A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.
Weeks 40/41
27 September - 10 October 2015
- 8 October 2015
"What the customer thinks is craft beer is what craft beer is."
—Via Brock Wagner of Saint Arnolds's Brewing (Texas), quoted at Craft Brewing Business. - 8 October 2015
Celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme, who popularized spicy Louisiana cuisine, dies at 75.
—Via AP. - 8 October 2015
Regional 'craft' breweries, although only 4% of the total number of 'craft' breweries in 2014, produced 80% of all 'craft' beer.
—Via YFGF. - 7 October 2015
After thirty-plus years, craft brewing’s foundational triumvirate of fine beer, community, and profit is aging and fragile. Craft’s “origin” story is (relatively) ancient history to industry newcomers. “Community” and solidarity has given way to making deals with outside entities that offer easy access to profit, whether those are with larger brewers (read: Anheuser-Busch InBev or MillerCoors or SAB Miller) or with the distributors who put the beer on grocery store shelves. [...] And it’s not clear that the BA [Brewers Association] or [Charlie] Papazian [the founder of the BA] or anyone else can do anything about it because the craft beer industry is enduring a generational shift of epic proportion and tectonic impact.
—Via Maureen Ogle. - 4 October 2015
Narragansett Brewing, founded in Rhode Island in 1890, and long-closed, is now contract-brewed, and the throwback beer of choice among 'hipsters' on the East Coast.
—Via Fritz Hahn, at Washington Post. - 5 October 2015
"A pint of beer never tastes as good as it does on Monday."
—Via Chad Dukes, Washington, D.C.-areA sportscaster on 107.FM The Fan. - 4 October 2015
Is beer blogging dead, "the 8-Track tape of beer writing?" No, says beer blogger and author, Alan McLeod, the October host for The Session: Beer Bogging Friday.
—Via A Good Beer Blog. - 2 October 2015
(Some of) the best beer writing of 2015: the North American Guild of Beer Writer Awards.
—Via YFGF. [With links to all winners.] - 1 October 2015
To ferment sour beers, lactobacillus is "a beautiful bacteria. It'll give you a really clean, delectable tartness.”
—Greg Engert, beer director at Washington, D.C.'s Neighborhood Restaurant Group, quoted at Washington Post. - 1 October 2015
Ten dead, more wounded, in shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, as shooter targets Christians.
—Via CNN. - 1 October 2015
In September 2015, there were six craft beer acquisitions and investment deals announced: Golden Road, Saint Archer, Dogfish Head, Cisco, Lagunitas, Virtue Cider. One possible effect of these, and future, acquisitions:There will certainly be some big pressures on the guys in the middle–both upward and downward pressures. So you’ll have the 20 or so national guys that can compete on things like pricing. They have better access to ingredients, raw materials, they’re going to be able to operate more efficiently. And then the guys that are smaller, they’re going to be nipping at the heels of the guys in the middle for tap handles. They’re going to be a little more local, a little more artisanal. I think that’s going to make it difficult for the guys who are stuck in the middle that are trying to compete.
—Via Chris Furnari of Brewbound, as quoted at Drink Insider. - 30 September 2015
Twenty-two Maryland breweries evaluated Maryland-grown hops, met the growers, and placed orders during the 3rd annual Maryland Hop Market, sponsored by the Brewers Association of Maryland and the Northeast Hop Alliance, and hosted by Flying Dog Brewery, in Frederick, Maryland.
—Via Flying Dog Brewery. - 30 September 2015
The Brewers Association of Maryland (BAM) hosted the 10th Annual Maryland Craft Beer Competition, and announced the winners, in fourteen categories. Maryland's overall winner will be announced at a later date. [According to the website of the Maryland Comptroller, there are fifty-four breweries in the state.]
—Via Brewers Association of Maryland. - 29 September 2015
Dogfish Head Brewery, in Delaware, sells a 15 percent stake to private equity firm, LNK Partners. Dogfish produced 174,194 barrels of beer in 2014, making it the 13th largest 'craft' brewery in the U.S., and the 19th overall.
—Via Delaware OnLine. - 29 September 2015
Alto saxophone player, Phil Woods, "an unrepentant bebopper," dies at age 83.
—Via Jazz Times. - 28 September 2015
Whole Foods —an American supermarket chain specializing in organic food— to cut 1,500 jobs across all its stores in the U.S. over the next two months (1.6% of its workforce), including the position of beer specialist.
—Via USA Today. - 28 September 2015
Green Flash Brewing, of San Diego, California —to open a second brewing facility, in Virginia Beach, Virginia (joining the recent eastern expansion of several western U.S. breweries)— to lose its longtime brewmaster, Chuck Silva.
—Via West Coaster. - 28 September 2015
Fermented beverages like cider and wine are reflections of place. Beer is a constructed beverage, more like food, and beer style is akin to the cuisines of the world: they reflect the people that brewed them.
—Via Jeff Alworth, at Beervana. - 28 September 2015
NASA discovers evidence of “liquid briny water” flowing on Mars.
—Via PBS NewsHour. - 28 September 2015
The story of brewer Dick Cantwell, and why he left his brewery, Elysian Fields (of Seattle, Washington), after it was purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
—Via Seattle Met.
"A pint of #beer never tastes as good as it does on Monday." @ChadDukes at @1067thefandc.
— Thomas Cizauskas (@Cizauskas) October 5, 2015
Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head, at Craft Brewers Conference, 2013
- Clamps and Gaskets is a bi-weekly wrap-up of stories not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not.
- The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.
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