2012 World Cup Award Winners of California

Every two years the best brewers are invited to come together and compete in the worlds most prestigious beer competition known as the World Beer Cup. With 54 countries entering almost a thousand more beers than 2010, this year's competition was bigger and badder than anything that we've seen before, and truly reflected the last two years' craft beer boom. Of the 95 categories judged, California won a medal in 43, and also won an overall award for champion brewery and brewmaster. Congratulations to our medalists, and here's to another two years of cranking out some of the worlds best beers.

California seriously cleaned up at the awards. The following are our champions:

Category 8: Coffee Beer, 56 Entries
Gold: Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Coffee Imperial Porter, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

Category 9: Specialty Beer, 38 Entries

Charlie Papazian

Gold: Hangar 24 Winter Warmer, Hangar 24 Craft Brewery, Redlands, CA
Bronze: Donner Party Porter, FiftyFifty Brewing Co., Truckee, CA

Category 10: Rye Beer, 29 Entries
Gold: Ruthless Rye IPA, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Silver: 3 Flowers IPA, Marin Brewing Co., Larkspur, CA

Category 12: Session Beer, 33 Entries
Silver: Kellerweis, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 13: Other Strong Beer, 35 Entries
Gold: Star Brew, Marin Brewing Co., Larkspur, CA

Category 14: Experimental Beer, 42 Entries
Gold: Petit Obscura, Telegraph Brewing Co., Santa Barbara, CA
Bronze: Where There’s Smoke..., Manzanita Brewing Co., Santee, CA

Category 15: Indigenous Beer, 26 Entries
Gold: Got Beer, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery - Tacoma, Huntington Beach, CA
Silver: Hqt, 21st-Amendment Brewery, San Francisco, CA

Category 17: American-Belgo-Style Ale, 48 Entries
Bronze: Le Freak, Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 18: American-Style Sour Ale, 14 Entries
Bronze: Supplication, Russian River Brewing Co., Santa Rosa, CA

Category 23: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Sour Beer, 42 Entries
Bronze: Melange #1, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA

Category 36: German-Style Märzen, 39 Entries
Silver: Rocktoberfest, Rock Bottom Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

Category 44: American-Style Premium Lager or Specialty Lager, 37 Entries
Silver: Evans Original, Cervecería Mexicana, Corona, CA

Category 45: American-Style Amber Lager, 40 Entries
Bronze: Cali Common, Lucky Hand Beer, Novato, CA

Category 47: Australasian-Style Pale Ale or International-Style Pale Ale, 22 Entries
Gold: 805 IPA, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA

Category 49: German-Style Brown Ale/Düsseldorf-Style Altbier, 29 Entries
Bronze: Real McCoy Amber, Mammoth Brewing Co., Mammoth Lakes, CA

Category 50: German-Style Sour Ale, 11 Entries
Silver: Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA

Category 56: French- & Belgian-Style Saison, 44 Entries
Gold: Carnevale, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category 57: Belgian- and French-Style Ale, 22 Entries
Bronze: Gift of the Magi, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category 60: Belgian-Style Flanders Oud Bruin or Oud Red Ale, 16 Entries
Gold: Oude Tart, The Bruery, Anaheim, CA
Bronze: Oud Jeremiah, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery - Brea, Huntington Beach, CA

Category 61: Belgian-Style Dubbel, 39 Entries
Bronze: Ovila Dubbel, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 64: Belgian-Style Dark Strong Ale, 41 Entries
Silver: Two Tortugas Belgian Quad, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 65: Other Belgian-Style Ale, 41 Entries
Bronze: Rhinoceros, Telegraph Brewing Co., Santa Barbara, CA

Category 67: Classic English-Style Pale Ale, 33 Entries
Gold: Annadel Pale Ale, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category 72: English-Style Mild Ale, 27 Entries
Silver: Alyssa’s Attitude, Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA
Bronze: Nerf Herder, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 73: English-Style Brown Ale, 30 Entries
Gold: Longboard Brown Ale, Rock Bottom La Jolla, La Jolla, CA

Category 74: Brown Porter, 42 Entries
Gold: Double Nut Brown, Mammoth Brewing Co., Mammoth Lakes, CA
Bronze: Chocolate Porter, Bayhawk Ales, Irvine, CA

