Do you know the real reason Millennials have fallen for Guinness? It’s because we are all severely broken, and we crave nothingness in the form of pints; oubliettes of pure darkness into which we can repeatedly descend. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

— Matthew Curtis (@totalcurtis) March 17, 2024

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LEDE OF THE WEEK
Every Friday evening during the school year, I cajole the children into the bike by 18.40. I cycle them up the hill to the local municipal swimming pool and wave them through the door by 18.50. By 18.55 I’m sitting in the pub around the corner with a beer in front of me and a book in my hand. By 19.45, I’ll have finished the second of two beers, made no headway in the book, paid up at the bar, and be out the door so I’m back at the pool for the end of class at 20.00. Then it’s pile them back in the bike, and cycle them home where my Friday night routine ends and their bedtime routine begins. Lather, rinse, and repeat the following Friday.

— From On Routine (I): Friday Night Swimming.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’m thinking that now there might be a market for television or drama that’s the opposite of the grabby, ‘Something’s happening all the time, don’t look away!’ kind of thing—that Netflixy thing,” she said. She cited the example of “The Beatles: Get Back,” the Peter Jackson documentary about the 1969 recording of “Let It Be.” Watching that was more like listening to a chatty podcast: “You could wander away and come back, because there were lots of scenes of these incredible geniuses creating in a room together, but they were also being, like, ‘Shall we have some tea?’ ” It suggested to (Lucy) Prebble that she might want to experiment with “doing shows that feel like having a bath—where you just want to be in that environment for a long time.”

— From “Lucy Pebble’s Dramas of High Anxiety”. Are you ready for less “grabby” beer?

RECKONING OF THE WEEK
“In May of 2021, it was like a rapture took place in the City of Philadelphia. The buildings remained in place, and so did the people. The sun rose and set, Phils fans still cursed the God who hated them, and clouds still fell as gentle rain.

“What seemed to go missing was just about every Tired Hands beer tap within city limits.”

— From The Brewers Building a Better — and Less Toxic — Philly Beer Scene.

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IT’S JUST BUSINESS
Speaking of grabby . . . As always, Doug Veliky shares ideas worth thinking about. “On March 1st, I worked to bring these two art forms together by joining forces with Warrior Wrestling, an independent promotion, to put on an absolute spectacle of a show that nobody in attendance will forget. The entire build up toward the event, behind-the-scenes planning & logistics, and execution on the big night helped reframe how I’m going to look at IPA from here on out.”

And this could have been the quote of the week: “Spending too much time around industry members and beer fans who have been into beer for a decade+ could make one think that people are tired of IPAs. This is a dangerous echo chamber to be influencing strategic decisions.”

Of Course America Fell for Liquid Death. “All of this, in one way or another, is about building the brand, because the brand is what’s important; the brand is all there is.” [My emphasis.]

AND SOMETIMES ‘JUST BUSINESS’ SUCKS
Monster Lays Off 12 Cigar City Workers in Tampa. There is plenty of other sucky brewery news, adding up to lots more than 12 jobs lost. But one of the 12 is Wayne Wambles, the founding brewmaster. They guy who created flagship Jai Alai IPA and a bunch of other beers the brewery was built around.

Death by ubiquity. When Spuyten Duyvil opened in Williamsburg in 2003, it stood out for its selection of imported European beers — “the beer you couldn’t find anywhere else,” says Joe Carroll. “Now you’d be hard pressed to find any place without it.”

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
Four Years Ago the World Stopped. Jeff Alworth has made a list of what the disruption meant to beer.

Sustainability. Scientists have now found a way of selectively capturing metals from a waste stream using spent brewer’s yeast. . . . Not only that: the yeast can be reused, making the process even more eco-friendly.

Lacada Cooperative Brewery: A fostering dynamic. “From the get go the character of the enterprise seemed to be locally celebratory, exulting local knowledge, produce and skills as well as drawing on local geography, history, myths and legends as inspiration. There was a fostering of relationships between the surf scene, local artists and musicians like myself, as well as the exciting café and food market culture that was beginning to blossom. This dynamism had existed disparately in one way or another for years, but for me the mentality of collaboration and cooperation really helped build something that feels harder to move away from.”

With apologies to Steely Dan, Pete Seeger, The Killers, Archie & Edith, The Drifters and Bob Dylan.

Boston Rag
“It’s also worth noting that the places that seem to charge the most exorbitant prices have something in common: they don’t put their beer prices on their menu (let alone on their website or even their Untappd menu as a verified venue). It’s like they’re actually ashamed how much they’re charging and know that if we saw those prices ahead of time, we wouldn’t order as much beer. Take a freaking hint: if you actively hide your prices from customers, you’re probably overcharging them!”

Where have all the draft lines gone?
Gone to cocktails everyone. Well, not everyone. But consider this, “Where there were fewer than 1,500 draft lines in the U.S. dedicated to non-beer products before the pandemic, there are now roughly 10,000, according to Draftline Data, which provides data and analytics for beer distributors.”

Ooh, baby, we’re a dying breed
“Abick’s was one of about a dozen surviving third-shift bars—establishments that open early in the morning to accommodate workers whose shifts typically run from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.—that dot the Detroit area, down from what was likely a few hundred during the 1950s manufacturing boom. . . . With vastly fewer late-night shifts at fewer manufacturing plants across the industrial Midwest, many once-busy early-morning bar owners face the same predicament.”

Those were the days
“When did you last see underage drinkers even try to get served in a pub? It’s what you might call a dying tradition.”

Don’t forget who’s taking you home
Save the last dance style for me. “None of these beer styles are truly extinct or even remotely in danger of going extinct. Why? Simply put, thanks to craft beer. Starting in the US, but now really all over the world, there are countless beer nerds who truly care about these old beer types, some rebrew them at home, others brew them commercially, making these beers that were definitely at the brink of extinction better known to beer drinkers all around the world.”

Gotta serve somebody
Kloster Ettal, a “Benedictine monastery was founded in 1330 by Ludwig the Bavarian, but its present form dates to the high Baroque. Following a fire in the mid-1700s, architects and artists orchestrated a symphony of white, gold, and coral-coloured marble crowned by a frescoed dome representing the skies opened to heaven. Ettal was already one of the Alpine region’s significant monasteries; with its Baroque rebirth, it only grew in stature as a place of pilgrimage. Pilgrims need lodging, food, and drink, and the monks have obliged for centuries. The Klosterbrauerei Ettal was founded in 1609. Monks still helm the brewery, offering a small selection of traditional beers.”

Monday beer links will return next week.