Balance has been restored, and a bit of bad news

I spent Saturday morning during the Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony seated next to Jonathan Moxey, head brewer at Rockwell Brewing in St. Louis. One of us would comment occasionally when a winner was announced.

“I taught him to homebrew,” Moxey said at one point.

I scribbled a few notes. After Boston Beer won gold for Just The Haze in the non-alcohol beer category, I reminded myself to see when the company last won a medal. It was 2014. (They won a second medal Saturday, in experimental IPA).

And so we came to category 83, Belgian-style witbier. You might remember that in May heads were turned when the judges at the World Beer Cup chose not to award gold or silver in this category, instead giving only a bronze, to Allagash White.

Saturday the judges gave three medals in the category, and gold to Allagash White (its eight GABF medal).

“Balance has been restored,” said Moxey.

That was the second most quotable line of the weekend. My top choice was simply overheard. “The good news is more women are getting into beer. The bad news is there is a line at the women’s room.”

[Note, a Monday morning edit] Festival recaps are just staring to get posted. The ROI of the Great American Beer Festival is a thoughtful one.

And a few more links . . .

Breaking news: Bell’s makes Hopslam a holiday beer.

For your viewing pleasure: Beer zines.

Science: Scientists Just Figured Out a Way to Make Beer Taste Even Better.

More science: LANL pair want to tap into science for better beer.

Stop and smell the . . . the third place

There is no mention of beer in this love letter to the sense of smell.

If the five senses were a boy band, smell would certainly be the least popular member. This is not news: Some of the most influential philosophers in Western history turned up their noses at olfaction. “Man can smell things only poorly,” Aristotle declared, deeming our noses inaccurate sense organs. Immanuel Kant called smell “the most dispensable” of our senses, citing its fleeting nature as the reason “it does not pay to cultivate it or refine it.” Centuries later, a study conducted by the marketing company McCann Worldgroup would reveal that more than half of the 16-to-22-year-olds they interviewed would rather give up their sense of smell than technology.

But without our sense of smell there would be no pleasure in drinking beer.

Great Good Places
Could this happen? I hope so. In his Fingers substack Dave Infante draws our attention to what he calls ThirdPlacesTok. It took a lot less than two years of zoom happy hours to establish face-to-screen interactions are not the same as settling in face-to-face, preferably in friendly establishment. The point is not that ThirdPlacesTok might replace our favorite “great good place” (to cite the title of Ray Oldeburg’s book), but that they introduce a new generation to the importance of third places. And this: “Remaking the American civic landscape to preserve the third places we have and build new ones (ideally where commerce is a secondary focus, or not a focus at all) will be impossible without a massive, small-d democratic groundswell of demand.”

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Another love story (Brasserie de la Senne Zinnir). “It looked cool, it tasted cooler: it was the first time I’d found a beer that was a bit of me. It tasted modern, in its hoppy aroma and bracing bitterness, while having a distinctly ‘Belgian’ edge in its spiciness. I fell in love, so much so that what Zinne did for me is something that I hope to do for everyone who drinks my brewery, Solvay Society, beers now – to change their perception of ‘Belgian beer.'”

Oktoberfest in Stuttgart

The other Oktoberfest. Germany’s second largest Oktoberfest, the Cannstatter Volksfest, attracts more than 4 million visitors to Stuttgart over the course of 17 days. Plenty of details and photos from Franz Hofer. We went in 2008 (photo here was taken then) and now I am wondering if festivalgoers still dance to “YMCA” on table tops and sing “Take Me Home Country Roads” at the top of their voices. I wrote a bit about the day for All About Beer magazine (god bless the return of the archives).

Festival, what festival? Yes, you could spend the week in Denver, drink hundreds of different beers from breweries all over the country and never step a foot inside the Great American Beer Festival.

The power of the story. Feel free to replace the word “wine” with “beer” each time you see it in a story. “Priming is a psychological phenomenon in which exposure to one stimulus influences how we respond to a subsequent, related stimulus—consider the high-decibel music that is often played during a sports game to energize the crowd and athletes. Studies show that if a wine is presented with a formidable reputation or is highly priced, people tend to rate that wine as higher quality. But quality alone does not guarantee greatness. A compelling story can imbue a wine with the crucial components of memorability and uniqueness, giving it an advantage over others even before the first taste.”