Category 75: Robust Porter, 68 Entries
Gold: Pier Rat Porter, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 76: Sweet Stout, 25 Entries
Bronze: Blackjack Stout, Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., Oroville, CA

Category 78: Scotch Ale, 51 Entries
Silver: Way Heavy, Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 80: Old Ale or Strong Ale, 51 Entries
Silver: AleSmith Decadence 2010 Old Ale, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 81: Barley Wine-Style Ale, 62 Entries
Bronze: AleSmith Old Numbskull, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 82: Irish-Style Red Ale, 31 Entries
Gold: Red Trolley Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 83: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout, 30 Entries
Gold: Blarney Sisters Dry Irish Stout, Third Street Aleworks, Santa Rosa, CA

Category 84: Foreign-Style Stout, 37 Entries
Gold: Starry Night Stout, Island Brewing Co., Carpinteria, CA
Bronze: Voo Doo, Left Coast Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA

Category 85: Golden or Blonde Ale, 46 Entries
Gold: Foam Top, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing, Long Beach, CA
Bronze: Steelhead Extra Pale, Mad River Brewing Co., Blue Lake, CA

Category 86: American-Style Pale Ale, 84 Entries
Gold: Pale 31, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Mission Street Pale, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA

Category 89: Imperial India Pale Ale, 93 Entries
Gold: Poor Man’s IPA, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Bronze: Palate Wrecker, Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 90: American-Style Amber/Red Ale, 68 Entries
Bronze: Mavericks Amber Ale, Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., Princeton-by-the-Sea, CA

Category 91: Imperial Red Ale, 38 Entries
Silver: Bigfoot, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA

Category 92: American-Style Brown Ale, 47 Entries
Bronze: Great American Brown, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 93: American-Style Black Ale, 49 Entries
Gold: Black Racer, Bear Republic Brewing Co., Cloverdale, CA
Silver: Tarantulas 2.0, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

Category 94: American-Style Stout, 34 Entries
Bronze: Achievement Beyond Life’s Experiences American Stout Brit Antrim Benefit Beer, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA

World Beer Cup Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
  Mid-size Brewing Company
Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles, CA
Matthew Brynildson

Read More

Suburban Drum Circles or Farm-To-Table Bravado

The other day I was driving through my mother-in-law's neighborhood on my way to see her and I spied a new restaurant in the chain ridden stucco jungle that is South Orange County. Seeing that it had something to do with craft beer I was naturally interested, so I looked it up online.

“..we are independent and locally owned. We do things differently and believe in using only the freshest and highest quality ingredients. Our foods are largely organic, our brews and signature cocktails are all craft...Our Eats are farm to table, local, in-season, sustainable and organic. [Chef] visits the farmer’s markets and tours local farms weekly. Our meats are of exceptional quality and are all-natural, antibiotic and hormone free. Our [beers] are strictly craft and our [wine is] largely boutique. Our menu will change frequently as we transition seasons to provide for only the freshest and best products available. Like we said, we do it differently.”

Seems normal, right? Seems like a place I'd like to eat for sure. However, if they're a locally owned, sit down, non-chain restaurant, shouldn't they naturally be using only the freshest and highest quality ingredients? Where I grew up we have many family owned restaurants. They aren't chains, they're locally owned and run. Their menus note the like of “Covelo Beef” or “Roundman's Smoked Bacon” or “Cypress Grove Lamb Chopper” reflecting that the menu is indeed local and mostly organic. I have indeed been spoiled, however my spoilage has perhaps turned to the resentment of people I feel are trying to make a quick buck.

I'm at the point that when I see a restaurant boasting their organic, fresh, slow, sustainable, morning-greeted, tucked-in-at-night, holding-hands-sing-kum-bay-ya produce I immediately associate it with snobby beertenders, stingy portions and a wallet enema. The best example was the first episode of that show “Portlandia” when they want to know the name of the chicken they're going to eat! It's gotten ridiculous. No one expects Denny's or Coco's to be farm-to-table here, no one expects healthy food at Taco Bell, but it is not too much to expect your typical family owned restaurant to do it's best in the name of sustainability and health without trying to appeal to the thick framed hipster crowd.

