MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 08.17.15

The saga of Biscuit continues.
It starts with a somebody at Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis causing “Tom Brady Sux” to be printed on the bottom of 20,000 cans of beer and goes from there. Sun King does not sell its beer beyond the borders of Indiana, but it is not a small brewery. Oskar Blues Brewing, of course, operates breweries in two states and ships beer all over. But this is definitely not the way to act corporate. And for many people defining what constitutes “craft” includes considering what it is not. (There’s also all this.) [Via Eater]

Danish farmhouse ale.
“So what happened to all this brewing? That’s difficult to say. Most places it had died out already at the time the responses were written. Per Kølster found an old woman on northern Funen who was still brewing in 2005, so probably the tradition is not yet entirely dead, but that’s the only sign I’ve ever seen of it still being alive anywhere.” [Via Larsblog]

Craft Creep.
Practical thoughts. [Via Are You Tasting the Pith]

Inside the world’s most prestigious water-tasting competition.
Started reading, couldn’t stop. [Via The Week]

How ‘Rock Star’ Became a Business Buzzword.
Remember the discussion of brewers as rock stars? Not looking like a compliment these days. [Via New York Times]

Interactive Map Shows America’s Regional Beer Preferences According to Twitter.
Twitter maps show Americans’ beer preferences.
Sorry there aren’t more links this week, but sometimes I look at the accumulated headlines and think, “Haven’t I read this before?
[Via First We Feast and Phys.org]

But there’s still Twitter

Any guesses as to what these are? pic.twitter.com/y6cfWtqRID

— Simply Hops (@SimplyHops) August 14, 2015

and …

I'm going to assume if you mention Berlin and Reinheitsgebot in the same breath you are being intentionally funny.

— David Berg (@schellbrewer) August 16, 2015

WEDNESDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 08.12.15

Holiday officially over. Jet lag hanging on.

The 2015 NAGBW Awards Now Open.
I don’t know what category I will be judging this year, but I would really appreciate it if there are some well written, interesting entries. I read an awful lot of stuff during the course of a year (even more than ends up here) that should be entered and isn’t. [Via North American Guild of Beer Writers]

On ethics and beer descriptions.
A quick followup to last week’s discussion about beer ethics: Andy Crouch elaborates in the August issue of Beer Advocate magazine. Can’t give you a link, so look for it in print or grab a digital copy. But in the “Let’s be realistic” department I will note that more people care about “Romancing the Beer.” Jeff Alworth writes, “I read a fair amount about beer, and by my lights, the art of beer descriptions is in full flower.” In fact, All About Beer magazine has recently increased the number of beers it describes and I haven’t seen any letters to the editor calling for more stories about ethics. In this space, the best read post this year will “Words to describe the beer you are tasting” and it was written more than seven years ago. (In addition, full credit should go to Merchant du Vin.) The second best read post will likely be about hops, as well as the third. I doubt anything related to ethics is in the top twenty. [Via All About Beer and Beer Advocate]

A Visit to Rochefort brewery.
There’s a bit of news in this report — that Rochefort has begun using Aramis hops. What do they taste and smell like? Oskar Blues Brewery fairly recently added Aramis to the recipe for Mama’s Little Yella Pils. [Via Ed’s Beer Site]

Is Sam Adams too big to succeed in the craft world?
“Brewpubs, for example, are ‘creating a bigger wave of competition,’ [Jim] Koch said. ‘If you have a successful social hall or bar as part of your brewery, you can be profitable at fairly small volumes.’ He said he doesn’t see that trend abating because not only is it profitable, but drinkers like it.” [Via Fortune]

Who Was Joseph Coppinger, Early 1800s US Beer Geek?
“The trouble with finding an old text in isolation like the one I wrote about yesterday is establishing some context. Without it, you are at the whim of the person’s claim to fame as opposed to his or her place.” [Via A Good Beer Blog]

Fun With Numbers: Sums and Sommeliers Edition.
On Cicerones, Sommeliers, and The Cult of The “Expert”
I’m of the opinion that the Cicerone program is good for beer drinkers, but I must also disclose Ray Daniels and I have been friends since before you had to put on sun glasses if you happened to gaze at our unhatted heads. Nonetheless, Jordan St. John has assembled some interesting numbers (supplemented in the comments) that led me to wonder why nobody has added the “How many Cicernones is too many Cicerones?” to the “How many brewers is too many breweries?” question. [Via St.John’s Wort and The Pour Fool]

Fred Eckhardt died yesterday. No matter how many descriptions you read in the next few days of what a generous man, just plain generous, he was I doubt any will do him justice. More accurately, I’ve typed and deleted enough attempts I know they won’t came from me.

So I recommend you pull “The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution” off the shelf and read the six pages Tom Acitelli devoted to him. Then see what treasures All About Beer posts from its archives (this is a good one to start with).

Added Tuesday afternoon: “The late Fred Eckhardt: ‘He was the cosmic giggle of craft beer'”

Related: “Bottled beers types and categories (1977).”

The Session #102: “The Landscape of Beer” inspired quite a range of interesting looking posts. To be honest, I’m jet lagged and struggling to catch up, so I kept clicking links and Pocketing posts — but I intend to get to them soon.

Meanwhile, host Allen Huerta writes, “A commonly occurring theme between a number of post is the realization of a higher level of quality that is needed for new, and existing, craft breweries to strive.”