The Session Archives - Brookston Beer Bulletin

Exploring Beer’s Role In “The Good Life”

September 4, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 139th Session, our host will be William Vanderburgh, who writes Craft Beer in San Diego. For his topic, he’s chosen Beer and the Good Life, which he sums up. “Beer ads famously sell us “the good life” — fit, scantily clad friends imbibing on boats and beaches in the summer sun. But that’s advertising, not real life (not often anyway). So how does beer fit into a well-lived life? What does beer mean to being a good person, or having a good life?”

His topic is fairly broad and open-ended, so interpret it in any way that makes sense to you. Bill also has a few suggestions of ways you could approach the topic to get your thinking juices flowing.

What role does beer play in your life? Does it help or hurt, on balance?
What does enjoying beer mean to you?

Creating a life full of pleasure (including the enjoyment of good food and drink) is a moral responsibility one owes to oneself and there is no better way to live.

Good beer, good food, good books, good friends–these are the things that make a good life.

How much beer is good? How much beer is bad?

Is getting drunk/wasted an appropriate part of a life well lived? Is an occasional blow-out a good way to “release” (or however you think of it)?

You could do other things with your time/money: Is it wrong to spend it on beer instead of something else? How do you balance your personal desires with your other responsibilities?

Beer and Community: Is the point of beer to help humans connect?

Beer and Justice: How can we justify enjoying a pint when so many things are wrong in the world, and in the beer world itself? There are many recent hot topics that would fit well here: Beer and gender, identity, race, class, etc.

How does blogging about beer, or talking about beer with friends, enhance your life?

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Is the unexamined beer not worth drinking?

I confess that whenever I hear the phrase “the good life,” what I think of is the mid-1970s BBC television series starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, and Paul Eddington, although if you’re American and it’s not ringing any bells, that may be because when it aired on PBS in the U.S., it was renamed “Good Neighbors.” I loved that show, and had such a crush on Felicity Kendal. I recently spent an enjoyable evening n Belgium discussing “The Good Life” with Roger Protz, who also loved the show.

To participate in the September Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement, or email Bill on or before Friday, September 7.

Session #138: How Much Wood …

August 3, 2018 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

For our 138th Session, our host is Jack Perdue, who writes Deep Beer. For his topic, he’s chosen The Good in Wood, by which he means beer being stored in wood or otherwise flavored with it.

Here’s his full description of the topic:

Wood has been used for millennia to store, transport and flavor beer, wine and spirits. Today, the relationship between wood and beer has regained its popularity with brewers and drinkers as observed in the prevalence of bourbon-barrel-aged beer and sours. This topic is deep and wide and meandering, romantic and historic, personal and professional.

I will suggest a few themes to stir your imagination on “The Good in Wood” but of course you can choose your own path.

Historic uses of wood through a beer lens

Physical characteristics of wood and that relationship with beer

Professional and personal experiences such as wood-themed beer festivals or tours

A favorite wood-influenced beer style or experience, e.g. your first bourbon barrel-aged beer, a special Flanders red moment or why you don’t like a lambic

Other, let your imagination run as crazy as a wild ale

So this month I’m going to use The Session to be the old man telling the kids to get off of his lawn as he shouts into the wind. Let me start by stating this. I love barrel-aged beers. I’ll repeat that, because it may come up later. I love the complexity that’s added by a beer spending time in a wooden barrel. Over ten years ago, in 2006, I took issue with an article in a Wisconsin newspaper in which the writer — who called himself the Beer Man — declared that bourbon barrel stouts were “just a fad.” I said he was wrong twelve years ago, and I say without fear of retribution that he’s even more wrong today. If anything, they’re more popular than ever, and not just stouts, but wood-aged and barrel-aged beers of all sorts of types. They’re so popular now that many brewers have told me it’s getting harder (and more expensive) to just find barrels to use for aging their beer. And many of these beers are amazing.

But here’s my caveat, and the one that appears to make me the odd man out, the old curmudgeon. As barrel-aged beers have become more and more extreme, almost like an arms race of bourbony proportions, many of these beers have lost their beerishness. I have had many debates and/or arguments on judging panels, panel discussions and at casual tastings, which clearly show me to be the outlier, over how much wood is too much wood. I’ve found that many people seem to think there is no threshold too far, that the more a bourbon-barrel beer tastes like bourbon the better, even when it no longer resembles a beer. And I just can’t abide that.

