Tasting notes, diversity, racism and sexism

The best read post here this year will be the same one that has been best read each of the last dozen years: “Words to describe the beer you are tasting.”

Beyond the obvious fact that people seem to struggle with talking about aroma and flavor, my excuse for pointing this out is Esther Mobley’s story yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle that asks, “How many people have actually tasted a wet river stone, anyway?”

That amusing poke aside, she examines a more serious issue, stating “it’s becoming clearer than ever that the conventional language used to describe wine isn’t merely intimidating and opaque. It’s also inextricable from racism and sexism, excluding dimensions of flavor that are unfamiliar to the white, Western cultures that dominate the world of fine wine and reinforcing retrograde notions of gender.”

This is something those who write about beer should be aware of as well.

Further reading
– A review of “Discriminating Taste: How Class Anxiety Created the American Food Revolution,” which introduces the concept of “aspirational eating.”
– “The Taste of Beer,” an essay by Zak Avery in Brewery History Number 139, a special issue in 2011 that paid tribute to Michael Jackson.

Hop harvest: Virtual and real

Hop harvest has begun in the Northern Hemisphere. Many brewers have canceled travels plans to the Yakima Valley, to the Willamette Valley, to Germany’s Hallertau region, to Kent in the UK, to Bohemia, to . . .

A “virtual harvest” may not smell the same, but the world’s largest vendors are giving it a go. Hopsteiner starts if off this week with an introduction to its breeding program. Yakima Chief Hops has multiple events planned Monday through Friday every week this month.

On a personal note, my Twitter and Instagram feeds are full of photos from harvest.

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How to succeed as a drinks writer

Hunter Thompson's workshop

This morning, a link that should make you smile but also may cause you to think twice about what you read.

Wine writer Jamie Goode has a new book out, appropriately enough called, “The Goode Guide to Wine: A Manifesto of Sorts.” I own several of his books because his technical and cultural insights are relevant to beer and brewing as well as wine. This book is less technical, and often draws from his long-running blog.

One chapter is drawn from a 2015 post titled “How to succeed as a wine writer by writing boring wine articles.” Just to make it clear in the book that this is satirical he included a footnote to that effect, while repeating that he thinks wine writing “is a broken system.”

How it starts.

First of all, you need to take a press trip. Two or three days in wine region X, paid for by a generic body, where you get to visit a mix of producers. Travelling with a group of fellow writers, you’ll be taken to see one or two boutique producers, one or two larger producers, and some lousy huge producers who pay a lot of money to support the generic body. The exact itinerary, of course, will mostly be determined by internal politics. [Bad producers, you see, don’t realise that it would be better for them if journalists just visited the best producers in any particular region.]

So how do you write your boring wine article? You haven’t got room to go into depth, so remember: big overview without too many specifics. The good news: it won’t take long to do, especially if you follow my template here.

Commence satire. One example.

Everything is getting just a little bit better. The wines being made today are better than those being made a few years ago, and because everyone is so passionate and motivated we can confidently predict that things will continually to improve, little by little.

Good reading from an author who writes, “Personally, I’d rather drink beer than suffer these dull, dishonest, trick-about wines.” Not sure what alternative he’d suggest for dull, dishonest, tricked-about beer.

Already 3 contenders for 2021 hop rookie of the year

Hillsboro HopsNew hop varieties from Australia and New Zealand* will be headed to the United States after the harvest down under next March and April, so competition for 2021 hop rookie of the year is going to be interesting. Don’t bet against Talus from the Hop Breeding Company in Washington’s Yakima Valley.

(Pardon the silliness. That’s the logo for the Hillsboro Hops minor league baseball team on the left. In addition, you could argue we are talking about the 2020 rookie of the year. Maybe we should see what Kris Bryant thinks.)

By announcing a name for the experimental hop previously known as HBC 692 the company signaled she is her own brand. “We were getting very significant pull (demand),” said Jason Perrault, CEO and hop breeder for Yakima Chief Ranches. HBC is a partnership between YCR and John I. Haas. “We’ve seen the impact it can have in a beer. Unique, but appealing. It was just time to give it its own identity.”

The name, Talus, is a nod to the talus slopes found in the Yakima Valley. She is a daughter of Sabro, the hop formerly known as HBC 438 and commercialized in 2018.

