News from Other Beer Writers – Page 24

August 27, 2014September 5, 2018

Peel the Label – Recognition

There seems to be an almost natural rivalry between online and tactile. It was music that was, and still is, the flag bearer for that debate. There are as many camps as there are aspirants for the Iron Throne. Vinyl enthusiasts, streaming music channels or live at a club all vie for attention.

The same hold true for print versus online if you want to go for the adversarial paragraph opener. I was reading through some wine blogs (which beer bloggers should do to both hone their game and see a wider world) and I came across this:

My take on print vs. online media is that print’s business model screwed the pooch a long, long time ago. It has nothing to do with wine and is happening in every form of print media on any subject matter. People enjoy interactions and opinion, and are seeking to balance straight-ahead, mostly-objective, fact-based coverage (which for decades has been the bread-winner for print) with subjective, opinion-based, op-ed-style pieces that by-and-large center on the unique voice of the writer. In other words, nowadays people will take a human relationship and a sense of personal trust over a pronouncement of facts (or even opinion) as deigned from an expert.

It was from 1 Wine Dude and I found myself toggling back and forth as to whether I agree or not.

I believe the debate has been about what people want covered and how they want it covered. And I think a mixture of fact based journalism and opinion are what is needed. And as much as music, movies, TV and newspapers couldn’t straddle online and off, they are still uniquely positioned to deliver that content.

But I also think that blogs can deliver as well and that print and blogs could both do it without partisan rancor. It comes down to one word: recognition.

I am not talking about badges and ribbons for participation. There are two missed opportunities for recognition that I think mesh for this topic.

First, recognizing who the other person is. This happens to be something that print seems to miss with two hands and a flashlight. If I may stereotype an entire group of people, what I hear most about bloggers is that they are not journalistic enough. With the implication that, journalists are better and that you should all want to be them one day.

The point that is missed is that beer bloggers (again in general) are not journalists and don’t want to be. Most have a 9-5 and a life and blog on the side. They are not trained in writing or web design or want/ have an editor that is not a significant other. When journalists can accept that or at least recognize it, they will be more secure in their place and the role of bloggers.

Bloggers, on the other hand, could always do with a little added professionalism and a renewed focus on writing. I include myself because I hope to be learning and not stagnant. Journalists and print can help one grow as a blogger. If only for grammar reasons. And if bloggers can recognize that writing is more important than SEO, that would be cool too.

The other shade of recognition is what the strengths and weaknesses are for your chosen delivery method. Don’t blame the Sunday paper for being filled with news you saw hashtagged yesterday. And don’t blame a blog for being visual forward. Just two examples that I have heard recently.

Print and blogs are simply delivery methods. Both may not survive the next technological leap. Or both might. They are not a banner that you rally behind. Each individual needs to find out the best way to say what they want to say, in the way that the say it best. Then look at which way allows them to say that.

Or you can continue to snipe at each other like Lannisters and Starks.

Another 1 Wine Dude link that I think you might find enlightening is HERE.

August 26, 2014September 5, 2018

BBC14 Extra-Curricular Highlights

Where else did we go when in San Diego county when not attending the BBC14?

Stopped at Pizza Port Bressi Ranch for Sharknado on cask and Draft Punk Biere de Table. Plus pizza.

Convict’s Voyage Australian IPA at the Little Italy Ballast Point location

Visiting not one but TWO Bottlecraft locations.

August 24, 2014September 5, 2018

Beer Bloggers Conference 2014 – Day 2 Report

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Day 2 in Mission Valley in San Diego, our host for the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.

Learning day! Multiple break-out sessions either tangentially or directly targeted at bloggers. With the key and most important talk coming from Ken Grossman, the keynote speaker. The man behind Sierra Nevada. He spoke about Beer Camp and the tour that wound it’s way from Chico to Mills River in North Carolina. I think it was better to hear about the bus and the AC breaking down than to experience it.

Before that, we had choices for topics. I went to photography first followed by Beer Blogging Ethics. Both held nuggets of good information but starting with the photo session which seemed targeted at a more PR/Art photography rather than the “in the trenches” photography from a bar or festival. The main take-away was learning your camera and your editing software so that creating better photos becomes second nature.

The ethics session was good in concept but not executed well despite the combined wisdom of Jay Brooks and Brandon Hernandez who have held numerous positions in beer writing. The free flowing Q&A should have been ditched for more questions from the moderator who has a legal and blogging background and could have led the discussion instead of letting go the reins.

