3Ds of Monday beer reading: digitization, decoction & democracy

Golden Liquors in Golden, CO

This photo was taken during a 2009 visit to Golden, Colorado. The sign has changed, but the message is the same today at Golden Liquors. The Coors brewery is located across the street from the store. Coincidentally, we now live within the Golden ZIP code, but not the town. Read more about Coors below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Is beer really just the sum of its molecular parts, or is there an intangible aspect that can’t be emulated by a machine?

— Posed by Evan Rail early in “A High-Tech ‘Beer Printer’ From Belgium Wants to Digitize the Drinking Experience.”

Rail writes that the company has “presented a fully operational prototype, called ‘OneTap,’ that can pour five different styles of beer, as well as custom brews users can adjust to their preferences. Since then, members of the public have been able to sample lager; blonde, brown, and triple ales; and IPA made by the small countertop device at trade fairs and other events in Belgium.”

And some people within the brewing trade have been impressed.

Read more

Monday beer reading: Are you experienced?

Old Stove Brewing, Seattle, Washington

The window behind the taps at Old Stove Brewing in Seattle offers a view of the cold room and a Hamm’s beer sign. Not pictured, a TV that shows beer commercials in black and white, mostly from before when the first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was brewed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Links to posts about to be discussed:

– Low-involvement and high-involvement drinkers.
– Best beer drinking experiences.

Thanks to Alan Mcleod for spotting the essay about “How to understand the relationship between wine critics and consumers.” Jamie Goode writes, “Low involvement is someone who consumes wines without having an interest in wine – they will never do something as abstract as read about wine, so we can rest easy that when we write we are not writing for them.” That is a liberating thought for a writer. Not so much for a brewery owner. High-involvement beer consumers are easy pickings. Next comes the hard part.

Goode also writes, “the same wine can have varying levels of quality in different situations.” That seems relevant to Jeff Alworth’s second “book of lists” post, this one “best drinking experiences.” Unlike his list of “best hops,” this one is more generic. That first one was quite specific, including Perle (WTF?) and somehow excluding Centennial and Hersbrucker.

I prefer specific, but understand why the second list is generic. It allows readers to provide their own details, as McLeod did Thursday in his own take on Alworth’s No. 10. That’s what a high-involvement reader brings to a blog post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LEDE OF THE WEEK

The sun was already low in the autumn sky as I finished up my beer at the legendary Waldwirtschaft (WaWi) and headed north toward the equally legendary Gutshof Menterschwaige. I’d been to the WaWi several times over the years, but hadn’t yet made it to the Menterschwaige on the other side of the Isar River. The weather doesn’t always cooperate with the best laid beer garden plans. But today was the day.

The short walk from the WaWi to the Menterschwaige takes you down a path toward the foot bridge spanning the Isar, and then up to a wooded trail along the embankment high above the Isar. It’s this kind of walk that gives you a sense of how the topography of the Isar Valley favoured the sinking of beer cellars from Munich all the way up to Bad Tölz at the foot of the Alps. The cellars no longer store beer, but the stands of trees still cast their shade over the cellars for those of us who enjoy the respite of the beer garden.

— From Beer Gardens with a Touch of Spike

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I love cask ale, especially Boddingtons. We only had one working handpull when we first opened, and the first beer I tapped was Chesters’ Bitter by Whitbread—we were a tenancy with Whitbred you see. When I could, I changed that to Boddingtons. I was everyone’s friend after three months for getting Boddies on. It was really, really busy.”

— Steve Dilworth, in from Water to Daffodils — The Swan With Two Necks in Pendleton, Lancashire

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PIECES OF HISTORY

Wot I Wrote Nearly Thirty Years Ago. “We cannot expect anything other than a contraction of choice from the big suppliers, be they brewer or pub chain. At best we can expect a collection of tired old national brands brewed down to a price, at God knows where.”

Papazian goes AWOL as we contest AB’s aggression against Budvar. “Brewing Barbarians at the Gate.” Amen.

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY

Are you drinking your IPAs too fresh? Or are breweries releasing them too early?

Nothing But Flowers. “Hops are flowers, you know. We’ve made them smell like citrus and tropical fruit, but there’s a lot of more interesting stuff underlying that.”

The world’s deepest hot spring helps this Colorado brewery brew its beer. The hot water in what’s known as the “Great Spring” on the south side of the San Juan River opposite Riff Raff provides energy for the entire brewery.

