Friday #beertography 3

Every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share your own!

Somerville Brewing Company (Slumbrew) - Sittin' on Hop of the World

Finch's Beer Co - Fascist Pig Ale

The Alchemist - Heady Topper

The Oncoming Storm: Yuengling vs Narragansett

     Bring Yuengling to New England is not just a Twitter account anymore... it's a reality.

     The news this week was the Yuengling is planning to bring its beer to Massachusetts, where their Traditional Lager is quite famous by its absence.  I've had this beer many times, and it's a solid lager deserving of loyalty.  In Pennsylvania, this is THE lager.  Meaning you can walk into a bar and say "lager" and get a Yuengling.

     Not long after the news dropped, Narragansett, New England's local lager*, took to Facebook with a message of "bring it on".

     The match up is a natural one.  Two regional, beloved, and low price point lagers will certainly be in direct competition.  My personal thoughts (echoed by other, more famous beer bloggers) is that Yuengling will do quite well, at least, as a novelty.  There are definitely plenty of people that don't have easy access to Yuengling up until now (or a brother with a girlfriend that travels back home to NJ to get it) and will probably buy a couple of racks of it once they see it on the shelves.  Hell, I'll probably buy some and have a nostalgia six-pack night.  But, beyond that initial splash, I have to wonder how Yuengling will compete in the MA market, where Narragansett is already well established and the craft beer market is already pretty saturated to begin with.

     There are a few other factors to consider.  One, of course, is price.  Narragansett Lager is almost criminally cheap for a craft beer (and I have long touted it for having the right idea), and while Yuengling will probably be quite affordable, I'll be interested to see how much it will go for during an initial market push.  Another factor is those dang green bottle Yuegling Traditional Lager comes in.  Beer bottles are (usually) brown to impede light causing oxidation, and thereby "skunking" the beer... and I've had enough Yuengling in my life that I've got a few bad ones.  And yes, Yuengling also comes in cans... but not tallboys like Narragansett.  And you can't party without tallboys, yo.

    Finally, there's the issue of variety beyond the flagships.  While I think I've only had Yuengling's Black and Tan (and don't recall being super impressed), I've had plenty of Nargansett's seasonal offerings.  I'm drinking a Narragansett Fest while I'm writing this, every year I get excited for their Porter to drop, and I've recently become a fan of their new regular, Bohemian Pilsner.  This, I think, is where Narragansett wins hands down.  While Yuengling will do fine, especially for novelty and among ex-pats from regions more familiar with their beer, I don't exactly see it taking the market by storm.  Still, you have to believe they're picking now to finally distribute here for a reason, and more competition for affordable craft beer can only be a good thing.  May even help with that craft beer bubble I keep ranting about.

    Yuengling, I eagerly await your arrival in my local store, and I hope you bring your full line-up.  I'm willing to be proven wrong and try them all.

[* I know... Sam Adams and all but... c'mon. ]

Friday #beertography 2

Every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share your own!

Blue Lobster Brewing Company - Piscataquaweisse

New England Brewing Co - Gandhi-Bot

Southern Tier Brewing Company - Pumking

10 Foot Pole: The Whiteness of Craft Beer

     Yeah, I'm going there because I don't know any better.

     A little while back, NPR posited the question as to why there weren't "more people of color in craft brewing".  This hit Facebook and the Twitter pretty hard, because nothing ever doesn't, and the short attention spans of social media turned the share-bait into craft beer being noting but a bunch of white guys with beards.  Now, no matter which way you take that, be it the original intent or the game-of-telephone'd purple monkey dishwasher version, I think there's a point or two being missed.  Is the assessment wrong?  No, I wouldn't say that.  It's more like it's a symptom of a larger reality.

     Before we go on, yes, I am a known white male.  I also am one of those beard-havers.  I also also am writing a blog with "beard" in the name.  Now,  I may be just be a simple country Hyper-Chicken, but if you prick me do I not bleed?  If you press me, do I not mix metaphor?  What I mean to say is I recognize that this is a potentially touchy subject even if I don't intend to handle it in any controversial way (probably), but suffice to say my thoughts are my own and yadda yadda.

     First, I'd like to point out that the "white guys with beards" (or without, whatever) part of the argument would have been a lot more true even just a few years ago.  Recently, I did an article on women in the craft beer world, which led one of my friends, a known lady, to start a Pinterest board on that very subject.  She even tells me that some of those very women we talked about, along with some others, have visited and added to the board.  Now, it may be no Slothterest, but I think that's pretty dang cool.  Not just because I had a tiny (very tiny) part in it, but because it's yet another sign that the tides are slowly turning.  Maybe in three years, I could easily do a similar article on black people or Hispanic people or anyone one else in craft beer.  And that would be great for obvious reasons, but also because it would mean the growth of the industry.

