Monday beer links, musing 02.10.14

A little curmudgeonly this week. Blame the weather.

– Hype, Backlash, and Hopslam. “Hopslam (nor any other rare beer de jeur) is not the sickness in our beer scene, it is merely a symptom. We have become a beer scene that talks openly about a return to craft beer enjoyment …. We talk a good game, but our actions (and our tweets) say differently.” [Via Charlotte Beer]

– Lagunitas addition adds depth to Chicago beer scene. “In some ways, sizes of craft breweries are irrelevant. The guys I talked to, whether they made 5,000 barrels a year or 100,000 barrels a year, they are looking for other breweries who will support the craft beer movement.”

In all fairness, there’s more to that thought. But, golly, sure this “get along and help each other” spirit has been a factor in more small breweries making better beer. But what brewers are really looking for is people who will buy their beer. Nothing wrong with that, but a fact. Otherwise they’d stick to being homebrewers. “Here, taste my beer. Great, right? Glad you enjoyed it.”

And later in the story Lagunitas owner Tony Magee says, “Some people say we’re in the beer business. I’d say we’re in the tribe building business. Tribes are built on shared stories.” Have you heard the one about how they’re not in the beer business?

[Via Chicago Sun-Times]

– The unexpected way beer is helping this California town get through a historic drought. “The recent installation of an innovative water treatment system at the Bear Republic Brewing Company, along with the ongoing construction of two local wells in part paid for by the company, could go a long way toward keeping Cloverdale afloat before it’s estimated to run out of water in a few months.” [via takepart]

– Has craft beer finally gone too far? Take our ‘quiz’. Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. [Via Atlantic Cities, where the tagline is “Place Matters” – bless ’em]

– Michigan-made malt worth the hefty price tag to local breweries and distilleries. But it’s not easy selling something for 80 cents a pound when out-of-state varieties go for 35 cents. [via MLive]

The Session #84: Drink with your eyes

The plan for the 84th gathering of The Session goes like this: you cannot review the beer.

Huh? Thank goodness, host Oliver Gray provides further guidance, “Write a short story that incorporates the name, an essay based on an experience you had drinking it, or a silly set of pastoral sonnets expressing your undying love for a certain beer. If you don’t feel like writing, that’s fine; plug into your inner Springsteen and play us a song, or throw your budding Van Gogh against the canvas and paint us a bubbly masterpiece.”

Those things will not be happening here. Creating a bit of music might or might not be in my comfort zone, but remember Chekov in Wrath of Kahn? Listening to that, not in your comfort zone.

Let’s try this instead. A beer, a photo that “reviews” it, a word or three to provide a bit of context. It would be better, let’s be honest, if I drank the beer and it inspired me to go shoot a particular photo. Sorry, pulling photos from the archives will have to do. And, again to be honest, at some level we expect beer reviews to give a reader a clue about what flavors, and perhaps other experiences, to expect. Not necessarily happening here. I won’t pretend that what follows means anything to anybody but me.

ALLAGASH CONFLUENCE
Allagash ConfluenceConnections
 
 
CROOKED STEVE HOP SAVANT
Crooked Stave Hop SavantMerry Christmas y’all
 
 
URBAN CHESTNUT STAMMTISCH
Urban Chestnut StammtischDefined
 
 
BOULEVARD TANK 7
Boulevard Tank 7Snap beans
 
 
PERENNIAL ARTISAN ALES ABRAXAS
Perennial Ales AbraxasLiterally

Hops 2014

IndeedAmerica’s smaller brewers — smaller meaning Boston Beer Company on down — produced 7.4 percent of the beer sold domestically in 2013 and used 52 percent of the hops grown domestically.

Takeaway I: If the world’s largest brewers start using hops like America’s smaller ones there will not be enough to go around. Takeaway II: If America’s smaller brewers, joined by smaller brewers elsewhere, keep using hops like they do now we’re going to need a bigger boat.

Karl Ockert, technical director at the Masters Brewers Association of the America, provided the latest numbers in the February MBAA Communicator, reporting on last month’s American Hop Convention.

Chris Swersey presented findings from the Brewers Association annual hop survey indicating that even though average hopping rates remain steady at 1.3 lbs per bbl in craft brews, the continued double-digit growth in that segment is fueling a sustained surge in the consumption of American grown hops, especially aroma varieties. The survey showed that overall consumption rose from 14.4 mm pounds in 2012 to 16.4 mm pounds in 2013 and estimates a consumption of 18.6 mm pounds in the coming year. The 2013 figures represent about 52% of the total amount of hops grown last year in the United States (31.4 mm pounds) in the production of about 7.4% of the beer sold domestically. Brewers of all sizes have learned that the increase in hop use requires advanced contracting and the BA survey indicated that over 90% of responding brewers now contract ahead for their hops. The most popular varieties used in 2013 were (in order) Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, CTZ, Simcoe, Amarillo, Crystal, Willamette, CZ-Saaz, and US Golding.

This focus on hops treasured first for their aroma attributes rather than their bittering efficiency creates challenges. Farmers can lengthen the harvest season — and therefore avoid adding expensive picking equipment and building equally expensive new kilns — by cultivating a range of varieties that mature at different dates. However, many of the varieties now in vogue fall in the same narrower window. In addition, an increasing number of brewers would like those hops dried less efficiently, at cooler temperatures and not piled as high in kilns, because that preserves more of the hop oils responsible for aroma (and by extension flavor).

Some farmers have already invested in new equipment and kilns and more are considering it. The contrast with years past is not lost on Ockert, who was first brewer at BridgePort Brewing in Portland. It was less than a half dozen years ago farmers in the Yakima Valley left hops on the bine because it would have cost them more to pick and dry them than they would have been able to sell them for.