How much wood…

To me, it’s a bourbon-barrel “BEER.” If it no longer tastes of beer at all, it’s not really a beer anymore, but a malt-based bourbon.* Why not just drink a glass of bourbon? This type of extreme beer just overwhelms your tastebuds with only one sensation: whatever the original barrel once contained. But to my way of thinking, it should taste like the base beer style, and accentuated with the added flavor of the barrel, which should add complexity and layers of unique and/or new sensations. Instead, many just dull your senses by hitting you over the head with unbridled bourbon, or whiskey, or whatever. What’s the point? It seems to me that it’s become extremeness for the sake of extremeness, like a snake eating its own tail.

I completely understand that this is simply a matter of personal preference and shifting tastes or styles. At least it is on some level. But the style guidelines for both the World Beer Cup and GABF make clear that I’m not alone in my curmudgeonly ways. To wit, the 2017 guidelines for GABF for both the “Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer” and the “Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Stout” state the following:

Used sherry, rum, bourbon, scotch, port, wine and other barrels are often used, imparting complexity and uniqueness to beer. Ultimately a balance of flavor, aroma and mouthfeel are sought with the marriage of new beer with wood and/or barrel flavors.

And even though I’ve read this passage aloud to make my case, some people still prefer the bourbon bombs with no beerishness whatsoever. I get that people like what they like, but this one just confounds me, because they seem to have lost sight of what these beers were intended to be or should aspire to be.

The 2015 BJCP guidelines for “Wood-Aged Beer” also makes the same point:

Flavor: Varies with base style. Wood usually contributes a woody or oaky flavor, which can occasionally take on a raw “green” flavor if new wood is used. Other flavors that may optionally be present include vanilla (from vanillin in the wood); caramel, butterscotch, toasted bread or almonds (from toasted wood); and coffee, chocolate, cocoa (from charred wood). The wood and/or other cask-derived flavors should be balanced, supportive and noticeable, but should not overpower the base beer style

In the end, it comes down to what a brewery can sell. If consumers want bourbon-barrel aged beers that taste more like bourbon and almost nothing like beer, that’s what breweries will keep making. If they sell out of every vintage, who am I to say they’re wrong? But I still find it a crying shame that it’s become harder to find the truly exquisite barrel-aged beer that really does deliver a complex melange of unique flavors, that “marriage of new beer with wood and/or barrel flavors” that doesn’t “overpower the base beer.” Those beers are sublime; a thing of beauty. Give me one of those beers any day.

*: For purposes of this discussion, I’m ignoring Utopias, the Brew Dog/Schorschbräu world’s strongest beer fracas, and all other beers made to prove a point about beer strength, pushing boundaries, etc. Is that fair of me? Maybe not, but I’m going to do it anyway.

Over A Barrel: The Next Sessions Looks At The Good In Wood

July 24, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 138th Session, our host will be Jack Perdue, who writes Deep Beer. For his topic, he’s chosen The Good in Wood, by which he means beer being stored in wood or otherwise flavored with it.

Here’s his full explanation of the month’s topic:

Wood has been used for millennia to store, transport and flavor beer, wine and spirits. Today, the relationship between wood and beer has regained its popularity with brewers and drinkers as observed in the prevalence of bourbon-barrel-aged beer and sours. This topic is deep and wide and meandering, romantic and historic, personal and professional.

I will suggest a few themes to stir your imagination on “The Good in Wood” but of course you can choose your own path.

Historic uses of wood through a beer lens

Physical characteristics of wood and that relationship with beer

Professional and personal experiences such as wood-themed beer festivals or tours

A favorite wood-influenced beer style or experience, e.g. your first bourbon barrel-aged beer, a special Flanders red moment or why you don’t like a lambic

Other, let your imagination run as crazy as a wild ale

To participate in the August Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement on or before Friday, August 3.

Next Session In The Bavarian Clouds

June 27, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 137th Session, our host will be Roger Mueller, who writes at Roger’s Beers …and Other Drinks. For his topic, he’s chosen German Wheat Beers, one of the original hazy beers.

This is from Stan Hieronymus’ recent article, Traditional Hefeweizen: Worth the Trouble?

Here’s his full explanation of the month’s topic:

I would like to clarify for myself the similarities and dissimilarities of weissbeers, kristall weizen, weizen, hefeweizen, etc. I’d love to read about the distinctions all you brewers and beer researchers know about regarding the various “styles” of weissbeer, experiences in brewing and drinking the beer, it’s history. Yeah, whatever you’d like to say about German wheat beers will be great.

