{"id":15852,"date":"2019-10-24T04:48:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T10:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/?p=15852"},"modified":"2019-10-24T04:48:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T10:48:24","slug":"why-would-a-beer-that-was-once-a-fine-representative-of-a-style-no-longer-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/why-would-a-beer-that-was-once-a-fine-representative-of-a-style-no-longer-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Why would a beer that was once a fine representative of a style no longer be?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoakandBailey\/status\/1184355923730452481\">Boak and Bailey provoked<\/a> what turned into a longread last week by asking \u201cWhat&#8217;s the reference beer for each style? Especially more obscure styles, we suppose.\u201d  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoakandBailey\/status\/1184374354030845952\">@BoakandBailey<\/a> quickly added, \u201cSo, to clarify: reference doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean the best, just the most representative. If you&#8217;d never had style X before, would that beer help you understand it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Start at the top, keep scrolling, take your time, feel free to wander off into some of conversations within the conversation. I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">QUESTION: What&#39;s the reference beer for each style? Especially more obscure styles, we suppose.<\/p>\n<p>Wit = Hoegaarden<br \/>Saison = Dupont<br \/>ESB = Fuller&#39;s, obviously<br \/>Mild = ???<br \/>Gose = ???<br \/>Etc. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KuhIMP8yIy\">pic.twitter.com\/KuhIMP8yIy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Boak and Bailey (@BoakandBailey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BoakandBailey\/status\/1184355923730452481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>At the end, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelandrewwinn\/status\/1184376428239839232\">@joelandrewwinn<\/a> writes, \u201cCurious to see the responses when North America wakes up tomorrow. My guess is there will be opinions.\u201d If comments broke out, I didn\u2019t find them. That doesn\u2019t matter. This isn\u2019t about the best American reference for a mild (although Rocksteady on cask at Good Word Brewing in Duluth, Ga., was awfully good Saturday before last). Or a reference for Americanized or \u201ctraditional\u201d German pilsner, or pastry stout or whatever.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Along the way, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JamesBSumner\/status\/1184375391647076353\">@JamesBSumner<\/a> provided a bit of context, writing, \u201cSummer Lightning is the reference beer for the concept \u2018reference beer\u2019. (In my drinking lifetime, at least. Perhaps once it would have been Draught Bass, or Guinness Extra Stout.)\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why would a beer that was once an excellent, maybe even the best, representative of a style no longer be? Because the beer has changed or because the style has changed? (OK, could be both.) Who decides? And is this good or bad? (OK, could be both.) I don\u2019t have the answers.<\/p>\n<p>Consider one of the examples Boak and Bailey provided: Wit = <strong>Hoegaarden<\/strong>. Not everybody agreed with their choice. Hoegaards Wit was one of 42 beers Michael Jackson awarded 5 stars in his first <em>Pocket Guide to Beer<\/em> in 1982. Jackson describes the brewing process as well as listing the ingredients. \u201cA very distinctive top-fermenting culture is used, in open tanks, and the beer is warm-conditioned for a month before being given a <em>dosage<\/em> in the bottle,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhen young, it is faintly sour and sometimes a little cloudy, but with maturity it becomes <em>demi-sec<\/em> and almost honeyish, and gains a shimmering, refractive quality called \u2018double shine.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not the way Hoegaarden White is brewed today.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson changed his rating system for his second guide (ultimately there were seven), making 4 stars the top rating, and gave Hoegaarden Wit 4 stars in the second and third. He lowered his assessment in the final four, to 3 1\/2. Beginning with the fourth edition (published in 1994), he awarded Celis White 4 stars. The history of Celis in Texas was relatively short in 1994. Pierre Celis, who revived the white beer style at Hoegaarden and then sold the brewery, founded his namesake brewery in Austin, Texas, in 1992. It was an immediate success. Jackson continued to give Celis White 4 stars in the 1996, 1997 and 2000 editions.  <\/p>\n<p>Celis sold a stake of his business to Miller Brewing in 1995, the remaining portion in 2000, and a year later Miller closed the brewery. The brand lived on in various forms and on multiple continents. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austin360.com\/news\/20190702\/austins-celis-brewery-files-for-bankruptcy-avoids-foreclosure\">It\u2019s complicated<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2000 pocket guide, Jackson mentioned Coors owned SandLot Brewery and the \u201csometimes more interesting specialities under the Blue Moon name.\u201d He did not rate Blue Moon Belgium White. <\/p>\n<p>When <a href=\"https:\/\/ceriabrewing.com\/\">Keith Villa<\/a> wrote the recipe for Blue Moon White his goal was not to emulate Hoegaarden Wit. He based it on his experiences in Belgium while studying in Brussels, where he earned a Ph.D. with high honors in brewing biochemistry. Villa grew up near the Coors Brewery in Golden and went to the University of Colorado 20 miles up the road. He had never been east of Nebraska before Coors sent him and his wife to Belgium between 1988 and 1992. After he returned, he took charge of new product development at the brewery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, the standard white style didn\u2019t have that nice, smooth flavor the American palate would be looking for,\u201d he said. Instead of using unmalted wheat in the recipe for Blue Moon, which was common, he included oats. Oats, less common, were a part of the Celis version of Hoegaarden, but are not in the current Hoegaarden  recipe. Rather than brewing his White with Cura\u00e7ao, again common, he decided on Valencia and navel orange peels. <\/p>\n<p>Blue Moon White became, and still is, the best selling wheat beer (of any style) in the United States <em>ever.<\/em> It didn\u2019t change the witbier style, and even putting aside the \u201ccraft versus crafty\u201d debate it would be hard to find somebody to advocate for it as the most representative of the style.<\/p>\n<p>However, consider this. People still walk into brewpubs, brewery taprooms and similar places, look at a list of what\u2019s on offer and don\u2019t know what to order. \u201cWhat do you usually drink?\u201d the bartender might ask, ready to use a bit of reference beer knowledge. There\u2019s a better chance the answer will be \u201cBlue Moon White\u201d than \u201cHoegaarden\u201d . . . or \u201cAllagash White.\u201d The Allagash White drinker probably doesn\u2019t <em>need<\/em>, if that is the right word, a reference beer.<\/p>\n<p>To the matter of reference beers for more obscure styles, that\u2019s a discussion for another day.<\/p>\n<p>Points of reference:<br \/>\n-The <a href=\"https:\/\/kfi.jpm.mybluehost.me\/blog\/the-42-best-beers-in-the-world-circa-1982\/\">42 best beers in the world, circa 1982<\/a>.<br \/>\n-The <a href=\"https:\/\/kfi.jpm.mybluehost.me\/blog\/a-short-history-of-jacksons-world-classics\/\">19 beers that earned a top rating<\/a> in all seven editions of the <em>Pocket Guide to Beer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boak and Bailey provoked what turned into a longread last week by asking \u201cWhat&#8217;s the reference beer for each style? Especially more obscure styles, we suppose.\u201d @BoakandBailey quickly added, \u201cSo, to clarify: reference doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean the best, just the most representative. If you&#8217;d never had style X before, would that beer help you understand &#8230; <a title=\"Why would a beer that was once a fine representative of a style no longer be?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/why-would-a-beer-that-was-once-a-fine-representative-of-a-style-no-longer-be\/\" aria-label=\"More on Why would a beer that was once a fine representative of a style no longer be?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[345,89,212],"class_list":["post-15852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beers-of-conviction","tag-blue-moon-white","tag-hoegaarden","tag-michael-jackson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4wTn-47G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15854,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15852\/revisions\/15854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}