Category Archives: Beer

Brewing Mildly

[This is one of my geekier posts, here. As a creative generalist, I typically “write for a general audience.” Whether or not I have an actual audience in mind, my default approach to blog writing is to write as generally as possible. But this post is about homebrewing. As these things go, it’s much easier to write when you assume that “people know what you’re talking about.” In this case, some basic things about all-grain brewing at home. Not that I’m using that obscure a terminology, here. But it’s a post which could leave some people behind, scratching their heads. If it’s your case, sorry. But, you know, “it’s my blog day and I’ll geek if I want to.” As for the verb tenses and reference to time, I’m writing much of this as I go along.]

So…

Generated a recipe for a Mild (11A) using BeerTools and posted it in their recipe library.

So Far (So Good)/Lo Five

That generated recipe is serving as the basis for two recipes I’m mashing right now (June 8, 2008). One, “So Far (So Good),” close to this generated one, is a single-step (infusion) mash with a simple grainbill, to be fermented with S-04 (so it’s “British style”). The other (“Lo Five”) is a multi-step mash with a more complex grainbill (added Carastan, Caramel 80, and chocolate). “Lo Five” is to be fermented with SS-05 (so it’s something of an “American style”).

I’ve copied the main details of this generated recipe in the standalone BeerTools Pro desktop application (version 1.5.9 beta, WinXP; also available on Mac OS X). I then tweaked that generated recipe a tiny bit to suit my needs for the “So Far.”

Here’s the version I used, before I started brewing:

So Far (So Good)

11-A Mild

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Size: 5,0 gal
Efficience: 75,0%
Atténuation: 75,0%
Calories: 114,99 kcal per 12,0 fl oz

Densité Initiale: 1,035 (1,030 – 1,038 )
|=================#==============|

Terminal Gravity: 1,009 (1,008 – 1,013)
|==========#=====================|

Couleur: 13,81 (12,0 – 25,0)
|==========#=====================|

Alcool: 3,41% (2,8% – 4,5%)
|=============#==================|

Amertume: 16,9 (10,0 – 25,0)
|===============#================|

Ingredients:

1,0 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04
2.5 kg 6-Row Brewers Malt
150 g Brown Malt
150 g Vienna Malt
150 g Munich TYPE I
200 g Special B – Caramel malt
0.5 oz Challenger (8,0%) – added during boil, boiled 90 min
11,0 g Strisselspalt (3,3%) – added during boil, boiled 10 min

Schedule:

Air ambiant: 70,0 °F
Source Water: 130,0 °F
Altitude: 0,0 m

00:13:00 MashinEaud Empâtage: 1,91 gal; Strike: 173,56 °F; Target: 158,0 °F
01:33:00 Sacc 1Rest: 80 min; Final: 158,0 °F
02:13:00 Fly SpargeSparge Volume: 4,0 gal; Sparge Temperature: 168,0 °F; Runoff: 3,48 gal

Notes

Trying for a relatively simple mild. May skip the Strisselspalt. Doing two similar recipes.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.9b

I then cloned that recipe and tweaked it a bit more to get my “Lo Five” recipe. Here’s the recipe I used before I started brewing:

Lo Five

11-A Mild

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Size: 5,0 gal
Efficience: 75,0%
Atténuation: 75,0%
Calories: 106,17 kcal per 12,0 fl oz

Densité Initiale: 1,032 (1,030 – 1,038 )
|============#===================|

Terminal Gravity: 1,008 (1,008 – 1,013)
|========#=======================|

Couleur: 17,05 (12,0 – 25,0)
|==============#=================|

Alcool: 3,15% (2,8% – 4,5%)
|===========#====================|

Amertume: 15,0 (10,0 – 25,0)
|=============#==================|

Ingredients:

1,0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05
2 kg 6-Row Brewers Malt
150 g Brown Malt
150 g Vienna Malt
150 g Munich TYPE I
200 g Special B – Caramel malt
105 g Light Carastan
125 g 2-Row Caramel Malt 80L
50 g 2-Row Chocolate Malt
0.5 oz Challenger (8,0%) – added during boil, boiled 90 min

Schedule:

