A continuation of last week’s blog, just spotlighting a few
more dubious “issues” floating in the beer world ether.
Drinking
“local”. The beer’s brewed a
half-mile away. But the malt’s from
Austria, the hops from New Zealand, the yeast from a lab in San Diego. Brewers (& writers, & drinkers) are
upping the ante when it comes to what’s considered “local beer”, highlighting
ingredients sourced from their own geographical backyard. Another example of a buzz word outgrowing
itself, & no doubt leaving some in the cold. Not that buying from local business is a bad
thing by any means, but just how “local” is the beer? One thing that’s hard to dispute: the closer
to the source, the fresher the beer (just depends on your definition of
“source”).
Making sours. Okay, I’m not sure that many outside of
myself & roughly two people I talked with consider this a “controversy”,
but there’s more than one way to sour a beer, that I’ll refer to as “hot-side”
& “cold-side”. “Hot-side” involves
introducing the souring elements in the mash or the kettle. “Cold-side” involves fermenting with bugs
& wild yeast once the wort has cooled.
“Hot-side” is contained, as the invasive bugs are boiled off before they
get a chance to infect the rest of the brewhouse. “Cold-side” is risky, as there is potential
for a comprehensive contamination of the entire works. “Hot-side”, in my opinion, yields a less
interesting, less complex beer.
“Cold-side” allows for greater depth of flavor, as the microflora have
more time to develop & intensify. To
me, “hot-side” souring seems a safe but superficial way for brewers to get in
on the sour game without making much of a commitment. As always, I sincerely welcome those with
more know-how to tell me where I’m wrong.
I also believe that adding straight lactic acid is straight-up cheating,
but again, I’m no pro at this stuff.
The bubble. Having not been there myself, I get the
vibe that the most recent Craft Brewers’ Conference was less about “Look at us
go!” & more about “Holy crap, where’s this all gonna go?”. As mentioned before, there are over 3,000
craft brewers in the country right now, with many, many more slated to come
along in the near future. The question
that’s been on many lips lately is about when the trend (& make no mistake,
it’s a trend in the word’s true sense) is going to peak & start turning
downward, & who’ll be left when the dust settles. The old-timers are telling the newbies to get
their acts together. I’m sure there were
some tense moments at the last CBC, with plenty of shifting eyes & an
atmosphere of some anxiety. “Yeah, he’s
not gonna make it. Better him than me…”
What to do about
trademarks. With more brewers come
more beer, & with more beer comes more branding. The more crowded the pool, the more elbows
thrown & toes stepped on. Disputes
have arisen around graphics, beer names, brewery names – really, the marketing
stuff that has nothing to do with the actual product. You can’t trademark a recipe, but that gauche
hop pun is someone’s intellectual property.
Everyone looks to the gold standard, of Russian River’s & Avery’s
Collaboration Not Litigation as the brotherly way of settling a potential
conflict, but with the frequency that brewers are infringing on each other’s
turf, collaboration after collaboration isn’t really practical. Most seem to agree that a friendly phone call
is the most diplomatic way to settle things, then there’s the letter, then the
serious letter, then the REALLY serious letter.
I think it’s also coming to be understood & accepted that protecting
one’s own is a necessity, & doing so doesn’t automatically make you the bad
guy. Try telling that to the fans,
though.
Whether craft beer is
one big happy family. Like I
mentioned in the introduction to this two-parter, a lot of us would prefer to
carry the notion that brewers are chums who help one another out, appreciate
their fellow artisan’s product, & are basically above the cutthroat
competition that defines most of our free-ish market economy. Sam Calagione’s famous for saying that the
craft beer industry is “99% asshole-free”.
The observation’s been made many times that in no other industry will
you see businesses that are essentially competitors collaborating on an
end-product at all, let alone with
the frequency that you see craft brewers teaming up. That’s a pretty amazing thing. But it’s naïve to forget that these entities
are always competitors, & happen
to have the luxury (as well as the good-naturedness, frankly) to transcend that
in the service of fun & art. On the
more cynical end, some suspect the fraternal air of collaboration (looking at
Tony Magee again) & wonder how
much of it is opportunity to capitalize on another’s share. Like I said before: the bigger the bubble,
the more crowded the pool, the greater the chance for in-fighting &
back-biting. It’s still a business,
after all, & brewers gotta get paid.
Luckily, for the time being, the majority of craft culture seems to be
about teaming up, helping out, & general friendship.
The great thing about all this is that it only has to matter
as much as you, the beer drinker, wants
it to matter. As with any sort of
extra-sensory context or political info, it doesn’t have to seep into the beer
– we can go on drinking our suds & enjoying what’s in the glass, regardless
of what “turmoil” might be swirling around it.
All these are things to think about, but to the extent that they color
& enrich our perception of the product.
If it helps your enjoyment of the brew to know a little about the scene
that birthed it – including a little drama – by all means, pay attention. If not, don’t worry about it.
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