BEER AND WINE LINKS, MUSING 12.31.18
Reflections on my first year as the craft beer industry’s first Diversity Ambassador.
Before complaining that lists dominated the online beer space the past week, there is this, which is wonderful and you really should get to reading right now. You don’t have to come back here. My feelings will not be hurt. Scrolling through an eighth time to pick a sentence that might draw you in, I kept thinking, this one is perfect, no, wait, this one is better, how about this whole paragraph? I’m going with this because, as it should be, you can replace the words “craft beer” with “our lives” and it works.
“I fear that if we continue speak in terms of the finish-line, we will forget that we have a marathon to run. For what it’s worth, I would rather have this conversation in terms of the process–what we need to be or do to progress toward the goal of a more diverse craft beer industry. I would rather have conversations about inclusion, equity, and justice.
Not long after I posted last week’s rather spare beer links o’ the week, Alan McLeod tweeted: “As I look towards Thursday then consider when this week is over, I think folk will remember Stan’s news update as the wordy one.”
Indeed, Boak and Bailey probably had the right idea, passing on roundups the last two Saturdays, because unless you are a fan of lists beer reading has been rather spare the last couple of weeks. These include best beers, biggest beer news, and predictions about what is to come. And as McLeod pointed out, a list of favorite beers isn’t real useful if you can’t drink those beers yourself. And Jeff Alworth acknowledged the limitations of picking the “best” even within a particular region. So the best of the yearenders (beer related and otherwise):
– Signifiers.
When somebody writes “check back for updates” and you actually do then you know they are on to something.
– Not that much may change.
I recommend listening to Joe Ely while reading Tara Nunin’s predictions: “I believe next year will prove unremarkable; a continuation of trends we’ve been watching for the last two to five years.”
– Larry Friggin’ Sidor, that’s why.
“1. President Trump fulfills campaign promise of building a wall between Mexico and US. He uses executive privilege to allow the addition of THC to Mexican Lagers. He claims victory for establishing a ‘stone wall’ between the two countries.” And he’s got nine more.
JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM
In case you believed the rumors American stout is dead.
PLACE
Hometown food.
And filing this away for future use: “In 2014, scientists at the University of Haifa found a link between the part of the brain that stores memories of new tastes (the cortex) and the area that records memories of where and when an eating experience happens (the hippocampus). They concluded that where people eat something has implications for how much they’ll enjoy the food itself.”
NAVEL GAZING
Is wine writing in decline?
“I want to resist Joe’s assumption that wine writing is equivalent to professional wine writing. The fact is there are a lot of talented, dedicated people writing about wine despite the lack of remuneration. Some of that writing is well informed and of high quality. Wine writing is one of those activities, like acting, painting, or writing novels, that people want to do for its intrinsic value, not because of an external reward.”
Hit search and replace with words I think you can figure out. Read. That explains why this weekly roundup persists.
FROM TWITTER
This idea needs to die. pic.twitter.com/kW4hFKqYVz
— Carla Jean Lauter (@beerbabe) December 26, 2018
MORE LINKS
ReadBeer, every day.
Alan McLeod, most Thursdays.
Good Beer Hunting’s Read Look Drink, most Fridays.
Boak & Bailey, most Saturdays.