Air ambiant: 70,0 °F
Source Water: 130,0 °F
Altitude: 0,0 m

00:03:00 MashinEaud Empâtage: 2,02 gal; Strike: 130,09 °F; Target: 122,0 °F
00:21:36 Ramp 1Heat: 18,6 min; Target: 150 °F
00:41:36 Sacc 1Rest: 20 min; Final: 150,0 °F
01:00:12 Ramp 2Heat: 18,6 min; Target: 158 °F
01:20:12 Sacc 2Rest: 20 min; Final: 158,0 °F
01:38:49 MashoutHeat: 18,6 min; Target: 170,0 °F
02:18:49 Fly SpargeSparge Volume: 3,72 gal; Sparge Temperature: 168,0 °F; Runoff: 3,23 gal

Notes

Trying for a relatively simple mild. May skip the Strisselspalt. Doing two similar recipes.

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.9b

On a whim (and because I just found out I had some), I switched the hops on the Lo Five to Crystal at 4.9% A.A. One half-ounce plug as first wort hopping, and another half-ounce pellet for the full boil. According to BeerTools Pro, t brings my bitterness level either below BJCP-sanctioned 10-25 IBUs for a Mild (11A) if I don’t add the boil time (FWH isn’t supposed to contribute much bitterness), or at two-thirds of the bitterness range if I add the full boil time.

The “brown malt” is actually some 6-row I roasted in a corn popper. The one in the “Lo Five” is darker (roasted longer) than the one in the “So Far.”

I’ve been having a hard time with the temperature for the “So Far.” I ended up doing a pseudo-decoction and adding some hot water to raise the temperature to something closer to even the low end of the optimal range for saccharification. This is the first batch I mash in a mashtun I got from friends in Austin. I used the strike temperature from the BeerTools Pro software (174F) but I hadn’t set the “heat capacity” and “heat transfer coefficient.” As I usually mash in my Bruheat, I rarely think about heat loss.

On the other hand, I largely overshot the strike temperature on the Lo Five. Two main reasons, AFAICT. One, the Bruheat I mashed the Lo Five in also served to preheat some sparge water, so it was still pretty hot. Second, the hot water from the sink was around 140F instead of 130F, as I had expected. In this case, overshooting the strike temperature wasn’t very problematic. The idea was to do a kind of protein rest, but that’s really not important, with the well-modified malts we all use.

Sparging the Lo Five’s mash was a real treat. Very smooth flow from HLT to MT to vessel. Plus, the smell of the Crystal hops in the first runnings was just fabulous. Because I “recirculate” during the mash, with my Bruheat, I didn’t have to recirculate, yet the runnings were quite clear. My sparge water was pretty much at the perfect temperature and I had just a bit extra sparge water (that I’m using in the So Far). I poured the liquid beneath the false bottom and it looked really nice. Rather clear and dark. After this, the grain bed was almost completely dry.

I did have to recirculate the So Far quite a bit. A good four litres, maybe even more. Still, it remains cloudier than most batches I’ve seen, possibly because some starches are remaining. I didn’t check conversion but I mashed long enough that I was assuming it was enough. Still, with a very low mash temperature, I may have needed an even longer mash. Actually, the mash is much cloudier than the runnings, which eventually became relatively clear.

May need to heat a bit of sparge water. Stopping the sparge in the meantime. A bit like a late mashout, it may help convert some of the remaining starch.

Oops! Was waiting for the Lo Five to boil. Thought it was taking a long time. Usually, the Bruheat gets to boiling pretty quickly. Eventually noticed that the element wasn’t running. The thermostat was still working (clicking sound when I reach the wort’s temperature) but I wasn’t hearing the sound of the element heating the wort. Unplugged the Bruheat, pressed the reset button, etc. Still wasn’t working. Was getting ready to try the clothes dryer to see if there was electricity coming through when I noticed it was in fact the dryer that I had plugged back, not the Bruheat.

Ah, well…

Ok…

One thing I found interesting is that when the wort was cooling off instead of heating up, the hop aroma wasn’t as pleasant as before. As the wort heated up, the pleasant profile from the Crystal came back as it was.

These are actually old hops, kept in a vacuum-sealed package. This specific package was a bit loose, as if the vacuum-seal hadn’t worked. I expected the hops to smell old. But they smelled really nice and fresh. Their colour is a bit off, but I trust their smell more than their colour.

