1. The Yuletide 2013 Beery Photo Contest Rules. [via A Good Beer Blog]
2. Homebrewers make 1% of beer brewed in US. [via Real Beer]
3. Troy Casey leaving AC Golden to strike out on his own with Casey Brewing and Blending. [via The Denver Post]
4. Philadelphia bar posts its beer inventory online. [via Joe Sixpack]
5. Forget Barley And Hops: Craft Brewers Want A Taste Of Place. “Beer from a place” has a familiar ring. [via Oregon Publish Broadcasting]
Those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know last week I was in Argentina, a guest of Asociación Civil Somos Cerveceros. I’ll get around to describing some of the interesting things I saw . . . eventually. Meanwhile, a few links I saved during the course of catching up.
1, & 2. An economist looks at the definition of “craft beer” and adds useful perspective. But speaking of perspective, Ed Wray (@TheBeerFather) finds away for us to smile while listening to The Conversation That Will Not Die:
“Craft beer is … about the flavour. And that flavour is grapefruit. No need to worry about share transactions or production figures, just have a swig and ask yourself ‘can I taste grapefruit?’ If you can it’s craft, if you can’t it isn’t.” This will allow for discussions that address important questions, like “is this beer still grapefruity since the brewery’s been taken over?”
3. The Most Popular Beer In Each State Of The USA – Listed! [Via @draftmag] Hopapalooza IPA from Big Shoulders Beer Company in Illinois … Really?
4. The Shape of A Beer Style. From Beer Graphs, which has tossed out a variety of ideas I’m still trying to get my head around.
5. Christine Celis reclaims the family business. [Via the Austin Chronicle.]
The topic for the 81st gathering of The Session is Beer Feminists (or Scary Beer Feminists or a Healthy Growing Demographic?). I hope this in on, rather than off, topic.
Judith M. Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World 1300-1600 is a terrific resource, full of information about beer and brewing in England. One review describes it as “pedantic.” That works for me, as do the footnotes leading to still more useful resources.
The second half of the title — Women’s Work in a Changing World — seems as relevant to today’s topic as the first six words. Women, called brewsters, made and sold most of the ale drunk in England in 1300. By 1600 the production of ale and beer was much more profitable, and controlled by men. Additionally, the male form, brewer, became the only noun referring to men or women who made beer (although in a few places, notably northern England, brewster was the default). Bennett makes sure we understand why.
I had originally conceived the project as a story of change, a story of how women were forced out of an industry as it became profitable and prestigious.
Instead she tells the story a different way.
… the substantial transformation occurred not in women’s opportunities for good employment but in brewing itself. Although in 1300 women had brewed for profit more frequently than they would in 1600, the status of their work did not really change. In 1300, brewsters were able to work because the trade was accessible to them; as low-status, low-skilled, poorly remunerated work, it attracted little male participation. … In 1600, women still worked in areas of brewing that remained low status, low skilled, and poorly paid. … they hawked ale in the streets, they sold ale from their homes, and they carried ale on their back from brewhouses to clients.
The book, as others she has written, is about feminism and history. “I have tried, in other words, to give patriarchy a history by showing how, in one trade, the broad relationship between male advantage and female disadvantage remained unchanged in a changing world,” she writes in the first chapter.
Bottom line, her book provides important context for a lively discussion about beer feminism.
1. Finally. A beer definition worth fighting for. [Rob Fullmer, Beer PHXation]
2. Boulevard & Duvel-Moortgat: Q&A with brewer Jeremy Danner. [KC Beer Blog]
3. How much do wine writers earn writing about wine? [VINOGRAPHY: a wine blog]
4. Big beer brewers seek ‘craft’ cred. [Washington Post]
5. South Africans acquire taste for craft beers. [Voice of America] Which means, of course, they can look forward to long, boring debates about the definition of “craft beer.”
1. Futurism, Progress And Good Beer. [Alan McLeod, A Good Beer Blog]
2. Getting paid. [Pete Brown]
3. Talk of ABI play for SABMiller heating up again. [Shanken News Daily]
4. Horse Brass turns 37; Pilsner Urquell turns 170 … celebrate with an air-freighted keg of way-fresh Czech pilsner. [Oregon Live]
5. Bra-Burning Feminists Drive Wine Sales. That it is perhaps vaguely related to Friday’s Session topic probably coincidence. [SVB on Wine]