Miller promotes ‘The Craft’

Miller beer musicMiller Genuine Draft is partnering with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to sponsor music artist interviews and performances. The series is called “The Craft,” which should get the attention of small breweries, and particularly their fans, who figure the word craft belongs to them.

“The Craft” series of interviews, developed in conjunction with promotional agency Arc and executed by GMR Worldwide and digital agency Digitas, aims to explore the experiences that shaped the songs written by popular musicians. (The Craft refers both to songwriting and brewing beer.)

“People got the connection between making music and making beer,” said Jonathan Sickinger, associate manager for sports and entertainment marketing at Miller. “And they wanted to know more about both.”

For years we’ve appreciated that Miller supports live music. I’ve got a poster of Terence Simeon from an MGD-sponsored tour above where I store grain for homebrewing.

But I also know when you ask “What is craft beer?” you get passionate responses. Witness the 67 comments at Seen Through a Glass or a shorter discussion here. No need to revisit that topic.

Instead a short story from Tony Simmons of Pagosa Springs Brewing that I used in the little essay about if your brewer is an artist.

Simmons was once in a class at Siebel Institute with a woman who worked at Miller Brewing. Out of curiosity, not intent, he asked her what it would take for him to get a job brewing at Miller.

“You couldn’t,” she told him. “We hire engineers and train them to brew our way.”

So you think that is the way a great guitar player interviews drummers?

New Beer Rule #5: It is only beer

Credit for this one goes to Don Younger, publican of the Horse Brass Pub in Portland.

Exhibit A: Last week’s Session, in which the guys at Hop Talk challenged bloggers to write about atmosphere. We’re talking about dozens of folks who take the time to write about beer several times a week.

And what did they focus on?

Early on, it became quite clear that there was a nearly universal theme as to what made for a good beer drinking atmosphere: people.

Exhibit B: Don Younger and the Horse Brass Pub. Now we’re talking people.

There are various stories about how Younger acquired the Horse Brass, but what’s certain is that it wasn’t until after he owned it that he decided to find out just what an English pub was. So he headed to Great Britain in 1977. “That’s when I knew,” he said. What, he wasn’t yet sure, “but I was going to do the pub thing.”

Fast forward to 1995, the evening of the last day of the Oregon Brewers Festival. We had arrived in town before the festival started, and spent an intense several days visiting pubs and brewpubs in the metropolitan area, some with Don and many more he suggested. He talked about influences, about history, about Oregon brewers (some gone), about pubs. Several times over.

We didn’t expect to see him at the Horse Brass that evening. We’d just stopped by for one last pint before leaving town. But he showed up at our table and had a seat. Soon it seemed half the people in the pub had stopped by and the conversation naturally centered on beer. What do you think of Portland’s bars? The brewpubs? What beers did you try at the festival?

Then at one moment Younger leaned back in his chair and smiled. You could see him almost eavesdropping on scores of conversations taking place around him, most of them not about beer.

“After all,” he said, “it is only beer.”

How’s that for perspective?

Session #6 announced: Fruit beers

The SessionGreg Clow has made the call and the theme for the next session, Aug. 3, is Fruit Beer.

Aside from the stipulation that it be a beer brewed/augmented with fruit (or fruit juice or extract), there are no other rules or guidelines. Anything is fair game, from a tart and funky Kriek or Framboise, to a sugar-laden “lambic”, to a Blueberry Wheat or Raspberry Ale from your local brewpub.

We’ll be in Massachusetts on that Friday, so I don’t know if I’ll wait and go for something local and fresh – you’ll be thinking that way after you read how Greg settled on the theme – or with an old favorite.

Beer and innovation

Just a quick thought for the weekend.

Recurring questions that resulted from the epidemic of lists in the last week (yes, you can blame me) were which came first, which were truly influential and eventually which were innovative.

In that light I found a little Q & A with Jonathan Schwartz is the CEO and President of Sun Microsystems, pretty relevant.

What really drives innovation in technology?

Courage. Courage to challenge conventional wisdom, to wholly commit to an idea or ideal, to lead and inspire those around you, whether they’re collaborators or customers.

Quite honestly, when I look at my personal list what ties the beers together not so much is the idea you’d call them innovative, but that they are wholly committed to an idea, that they are beers of conviction.

There are a lot more out there, with new ones being brewed every day.

Yes, Alan, “beers of conviction” does sound like a good topic for The Session.

Don’t blame Congress for bad beer

Gotta love that headline. It appeared at Earthtimes.org in what was basically a pointer to a longer story in The Hill, a Washington newspaper, about the House Small Brewers Caucus.

The 35 members of the caucus (they hope to have 100 by the end of the legislative session) promote small breweries, trade beer-making advice and drink a few beers together. They even have a website with information about brewing and tips on pairing food with beer.

Not surprisingly, legislators from Oregon head the caucus. The story begins with the fact that Democrat Peter DeFazio brews at home. Both he and co-chair Greg Walden, a Republican, display a link to the caucus website on their home pages.

Just another sign of a different attitude about beer gaining traction with (some) lawmakers.