Monday musing: Is this thing on?*

Thursday, Alan McLeod quoted Boak & Bailey (first paragraph) and then added his own thoughts, as is his habit.

B&B: The news of the return of the Great British Beer Festival did somewhat gladden our hearts, even though we don’t really like beer festivals, and haven’t always had a great time at GBBF. It just felt as if something was missing from the calendar this year when it didn’t happen. All the old problems will no doubt still apply, however: how do you make a big, drafty conference centre feel anything like as pleasant as a pub?

AM: Somehow I don’t believe they were thinking of “Lucha Libre Mexican Wrestling and Mechanical Bull Riding” as the solution to that conundrum. Yee. Haw. We shall wait on reports from these events before issuing our final condemnations… err… thoughts.

Not many hours later, Daria and I were at the Great American Beer Festival. We walked by the wrestling, but did not stop. We never saw the bull riding. If you were looking for a specific brewery, the layout was at times confusing. But I liked that the “Fright” area was dimly (very dimly) lit, that the National Black Brewers Association area was much more prominently placed than last year, and the proximity of “Meet the Brewer” to Homebrew Headquarters.

So I thought, maybe they should rebrand the event as the Great American Beer Experience. Looking back at what Boak and/or Bailey wrote, I did not think, maybe even include a pub experience into the festival. That would be foolish. Instead, I considered that one beer experience does not fit all, and I happen to have photos from the weeks since I last posted anything other than an out of office message here.

Guinness Storehouse

Guinness pints, awaiting part two of the pour

Point glasses, their work done -- From the pub at the end of the Guinness experience

The basic “Guinness Experience” (there are add-ons) rises through seven floors, finishing with a pint at the top, which offers a 360-degree view of the massive brewery and the surrounding neighborhood.

Pints outside Helen's Bar on the Beara Peninsula near Kenmare, Ireland

Some patrons at Helen’s Bar on the Beara Peninsula arrived and left by boat. We came and left by bike, and Guinness Zero seemed like the best option.

Dick Mack's brewery, pub & leather shop in Dingle, Ireland

Several pubs in Dingle serve more than beer. We particularly enjoyed Foxy John’s Pub & Hardware store, which also rents bikes. This photo is from Dick Mack’s Brewery & Pub, which also sells leather goods.

Sideways view of brewers serving beer at the Great American Beer Festival

A sideways few of brewers in the National Black Brewers Association area. Nine breweries were serving beer. A tenth black-owned brewery, Tapped 33, poured beer in the Meet the Brewer area.

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY

Because you might have realized there are still stories like this. Why beer is still changing and interesting. The kicker: “All that said, (Sarah) Real says she tries to keep brewing interesting for her across the board. ‘[It is about] where can I cross over [with my creations], or how can I say, ‘All right, I like what’s happening here. Should I tinker with it?’ Because I can absolutely tinker with a recipe forever. But I will also be like, ‘You know what? People like this one [as it is] or they like that one. Good. Let me start working on something else.’”

“It is really the people here.” Why it makes sense for a brewery pub to close rather than pass into the hands of a new owner.

Real ale as folk horror. “Beer loosens inhibitions. Beer puts people in touch with their animal instincts. Beer is magic.”

40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 63. “Arguably the most famous state fair competition entry did not win a medal. It came from FOSSILS co-founder Barrie Ottersbach and was called ‘Smoked Spruce Ale,’ although some of the judges thought they detected Mr. Clean.”

Un-diversifying. Tilray, the company which has been scooping up breweries that AB InBev and MillerCoors grew bored with, is planning to reduce the number of beers those breweries make. “We’re looking at how to take complexity out of our business.”

What might Marcus Baskerville be up to? “An elevated bar and lounge experience with affordable cocktails and craft brews,”

* Should you wonder, the question in the title is a reference to a Todd Snyder song.

Out of office message

Somewhere along the northwest edge of the United States

A few links before an upcoming hiatus that will continue until after the Great American Beer Festival. If you find yourself missing me, I’ll be there Oct. 11.