The people’s wine (or beer)? Eric Asimov at the New York Times makes his low opinion of Fred Franzia and Two-Buck Chuck clear in this story. Asimov is a member of a “smaller group of wine lovers spend a considerable amount of time, energy and money on wine because they find it delicious, as well as rewarding intellectually and aesthetically.” Nonetheless, deep in the story is another instance where the word “wine” could be replaced with “beer” in two instances. “The wine industry itself is much to blame with its history of pretentiousness, and its absurd rituals and vocabulary that convey the message that one must be a connoisseur before one can enjoy wine.”

The chase continues. Bottle flippers, mules . . . you’ve read about them before. But, wait, this isn’t another beer story. In this one “the good stuff” is bourbon.

Headline Gussie Busch would not understand
5 Best Brewery Experiences in Springfield, Missouri

For your beer reading pleasure

The North American Guild of Beer Writers announced its awards for beer writing between mid-2021 and mid-2022 yesterday.

Plenty to read there, but here are a few other posts that caught my attention last week:

– The Voodoo Ranger Effect.
“What do these drinkers actually want?’ They want to have fun. They want to drink with their friends. They want to game.”

– Another tough year for Italy’s craft brewers.
Consumers pivoting to buying their beers in supermarkets seems to have largely benefitted the country’s Big Brewers.

– Craft Beer’s Pastry Obsession Has Hit Bourbon.
“I find it funny that those same dudes will scoff at Knob Creek Smoked Maple or [Wild Turkey] American Honey, while sipping on a Toasted Strawberry Mocha Finished whiskey with a ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sticker on it.”

‘The category formerly known as craft’

Jeff Alworth wrote about “the role of status” and beer last week. When he posted a link on Twitter, Mike Kallenberger dashed of some quick thoughts you should also read. And I had to smile when in summary he wrote: “Status isn’t a small thing in beer more generally. But it’s a smaller thing in the category formerly known as craft.” (My emphasis.)

In the midst of his essay, Alworth suggests the popularity of hazy IPAs could be linked to the fact people across the room can see what you are drinking. I’m a bit surprised he does not mention how important cloudy presentation was to the success of Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen in the 1980s. After all, he wrote a book about the brewery.

In “Brewing With Wheat,” Rob Widmer tells the story about how he and his brother, Kurt, offered to let Carl Simpson at the Dublin Pub in Portland sell an unfiltered version of their wheat beer as a Dublin Pub Brand.

“Carl took the time to explain the cloudiness to people,” said. “The pub served the beer in a 23-ounce glass garnished with a lemon, and Simpson would have his waitstaff load a tray with glasses and walk through the pub. Other customers would ask about what was on the tray and order the same.

A decade later, the story was repeated in the Midwest when Boulevard Brewing found success with Boulevard Wheat.

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– Post Magic: “Human Cannonball no longer tastes like being skullfucked by the entire hop store but rather a quick peck on the lips. It isn’t a riotous celebration of aggressive bitterness but rather an afternoon hop tea with the grandparents. It is rounded and cleaner and therefore not remotely as intense or tasty.

“This is the Cannonball Run made for your cousin who thinks they share the same passion as you because they bought a 4 pack of Barry Island IPA from the supermarket once. This is the Run made for people who appear on BBC documentaries with brand tattoos and willingly perform raps that they have written about breweries that they like. This is the Run for people that would still queue for a burger from Almost Famous.”

– No, those were not weeds. Philadelphia city workers destroyed all the hops in a small yard growing beside Philadelphia Brewing Company. This is not a heart warming story, but you still might smile at this: “In the meantime, the local community has come together in ways that situations like this often inspire: Since it was reported in the local media, [the brewery has] been receiving calls from local home-brewers offering to help, offering to drop off hops that they grow themselves.”

– The Great American Beer Festival has added a list of beers that will be poured Oct. 6-8. There are a lot. But the first GABF in three years is going to seem strange without long-time regulars such as Alaska Brewing (except for an appearance from Alaskan Smoked Porter in the “Wish We Were Here” taproom), New Glarus Brewing, Bell’s Brewery, New Belgium Brewing (except for its Trippel), Boulevard Brewing, Stone Brewing, Goose Island . . .

– Cultural vandalism. Molson Coors plans to close the National Brewery Centre, the former Bass Museum, in Burton. h/t Boak & Bailey.