Lunch was at Yard House. I was not there. Too sponsor-y to me and I don’t need to come to San Diego for their food and taps. I came for San Diego beer. So fellow blogger Richard and I headed to the FlavorDome. That will be a separate post.

After Ken Grossman concluded his well done speech and announced that BBC15 will be Asheville, North Carolina we went into technical blogging and social media techniques. Me being contrary to all things SEO, I wrote this post instead. Also because I knew that major beer drinking was ahead. That too will be covered later……

August 23, 2014September 5, 2018

Beer Bloggers Conference 2014 – Day 1 Report

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Lovely Mission Valley in San Diego played host to the 2014 Beer Bloggers Conference.

We arrived near Charger/Qualcomm stadium to meet bloggers and taste beer and learn about San Diego. After a stop Pizza Port in Bressi Ranch of course. Had to fuel up with pizza and beer.

The conference was already started with beers already flowing. Many Ballast Point beers were available like Grapefruit Sculpin and the latest Homework Series beer, a rye hop bomb. Also Belching Beaver and New English ( which was new to me) bottles were being passed around.

We had barely sat down and hadn’t even seen our room when cool event # 1 started. Hop Vaping with Lagunitas. I probably didn’t do it right but it was still cool. Amarillo hops piped into a bag then pushed into your waiting nasal passages. I went back again later that night and just soaked in the aroma from the “Vaping” table.

Cool event # 2 was hearing the true San Diego craft beer history with the titans of SD brewing. Peter Zien from AleSmith, Tomme Arthur from Port and Lost Abbey and Chuck Silva of Green Flash. This panel could have gone on for hours. The blog marketing info presented afterwards was good but really paled in comparison. A poor time slot can make or break a presentation. The beer history was so informative that I will post separately when I talk about the documentary, Suds, County.

A trip to the Karl Strauss tasting room was anti-climactic as well. Solid beers and a lovely landscaped and decorated space but safe, not adventurous.

That adventure came at the Lagunitas nightcap. Aged Olde Gnarleywine from ’09 and ’11. Sucks on tap. And the standout for the night was Mandaraison. Pepper and fruit swirled with Belgian influences. Fantastic. Plus news of their new fresh hop Born a Yesterday Pale.

More to come later…..

July 4, 2014September 5, 2018

Session # 89

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This month the Pittsburgh Beer Snob is leading the Session and here is the topic for July….

“I love history. There’s just something about it. It’s fun. It’s interesting. It even gives me goosebumps. So, I only saw it to be fitting that I choose the topic of Beer in History.

Even better is the fact that the summer time is the main period of the calendar year that I absolutely delve into history. We just passed the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy (Many of you know it as D-Day or Operation Overlord). The latter portions of June mark the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign which culminates on July 3. The following date is obviously the Fourth of July here in the states.

At many points in history you can look back and find alcohol intertwined. A lot of times that form of alcohol is beer. Beer is something that connects us with the past, our forefathers as well as some of our ancestors. I want this topic to be a really open-ended one. So, it should be fairly easy to come up with something and participate.”

Beer is embedded into history of all kinds, science with Pasteur, technology with modern behemoth breweries, women in the workforce with ale wives. Monks aplenty as well. And now as craft beer reaches 25 and 30 years of age in some breweries, there is a spate of books about how craft came to be. Recent history, as it were.

But I want to talk about metal. Not the music. More specifically aluminum. It is why the industrial water lagers became so ubiquitous and it is also powering a growing trend in craft brewers who put most of their beer in cans. It has bridged two competing interests in history.

This metal was first identified in the 1780’s and took awhile to become used commonly because getting it out of the ground proved hard to do and too costly to do until advancements in the 19th century made aluminum cheaper to be made and easier as well. Thus the price for it fell and more people could use it.

Even with that change, it wasn’t the metal of choice until after World War II (I know that World War I is chic right now but let’s talk WW2). Steel cans were sometimes used but bottles were the first choice for price and because that is what was used. A plucky little brewery (Well, it might have been considered that then, but Coors certainly isn’t now) in 1958, filled little 7oz cans. The Hawaii Brewing Company used an all-aluminum can that year as well. The innovation still wasn’t super popular but as the cone-top cans became less popular those who stuck with aluminum through the development process were justified in sticking with it.

R&D wise you then had the steel can with aluminum top. Then the addition of the pull tab that involved a certain amount of digital dexterity which was better than the church key method of popping open a jagged opening for the beer to come out of. (Precursor to WIDE mouth openings). A man with the stylin’ name of Ermal Fraze created the first “zip top” can. Then Schlitz proudly introduced the first “pop top” can in the year 1963. Ancient for some beer fans. But if you remember a world without remote controls or answering machines, you probably remember some cans without that simple and elegant design.