Were I inclined to take the time, which I am not, I would explain how the following links relate to a question I’ve been trying to make sense of for too long now. First I have to figure out how to properly phrase that question. Call it a work in progress.

Tilray lays off 10 Barrel Brewing’s entire Innovation Brewing Team and Carnage at 10 Barrel. The usually wise Ron Pattinson once wrote, “I don’t want innovative beer.” I do.

Craft Beer Can’t Afford to Be Local Anymore. Ahem, and not just because I wrote a book called “Brewing Local.” Local is still part of the DNA for, like, 90 percent of the small breweries in the country. Not 90 percent of the volume of craft beer sold, which is what this story is about.

Soon 30 years ago, Daria and I were standing on the former “killing floor” of a sausage factory that had become Left Hand Brewing with co-founder Eric Wallace (this was one of those times when you remember exactly where you were when you heard something). Wallace, who figures prominently in this VinePair story, said: “The large brewers are not tooled to do what we do. They’ll have to build less-than-efficient breweries to make beer like we do.”

I should, and will, maybe even at GABF, talk with Wallace about just what he meant when he said, “We can make your beer more efficiently.” I’m not prepared to abandon the thought embracing efficiency means abandoning inefficiency altogether. Or that innovation does not include what Tonya Cornett has been doing for so long in Oregon.

That’s already more than I meant to write this week. There are dots to be connected, but not now. Instead, a reminder that should you be jonesing for beer links between now and well into October visit A Good Beer Blog on Thursdays and Boak & Bailey on Saturdays.

I am not a rock star, but I will play one for a few hours at GABF

Troubadour Pevec, about to help make a tripel to be served at AHA Headquarters at GABFI promise you, I am properly embarrassed.

I will be among the “homebrew rockstars” pouring beer Oct. 11 at the Great American Beer Festival. Pouring a tripel that American Homebrewers Association director Julia Herz and I brewed in the festival hall will be fun. The part that makes me blush is being called a rock star.

Perhaps I should explain. Homebrew Headquarters for AHA Members takes the place, so to speak, of the annual homebrewers convention (also known at Homebrew Con). John Holl talked to Herz about the hiatus for an All About Beer podcast. It is fair to admit the decision was not universally positive. There are many things about a three-day conference that homebrewers truly enjoy.

I understand, but for a homebrewer there will be worse places to be Oct. 9-12 than Denver. Here’s the full lineup of AHA events, starting with Club Night Oct. 9. And there is way too much new at the festival itself to try to describe here.

The photo at the top is from the day we brewed the tripel at her house. That’s a bag of Pevec from Troubadour Maltings in Fort Collins, Colo. So there is more to explain. When Julia asked me to participate in HQ at AHA I suggested we brew a tripel in collaboration. I wrote the recipe in 2005, not long after I visited Belgium’s six (at the time) monastery breweries, plus a few others, while doing the research for “Brew Like a Monk.”

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Monday beer reading: Hum along with the Staple Singers

Beer union members on parade.

The biggest news last week was Teamsters Local 322 has requested Sapporo-Stone Brewing to recognize the union as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of Stone Brewing’s employees.

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The Minnesota State Fair concludes today. I mention this because the World Brewing Congress, also in Minnesota, wrapped up only two days before the fair started. It was have been so nice to stick around for all manner of unique Fair Food, much of it fried. In recent years, the fair has added specialty drinks as well. Like Blueberry Pancake Lager, Purple Maize (after all, it is Minnesota), and Mini Donut Beer.

A few lists:

Best fair food
New fair food
Returning specialty sips
New specialty sips
Drinks that almost happened

Makes glitter beers seem pretty tame.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK I
Also name of the week

“I think that the dirty little secret of Montana is that we like our beers a little sweeter than we want to admit. I mean, I love IPAs. I drink them all the time. But I think the biggest segment of drinkers like a slightly sweet, smooth beer. The commonality between a Coors Banquet and Cold Smoke is that they’re both a 10 IBU, malt-forward beer.”

— Al Pils

From More Than Just IPA: Across America, Craft Beer Has Surprising Pockets of Regionality

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK II

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