![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/kfi.jpm.mybluehost.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220214-elsewhere.jpg\")
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Remember when Lew Bryson started The Session Beer Project<\/a> in 2007? He originally set the cap for session beers at 5.5% ABV, then lowered it to 4.5%. And finding truly flavorful beers that met the standard was not particularly easy.<\/p>\n Now it seems as if 2.5% ABV is the new 4.5%. Such beers may be labeled \u201clow alcohol.\u201d \u201cBuilding quality low-alcohol beer is a balancing act,\u201d Josh Bernstein writes in The New York Times<\/a>. Among others, Bernstein talked with Todd DiMatteo, brewer and co-founder at Good Word Brewing & Public House in Duluth, Georgia. He also mentioned Little Beer, a festival Good Word will host in April.<\/p>\n The first Little Beer<\/a>, held last May, was the first and last festival I have attended since Covid arrived in the United States. The 2022 lineup is spectacular in a different way than the also spectacular lineup for Side Project Invitational the same day. I plan to write more about that later.<\/p>\n A bit of disclosure. DiMatteo and I are friends. I once hung out and helped brew a 3.5% ABV beer at Good Word that we called Lunar Gravity. (One Untappd contributor gave it 4 1\/2 stars and wrote \u201cDefinitely good for a lager.\u201d) Last week, among the reasons I was back in Georgia was because Ron Pattinson came to the U.S. to drink a beer DiMatteo brewed from a recipe Pattinson wanted to taste.<\/p>\n The beer is called No Wooden Shoes<\/a> and is a 3.5% ABV Dutch-style Donkerbier. About four dozen Georgia brewers showed up at Good Word on Thursday to listen to Pattinson talk about low-gravity English beers. I sat beside him and answered a few questions about hops, but I know why they braved Atlanta traffic to get to Duluth.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Pattinson and I visited a few Georgia breweries. The photo at the top was taken at Elsewhere Brewing and that\u2019s brewer Josh Watterson with him in front of 12 horizontal tanks (six fermentation tanks, six serving vessels).<\/p>\n Now, back to regular programming.<\/p>\n COMPARE & CONTRAST<\/strong> Bell\u2019s Brewery has 1,300 employees. What\u2019s it going to be like to work there in five years and what will Eccentric Day<\/a> be like? I\u2019m willing to wait and see. What will it be like at New Belgium Brewing, which is now \u201cintegrating\u201d with Bell\u2019s? There is a standard to live up to (see the next section and Brian Callahan).<\/p>\n [Insert headline].<\/strong> Try as I may I could not come up with a few words to summarize this story<\/a> that doesn\u2019t come off churlish. The Brewers Association independent craft brewer seal has caught plenty of flack since it was introduced in 2017, but it helped make \u201cindie brewer\u201d part of our vocabulary. I expect that the founders of Indie Brewing<\/a> are good neighbors and don\u2019t deserve a headline that reads, \u201cIndie Brewing Is Dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018WOW, I THINK I COULD DO THIS\u2019<\/STRONG> A FORGOTTEN RUNT<\/STRONG> BUSINESS PAGES<\/STRONG> Discarding gender roles.<\/a> \u201cThere is no more important narrative in the last century of U.S. alcohol than the rise of women drinkers.\u201d <\/p>\n Related:<\/strong> In The New Brewer (available in print and to Brewers Association members online) \u201cBeer\u2019s Tenacious Gender Gap\u201d concludes \u201cSomeday we may look back and see this era as the time when our culture tools its first baby steps away from the whole idea of categorizing human traits as \u2018masculine\u2019 or \u2018feminine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Fuller\u2019s was funky.<\/a> Ah, yes, the 70s.<\/p>\n I\u2019m confused.<\/strong> The subhead on this story<\/a> states, \u201cAs baby boomers retire and buy less wine, producers need new ways to tempt a White Claw generation back from other alcoholic drinks.\u201d But within there is this quote: \u201cA brand\u2019s social values are increasingly connected to a consumer\u2019s decision to purchase particular products, including wine.\u201d I would like to see the memo revealing White Claw\u2019s social values. <\/p>\n HOP MAN<\/STRONG> New (to me) census occupational category: Hop Man! In the 1910 California population census. ? cc @brewingarchives<\/a> @StanHieronymus<\/a> @LizGaribayChi<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/gX8DkuLw0T<\/a><\/p>\n — Jennifer Jordan (@ediblememory) February 10, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cSelling out\u201d revisited.<\/a> This is quite a sentence: \u201cAt its zenith, craft beer might have achieved something close to that kind of (beer-centric) social, civic saturation, but those days are in the rearview now.\u201d Perhaps this overstates the import of craft beer in the decade of your choice and at the same time understates its ongoing impact within smaller communities. <\/p>\n
\nHe started as a volunteer, bottling beer. He was the company\u2019s first employee owner. He finished happily working on the grounds crew. A very New Belgiumesque story<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nAn exploration of sour<\/a> and our evolutionary past. Or why you wouldn\u2019t give a tomato or lemon to a sheep.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been years since a new beer ad reached pop culture status.\u201d<\/a> I can live with that.<\/p>\n
\nWhy was I not given this option when answering census questions?<\/p>\n\n