Craft Beer, Redefined

There's a new definition of craft beer out from the Brewers Association.

I don't like it.

Comments encouraged.

Dock Street: One Step Closer

I went to a Dock Street event tonight, the re-launch of Illuminator. Wow. How long has it been since we've said that? This time, of course, it's the new Dock Street, Dock Street at the Firehouse (seen above on the right), out at 50th and Baltimore. It's a changing, gentrifying University City/West Philly neighborhood. The last time I was out that way was about 7 years ago, and things have definitely changed.

But I couldn't tell you if Illuminator had changed or not. The beloved Dock Street doublebock died too long ago for me to remember it, sadly. The new one (currently brewed and bottled at Mendocino in Saratoga, NY) was rich, thick, malty, and boozy, with just a hint of licorice on the end: grand stuff on a late winter evening. The Dock Street Amber I had was too cold to really appreciate.

That's Chris Lapierre and Dock Street owner Rosemarie Certo on the left. I managed to catch a moment where Lapierre, who started brewing at the old Dock Street brewpub at 18th & Cherry, came in and gave Rosemarie a bottle of beer he'd brewed at Iron Hill West Chester, where he's the head brewer now. A happy moment that no one else really caught the significance of. I didn't get to talk to Rosemarie for more than a minute, she was very busy.

But the executive director of the University City District did speak, and what he said was heartening. "We're here to celebrate Dock Street, and it's been a long time coming." This was just the first celebration, he said: contruction is about to begin after a long zoning battle (Church leaders: get educated. Alcohol is coming to your neighborhood, but getting it in the form of a brewpub is a much better deal), and "Dock Street will jump-start the revival of the Baltimore Avenue Corridor." No solid word on when it will open ("open later this year," and you know what that's worth), or who the brewer is ("they have one, but they're not saying who it is" said one of the brewers there tonight).

I love to hear community leaders who understand that brewpubs raise neighborhoods up, not knock them down. Brewpubs are the kind of drinking establishment you want in your neighborhood. They celebrate the drink, not its effects; they raise beer and food together. They attract a different breed of cat.

So I went to Dock Street tonight. Still feels weird to say that, but I suspect I'm going to get more practice.

Come Blog With Us

I understand that bloggers all over "do it," so now we beer bloggers (God, I do hate that inelegant word) are going to do it. "It" refers to simultaneous blogging. The first Friday of every month, a bunch of us are going to write a post about a particular beer -- March, the first time for this, is going to feature stout -- and link it to the host's blog: Stan Hieronymus's Appellation Beer, in this case. We have decided to call this event The Session.

I'm figuring on heading over to Sly Fox and getting some O'Reilly's Stout (and while I'm there, I'll wish the man a belated happy anniversary). And O, happy coincidence: it just happens to be Incubus Friday as well. Dear me, guess I'll just have to have one.

If you have a beer blog (or a beer website, for fossils and old farts), why not join us? You can even get this nifty logo to put in your blog.

Beer Breakfast, Anyone?

Just picked the following off the DC-Beerlist, where it was posted by fellow writer Steve Frank. It's for a beer breakfast at the Royal Mile Pub, a great place in Wheaton , Maryland. Steve writes that the idea is for each beer -- and they're great beers -- is to accompany a course prepared by talented chef/owner Ian Morrison; this is not going to be "eggs 'n' kegs."

Why did I post this? Because I'm not going to post every damned event that comes across my desk/monitor. I'd just like to see more beer breakfasts and beer brunches, because I've seen wheatbeer breaks in the morning in Germany, with a nice soft pretzel, and they're great. I'd like to see more of this, so...I thought I'd tell you about this one. It's real, people are doing it. Wish I could go, but I've already got commitments that day.

Join your friends at The Royal Mile Pub For a Pre-St. Patrick's Day Beer Breakfast -- Saturday, March 10 at 10:30 AM

Featured Beers Include: Bitburger Pils, Tucher Hefe Weizen, Tucher Doppelbock, Okocim Porter, O'Hara's Irish Stout, Guinness, Quelque Chose, Duvel, Oxford Hefeweizen.

