BEER AND WINE LINKS MUSING 04.30.18
Thanks to Alan McLeod for nicely summarizing much that was written about CAMRA and cask last week, so we can pass on it here. And because Boak & Bailey commented on Mark Johnson’s essay about the beer bubble I’m mostly inclined to pass. But I will ask you these questions. Do you occasionally notice something noteworthy in the “real” world and think, oh, yeah, that’s just like beer? Or see something in the beer world (within the bubble of your choice) and think, there’s a lesson in here for my life?
Hop Take: It’s About Time Craft Beer Focused on Diversity.
The Brewers Association obviously made a great hire by recruiting J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham as its diversity ambassador. This is a fact: “As much as I love the [beer] community and feel at home, it’s always been pretty apparent that there [are] not a lot of folks that look like me,” Jackson-Beckham said. And that needs to change. But I’m not sure how I feel about a headline that suggests its time to focus on diversity. Maybe the difference is semantic, but it feels like the focus should be on assuring a process is in place that makes diversity commonplace. (And, no, I do not want to get involved in another Twitter discussion about semantics and this topic.)
Melvin Brewing’s Founder Discusses Sexual Harassment and Future of the Company.
Backlash in Bellingham.
Melvin Brewing was not the place to be for Bellingham Beer Week. This might be related to J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham’s mission.
Tanks for All the Beer — B. United Rewrites the Rules of Importing.
Just something else to blame on cans. Cheap shot aside the idea of “beers are brewed where they’re supposed to be brewed but [that] have the freshness of a locally brewed beer” most definitely appeals to drinkers within the beer bubble. Maybe outside as well. But it doesn’t make the beer local.
‘Terroir’ turns everyday malt into ‘luxury barley’
Yes to brewers embracing the taste of place ingredients may provide. Yes to farmers getting a fair price for grain and brewers a fair price for beer. No to charging a premium for “everyday” anything. Related.
Given to the wild: How Catalonia’s rural brewers have embraced mixed fermentation.
Indeed, this is the third Catalonia story I have linked to resulting from a single press trip. The Catalan Tourist Broad obviously chose well when they sent out invitations. But how can you not read on when a story asks questions like this: How could a brewer like this, in the middle of rural Catalonia possibly be friends with Jean Van Roy, and producing mixed fermentation beers?
Beermojis: 10 Iconic Beer Brands in Emoji Form.
How are you avoiding getting a round in?
#beersilliness.
WHERE’S THE BEER CONNECTION?
Why the scientific finding that trees “sleep” at night is beautiful.
I just love this story. Birch trees “sleep” at night. My excuse for including it here is that when I talk to brewers about making beers inspired by monks I point to the the rhythm within a brewery. This is the way it worked at Westvleteren when I visited: “The monks brew seventy times a year — twenty-five to twenty-six weeks and two to three days per week. They brew one week and bottle the next, adding yeast taken from a high krauesen of an ongoing fermentation.” And, of course, that fits in the rhythm of a monastic life that is structured around seven daily prayers. Not exactly related, the photo is a river birch tree in southern Illinois, giving up a bit of its sap to go into one of the “all tree” beers Scratch Brewing has made.
WINE
An Academic Foray Into Complexity in Wine: An Analysis of Language.
This was not the study to end all studies. It surveyed novice drinkers, rather than professional tasters. Lots of interesting results, such as the top 10 wine descriptors more likely to be found in a complex wine tasting note were smoke, resin, vanilla, mineral, earth, cherry, meat, liquorice, sweet, and cranberry.
Vague Wine Tasting Terms and What They Really Mean.
As long as we are on the topic of tasting terms, here you go. Also, because you might have thought “hoppy” could be a little more specific.
SORRY, BUT FACTS ARE FACTS
It’s time to rethink how much booze may be too much.
Key words in there are “how much.” I could cut and paste quotes on both sides of this discussion, but will simply suggest you read to the end.
FROM TWITTER
The point of aiming for “diversity” in the industry formerly known as craft beer isn’t to make Asian beer, or Hispanic beer, or black beer, or female beer.
The goal is to open the industry & its market to humans other than white, bearded men.
— Maureen Ogle (@maureenogle) April 25, 2018
“How could a brewer like this, in the middle of rural Catalonia possibly be friends with Jean Van Roy, and producing mixed fermentation beers?”
I presume the same sort of trade and tourist board funding that gets the beer writers there to tell us all about the lovely local sausages. Manufactured regional specialness? Likely ties into broader regional identity and therefore political will.
Mmm, “meat”” wine”—that’s the stuff.
Key thing on that booze health thing is “you’d need to take these other factors [diet, smoking, less exercise, less access to health care] into account to truly understand the risks of alcohol consumption, and the study didn’t.”
It’s nonsense unless you do that. For instance, before the UK smoking ban in pubs, 53% of pubgoers were smokers versus <20% in the general population. You would have seen a clear correlation between drinking and lung cancer – but that wouldn't mean that alcohol gave you lung cancer.
It's obviously complex, and noone's saying that a few bottles of vodka a day is good for you – but there's reasonable evidence that the social effects on wellbeing of going to the pub for moderate drinking are better for you than the life of a lonely teetotaller.
It's specialist but one for next week would be Suregork's combination of the Leuven/White Labs and Strasbourg yeast genome projects into a single mega-family tree http://beer.suregork.com/?p=4000