Eventually got a rolling boil. Because of FWH, I didn’t skim the break material from the wort, which makes for a very different boil. In fact, when I added some of the runnings I had left on the side (to avoid a boilover), the effect was quite interesting.

Added back the rest of the runnings, waited to get a rolling boil again, then added the hops. Had to be careful not to get a boilover as the hops in the unskimmed wort created a lot of foam.

At the same time, I’m heating some sparge water for the So Far. Yes, once again. Guess I really under-evaluated how much sparge water I needed for this one. Strange.

It should be hot enough, now.

This time, I had let the top of the grain bed dry up a bit. This might not be so good. So I added enough water to cover the grain bed and I’ll wait a bit before I resume running off.

Overall, I’ve been much less careful with the “So Far” than with the “Lo Five.” My reasoning has to do with the fact that I perceive S-04 (Whitbread; PDF) to be a “stronger” yeast than the US-05 (PDF; aka US-56; the Sierra Nevada strain, apparently). For one thing, the optimal temperature range for the S-04 is somewhat higher than for the US-05: although Fermentis rates both at 15C to 24C, S-04 is known to sustain higher fermentation temperatures than most other strains (apart from some Belgian strains like Chouffe’s yeast). The flavour profile from S-04 also tends to be more estery than for the US-05, so it can increase the complexity of the finished beer and even cover up some small flaws. Plus, “Mighty S-04” is one of those strains which can be (and has been) used in open fermentation and continually repitched. A bit like “famously robust” Ringwood yeast. So, unlike a lager strain, this is not a yeast strain that Peter McAuslan would likely call “wimpy.” The “strength” of this strength is obvious in the fact that it ferments very vigorously and quickly.

Besides, I have a slurry of S-04 (graciously donated by a friend) and only a rehydrated pack of US-05. With more yeast comes a certain safety.

Another whim: I added a plug of Crystal to the “Lo Five” about two minutes before the end of boil. Shouldn’t get any bitterness from this, may get some flavour and, quite likely, some nice hop aroma.

So I was somewhat careless with the “So Far.” Conversely, I was rather careful with the “Lo Five.” Not more than for the typical homebrew batch, but more than with the “So Far.” At every step, I started with the “Lo Five” and let the “So Far” wait for its turn, when I wasn’t too busy with the “Lo Five.” For instance, I only started boiling the “So Far” when the “Lo Five” had been pitched. I didn’t even rinse the Bruheat after transfering the “Lo Five,” so the “So Far” started heating up with some hops from the “Lo Five.”

What I expect as a difference between the two is that the “Lo Five” will be rather clean and crisp while the “So Far” will be a chewier and grainier beer with some fruit notes.

More specifically, I’d like the “Lo Five” to have a clearly delineated malt profile and a perceivable hoppiness. in both nose and flavour. Though I wasn’t very specific about trying to emulate it, I guess my inspiration for that one was Three FloydsMild, as brewed for Legends of Notre Dame. That one was one of my favourite beers, from one of my favourite breweries, served at one of my favourites places. I don’t think “Lo Five” will be anywhere as tasty as that beer, but I was probably aiming for that kind of profile.

Tasting the “Lo Five” wort once it was cool, I thought it was decidedly bitter. Given the fact that this beer may finish rather low, it might be unbalanced. Typically, unfermented wort is sweeter than the finished beer so I’m assuming the bitterness might intensify. What’s somewhat sad is that a Mild can’t really age so it’s not like I’ll be able to wait for the bitterness to smoothen out.

Ah, well… We’ll see.

On the other hand, I seem to have overshot my OG. Not by much, and I probably had a reading error. Given how well the sparge went, it’d make sense that I overshot my efficiency (I usually get 75%-78%). But BeerTools Pro is giving me an efficiency of 92% which is pretty much not possible on a homebrew scale without pulverizing the grain (and leeching lots of tannins). At any rate, if the actual OG is higher than expected, it might balance the beer a bit.

Yes, clearly there’s a problem with my thermometer.

Just finished cleaning up (2:36, June 9, 2008). When I took the OG on the “So Far,” the wort was barely lukewarm yet the thermometer was indicating 120F. Using this temperature for hydrometer correction, the OG for the “So Far” would be exactly the same as that for the “Lo Five” (which seemed cooler). That would mean an efficiency of 83% which is not impossible but kind of high. In fact, the volume in the primary seems to be more than 5 gallons so the efficiency would go through the roof.