Breakfast price=$45~ Space Is Limited
Royal Mile Pub, 2407 Price Avenue, Wheaton, MD 301-946-4511

Belgian-style in Zieglerville

The last time I was at Ortino's Northside was exactly a year ago, when I stopped in for one last beer after Sly Fox brewer Brian O'Reilly's wedding (it was a cask Tröegs Nugget Nectar, and it was well worth the stop). I sat at the bar with John Ortino and talked about beer, and keeping great beers on out in Zieglerville, and some events he'd been doing. A pleasant cap for what had been a great day celebrating a friend's marriage.

As I said, exactly one year later -- to the day -- I was at Ortino's again, but this time for their third annual Belgian Beer Dinner. Cathy and I shared a table with some folks we've gotten to know at Sly Fox, Dan "The Big One" Bengel and the Foleys. The conversation was lively from the get-go -- starting with the nasty, sleety weather outside! -- and only got better as the night rolled on. (One upshot of that conversation was the likely probability of me hosting some events at Ortino's in the near future; stay tuned, because I really like the ideas we discussed, something different than the usual beer dinner.)

No blow-by-blow description; suffice it to say that the dinner was excellent. Quick descriptions follow.

Beers: Wittekerke Witte (nice to get something other than the witbier standards for a change), Bier Du Boucanier (every bit as saucy and bright as Piraat and Brigand and the other "corsair-style" strong goldens), La Divine Triple (a pleasant surprise for me to learn that Brasserie de Silly makes a triple; no surprise that it was outstanding and quite different), Petrus Winter (remarked to Dan: "I remember when Petrus was a third-tier Belgian brewer: not any more!"), Gen. Lafayette Inn Abbey Blonde Ale (Russ Czajka brought this up from the General and served as the beer host for the evening; the beer had a beautifully crisp character and an enticingly dry finish, Dan got unusually thoughtful and gave it the laurels for the evening), Gouden Carolus Classic (a full mouthful of beer, rich and spicy-sweet in 'classic' Het Anker style), and St. Louis Framboise (not as funky as I remember St. Louis, but intensely fruit-flavored without being syrupy, a good anchor for the evening). We also had tastes of LaCrosse Lager (the 'just plain beer' coming from the new owners of Latrobe, I wanted to like it, but there's some definite off-flavors there, hope it improves), and a 2004 Perkuno's Hammer that was just fantastic.

Food: Chimay Cheese Soup (smooth and tangy, with bits of red pepper and such), Belgian Endive salad with citrus witte 'vinaigrette' (very nice with the La Divine; I love pairing big rich beers with salad), Mussels in Petrus Winter (very meaty and clean, only one non-opener), Braised pork shank w/whipped sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts (Look...I hate osso bucco, I hate sweet potatoes, and I'm not nuts about sprouts, but these? I cleaned my plate. Fantastic. It didn't hurt that the sweet potatoes were made with Gouden Carolus.), Fresh berries in framboise sauce w/chocolates (quite nice with the St. Louis; the blackberries were exceptional).

Great dinner, and thanks to the greatness of the Passat (best snow car I've ever owned), no troubles getting home through the crappy weather. My thanks to John Ortino, the chef, kitchen and waitstaff of Ortino's Northside, and my table companions for an enjoyable evening of food, beer, and conversation. We'll have to do it again sometime soon!

Apologies, but...

I tried doing open comments, I really did. But people are dumping crap in my blog, kind of like pouring garbage in my window, and I just don't need it. I don't mind disagreement, but I will not have personal attacks. Even on me.

So I had to go to moderated comments. From now on, I'll have to approve every comment that goes up. That's going to slow the pace of discussion, but that's the price for civil conversation, I guess.

I'm sorry, folks.

