Session #86: Beer stories that should be told

Let’s start with a story from Roger Ebert.

My first professional newspaper job was on The News-Gazette in my home town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. I was 15. The pay was 75 cents a hour, eventually climbing even higher. I was not an intern. That was a salary. I was a sports writer, graduating to general assignment in the summer, and I pumped out reams of copy. I recall a special section commemorating the opening of a bowling alley, for which I wrote at least 15 stories, all with my proud byline; I even interviewed a pin-spotter and the owner of a shoe rental franchise.

I am inspired to recall those days because of the coverage of my recent film festival in Champaign-Urbana by Melissa Merli. The quality of her writing was splendid, her curiosity was boundless and her word volume was worthy of a bowling alley. Merli interviewed every star or director, wrote about all the movies, covered the panel discussions and the Q & A sessions, wrote about the 70mm projection and even profiled Chuck and Eileen Kuenneth, who met in my University of Chicago film class in 1983, were married in 1991, and were at their fifth or sixth Ebertfest.

Other writers also contributed to the paper’s coverage, but it was Merli’s story, and she covered it right down to the ground and put a tarp on it. I was awestruck. Outsiders might sympathize with poor overworked Melissa, but many newspaper veterans will understand that she had an ideal assignment: Write all you want about something you care about. The complaint of many journalists in these latter days of cost-cutting is that they have to boil stories into info-nuggets. As you approached Merli’s third byline on the same page, you could feel her enthusiasm and her joy in her work. I’d hire her on any paper I edited.

[“I Was a Teenage Newshound,” May 1, 2008, RogerEbert.com]

Now consider this from Michael Shapiro, founder of The Big Roundtable, “a digital publishing platform that aims to connect passionate nonfiction writers with readers who will support their work.” He was speaking at a “The Future of Digital Longform Journalism” conference last December.

For several years I was a judge at the National Magazine Awards, and found ever more that while the stories I was reading while not bad, seldom lifted off the page. The writing had become so formulaic, so safe-anecdotal lead, nut graph, quote from eminent sociologist. It was ever harder to find a story that you sensed a writer needed to tell.

The SessionThe topic for the 86th gathering of The Session is “Beer Journalism.” And it is fair enough that you roll your eyes and mutter to yourself, “Haven’t we talked this to death?” Perhaps, recently, in fact. And that includes replies to some of the questions host Heather Vandenengel suggests addressing: “What role do beer writers play in the culture and growth of craft beer? Are we advocates, critics, or storytellers?” One new link and one old reference before bending her next question into one that suits my purposes.

– Jeff Rice, organizer of the Craft Writing Symposium at the University of Kentucky, jumped The Session a bit by posting his contribution — Narrative Piss — when the topic was announced. And it is a lovely bit of storytelling, even if Rice describes himself as a writer, “though not a beer writer.”

– I’ve written before that I would have liked to have been able to have asked Michael Jackson just what he meant when he wrote this in the last column he dispatched to All About Beer magazine, printed after he died in 2007: “Being a critic is one of the things I do for a living. Being a reporter is another. Is a reporter a fearless seeker-out of truth, neutral and objective? Or does he recruit those qualities in support of his personal passions? When I enlisted, at the age of sixteen, I may have been attracted by the powerful purity of the first role. In the event, I grew into the second.”

So to Vandenengel’s next question, “What stories are not getting told and what ones would you like to never hear about again?” That seems pretty much like asking what stories should be told. Those decisions are as central to journalism as getting the facts right and spelling names correctly. Sitting through a three-hour sewer board meeting is not nearly as much fun as covering a championship basketball game — I know this from experience — but when the sewer board decides to impose a large levy on everybody in a neighborhood it is kind of important to the people who live there. It is one of those stories that needs to be told, although not necessarily the sort Shapiro is talking about.

