musing

A little curmudgeonly this week. Blame the weather.

– Hype, Backlash, and Hopslam. “Hopslam (nor any other rare beer de jeur) is not the sickness in our beer scene, it is merely a symptom. We have become a beer scene that talks openly about a return to craft beer enjoyment …. We talk a good game, but our actions (and our tweets) say differently.” [Via Charlotte Beer]

– Lagunitas addition adds depth to Chicago beer scene. “In some ways, sizes of craft breweries are irrelevant. The guys I talked to, whether they made 5,000 barrels a year or 100,000 barrels a year, they are looking for other breweries who will support the craft beer movement.”

In all fairness, there’s more to that thought. But, golly, sure this “get along and help each other” spirit has been a factor in more small breweries making better beer. But what brewers are really looking for is people who will buy their beer. Nothing wrong with that, but a fact. Otherwise they’d stick to being homebrewers. “Here, taste my beer. Great, right? Glad you enjoyed it.”

And later in the story Lagunitas owner Tony Magee says, “Some people say we’re in the beer business. I’d say we’re in the tribe building business. Tribes are built on shared stories.” Have you heard the one about how they’re not in the beer business?

[Via Chicago Sun-Times]

– The unexpected way beer is helping this California town get through a historic drought. “The recent installation of an innovative water treatment system at the Bear Republic Brewing Company, along with the ongoing construction of two local wells in part paid for by the company, could go a long way toward keeping Cloverdale afloat before it’s estimated to run out of water in a few months.” [via takepart]

– Has craft beer finally gone too far? Take our ‘quiz’. Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. [Via Atlantic Cities, where the tagline is “Place Matters” – bless ’em]

– Michigan-made malt worth the hefty price tag to local breweries and distilleries. But it’s not easy selling something for 80 cents a pound when out-of-state varieties go for 35 cents. [via MLive]

Of course a right proper rant from Andy Thomas, CEO of Craft Brew Alliance, Monday at Beer Business Daily’s Beer Summit grabbed the headline.

But in the midst of his 45-minute presentation to something like 300 beer industry types he rolled over the rock labeled “movement” and suggested “craft beer” could eventually account for 70 percent of all beer sales. Seventy percent. At that point perhaps we might be able to agree to just call it beer.

Brewbound has the details. “Are we really doing what we can to educate consumers about brewers, styles and brands or are we confusing them so much that they will go to something that is easier for them?” Thomas said. And here’s the nut, when he draws a parallel to Starbucks and the evolution of the coffee industry. “Is this a movement and not a trend?” Are we on the cusp of a brave new world?”

Two important bits of context. First the Brewers Association does not define the CBA breweries — including Redhook Ale Brewery and Widmer Brothers, which were among the first “microbreweries” in the Northwest — as craft breweries because AB InBev owns a considerable stake of each. Second, Thomas was talking to members of the trade, not the couple at the local hamburger joint enjoying a locally brewed beer and not the guys lined up at the beer store for the latest limited release.

So on to the rant (worthy of a passage in “The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer – A Rant in Nine Acts”) as channeled through Brewbound:

“We have the honor of having two pioneering craft brands in our portfolio,” Thomas said, referencing Widmer Brothers and Redhook. “Yet, an industry association doesn’t consider us ‘craft.’ Isn’t it time that we stop acting like 13-year olds? That we stop taking ourselves too serious and start talking to consumers and retailers again?”

Thomas elaborated, drawing a link between the socialization models of young adults – the “jocks, stoners and nerds in high school” — and maturing craft brewers.

“We label; we operate in cliques,” he said. “Are you a craft brewer? Did your equity come from a certain place? Do you not use certain ingredients? Name-calling, labeling, craft versus crafty.”

And then he issued a challenge, which seems like it should be an animated gif.

“Don’t bash beer,” he said.

Thomas pled for all members of the beer industry to stop the infighting.

“Don’t elevate yourselves by cutting someone else down,” he said. “Don’t make someone question their beer.”

He emphasized his point, over and over again.

