Monday. Beer links. Trends & lifestyles.

Still not commenting about the Monster Deal. Still can’t get away from navel gazing (final 3 links).

DRINKS FOR BETTY
Over the years patrons started buying drinks for Betty White in the case that she ever returned to Mineral Point, Wisconsin.

THEN CAME MARCH 2020
From the Zenne Valley.

TRENDS
A half dozen. Smoked lager?

LIFESTYLES
– Beer.
– Wine.

LIFESTYLES II
In that first link directly above, Jeff Alworth writes beer is “an everyman (everyperson?) drink.” I would argue craft beer is not. (Please settle for this for now.)

It is good marketing to portray it as a working person’s drink, calling on images of laborers enjoying beer at the end of a shift. Consider this evocative sentence: “There would be twenty or thirty men either sitting on a grass bank of leaning against a wooden fence drinking and chatting before working and when the morning shift came up from work, some of them would buy a drink and stand or sit in the lane before going home.” But when we buy into that nostalgia, it might be best to stop and consider what we are longing for.

CYMBOSPONDYLUS YOUNGORUM
First, a beer was named for a fossil. Later, a species was named for the maker of the beer.

AROMA & FLAVOR
A newish site (still in beta) called “Shepard: Discover the Best Books” asked me to contribute to their list of “best books.” They might have been expecting 5 beer books, but instead I suggested 5 about aroma and flavor. More about the picks Wednesday.

COUNTERPOINT
Jeff Alworth on the state of beer blogging and media. “Grandpa’s old blog may seem peripheral to the media world—though by my reading this couldn’t be more wrong.”

NO COMMENT(S)
A wonderful post from Beth Demmon about the evolution of her personal bucket list would seem to be the sort of blogging Alworth is defending. But there is no opportunity to comment. I guess you have to do that on Twitter.

AN ALTERNATIVE
Why create a subscription site? Because it gives value to writing. Despite this view that all things creative are done simply for passion, writing about wine has a cost whether that’s travel, research, books, education, or just one’s time.

ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE