Jay R. Brooks on Beer
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1948. This post-World War 2 ad features a crowded sea with a fishing board in the foreground and then the text segues into how ice and refrigeration brought the seafood the fishermen were catching into everybody’s homes.
Today is the birthday of John H. Foss (November 30, 1859-December 13, 1912). He was the son of Henry Foss, who in 1867 became involved with the Louis Schneider Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio, eventually becoming a partner. It was later known as the Foss-Schneider Brewing Co. When his father passed away in 1879, John H. Foss stepped into his father’s role as co-owner of the company and was also president of the brewery. The brewery closed during prohibition, but reopened when it was repealed in 1933, though closed for good in 1939. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any photos of John H. Foss.
This biography is from the “History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio: Their Past and Present,” published in 1894:
John H. Foss, president of the Foss-Schneider Brewing Company, is the eldest son of the late John Henry and Adelaide (Te Veluwe) Foss. He was born in Cincinnati, November 30,1859, received his education at. Xavier College, and became the junior partner of the firm of Foss & Schneider in 1879. In 1883 he made an extensive tour, inspecting many of the greatest breweries of Europe, and obtaining ideas there from that have proved of incalculable benefit in his management of the business of his company. Upon his return from Europe, and the incorporation of the business in 1884, he was elected its secretary and treasurer, in 1890 becoming its president. On November 4, 1885, Mr. Foss was married to Katherine Marie, daughter of B. H. Moorman, a retired merchant and capitalist of Cincinnati. She died May 15, 1893, leaving two children, Adele and Robert. The foundation of the Foss-Schneider Brewing Company was laid in 1849 when Louis Schneider transformed his little cooper shop on Augusta street into a brewery. The new industry thrived, and became known as the Queen City Brewery. Soon a removal to more commodious quarters was necessitated. In 1863 new buildings were erected on the site of the present plant on Fillmore street. Four years later Mr. Schneider, on account of ill-health, sold out to Foss, Schneider and Brenner, the son, Peter W. Schneider, taking up the burden of active interest in the business laid down by the father. In 1877 Mr. Foss purchased the interest of Mr. Brenner.
The business was then continued under the name of Foss & Schneider until the death of John Henry Foss, August 13, 1879, when his interest became the property of his widow and her eldest son, John H. Foss, P. W. Schneider still retaining his interest. In 1884 it was incorporated under the name of The Foss-Schneider Brewing Company. The year 1884 was one of annoyance and disaster to the young corporation. The flood which devastated the city that year undermined and caused the collapse of the malt house burdened with over sixty thousand bushels of malt. This calamity, however, caused no cessation of work, and, in spite of the disaster, the business of that year showed an advance over the preceding year. It was determined at this time, too, to erect an entirely new plant, and in less than one year the Foss-Schneider Company was installed in one of the finest and most completely equipped brewery structures in the country. The product of this great establishment is celebrated, and finds a ready market throughout the United States and in many foreign lands, the annual output being 80,000 barrels.
Here’s a short history of the brewery, from “100 Years of Brewing:”
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1945. This World War 2-era ad features a beautiful view of the Grand Canyon and text extolling how hard it is to describe such vistas, comparing that to trying to describe their beer.
Today is the 51st birthday of Darron Welch, brewmaster at Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon. Darron has something like a gazillion awards for his beers, including “Brewer of the Year” seven times (at GABF in 2000 and 2005 for small brewpub and in 2006 and 2014 for large brewpub; and at the World Beer Cup in 2008, 2012 and 2014 for large brewpub or small brewery). In addition to being a great brewer, Darron is also a terrific person, as well. Join me in wishing him a very happy birthday.
At a beer dinner at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco several Januarys back, Pelican Pub brewmaster Darron Welch with the Beer Chef Bruce Paton.
Darron and the gang (including Ben Love at far left) from Pelican Pub & Brewery winning Gold for their Kiwanda Cream Ale at GABF in 2006.
Darron, again with the Pelican Crew, this time at GABF in 2009.
On stage accepting one of his awards at the World Beer Cup in 2014.
For our 142nd and final Session, our host will be Stan Hieronymus, who founded the Session, and writes the Appellation Beer Blog. I could think of no better person than the man who started it all with the first Session back in March of 2007 with the topic “Not Your Father’s Stout.” In the intervening 11+ years we’ve tacked 141 topics, wrote about 24 specific styles along with another 27 broader categories of beer (like wood-aged or session beers). We discussed the packages beer can come in or what’s on the package 6 times and where to drink it 12 times. Homebrewing came up 3 times, food and beer 4 times, and mixing with beer twice. We wrote about beer history 7 times, locality 11 times, beer on the interwebs at least 3 times, and ourselves and beer writing an astonishing 37 times. We’ve tackled beer abroad or traveling to the beer 8 times and have been asked to make predictions 4 times, including by me last month. That’s not including the dozens of unique singular topics. But back to the final topic.
For Stan’s topic this month, he’s chosen One More For the Road, which he sums up as going out with a bang, um … I mean beer; going out with a beer. So what beer would you choose? If you only have one to pick — and you do — what would it be? How would (will) you decide? You only have one more beer to drink, make it count.
