Today’s Wilton Villager, serving the town of Wilton, Connecticut, reprinted an item from the Fort Worth/Dallas Star-Telegram. It’s a pretty basic twenty questions that tell readers about many of the basics of beer that the non-beer geek will likely be unfamiliar with. So while it’s old hat for even the most casual beer fans, it’s a great overview for the 95% of the population who don’t drink craft beer. The author, Daniel Cooper, even listed his sources, which included Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion, Real Beer and All About Beer. One of the first steps in conversion is education, so it’s great to see this making the syndication rounds.
Brent on Beer: Moylan’s, Jones & Albion Castle
My good friend, Brent Ainsworth — who sometimes writes for the Celebrator — is the Lifestyle Editor of the Marin I.J. and also writes a regular beer column, Brent on Beer. This week’s column is about Moylan’s adding fermenters to increase capacity 25% but the main story is the hiring of Denise Jones to help with the brewing while her new project in San Francisco has some legal wrangling and building issues worked out. Jones was the brewer at Third Street Aleworks for many years before leaving last year.
The new venture, Albion Castle Brewery & Caves, will be resurrecting a San Francisco brewery that dates from 1870. The Albion Brewery, also known as the Albion Ale and Porter Brewery, is a historic landmark located at India Basin Shoreline Park at Hunters Point. It closed in 1919 — yet another victim of Prohibition — but the caves underneath were still bottling spring water as last as the 1960s. The property was bought at auction by the Uzza Group on June 11, 2005. I hope the renovation comes together because it would be great to get back a piece of San Francisco brewing history like this.
Denise Jones with Ralph Woodall of HopUnion at this year’s GABF.
The abandoned Albion brewery in Hunter’s Point. There are also additional photos and history at the Albion Castle website.
Chow Down with These Holiday Beers
The food website Chow had an article recently on holiday beers by food and music writer Heather Shouse. It’s a nice beginner’s overview of the topic with an interview with Fritz Maytag and some history of holiday beers.
Brewing at John Harvard’s
Today’s Boston Globe online edition has an interesting photo essay of a day in the life of John Harvard brewer Maria Poulinas called “Try This Job: Craft Beer Brewer.” She brewes at the Framingham, Massachusetts brewpub.
BBC: Belgian Beer Coverage
BBC News had an article Thursday about beer in Belgium entitled “Belgian beer gets the travel bug.” The story begins with “For Belgians, beer is not merely a drink, but something of a national symbol.” Wouldn’t it be great if we could get to that point here?
Bay Area Holiday Beers Chronicled by English
The Friday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle had a beer article about holiday beers by spririts writer Camper English, who I met at the Anchor Christmas party on Thursday. At least English’s article wasn’t an embarrasment like the Chronicle’s last beer article fiasco. He at least did a thorough job and there were no gaffes. I’d still like to see beer assignments go to beer writers wherever possible, but this does represent a leap forward for the perennially wine-obsessed newspaper. English is also the author of the book Party Like a Rockstar: Even When You’re Poor as Dirt.
CNN Money Looks at Colorado Beer
Fortune Small Business writer Christopher S. Stewart has an interesting piece on CNN Money entitled “Small Breweries, Big Beer.” In the article, he travels to Colorado for a visit with Great Divide Brewing in Denver, Oskar Blues in Lyons and finally Avery Brewing in Boulder. For the last two stops, Paul Gatza from the Brewers Association joined him. All in all, not a bad piece.
Cooking with Beer
There’s a nice, short little article with some suggestions on cooking with beer this holiday season in today’s News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington. There’s nothing particularly new there, but it’s certainly nice to see the effort. Anything that helps spread the word of how well beer works with food is appreciated.
The Brewster of Salem
The term “brewster” for a female brewer was used as far back as 1308, according to my O.E.D., when it was common for beer to be made by the woman of the household. Like many early crafts, once the industrial revolution changed the way our society functioned, men generally took over as brewers with the rise of commercial breweries. There were, of course, many commercial beer ventures before that time, but it was the mid-1800s that sealed the fate for the majority of female brewers, and the term fell into disuse. I actually have always liked the word, and I know several women brewers who also prefer the term. Today, only about 10% of all brewers are female.
One of them is Jen Kent, who was named the brewer at Thompson Brewery & Public House in Salem, Oregon at the end of July. Thompson’s is part of McMenamins chain. According to a profile in today’s Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal newspaper, Kent is called “the brew goddess” by her fellow workers and customers. It’s a nice name too, and certainly implies more power than a brewster. Teri Fahrendorf is also quoted in the profile, though she’s referred to as “a respected elder,” a label I think she’d probably object to. I certainly don’t think of Teri as an elder, though I do have the utmost respect for her. All in an all, a pretty good article.
Jen Kent, brewster at McMenamins’ Thompson Brewery & Public House in Salem, Oregon.
(Photo by Andrea J. Wright, Statesman Journal)
Seasonally Inquiring Minds …
As pointed out to me by Lew Bryson, the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday had a fairly decent article on local winter seasonal beers along with a descriptive list of the beers profiled. It was written by Brian Rademaekers, a staff writer at the paper, proving it can be done well.