So, what were they trying to accomplish here? Were the new owners scared of their potential customers' past experiences being tainted by the ubiquity of the TGIF's, Chilli's and Applebees which more or less bookend their new location? In all honesty, I've never eaten here. But I intend to. I can't wait to check out their beer selection. The food might even be sensational! What I'm curious about is why did the new owners feel the need to publish their mission statement and menu in such a grossly hipster fashion? Was it the the above-mentioned fear of customer ignorance? Was it a desire to cash in on a growing trend in urban/suburban cuisine culture? If so, I have to question their strategy. The suburbanites living around them who are content with BJ's and Sizzler's are likely not their target audience anyway. And the slightly more dialed in yoga mat toting crowd ,no doubt plugged in to Twitter and Yelp and those platforms, will have obviously come to expect a family owned restaurant that isn't pretentiously self congratulatory of the fact that they aren't using Sysco distributed foods!

I intend to eat here for my husbands birthday in May and I can't wait to pick the owner's brain about their philosophy behind all this bravado. And I will report back to you, gentle reader, on my investigation. I'm not ragging (too much at least) on the slow food movement here but it reminds me of a story: An investor was getting his shoes shined early in October of 1929 when the guy shining his shoes started giving him investment tips. The investor, quite worried, thought to himself, “If everyone is investing how long could this possibly last” and pulled out of the market before Black Tuesday hit later that month.

Living in urban San Diego this would be “so ten minutes ago.” A marketing pitch like this would have been eaten up and spit out in the blink of an eye. Hell you try this in North Park and I bet it would be less than a week before you were shaken down for some sort of holistic “protection” money with the understanding that if you did not pay up you would get worked over by a fixie chain. San Diego is beyond saturated with hipster rhetoric: farm-to-table, chicken's holding hands etc. (Yeah it's a love/hate thing.)

These guys are more than likely sincere in their love of real food, and I'll find out more about what motivated their angle when I eat there. But for the record, I can't wait to live in a world when the platitudes expressed in their menu are taken for granted by most restaurant goers, and such adjectives need not be thrown in my face. Instead I would get intrigued by a bold advertisement that reads “Cheap Sit Down Stoner/Gamer Food: Fast!” “Come to Joe's, I will deep fry your pre-packaged Sysco snacks and have them to your table in under seven minutes—and there's never a charge for extra ranch.”

Read More

Lite Beer (Part One)

We all know these two: Mr.Dontgiveafuck and Sir Chugalot

Odes to fizzy yellow beers coupled with accusations of beer snobbery are generally countered by snark retorts disparaging the apparent “defense of mediocrity.” Exchanges like this can be seen in almost every craft beer forum and in beerfest lines across our country. Is it one's need to be pigheaded or is it blindness that leads to this continuing banal debate? I think it's safe to say that flavor should be the call to arms and the be-all/end-all evidence in the court of personal beer preference opinion. Whether you're a hop head or a malt lover, it's fairly safe to say that we love flavor and complexity in both light and dark beers. One of my favorite “light” beers is North Coast's Scrimshaw, a staple of local living in Mendocino county. For a Pilsner it has a firm bitterness that holds fast in the crisp brightness of the beer. During a conversation with North Coast Brew Co's Mark Ruedrich, he said “Our beers are not going for the extreme--they are balanced. Balance is key for a sessionable beer...” As we know “sessionable” is many times synonymous with “successful” in regards to sales and North Coast is famous for having unique and complex award winning brews that don't forfeit in the battle of flavor in exchange for that, dare I say it “drinkability.” There I said it! Drinkability! My skin crawls at the sound of that word, but lets reverse engineer our feelings about drinkability. Pilsners have always been quite popular since they entered the scene. They were crisp, bright and see-through. This translucence made quite the impact during a time when glass was just starting to become available (early 1800s) to the masses as a drinking vessel. It shone like a golden jewel and was awe-inspiring. Aside from it's looks though, it made for very decent drinking at all hours of the day and thus came it's popularity.

Science!

