Appellation Beer

The link. The paragraph: This was the first time when I thought: has science gone too far? Has non-alcoholic Helles been optimised so much in an attempt to make it as clean-tasting as possible, that it has actually lost some of its character as a beer? It still tastes like a beer, don’t get me wrong, but I do wonder whether the non-alcoholic version could just be a bit more characterful. I also wonder whether this is simply down to the base beer, and I don’t know whether this is just a…

The link. The paragraph: “If we called it DC Brau Light Lager, it’s not going to sell, because I’ve learned that there’s automatically a bias against craft beer in a large part of the population,” (CEO Brandon) Skall said.

The link: The paragraph: Part of this shift was driven by consumers discovering products they didn’t enjoy. In other cases, drinkers simply developed a clearer understanding of their preferences. The result was a return to familiar styles, including lagers, pale ales, and traditional IPAs. h/t Alan McLeod.

The link. The paragraph: There is no easy way to read it.* I’m not reading it in the bath, it’s hard work in bed, and did I take it to read on my long journey to Utrecht? Did I bollocks! No way am I lugging it around either. So reading it something that can only be done by setting aside time in the evening and reading with it in resting on one of my legs. I’m currently about a third of the way through the book and reaching the end is not expected any time soon. For more about The Session #150…

The link. The paragraph. With a background in fine arts, I focus on design and refinement, coupled with an essential intellectual humility. I encourage peer review and believe all “institutional knowledge” is merely a hypothesis awaiting scientific editing. That said, I enjoy the occasional off-script random brew day, following what is in inventory and creating something wacky and undefinable. The point of emphasis. “institutional knowledge” is merely a hypothesis awaiting scientific editing.

Prelude to a link. A bit of graffiti on a bathroom door at the Toronado (in San Francisco) once read, “Dave is God.” Then another customer added, “Dave is better than God.” The link. “People need to get out from behind their phones, go to a bar and talk to each other,” (David Keene) said. “The Toronado has been a place where anybody from a punk rocker, a Deadhead, a strip mall developer, a motorcycle enthusiast and a conventioneer who’s a doctor could sit and start having conversations.”

Link No. 1. The paragraph: The first Latina-owned brewery in Colorado stormed onto the Colorado Springs scene in 2018 after home-brewer Jess Fierro took home the top prize in the six-episode docuseries “Beerland.” Following her win, Fierro took over ownership of Great Storm Brewing Co., and it evolved into Atrevida. The word is the feminine form of the Spanish word “bold.” After nearly eight years of “shared laughter, late nights and clinking glasses,” however, Atrevida will close its doors at…

The link. The paragraph: Of all the (non-alcholic) beers in our panel tasting, Sierra Nevada Trail Pass Hazy IPA was the most divisive. That’s because, quite simply, it smells like a glass full of weed and tastes a bit like chewing on a weed gummy. That’s not an experience for everyone, but for the right kind of hophead, it’s heaven. (It contains no THC.)

The link. The paragraph: At other times we think it’s a sort of miracle. That altered landscape we mentioned has, in fact, ended up just about where we need and want it to be, and we’re more often spoiled for choice than disappointed these days. Even bog standard pubs often have something we can get excited about and enjoy, which was rarely the case in 2010. My apologies, because I don’t usually link to the last paragraph of a post, spoiling the ending, so to speak. It’s been more than 40 years…

The link. The paragraph: Amid these waves of profound transformation (in Vietnam), the Bia hoi côc (beer glass) has remained unchanged. Cheap and easy to acquire, the glasses continue to be made by hand with recycled glass in small village factories near Hanoi. Conceived in the midst of socialist austerity, it has persisted in the face of imported glassware, shifting design trends, changing tastes, economic reforms, and globalisation. China’s mass-produced crystal products now flood the…

The link. The paragraph: “I’ve been to many breweries where there’s two numbers [on the menu]. It’s just 8 and 5, and you’re like, ‘How much volume am I getting in a $5 pour?’ I have no idea,” (Eric Larkin of Cohesion Brewing in Denver) says. “I’ve ordered canned or bottled products, and I get a 16-ounce can instead of a 12-ounce can. I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I’ve seen it work both ways, but there’s definitely a lack of labeling and understanding.”

The first link. Leads to this paragraph: Starting twenty years ago, just after the Association of Brewers merged with the Brewers’ Association of America to create the BA, Craft beer went on a tear. Each year brought stories of growth, and naturally the BA touted that success. It was a seductively potent story. Craft beer is growing. It validated everything breweries and the BA were doing. Because of the message’s potency, it became part of craft beer’s brand. In an overall beer industry of…

The link. I apologize if you find this behind a paywall. I thought the post was supposed to be, but it opened for me . . . The paragraph: The point about snobbishness is fair. Sure, there are a few people in there with early morning pints. And the clientele does tend to be older. But the reason you notice the older punters is that in some cities Wetherspoon’s are the only pubs where you do see them. When I lived in a part of north London where most pubs sold high-margin craft beer to affluent…

The link. The paragraph: Despite this, there is a vibrant independent and modern beer scene in the county–if you want a DIPA, you’ll be able to find one. Locals may want cheaper, more trad beers on the whole, but the thousands of visitors coming in from the cities boosted a desire for stronger, weirder beers, which Matt (Clarke) and his peers were only too happy to accommodate. Making both styles ensures locals aren’t priced out of the pub while visitors get the beers they’d expect to see back…

When I wrote about New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival a couple weeks ago, Bill posed a question the the comments: “I have a question about the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival – I know there are some jazz and New Orleans – based acts (and maybe more this year than in recent years?), ... Read more

The link. The paragraph: How can a working journalist afford to buy a bar? “It’s not a fun story,” (Dave) Zirin told me. “My mom passed away and left me a small summer place. I could have kept it and had a place in the summer, or I could have sold it and had a retirement fund, or I could have sold it and bought a bar. I bought a bar.”

The link. The paragraph: Politics and business practices aside, there are also those who are baffled by the reverence in which the beer itself is held. It is, the critics say, a classic example of the boring brown bitter everyone was so fed up with about 20 years ago. Now, we happen to disagree, and ... Read more

Yesterday, Jeff Alworth wrote, “One comment I hear a lot is that beer ‘isn’t fun’ anymore. I certainly have as much fun with beer as I used to, and indeed in these fallen times, sitting with a pint and a friend is about the funnest thing I do.” I also had pints with a friend ... Read more

Walken (or walk-on) cooler at Dark City Brewing (RIP) in Asbury Park, New Jersey The link. The paragraph: But can the likes of (Christopher) Walken really pass on the pub-going habit? The youngest generation of drinkers have proven their penchant for nostalgia and a keenness for the analog age in other areas of the economy. ... Read more