That Wasn't Where I Was

I was planning to go to the Best of 2006 draft event at the Drafting Room in Exton today. Planned to meet Jack Curtin there, planned to get me some of the beers that made me select the Drafting Room as the Best Local Beer Scene for 2006.

But as Robby Burns said, the best laid schemes...gang aft agley. Not only did we have a disturbing problem with the Passat (lost the turbo for about half an hour, with a severe concurrent loss in power; it's fine now, after an Italian Tune-Up (Fun!) I think I had some oil sludge in the turbine casing), well, we got a new puppy.

That's him, fast asleep in my arms outside the Wegman's in Downingtown (so near, and yet so far...). He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, about 15 weeks old, very friendly, and just as cute as a box full of buttons. His name is Penderyn, yes, named for the Welsh single malt whisky, but it was my son who pushed for that name; he just liked it. I was pushing for Ci (Welsh for "dog", pronounced key), but I rolled over. (The other picture is my wife Cathy running with Penderyn in our backyard.)

Not a bad reason to miss what I'm sure was a great event.

Teaser

I attended a meeting in Philadelphia yesterday to initiate planning on a beer event that is completely novel, that could only happen in Philadelphia, that will be huge. Nothing like this has ever been done in America before. Announcement comes next month. This is going to be big.

Okay, a little more specificity on the announcement. You'll get dates and scope and a much better explanation on the afternoon of March 10. Can't do it before then, because important details still need to be slotted in.

Update: we got the go-ahead to present the idea to the next meeting of a very important backer, who thought it was a "great idea." Moving forward.

What We "Owe" the Industry

There was a post to the Brewer's Association Forum recently that led me to respond. It was about the recent "Extreme Beer" issue of BeerAdvocate magazine, an issue that I contributed to. Here's what Ashton Lewis, of the Springfield Brewing Co. (Springfield, Mo.) wrote:

We got a shipment of magazines at our brewery recently and I have read the new BeerAdvocate magazine cover to cover. I must say that after I read some of the articles I was forced to remind myself that I actually know the definition of “advocate”. Some of the Google definitions include “someone who speaks on behalf of another”, “to speak or argue in favor of” and “a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea”. The term advocate I think can be clearly ranked in the positive description category.

The reason for my temporary confusion over the definition of advocate stems from the number of negative ideas and comments written about our industry in this new industry publication. I suppose one way to advocate one thing is to denigrate another, like our wonderful politicians seem to do so well.

The Beer Advocate starts off with a letter from the editors hyping “extreme beers”. I don’t have a problem with that, but they do this by putting down the majority of craft brewers and our beers to make their point. They claim that if it weren’t for extreme beers that “we’d probably be drinking a lot of Pale Ales, and brewers would be content to copy the great styles of Europe, instead of reinventing their own”. To me extreme beers offer something exciting to beer consumers, but the bread and butter of most craft brewers is not something “extreme”. The very name suggests that a very small group of beers and beer drinkers want to drink this type of beer, otherwise “extreme” would be “ordinary” ... right?

As far as copying the great styles of Europe I don’t personally believe that the bread and butter of most craft brewers are copies of European beers. Some brewers have made the European clone their niche, but why is that such a bad thing? Let’s face it, a lot of imports are oxidized beyond all recognition when consumed. I suppose the bakers on the East Coast baking San Francisco-style sourdough bread should discontinue this style and encourage consumers to buy stale bread imported from the left coast.

Skimming through the book there is a nice interview with Larry Bell, a nice article about “American Wild Ale” (I didn’t realize Brettanomyces is bacteria) and then the beer reviews. This is the section that again made me wonder “Why?” That’s also the comment associated with beers given the score of D-, one step up from F or “avoid”.

Even the Wine Spectator, known for its sometimes cold and damaging reviews of wine, does not go out if its way to be rude. The beers given low scores [Not Worthy (C-) and Disappointing (D+)] were slammed in a not so polite manner. “Take this back to the drawing board” was one of the comments.