Let's skip several decades into the future to the years of post prohibition: Only the larger brewing companies that went into other business during the years of prohibition managed to stay afloat long enough to start back up again when the laws were lifted. These companies were in it to win it and by win it they meant to take back the time lost during the dry years any way imaginable. In 1964 an enzyme entered the market that would change the world of beer forever, Amyloglucosidase. In an attempt to put this simply, this enzyme breaks apart the sugar bonds in starches and creates glucose and fructose. This is the same enzyme used to make high fructose corn syrup (another doom word!) Assuming you're familiar with the basic brewing process, after you sparge your grains you're left with your basic wort, but this wort is full of malt dextrins which add flavor and body to your beer but they're not necessarily fermentable starches. This enzyme breaks down those malt dextrins and makes them fermentable. Thus you have a lighter bodied beer minus the calories from the starches but creating a higher gravity beer due to the “high fructose” wort.

It wasn't until the mid1970's that Philip Morris made this popular with their acquisition of a German pilsner company through Miller Brewing. You know, Philip Morris, the tobacco guys.. yeah you know who I'm talking about. Through tactful marketing to a demographic readied by the soda companies they brought out Miller Lite. During this time the sway of power over the U.S. Food and Drug administration was “If you can prove it's not bad for you we'll allow it” and with responses like “nobody's died yet.” By the 1980's chemicals like Cobalt salts (naturally occurring) were increased to over 1 part per million in beer, dimethylnitrosamine (carcinogen) which is linked to cancer was at five times the normal amount, potassium matabisulfite (a salt that doesn't add sodium to your diet, but it makes you thirsty), Benzaldehyde an ingredient used in formaldehyde and the list goes on. The Food and Drug Administration has been cracking down on many of these things. The dimethylnitrosamine is only 2% of what it used to be and the added cobalt salts have been further regulated as well. If you want to find a full guide to what's in those beers you can make an attempt to find the ever elusive Brewers Association Report on “Adjuncts Employed in Brewing.” By 1992 “Lite Beer” was the best selling beer in the US. With sports figure driven ads challenging your machismo to this very day lite beers still control most of the market, even with over 76 chemicals in various combinations that are left to be unreported to the FDA. So we fight back. (Part 1)

Read More

Join in and celebrate IPA day!

This morning was the unveiling of the first global celebration of the IPA set for August 4^th! Creating awareness about your local brewery and their IPAs. In an effort for IPA lovers around the world to ring cheers through the air I encourage one and all to flock to their local establishments and raise a pint, as the saying goes “think global, act local.” Or as I like to say it, shut up and drink! Stay tuned for updates on twitter as on August 4^th I will be doing an IPA give away to one lucky winner! I want to give a very special thanks to my friends @TheBeerWench and @RyanARoss for doing such a marvelous job of organizing this celebration.

Please check out some fine #IPAday supporters below:

Host Breweries

     

    @bisonbrew            @Karl_Strauss              @stbcbeer

     @sweetwaterbrew        @epicbeer        @greatdividebrew 

    

         

  @NOLA_Brewing       @SWBrewery      @newhollandbrew

@foundersbrewing

Social Media Sponsors      

  

           @ratebeer                                   @untappd

                            @newbrewthursday

   

   

Read More

Drink Green and Eat Meatless Monday!

I wanted to give a big thank you to Bison Brewing Company for making me this weeks Meatless Monday and Drink Green rock star! You guys are awesome for supporting such a good cause and brewing, in my opinion, the best tasting USDA certified organic beers.

Just a quick background on Meatless Monday:

Meatless Monday started back during World War One originally to reduce consumption of the basics for the war effort. They introduced "Meatless Monday" and "Wheatless Wednesday" in attempts for Americans to do their part. During that time 10 million families, 7,000 hotels and about 425,000 grocers pledged to observe national meatless days. After such amazing results President Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman did much of the same thing during World War Two through rationing.

Today though research it has been discovered that by going meatless at least once a week you may reduce your risks of preventable diseases like cancer, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. It also reduces your carbon footprint and saves resources such as water and fossil fuel.

Bison Brewing Co. has paired this fantastic movement with a cause I know we can all stand behind: Drinking organic, sustainable and/or local beer. By pairing these two titans together you have an unstoppable revolution. To learn more about these fantastic programs please visit the links below!

Also a hearty congratulations to Bison on being on of the top "Movers and Shakers" in the Meatless Monday Movement!