I did skip the Strisselspalt but the “So Far” was run through the hops from the “Lo Five” at knock-off. It was boiled about an hour, instead of 90 minutes.

Austin Bloggers

Been missing Montreal’s blogging community a bit but it sound like Austin also has something going on in terms of blogging.Met two local bloggers yesterday at the Austin Zealots‘ Roaming Happy Hour:  

 Not only am I able to add these guys’ blogs (and a few of their favorite blogs) to my own blogroll, but I get a better impression of what Austin’s blogging scene might be like.Of course, Austin has some Metrobloggers. It’s quite possible that these folks may meet occasionally, thereby providing the local blogger with a YulBlog-like experience. But it’s still more fun to meet bloggers with whom you share some interests (in this case, respect for craft beer).After all, it’s all part of the social butterfly effect.

Reviewing Austin

Been in Austin for ten days. Using Google Maps and Google Earth, had planned to go to some places in town, especially coffee and beer places.Currently sitting on the patio at Spider House, sipping a rather nice weizen from Live Oak Brewing. Coming in after spending time at Flipnotics, another patio-worthy café. Not that it’s so warm (13°C/55°F) but it’s fun to be on a patio in late December.  Been updating my map of “Places of interest in Austin.” Added a few things, changed the color of markers for places I’ve visited. Google Maps Some quick observations.

  • Still can’t help but compare with other places. Keep getting “flashes” from many different places. That’s probably what you get when you move 21 times in almost exactly seven years.
  • The city was quite empty, the last few days. Typical of a college town. Things seem much better today.
  • Good potential for a real coffee scene but, so far, the only two places where coffee was good were JP’s Java and Caffè Medici. These were the top two recommended places in Austin for coffee and espresso, on CoffeeGeek. Not disappointed with either place.
  • The beer scene is interesting, overall. Texas has very restrictive beer laws but Texas micros and brewpubs are doing interesting things. Will finally meet some members of the Zealots brewclub tonight. Should be fun to talk about beer. Some of my favorites so far, Real Ale RoggenbierUncle Billy’s Bitchin’ Camaro, and this here Live Oak Hefeweisse.
  • Maybe I just prefer pulled pork over beef brisket but, so far, I’ve had some really nice pulled pork and the beef brisket has been relatively uninteresting. Can’t wait until I start barbecuing on my own.
  • Someone said Austin was a slacker town. Not hard to believe. And it can be fun to be in a place where slacking is ok. For one thing, servers aren’t constantly harassing me to order drinks.
  • There seems to be something of a “town and gown” issue, here. Maybe not as much as in Bloomington. But still. It seems like students control part of the town (the cafés/bars) and “normal people” are found elsewhere. One big difference with Bloomington is that people of different ages do seem to mingle, to a certain extent. 
  • Though we’re luckily located in an ideal part of town for public transportation, Austin really is a car-city. The MidWest is already pretty intense in terms of car-emphasis, Austin is more car-oriented than I expected. For instance, car drivers pay no attention to pedestrians even when turning left while the “walking” light is on. And it might have more to do with the weather than anything else but there seems to be more SUVs and less bicycles than I’d see in the MidWest.
  • Public transportation is cheap and rather useful downtown. It seems not to work so well for anyone living at any distance from downtown. There are some free routes, a bus connects the airport with both UT and downtown, and the monthly pass is nice (10$ for 31 days, starting at any point).
  • Because the city is spread out, it does seem difficult to do things without a car. Haven’t really felt the need for a car yet and we’ve been lucky enough to get help from a car-owning friend last weekend. Yet a pedestrian lifestyle seems a bit difficult to sustain in Austin. At the same time, the downtown area is relatively small and weather is less of a problem at this point than it could be in Montreal. People keep telling us that the heat of the summer will surely force us to get a car with air conditioning. We’ll see.
  • Grocery stores are a bit difficult to get to but they seem rather interesting. By decreasing order of preference, so far: Central Market,  H-E-BWhole Foods. Whole Foods has a good selection for certain products, but it’s quite expensive. Central Market seems to have as good a selection for most things yet its prices are rather decent. At H-E-B, we were able to buy some things (produce especially) for much cheaper than what we might pay in Montreal (where food is very inexpensive). Even though it makes a lot of sense in terms of regional differences, it’s still funny to see that tomatoes or cranberries are much more expensive here than in Montreal while oranges and avocados are significantly cheaper. Overall, we’ll be finding ways not to spend too much on grocery.
  • On average, restaurants cost about the same thing as they would in small U.S. cities: less expensive than in Boston but more expensive than in Montreal. Unsurprisingly, Mexican and barbecue restaurants seem to offer the best “bang for the buck.” And there are some places for inexpensive all you can eat pizza. While it’s not the type of food the typical foodie would brag about, it’s nice to have the option.
  • Won’t say much about people’s attitudes because it easily gets me to go into “ethnographic fieldwork mode,” which isn’t what I want to do tonight. Let’s just say that it’s part of the adaptation.  Not “culture shock.” Just, getting to learn how to behave in a new city.
  • Despite the lack of snow and the scattered palm trees, it doesn’t so much feel like a Southern city. Maybe because most Austinites come from other parts of the country. Similarly, it doesn’t really feel like Texas. Maybe the town and gown division has something to do with this.
  • There are some nice things to look at but the overall visual aspect of the city isn’t necessarily made to impress. Maybe just my own biases but, to me, Austin looks more like South Bend, Moncton, or Springfield than like New Orleans, Boston, or Chicago.