     But that's just it.  The industry in growing, not grown.  In fact, craft beer is a subset of a subset.  And maybe even smaller than that.  First, let's take people who are interested in beer in any kind of way.  Then take, of that group, the people who are interested in it enough to work with it on any kind of level.  That could be ordering a Mr. Beer Kit, applying for work at the local brewery, etc.  Of those, take the ones that are successful at making their own beer.  Enough so, at least, that they can think to make a go at selling the stuff.  Of THOSE, take the ones with the finances (oh, will we ever come back to that) to start up even a picobrewery, and have the wherewithal (and perhaps insanity) to want to navigate the jumble of laws that goes along with that.  The totals become vanishing, even when you start from the general population and ignore color or ethnicity.  And let's remember where we're starting from, and that craft beer as a whole is still a single-digit percentage of the overall beer industry.

     Finances are actually a huge, huge part of this.  And to draw examples, I will now partake in probably the most controversial thing I say here.  Hopefully.

     Let's take the old chestnut about black people not playing hockey.  If you're a dumb person who is also even more dumb than one dumb can describe, you might joke (or, *shudder* actually believe) this has something to do with "cold", or even an artifact of the sport being more popular (and having originated) in whiter parts of the world, when the reasons are very much more likely to be socioeconomic.  Hockey, like brewing craft beer, has steep entry costs associated with it.  I know we supposedly live in a post-racial society (resist joke about the real reason for the government shutdown), but the racial wealth gap seems to suggest otherwise.  But again, this isn't solely about race.

    Now take another example.... COPS.  As in bad boys what you gonna do COPS.  If you want to talk the effects of socioeconomic status, how many white dudes in tank tops did you see with their face blurred out on that show?  As a thought experiment, do you suppose many of them played hockey or were into brewing craft beer?

     Yes, I'm probably taking some extreme examples, but I really do believe and hope that things will change.  That's not to say the apparent whiteness of the industry isn't a problem.  A growing industry can only sustain itself by growing in as many directions as possible and, just like there are more women in beer now, I think there will be more people of all types in craft beer if things keep going like they're going.  So really, I guess I just think this is only a really big problem if things stay this way.  But that's future blog's problem.

     To distill my thoughts, I don't think (or at least certainly hope) the lack of diversity in craft beer isn't due to some kind of internal blowback.  And yes, as the article suggests, it could be cultural preference, but I don't think that alone accounts for the dearth we see today.  The subset-of-a-subset problem coupled with the socioeconomic factors goes a bit further to cover the trend, but neither do I think that all the white dudes we see brewing beer are independently wealthy.  As markets expand, costs come down and information gets disseminated more readily.  Give it some time.  Cracks will form in the facade.

     Luckily, you can find reasons out there to think that things are changing.  The homebrewer of the year for 2013 was a black woman named Annie Johnson, and I'm not silly enough to think that she's a statistical anomaly, even if she's not "in the industry" just yet.  It proves that non-white, non-male (non-bearded) people are out there, trying, and it seems as though some of them make some very fine beer.  

    And just in case:  sorry.  I'm a dumb.

New Feature! Friday #beertography

    Inspired by this tweet, every Friday I share a few pieces of my aspiring #beertography in hopes that some of you will play along and share some of your own!

 

Night Shift Brewing Fallen Apple

Stone Brewing Co Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout

Allagash Brewing Company Merveilleux

Mea Culpa and All That: The Things I've Missed

     Whoops.  Kind of let life get in the way of the blog, didn't I.  Well, shame on me.  See, I've been spending most of my time over the last month looking for a place to live, packing and cleaning, moving, and now still looking for a place to live.  And commuting.  And between all that and the odd game of Rogue Legacy, there's been time for precious little else in my life save sweet, sweet sleep.  I even have a library book out I haven't cracked but once in two weeks!  And a library book is a commitment!  But enough crying into my beer...

    There's been a lot going on in the land of beer since I last posted.  There was the guy with auto-brewery syndrome.  And who could forget all the beer blogs blazing over how white the craft beer industry is?  Well, maybe it's a good thing I missed that last one, since I'm a white guy tangentially involved with the craft beer industry (very tangentially... I think Kevin Bacon is probably closer to it than me), but I don't know any better so I'll probably still throw out some opinions on that one at some point.  Anyway, rather than covering the news, I want to just put up a brief entry about how where you are affects your beer.

