Here are six seconds from my weekend (click on the photo to start video).
Evan Rail’s essay about beer writing that I linked to last week continues to inspire comments on social media and in the blogosphere. Jeff Alworth asked, “Is Beer Less Interesting, or am I?” and Alan McLeod provided context.
I would add this thought. What is new to me or Evan Rail or Jeff Alworth or Alan McLeod might be different than what is new to somebody finally getting around to visiting a new brewery because one opened in their neighborhood.
And consider this. Saturday, Boak & Bailey wrote, “We’ve been pondering why we like the beer and brewery profiles at Craft Beer & Brewing so much. Because, in some senses, they’re quite boring. But perhaps that’s a feature rather than a bug? There’s comparatively little ‘storytelling’ or mythologising, on the one hand, and a decent amount of technical detail on the other – but pitched at a level we can follow. For example, what makes Rothaus Pils taste the way it does?”
There are many opportunities to write something new, for both the beer experienced and the beer inexperienced audiences.
Or, thinking about publications rather than single stories/posts, there are places where readers from both inside the niche and outside the niche may be served. For instance, looks at the table of contents for the most recent issue of Final Gravity. “Our entire goal is to publish the beer stories that don’t (or rarely) find a home in traditional outlets. We just need more people to be aware of it,” publisher/editor David Nilsen wrote via email.
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
Tropic of chancer
— From The Beer Nut
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I was racking my brain for quite a few weeks and eventually realised just about the only thing I could use from the camel to make a beer is the dung.”
— Maris Biezaitis, of South Australia’s Robe Town Brewery
POINT AND COUNTERPOINT
– “Lost in a haze: North American craft beer searches for mojo”
“The once-dynamic North American craft beer market is now stagnant. A lack of innovation in a sector awash with hazy IPAs has been blamed.”
– From X: “Hazy IPA is killing North American craft beer lolololololol.”
Click to see the photo that makes the counterpoint, and perhaps to follow the lengthy discussion.
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
– Let’s Make Craft Beer Great Again
A checklist.
– Why Modern French Beer Culture Never Took Off.
“To the French people 15 years ago, beer was not a product for the table. It was a product for poor people.”
– Character assassination at BrewDog destined to happen
“The problem inherent in (James) Watt’s strategy is the very nature of punk. If it’s true that all political careers end in failure, then all punks end up selling out. Punk is a short, sharp, shock. It’s not meant to last.”
– Is the Good Beer Guide trusted?
“In short, the GBG isn’t the trusted resource it once was.
– ‘I flew to Spain for one beer – turns out it’s in my local but brewmaster blew my mind’
Credit to Alan McLeod (again) for pointing to a tweet from Pete Brown (again) that led me to this. It goes back to the subject at the top; what gets written about beer, who writes it, and who it is intended for. This was not intended for me, and that is OK. But their surely is an audience for it. One that is more patient than I about pop ups and the number of times you need to hit an x to close something in the way of words. You have been warned.