– Revolution Brewing in Chicago has released CaramelCrisp, a 7% ABV brown ale made with caramel popcorn from Garrett Popcorn. Good luck with the paywall, but perhaps this is all you care to know.

Pubs
– London I.

– London II.

– London Future?

Headline Gussie Busch would not understand
30 Under the Radar Breweries in Maine.

Finding a place for Old School (whatever that is)

Michael Jackson visits Louisville in 1994

David Pierce, Michael Jackson, Buck Rissler and Roger Baylor. The photo was taken in 1994 when Jackson was touring the United States researching a book that was never written. You can find the story here.

Roger Baylor proudly remembers that Michael Jackson called him a polemicist.

The first time Daria and I wrote about Rich O’s in New Albany, Indiana, in January of 1995 the place had three draft beers, was a “Lite-Free Zone” and encouraged cigar smoking. One tap poured Guinness, one Pilsner Urquell and the “middle tap” rotated. Baylor let customers know in advance what was coming and how many kegs were to be available. By the end of the year, when we compiled our “Beer Travelers Guide,” Rich O’s was up to five taps. Sierra Nevada joined Guinness and Pilsner Urquell as a regular and there were two rotating taps.

By 1999, when we assembled “The Beer Lover’s Guide to the USA” Rich O’s had well-chosen 20 taps.

Twenty-one years ago, when I wrote about what was going on inside of some bars in the days after the terrorist attacks commemorated yesterday, he was the first one I called for a column that began:

In the hours immediately after terrorists flew airplanes into the Pentagon and New York City’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, Rich O’s Public House publican Roger Baylor paced anxiously between his pub and Pizza Time, the restaurant/bar next door that he also owns. Pizza Time has television sets; his pub does not.

“I was freaking out, basically,” he said. He began to think of the many people with whom he wanted to talk, who he should call. “Then I realized that I didn’t have to. I thought, ‘They’ll all be in here.’” Sure enough, as shifts ended regulars began to drift in. “There are a group of us, well I’m always here, we all sort of appear at the same time,” Baylor said.

The regulars discovered that Baylor had put a television on the counter up front – the first time a TV had been in the bar in three years. Those who wanted the latest news could get it, then find seats out of television range. “People would retreat back into the bar to talk, to get away from these images for a while,” Baylor said. “The first few days there was only one thing (the terrorist attacks) that they talked about.”

I offer this to provide context to a post last week in which Baylor contemplates retirement. He is younger than I am, and that is something I certainly haven’t figured out. Reading it I was reminded that what we expect beer might taste like has changed in 1995, but how we expect it might enhance the quality of our day to day hasn’t. Also, that while it may be cool to be a publican, it is also kind of shitty.

We can do better, right?
The story brilliantly delivers what the headline, “Women’s Work — What the Story of a 17th-Century Brewster Can Teach Us About 21st-Century Brewery Ownership,” promises.

It asks questions.

“What barriers, for example, did women like (Sarah)Frankes face when entering the 17th-century beer trade? How common were such brewsters’ experiences, and how did their work integrate into their larger, complex worlds? And most importantly, is this past really in the past, or is it something 21st-century women in beer have inherited?

“Equally, we can ask difficult questions about gender and brewery ownership today. Why are so many women brewery owners today married to their co-owner? What happens when a single woman who wants to open a brewery seeks funding? And if we ask you, right now, to picture an archetypical brewmaster, how many of you imagine a cis man?”

And more questions.

“But in excavating what we can of these histories, contemporary champions of women in beer must ask what conditions would enable even greater participation for women—especially those with fewer financial resources—to continue in the spirit of (Mary Lisle) and Frankes. The industry is eager for women to participate, but larger socioeconomic forces have always to some degree constrained the choices women are able to make about business ownership.”

Related: “Women Entrepreneurs Who Have Launched Their Own Beer Industry Businesses.”

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– After this story about TRU Colors Brewing this news doesn’t seem like much of a surprise.

– The best beer cities in the United States? Happy to see Milwaukee so high, but wondering why St. Louis can’t crack a list that has Dayton Beach at No. 12.

– Why are beer growlers more expensive than six-packs?

A headline Gussie Busch would not have understood
Heineken buys out Led Zeppelin son’s craft brewery