The next step was to create a tab that stayed with the can to avoid a littering of tear off tabs on the ground. That finally happened in 1975.

And now nearly 100% of all beer and soda cans here in the U.S. are made fully of aluminum. Looking at that summation of hundreds of years it is really amazing to think that a metal found in the ground would become such a monopoly for holding fizzy drinks. And it is even more amazing that it took craft brewers so long to wrest control of cans back to quality beer.

Makes me want to pop open a Wolf Among Weeds from Golden Road.

Kudos to MadeHow.com for providing the research material.

June 7, 2014September 5, 2018

Session # 88 – Traditional Beer Mixes

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Boak and Bailey are the hosts for June and….”The topic we’ve chosen is traditional beer mixes.

In his 1976 book Beer and Skittles early beer writer Richard Boston lists several:

Lightplater – bitter and light ale.
Mother-in-law — old and bitter.
Granny — old and mild.
Boilermaker — brown and mild.
Blacksmith –stout and barley wine.
Half-and-half – bitter and stout, or bitter and mild.
We’d like you to drink one or more from that list and write about it on Friday 6 June… and that’s it.

We’re deliberately aiming for something broad and accessible, but there is one rule — no ‘beer cocktails’! It’s been done, for starters. So, mix two beers, not four; and steer clear of syrups, spirits, flavourings and crushed ice.”

So, I hemmed and hawed as to which mix I would like to do and I eventually chose the Boilermaker. But instead of going the English beer route, I chose all California. And then in a move that the purists may decry, I chose a dark mild to pair with the brown. Why? Because recently Eagle Rock Brewery has offered blends before to success, most notably their IPA and Winter Warmer combo, Populee. So, I felt justified in making a darker, more Dashiell Hammett / James Ellroy version of a beer only Boilermaker.

First though, I sampled both separately to get my bearings straight before the experiment. The Davy Brown had a cedar aroma and light quaffable bit of hop to it. Brown but not malty or nutty. Solidarity is a dark black with cocoa powder and a viscous taste to it. All the while being 2.2% less in ABV.

The resulting blend takes the light bubbles and the cocoa powder and puts them center stage. The expressive flavor of the Dark Mild with the palate cleansing of the brown. With the brown taking more of a starring role overall.

That led me to tweak the percentages on glass #2 and amp up the Mild more to get a little more of the chocolate involved. But despite upping the percentages, the story remained the same. The brown ale which seemingly was the weaker came out on top. That was a fascinating development.

I don’t know if I would order something similar but this session has made it clear that mixing is something that should be looked at more carefully. Maybe I will try the Mother-in-Law the next time I see my wife’s parents.

May 5, 2014September 5, 2018

Firestone Walker + L.A. Beer Bloggers = Craft Beer photos

Last year, Firestone Walker gave the humble L.A. Beer Bloggers group a grand tour of both their Paso Robles brewery and Barrelworks in Buellton.

I thought it was a one time thing.

I was wrong.

Last Weekend, they gave us another tour from a different angle. Starting at their future Venice Beach site, we went to Los Olivos and then to Paso Robles to bask in all things Bear & Lion.

I will put the words to this trip into another, separate post. First, some photos…..

Me at the STILL growing Paso Robles headquarters. Which probably needs more than one traffic cop..

Sitting by the fire with an experimental sour made in conjunction with Andrew Murray winery.

Yup, 805 in cans. Maybe Easy Jack too. Their cannery is a tech wonder to see.

Learning about off flavors and how age affects Union Jack IPA.

Lunch with their taproom only Hammersmith IPA.

May 2, 2014September 5, 2018

Hopslist

So, you just had a great IPA and you find out which hops are in it. With most it is a melange of different varietals. You especially liked a citrus taste. Now, you could GoogleBing search or you could go straight to Hopslist.

You can read about the talked about new hops like Cashmere that is new on the scene or research EKG, East Kent Goldings. There are stats for each. Some more filled in than others but what I find most useful are the little blurbs about each one. It gives you a starting point to begin your education in hop cones.

And to extend the hop talk even though it may seem to be playing into the hands of the over eager hop heads, I will be reviewing three different hop centric beers today and tomorrow.

April 4, 2014September 5, 2018

Session # 86

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The session for April is hosted by the Beer Hobo. And it might be one of those that stirs up the pot a bit…..