I helped organize a tasting of IPAs made with experimental hops two years ago at Zebulon Artisan Ales north of Asheville, N.C. Mike Karonwski, who prefers brewing Ron Pattinson-inspired historic recipes, suggested and hosted the tasting. Breeders from both hemispheres sent hops. I’m not sure what made it more fun—that Karnowski made more IPAs for the tasting than he does the rest of the year or dealing with customs.

The lineup included two hops from HBC (692 and 630), two from Hop Products Australia (HPA -016 and 033), three from Charles Faram in the UK, and two from Hopsteiner (X04190 and X09326).

Five of those now have names and a sixth, HPA-016, will have one by November. The Faram hops became Godiva (already CF217’s working name at the time), Mystic (previously CF160) and Harlequin (CF212). Hopsteiner X04190 became Contessa, described here last week. She is not really an IPA hop, and served as something of a control.

And, of course, now 692 has a name.

Those attending the tasting rated the IPAs 1 to 5 in six categories (floral, spicy/herbal, woody/earthy/resiny, citrus, vegetal and red/sweet fruits). These were not trained panelists, but they did their best and sometimes added interesting notes. (Such as from the participant who described HPA-016 as “vampire killer” and 033 as “vampire sedator.”)

Talus easily rated highest in both floral and citrus, even though it came up last in the lineup and by then alcohol and palate fatigue had kicked in. Pretty much every citrus-related flavor was described—lime, orange, lemon peel, lemongrass, pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, you get the idea.

My two favorite notes for HBC 692 were “unicorn toes” and “Minty, resin, grapefruit, onion, minerals. The future with flying motorcycles instead of jetpacks.”

Expect to see plenty of IPAs hopped only with Talus next year. Heck, I had a couple with 692 last year in Brazil. In one of those, the brewer said he was shooting to showcase even more coconut character sometimes found in Sabro. That didn’t work.

Once the wave of single-hop Talus beers passes I am looking forward to tasting how brewers use it in combination with other hops. You know, in beers that aren’t dry hopped with six pounds per barrel. I suspect it will play well with others.

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* The new variety from New Zealand is called Nectaron. The name is a marriage of Nectar of the Gods and breeder Ron Beatson’s first name. As an experimental the hop was called Hort 4437. NZ Hops CEO Craig Orr said, “In its advanced trial stages, it has usurped the interest around Nelson Sauvin. We think it’s a quite significant threat in terms of the profile you see in American hops like Citra and Mosaic–it’s an absolute candidate to take over from those guys especially in its own backyard.” Pretty bold.

It will be available only in New Zealand, Australia and the United States for now.

Hop Products Australia plans to announce a name for HPA-016 in November. She is the result of a cross made in 2004 and has been trialed extensively by Australia brewers. Matt Hogan, head brewer at Hope Estate, draws a comparison to Galaxy that will interest American brewers.

“I guess it’s something a little bit different to Galaxy in terms of it’s got plenty of fruity hop but it has also got this spice to it, which just gives it another dimension,” he said. “I think it will work well in that NEIPA style, I think it will work well in most pale ales, and it might also work pretty well in a hoppy pilsner or something like that–in anything where you’re looking for some fruity characters.”

And then there is this tasting note from Asheville: “If this were gumbo it would be the best gumbo I ever smelled.”

Hipsters, hobnobbing and the exclusive-inclusive divide

Footsteps at Death Valley
a) Last week, Brews News in Australia highlighted a report that suggested “the positioning of many craft beers to target ‘purists’ and ‘hipsters’ gave the independent brewers less traction with a sizeable part of the Australian market.”

The result is that mainstream breweries have created a class of “contemporary beers” that are priced between budget beers and premium beers. They appeal to “consumers tiring of traditional beer brand offerings but ‘who felt disenfranchised by the craft movement.’”

b) With that in mind, look at what Mike Urich wrote in his Seven Point Analytic blog last month. Really nice visuals illustrate that, “Low income drinkers have exactly one entry point into beer, and it’s pale/light lager. We’re hardly offering new and low income drinkers a lot of options.”

He contrasts that to spirits, where every segment has significant pricing overlap. “The average price of whiskey, gin, and tequila are each above the average price of vodka, but there are still plenty of options in every segment at essentially every price point. This allows drinkers of every income level an entry point into any spirits segment that they want to try. From there, they can go wherever they want—there’s a cheap, widely available spirits brand in every segment for every drinker.”

c) In 1998, The New Brewer included an article about “The Demographics of the Micro Market.” It reported the results of the National Beer Survey, which was sponsored in part by the Institute of Brewing Studies (a forerunner of the Brewers Association).

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