To participate in the July Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement on or before Friday, July 6.

Down on The Farmhouse Beers For The Next Session

May 21, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 136th Session, our host will be Dave S, who writes Brewing In A Bedsitter, or “Adventures in small batch homebrew.” For his topic, he’s chosen Farmhouse Beers, by which he’s asking everybody to consider the farmhouse beer or farmhouse brewery and wax philophically about it.

Here is a fuller explanation of what he’s thinking about ways to approach this month’s topic:

Whether it’s about the success of modern craft breweries like Jester King and Burning Sky, the worldwide spread of saison or the revival of international interest in Northern European traditions, farmhouse brewing is a recurring theme in the beer world. It’s a very resonant idea but also one that invites many perspectives, so it seems like an ideal topic for the collective conversation that is The Session.

I’d invite people to approach the topic however they like — the more creative the better — but here are some ideas to get you started.

You could talk about how the word “farmhouse” is used in modern craft breweries, or about historic brewing traditions. You might want to think about how, if at all, the two are related.

If you think that farmhouse brewing or farmhouse beer refers to something meaningful and relevant in modern beer, you could write something touching on what it means to you. What’s its defining element? Is it about style, ingredients, location or something else? Would you call a crisp, clean pilsner or a hoppy IPA a farmhouse beer if it was brewed from local ingredients in a medieval barn? What about a mixed fermentation barrel-aged saison brewed in a light industrial unit in a suburb of Manchester? Why does any of this matter?

If you want to get specific, maybe talk about one or more beers or breweries that you think embody some aspect of the idea of farmhouse brewing. Or if you’re a homebrewer, you could talk about ways that your own beer has been influenced by it.

Conversely, if you think that the modern idea of a farmhouse brewery is largely just about marketing and aesthetics then you could have a go at dissecting and deconstructing it. Where did it originate and what are its roots? Who popularized it? How is it constructed and signaled? Most importantly, why are people so keen to buy into it?

This month, the first Friday is also the first day of the month, June 1, so don’t accidentally miss it. To participate in the June Session, simply post a link to your session post by commenting at the original announcement.

Waxing Nostalgic Extemporaneously For The Next Session … Today!

May 4, 2018 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

For our 135th Session, our host will be Alistair Reece, who writes Fuggled. For his topic, he’s taking a look back in Sepia Tones, by which he challenges us to “indulge in a little beer nostalgia, a bit of personal beer history you might say.”

Until this morning, we were without a host, so a big thanks to Alistair for stepping up last minute and hosting. (That also means right now you should think about hosting June or beyond!) So understandably his topic is lean, although not so mean. Here are his instructions on participating:

What kind of things would be suitable topics for today? Well, here’s some suggestions:

Discontinued beers that you miss.

Breweries you once loved that are no longer around.

Beers that are simply not what they once were.

Your early steps in the world of beer drinking, whether craft or just in general.

There you have it, get melancholy, drag up memories of good times gone by, and join us in this month’s Session.

So no time to waste, it’s already the first Friday of May, so time to start waxing nostalgic and write your session post today. Then post a link to your session post at the original announcement or I imagine you could tag him on Twitter, too. Either way, don’t delay. Time’s a wasting.

The Next Session Visits A Beer Garden

March 23, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

For our 134th Session, our host will be Tom Cizauskas, who writes Yours For Good Fermentables. For his topic, he’s tackling Beer Gardens, or more specifically, “What (and Where) is a Beer Garden?”

Here’s what he means by that question:

What is a beer garden? Or what isn’t a beer garden? Or what should a beer garden be? Or where is a beer garden?

Is a beer garden a place of foliage and shrubberies? Or is it a plot of concrete with umbrellas? Is a beer garden an outdoor bar? Or an outdoor Biergarten pavilion with Gemütlichkeit und Bier? Or is a beer garden to be found at a brewery with a hop trellis de rigueur?

Is a beer garden to be found outdoors, or can it be, alternatively, an interior third place, an arboretum with beer? Is a beer garden a real thing or is it a Platonic ideal, an imagined gueuzic nostalgia? Or is it a place indeed, once or often visited, not Bill Bryson in the woods, but Lew Bryson in a beer garden? If so, where is it? Tell us (with or without Lew).

According to the Beer Bloggers Conference, there are over 1,000 active “Citizen Beer Blogs” in North America, over 500 “Citizen Beer Blogs” throughout the rest of the world, and another couple hundred industry beer blogs. So, jump in folk. Please contribute!