Overall, an interesting experience so far. Can’t say I really got the pulse of the city, though.

Planning Austin

Been thinking about our upcoming move to Austin, TX. We’ll be there by mid-December.

Looks like our neighborhood, Bouldin Creek, will be an interesting one. It’s close to the (apparently trendy) SoCo area as well as downtown.

Been putting dots on a map for places of potential interest.

Google Maps

Zoom map

Of course, much of my interest focuses on coffee and beer, at this point. But I often find out that this type of focus is a great way to learn a new place.

Social Beer

As a reply to Liz Losh’s generous blogpost on my passion for beer and coffee culture(s).

virtualpolitik: Strange Brew

My tone is clearly much less formal than Losh’s. Hope it still fits and doesn’t bring down the quality standards expected from her blog.

Quoth Losh’s post:

Doesn’t consigning brewing of coffee and beer in private homes eliminate third spaces for social interactions with a cross-section of people and opportunities for discussions and debates? Isn’t it like putting yourself in a cul-de-sac with a garage door facing the street in that you aren’t participating with neighborhood businesses? Enkerli strongly disagreed, since beer-making involves large quantities, parties, and collective beer making sessions. He thought that it was a powerfully social activity and one that was often situated in specific neighborhoods.

Probably overstated my disagreement about eliminating third spaces. Was mostly trying to describe what I had observed from the beer and coffee world(s). Basically, wanted to emphasise that making coffee or beer at home is just one of several activities done by members of those networks. And those activities often push people to go and consume beer or coffee outside the home.

Actually, discussing this is helpful to me because it reinforces the point that what I’m observing has more to do with “craft beer culture” (or “culinary coffee culture”) than with homebrewing (or making coffee at home).

Haven’t tried to find out whether or not homebrewing and home coffee making might prevent meaningful interactions between coffee/beer geeks and “the rest of the (local) community.” Really, that’s not my type of work. My impression is that those DIY activities might have those “decreased participation” effects in some contexts but such effects haven’t been apparent to me on any occasion during the last few years of observing and participating in beer and coffee geekery.

To be clearer, and specifically focusing on (beer) homebrewers. Making beer at home has become a fairly common activity in North America since the 1980s (when the legal status of homebrewing in the United States was finally cleared up). But my focus isn’t beer making as an activity. It’s a social network which revolves around “handcrafted” beer. This is one network I have been connecting with for several years, now. And, IMHO, it’s the core of the so-called “craft beer revolution.”

Many people brew beer at home for purely financial reasons. While these are technically “home brewers,” they are not taking part in the social and cultural dynamics that I aim to eventually describe academically. In fact, while those “thrifty brewers” are known to the “beergeek” crowd, they are considered as complete outsiders to the “craft beer revolution.” Typically, those who brew for financial reasons use cans of hopped malt extract and dextrose powder to make beer. On the homebrewing side of the craft beer movement, all-grain brewing (making beer from scratch, with the malted barley, hops, yeast, and water) is the normative method.

