A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine informed me of a rather interesting game played by a few Swiss craft brewers: the Wortspiele (the wort game). The way this works is as follows:

1. Brewers get together to produce wort at a designated host brewery. 
2. Each of the participating players takes their share of wort home to finish off the beer. The  only requirement is each brewer must add yeast to ferment the wort. Other than that it is open to interpretation.
3. Brewers reassemble at the host brewery for a beer fest, dispensing their beers for some comparing and contrasting.

I went to the latest rendition of the Wortspiele, and it was one of the coolest beer fest’s I’ve seen.
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The host brewery this time around was Volta Bräu, which admittedly was the first time I’ve ever gone. In total, 18 breweries were present, although some were appearing as super-groups (for example, the Berner Supercollab was with five brewers). Plus, a few pouring were home brewers as well. For those curious, the breweries in attendance were:

• ​523, 4655 Brew Co., 7Peaks, Barfuss Brauerei, Berner Supercollabo (with Nine Brothers, BAF, Fjord & Fjell, Güschu 58, Les Garçons), Blackwell, Braukollektiv Freiburg, Degenbier, HeitereBräu, La Nébuleuse, Reinecke Bräu, Birrificio San Martino, Storm & Anchor Brewing Co., Tiboris, Trois Dames, Volta Bräu, WhiteFrontier,and the Wortspiele Organisatoren (Aabachbier, Bierversuche.ch, El Caballero Brewing)

​With one brewery pulling out due to fermentation issues.
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There were over 30 beers on tap, with an average alcohol around 6.6%. The range of beers on tap was wild, from white ipas and berliner weisses to raw ales. Apparently, there was also a deconstructed hefeweizen, but sold out by the time I got there. No idea how the brewery (523) pulled it off. But from what I can tell, they freeze-dried banana and cloves, and put that in an (I imagine) plain tasting wort. 

It’s tough to call a favorite, as I was more excited by the breadth of samples from just one wort. The raw ale, titled Dill is the New Citra, was flavored with dill and spirulina, and well, tasted like pickle juice. For the amount I had, it was spot-on refreshing.

Another crowd favorite was a chocolate honey stout, which was a great tasting beer. Oddly enough, it tasted like a chocolate coconut porter but had no coconut within.

If you’re curious as to what other beers were available (as there’s far too many to list here), head on over to the facebook event here -> wortspiele (You'll have to scroll through the discussion a bit, but they're there.).
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​I’ve heard that if you win a particular brew competition, you’re invited to play. I'm gonna have to enter that, as this was one of my favorite beer fests, and now I’m even more excited to learn about the Swiss craft beer scene!

The kind folks over at Jacqui Small asked me to have a gander at the new edition of World’s Best Beers: 1000 Unmissable Brews from Portland to Prague. Since Jacqui Small has put out a few books from Pete Brown and Mikkeller, I couldn’t say no. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that JS is a part of the Quarto Group, whose published books from Boak & Bailey and Sam Calagione. So from the get go I’m anticipating this book to be worthwhile.

​The Thinking Drinkers is a duo columnist/comedy group that put out articles in multiple publications, like The Daily Telegraph, The Spectator and The Guardian. Ben McFarland is an awarded beer writer (three time winner of the Best Beer Writer award in Britain) and Tom Sandham was the editor of CLASS, a cocktail magazine, and lectures on spirits for the Wine & Spirits Education Trust.

Alright well the credentials are impressive enough, let’s jump in!

Full disclosure: I’m a sucker for hardback, and this one is rather nice. Plus they have a few of my favorite beers on the cover. Bonus points: having Blind Pig on the cover instead of Pliny the Elder. For those who are unaware, Blind Pig is the predecessor to the White-whale Pliny, and honestly a bit better.

The photography in this book is also quite nice, so even if you’d buy this book for a friend, at least you have the pictures to interest you.

After the typical introduction of ‘tired of macro-lager, we discovered craft beer and sought the world over for the best brews’, the book surprisingly has a section dedicated to the history of beer. Thankfully too, they don’t have any misquotes, misconseptions, or false statements. The book offers a good gist of what it’s all about without going into too much detail, so I applaud them for that. 