The Beer Garden at Bohemian Hall in New York City.

So by Friday, April 6 — which by the way is New Beer’s Eve — or thereabouts, give us your take on beer gardens. To participate in the April Session, simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him on Instagram or Twitter, or by posting a link and comment on his Facebook page.

At the Duff Gardens beer garden.

Start A Homebrewing Conversation For The Next Session

January 30, 2018 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

For our 132nd Session, our host will be John Abernathy, who writes about beer at The Brew Site website. For his topic, inspired by the news that BA and AHA founder Charlie Papazian recently announced his retirment, has been thinking about homebrewing and is calling his topic Homebrewing Conversations. Essentially he’s calling for anything about “homebrewing — the good, the bad, your experiences, ideas, (mis)conceptions, or whatever else suits you, as long as it starts the conversation!”

Here are some suggestions Jon has about how you could approach the topic:

Do you homebrew, and if so, for how long? How did you get started?

Talk about the best beer you ever brewed at home—and your worst!

Are you a member of a local homebrew club (or even the AHA)? Tell us about your club.

Describe your home set up: do you brew all grain? Extract? Brew in a bag? Unusual mashing/sparging/etc. methods?

Have you ever judged a homebrew competition? Talk about that experience.

Are you a BJCP or other accredited beer judge? Talk about the process of becoming certified/official.

Never homebrewed/not a homebrewer? No problem! Consider these questions:

Do you know any homebrewers?

Have you ever tasted someone’s home brewed beer?

Would you ever be interested in learning how to brew? Why or why not?

So by this Friday, February 2, or thereabouts, start your homebrewing conversation. To participate in the February Session, simply leave a comment at the original announcement and leave the URL to your post there, or tag him on Twitter or on Facebook (or even Instagram) with your post, and I’ll round up all the entries early next week.

Session #131 Round-Up

January 26, 2018 By Jay Brooks 4 Comments

This month’s Session was last minute to say the least. I woke up the first Friday of the month, January 5, to people on Twitter asking who was hosting and what the topic of the January Session was. Which for me was a facepalm moment because in the business of the holidays I hadn’t even noticed that no one had signed up to host the Session. So I scrambled to put one together, and tried to come up with something quick and easy.

So in my announcement, I asked three simple questions that could have very short answers, or with explanations a bit longer, that I thought could be fun to ponder. Since time was short, I wanted something that people could answer without thinking too much about it, out of necessity, and just go with their gut. Many people referred to this as an “Emergency Session,” which I guess is true. Anyway, here’s what everybody had to say:

Normally, the round-up gives a short description of each person’s take on the topic, but since I posed three questions, I thought it made more sense to break the round-up into separate round-ups, so to speak.

If you want to read their full answers, and the rationale behind them, here’s who participated in the January Session:

So that’s fourteeen participants, not to shabby considering it was posted last minute, on the day it was due.

Question No. 1

For our first question of the new year, what one word, or phrase, do you think should be used to describe beer that you’d like to drink. Craft beer seems to be the most agreed upon currently used term, but many people think it’s losing its usefulness or accuracy in describing it. What should we call it, do you think?

And the answers are:

Beer, just beer:
- Appellation Beer
- Brookston Beer Bulletin
- Ramblings of a Beer Runner
- The Would-be Brewmaster
Classic beer:
- Fuggled
Clear:
- A Good Beer Blog
Craft beer:
- Boak & Bailey
Excellent Beer… Whatever the source:
- Deep Beer
Good beer:
- The A Position
- The Brew Site
- By the Barrel
The Good Stuff:
- Oh Good Ale
No Answer:
- Brewing in a Bedsetter
Worthwhile beer:
- Brussels City Beer

By and large, a majority felt a return to simply calling all beer just “beer” is the way to go, and I’m in that camp, as well. A close second, others felt “good beer” was a good (pun intended) way of marking the divide, and I have certainly used the term on numerous occasions. It avoids the politics but also conveys a certain fluid meaning that we all sort of understand.

Question No. 2

For our second question of the new year, what two breweries do you think are very underrated? Name any two places that don’t get much attention but are quietly brewing great beer day in and day out. And not just one shining example, but everything they brew should be spot on. And ideally, they have a great tap room, good food, or other stellar amenities of some kind. But for whatever reason, they’ve been mostly overlooked. Maybe 2018 should be the year they hit it big. Who are they?

