Monday beer links: The beverage may be race-less, but what about the community?

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 5.16.16

A Czech Influence on Belgian Brewing.
Evan Rail goes digging though the remaining archives of a number of Belgian beer makers and discovers “how Czech brewing has impacted the beer culture in other countries — without being recognized for doing so.” [Via Beer Culture]

What Is the Brewers Association Doing to Address Gender and Race?
What *Should* the Brewers Association Do to Address Gender and Race?
I will only add that we are talking about an association of independent breweries. Shouldn’t some of them have their own programs to recruit minorities? [Via This Is Why I’m Drunk]

The “Reputation” of Beer.
“As a community, we need to stay on offense. The craft beer drinker is a much more diverse group than many know; we need to embrace our diversity. Beer is a gender-less beverage. Beer is a race-less beverage.” [Via Stouts & Stilettos]

Beer to Fish Food: Nonprofit Finds New Use for Spent Grain.
A couple of quick additions to the story, to illustrate how a small brewery can connect with its community. West Sixth Brewing resurrected a 90,000-square foot 1890s building that is called the Bread Box because it used to be a Rainbow Bread factory. As well as FoodChain Lexington (featured in this story) it houses artist studios, a non-profit community bicycle shop, the seafood restaurant mentioned, a distiller, and a coffee roaster. [Via All About Beer]

BIGGER BREWERIES

Historic brewing names Pabst, MillerCoors locked in legal battle.
This story flew under the radar, coming to life while the Craft Brewers Conference was in full swing: “Pabst and its owner, Los Angeles-based Blue Ribbon Intermediate Holdings LLC, claim in a lawsuit filed in circuit court that MillerCoors has breached without warning a long-term agreement to brew Pabst products, after repeated assurances that MillerCoors had sufficient capacity to honor the deal into the next decade.” [Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

Budweiser Renames Its Beer “America.”
a quick Google search will lead you to plenty of related commentary, most of it not particularly positive. Budweiser has indeed gone to “to potentially ingenious, potentially absurd branding extremes.” [Via Fast Company]

WINE

The wine tasting that shocked the world — and forever changed what we drink.
[Via The Washington Post]
Would California wine have succeeded without the 1976 Paris Tasting?
[Via Steve Heimhoff]
Fifteen years ago American brewers asked when they’d have their own “Judgment of Paris.” I don’t know that there is a single historic moment to point to, but most would agree that American beer now occupires a “lofty position.”

FROM TWITTER