Yesterday afternoon a rally for the American Homebrewers Association was held at Anchor Brewing. I stopped by to see Gary Glass, director of the AHA (and who I interviewed earlier this year for a story), along with Erin Glass and Bradley Lantham. I’ve know all three from attending CBC and GABF for many years so I took the opportunity to see them when they weren’t working at full throttle at the BA events. I also knew a number of nearly 150 homebrewers that showed up at Anchor, so it was a fun afternoon. Afterwards, we went to a few other places in the city, from 21st Amendment to City Beer Store to Magnolia.

AHA Director Gary Glass, Erin Glass and Bradley Lantham, in town from the Brewers Association for the Rally.

For more photos from the AHA Rally at Anchor Brewery, visit the photo gallery.
 

The Beer Chef’s next beer dinner this summer will feature the “The Unique Beers of Stone Brewing Co..” It will be a three-course dinner and well worth the $85 price of admission. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Thursday, August 28, 2008, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations as soon as possible. I’ll see you there.

The Menu:

Reception: 7:00 PM

Beer Chef’s Hors D’Oeuvre

Beer: Stone Pale Ale

Dinner: 7:30 PM

First Course

Jumbo Day Boat Scallop with Dungeness Crab, California Osetra Caviar and Capay Farms Yellow Doll Watermelon Gazpacho

Beer: Stone Epic Ale 08.08.08

Second Course:

Tenderloin of Berkshire Pork with Bellwether Farms Pepato Cheese Ravioli and Ancho Chile Jus

Beer: Stone Ruination IPA

Third Course:

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Pudding Cake with Crème Anglaise and Compote of Honey Crisp Farms Mariposa Plums

Beer: Stone Twelfth Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Stone co-owner Greg Koch, who’ll be at next Thursday’s dinner,
in front of his Stone World Bistro & Gardens near San Diego.

 
8.28

Dinner with the Brewmaster: Stone Brewing

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]
 

In Brent on Beer in the Marin IJ, my friend Brent Ainsworth did a nice article on Christian Kazakoff becoming the new head brewer at Iron Springs Pub & Brewery in Fairfax.

The American Homebrewers Association will be holding a membership rally tomorrow, Saturday August 23, at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. They’re a fun way to learn more about homebrewing, a hobby I heartily recommend, even though it’s been many years since I homebrewed. Most of today’s commercial brewers started out as homebrewers, perhaps one of tomorrow’s brewers could be you.

It’s free if you’re already an AHA member, and only $33 if not (regular AHA membership is $38 so you’ll save five bucks by joining at the rally). I’ll be there to see some friends and spend a pleasant afternoon at Anchor. Stop by and say hello.

I first wrote about Stampede Light almost two-and-a-half years ago in February 2006. It’s a contract beer out of Dallas, Texas, and is billed as the first “vitamin” beer. Joe Owades, the inventor of low-calorie light beer, helped founder Lawrence Schwartz develop the recipe. I tend to think beer is essentially healthy enough and am not a big fan of “enhanced” beers generally.

Stampede Brewing has just launched an ad campaign with the tagline “Drink Smart” featuring actress/singer Jessica Simpson.

From the press release:

Multi-platinum singer. Movie star. Philanthropist. Entrepreneur. Beer drinker?

Everyone knows about Jessica Simpson’s daisy dukes body and healthy lifestyle. The all-American beauty and world-renowned entertainer has a passion for working out and making healthy food choices. But she also makes those smart choices with the beer she drinks. “Yes, I work out and take care of myself, but I also like a cold beer once in a while,” Simpson said. A new light beer with functional additives is Simpson’s new favorite beer — Stampede Light Plus®

Now it’s probably not fair. I obviously don’t know Jessica Simpson personally. I haven’t really followed her career, though from what I’ve seen of her public persona she doesn’t seem particularly quick-witted. But perhaps privately she’s quite sharp. Oh, and according to the New York Daily News, she also owns 15% of Stampede Brewing. Here’s the first “Drink Smart” ad for Stampede Light.

Again, I’m trying really hard not to sound like a jerk, but there seems to be a disconnect between the image and the text. This is just not the face of smart drinking. It looks more to me like she’s confused or about to sneeze. What do you think her expression conveys?

A long forgotten profession, the ale-conner (or ale-taster), was an important and upstanding member of society from at least the 1100s. Their job was to insure that all breweries were making quality beer. The position, in fact, persisted until the early part of the 20th century, when it became entirely ceremonial.

