The back side of Marcin Ostajewski, head brewer at Browar Grodzisk in Poland, whose sweatshirt signals how happy he is to share information about brewing Grodziskie. Details in final link below.
In the final Taplines podcast, frequent guest Maureen Ogle joins host Dave Infante to talk about the future of America’s beer industry. There’s a big picture and a smaller picture. As usual, it is the niche that interests me. So hang around for the final eight minutes.
That’s when Ogle says, “It’s easy to focus on A-B and Molson Coors and so on and so forth, but, in fact, a lot of families, thousands of them, have been able to build small businesses based on alcohol.” And, “A lot of families are raising their kids and paying their mortgages, by owning a small brewery.”
Ogle has been at work for some time on a book about the Marti family and August Schell Brewing, which has been family owned since 1860. It’s a great story, but many breweries with shorter histories (meaning every one in the United States other than Yuengling) have similar stories to tell. I thought about this listening to what Lauren Buzzeo has to say — during the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast labeled Predictions for Beer in 2025 — about finding stories. There are not many predictions tossed about, but toward the end, Buzzeo and John Hall and Andy Crouch talk about how much they like reading full stop in print. Me too.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“He called me a ‘bitch of a landlady’, to which I said, ‘From you, I’ll take that as a compliment’. He wanted to fight me.” . . . “I don’t take shit. Me and my husband have a rule that if there is an issue with a man, I deal with it – there’s less danger of confrontation.”
— Natasha Purdom, The North Star, Hampstead
From Licence to spill: six London landladies on what it takes to run a pub in 2024
LEDE OF THE WEEK
It was supposed to be Belgian beer’s crowning glory. In September 2023, Belgian Beer World, a sprawling museum devoted to the country’s unique and richly varied brewing culture, opened as part of a $94 million scheme to restore Brussels’ former stock exchange.
Hopes were high that 360,000 tourists would visit in the first year, lured by interactivity, jaunty exhibits, and a huge bar on the roof with a lengthy beer list and a view of the Brussels skyline. In the end, though, fewer than half of that number came — and while potential explanations for this are legion, it undeniably reflects a difficult moment in the long history of Belgian brewing.
Beer sales are dropping fast, particularly exports. Breweries are closing. Bars are struggling to balance the books.
From Belgian Brewers Are Struggling to Stay Afloat. Should Beer Lovers Be Worried?
A JANUARY CHALLENGE
No, not Dry January.
Alan McLeod would like to revive The Session. Scroll down to C. Session for details.
It will occur on Jan. 31 and the topic is “What is the best thing to happen in good beer since 2018?” Not coincidentally, I rounded up the final Session Dec. 12, 2018. There were 14 contributors. It would be grand if as many show up Jan. 31.
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
– Has perfume become samey? I have a weak spot for stories about aroma, but there is more to this than just odor compounds. In the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast, Buzzeo talks about terpene drinks. Perhaps someday there will be related graphics as flashy as those in this Substack.
Meanwhile, consider this: “Looking at the graph for the 2020’s it’s clear that that volatility has largely disappeared and the status quo has taken over.”
And this: “Creativity is being crushed.”
I would not go so far as to say that the same it true of beer, although members of the IPA Is Ruining Beer Society would. But there it too much following of the crowd, whether it is the beers brewer choose to make or the ones publicans choose to put on tap.
– The Truth About Jimmy Carter and the Craft Beer Revolution and How interest is waning in homebrewing. Among the many oft-repeated stories following the death of Jimmy Carter were the scores relating how he laid the foundation for surge in small brewery openings by signing legislation to legalize homebrewing. Kendall Jones flushes out the story in ways others fail to do.
That the second story landed the same day that Carter died is coincidence. But the questions are the ones members of the homebrewing community have been asking for a while. “Where have the homebrewers gone? What does their absence say about craft beer at large, which is facing its own struggles with interest and sales? And what does a possible future look like for homebrewing and the community aspect that has long been central to its appeal?”
– Pour Love into Local and Celebrating #PubJanuary. The Brewers Association and Celebrate Oregon Beer share the same idea. Pubs are places that people come together, and “Dry January” does not change that.
– Marcin Ostajewski of Browar Grodzisk Is Spreading the Gospel of Grodziskie. This post began with a podcast and ends the same way. Full disclosure: I am a fan of Grodziskie beer and the town in which it is brewed.
I’ve been a lapsed homebrewer for a couple years now, largely because the quality / variety / accessibility of beer in my world is so much better than it was when I started brewing. Even the heavily IPA-focused brewery near me has been releasing some terrific darker beers on a regular basis. If I have a quiet Saturday afternoon at my disposal I’d rather spend it there listening to good music and petting a dog, not making a mess of my basement.