Lars Garshol, left, and Bjørne Røthe, discuss the freshly cut juniper Røthe will use to brew a beer in the 18th century out building behind them.
On the train ride to the Dyrvedalen Valley in western Norway a couple of years ago with Lars Garshol “disruption” was among the many things we talked about.
Abandoned Dixie brewery, five months after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans
The New Orleans brewing company formerly known as Dixie announced this week that its new name is Faubourg Brewing.
The name comes from the French term for settled areas outside a city. As New Orleans grew in the 18th century expanding neighborhoods were called faubourgs and many still are, such as Faubourg Marigny and Faubourg St. John.
You’ll recall that in June, Dixie was one of several brands (think Dixie Chicks becoming The Chicks or Uncle Ben’s rice becoming Ben’s original) to retire its old name. The company asked consumers to submit possible new names (5,400 did) and conducted focus groups.
The second Beer Culture Summit begins Nov. 11 with “Yes…I’ve heard of you: A conversation with Dr. J Jackson-Beckham and Garrett Oliver” and concludes Nov. 14 with “Beatles, Bowie, and beer.”
Between those presentations are 30 Zoom sessions, as different from each other as the opening and closing ones. Of course, the event hosted by Chicago Brewseum is virtual. Three quick examples of what to expect:
– Nate Chapman and David Brunsma, who answered questions here last week, will discuss their book, “Beer and Racism,” and then lead a panel discussion with Alex Kidd, Ale Sharpton, Shyla Shephard and Garrett Oliver.
– Michael Roper of Hopleaf and Hagen Dost from Dovetail Brewery will demonstrate “beer poking.”
– “A motley crew of current and former beer professionals sit in front of their laptops in their respective homes and discuss the virtual beer community informally known as Beer Twitter – the good, the bad, and the borderline absurd.”
One more thing. I’ll be there on a panel talking about hops. Thus the photo at the top.
Back in the day I yielded to temptation and posted lists. I also railed against them. So you might figure there is no reason to trust me.
But two lists (the second is really multiple lists) that showed up last week sent me to the files to dig out a couple from the days of print that I will share them here.
The headline on the first—The 25 Most Important American Beers of All Time—screams bring back a Jay Brooks takedown (another back-in-the-day thing in which Jay would dig deep, point after point, about something written). I commented in one Twitter thread, and otherwise have three questions.
In “Craft: An Argument,” Pete Brown writes, “(Craft) isn’t just about the things we make; it’s about the kind of people we are. And for this, we get to an unspoken assumption we may be reluctant to admit even to ourselves; we believe that makers and buyers of craft products are morally superior to other people.”
Craft brewers are the good guys. So are craft beer drinkers. Stories like this pop up almost every day: A funk band and a brewery pooled resources to help make money for the United Way and parks in Wisconsin; or a Florida brewery is serving a pink beer all month and donating a portion of the sales to a local nonprofit raising awareness of early detection of breast cancer.
Craft breweries raise money for charities, they boost local employment, they collaborate with each other, they support environmental causes, and they check all the other appropriate boxes. Of course, they are woke. Craft brewers and craft drinkers agree that racism—a word no easier to define than craft beer—is bad.
In “Beer and Racism,” authors Nathanial Chapman and David Brunsma write, “Craft brewers and craft beer often symbolize progressive ideals, creativity, independence and forward-thinking.” Seems familiar, until they add, “If this is true, why is the craft industry and culture exclusively white?”