The Wikipedia entry:

An ale-Conner (sometimes aleconner) was an officer appointed yearly at the court-leet of ancient English communities to ensure the goodness and wholesomeness of bread, ale, and beer. There were many different names for this position which varied from place to place: “ale-tasters,” gustatores cervisiae, “ale-founders,” and “ale-conners”. Ale-Conners were also often trusted to ensure that the beer was sold at a fair price. Historically, four ale-Conners were chosen annually by the common-hall of the city.

Ale-Conners were sworn “to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at proper prices according to the assize; and also to present all defaults of brewers to the next court-leet.”

The tradition was maintained in London into the 20th century. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica reports:

In London, four ale-conners, whose duty it is to examine the measures used by beer and liquor sellers to guard against fraud, are still chosen annually by the liverymen in common hall assembled on Midsummer Day. Since ale and beer have become excisable commodities the custom of appointing ale-tasters has in most places fallen into disuse.

The title was also used of officers chosen by the liverymen in London to inspect the measures used in the public houses. The title is a sinecure.

And from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary:

A’LE-CONNER, n. [ale and con, to know or see.]
An officer in London, whose business is to inspect the measures used in public houses, to prevent frauds in selling liquors. four of these are chosen annually by the livery men, in common hall, on midsummer’s day.

Curiously, an odd notion crept into the lore of the profession about how they actually accomplished their job. According to the wonderful Martyn Cornell at his Zythophile blog, it all began in a 1911 publication entitled Frederick Hackwood’s Inns, Ales and Drinking Customs of Old England. In only this book “but not, significantly, in any of the major 19th century books on beer,” the author says “that an unnamed ‘authority’ said the ‘official ale tester’, in his leather breeches, would ‘enter an inn unexpectedly, draw a glass of ale, pour it on a wooden bench, and then sit down in the little puddle he had made.’ After half an hour he would attempt to rise, and if his breeches had stuck to the bench the ale had too much sugar in it, and was thus impure, Hackwood claimed.

Yup, you read that correctly, he wrote that the ale-conner poured the beer on his chair and sat on it to determine if it was a good ale. This strange tale was repeated in other countries and persists even today in London, where ceremonial ale-conners continue as a City tradition, where they continue the story.

“First I taste the ales. Then a pint of ale is poured on a wooden bench and I have to sit down on it in the leather breeches that we wear especially for the occasion. After one minute I stand up. If ale does not stick to the breeches, it is not the right consistency. Afterwards I announce: ‘I proclaim this ale good quality. God save the Queen.’ And everyone proceeds to get merry. No pub has failed the test yet.”

Humorously, someone named Greg used Lego blocks to illustrate how this would work:
 

How To Be An Ale Conner

Are you fed up with cleaning up other people’s mess? Want a job that’s a bit less smelly? (and a bit more sticky!) Do you like drinking beer and wearing leather trousers? Then you should become an ale conner! These vignettes will teach you the basics…

1) Find a place that serves ale

2) Buy a pint of ale to test

3) Pour half the beer onto a wooden stool

4) Sit on the stool (and drink the rest of the ale!)

5) After 30 minutes stand up – if your leather trousers stick to the seat then the ale contains too much unfermented sugar. Fine the brewer (and confiscate the ale!)

Not surprisingly, testing beer by sitting on it all hogwash. I’m more amazed that anyone ever believed it. Cornell skewers this notion in his typical blazing fashion in Myth 3: Medieval ale-conners wore leather breeches and tested ale by pouring some on a wooden bench and then sitting in it and seeing if they stuck to the bench. Cornell expresses his own surprise over actually trying it far more wittily than I could. “Clearly your friends would think you were a couple of gallons short of the full firkin if you deliberately plonked yourself in a puddle of beer, ruining your trousers and the furniture at the same time, and I doubt the pub would be overwhelmed at your soaking its seats with liquid.”

Despite having never been true at all, the myth of the ale-conner “escaped into the wild,” and continues to be repeated endlessly. But it certainly makes for some hilarious Lego fun.

If you enjoy travel, you’ve likely heard of Rick Steves’ Europe travel series. His travel videos appear on most PBS stations. In today’s Seattle Times, Steves has a column extolling the virtues of Belgian Beer entitled Beer makes Belgium blossom. Nice to see a celebration of Belgian beer from so mainstream a source (and thanks to Doug for sending me the link).