Here are Stan’s simple instructions, in full:
When Jay Brooks and I exchanged emails about the topic this month I flippantly suggested “Funeral Beers” [which] seemed appropriate. You can call it “Last Beers” if you’d rather not think about how your friends might toast you when you no longer are participating. Or “One more for the road”* because that has a soundtrack.
Pick a beer for the end of a life, an end of a meal, an end of a day, an end of a relationship. So happy or sad, or something between. Write about the beer. Write about the aroma, the flavor, and write about what you feel when it is gone.
To participate in the December Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement, or “on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, wherever” on or before Friday, December 7, or by the 12th at the latest.
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1948. This ad features Thomas Jefferson serving up a bowl of spaghetti in the White House, and although it’s unlikely he was actually the first person to bring pasta to our shores, he did really help to popularize it. And it wasn’t spaghetti, either, but macaroni.
Here’s what Mental Floss has to say about it:
Though he probably wasn’t the first person to introduce Americans to the ooey gooey goodness of macaroni drenched with cheese, Jefferson did have a hand in popularizing it. As with ice cream, he discovered the dish while living in France and became so enamored with it that he sketched a “maccaroni” machine. He first served the delicacy at a state dinner in 1802—and back in those days, anything served at the White House became the talk of the town. People were soon clamoring for the dish, though what they ate probably didn’t much resemble today’s good ol’ Kraft.
And at the website for Monticello, they’ve reprinted this entry from the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia:
Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Macaroni and the Macaroni Machine
In February 1789, William Short wrote to Thomas Jefferson that, at Jefferson’s request, he had procured a “mould for making maccaroni” in Naples, and had it forwarded to his mentor in Paris.1 The macaroni mold probably did not reach Paris until after Jefferson had departed. His belongings were shipped to Philadelphia in 1790, and the machine was probably included with those items. We know that Jefferson did have the machine in the United States eventually, as it is mentioned in a packing list with other household items shipped from Philadelphia to Monticello in 1793.2
Jefferson’s notes on the macaroni machine read as follows:
The best maccaroni in Italy is made with a particular sort of flour called Semola, in Naples: but in almost every shop a different sort of flour is commonly used; for, provided the flour be of a good quality, and not ground extremely fine, it will always do very well. A paste is made with flour, water and less yeast than is used for making bread. This paste is then put, by little at a time, viz. about 5. or 6. lb. each time into a round iron box ABC, the under part of which is perforated with holes, through which the paste, when pressed by the screw DEF, comes out, and forms the Maccaroni g.g.g. which, when sufficiently long, are cut and spread to dry. The screw is turned by a lever inserted into the hole K, of which there are 4. or 6. It is evident that on turning the screw one way, the cylindrical part F. which fits the iron box or mortar perfectly well, must press upon the paste and must force it out of the holes. LLM. is a strong wooden frame, properly fastened to the wall, floor and cieling of the room.
N.O. is a figure, on a larger scale, of some of the holes in the iron plate, where all the black is solid, and the rest open. The real plate has a great many holes, and is screwed to the box or mortar: or rather there is a set of plates which may be changed at will, with holes of different shapes and sizes for the different sorts of Maccaroni.
Macaroni Recipe
Jefferson was most likely not the first to introduce macaroni (with or without cheese) to America, nor did he invent the recipe. The most that can be said is that he probably helped to popularize it by serving it to dinner guests during his presidency. There survives, however, a recipe for macaroni in Jefferson’s own hand:
6 eggs. yolks & whites.
2 wine glasses of milk
2 lb of flour
a little salt
work them together without water, and very well.
roll it then with a roller to a paper thickness
cut it into small pieces which roll again with the hand into long slips, & then cut them to a proper length.
put them into warm water a quarter of an hour.
drain them.
dress them as maccaroni.
but if they are intended for soups they are to be put in the soup & not into warm water
One diner at the White House, Rev. Manasseh Cutler, a member of the United States House of Representatives. from Ohio, wrote about his experience with it in 1802:
“Dined at the President’s – … Dinner not as elegant as when we dined before. [Among other dishes] a pie called macaroni, which appeared to be a rich crust filled with the strillions of onions, or shallots, which I took it to be, tasted very strong, and not agreeable. Mr. Lewis told me there were none in it; it was an Italian dish, and what appeared like onions was made of flour and butter, with a particularly strong liquor mixed with them.”
Today is the 52nd birthday of Rob Fuller, who’s the executive director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild. Before that he was the president of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers and was one of the writers online at the Beer PHXation Blog. Rob’s doing great things for Arizona beer and he’s always fun to run into at various beer events throughout the year. Join me in wishing Rob a very happy birthday.
Rob, outstanding in his field of Arizona kegs.
This month’s Session was notably our second-to-last, and I chose the appropriately forward-looking theme, The Future of Beer Blogging. With only around six submissions, I think we’ve proved the point that interest in The Session has been waning and that it is time to, in the words of the Disney ice queen character, Elsa, “let it go.” Here’s what the most loyal and ardent beer bloggers still playing along to the bitter end had to say about the future of beer blogging:
Appellation Beer Blog – Long Live Beer Blogging: In his post, Stan, who created The Session, is ever hopeful and while he believes The Session is ready to be put out to pasture, he’s confident that beer blogging itself is not dead, but just one of many tools in the writer’s toolbox of ways to reach an audience. Like any technology, it’s continually evolving and happily a “diversity in beer storytelling” will go on. Hear, hear!