A report in January indicated U.S. growers have picking and drying capacity to handle between 10 and 15 percent growth. An increase in consumption from 16.4 million pounds to 18.6 million pounds amounts to about 13 percent growth. Not a lot of wiggle room there.

Oh, and one more thing, hop processors are starting to bump up against capacity for turning hop cones into pellets in a timely way.

Monday beer links, musing 02.03.14

– Camden Hells, perhaps brewed in Camden Town

Not as local as it looks. The curious case of Camden Hells. Long story, but go read it. Basically, sometimes the beer is brewed at Camden Town brewery (in London) and sometimes not. Lots of reporting by Boak & Bailey and a survey about if, and how much, consumers care about this question: Do you think it is important for a brewery to declare where a beer is made? (I was one of 125 who marked “essential”) Again, go read it, and if you don’t come back I’ll understand.

That’s a glass of Camden Hells in the photo at the top, taken last March in London. The beer was good, but not as crisp as I remembering it being the previous time I had a half pint in 2011. That time I was in England doing research for the hops book, heading on to Germany a few days later. Visiting Private Landbrauerei Schönram in the south of Bavaria I commented to brewmaster Eric Toft that Camden Hells reminded me of Schönramer Hell. It should have, he said, because his brewery had just sold a batch to Camden. That’s why I was drinking it in March, pretty sure it had been brewed in Camden Town and maybe it didn’t taste as crisp to me because I expected it would be less Bavarian. Such are the tricks expectations can play with our senses.

My lack of mental discipline aside, if you head for the comments section of the post you’ll see some people care about place, some don’t, and when the conversation turns to contract brewing there’s a bit of rudeness. Look, I don’t really have a dog in this hunt. This would matter to me if I drank in London more often than every two or three years. And although the tagline here reads “celebrating beer from a place” I recognize not everybody tastes that or cares about it.

Transparency, on the other hand, I do care about all the time. And Camden Town seems to be failing there.

[Via Boak & Bailey’s Beer Blog]

– Hops farming grows slowly despite brewers’ demand. Just noticed this one. Working on a story for Zymurgy magazine I’ve been talking to people in a position to assess the quality of hops grown outside the American Northwest and they are impressed. But success is not a done deal. These newly minted hop farmers cannot compete on the basis of price, and perhaps they never will. [Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

– Craft No More? Largest Norwegian Craft Brewery Sells Out. News that Hansa Borg bought a 54% share of Nøgne Ø is a couple of months old. What’s interesting is the German take on the story and that this question seems to get asked everywhere: “The dilemma of craft beer gone mainstream seems to hinge upon one question: Is there a place in my mind where I can accept the idea of a huge company bringing me excellent beer?” [Via Brew Berlin]

– You’re Only as Old as You Taste: That Time I Ruined Bottles of Hopslam Because SCIENCE! Passed along because I so enjoy reminding you that hop aroma and flavor are delicate. [Via This Is Why I’m Drunk]

– Hoarding beer in Clintonville leaves some hopping mad. Hopslam, Part II. [Via The Columbus Dispatch]

Because we all love a good beer rant

Of course a right proper rant from Andy Thomas, CEO of Craft Brew Alliance, Monday at Beer Business Daily’s Beer Summit grabbed the headline.

But in the midst of his 45-minute presentation to something like 300 beer industry types he rolled over the rock labeled “movement” and suggested “craft beer” could eventually account for 70 percent of all beer sales. Seventy percent. At that point perhaps we might be able to agree to just call it beer.

Brewbound has the details. “Are we really doing what we can to educate consumers about brewers, styles and brands or are we confusing them so much that they will go to something that is easier for them?” Thomas said. And here’s the nut, when he draws a parallel to Starbucks and the evolution of the coffee industry. “Is this a movement and not a trend?” Are we on the cusp of a brave new world?”

Two important bits of context. First the Brewers Association does not define the CBA breweries — including Redhook Ale Brewery and Widmer Brothers, which were among the first “microbreweries” in the Northwest — as craft breweries because AB InBev owns a considerable stake of each. Second, Thomas was talking to members of the trade, not the couple at the local hamburger joint enjoying a locally brewed beer and not the guys lined up at the beer store for the latest limited release.

So on to the rant (worthy of a passage in “The Unbearable Nonsense of Craft Beer – A Rant in Nine Acts”) as channeled through Brewbound:

“We have the honor of having two pioneering craft brands in our portfolio,” Thomas said, referencing Widmer Brothers and Redhook. “Yet, an industry association doesn’t consider us ‘craft.’ Isn’t it time that we stop acting like 13-year olds? That we stop taking ourselves too serious and start talking to consumers and retailers again?”

Thomas elaborated, drawing a link between the socialization models of young adults – the “jocks, stoners and nerds in high school” — and maturing craft brewers.

“We label; we operate in cliques,” he said. “Are you a craft brewer? Did your equity come from a certain place? Do you not use certain ingredients? Name-calling, labeling, craft versus crafty.”

And then he issued a challenge, which seems like it should be an animated gif.

“Don’t bash beer,” he said.

Thomas pled for all members of the beer industry to stop the infighting.

“Don’t elevate yourselves by cutting someone else down,” he said. “Don’t make someone question their beer.”

He emphasized his point, over and over again.

“Don’t bash beer,” he said. “Don’t bash craft beer. Don’t bash crafty beer. Don’t bash domestic beer. Don’t bash imported beer. Don’t bash light beer. Don’t bash brands. Don’t bash brewers. Don’t bash beer consumers. Don’t bash retailers or wholesalers. Don’t bash beer — celebrate beer.”

To reiterate, he wasn’t calling for everybody who talks (and writes) about beer to join hands around the campfire and sing only songs of praise. This was a message to the trade. So feel free to dis that beer in your glass if it deserves the dontdrinkbeer treatment.