The book then gives an overview of the basics: ingredients, how the stuff is made, how to properly store it, pour it, and drink it, and the right glassware. They then group styles into families (if I may be allowed to borrow from biological taxonomy). These are: 

• Grains ( porters, stouts, saisons, etc.), 
• Hops (Ambers, IPAs, Pales, etc.), 
• Lager (Bocks, Pilsners, Schwarzbiers, etc.),
• Quench (Altbier, bitters koelschs etc)
• Sippers (Imperial stouts, barley wine, belgians etc.)
• Wild & Wood (Flemish Red, Gose, Gueze, etc)

Using these to categorize how they taste beer, they jump into the meat of this book: the best 1000 beers of the world. 
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​I will reserve my judgements only to those countries and regions that I’ve had experience in, as it would be completely unfair for me to review or criticize South African beers, as to my knowledge, I’ve never had one. 

Still, looking into the countries I know (CH, DE, PL, US, UK) I am surprised that it’s all in there. Really. All the major influential beers have a dedicated spot. The well known, and even the rare beers are all highlighted in this book. Flipping through, there are a few where I think a brewery deserved a shout out but that's just a personal choice. What’s most impressive is there are breweries that opened up in 2015/2016 that are in the book. So the list is undoubtedly a great source for anyone looking to travel somewhere for beer.
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The book ends with a chapter on food pairings. This isn’t my forte, as I drink porters and stouts year round. Chances are, I’m more concentrating on the beer than I am with my food. Still, there is a section on beer and cheese, and beer + cheese always wins.

Personally I think this is a great book for those just starting to get into craft beer. Not only does this book list plenty of good beers, but also the beers that started something. It educates on what’s been going on these past years in the world of beer, and why people should pay attention. 

There’s shout outs to craft beer scenes that deserve recognition. I’m totally stoked that the lesser known places who have good beer are on the list. I’ll definitely use this book if I can ever get over to Argentina, Peru, or even Cambodia.

Also, hats off to the style guidelines. For those who aren’t to keen or are too intimidated by the overreaching amount of beer styles out there, I think categorizing beers into what they focus on (so grain, hop, sipping, or quenching) is a great idea. One I hope that gets adopted elsewhere.

The authors rightly acknowledge that had someone else come up with a list, it would look totally different. This attitude highlights that this isn’t supposed to be taken as dogma, but to be used to excite people about beer. There’s a whole world out there, so get drinking!

Ok, I have three major beefs with this book. 

First off, early on they list the top ten beer towns of the world. In a book with recommendations of 1000s beers, this isn’t a simple task. But they chose Portland over San Diego as the West Coast spot, and that I cannot abide by.

In the section of West Coast beers, there are more California breweries listed than Portland, and the two West Coast brewery profiles are Californian. I don’t know why Portland always gets listed above San Diego, but I don’t find it to be deserved. Portland’s beer scene rules, and I’ll always call a black IPA a Cascadian dark ale, but San Diego first and foremost.

Second, Bamberg is on that list. I’ve never been more ‘meh’ about a beer scene. If you’re into cranky Germans who don’t like foreigners though, by all means.

Third, Switzerland. The world seems to like to ignore Switzerland, and in the book’s section about der Schweiz, it references a cuckoo clock. This is a tired old adage which I just don't understand. Cuckoo clocks are German, not Swiss. They then say Appenzell (a town in Eastern Switzerland) is a spot where cows outnumber people 15,000 to 1. I know this is a lighthearted book, but that’s just silly. Most importantly though, of a country that has over 800 active breweries, 36 brewpubs, and 42 gypsy breweries, only featuring six is a bit of a let down.

​I know Switzerland isn’t a major destination, but it deserves more than that. But the profiled brewery of Switzerland, Brauerei Locher, is a surprisingly good traditional brewery. So there’s that, at least.
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​This book isn’t for me, or at least I’d be damned surprised if I was the target audience. But I think it would be a great book for those just starting out, or for those who have a mild curiosity about what all this beer stuff is about. There has been some very thorough research into the country profiles, and I am impressed that they were able to get it so right for so many places. Reading the UK list of beers had me wanting to move back, and seeing the Amsterdam list gave me full on vacation flashbacks. 