And the answers are:

Back Forty Beer Co.: The A Position
Brewery Ommegang: Deep Beer
Bristol Beer Factory: Boak & Bailey
Brouwerij Brasserie De Ranke: Brewing in a Bedsetter
Burley Oak Brewing: Deep Beer
Buxton Brewery: Brewing in a Bedsetter
Caldera Brewing: The Brew Site
Chuckanut Brewing: Appellation Beer, Brookston Beer Bulletin
Corn based craft beer: A Good Beer Blog
Dust Bowl Brewing: Ramblings of a Beer Runner
En Stoemelings: Brussels City Beer
Galway Bay Brewery: Brussels City Beer
Hunter-Gatherer Brewery & Alehouse: Fuggled
Kettlesmith, or Stroud, or Cheddar Ales: Boak & Bailey
Kobold Brewing: Ramblings of a Beer Runner
Marble Brewery (UK): Oh Good Ale
Moonlight Brewing (UK): Brookston Beer Bulletin
None, most breweries are over-rated: By the Barrel
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery: Fuggled
Quebec breweries: A Good Beer Blog
Rock Art Brewery: The A Position
Smuttynose Brewing: The Would-be Brewmaster
Summit Brewing: Appellation Beer
Ticketybrew: Oh Good Ale
Von Trapp Brewing: The Would-be Brewmaster

Not surprisingly, given that we’re all over the map geographically, so were the answers to this one. An interesting mix of breweries to explore.

Question No. 3

For our third question of the new year, name three kinds of beer you’d like to see more of. It’s clear hoppy beers, IPAs and all of the other hop-forward beers they’ve spawned, are here to say. There seems to be a few other styles that are popular, too, like saisons, barrel-aged beers, anything imperial and also sour beers of all kinds. But lots of other previously popular beers seem sidelined these days. What three types of beer do you think deserve more attention or at least should be more available for you to enjoy? They can be anything except IPAs, or the other extreme beers. I mean, they could be, I suppose, but I’m hoping for beers that we don’t hear much about or that fewer and fewer breweries are making. What styles should return, re-emerge or be resurrected in 2018?

And the answers are:

Altbier: Fuggled
Barley wine: Oh Good Ale
Barrel-Aged: Deep Beer
Belgian session beers: Brewing in a Bedsetter
Belgian witbiers: The Brew Site
Best Bitter (or English Pale Ale): Boak & Bailey (specifically Pale-n-hoppy), Fuggled, The Would-be Brewmaster
Bocks: By the Barrel
Dubbels (and other strong dark ale): A Good Beer Blog, Brussels City Beer
Dunkelweizens: Brookston Beer Bulletin
German weissbeers or hefeweizens: Appellation Beer
Gose (authentic): Ramblings of a Beer Runner
Imperial Stout: Boak & Bailey, Brewing in a Bedsetter
IPAs, Classic US: Brewing in a Bedsetter
Lagers (that taste like lagers): Appellation Beer, The Brew Site, Brussels Beer City
Malt-forward beers, like Scottish ales, brown ales, bocks: The Brew Site, By the Barrel (bocks, at least)
Milds: A good Beer Blog, Boak & Bailey, Brookston Beer Bulletin, By the Barrel, Fuggled, Oh Good Ale, Ramblings of a Beer Runner
Old Ale: Oh Good Ale
Oud Bruin: Deep Beer
Porters: A Good Beer Blog (especially 1700s porters made with diastatic malted Battledore barley), Appellation Beer
Quadruppels: Deep Beer
Rye beers: Brookston Beer Bulletin
Scotch Ales: Ramblings of a Beer Runner
Stouts (non-imperial): The Would-be Brewmaster
Styles not inspired by British, German, and Belgian brewing traditions: The Would-be Brewmaster
Surprise Me: Brussels City Beer
Vienna Lager: By the Barrel

Happy to see so many people lamenting the scarcity of Milds, but there were plenty of other kinds of beer represented, and only a single mention of anything super hoppy (which, to be fair, was from outside hoppyland USA) although the more restrained and balanced Best Bitter (or English Pale Ale) did get a few mentions.

If you know of any Session posts I missed, or if I missed yours, please drop me a note at “Jay (.) Brooks (@) gmail (.) com.” Thanks.

According to the Session calendar, the next Session still has no host. If you’d like to host February’s Session, please let me know as soon as you can. Thanks. The date for the next Session will be Groundhog Day, February 2, 2018.

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