We need more stories like “Conserving Water: The Fight to Protect Beer’s Main Ingredient” a few months ago in All About Beer magazine, or “Labor of Love” in the February issue of Beer Advocate. And they sure as heck should not be exclusive to beer focused publications. These are local stories that local media must be paying attention to. When “newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, TV, books and radio” in places like Portland (either one), Boulder County, or Asheville, N.C., gush about all the positives of breweries do you get a sense they are asking the same questions Livia Gershon did for Beer Advocate?

Perhaps it is noteworthy that Gershon writes a lot about jobs (“I’m definitely more interested in and knowledgeable about labor than beer,” she wrote in an email.) From a distance her portfolio looks like those are stories she needs to tell. That’s why Courtney Cox, managing editor at BA, recruited Gershon to write “Labor of Love.” Cox provided background via email:

“The idea first struck me two years ago, during a conversation with a head brewer at one of the largest and most beloved craft breweries around — he was telling me how exhausting and time-consuming his job is, how high the turnover is, and how much physical labor is involved. It’s a side of the industry people don’t see, even people who desperately want those brewer gigs, creating a supply/demand market that employers could really exploit if they wanted to. Craft brewing is taking off at the same moment that the labor movement is really struggling, so I wanted to look into how, as the industry grows, craft breweries adapt (or not) to their new roles as major players in the (also struggling) manufacturing economy. In terms of beer journalism, I think it’s important to hold on to the idea of the journalist as a watchdog — we have to hold the industry accountable and stay ahead of these issues as they come up.

“I chose Livia after reading her article in Salon, which aligned with the angles and themes I was hoping to explore with the BA story. I’d been looking for a journalist with experience covering labor relations, and her reporting in that Salon piece was so impressive. She brought the same hard-nosed reporting style to the BA project.”

The story ran about 2,400 words, not long for a magazine but longer than usual for a daily newspaper. Gershon wasn’t quite sure how many hours she put in on the story, doing research and interviews during the course of a month in which she also worked on other articles. “BA was super helpful in putting out a call to readers who work in the industry,” she wrote in the email. “That’s where I got most of the rank-and-file people I talked with (I probably interviewed about 10 of those people and didn’t quote all of them, but the interviews were really helpful to my understanding of the industry.) I also drove down to the Harpoon brewery in Boston and talked to some workers in the parking lot — that didn’t make it into the story, but it made me more confident that what I was hearing from the people who reached out to BA was typical for the industry.”

A story that could use similar attention right now is the one about possible government regulations that would change how brewers dispose of spent grains. There are others. They don’t all need to be filed under investigative journalism. It’s not like Gershon uncovered a scandal. In fact, she saw many of the same positives that are so much fun to write about. “Honestly, I was surprised at how passionate people are about beer. I know some home brewers and beer nerds, but I had no idea how many people in the industry — even just working the bottling lines at bigger craft breweries — seem to be part of that culture,” she added in that email.

Journalism cuts a wide swath. There are different reasons a variety of stories related to beer need to be written, and I sure hope that people interested in getting the facts straight and spelling the names right step up to tackle the ones I’m too lazy to pursue. My interest these days includes the process of brewing and how beer connects people, and I think the best way to understand that is through stories. Meanwhile, I’m inclined to think the core values at The Big Roundtable provide a good touch point. Filed under the subsection Journalism: “Our background is in journalism. Our interest is in true stories. We founded the Big Roundtable as a home for wonderfully-told nonfiction. We hope to make good on a promise made during the era of New Journalism, that has since fallen to the wayside, to publish nonfiction writing that uses unconventional literary techniques.”

Cattle, spent grain, and hops

No surprise that the Brewers Association and Beer Institute have come out so firmly against a proposal that would make it harder and more expensive for breweries to sell or give away their spent grains. (The BA’s statement is here.) If the Food and Drug Adminstration does not afford some sort of relief then it will end up costing brewers and/or beer drinkers (likely both).

