It is said that beer is about making connections. Here are a few.
CRISPY & CRUNCHY
Can a Wine Actually Be “Crunchy”?
Craft Beer Snobs Suddenly Love Lager
First the crunchy part. “It kind of describes something in addition to taste in terms of tension. It’s just a perfect, succinct word to describe that texture: the balance between density and acid structure. That addition of acid almost causes the liquid to seize in a way that gives it a bit more of a three-dimensional feeling or experience.”
Make of that what you will. Here is the partial sentence I was happy to see: “Texture is an essential and underappreciated aspect of taste.”
Which brings us to the second story. It is behind a Wall Street Journal paywall. I’d like you to think about this from Chris Lohring, founder of Notch Brewing. “I’m gonna go on record that I hate the term ‘crispybo.’” That’s because he doesn’t find most lagers to be crisp.
I’ve heard enough brewers use the descriptor “crisp” to understand that the word has meaning to them. But I’m with Lohring. Saturday afternoon I had the helles at Bierstadt Lagerhaus. It was not crisp. It was not crunchy. It had texture. Like high thread-counts sheets. Well, if they tasted of beer.
WHAT DOES PROGRESS LOOK LIKE?
Across the Industry, Calls for Craft Beer to Grow Up
Brewing students at Niagara College hopped up for equality and diversity ‘bevoltion’
From the first story:
“Last October, Esther Tetreault, co-owner of Trillium Brewing, hosted a panel on how to create a safe and discrimination-free work environment with HR professionals, attorneys and diversity, equity and inclusion professionals. While she believes the event was impactful and important, it was not as well-attended as she had hoped.
“‘I will say we were a little saddened, a little frustrated, a little disappointed, to not get more support, more responses and more engagement,’ says Tetreault about the event.”
From the second story:
“This is exactly where the conversation around creating ethical workplaces should start – early on during the educational process,” said Ash Eliot, co-founder of Brave Noise and “Women of the Bevolution.”
VALUE ADDED
Communal Brewing in Bohemia
More about the brewing commune in Freistadt
Would you pay more for a house that came with brewing rights? Perhaps that is a rhetorical question.
PERHAPS IT WAS TIME
The Historic Jerusalem Tavern, One of London’s Best Pubs, Has Closed
The final night at ‘JT’
I spot a difference of opinion. “What was once a must-do for any beerhunter in London had become a moody experience best overlooked years ago.”
BEER IS AGRICULTURE
I’ve always liked “crisp” and have it at one end of a spectrum that has “soft” or “gentle” on the other end. Pilsener Urquell is on the soft side, Urban Chestnut’s zwickel is crisp (although it’s been years since I have had it). Maybe “dry” in the sense used for Champagne is what I am thinking about when I refer to crisp – no sweetness, bitter and the carbonation emphasizes this.
Good point, Bill. If I am reading you correctly, it isn’t the word “crisp” that some people seem to expect might describe all lagers, but understanding there is a spectrum of textures. And, in fact, I think one of the appeals of Cold IPA is that those beers are crisp.
You understood me, even with my poor phrasing! Wrt folks calling all lagers crisp – if they are turning to lagers after drinking the popular craft ale styles of the past few years, maybe it’s that their spectrum goes from lagers to hazy IPAs and pastry stouts, so until they can recalibrate their palates, all lagers are crisp to them.