Monday beer reading: Craft is dead, but, then, who cares?

Is this how you describe a beer?

This past week, Katie Mather asked, “I love leading tasting sessions, but do people actually want to know about cryo hops and malt varieties?”

The short answer is, “Some do, most don’t.”

Mather wrote, “I truly think there’s a wall between the beer world and the average drinker, built by lack of info but conversely, by a vast, impenetrable-seeming pile of details. That’s why I like running tasting sessions. It feels in that moment like I’m knocking that wall down.”

That hasn’t necessarily changed in the past 40 years. “People forget you had to explain beer styles 50 times a night,” said John Hickenlooper, co-founder of Colorado’s first brewpub, Wynkoop, and now a U.S. senator. “It was like being the first one on the Santa Fe Trail . . . a lot of boulders to move.”

I thought of this Saturday in Seattle. We were at a brewery when Daria pointed out to me that Untappd offers users an imposingly complete list of words to describe the beer in their glass. That’s a screen shot above, turned sideways, so you can see some of the C words. Impenetrable? Perhaps not, but it does suggest that appreciating a beer requires some special skill. It does not.

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Monday beer reading: Lager yeast, sexism & premiumization

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram in Bavaria

A Washington Post story yesterday discusses how “scientists in Chile harnessed the biodiversity of Patagonia to make novel yeast hybrids, potentially paving the way for new lager beer flavors.”

Early on, the principal investigator (that means he has skin in the game), says, “All the lager beers that we drink now come from a single event from a yeast generated 500 years ago. That makes most of the lager beers quite similar.”

Coincidentally, last week Good Beer Hunting posted almost 4,000 words about lager yeast.

My nit to pick in the first is that lagers don’t have to taste quite similar. In the second, this is not what I think the best brewers do: “When we think about the history of lager, we’re talking about the history of brewers and scientists trying to understand how to get yeast to do what they want.” My experience is that the real skill is figuring at what yeast want and giving it to them. That’s when the magic happens.

The strains coming out of Patogonia may well produce unique flavors, but that’s no excuse to diss what brewers are already using. In “Modern Lager Beer,” the authors point out that there are “notable difference even within lager strains bearing the same 34/70 moniker.”

Two brewers traveled around Bavaria sourcing yeast directly to assist Brewing Science Institute mapping out variations. The samples they selected displayed differences in maltotriose fermentation, attenuation, sulfur production, acetyaldehyde production, diacetyl removal, and ester production. The authors also cite research that confirms that lager strains adapt to their environment, finding that chromosomal variations can begin to occur within a dozen generations.

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LEDE OF THE WEEK

DEI is so 2021. For many in the beer industry, as well as in the wider world, diversity, equity and inclusion has become old news, no longer worthy of column inches.

“I believe that the progress of social advocacy work in craft beer is in danger of stalling out completely or even rolling backward,” academic, activist and DEI professional Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham stated in a post on Crafted For All in September 2023. It echoed the feelings of many other DEI activists and advocates in the industry: One of powerlessness, frustration, and lack of support and progress has led to large-scale burnout.

— From Apathy Has Rained On Me — On DEI Burnout in the Beer Industry

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Process: Where greatness and quality meet

Jack's Abby Porch Fest

A can of Jack’s Abby beer

Thirty-eight years ago, Brewers Publications released its first title, “Brewing Lager Beer.”

Ten years later, when an expansive update, “NEW Brewing Lager Beer,” was published, author Greg Noonan wrote, “The trickle of knowledge available to craft and homebrewers when this book was first published has become a flood.”

Twenty-eight more years later, the newest book from Brewers Publications is “Modern Lager Beer.”

The flood has not abated, but new information is not all about MLB that is different. BLB was never just about lagers. It followed a “how to” approach, and served as a manual for home- and microbrewers, as they were known at the time. MLB is only about brewing lager and takes more of a “how they” approach. Authors Jack Hendler and Joe Connolly of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers spoke with more than 70 brewers and beer professionals before they wrote the book.

What is the same is an important lesson: There is no one way to brew great beer, but there is a way.

The authors get right to the point in the introduction.

“When American craft brewers create lagers, they often do so without changing any of the processes or brewing techniques they use for their ales,” they write, later adding, “while American craft ale fermentation is at the absolute cutting edge of quality, American craft lager is lagging woefully behind.”

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Monday beer reading: News, insights & pub crawling

First up, this is not a place for breaking beer news. I like to think the RSS feeds I subscribe keep me in touch without paying much attention to social media. Thus I was surprised Sunday to come across the news, from several days earlier, that co-founder Marcus Baskerville is stepping away from Weathered Souls Brewery in San Antonio. So surprised that I did a quick search on X and saw only a single mention.

Here’s the news. The co-founder and head brewer who was the force behind the Black is Beautiful beer initiative that has raised millions of dollars will be doing something else soon. He told MySA “he’ll open up about his next steps, once he’s ready.”

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LEDE OF THE WEEK

In 2010, U.S. craft beer was hurtling fast toward the mainstream. Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione had a reality show on the Discovery Channel, New York Magazine was writing about saison, and the Brewers Association was shifting its outreach into high gear with new advocacy campaigns. But as it gained popularity, craft beer remained a mostly white, mostly male business. In Chicago, a small brewery was a decade ahead of its time in trying to change that.

. . .

But 14 years after the dream of 5 Rabbit was born, its beers are just a memory.

— From “Chasing Rabbits — What Happened to the Latin American-Inspired Brewery in the U.S.?”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I have a theory about hip-hop, which is that you have to keep coming up with new theories.”

— This is actually a line from Questlove’s new book, “Hip-Hop Is History,” but let’s treat it as if he said it and then replace “hip-hop” with “beer.” Something to talk about next session at the pub.

Stillage

DID SOMEBODY SAY CASK?

It appears that many words were spilled after Jeff Alworth asked What if CAMRA Had Valued Quality Over Romance? The nut:

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Monday beer reading: Hops, haze & sustainability

Hop cones working their way through a picker

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Evan Rail writes about the size of the drink industry’s carbon footprint. Huge. “But don’t despair,” he writes, “there are ways to fix the carbon impacts of the drinks we love.”

And if this report is to be believed, beer drinkers are willing to help. In a survey of 3,500 drinkers, almost half said they would pay up to 30 percent more for a more sustainably produced beer.

More than 60 percent said “that the sustainability of their beer now directly affected their choices in pubs, bars and supermarkets. 80 percent believe that reducing waste is relevant to sustainable beer production, 76 percent cite a reduction in energy and 63 percent also note the importance of reducing water use.”

Pardon my skepticism, but a 30 percent increase makes a $7.50 pint (when you can find one at the price) at $9.75 pint. What if the question had been put to them that way? I am reminded about discussions with hop merchants and their efforts to sell more sustainable hops. “In our experience, brewers are interested in the information and want to support the general notion of sustainability. But, it’s a very rare brewer/brewery that will actually let this influence what varieties they use,” said Indie Hops co-founder Jim Solberg.

TAKING THE BAIT

Jeff Alworth writes that he is setting “set forth compiling a modern-day version of the Book of Lists here, on the subject of beer.” Is he serious, is this different from listicles like one about “overrated hazy IPAs” linked to below? But he started with hops, so how can I not comment?

I’m not above trying these exercises in the privacy of my mind, or even within a group of drinking companions. I get asked what my favorite hop might be all the time. Once, nearly six years ago, Jeff and I were in a group sharing beers at the Benedictine Brewery below the Mount Angel Abbey. I came up with a list of the “most significant” hops in history, based on the influence they played across time. (Sounds presumptuous, doesn’t it?)

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