As the author’s acknowledge in the beginning though, this is all just opinions. My opinion is that it’s worth a buy, so long as you know what you’re going to get: a list of some of the best beers in the world.

Walking down a random farm road on the outskirts of Zurich, we came upon a small barn with the smell of smoke wafting through the air. We arrived around 6:30 pm to a well attended beer fest, a band setting up gear, and the delightful (at least to some) smell of a pig roast. There were eighteen breweries in attendance, three of which were Danish (if WarPigs counts solely as Danish).

We showed our tickets, received our tokens and festival branded Teku glasses and headed straight for some beers. 

(If I may have a get-off-my-lawn type side-rant, why all the Teku glasses, Europe?)

I was thoroughly impressed by the variety of beer available, from your standard IPAs and Stouts to table beer, pumpkin spiced beers (a rarity, I’ve come to find), and sours. All the breweries in attendance had at least three beers available to try. None of which were only IPAs or pale ales.

Every brewery on the scene was dishing out a variety of styles. If I’m to be honest, beer fests in Berlin were typically only IPAs and Pale Ales, so this beer fest was a breath of fresh air. I don’t mean to offend, but already the Swiss beer scene seems more healthy than some.

Frontrunners were for us the table beer from Blackwell (a close contendor for my favorite Swiss brewery), the aforementioned pumpkin spice beer from the Bier Factory, and a coconut porter by Broken City Brewing. Just a small curiosity I noticed, all of my Swiss beer drinking friends seem to reach for porters and stouts. Anyway, for me personally, the sour beers available from Brasserie Trois Dames and BFM were stellar (a sour red and a gose, and a saison respectively). 

New evidence sheds light onto the case of Paeonian beers, as previous efforts to faithfully recreate the style couldn't exactly pinpoint certain ingredients. Be sure to follow this mini-series from the good folks over at BCS!
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Furthering his research into whiskey from Pennsylvania.

"This whiskey preceded rye distilling over the mountains in the southwest section, from Bedford to Greene counties as well as Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. It was the latter distilling, especially along the Monongahela river, that became known as Monongahela rye whiskey and acquired fame throughout the U.S. and beyond."
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Calling into question whether Jim Koch is really good for craft beer, by overviewing his role within Boston Beer Company.

" I doubt you'd find anyone who would seriously argue he wasn't the best businessman in beer over the first three decades of his company's life. But good for craft beer? Committed to a "craft ethos" (whatever that is)? Cares only about beer? These claims aren't as straightforward as they seem."

In honor of the anniversary of his death, here is a nice collection of stories from those who encountered the legendary beer writer Michael Jackson, and whether or not he really mattered (spoiler: he did).

Some highlights of recent research efforts into an online newspaper database, covering a few court cases involving microbreweries fighting the 'big guys'.
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A brief article about residue analysis of Copper-Age pottery jars in Sicily. For those wanting something more in depth: this links to the original scientific publication.
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A book review centered around John Hauk, a local beer barron in Cincinnati.
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Looks like there's a makgeolli festival in Korea, honoring the history and brewing traditions of the rice brew. Turns out, there's also a homebrewing school that teaches you how to make the yeast culture to properly brew the stuff. Now I really need to go to Korea!

Slow happenings this week, it seems.
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A late 60's wine menu from Casa del Sol, with some wine history to boot!

An event to show off the hop growing history of Otsego County, New York.

The history of a brewery from ​Massachusetts.

Attempts to recreate the diet of 17th-century sailors to determine their nutritional value.
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Early Greco-Roman words for beer from your translation of the week!

Continuing research into the American influence on the Whisky industry in early Canada and how an influx of British immigrants easily adopted to the 'New World' ways of life.

A snippit of racism and fascism present within the brewing industry (Now I'm really never drinking  a Coors, on the rare off chance Im offered one).

Efforts are now underway to preserve and archive the craft beer history of San Diego.
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A nice collection of old brewing and brewery photos from Cleveland.
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My apologies, this one slipped through the cracks, and I feel its too important to let it slide! 

"As both Bennett and Hester have argued, it is hard to know whether alewives were accused of being witches because they were alewives or due to their poor social position-little extant evidence remains to be able to discern this without a doubt. However, what is very clear, is that both the language used to describe alewives and accused witches, and the socio-economic position of the two groups, is remarkably similar, as we have seen."
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A new recipe book is out from Ron Pattinson!

