01.28.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

This happened. And there was plenty of reaction on Twitter.

For fuck's sake, @Fullers . What's the matter with you? #fullers #RT 🙁 🙁 https://t.co/A0DgLcveqN

— London Historians (@LondonHistorian) January 25, 2019

The disappointing thing about the Asahi/Fullers deal is that it's a further blow to vertical integration in British brewing, and in the long run will lead to a less diverse beer offer in pubs

— Pub Curmudgeon ?? (@oldmudgie) January 25, 2019

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!https://t.co/hYCOek2gW7

— Lew Bryson (@lewbryson) January 25, 2019

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01.21.19, BEER AND WINE LINKS

Why does craft beer think it can save the earth?
Thanks to Will Hawkes for helping me think about a question that popped to mind read last week. He writes, “A sense of purpose is part of what defines ‘craft beer’: it’s a campaign as much as a drink.” And he concludes (spoiler alert), “Why does craft beer think it can save the earth? Because that’s the entire point of craft beer.”

Those are pretty high expectations. The question that came to mind last week is, Why do we have these expectations for this thing people call craft beer? And why should they be different for breweries than for bakeries or bookstores or car repair garages? Not the first time I’ve wondered, and I still don’t have an answer. The question was provoked by Bryan Roth’s long examination of workplace harassment in breweries. Once again, jumping to the conclusion.

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01.14.19

I put together a new bookcase last week, which led to a certain amount of moving books around, a dangerous process because I have plenty of new books to read, yet here I was with Tom Wicker’s On Press from 1978 in my hands, and already thinking about journalism in general when Alan McLeod referred to beer journalism as a rare bird.

I don’t seek out journalism in the support of beer when I choose what to post here on Monday (FYI, my arbitrary rules). As McLeod wrote, writing about beer may fall into many different categories. It is not always clear which intersect with journalism, so not to belabor the point here I’ll suggest NiemanLab’s “Predictions for Journalism 2019” if you don’t have a copy of On Press. And I offer three examples of stories that may or may not accomplish something that is essential, that is making the important interesting rather than simply searching for purely interesting.

The Male Gueuze — Cantillon, Cabaret, and Context.
Beer is only part of this story. The male gaze and the associated objectification of women are evident in much of our culture. From the difference in marketing campaigns directed towards the two most common genders to the representation of women and the female form across advertising and pop culture, there’s plenty of evidence to support (John) Berger’s theory.

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01.07.19

Tilting a glass sideways casts the liquid inside in a different light. Best not attempted with a full shaker pint.

Hop compound biotransformations.

I use the the diagram above* when I talk to brewers about research into biotransformations. This excellent story explains what is and is not understood about the process in plain English and in a way that is informative for both brewers who crave know more about what the heck is going on with these hops as well as drinkers, who may choose to know as much or as little as they like. Either way, Tom Shellhammer at Oregon State University provides important perspective. “I worry sometimes that what happens in the research world—it’s new, right? So there’s a new discovery, and the brewing community views it as the latest answer to everything. And people perseverate or maybe even fetishize [it],” he says.

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BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 12.31.18

Reflections on my first year as the craft beer industry’s first Diversity Ambassador.
Before complaining that lists dominated the online beer space the past week, there is this, which is wonderful and you really should get to reading right now. You don’t have to come back here. My feelings will not be hurt. Scrolling through an eighth time to pick a sentence that might draw you in, I kept thinking, this one is perfect, no, wait, this one is better, how about this whole paragraph? I’m going with this because, as it should be, you can replace the words “craft beer” with “our lives” and it works.

“I fear that if we continue speak in terms of the finish-line, we will forget that we have a marathon to run. For what it’s worth, I would rather have this conversation in terms of the process–what we need to be or do to progress toward the goal of a more diverse craft beer industry. I would rather have conversations about inclusion, equity, and justice.

Not long after I posted last week’s rather spare beer links o’ the week, Alan McLeod tweeted: “As I look towards Thursday then consider when this week is over, I think folk will remember Stan’s news update as the wordy one.”

Indeed, Boak and Bailey probably had the right idea, passing on roundups the last two Saturdays, because unless you are a fan of lists beer reading has been rather spare the last couple of weeks. These include best beers, biggest beer news, and predictions about what is to come. And as McLeod pointed out, a list of favorite beers isn’t real useful if you can’t drink those beers yourself. And Jeff Alworth acknowledged the limitations of picking the “best” even within a particular region. So the best of the yearenders (beer related and otherwise):

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