    You could accuse this blog of having been pretty Boston-centric, and you wouldn't be wrong.  I'm not going to give you the cookie of telling you that you're right on with that one, so let's settle with you're not wrong.  But, being as Boston is where I was and the craft beer world operates at a certain pace there, it affects one's perception.  But having spent some time on the Seacoast yet again... there ain't nothing wrong with beer here.

    A couple of weeks ago, before I got stupid busy, some friends and I went on a self-styled brewery tour... and we didn't do it in no city.  Even though we had to travel a bit to get up here for it, our first choice for such an adventure was the Seacoast, as we made our way down from Dover (lunch at The Barley Pub), which was also having it's local Oktoberfest celebrations... so lots of Hacker-Pschorr Bräu Oktoberfest Märzen to be had.  We hit most of the stops I mentioned in my previous post about beer trips, with the addition to a stop at Top Shelf Brews and Sea Hagg Distillery.  By the way, I know this isn't a rum blog, but seriously... go to that distillery.  I got this amazing blueberry rum that was so smooth, you didn't need more than an ice cube with it.  Although it was also pretty awesome with lemon seltzer.  Bonus: they have awesome posters.

    My long and rambly point is that I don't think we could have gone so many places in one afternoon and had such an easy time of it in a place like Boston.  Other seacoast adventures have included a post-moving (like, immediately post-moving) trip to WHYM Craft Beer Cafe in Portsmouth, who was doing their "Sausagefest" Oktoberfest.  That meant three kinds of brats, potatoes, kraut and a dang LITER of Marzen.  Also, we invented speed cornhole.

    Another win for the Seacoast!  And yet, I somehow haven't left the "release-iness" of Boston behind.  Seems like every week I was running to the store to get something that just got delivered and was "limited quantities" or "two per customer, no holds" or something like that.  And while it's not what I've experienced here, there have at least been no shortage of new beers to try from local breweries.  Throwback Brewery's latest is a peach saison called Avoir La Peche.  While I didn't find it to have some of the more traditional saison qualities, most notably some delicious yeasty sediment, it was pleasantly sour and very crisp and refreshing.  At the same time, just down the road, Blue Lobster Brewing Company put out their very first bottled beer, Little Lobster on the Prairie, which was a collaboration with Oklahoma's Prairie Artisan Ales.  This one was also a saison, and I really dug it.  Notably, the beer contains Brett, so I imagine the second bottle I have set aside will (hopefully) get some nice funk to it before I get to curious and crack it open.

   Lastly, not a new beer, but I also had one of the best "new to me" beers in a long time, just the other night at The Portsmouth Brewery.  Now, I'll disclaim that I had some bad experiences at this establishment long ago, perpetrated by people that are surely no longer there, but suffice to say I haven't gone by there as much as most people in the area probably have... so I'm sure this beer isn't exactly a secret.  While I am familiar with their Black Cat Stout, I had not, until Sunday, had their Black Cat Stout on Cask with Strawberries and Cacao.  As you can see by this checkin, I was quite impressed.

    Again, all these lovely times were had all within a few miles of each other, right in lovely, craft beer loving Seacoast NH.  Now, the real test will be if I can get a bottle of Brewery Ommegang Game of Thrones: Take The Black Stout later today... one day after it released in NH (someone was a dummy and was out enjoying nature and missed the FB announcement until after the store had closed).  But I know back in Boston, it would have been gone in an hour.  Here?  In a place where beer experiences move at a more reasonable pace, long enough to savor them, maybe I have a chance.

"Hyper Local", or, Certain Adjectives May be Exaggerated

     This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Pemberfest, a "hyper-local grand tasting" at Pemberton Farms, a gourmet food shop and produce/garden center located juuust barely in Cambridge, MA, near Davis Square.  It was their second year doing it, and my second year going.  The event featured 17 local brewers pouring samples, and also featured 10% your purchases of any bottles from the breweries in attendance.  

     The whole thing is free, which is sort of a mixed bag.  It's nice to not have to pay any kind of cover, but with no deterrent for entrance, the place get overfilled very quickly, which leans to chaos, aggravation, and breweries running out of some or all of their beers within the first hour or two.  Knowing how wacky Massachusetts beer laws are (and you know, too, if you've been reading this blog), they may actually have to do this kind of thing for free lest it be construed that they are selling samples of beer.  Or maybe something having to do with a festival permit, or the fact that it's in a space doing other business... the possibilities are myriad, and although it's a slight bone of contention for me (I think if they can charge, they should, and have the opportunity to run a smoother fest), it's not the bone I want to chew on today.