Chronicaling the downfall and subsequent revival of the 10-sided mug from Britain.
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Your translation for the week! This time, Plutarch mentions (albeit in passing) how beer can be used to soften ivory.
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An analysis of last year's paper from Gallone et al. on the genetic history of yeast.
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Further research into the term 'steam', and its common usage during the 1800s.

An interesting look into how Alewives might have aided into the development of the iconic 'witch' image. 
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A history of the coaching inns of Britain.
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A new book from the good folks over at Boak & Bailey is up for pre-sale!

Your weekly Greco-Roman beer-themed translation for the week!
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"“Pioneer Inns and Taverns” is a landmark five-volume work published by the Canadian historian Edwin C. Guillet (1898-1975), a native of Cobourg, ON. His ancestors arrived in Upper Canada in the early 1800s from Jersey. Mr. Guillet was of distant French Huguenot origin. He claimed in fact a blood connection to another distant son of Jersey and writer, Henry David Thoreau."
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A look into porter and stout recipes from the Reid Brewery in 1845.

Beersmith podcast interview with Dr. Patrick McGovern!

An investigation of Seipp, his wealth, and how he used brewing to build a Victorian mansion.
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A brief history of rum!

Another story about a German migrant who gained fortune through brewing.
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Efforts of a local univerity library to document the history of brewing in Greensboro, from 1890 up to the craft beer movement.
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Translation from the writing's of Strabo reveal how the people of Liguria drank a barley beer!
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An update to the Brewing Nordic website and how they plan to brew gruits with bog myrtle come August.

Ron Pattinson has the dream of putting on a historic lager festival! A festival I could get behind. Hope it will happen!
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Analyzing what Shakespeare meant by the phrase “He shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer’s hammer, come off and on swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer’s bucket”.

A thorough argument stating that the boom of whisky in the country is rooted to the immigration of Americans who settled in Upper Canada.

A recently published paper on improving methods used to detect food within the archaeological record.
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The history of brewing in Idaho, including bakeries that were attached to brewhouses.

Seeing as Switzerland is my new home, this article was particularly interesting to me. 

"Dr Francesco Carrer, from Newcastle University, said: "This evidence sheds new light on life in prehistoric alpine communities, and on their relationship with the extreme high altitudes. People travelling across the alpine passes were carrying food for their journey, like current hikers do. This new research contributed to understanding which food they considered the most suitable for their trips across the Alps."

The folks over at Lost Lagers have started a homebrew class focusing on historic brews!

A look at 'The Original' periodical, where author Thomas Walker recommended which types of beers to drink during your meal.

A translation of Strabo's work about grain usage by the Gauls.
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A look into the Danziger Jopenbier style, a spontaneously fermented, low-level alcoholic brew from Germany.

As I am sure it is to no major surprise to anyone, Dr. Patrick McGovern has released a new book, at least according to the plethora of articles about this new book. Not sure how it differentiates from his previous work, but it certainly will promote the brewing archaeology field! And, perhaps, more funding (which it really needs).

A nice write up on brewing in Mesopotamia.
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Apparently, the famous explorer James Cook brewed a mean Spruce ale.
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On the history of distilled spirits.
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Off Color Brewing teamed up with the Field Museum to brew a beer based off an ancient Chinese recipe.

Your weekly translations, this time about the Vindolanda tablets! 
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Continuing research into 1920's German brewing.

More discussion on whether it's possible to make beer from unmalted grain.
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A brief look into how IPAs have evolved over time, and how we should create subcategories for the popular style.
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An interesting examination of the predecessor to the porter style.

"In the past, I’ve drawn attention to the fact that there were thread variants apart from the well-known “three threads”, a London beer type of the early 1700s. Three threads, aka three thirds, was a mixed beer which preceded porter and for which porter emerged after 1720, or IMO, as a substitute. There were two threads, three threads, four threads, and six threads, at least, and apparently also, single thread."
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Research into why we use micro instead of mini to describe independent brewers.
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 I just moved to Switzerland.
 