That doesn’t mean the new rules are necessarily a bad idea. Nobody is saying that spent grain is bad for cattle. However, the FDA rules are are part of a broad modernization of the food safety system. “This proposed regulation would help prevent foodborne illness in both animals and people,” the agency said in the statement. So it seems like Colorado senator Mark Udall has the best idea: “That’s why I am urging the FDA to swiftly complete a risk assessment of brewers’ uses of spent grains as a cost-effective and safe livestock feed. When brewers succeed, so do countless other businesses and sectors of our economy.”

Reading about this reminded me of a bit of history that, because of space logistics, got cut out of “For the Love of Hops.” This comes from “Hops: Their Cultivation, Commerce, and Uses in Various Countries,” written by P.L. Simmonds in 1877:

“A farmer in the north of France, having been driven by the scarcity of fodder to try to make use of whatever fell in his way for feeding his cattle, proved that hop leaves were a valuable element of food for cows when mixed with other substances. He found that whenever he gave them hop leaves he always obtained more milk and his cows throve better than usual. The leaves must be used as soon as they are plucked, for the cows object to them when dried by the sun.”

Colorado IPA? Wild? Cakey? Caramelly?

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 03.31.14

– Firkfest 2014 Press Roundup./ I was reminded just how crazy big and different American beer has become last week in Anaheim, California. I walked through swarms of people in mouse ears and other Disney wearables, on their way to Disneyland obviously, as I headed north a couple of miles to the first Firkfest, and thus I might have been disoriented when I arrived. It was educational on two levels — first for the variety of choices, both from breweries I am familiar with and others seemingly brand new; second, you’ll if you visit the links in the roundup, for how many people may write about, and post pictures from, just about any beer event these days. Without restirring the discussion of what the word movement in “craft beer movement” means this level of participation does seem to suggest a “movement” of some sort. And I was introduced to still another blog, Cask LA Ale, which provides regular updates about what’s available on cask in the LA area. A big and different beer world, indeed. [Via OC Beer Blog]

– Drinking In A Place – Just Differently. As the following two links illustrate, I’m always up for reading about about place — particularly when memories are thrown into the mix. But as a point of order, from the get-go discussions about the importance where a beer is enjoyed have always been part of the marching orders here. [Via A Good Beer Blog]

– Rise of our regional style: Colorado Wild IPA. I’m not sure how I feel about the notion that Florida Weisse is a new regional style, but whenever I see the words “regional” and “style” together I feel compelled to pass the link along to Jeff Alworth, which I did on Twitter last week. Tweets went all sorts of directions from there. And eventually there was this . . . [Via Focus on the Beer]

– Beer Styles in Their Native Habitat. At the end the discussion is no longer about “Wild IPA” but a statement that Colorado has “a particular take on the IPA, which is thick and cakey and super caramelly.” Is that true? [Via Beervana]

– Beer Homerism, Beer Lists, and the Tidal Wave of Trendiness. “The subject of this post is a couple of current phenomena that have nagged at the edges of the beer culture for a while now and I’m fairly sure that my views on them are going to offend some people.” It rambles, but there’s something sensible about somebody who writes, “Don’t, for that matter, quote ME about anything I write unless you’ve got a little history with [me].” And I have to include one more sentence, “Those beer lovers who actually know beer and don’t obey the current Buzz are, even now, being forced to step out of the way of the roving trendies or be trampled.” [Via Seattle PI]

Friday beer: Will the real ‘blueberry hop’ please stand up?

If I had a blueberry anosmia1 this would make more sense, but I can identify blueberries in a blind tasting, or blueberry muffins or even blueberry beer. So why, when I smell a beer rich with Mosaic hop aroma don’t I perceive blueberries? Or when I take a deep whiff of Sierra Nevada Harvest Single IPA with what the label calls “Yakima #291″ hops”?

This really doesn’t bother me much. It could be worse. One-third of the population is blind to beta-ionone, a compound with a floral note particularly prominent in Saaz hops. I’m not in that group. It would suck not to be able to fully appreciate Saaz.

