MONDAY BEER LINKS, MUSING 12.29.14
The 4 American Originals: Beers From My Past. Chapter 2.
Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing continues his stroll down memory lane with details about the Anheuser-Busch American Originals series he helped create in 1995. Best understatement in the post is about American Hop Ale: “The beer was what I envisioned at the time as kind of an English IPA. I’ve learned a lot about English IPAs since then, but back then this beer fit my understanding of the style.” Probably more than a lot. The American Hop Ale was basically his recipe and it worked its way up the corporate ladder basically unchanged. That was the good news. The bad news was it obviously didn’t capture the imagination of the folks in marketing.
Steele doesn’t have old recipes or specifications, but as he recalls Faust would have had about 28 international bitterness units (IBU). There is a new version of Faust on tap now in St. Louis (at A-B’s Biergarten and the Budweiser Brewhouse at BallPark Village). It might have popped up on your radar a few weeks ago, here or with more details here. It has 35 IBU, so it is more bitter and has more overall hop impact. The recipe includes Saphir, a German hop variety not available in the 90s. (Quick aside: Saphir is an important component in the unique aroma/flavor of Firestone Walker Pivo Pils). It’s a different beer than the Faust of the nineteenth century for the 1990s.
In the first part of his series about beers from his past, Steele wrote, “Lager beers like Faust or Muenchener had little hope of making a dent in those markets (Denver and Seattle). I question why we didn’t focus these beers in the Midwest, they weren’t even available in St. Louis for quite a while after the first release, which made absolutely zero sense to me.”
Your guess is probably better than mine what might happen with Faust v3.0 here in St. Louis, in the Midwest, or elsewhere. It was excellent to be able to have one after Davo McWilliams made the last hop edition in his IPA in the works at the pilot brewery (even nice because he was buying). It certainly will be nice if it is available next summer at Busch Stadium (it was on tap last May at Ballpark Village just north of Busch Stadium). There are already plenty of good choices at the stadium, but you almost always have to walk farther than the nearest Bud Light to find them and not one is a hoppy lager quite like Faust. [Via The Hop Tripper]
Beer Giants Cultivate Their Crafty Side.
You’ve probably read much that is in this story more than once, but it provides this context: “Overall, packaged food manufacturers with less than $1 billion in sales grew 6.2% annually between 2009 and 2012, four times faster than those with more than $3 billion in sales, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, a professional-services firm.” Large brewing companies are the only industrial giants facing a challenge. [Via Wall Street Journal]
Brooks on Beer: Music and beer pairings.
Jay Brooks taps into some of the things Pete Brown has written about pairing beer and music. He also points to a website, Drinkify, that suggests drinks to pair with particular musicians. Just enter in a name and hit the “What should I drink?” button. First thing off, I typed in “James McMurtry.” It returned “One bottle organic red wine. Serve at room temperature.” Not a good start. McMurtry was drinking wine one of the first times we ever saw him, and at a brewery to boot. But since then he’s developed a serious connection with Lagunitas Brewing, as this billboard that went up in Austin earlier this year suggests. (It promotes an album that was to be released in the fall, although we’ll have to wait until February). Notice the bottle. In addition, he’s the producer for a recording Lagunitas founder Tony Magee has in the works. Always the optimist, I gave the app another whirl with Robert Earl Keen (after discovering “Robert Keen” throws it into a loop). It suggested, “THE ROBERT EARL KEEN. 1 bottle Maker’s Mark Bourbon. 1 bottle Egg whites. 8 oz. Tequila Añejo. Combine in shaker and strain into cocktail glass. Serve. Stir quickly.” That was enough. The man has served as an unpaid (as far as I know) spokesman for Lone Star beer, been sponsored by Shiner, and now his own beer. Any of those would have been a better pairing. [Via San Jose Mercury News]
Stretching Your Dollar: Is Elasticity Craft Beer’s Biggest Threat?.
This is the second of two posts (the first is here) tackling price and the role of price in deciding whether to buy local. Bryan Roth points out he’s not an economist, and the notion of “intercraft elasticity” is a pretty daunting concept. But one worth thinking about. [Via This Is Why I’m Drunk]
The Session: The beer book not written.
It is not always obvious what the monthly host has in mind when posting a topic for The Session, but host Alan McLeod made it delightfully clear this month: “What is the book you would want to write about good beer? What book would you want to read? Is there a dream team of authors you would want to see gathered to make that ‘World Encyclopedia of Beer and Brewing’? Or is there one person you would like to see on a life long generous pension to assure that the volumes flow from his or her pen?” And speaking of his blog, McLeod has chosen the winners in his annual Christmas photos competition. [Via A Good Beer Blog]