar Tavern on page 4 of this epic.

Stop the presses: the definition of craft beer.
Before you think “here we go again” scroll down to the comments to find an up-to-date definition: “craft beer n. orig. N. Amer. a beer made in a traditional or non-mechanized way by an individual or a small brewery.” So simple it is elegant. [Via Pete Brown]

The secrets to Cloudwater’s success.
A long, long read, as in north of 9,000 words. “Settle down with a beer,” Martyn Cornell writes. It may take two. And there is this candid thought, “It’s clear why they are so popular: almost all were sharply focused, clear, clean and faultless. Faultless to a fault, almost: ‘beautiful’ is not the same as ‘characterful’. But I need to drink more Cloudwater brews over more evenings to decide if this is a valid criticism.” [Via Zythophile]

The tale of two Stone Go To IPAs
The Haze and the Hops — A Tale of Two Go To IPAs.
Fascinating story and splendid reporting from John Verive. However, if big chain markets are such a bad place to buy beer why do breweries continue to sell their beer there? [Via the Full Pint – Photo by John Verive]

The Beer Museum, Where Brewery Meets History, Opens in Austin.
For now its a pop up museum, but they have plans … [Via PorchDrinking.com]

WINE & OTHER DRINKS

Stability of olfactory ability over time.
Really interesting questions posed here that are obviously relevant to beer as well. And one more thought (from the first chapter of “For The Love of Hops”): Although olfactory skills begin to deteriorate when most people are in their forties, many perfumers get better as they age. So it is not inevitable. [Via jamie goode’s wine blog]

Scientists Get Closer to Harnessing the Health Benefits of Red Wine.
The key point here is that it will take a pill to make this work. Because the daily dose it takes to be effective against Alzheimer’s is equivalent to about 1,000 bottles of red wine. It’s the same as those stories about how compounds in hops may have health benefits. Yes, but there are obvious side effects when you have to drink 1,000 beers a day to enjoy them. [Via Wall Street Journal]

America’s First Drinks Writer: G. Selmer Fougner.
Frank Prial also wrote about Fougner in Decantations, including that Fougner calculated he replied to 300,000 mail queries in eight years. [Via The Daily Beast]

Donald Trump’s World Atlas of Wine.
Pardon the instrusion of politics, but this is Ron Washam (the HoseMaster) at his funniest. [Via Tim Atkin MW]

FROM TWITTER

So you think you want to be a hop farmer …

And if you somehow missed this …

That dream beer job? There’s a job element

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING, 08.01.2016

Brewing Historians…Way More than Beer.
Fred’s beer: a sampling of what he left behind.
If you are an archivist who has written about beer, as Daria is, or a journalist who has written about the history of beer, as I have, when a story appears that may be headlined “The Smithsonian Will Pay Someone $64,000 a Year to Drink (and Research) Beer” you are going to see multiple versions of it show up in your inbox. The first post, from Susan Evans, director of Smithsonian Food History programs at the National Museum of American History, provides a better explanation of what the job is really about than most of the headlines. The second post, from Tiah Edmunson-Morton, archivist at Oregon State University, is a snapshot of what it is like to be an archivist, why preservation matters, and as a bonus includes lots of details about the Fred Eckhardt Papers.

“So I encourage you all to engage in the history that is meaningful to you and represents the places you live. Engage in preserving, collecting, and sharing the history of your communities – and find a place for those materials to live, safely, so that we can keep them accessible for future generations.” [Via Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives ]

‘Beer shaming’ is a real thing.
Sad. [Via OnMilwaukee]

Are Craft Breweries in Colorado Reaching the Saturation Point?
The “how many breweries is too many breweries?” question really is a local one, isn’t it? [Via Fermentedly Challenged]

Cream Beer Before Cream Ale In 1820s New York City.
Francis Perot Brewed 116 Times In 1821 to 1822.
It will be interesting to see where this leads. [Via A Good Beer Blog]

Ready-to-Sell Brewery Bought, Surprising None.
“Here in Oregon, no one is gnashing her teeth.” If a beer (or the brewery where is is made) hasn’t connected with drinkers in the place where it is brewed can it elsewhere? [Via Beervana]

Why You Should Be Skeptical About The Purported Health Benefits of Beer.
Every week there are stories about the healthy or unhealthy consequnces of drinking beer. It’s probably best to approach them all — positive or negative — with certain skepticism.[Via Homebrew Academy]