I guess we could use terms like “casual,” “dedicated,” “careless,” “serious,” “extract,” and “advanced” to make distinctions between those types of “homebrewers.” But we’re talking about such different worlds here that emphasising these distinctions seems irrelevant. So, when I talk about “homebrewers,” I almost always mean “serious, dedicated, advanced brewers who care more about beer quality than about costs.”

(It’s quite interesting that, in OZ, the term “homebrewer” refers to people who make beer at home to save money while “craftbrewer” refers specifically to people who brew beer for “serious” reasons.)

The homebrewers I tend to talk about aren’t casual brewers, they often spend rather large amounts of money on beer and brewing equipment, they frequently send their beers to large competitions, and typically belong to brewing associations (“brewclubs”). In the United States, many of them are card-carrying members of the American Homebrewers Association. AHA membership gives them access to a rather “serious” technical magazine on brewing techniques (Zymurgy) and discounts at local brewpubs all over the United States (and some parts of Canada).

The typical brewclub has monthly meetings as well as a number of beer-related events. In large urban areas, brewclubs can have a very elaborate structure, with annual fees, bulk purchasing accounts, etc.

The keen observer with an eye toward folklore might notice that these sound like the “quilting bees” which were served as a way for North American women to unite and eventually form “grassroots movements.” Given Losh’s political bent, I feel compelled to note this similarity, even though I care fairly little about political involvement on the part of homebrewers.

Interesting that Losh should say that I teach “folklore and ethnomusicology” at Concordia. While I do teach a course in the anthropology of music which is, in fact, labeled “ethnomusicology,” the courses I’ve been teaching at different institutions in the past five years were all in anthropology. However, I did serve as an associate instructor for a large course in folkloristics at Indiana University for three semesters during part of my Ph.D. coursework at that institution. And I do consider “folklore” to be among my fields of specialisation.  Of course, Losh probably got her notion about my teaching from the fact that I’m finishing a Ph.D. at Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. 😉

Anyhoo…

Some brewclubs also serve as “beer appreciation” groups, similar to wine-tasting (and emphasizing the fact that beer is chemically more complex than wine). While beer-tasting can be a solitary activity, sampling beer with fellow homebrewers (and beergeeks) is common practise for serious beer-lovers. Perhaps more importantly, homebrewers frequently use a set of guidelines while tasting beer. These guidelines, from the Beer Judge Certification Program, often serve as a shared knowledge base for “beer literacy.” The BJCP’s main purpose is to train judges for homebrewing competitions. When I eventually do publish some academic work on craft beer culture, I’ll need to have a rather large section on the BJCP, competitions, and so on. Among homebrewers, I’m known as a vocal opponent to the BJCP guidelines. I do recognise, however, that they serve important functions in the context. (I simply happen to think that there is more to beer than evaluating it through set standards and I see the effects of the BJCP guidelines as broadening the gap between actual beer appreciation and the general public.)

One thing which was already clear to me when I gave a talk on craft beer culture at an surprisingly pleasant food and culture conference,  is that craft beer culture is geek culture. As geek ethnographer Jenny Cool was present during the conversation which triggered Losh’s reaction (Cool and Losh are friends), I actually wanted to steer the conversation toward the issue of geek sociability, using homebrewers as an example.

Homebrewing is social because geeking out is social

(To simplify things a whole lot, someone could say that “geeks” are something of the “somewhat sociable” equivalent of “nerds.” To caricature, the type of sociability involved is that of the stereotypical “basement hacker.” Some of “them” might in fact be antisocial human beings. But “they” become less unfriendly with like-minded people. Especially when “they” feel there is “smartness parity” in terms of intellectual prowess. Going on a limb, someone could say that what has been happening in the last thirty years, thanks to computer-mediated communication, is a steady increase in the opportunities for “basement hacker-type nerds” to interact with one another. These interactions might occasionally lead to meaningful social relationships. In the context of increased social capital given to computer-savvy people, geekness becomes almost cool and geeks are “more social” (according to a broader social group) than the “nerds” who had been stigmatised for so long.)

