Monday beer links: Culture, tasting rooms, and criticism

BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 07.02.18

Greetings from Asbury Park

Indeed, this week’s links were compiled in Asbury Park, the Jersey Shore town that Bruce Springsteen fans associate with the post card pictured above, and one working on a comeback.

Behind the Curtain — Dissecting American Resistance to Modern British Beer.
I cannot disagree with the notion that Americans are less than great at appreciating the breadth of other cultures. But this statement: “America has helped transform the world’s beer culture without diluting the value of its history or tradition.” That I can disagree with. Or put it in the form of a question: Why would you expect us to be good at appreciating the past and present of other beer cultures when we don’t respect our own history?

What Does It Mean to Build Craft Beer Culture in 21st-Century Bhutan?
If nothing else, take a look at the stunning photo at the top of the story. Of course I’m a sucker for breweries that embrace local, but the let’s get practical about hops side of my brain reads “they did try to grow hops here and it was a success” and think it is time to check the latitude. 27.5142° N, so forget the hops. But they apparently have something of a farmhouse brewing tradition. Perhaps that’s what they should build on.

Meet The Awesome Women Behind The Scenes of Hemp and Cannabis Beer.
I’m a sucker for a story that contains a question like this: “Do you experience anything of a ‘grass ceiling’ working with cannabis beer?”


“Why we drink in factories, I mean tasting rooms.”
Don Russell might be overstating things a bit to get our attention, but the questions are worth thinking about. Because the place where beer is consumed plays a rather obvious role role in beer from a place. Like almost every other town in America, it seems, Asbury Park has two breweries with tasting rooms — and there are others in every direction — located only a few blocks from each other.

Despite the name, Dark City Brewing, is sleek and airy. Located right on Main Street a dozen blocks inland from the boardwalk, it is easy for tourists to find. Tasting boards and glasses are lined up on the bar, and the electronic menu screen lists prices for samples, pints, and both 32- and 64-ounce growlers to go. Brewing equipment is out of sight. In contrast, the experience at Asbury Park Brewery, just a block off of Main but backed to up train tracks, screams brewery. The route to the tasting room passes through fermentation tanks and past the Walken Cooler. The tasting room itself is dark, painted black with giant ceiling high white letters on one wall spelling Asbury Park. They sell earplugs for $3.

They are both places to drink and places to remember when you drink their beer elsewhere.

Guinness’s American Strategy.
Consider this: “The strategy is unusual in 2018, but is in many ways a return to a very old practice by Guinness: developing local markets and creating specific products to sell there.” That’s different than actually being local, isn’t it?

SENSORY/WINE

You Can Now Take a Genetic Test to Determine Whether You Should Hate Cilantro.
If you’ve judged Belgian wit beers with me or heard me talk about brewing them you know I am more sensitive than most to coriander. At a level that other people describe the herb adding a pleasant citrus note I’m likely to smell and taste celery or soap. I don’t need 23AndMe to tell me that.

Why Is Wine Tasting So Hard?
Fascinating stuff, but excuse me if sometimes I pass on making it hard and just enjoy the experience (wine or beer). “So, just what can you taste in a wine? This is really three questions. What can you taste in a wine? What can you taste in a wine? What can you taste in a wine? We can call these the what, who, and how of tasting, and the answers to these questions will have a bearing on one another.”

FROM TWITTER

MORE LINKS

Alan McLeod most Thursdays.
Good Beer Hunting’s Read Look Drink most Fridays.
Boak & Bailey most Saturdays.

2 thoughts on “Monday beer links: Culture, tasting rooms, and criticism”

  1. “That’s different than actually being local, isn’t it?”

    Hoo-boy, that’s a giant question—and a fascinating one. What do you make of Guinness in Africa? Stout has become at least a minority style there. Would you tell Africans their beer is not “local,” and what would you call the culture that has developed around it?

    If Guinness Baltimore creates a beer that comes to define the city like Old Bay and the Orioles, would it be something other than local?

    • I think that is a question that can only be answered if 50 years, or maybe 100. So not by me.

Comments are closed.