Overall this is a good change of scenery, both for me and my now fiance (I’m also getting married), despite the fact we had no choice…

Backstory time: Some of you may have noticed that my posting has dropped off as of late - my last post was at the end of February. Not how I intended to start this year. Seeing that it is now July, and I already missed my one year anniversary, I had a look back at the progress I had done, and these past two months have not been pretty.

In an effort to clear my head – plus I hate being vague online - I figured it would be good to post what has been going on behind the screen.
 
I have been pulling massive overtime for the past four months in an area I was forced into. The joys of working at a startup. I was initially brought on to write articles on current topics within biotechnology. Then, due to a push for the company’s A-round funding, I was told to make sales calls. On the few days I had a normal 8.5h working day, I was just too exhausted to research anything. To top it off, when things were starting to look like I would go back to writing articles, the content department was shut down. So I was no longer needed. 

Then the panic really set in. Being an expat and all, joblessness has the added bonus of being kicked out of the country. My visa and job were expiring, and the small window I had to get everything in order was quickly closing. I could have tried to find another job here in Berlin, but since I’m foreign, most employers don’t want to go through the paperwork. This would need much more time than I had. 

Right! So I know I have been on and off with the blogging, the cause of which will be laid out in a further post. I also went back home to show the lady friend around California. Given the copious amounts of drinking and jet lag, I couldn't really post too much. So, let's catch up on what we missed! ​

Using a passage from 1757 on the adulteration of Porter to reflect on the current state of craft beer, via A Good Beer Blog.

"That brewery, founded 1888 and always very small, closed in 1985. Despite its size and obscurity, or perhaps because of it, the brewery was purchased in 1982 by another small, northern brewery, Vaux of Sunderland, England, a story unto itself." Via Beer et seq.
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"Most of the world's dominant mass-market brands promote their historical importance as a matter of PR, but we needn't accept it at face value." Via Beervana.
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A case of a brewery re-blending their beer for resale. Via Boak & Bailey.
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Your translations for the week brought to you by Brewing Classical!
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A look into brewery names and beer styles being produced in Oregon before prohibition. Via the Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives . Be sure to give their Feminism and the Beer Industry a read as well!
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A look into Majority Ale via Shut up about Barclay Perkins.
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A quick tour of an Arak distillery, Via World of Booze
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An exhibit on African Beer vessels! Yet another reason I need to visit Colorado.
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A history of SABMiller and its recent acquisition by AB InBev.
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Lightning Round!
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...whew

A look into how marketeers used the term aftertaste for their branding and how the term couples with the so-called Evans Ale in the 1930s.

"Those who know the beer palate well generally like a good aftertaste including one where the hop resins are telling. Yet, humans are conditioned not to like bitter tastes, probably because many poisons are bitter, so bitterness in beer has long been a challenge for brewers and marketers who, after all, need a larger market to survive. "
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Your weekly translations for the week! This time about another group of millet and barley beer drinkers, the Pannonians.

The good folks over at Boak & Bailey have begun a Patreon page! They do some good research into the pubs of England, so please support if you can!
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A translation of Grenell's publication on the Gose-style from 1907.
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A brief look into the history of the Dark 'n Stormy cocktail.

"When the seamen and women retire from the Royal Naval Dockyard for an evening drink, the beverage they'll most likely have in hand is the Dark 'n' Stormy, the unofficial drink of Bermuda and of the global boating and sailing community."
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Efforts to promote the study of Sake in Japan.
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First time I heard about so-called 'city beer'. Will have to look into this more!

"Brewing in Louisiana, as it was everywhere in America, was mainly created in personal homes and city taverns. The first beers were “city beers”, beer that had such a short shelf life it couldn’t be sold outside the city. Lagers were too difficult to produce in our climate and lack of ingredient access, so city beers were created and sweetened with local molasses. "
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A collaboration event between a brewery in Asheville, N.C. and Ron Pattinson of Shut Up About Barclay Perkins fame. 

A prohibition era lager is to be brewed for its would-be 160th anniversary.

"“This beer has a real history,” Holcomb. “It was the first manufacturing company in Minneapolis. It was the first to patent malt liquor in the U.S. It was one of just three breweries to supply beer to the U.S. Army in World War II."
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A look into early attempts to market beer towards women.