Bison Brewing
Drink Green and Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday
www.MeatlessMonday.com

Read More

Anheuser-Busch buys Goose Island- My Thoughts

I woke up this morning thinking it would be an average day, get up, get dressed, check my e-mail—find out that Goose Island brewing had been bought out by Anheuser-Busch?!! What the shit?!

I am finally confronted with a question my wonderfully, ever trolling friends ask me: What would you do if Anheuser-Busch made a good beer? Would you say it sucked as much then? I've tossed this idea around in my head and thought of how that would effect me. What would I do if one of my favorite beers like Bourbon County was made by the makers of Budweiser?! Well that simply wouldn't happen!! But it has.
I read an interview on www.timeoutchicago.com and their press release and it's soulless. Now before you jump all over me, especially after my last blog post about business being business with Dogfish Head's decision to tighten distribution, I can see why they did it. With the money that Anheuser-Busch has one would think that the creative capacity is boundless, and it should be. Just talking to Larry Sidor at Deschutes he said if he had more money he'd be able to support more beers like the Organic Ale and The Dissident Brown Sour. I wonder though, at what cost?
I don't question Goose Island's motives. The interview I read with Greg Hall made it seem like the spark was gone, and he did the craft beer thing and is ready to do something else now. Anheuser-Busch had the money and of course seeing the direction that craft beer is going in today, who wouldn't want to get involved. Anheuser-Busch on the other hand has business practices that I simply don't want to endorse. Obviously their attempts at creative “microbrew start-ups” around the country hasn't worked because people have been on the look out for macrobrew owned microbrews, so purchasing an established and respected, award-winning company was a natural next step.
Personally, I have to vote with my dollars. Anheuser-Busch will be riding the coat tails of creativity that the talented brewers of Goose Island have sewn and I can't support that because I believe that as a business Anheuser-Busch his morally bankrupt. Is this a lesson for us? Should we take drinking locally more seriously instead of searching for beers from far and wide? This is America, of course we can't, but I'm starting to worry about our microbreweries. If they don't have the money to expand as quickly as their consumers would like them, is it time to raise the price of beer? I am truly excited but slightly fearful of our future in the microbrew world. It is all our goal to make money, and to please our customers with a wonderful product, but how can we do this without subjugating our morals and the business standards of our drinkers? These aren't just rhetorical questions I want to hear back from you guys about your ideas! Does it even effect you? Perhaps you're disturbed having a foreign company buying out an American small business? I want to hear back about what you think.


//EDIT//:
I would also like to point out that Dogfish Head and Deschutes may be having similar issues regarding producing enough for a high demand, however they are taking the slow and steady approach much like Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada and Stone have. Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing, has made it clear that he will never sell out even though he may have faced similar issues in the past. Organic business growth is essential especially on a product that has almost no marketing and is truly a grass roots creation. Did Goose Island NEED to take this step? This is where the issue really stings, I think, because maybe they needed the money but was the need so great that they would trade the craft beer spirit for their freedom.

Read More

The Dogfish Example or Supply and Demand

A little over a week ago I was surprised to hear through @fledgelingbrewer that Dogfish Head Brewing was going to be pulling distribution to five states. Of course my first thought was “Oh please not California” and thankfully the golden state has been left in the distribution zone, for now. My immediate second thought was of course to question why this was happening. The show Brew Masters has brought the brand to the homes of thousands of people who previously may not have heard of this beer, and being in a retail setting during it's first few weeks I saw first hand the lightening speed at which these beers were flying off the shelves. During the Beer Bloggers Conference I was lucky enough to meet Mariah Calagione and hear about the company first hand, and it truly is a small down to earth family owned business. The mere idea alone of such a small company producing beers for so many states and export is mind blowing even looking at my own local breweries such as North Coast Brewing Co. and The Bruery. In the last year craft beer consumption has increased by 11% challenging these tiny little powerhouses to be pushed to the max to produce a top quality product for a growing demographic.

In a Blogfish post by Sam Calagione himself, Dogfish Head has decided to discontinue export in 2011, distribution to five states and limit some distribution to other states. The demand for their beer has become so huge that there's no way to provide a quality product with the resources they have at the volume that is being demanded of them at the moment. I think that what they did was a fantastic step for craft beer as an industry. I feel that this announcement brought to light the true spirit and soul of craft beer: Quality over Quantity. They want their business to be fun, they want the freedom to experiment, and they want to please their customers before they've been spread too thin to do any of the three!

