{"id":16771,"date":"2022-01-03T08:16:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T14:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/?p=16771"},"modified":"2022-01-03T08:16:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T14:16:41","slug":"monday-beer-links-2021-via-the-rear-view-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/monday-beer-links-2021-via-the-rear-view-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday beer links: 2021 via the rear view mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Happy
\nJeff Alworth uses the term \u201ccraft beer\u201d just once in his Beervana beer in review<\/a> post, and that only to describe a bar. Dave Infante totally leans into those two words in tandem at VinePair. A headline that declares it was \u201ca very bad year\u201d<\/a> for \u201ccraft beer\u201d accurately describes the story that follows.<\/p>\n

It has been more than seven years since editor John Holl declared in All About Beer magazine that the magazine would use the term “craft beer” only when absolutely necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne word shouldn\u2019t be a dividing point. Ultimately, it should be about the beer in the glass, and whether it tastes good to the individual drinker. In the same way that the word microbrew is still batted around, we don\u2019t honestly believe that the word craft will disappear anytime soon, but we do believe it\u2019s time to have a conversation about what it really means. Is it a helpful word that makes beer better, or is it necessary at all?,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of passion surrounding this one word. And we believe it should be the right word, the beverage we cover, the one we enjoy. That\u2019s why, as often as possible, we\u2019re just going to call it beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

I liked that idea then and I like it now. That doesn\u2019t make what Infante wrote less relevant. For instance this, \u201cFor a time, craft beer had something approaching mainstream cachet, and that time has passed. I admit, this is a feeling more than a fact. But man, 2021 made me feel it. It was the year that craft beer became irrevocably cheugy.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, when he writes, \u201cCulture is powerful stuff, and craft beer\u2019s didn\u2019t do it any favors this year, online or off\u201d that would seem to lump together what might fairly be called a group failure with the cultures at Birds Fly South in South Carolina with Our Mutual Friend in Colorado or with Fair State in Minnesota. That bothers me because the crew at each of those breweries understands their responsibility to the communities that support them. <\/p>\n

Granted, lumping can be necessary. There is no denying the truth in the subtitle of Pete Brown\u2019s \u201cCraft: An Argument,\u201d that \u201cWhy the term \u2018Craft Beer\u2019 is completely undefinable, hopelessly misunderstood and absolutely essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not crazy enough to make predictions about how \u201ccraft beer\u201d will be viewed in 80 years from now when somebody writes the history of pop culture in the 21st century. (See Chuck Klosterman\u2019s \u201cBut What If We\u2019re Wrong?\u201d) But it may read differently than local histories about breweries such as Lady Justice, Creature Comforts or Montclair. There are times we should be talking about the trees individually rather than the forest.<\/p>\n

Additional reading:<\/strong> Reckoning, Retribution, Reconciliation, Recovery, And Resilience Mark The Year In Craft Beer.<\/a><\/p>\n

LISTS<\/strong>
\n– Compare and contrast. First an observation: Hop Culture\u2019s list of 5 favorite under-the-radar beer states didn\u2019t include a state west of the Eastern time zone. But I thought you might want to compare their 5 under-the-radar cities<\/a> with an on-the-radar list from Michael Jackson 21 years before<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

– I contributed to Gear Patrol\u2019s list of best new releases<\/a>. However, I would not be pointing to it had I not drunk several beers others chose and in each case thought, \u201cDang, good call.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Thumbs up to Porch Drinking for seeking out breweries such as Crane Brewing* for its \u201c50 Beers From 50 States\u201d<\/a> list. It is not a \u201cbest\u201d list. Instead, \u201cChances are that unless you live near these breweries or have visited the area the brewery is in, you\u2019ve likely not heard of most of them.\u201d Interesting choices.<\/p>\n

* Pardon the plug, but if you want a recipe for Crane\u2019s Beet Weiss, you can find it in \u201cBrewing Local.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMMITMENT<\/strong>
\na) Alan McLeod quietly announced he has created a Patreon microsite. Scroll to the bottom for details.<\/a><\/p>\n

b) In their December newsletter,<\/a> Boak & Bailey wrote, \u201cPatreon has become a valuable outlet for personal writing and thinking aloud \u2013 somewhere we can take the odd risk with a friendly audience.\u201d <\/p>\n

c) Jeff Alworth offers details about the relaunch of Beervana Community<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Back in the 20th century, I (sometimes in partnership with Daria Labinsky) started and eventually wound down three print newsletters which people paid for. The winding down was a pain in the butt. That\u2019s one reason that Hop Queries is free. I\u2019m not prepared to take on the commitment. See a), b) and c) for people who are.<\/p>\n

SELLING BEER<\/strong>
\n– A growing digital marketing divide.<\/a><\/p>\n

– More about beer bars going forward. John Holl wrote about them<\/a> and also talked about them with Chris Black, Michael Roper and Polly Watts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– Mikkeller. Private equity. The beat goes on.<\/a><\/p>\n

SEEMS FAMILIAR<\/strong>
\nClimate change. Healthy drinking. Equity. The year in what alcoholic beverage is being summarized here? Wine.<\/a><\/p>\n

SENTENCE OF THE WEEK<\/strong>
\n“Brewers and farmers from Belgian Barrels Alliance (BBA) have partnered with Zeromint to offer nonfungible tokens (NFTs) aimed at preserving the UNESCO recognized Belgian beer culture and heritage.” Yes, beer, NFTs and UNESCO in the same sentence<\/a>. <\/p>\n

ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE<\/strong>
\nA special brew day.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Alworth uses the term \u201ccraft beer\u201d just once in his Beervana beer in review post, and that only to describe a bar. Dave Infante totally leans into those two words in tandem at VinePair. A headline that declares it was \u201ca very bad year\u201d for \u201ccraft beer\u201d accurately describes the story that follows. It … 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-16771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-links"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4wTn-4mv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16771","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=16771"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16781,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16771\/revisions\/16781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appellationbeer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}