Defining farmhouse ale; reconsidering history

Lars Garshol, author of “Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing,” writes about “What counts as a farmhouse ale?”

It’s simple, but . . . “Farmhouse brewing is about the tradition, not the source of the ingredients.” He explains.

He also weighs in on the matter of whether saison was really a farmhouse product. Roel Mulder has suggested otherwise. Cutting a long story short, Garshol concludes saison is a style that belongs in the farmhouse family. But first, he makes two important points.

– “Farmers who grow grain will brew beer as long as it makes economic sense for them, and whether there is industry nearby won’t necessarily affect the economic logic at all.”

– Some facts can neither be proved as undeniable nor disproved.

This is as true of American brewing history as it is of farmers in the Hainaut region of Belgium making beer in spring for the harvest work. The history in the centuries after, or perhaps even before, the time Thomas Hariot describes brewing on Roanoke Island between 1584 and 1586 is incomplete.

Start with the thought there were a lot of farmers growing grain. Accept that there’s more about brewing in the Americas than has already been documented. Go.

Black is Beautiful beer: Where might it lead?

One down, 1,036 (as of Friday morning) to go. I hope they are as good as Arches Brewing version of the Black is Beautiful beer.

I will spare you a photo of my hand holding a can, perhaps pouring the beer into a glass. Instead, take a look at two tableaus posted on Instagram to appreciate the joy the beer has inspired.

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Quality of bitterness: as easy as ABC?

Agreeing on a definition for “quality of bitterness” is almost as hard as agreeing on a definition of “craft beer.” But understanding quality of bitterness is essential, and a reason why I like the way Polish homebrewers tweaked their scoresheet for their competitions, awarding six points for bitterness.

The International Bitterness Unit formula was established in the 1960s at a time the composition of hop cones was different than today. And because isomerized alpha acids are primarily responsible for the bitterness in beer, “many brewers consider iso-a-acids to be the only relevant bitter compounds in beer.” Scientists in Germany believe otherwise, maintaining that the majority of what they call “auxiliary bitter compounds” are desirable from a sensory perspective. Sensory panels reported that the harmonious aspect of bitterness increased with the quantity of ABC.1

Basically, “auxiliary bitter compounds” encompass all bitter compounds in hop resins which are transferred into beer and which are not iso-alpha acids. Few of the 8,000-plus brewers in the United States have the equipment needed to measure ABC.

If a brewer does not have that equipment what should they do? A few rules of thumb:

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Undefinable, hopelessly misunderstood and absolutely essential

Craft: An Argument, by Pete BrownAbout halfway into “Craft: An Argument,” author Pete Brown cites two uncomfortable truths about craft as represented by the Arts & Crafts movement. The first is that craft is inherently selfish. The second is that it is elitist.

“This is why the Arts & Crafts movement ultimately collapsed over its various irreconcilable ambitions: by placing the dignity and job-satisfaction of the worker above all else and ensuring that they were paid a fair prices for their labour, Arts & Crafts objects necessarily had to sell at a higher price than mass-produced industrial products,” he writes.

Facts are facts. Nonetheless, Brown offers a thesis that what craft beer is is revealed by examining Arts & Crafts and other similar movements. To appreciate his idea, it is necessary to move beyond the argumentsthatwillnotend about the various definitions of “craft beer” and embrace the book’s subtitle: “Why the term ‘Craft Beer’ is completely undefinable, hopelessly misunderstood and absolutely essential.”

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