If you don't already understand the three-tier system of beer sales let me quickly break it down for you:Your local brewery makes the beer and sells it to the distributor. The distributor ships and sell the beer to the retailer who in turn sells the beer to you the consumer. We've all heard the term “shit rolls down hill” and in this case distributors wants to sell the beer that's selling the fastest and are breathing down the backs of microbreweries nation wide. Today, craft beer geeks are fervidly hunting down the next, biggest, baddest beer. This constant search (as we saw with Pliny the Younger) can get blown out of proportion by the consumers causing things like selling beers that are unsuitable for aging over the internet, etc, etc.

My point here is simple: slow and steady wins the race. Beer is a craft, an art where the brewer creates a beautiful beverage out of pure ingredients and unsuspecting yeast-creatures. Beer is not to be rushed but waited patiently for. If you want a certain beer go to the brewery and get it. Visit the town, tour the brewery. Don't get me wrong I understand that a brewery is a business and there are simple and natural responses to this issue including perhaps and perhaps inevitable increase in prices, however I feel that the demand for craft beer is perhaps so inelastic that such a move would truly not make difference. Compared to wine, beer has an enormous amount of headroom in price. The perceived barrier that wine may have had in price and status has been broken and the demand that we are seeing right now proves that. Beer is not the new wine--Beer is a classic beverage that be damned if it's not on the menu with plenty to chose from. I think it's safe to say that craft beer is here to stay, and my trust is with people like the Calagione family who put quality and satisfaction first because they are secure in their market and their product. Brava!

Read More

#BBC10 Official Video!

Coverage of the the Beer Bloggers Conference brought to you by




Thank you for your support!!!

Read More

Live with Beer not in Fear!

After browsing my weekly paper to see what was featured I found an awesome article by Jay Brooks regarding town mayor, John Lewis, of Gilbert, AZ. The article discusses the ridiculousness of neo-prohibitionists such as this mayor, that even being in the vicinity of an area with the potential of having alcohol served will undo years, in Lewis' case according to the age of his children, decades of parenting! Between this article and last night's recording of The Hoparazzi it suddenly hit me how real a problem neo-prohibitionist ideals truly are. There are indeed people out there that still believe alcohol is the devil's drink and the string to unravel the morals of our country (yes here in the US).

I decided to poke around and I went to a couple web pages including www.beersoaksamerica.org and www.jesus-is-savior.com a rather graphic “teach them with terror” site, and what I found was a sad state of what ignorance can truly do to people. We mock these people and laugh at their ignorance but we don't always address the true harmfulness of their message. The message I received was “be afraid america” - be afraid of life, be afraid of death, be afraid of the unknown and here's why you will go to hell if you disobey me! I was reading an article by Amber DeGrace early today regarding Black Friday and how her family was driving home from Thanksgiving dinner and while passing a large store on the road saw people standing in line, some had tents no less! Why? To get to the sale! Why? Because if you don't buy that gift for your family they won't love you! Be afraid America! Spend your money or you will lose it and all you love!

These fear tactic attitudes are the same tactics used all over the world to control large populations. Jim Jones in Jonestown for example, www.jesus-is-savior.com used Hitler (to describe the beer industry actually) but they used the end result of the Holocaust as an example- What about the beginning? Hitler stirred fear in the hearts of thousands, of course “for their own good.” I have friends who don't agree with drinking, most of them either don't like the way they feel when they drink it, or they have seen it's abuse and how it can effect people, but this is a person conscious choice on their part. I applaud anyone who can stand up for their beliefs, but don't try to terrorize me into agreeing with you. In the case of Mayor Lewis, you can't sheild your 20+ year old children, Im sure if he was sheltered beyond repair he would not be involved in politics.

When Adam and Eve were told not to eat the apple of truth that it was taboo, what did they do? Yes, American culture has taboos, as does every population but the way to deal with that is not to be afraid of them or scare people into obeying the law of the land. Moderation in every aspect of life is what is key. What will Lewis do when his doctor tells him to drink a glass of wine for his health, is he going to run away to a closet so his “children” won't be near the abominable truth of what he is doing?