I have had my share of bad beers, both imports and domestics and know that there is some bad stuff out there. It doesn’t make me feel a better person to spend my time blasting bad beers to my friends. Maybe I am getting too old (37 is pretty ancient to the up and coming hip generation) and my values must be misaligned with the times. But the way I see it is that a beer magazine boasting to be the “Beer Advocate” should focus on the positive. If I were looking for advice about how to go about spending my beer dollars I may take away some pretty negative views about craft brewing from this magazine.

I've never met Ashton or had his beers. So that has nothing to do with how I felt or how I responded to this. But I have to tell you, this kind of "let's treat craft beer with kid gloves" stuff has been bugging me for years. It's one of the main reasons I started this blog and my website. I don't have a lot of patience with people who blast beers from positions of ignorance -- "This IPA sucks! I hate hoppy beers!" -- but when a beer is not good -- poorly packaged, poorly formulated, or just plain insipid -- I don't want to be told by some brewer that it wouldn't be nice to say so, or that if I felt I had to say so, I should say so nicely.

Hey, we've all heard it from mothers and grandmothers (and editors): if you can't say something nice, don't say anything. Well, how am I going to talk about light beer, then? Seriously, if a critic can't say negative things, he's gagged. And if I can't say those negative things in an entertaining, creative way...what the hell am I getting paid for?

So I wrote this response to the Forum:

As one of the writers in the issue of "BeerAdvocate Magazine" Ashton Lewis refers to, and as a beer writer who's been writing about craft beer full-time for over ten years, I'd like to throw in my perspective. The folks at BeerAdvocate -- the magazine, the website, and the extended Web community that posts on that website [and at ratebeer and Real Beer] -- DO consider themselves "advocates" for beer, and particularly for specialty beers, both American craft-brewed beers and traditional-styled imports. They actively support beers like that, by asking for them at bars, by offering them to their friends to sample, by buying tickets to beer dinners and festivals and tastings, and by buying those beers almost exclusively. That's advocating beer.

But "advocate" does not mean "worship blindly," or "defend without judgment." They stand outside the industry, and they judge it by their own standards. And by those standards, whether you agree with them or not, they believe that they advocate "beer" -- not "the craft beer industry", not "your beer" -- by speaking plainly about beers they think fall short, breweries they think engage in bad practices, retailers and wholesalers who don't measure up to their standards.

I don't necessarily agree with everything said on the website or in the magazine. I don't agree with all the quotes in my own story in the issue in question. As the classic journalist's rejoinder goes, I don't make this stuff up, I just report it. Maybe the negative was expressed in unduly harsh terms.

But to tell an independent magazine that it should focus on the positive, with the strong implication that it should give a pass to anything negative, is to show a basic misunderstanding of the relationship between a magazine and its readers. If readers decide that they're not getting honest opinions from a magazine that purports to have expert knowledge, or if they decide the magazine is only delivering good news -- essentially filtering out anything that would upset advertisers -- that magazine's reputation, readership, and ad rates will suffer. And like we keep hearing about
craft brewing: publishing is a business.

Think of what is said about craft brewers: independent, uncompromising, innovative, honest, passionate. As a beer writer, I've tried to be true to the same principles. Would a craft brewer have me do any less?

The responses I've had from brewers have been, so far, positive. I can see where Ashton was coming from, truly. To get such negative statements from a group -- beer geeks -- that has been outspokenly pro-craft for so long must have seemed a bit of a betrayal. But the industry is over 25 years old. It's old enough, and big enough, and successful enough to stand up and take criticism. I think we owe the industry that.

That's Where I'll Be

This Saturday, February 24th, I'm going out to Exton to the Drafting Room for their Best of 2006 on tap event. After all, it's the least I can do when Patrick Mullen uses my words to hype (and rightly so!) the event. Besides...Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale? Pliny the Younger? Bell's Hopslam? Weyerbacher 11? Hell, how could you stay away?