“What role do beer writers play in the culture and growth of craft beer? Are we advocates, critics, or storytellers? What stories are not getting told and what ones would you like to never hear about again? What’s your beer media diet? i.e. what publications/blogs/sites do you read to learn about industry? Are all beer journalists subhumans? Is beer journalism a tepid affair and/or a moribund endeavor? And if so, what can be done about it?

In the spirit of tipping the hat when someone gets it right, please also share a piece of beer writing or media you love–it doesn’t have to be recent, and it could be an article, podcast, video, book or ebook–and explain a bit about what makes it great. I’ll include links to those articles as well in my roundup for easy access reading.”

You are such a brown-noser, homer, cheerleader.

I too have heard the jabs against beer bloggers in particular and pointedly and beer journalists in general though less frequently. That “everything” being written is too positive. There isn’t enough hard-nosed journalism out there. Examples being that there is not criticism to be read or investigative reporting or honest reviews of beers or beer culture. Some of the “old school” go so far as to claim that actual discourse is gone and all we hear is PR twaddle.

Do you have to tear down a beer, brewer or brewery to be considered legit?

But my question is, what is wrong with positive? If you were on the sports beat covering the Miami Heat during their long winning streak last season, would you focus exclusively on the shots that were not made? I didn’t hear about anyone getting their press pass revoked for calling LeBron James MVP / as good as Jordan. But yet it seems that if a blogger writes a positive review of beer A, it makes you a mindless zombie in the eyes of some who seem to be suspicious of good news. Or you are in the pocket of the brewer because they gave you a hat and keychain. It can’t possibly be that you like that particular beer. Nope. You are now cast as the reporter who does the puff piece about the water skiing squirrel and not the well-respected journalist who covers war and politics.

Does every fifth beer need to have a negative review to maintain your credentials?

All you have to do is tune in to any media outlet nowadays and there is enough palpable anger and car chases to provide inspiration for twenty more Fast & Furious movies. So how about making room for something that doesn’t involve negativity and sarcasm. A healthy distrust, be it of TV News, advertising or PR is useful but if you tar every marketing department as liars and by extension anyone who talks about that brewery as a panderer or hypnotized then you are just as bad as those who don’t question at all. Just because Fox misuses the term “Fair and Balanced” doesn’t preclude one from writing something that has a little uplift under it. Why should I be restricted to focus on the beers that I don’t like at the expense of the ones that I do to give myself “cred”. I think that I am allowed to write a glowing review or recommend a bar if that is my humble opinion.

Why is positive immediately equated with loss of journalistic integrity?

And a story can be both probingly honest as well as positive. Just as well as being funny and critical can be contained in a paragraph or a single word. But in 2014, it appears that we as beer writing consumers either want articles to verify our already made conclusions or to provide us with the opportunity to rant in the comments section. If you look (and not all that hard), you can find well-rounded pieces out there. I find gems from local writers like Sarah Bennett, Tomm Carroll and Randy Clemens quite frequently in brewspapers and online.

Instead of bemoaning the state of beer writing, promote the good ones.

And those articles shed light on a person, place or thing in or around the craft beer industry without resorting to hardball. Now I am not calling for a moratorium on criticism. There is certainly more that can be done instead of cut and paste regurgitation of PR releases and fawning over the latest brewing superstar but on the flip side, I can certainly do without more anonymous snarky reviews and/or people who roll their eyes if I so much as deign to take a beer seriously. Much like any leisure/food/fun category, craft beer needs all sorts of writers, editors, photographers and magazines, papers and forums. But I can’t help seeing the wisdom in the following words from Michael Jackson which applies equally to both sides of this debate,

“Please relax. Can’t you see we are drinking beer and telling stories here?”

And here is my choice for why I don’t subscribe to the “positive is bad” message that others talk of, from the aforementioned Randy Clemens about some cellar spelunking.

April 2, 2014September 5, 2018

Beers and Ears

Mash-Ups are popular in this culture. Heck, it even has a category on Jeopardy. That is how far it has penetrated into our brains but despite living fairly close to the original Disney park, I did not know about this blog, Beers and Ears.

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Only the interwebs can mash together (sorry about the pun) people who love craft beer and Disney. But it also can help you locate good beer in the parks. Wanna get your Scuplin or Pivo? The site and app can help you. Due to rotating lists it may not always be current but if a tap had one of those two on, whatever replaces it should be also good.

Now I have to look for a Doctor Who and Craft Beer group.