My point is these sites are more damaging than a raging six-foot tall broad wielding a hatchet singing hymns! There is no other purpose to these sites but to scare people and I think that's totally wrong. I agree that lessons should be taught, and taught correctly, by the family in your own home.

Read More

Real Women Drink Good Beer

If you read my previous post on beer as the catalyst for human civilization it's easy to see how impossible it is to imagine a time or place in all of humanity's agricultural history when the art, science, and joy of brewing has not been intimately intertwined in the social roll of women no matter what culture you come from. In this social media, twitter-soaked world we find ourselves in, the societal conversation relating to the intersection of woman's discourse and the boom of the brewing arts is more vibrant, wide-spread, and volatile than ever. Indeed, it can persuasively be argued that a thoughtful examination of the paradigms surrounding woman and craft brewing could even serve as a model for discussing the evolution and positive transformation of woman's roles in western society in general . It is for exactly this reason that this topic deserves thorough consideration and analysis.

To begin with, no serious proponent of feminist (or craft beer for that matter) ideologies will contend that the advertising offered up by the macro breweries is useful in any way. It does not take much to convince anyone that these segments are in fact damaging to all parties. These ads invariably show women with an image that is simply unrealistically attainable for most women, holding a sub-standard beer for the sake of acceptance from a perfectly ordinary looking man of dubiously portrayed intelligence. In these spots the woman are drinking not because they enjoy the beer, (I mean, c'mon, it's Bud), but rather to ensure their acceptance into a lifestyle. This lifestyle advertising, while undeniably effective, is damaging to craft brew culture because it has very little to do with the quality of the beer, and then necessarily doubly damaging to women. The fact that the macro breweries resort to this style of objectification and lifestyle promotion in their advertising speaks volumes about the worthiness of their product and their target consumer. In fact, it is exactly this sort of mentality that brought the US automobile industry, once the manufacturing envy of the world, to its knees (I write more about this in my article on Beer Culture).

However, this post is not intended as another bashing of macro breweries' business practices—that stick house analysis is far to simplistic. I'm pointing it out only because it serves as such a prevalent and obvious example of what simply must be avoided when discussing how craft brewing is to be presented to not just the public, but specifically women. To state the obvious, women should be into beer because they like it. So far, nothing too controversial,right? But the problems arise when the women embedded in this movement, begin to define woman's discourse as it relates to the craft brew movement. Don't get me wrong, a plurality of viewpoints is really an excellent indicator of the health and viability of the topic. What personally concerns me, is ensuring that even amidst the barrage of ideas presented by the hundreds of woman involved in beer blogging, that viewpoints that threaten to reinforce unhelpful aspects of traditional paternalistic values do not go unchecked!

During my recent attendance at BBC10, I listened in while a panel of women discussed ways of attracting more women to craft brew culture—a worthy cause for sure. I do believe this topic is important and honestly, any who think that devising a means of enticing women to become a part of this culture should not be separate from efforts to involve the general public, are ignoring gender relations in our world today. Actually, it is only through acknowledging the difference between men and woman that we can begin to constructively frame the issues at hand. For instance, it was suggested that perhaps including more recipes on craft beer web sights would encourage more woman to explore the wonders of craft beer. My problem with this is not with the recipes, but rather the strong implication that a woman's place is in the kitchen, cooking for her husband. A gain, there is nothing wrong with cooking for anyone, the issue is the absurd notion that THIS is why you are looking at a craft beer web page in the first place. The thrust should be, “here is why you will love the beer,” not “here is how to get your husband to like you again.” During the panel's discussing, this theme was repeated again and again. It was always about making craft beer more compatible with traditional female roles, rather than about bring the bliss of craft brewing to an underrepresented segment of the population for it own sake. If you chose to be involved in an opt-out-feminist-movement, where women embrace traditional paternalistic ideals, do it, but don't make the mistake of thinking that those views will make this non-conforming craft beer culture more appealing to female initiates, nor should you risk misrepresenting an entire community of women involved in the craft beer world. If you want to wear a pink, wear pink! But do it because you like pink, not because you want the boys to like you.

Read More