“Don’t bash beer,” he said. “Don’t bash craft beer. Don’t bash crafty beer. Don’t bash domestic beer. Don’t bash imported beer. Don’t bash light beer. Don’t bash brands. Don’t bash brewers. Don’t bash beer consumers. Don’t bash retailers or wholesalers. Don’t bash beer — celebrate beer.”

To reiterate, he wasn’t calling for everybody who talks (and writes) about beer to join hands around the campfire and sing only songs of praise. This was a message to the trade. So feel free to dis that beer in your glass if it deserves the dontdrinkbeer treatment.

– Another round of beer bonuses. A-B InBev is paying about $5.8 billion to reacquire a Korean brewery it unloaded for $1.8 billion in 2009. It might look like ABI didn’t make the best business decision, but “ABI’s managers, who haven’t invested their own money, will share an extra $2.5 billion in bonuses, including nearly $300m for Carlos Brito, the company’s boss.” Plus pick up some more cash because of the bump in stock price. [Via The Economist]

– Can we tell the media anything? and get away with it? More (if you were paying attention last week) from Luke Nicholas in New Zealand. [Via Luke’s beer]

– Pull up stool with Brian Grossman. The son of Sierra Nevada Brewing founder Ken Grossman talks about the giant new brewery soon coming on line in North Carolina. And other things, like “Thank God my dad didn’t make cat food.” [Via All About Beer]

– Praiseworthy beer from American Trappists. Don Russell uses the release of Spencer Trappist Ale, from St. Joseph’s Abbey in Massachusetts, to review of the history of a mostly forgotten U.S. monastery brewery. St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pa., brewed and sold beer for more than 40 years at the end of the nineteenth century. [Via Joe Sixpack]

– Between Beruit and a Hard Place. It will be difficult for Steve Hindy to top “story of a Isarelia-backed militiaman and murderer who kidnapped me in Lebanon and ended up selling ice cream to children in the streets of Detroit” in his upcoming “The Craft Beer Revolution: How a Band of Microbrewers Is Transforming the World’s Favorite Drink.” [Via Vice]

– New Beers Everywhere, But Buyers Beware. Luke Nicholas, he of Epic Brewing in New Zealand, actually provides three posts for your consideration, linking to a couple within his own. You’ll also want to read The Emperor’s New Suds, in which Greig McGill asks, “Why should the consumer have to pay for an experiment which went wrong when the brewer should know damn well the beer should have been dumped?” as well as what Geoff Griggs has to contribute. But back to the questions Nicholas asks.

What is happening is the market is learning, everyone is learning. Those that know need to share their knowledge.

We just need more champions talking more about the bad stuff. I know that I needed to be told when I was first learning the different flavours in beer and what they were called. It is associating a word with a flavour. The first challenge.

Maybe a blog isn’t the best place to call bad beers out? Maybe it is?

Question: If I know a beer is bad technically to the point I wouldn’t drink it, should I share that information? Would you want to know?

Plenty of feedback at Facebook. [Via Luke’s beer]

– German beer’s existential crisis. The New Yorker uses the news that four of Germany’s largest breweries were hit by massive fines for price fixing to discuss the Reinheitsgebot, why the “craft-beer approach is surely a better method than price-fixing,” innovation, and other related topics. Nothing wrong with the story, but a reader might be left with the impression everything new is going on in Berlin.

A mention of the Bier-Quer-Denker, a group of brewers in Bavaria, would have been nice. Look at a map of Germany — big country, and Berlin is a long way from Bavaria.

Even Brew Berlin commented on this.

One question remains. Why does Filtz mention two of the youngest companies in the new German beer movement? Experimental brewers and start-ups like Riegele, Schneider Weisse, Crew Republic and especially the Radeberger spring-off Braufactum have been questioning the status quo for years.

[Via The New Yorker]

– When naming goes awry. Mouth Raper IPA. Really? [Via Beervana]

– Will your Coke taste better in a specially designed $20 Riedel glass? Looks like it would also hold beer. [Via LA Times]

– Artisanal toast. Bread jumps the shark. [Via Pacific Standard]