But why did the guy pouring in a Santa Barbara area wine tasting room last week say, “Now, Mosaic, there’s a blueberry hop”? It’s certainly not the first time I’ve heard somebody say that. Or how about this description of the Harvest Single IPA at the Sierra Nevada web site? “Blueberry in a beer! The consensus? That’s flavor fit for a bottle.” OK, it doesn’t really bother me that much. There are plenty of reasons that smell is referred to as the “most enigmatic of our senses.”

But it’s interesting you and I might rate blueberry aroma equally intense in one case, say a pie, and differently in another — simply because other aroma compounds are present. Before I head down that rabbit hole, back to the Harvest Single IPA, which has been hard to come by in our parts but we found easily last week in California.

As much as the mysteries of aroma fascinate me, so do the ins and outs of hop genetics. (So this might be the time you want to gently ease your way to another ready.) Mosaic is a daughter of Simcoe and a male plant called 986-2. Simcoe is a bit of a pungent brute, its aroma a calling card for American-style IPAs, sometimes called dank and, depending on your genetic disposition, downright “catty.”

HBC 291 — the name it was patented under, but not the name it will have if it goes into wider production — is a daughter of Glacier and a male called 9902(2). Glacier is much more demure than Simcoe, though not nearly as popular. Farmers planted about 1,260 acres of Simcoe in 2013, compared to less than 100 of Glacier. Its stone fruit character, notably peach, apparently is not as hip. Glacier is a daughter of the endangered French variety Strisselspalt, one of those hops I fear we will miss deeply when she is gone.

Before I lapse into further melancholy, the point here is that two very different mothers produced hops that when introduced into beer2 contribute to a blueberry aroma. Or don’t.

*****

1 Anosmia in a condition in which a person with an otherwise normal sense of smell cannot detect a specific type of odor molecule. It may also describe a complete loss of smell, which may or may not be temporary. The former is rather common, the latter depressing and much more rare.

2 HBC 291 was one of the hops available to evaluate last year when I spoke at Hop Union’s Hop & Brew School. It is important to remember that what you smell from a raw hop doesn’t necessarily translate into the same aroma in a beer. The interaction with yeast changes compounds. Anyway, HBC was the most pleasant of the varieties we smelled, HBC 438 as the most divisive (I was in the “love it” camp), and Mosaic sucked, reeking of diesel fuel (not indicative of the overall crop). My notes for HBC 291 describe it as “really clean, floral/spicy, a herbaceous note reminiscent of Centennial.” Still nothing about blueberry.

Corona Light, IBUs & sophisticated drinkers

MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 03.24.14

Corona Takes Aim at Craft Tap Handles. Passed along because I learned in this article that Corona Light has 18 IBUs. “The consumer today — with the increase in micro-breweries, craft beer and digital media — is more sophisticated. Now they understand IBUs. If you mentioned that 10 years ago to a consumer, they might not have known.” Beware of anybody who tells you they understand IBUs. [Via Brewhound]

Remembering Dr. James Kollar (1946 – 2014) — Chesbay founder, craft beer pioneer. The brewery lasted only from 1984 until 1988, but its influence remains today. [Via Yours in Good Fermentables]

A View from the Notch. Chris Lohring at Notch Brewing talks with Max Bahnson about his decision not to renew his membership in the Brewers Association, and also about contract brewing. [Via Pivní Filosof]

Is there too much Oregon beer? Not yet, economist says. “Damon Runberg said he sees the potential for market saturation of the bigger regional breweries, but still lots of room for smaller brewpubs that serve a specific community or neighborhood.” [Via The Oregonian]

Micropubs – revolution or fad? From Martyn Cornell: “So far the micropub movement has avoided any sort of critical backlash – but I fear it won’t be long before another definition of ‘micropub’ appears, based on a TripAdvisor review of the ‘original’ micropub, The Butcher’s Arms in Herne, Kent: ‘Five grumpy old men in a 10ft square space.'” [Via Propel.info]

Are Standing Tasting Bars Better than Seated? The drink is wine and “better” means sales, but maybe people who post beer ratings should include a note about if they are seated or standing when taking notes. [Via SVB on Wine]