Monday beer links: High hopes and dashed hopes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, the first shot I got was in a dynamite truck
The driver kept me telling me his bad luck
As we swerved around the curves I began to shout
I said, hey-ey mister would you let me out?
I had my hopes up high, I never thought that I
Would ever wonder why I ever said good bye
I had my hopes up high

– Joe Ely, “I Had My Hopes Up High” (click to listen)

Another week of beer news and conjecture. Another week of high hopes and dashed hopes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Even if you have really incredible beer and an incredible space and an incredible community, it’s still very challenging to operate during this time,” she said.

          — Massachusetts Brewers Guild executive director Katie Stinchon
From Why so many Mass. breweries are closing (and what you can do about it)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LEDE OF THE WEEK

One Christmas Eve in the late 19th century, the family on the Hovland farm in Hardanger, Norway, was sitting down for a festive dinner. The food was on the table, the candles were lit, and the big wooden mug was full of beer.

Then, suddenly, enormous hands appeared between the logs from which their house was built, tilting one side of the house into the air. In the gap between the logs, they could see giant eyes staring at them, glittering in the candlelight.

The farmer didn’t panic. He immediately knew what the problem was. He grabbed the mug of beer from the table and ran out the door to the burial mound, just beyond the farmyard, and he poured the beer on the roots of the tree growing on top. Before, the family had poured beer on this tree every Christmas Eve before the big dinner—but this year they had skipped it. Clearly, the dweller in the mound had not appreciated being overlooked on the big day.

From The Tale of the Real Yule Ales of Yore

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TIS THE SEASON FOR LISTS

The 22 Best New Breweries of the Year, According to Beer Pros. Included because the second brewery listed is Blue Jay Brewing in St. Louis. We stopped in there last December only a few days after the brewery opened. The picture at the top is an unfiltered pilsner that was very good, which followed an exceptional hefeweizen.

– Best Winter Beers. Jeff Alworth continues his “Book of Lists” series with a list of kinds of beer (call them “styles” if you want) to drink in the winter. I tend to think in terms of specific beers.

– The 10 Best Grocery Store IPAs. A useful list as opposed to one that includes a bunch of highly rated beers that are impossible to find. Of course, the closest store to our house, which has a good number of choices, only sells five of the 10.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAY GOOD-BYE

– 2024 Breweries in PA Cemetery. 18 breweries listed. Across the United States, the Brewers Association has tracked 335 new brewery openings and 399 closings.

– The final edition. The final missive from The Growler Ontario. “It’s a significant irony of the success of craft beer that as the number of breweries expanded within the province, the audience for subject matter related to craft beer dwindled, at least in print.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY

–Jitka Ilcíková’s Wild Creatures in Moravia, Czech Republic. Wild Creatures is , a brewery “that is challenging Mikulov’s seemingly omnipresent wine culture—drawing from it, and, in the process, making it into something new.”

– Revered S.F. brewery reopens under new owners — and this time, they’re local. Resetting expectations. There are no plans to distribute, unlike previously. Production is expected to top out at 400 barrels per year, on a generous estimate.

– Could Suarez Family Brewery’s New Hand Pump Spark a Cask Beer Revival? The real reason stuck a Joe Ely song at the top.

– Scientists Find Evidence of 10,000-Year-Old Ancient Rice Beer in Eastern China. In addition to establishing the central role of rice, the researchers also discovered several elements characteristic of fermentation processes including starch granules displaying enzymatic degradation, fungi associated with brewing methods, and yeast cells.