Monday beer reading: Craft is dead, but, then, who cares?

Is this how you describe a beer?

This past week, Katie Mather asked, “I love leading tasting sessions, but do people actually want to know about cryo hops and malt varieties?”

The short answer is, “Some do, most don’t.”

Mather wrote, “I truly think there’s a wall between the beer world and the average drinker, built by lack of info but conversely, by a vast, impenetrable-seeming pile of details. That’s why I like running tasting sessions. It feels in that moment like I’m knocking that wall down.”

That hasn’t necessarily changed in the past 40 years. “People forget you had to explain beer styles 50 times a night,” said John Hickenlooper, co-founder of Colorado’s first brewpub, Wynkoop, and now a U.S. senator. “It was like being the first one on the Santa Fe Trail . . . a lot of boulders to move.”

I thought of this Saturday in Seattle. We were at a brewery when Daria pointed out to me that Untappd offers users an imposingly complete list of words to describe the beer in their glass. That’s a screen shot above, turned sideways, so you can see some of the C words. Impenetrable? Perhaps not, but it does suggest that appreciating a beer requires some special skill. It does not.

Read more

Monday beer reading: Lager yeast, sexism & premiumization

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram

Lager fermenting at Brauerei Schönram in Bavaria

A Washington Post story yesterday discusses how “scientists in Chile harnessed the biodiversity of Patagonia to make novel yeast hybrids, potentially paving the way for new lager beer flavors.”

Early on, the principal investigator (that means he has skin in the game), says, “All the lager beers that we drink now come from a single event from a yeast generated 500 years ago. That makes most of the lager beers quite similar.”

Coincidentally, last week Good Beer Hunting posted almost 4,000 words about lager yeast.

My nit to pick in the first is that lagers don’t have to taste quite similar. In the second, this is not what I think the best brewers do: “When we think about the history of lager, we’re talking about the history of brewers and scientists trying to understand how to get yeast to do what they want.” My experience is that the real skill is figuring at what yeast want and giving it to them. That’s when the magic happens.

The strains coming out of Patogonia may well produce unique flavors, but that’s no excuse to diss what brewers are already using. In “Modern Lager Beer,” the authors point out that there are “notable difference even within lager strains bearing the same 34/70 moniker.”

Two brewers traveled around Bavaria sourcing yeast directly to assist Brewing Science Institute mapping out variations. The samples they selected displayed differences in maltotriose fermentation, attenuation, sulfur production, acetyaldehyde production, diacetyl removal, and ester production. The authors also cite research that confirms that lager strains adapt to their environment, finding that chromosomal variations can begin to occur within a dozen generations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LEDE OF THE WEEK

DEI is so 2021. For many in the beer industry, as well as in the wider world, diversity, equity and inclusion has become old news, no longer worthy of column inches.

“I believe that the progress of social advocacy work in craft beer is in danger of stalling out completely or even rolling backward,” academic, activist and DEI professional Dr. J. Jackson-Beckham stated in a post on Crafted For All in September 2023. It echoed the feelings of many other DEI activists and advocates in the industry: One of powerlessness, frustration, and lack of support and progress has led to large-scale burnout.

— From Apathy Has Rained On Me — On DEI Burnout in the Beer Industry

Read more

Process: Where greatness and quality meet

Jack's Abby Porch Fest

A can of Jack’s Abby beer

Thirty-eight years ago, Brewers Publications released its first title, “Brewing Lager Beer.”

Ten years later, when an expansive update, “NEW Brewing Lager Beer,” was published, author Greg Noonan wrote, “The trickle of knowledge available to craft and homebrewers when this book was first published has become a flood.”

Twenty-eight more years later, the newest book from Brewers Publications is “Modern Lager Beer.”

The flood has not abated, but new information is not all about MLB that is different. BLB was never just about lagers. It followed a “how to” approach, and served as a manual for home- and microbrewers, as they were known at the time. MLB is only about brewing lager and takes more of a “how they” approach. Authors Jack Hendler and Joe Connolly of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers spoke with more than 70 brewers and beer professionals before they wrote the book.

What is the same is an important lesson: There is no one way to brew great beer, but there is a way.

The authors get right to the point in the introduction.

“When American craft brewers create lagers, they often do so without changing any of the processes or brewing techniques they use for their ales,” they write, later adding, “while American craft ale fermentation is at the absolute cutting edge of quality, American craft lager is lagging woefully behind.”

Read more