First up, two links:
– Deschutes is an Underrated Treasure
– Cannonball Creek is best brewery you don’t know
As the headline on the first suggests, Jeff Alworth has written a tribute to the Deschutes breweries. I’m going to focus, instead, on something else he brings up, winning medals at the Great American Beer Festival. The Deschutes breweries (plural) have won 50 since 1990. Pretty impressive.
And the Portland brewpub won six in the last three years, a time frame Alworth focuses on, comparing what Deschutes has won with awards captured by 20 other “older, established regional breweries.” Also impressive. On the other hand, Deschutes won zero medals between 2015 and 2020 (six years).
Winning medals is not arbitrary, but it is very easy for an excellent brewery not to win. Figueroa Mountain Brewing in California and Cannonball Creek Brewing in Colorado have definitely beat the odds by winning a GABF medal every year since they opened. Figueroa Mountain, which operates multiple breweries, has won 14 years in a row. Cannonball Creek, close enough to our house that we share a ZIP code, 12 years in a row.
A couple of years ago I posted a picture of the taps on Instagram, commenting that, “When the person to your left asks about what ‘the best” hazy on tap might be and the person behind the bar says, ‘No hazies, no fruit, no pastry stouts here’ it is time to embrace the moment.” The rules have not changed. (Just to be sure, I checked Friday.)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
(Shoutout to Alan McLeod)
“It is not advantageous to be inebriated as you’re climbing around in the trees or surrounded by predators at night. That’s a recipe for not having your genes passed on.”
— Matthew Carrigan
From Drunk Animals Are Probably Common in the Wild, According to New Study
LEDE OF THE WEEK
I love bars.
I love settling onto the stool, hanging my jacket on the hook under the bar. The sound of pool balls dropping after the quarters go in. The shake of the day. The neon glow. Overhearing bad takes about the packers.
Seeing ice in a beer down the bar – not my thing, but you do you. Someone hitting a pull tab big enough to pocket the cash. Being the tiebreaker in strangers’ friendly argument.
It’s not really the bars’ space or decor or drinks that get me, though—it’s the people, and what they’re doing in there.
— From A Love Letter to Milwaukee Dive Bars
KICKER OF THE WEEK
I look forward to that first beer with The Boy with a hint of sadness. Like everything in life, there’s only one “first”—then it’s just a beer. More importantly, when the can is empty and the elk blood on our pants is dry, he will no longer be The Boy . . . he will be a young man.
— From The Boy’s First Beer
FOLLOWING UP
Related to topics discussed recently . . .
– Boak & Bailey added to the conversation start by Matthew Curtis about beer criticism, writing, “Drinkers don’t need beer reviews because beer is cheap, regional, subjective – and because making up your own mind is half the fun.”
– And Alan McLeod added more, focusing on “three distinct factors as the prime drivers of this gaping chasm between reality and zeal in beer writing.”
– Re: the launch of the new “indie beer” seal, Pete Brown asks if there is “any product more confusing than beer?” He writes that word-of-mouth works. “People don’t like feeling deceived or ripped off. They do like having little tidbits of trivia that are worth repeating to the people who know slightly less about beer than them.”
– On the “why does craft matter” front, Katie Mather conjured up one of the most fabulous paragraphs of the year: “There has always been a backlash opinion about ‘craft’ beer (I continue to use these shit-eating air quotes around the word because it truly means nothing as a descriptor or as a branding tool) that it’s a niche product and therefore only nerds, hipsters, or losers care about it. I’ve always enjoyed the idea of this hypothetical group of people. Homebrew nerds hanging out with CAMRA vets, hanging out with hipsters, all brought together by their apparent shared obsession with hops. What an image. World peace.
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
– Working inside beer’s sinking ships. Conversations with former staff at several businesses across Australia that have changed hands, gone under, appear to be heading that way, or have been through a process of administration.
– Regional IPA styles. These will have to tide you over until every ZIP code gets its own style. And, yes, I am a fan of 80403 IPA (you know if you know).
– Another GABF review. Now, here’s a question for you. “Will there be a dedicated session to N/A, perhaps with a playground and kids invited?” And you though kids in taprooms caused a kerfuffle.