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.

You might also enjoy
– 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.”

You might also enjoy
– 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

Happy Labor Day

Hop picker - Christie Tirado artwork

Today is a day off for many workers in the United States, but not those where hops are grown. Harvest has begun, and Monday is just like Sunday or Tuesday.

The image at the top was created by Christie Tirado, whose artwork is being featured at Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora, Colorado, as part of National Hispanic Culture Month. She’ll be at the brewery to talk about her art and her mission on Friday. Details were in my August Hop Queries.

Since it is Monday, here are a few links:

– Cold IPA is not a style.
Huh?

Although it is not defined in the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines, guidelines principal author Gordon Strong recently summarized a way to tell a drinker unfamiliar with “cold IPA” what flavors to expect. That’s the goal of having “styles,” right? It is a cross between an IPA and an American light lager.

– Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) style guidelines.

– Of course it took “took several months of planning and tests to find the perfect mix of biscuits, strawberry puree, grain, hops, yeast and water.”

– Pub love.

– Tmavé Pivo.

It’s official: Bad to horrible year for most European hops

Rainfall on German hopyard 2022

This year, there was not “August Surprise” for European hop growers, whose crop was saved last year by unusually good weather just before harvest.

The USDA estimates that growers in Washington, Idaho and Oregon will produce about the same amount of hops as last year, with higher yields offsetting a small reduction in acres.

Estimates made as harvest began — late, in many cases — indicate that the German crop will be down about 20 percent from 2021, and 18 percent below and average year. The Czechian crop, which is almost entirely Saaz, will be down 43 percent from last year’s record crop.

BarthHaas reports, the “early maturing German varieties (Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Northern Brewer, Hallertau Tradition, Perle) are affected and will yield poorly. Rainfall towards the end of August are giving hope for the later maturing varieties that still have time to recover.”

What does this mean for the hop market? BarthHaas point out that there is, overall, excess inventory worldwide, “but these inventories are not necessarily of the varieties that are most needed.”

There is much to consider here. I’ve written about the impact of climate change on landrace hop varieties (sometimes called “noble”) for Brewing Industry Guide and what that means for the future. I’m working on a story right now about what farmers and breeders in the US Northwest are doing related to sustainability.

I’ll have more about this and the current crop, as numbers finalize in the US and abroad, in the next Hop Queries newsletter. A reminder: It is free.