The Beerverse – Goodbye, Session. Hello, Something Else??: Dean has been writing about beer now about five years and is a true blogger in Alan’s sense of the word, meaning he’s blogging for blogging’s sake. (Full disclosure, Dean was a student of mine when I taught my beer class at Sonoma State University, although I’d met him before that.) While he never did host (although he came close a couple of times), he did participate and even reached out about what he could do to keep it going. He’s come up with a plan to do something similar through a bi-weekly newsletter he publishes, so give his post a read and see if that’s something you could get behind.
Boak & Bailey – The Penultimate Session: B&B understandably winced a little at my navel-gazing topic, but decided to play along anyway since the “news that the Session is expiring” made it a reasonable enough moment to weigh in. As with the majority of opinions expressed, Boak & Bailey also agree that blogging itself is not in decline, and continue to “find plenty of great posts that we think are worth sharing, and those pieces seem more adventurous, stylish, erudite and varied than much of what was around a decade ago.” They also remark that “the feeling of global community has diminished,” replaced “by many active, more locally-focused sub-communities: the pub crawlers, the historians, the tasting note gang, the podcasters, the social issues crew, the jostling pros and semi-pros, the pisstakers, and so on.” In a nutshell, it’s evolved, and evolving. They conclude with this hopefulness. “[O]n balance, we see the future of blogging as being much like its past – sometimes supportive, sometimes bad-tempered, over-emotional, churning like primordial soup as blogs are born in fits of tipsy enthusiasm and die of ennui – but also more fractured, more varied, and less cosy.”
The Brew Site – The Future of Beer Blogging: Jon Abernathy, who’s been a host multiple times, continues Stan’s line of reasoning, more forcefully perhaps, that beer blogging isn’t going anywhere. A point which I actually agree with, but which I just stated less elegantly, opening the door for him to rightly school me (us) about how ubiquitous the blogging platform is, it’s just that it’s morphed into many different, sometimes unrecognizable, forms. And while in part I was referring to the traditional standalone blog of one person writing from their perspective, I take his meaning and “get his point.” As he concludes, “Beer blogging continues on.” And so it goes.
A Good Beer Blog – The King Is Dead! Long Live The King!!: Alan also points out that “beer blogging is one type of writing in a broad range of formats,” but believes “[i]t’s the only one that provides for long form creative writing on anything that strikes the author’s fancy, without concern for pay or editorial intrusion.” And I agree with him that that aspect was certainly one of its hallmarks and likewise agree that “there is a place for such things.” The simple idea of us all taking up a discussion of a single topic was, simply, genius, and has been a highlight of the last decade. Like Alan, I hope we can find something to replace it that truly gets a lot us wordy types energized and excited.
Yours For Good Fermentables – The beer blog is dead. Long live the beer blog.: Thomas provides a run down of how beer information online is changing by detailing the decision to shut down The Session and Jonathan Surrat reviving his old beer blog aggregator in a more modern form called ReadBeer. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or as Thomas puts it, “The beer blog is dead. Long live the beer blog. Or, at least, long live the beer journal, public or private, online or pen-and-paper.”
If you know of any Session posts I missed, or if I missed yours, please drop me a note at “Jay (.) Brooks (@) gmail (.) com.” Happy Holidays.
The final Session will be hosted by the man, the myth, the legend, Stan Hieronymus at his Appellation Beer Blog. His topic will be “One More for the Road” The date for the next Session will be a day which will live in infamy, December 7, 2018, although Stan will give everybody a few more days and won’t be posting his roundup until the 12th. It’s only one more, why not help us go out with a bang and participate in the final Session?
Today is the 51st birthday of Wil Turner, brewer at Open Outcry Brewing, in Chicago. He’s also a former brewer at Revolution Brewing and Goose Island Brewery, but Wil’s originally from California — or at least that’s where I first met him — but moved to Chicago to brew at the Clybourn Goose Island brewpub, eventually moving to the production side. Since the sale of Goose Island, Wil’s moved back over to brewpub brewing at Revolution and more recently moved to brew at Open Outcry. Wil’s a great brewer, of course, and a terrific person for the industry, always a fun guy to drink with. Join me in wishing Wil a very happy birthday.
Wil, me and Greg Hall at GABF in 2006.
Tom Nickel with Wil at the Brewer’s Reception at Wynkoop during GABF in 2009.
On the floor at GABF in 2007 with Andrew Mason (on left), Matt’s assistant when he was still at Flossmoor Station, and Wil.
Wil, also at the 2006 GABF, sadly empty.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1945. This World War 2 ad features a laboratory with a view overlooking the Anheuser-Busch brewery far below, meaning this is one seriously tall ivory tower. But this one seems to be an overview, or summation, of several of their previous ads about all the research they carry out to improve their beer, with lots of side benefits to general health and, of course, the war effort.