Homebrewing as an activity was facilitated by changes in its legal status (and by the alcohol regulations in general). Beer geekery is embedded in the increased prominence of online communication. Pre-Internet beer people were pretty much just “beer nerds.” Today’s beergeeks are almost all Internet-savvy and many beer-related activities happen through mailing-lists and websites. (Usenet newsgroups used to be fairly important but, since 1994 or so, mailing-lists and websites have pretty much taken over.)

As is the case with many other groups, online interactions give way to face-to-face interactions, friendships, and elaborate support systems. Meeting at brewpubs to sample beer and “talk shop,” beergeeks are bonding. And this type of bonding often creates strong… bonds. I personally have a large number of anecdotes which reveal the strength of the bonds among beergeeks. And, as a social scientist, I’m fascinated by the phenomenon.

Going back to Losh’s points(!), I might say that beergeeks are connecting more with broader social groups than the homebrewers she seems to have had in mind. Using the “think global, drink local” motto, beergeeks (including homebrewers) are situating themselves in complex social systems. They/we talk about important social and political issue.

And we do drink good beer.

Sniff It!

It’s probably the most distinctive sign of the beverage geek: the attentive sniff.

When you see someone taking a long sniff of a beverage (say, a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, or even a glass of milk), you just know that this person is an avid enthusiast of the sensory exploration that drinking can be. Of course, that person may also be wondering about some strange odour coming from that drink. But even that may be a step in the direction of beverage hedonism.  If the sniffer also looks intently at the beverage and takes a long time to concentrate on every sip, you know this person is a true geek. If that person also takes notes or even listens to the beverage, the geek meter should go off the charts.

Sure, much of it sounds really funny. And there’s often social pressure against this type of enjoyment, especially in cultural contexts linked with Calvinism or Puritanism.  Yet, there’s a lot to be said about experiencing a good beverage. Continue reading Sniff It!

Beer and Sophistication

I will certainly revisit this article on beer-related travel in the not-so-distant future.

Wine country too pricey? Try brewery hopping – CNN.com

As is often the case in the United States, beer is compared to wine on a scale of sophistication and snobbery. It would be quite different in Europe, but it does make sense.

I have a lot to say about this but it will have to wait.  Some quick notes, maybe…

  • Beer/wine as a gender divide
  • Beer travel and beer geekery
  • Beer knowledge and the geek crowd
  • Beer sophistication through diversity
  • Seasonal effects on media exposure for beer
  • Many shapes of “craft beer culture”
  • Beer and coffee
  • Craft beer marketing
  • Beer as a local product
  • Beer-related expenses (beer paraphernalia)
  • Regional tastes in the beer world
  • Social networking through beer-related travel
  • “Every major city has a brewpub” redefining inter-local networks
  • Beer and friendship
  • International beer travels
  • Beer imports
  • Beer diversity in experience

Food and Social Life

Short blog entry by Jacques Attali on statistics about shared meals in “Western Civilizations.”

Conversation avec Jacques Attali: Dînons ensemble

The main claim is that France is still at the top of the list of places where people do enjoy shared meals. Still, Attali does mention some of the realities hidden by those statistics.

Interestingly enough, several of the comments on this entry are about other parts of the world where food consumption is an important social activity, including parts of Asia and Africa.

To me, a basic part of ethnography has to do with groups formed at meals. In some cases, it might be a group of relatives considered as a “household” or “family unit.” In other contexts, meal sharers might consider themselves to be part of the same social group, as when all members of the same age-set eat together.

There’s also the shared consumption of non-nutritional items like tea and alcohol. Perhaps because of my passion for both coffee and beer, I find the process of having coffee or beer with someone else one of the most pleasurable experiences one can have. The complex aromas of those drinks do enhance the experience and the fact that their nutritional value isn’t the main point of their consumption makes the event less utilitarian than socially consequent.

No idea if there are statistics on shared consumption of drinks but they clearly represent an important domain for the study of social life.

Bottling Laws

Interesting piece in the  Hartford Advocate about bottling laws for brewpubs in Connecticut. (via BeerInfo)

It’d be very interesting to have this debate in Quebec. Quebec’s craft beer scene is very interesting and very unique, especially through Montreal’s brewpub and beerpub network. One issue is that brewpubs aren’t allowed to sell any beer for off-premises consumption. If brewpubs could sell beer off-premises, they could swap kegs from one brewpub to the next, to be served as guest beer. Because craft beer drinkers often care about diversity, this could be help the craft beer community as a whole.