     I've been to a few beer events that dubbed themselves "hyper" local without really giving much thought to what it means.  "Local" itself is a trendy term that people like to throw around and, cynic that I am, I tend to interpret it as someplace you can drive within a day that somehow justifies charging more for it... or maybe I'm confusing that second part with "organic" (take THAT, hippies!).   In terms of beer, at least around here, it seems to me that people use the word local to mean "in New England".  You're in Boston but shopping for some MO by Maine Beer Company?  No worries!  That's local!  So perhaps we can interpret "hyper" local as actually within the state.  That's still a fairly wide swath, but we do know it must be bigger than something like "beer from the greater Boston area", because... well, because then there couldn't have been 17 brewers in attendance.

     Anyway, because I love maps, I decided to map out where exactly the brewers in attendance at Pemberfest were from.  Just a fun little exercise where I could point out where the furthest "hyper" local brews were from.  But after a little digging, things got interesting.

View Hyper Local? in a larger map

If the embedded map above is acting wonky, click here.

     In green, we have the location of Pemberton Farms.  In blue, we have the breweries with, more or less, brick and mortar locations where the beer is made.  In yellow, we have contract brewers... divided into two types.

     One of the markers is for Paper City Brewing Company in Holyoke, MA, where Backlash Beer currently contracts out of.  There another for Mercury Brewing Company in Ipswich, MA, which several breweries in attendance contract out of.  According to this article, they currently contact with Clown Shoes, Somerville Brewing Company (Slumbrew), Battle Road Brewing, Notch Brewing Company and several others not at Pemberfest.  There are also two yellow markers for Slumbrew and for Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project.  Slumbrew has a test brewery in Somerville, MA, and they operate things "similar to gypsy breweries" where the head brewer works with a contracted location and is on premises for the making of the beer (and also provides the specialty ingredients, at least).  This is in contrast to the classic definition of contract brewer, where someone else is contracted to make the beer for the brewery.

     In the case of Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, I've placed a marker in Westport, MA.  Honestly, I'm not 100% clear on where Pretty Things brews their beer, and there are two wrinkles to this.  Pretty Things is a tenant brewer.  This means they contract a location in which to brew beer but, rather than having it brewed for them or being on premises for QC and such, tenant brewers provide all of the labor for the brewing process.  In essence, they are a subdivision of gypsy brewer (which is a subdivision of contract brewer) where their contract is purely for the location and use of equipment.  Plus, their bottles say that their beer is made and bottle in Westport, but I can't find anything recent online to nail that down to an address.  It may well be at Buzzards Bay Brewing, but I found a slightly dated article that suggested that might not be the case.  So I'm just going to go with what the bottle says.  I know.  Bad blogger!  Lazy blogger!

     Finally, we get to the most interesting case of all.  Notch Brewing Company.  In researching this particular rabbit hole, I came upon this bit of news from just over a month ago: Notch is actually made in two locations, as they signed a contract with Two Roads Brewing in Stamford, CT to supplement their capacity at Mercury.  So that means that "hyper local" brew people drank on Saturday might have actually been from the shadow of... New York City!

     Also, note that if you Google "hyper local beer", one of the first things that comes up is something called "Hyper-Local Craft Brewfest", an annual BeerAdvocate event.  This one, you don't need to make a map and do additional research for to notice some of these attendees are definitely from out of state.  Naraganssett Beer Co is from Rhode Island, Peak Organic Brewing Company and Rising Tide Brewing Company are from Maine, and Smuttynose Brewing Co is from New Hampshire.  And that's without even getting in to the Mead and Cider makers in attendance.

    So, does "hyper" local just mean the same thing as "local".  Is it just thrown on because it sounds cool?  Consider that we've been talking a bit about contract brewers, and if you read most any beer blogs, you know what a quagmire that term became (at least for a heated while) recently.  There are many flavors of contract brewers that all, in one certain sense, denote the same concept.  Local, hyper local... even quantum local (which is surely next) just means "from the geographic region".  Probably.  Marketing is silly and beer contracts are sometimes confusing.

     In a final analysis, it's great to support your... let's go with the term "area" brewers.  Basing your love on geographic proximity?  Well, that's for you to decide but it seems silly to me.  The closest brewery to me isn't going to necessarily get a larger share of my beer-drinking business, but I will say it warrants some more consideration than a beer from, say, Ohio or Washington state.  Whether it's local or "hyper" or whatever silly adjective someone throws in front of a beer fest to make it sound slightly more edgy or memorable, the important thing is such events afford the opportunity to meet the people involved with your beer.  So many it's no so much about "local" as about "community", which I think sound much more warm and fuzzy.