The biggest news last week was Teamsters Local 322 has requested Sapporo-Stone Brewing to recognize the union as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of Stone Brewing’s employees.
The Minnesota State Fair concludes today. I mention this because the World Brewing Congress, also in Minnesota, wrapped up only two days before the fair started. It was have been so nice to stick around for all manner of unique Fair Food, much of it fried. In recent years, the fair has added specialty drinks as well. Like Blueberry Pancake Lager, Purple Maize (after all, it is Minnesota), and Mini Donut Beer.
A few lists:
– Best fair food
– New fair food
– Returning specialty sips
– New specialty sips
– Drinks that almost happened
Makes glitter beers seem pretty tame.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK I
Also name of the week
“I think that the dirty little secret of Montana is that we like our beers a little sweeter than we want to admit. I mean, I love IPAs. I drink them all the time. But I think the biggest segment of drinkers like a slightly sweet, smooth beer. The commonality between a Coors Banquet and Cold Smoke is that they’re both a 10 IBU, malt-forward beer.”
— Al Pils
From More Than Just IPA: Across America, Craft Beer Has Surprising Pockets of Regionality
QUOTE OF THE WEEK II
“The prospects of permanent employment in the fermentation industries for Dr Kulka are poor. If she were British and more especially if she were a man, there would be no difficulty in obtaining quite a good position after a little time. In the brewing trades women are rarely employed, even as laboratory assistants, and non-aryans and non-British employees are even more rare.”
— Professor R. Hopkins
From The Story of Dora Kulka, and How One Woman Changed British Beer Forever
WHICH ONE OF THESE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS?
– Meister Brau Lite
– Bud Dry
– Falstaff Lager
– Hair of the Dog Adam
– Kirkland Signature Light Beer
– Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve
Asked because they are among many beers listed as “Once-Popular Beers That Sadly Disappeared”
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
– The Old Stone House. “Inside, there’s no evidence that the last fifty years happened. No music, no WiFi, and definitely no television. When you look closely, you can see that the lights sport modern LED lightbulbs, but they’re so well-hidden it looks like gaslight.” And Pete Brown will take you there.
– A moment of clarity. I can’t buy into the Mendoza Line analogy (which probably speaks to my lack of imagination), but I totally understand how useless IPA terminology can be. For me, ordering draft beer is pretty simple. I ask if the pale ale or IPA is clear or not. I have long given up on the idea that words in front of IPA (such as American or West Coast) mean much. At the store, buying a packaged beer from a brewery I am not familiar with? I probably am not going to if at that moment I only want a bright and hoppy beer.
– A moment of communion. “I present this to show how sometimes a beer offers that shaft of light in a dreary mine. A moment of respite and even of communion.”
– The once-thriving beer biz is losing its fizz. There’s a lot familiar in here, but also new perspective. “The shakeout is absolutely here, there’s no question,” said Dan Kenary, chief executive of Harpoon parent company Mass. Bay Brewing. “A week does not go by when I am not approached about wanting to take a look at a brewery looking to sell, go out of business, or merge.”
– Book of Lists: 3) Best Beer Culture Events. Places you don’t have to think for a moment about the shakeout.
I rather miss Henry Weinhard in college it was one of the first Pacific NW beers too make it to Arizona and it was one of my first go to beer. Their marketing at the time said to call it ‘Hanks’ that you are on a first name basis with the brewer.
Great tidbit. Thanks.
Have a wonderful Labor Day.