{"id":16496,"date":"2021-08-09T07:12:21","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/?p=16496"},"modified":"2021-08-09T07:12:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T13:12:21","slug":"and-you-can-kiss-my-ass-its-just-a-character-flaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/and-you-can-kiss-my-ass-its-just-a-character-flaw\/","title":{"rendered":"And you can kiss my ass, it’s just a character flaw*"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little more Monday retro-blogging . . . or come for the science, stay for the beer bats. Yes, beer bats, not beer brats. Links to stories you might have missed.<\/em><\/p>\n

VinePair\u2019s \u201cOld Skills, New Tricks\u201d series looks at \u201chow drinks pros are taking on old trends with modern innovations.\u201d The first about beer focused on canning sour beers (without talking to Ron Jeffries at Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, which I do not understand). So far, I\u2019ve found the one that asks if cutting-edge technology and character can coexist<\/a> in winemaking the most interesting.<\/p>\n

Because I might have had the technology\/character conversation with brewers once or twice.<\/p>\n

The process Christian Gast\u00f3n Palmaz at Palmaz Vineyards has designed is definitely cutting edge. For instance, here\u2019s how the grapes are chosen: <\/p>\n

\u201cArmed with a \u2018four-axis vision system,\u2019 the equipment considers each grape\u2019s size, shape, color, and texture using a 3D stereoscopic camera. With the aid of an advanced AI algorithm, the machinery rapidly identifies the fruit, while 248 puffer air jets ensure anything that doesn\u2019t meet the winery\u2019s standards will not make it to the next stage of the journey. \u2018We used to do this all by hand,\u2019 Palmaz says, an almost lamenting tone to his voice. \u2018This system is infallible. It\u2019s becoming the gold standard of optical sorting for fruit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

These grapes produce juice that becomes wine in fermentation tanks that contain five independent heating and cooling zones and are hooked up to and controlled by a machine-learning, AI-assisted computer program. It monitors the activity of fermentation based on the speed that sound travels through the liquid, then adjusts the temperature accordingly. <\/p>\n

The story details how Palmaz has broken down every aspect of viticulture and vinification to find how to do it better, more efficiently. At conferences, he discovered other winemakers are not as enthusiastic about attaining total consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when it dawned on me that there is a large subset of the industry that truly believes a little bit of error in the process gives the wine character,\u201d he says. So, speaking to a group, he will ask them if they have instructed their staff to make mistakes. None say they have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would they?\u201d he says. \u201cWe all try to avoid mistakes but when they happen, we\u2019re very quick to say, \u2018It\u2019s character.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I think it is a cop out to call it a mistake when one batch of beer, or wine, does not taste exactly like the last. When brewers, or winemakers, assess the raw materials at hand and make adjustments they might be forgoing a measure of consistency that Palmaz is striving for, but it feels more like character rather a mistake. <\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/strong> New Beer Rule #4: Variation is not a flaw<\/a>.
\nFurther listening:<\/strong> Character Flaw<\/a>, by Joe Ely. *And the source of this week’s headline.<\/p>\n

Diversity<\/strong>
\n– Laura Garcia.<\/a><\/p>\n

– Something is going on in a city where most people \u201care white, old-school, blue-collar and Yinzeree,\u201d and the Pittsburgh Brewery Diversity Council is at the center.<\/a><\/p>\n

Empty sentences<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s more about keeping in tune with where consumers are going, pivoting your product mix and meeting demands where there is growth \u2014 without being too staid in your habits. The good news is IPAs are still growing and hazies inside of IPAs are still growing, so there are still some good trends there.\u201d<\/p>\n

– From Q&A with Stone Brewing CEO Maria Stipp<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On the lighter side<\/strong>
\n\"BeerWe witnessed players in Chicago Cubs uniforms (but not the players who wore the uniforms when we bought the tickets) win a baseball game last week in Denver, a rare sight these days. I considered buying ice cream that comes in a helmet, but it is hard to get excited about collecting Cubs memorabilia right now.<\/p>\n

However, had there been beer bats, even ones that carried a Rockies label and contained Coors Light, I would have paid silly stadium prices for beer (as it is, Coors Field is one more arena that could learn a lesson from Mercedes-Benz in Atlanta). <\/p>\n

Who could resist? Apparently, whoever is in charge of promotions for the Rochester Red Wings does not understand this. Because the team ran out of bats last week during beer bat day. And, as Deadspin reported<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like it should not have been possible to underestimate the demand for beer bats. Take the capacity of your stadium, multiply it by the maximum number of beer bats that one fan would be allowed to buy before being considered overserved (this is where you have to know your market \u2014 some places can really put away the brews), and, boom, there\u2019s how many beer bats you need per game \u2014 because people are going<\/em> to max out on beer bats, which, again, are beers served in bats.\u201d<\/p>\n

(The photo is from a Budweiser tweet<\/a> last May.)<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little more Monday retro-blogging . . . or come for the science, stay for the beer bats. Yes, beer bats, not beer brats. Links to stories you might have missed. VinePair\u2019s \u201cOld Skills, New Tricks\u201d series looks at \u201chow drinks pros are taking on old trends with modern innovations.\u201d The first about beer focused … 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":[703],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-links"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4wTn-4i4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496","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=16496"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16502,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16496\/revisions\/16502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}