musing

Beer & review links, including how to write a 1-star review

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 10.26.15

I’m not sure if this is a bit of cheat, pointing to my own Twitter feed, but I am — because there’s more here than a dispense gimmick. The beer is equally striking.

Returning for Another Sip of Terroir.
“Part I: Beer is not the expression of a single terroir, but rather, by the very nature of its ingredients and production processes, a mélange of terroirs” and “Part II: Even if we decide, ultimately, that terroir is a red herring for brewers, drinkers, and writers, the issue of craft beer and its relationship to place is still worthy of debate, as complex an issue as it is.” I continue to feel that using the word “terrior” gets in the way when trying to talk about “beer from a place.” This is something I care about a lot, but even I sometimes feel like walking away from the conversation because it is so dang complicated to sort out. [Via A Tempest in a Tankard]

Forget InBev. Here Are the Markets Where Local Beers Rule.
Local (or at least regional)? Yes. But you’ll notice there is something very similar about the beers mentioned. [Via BloombergBusiness]

Boring Brewing : Bland Brewpubs Are Invading.
“My point to this ongoing rant is that as a small brewery I think there’s two ways to fall in the ‘good’ category. First be really good at what you do … everything you brew can be a legit beer that is satisfying regardless of when or who is ordering the beer. The second way is to be independently creative and have every beer you make demonstrate your passion for brewing. In other words make me think about the beer in my glass.” [Via SommBeer]

Now You Can 3D Print Things Using Beer.
And within an answer to why you would want to. [Via From Quarks to Quasars]

A Simple Graph Explains the Complex Logic of the Big Beer Merger.
AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller viewed through the lens of business rather than beer, so a brand can be distinctive even if a beer is not. [Via Harvard Business Review]

Message in a Bottle.
Or How to Write a 1-Star Review
A sommelier writes about a perfume book, but the payoff is the 1-star reviews. Like this one: “If you drive a Moscow taxi at night, this one’s for you.” Or this: “Powerfully cloying and nauseating. Trails for miles. Frightens horses. Gets worse.” [Via Tim Gaiser]

Beer links for tourists and health enthusiasts

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 10.12.15

Quick note: No Monday Beer Links next week.

Not Your Father’s Root Beer and its curious rise to national sensation.
Curious indeed. [Via Chicago Tribune]

Brew York, Brew York, what a wonderful town.
Over the water to the forgotten borough.
Girl, I wanna take you to a cheese bar.
It’s only rock ‘n’ roll but I like it.
A beer person does New York. “New York is weird for the first-time visitor. Because it’s so familiar from films and TV shows, it feels quite surreal to actually be there. I keep expecting to look out of the window and see Spider-Man fighting Dr Octopus on the flat roof of one of these Manhattan office blocks.” [Via I might have a glass of beer]

German Beer and Brewing Tradition – Following the Trail in Franconia.
A non-beer person does Franconia. [Via Borders of Adventure]

Ancient Beer Recipes Lead to Modern Health Remedies.
Just so you know, “Brewing Local” will not be full of ancient beer recipes — but I have a rooting interest in the topic because non-traditional ingredients may provide health benefits. Nonetheless, when touting such benefits it is best remember we’re still talking about an alcoholic beverage. [Via Newsweek]

But something this green must be good for us, right?

On price, on value.
“So the question for me comes down to what is the value others clearly see that I don’t? I can mock people for paying through the nose for beer or I can seek to understand why they do.” [Via Cooking Lager]

How Beer CSAs Are Changing the Way America Drinks.
There’s also Sketchbook in Evanston, Illinois, headquarters of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. [Via Eater]

How big brewers destroyed pub culture.
“The curious thing is that the big brewery companies seem unable to realise the effect of their own actions and policies, of devouring one another until only a handful are left, of restricting drink manufacturers without tied estates access to sell their products, of creating strife among their own tenants, of closing local breweries and limiting choice.” [Via Shut Up About Barclay Perkins]

Beer sentence of the day

a) This story about Narragansett’s “moment in the sun” may or may not end up in next Monday’s beer links, and b) Try as I may I couldn’t condense the quote to 140 characters and do it justice, so here it is in full.

But these days, there’s little that’s authentically Maryland about Natty Boh, a beer brewed in North Carolina under contract to a multinational corporation based in Los Angeles with a Texas post office box as its address.

Got a better one?