I am enamored with the potential of question and answer format that Alan McLeod debuted last Thursday. I may give something similar a whirl one of these months. But given that this week’s dispatch is being filed from the Indianapolis International Airport, brevity wins.
POSTMODERN
Last week at the World Brewing Congress (where the photo above was taken), I don’t remember how the conversation turned to the proliferation of beer styles. But Dan Vollmer, senior manager product strategy & research at Boston Beer, said there must be a better way signal to drinkers what to expect from a beer. Samuel Adams best two seasonals, he said, are Octoberfest and Summer Ale. “They both tell you when to drink them,” he said.
Joe Stange started using the term postmodern beer in 2011, if not earlier, at the blog he called Thirsty Pilgrim. He elaborated on it in a 2015 post for Draft magazine (archived by the Wayback Machine). Now Courtney Iseman acknowledges “postmodernism has been a bit of a moving target in beer.”
LOCAL
In case you missed it, I wrote a book titled, “Brewing Local.” I have opinions about “local beer.”
A dozen years ago, this was the topic for The Session.
Last week, Jeff Alworth wrote, “What’s curious is how contingent that concept of local is.” It is, he admitted, a pretty bloggy blog post. One that invites comments (which he would appreciate), kind of like The Session, back in the day.
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
– “Thank You For Paying Black People” I’ve been disappointed not to come across more dispatches from Barrel & Flow 2024. As well as this field report, there was news Em Sauter has a new book, “Pairing Beer With Everything.”
– Not all tastemakers are vintners. Bow & Arrow Brewing CEO Shyla Sheppard and Crafted for Action founder Jen Price snuck into Wine Enthusiast’s wine-heavy Future 40 Tastemakers 2024.
– Because Jack D’Or lives on (you know if you know). The Beer Nut makes a pilgrimage to St Mars of the Desert. He also found Fantastico! “Anyone looking for juicy haze here will be disappointed. I have to say I liked this more serious and adult take on the style, one that isn’t trying to convince you it’s secretly a soft drink.”
– Mash like its 1893. And there is this, “Allegedly, some breweries add fir pitch to the kettle at a rate of 3-4 lb per 100 barrels of wort to impart a pitch flavour to the beer, as the lagering vessels are not pitched but only lacquered.”
– Speaking of local. The sale of Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco (again) means it will be locally owned (again).
Holding onto my last bottle of Pretty Things with some serious sentimentality. Living so close to Buzzards Bay and memories with my late wife. Wednesday would be our 20th anniversary, and I am considering cracking it, but August is pretty warm for a stock ale. (Our finest regards)