"So the company shrank the can size from 12 to 8 ounces. The cans were packaged in sets of four, or “Princess Paks.” Using marketing language that would make Peggy Olson of “Mad Men” cringe, the beer was labeled “beerette” and “bitter-free” and “calorie-controlled.”"
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Recent discovery of rectangular structures covered in soot suggests a malting facility was discovered in Lincoln.

"But what were they used for? One clue is in the smoke-blackened floor and flue (gap in the stones) on one side: the likely explanation is that hot air from a fire passed into this space, gently warming a wooden floor above, and that the buildings were malt kilns, where barley was turned slowly into malt, to be brewed into beer."
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Missed this one by accident, sorry about that!

The folks over at Lost Lagers brewed up a historical cream ale local to Florida for a recent fundraising event.

"Hubner and Falco got together at last April's Craft Beer Conference in D.C. Falco wanted to brew a historical beer. They decided to revive the old recipe for a fundraising event on May 7 at Lincoln's Beard for the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing World War II veterans to see the national monuments in D.C."

An awesome homebrew experiment that tested whether spent grains could be used to ferment future batches of beer.
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A look into the history behind Brooklyn lager.

"To read this morning the beer was in fact inspired by a c. 1900 brewing log makes perfect sense, everything ties together. I had been aware that Sam Adams lager was inspired by a 19th century recipe, and broadly it shows the traits the research disclosed, but I hadn’t known that Brooklyn brewery’s lager had similar roots."

Be sure to catch some new publications from Beer et seq. in the new Brewery History!
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A nice overview of the recent works at Gobekli Tepe and their implications to brewings' role in the development of agriculture.
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A brewery in Athens is set to revive a recipe developed in the early 1900s, thanks to the efforts of the original brewer's grandson.

Efforts to bulldoze an old malting facility by MillerCoors was put on hold by the local city council.

A new book outlining beer and brewing in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Excerpts from a book about the state of the English beer industry in 1966.

"All the successful beers launched on a national scale in the ten years following the last war, whether pale in colour or dark, were sweeter rather than drier. Now, some twenty years later, the situation is changing again, and full-drinking bitter beers, both in bottle and in cask, are returning to prominence. "
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A brief look into Bert Grant, the man who opened the first brewpub in the US since prohibition.

"I have not read as widely about Bert Grant as I hope to soon but it is so nice to read that he was a bit weird, maybe uppiddy and a touch disagreeable. We are all so quick to praise and beatify to the point of blandification that coming across the mere human in craft is becoming sadly rare."
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Your translation for the week! This time, an excerpt from Aulus Cornelius Celsus.
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Another log in Lars Garshol's many travels throughout Scandinavia searching for farmhouse ales. 

"They call themselves Dånnåbakken Såinnhuslag, the group of 4-5 brewers and malters who share one brewery and malt kiln. From the outside the house looks like someone's home, except it's too small and doesn't have enough windows. Inside, the malting part of the house is bare and functional, but the brewery is more homely, with a kitchen and a table for gatherings"
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A great piece on the Pulque revival in Mexico!

"For centuries (or perhaps longer), pulque was not just prized, it was sacred, its consumption restricted to the holy and the wise. The Aztecs knew it as the Drink of the Gods or centzontotochin—literally “400 rabbits,” so called for the 400 different people you could become under its influence—and associated it closely with Mayahuel, the goddess of fertility and embodiment of the agave plant, or maguey."

A book released this last Tuesday on the oldest operating pub in New York.

A podcast from the Beervana blog about the history of the American IPA.

"​In the latest Beervana podcast, Jeff Alworth and Patrick Emerson recount a history of the American IPA. They begin with the birth of the style in England and disprove a few myths before tracing the style’s evolution in America. With the stage set, the two time travel through 35 years of IPAs by tasting classics from three distinct eras."

I unfortunately had to miss the roundup last week, but one post that is definitely worth a read is - 
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A look at how anti-immigration policies lead to the eventual riot of German neighborhoods in Chicago.

"German neighborhoods reacted quickly, accusing Boone of stripping their rights and marginalizing them based on their ethnicity. The backlash started peacefully—Germans held public meetings and submitted numerous petitions. The city rejected them all."

My apologies for missing the past few weeks! Anyway, lets jump right back into it with some history links:

A look into early wine and cheese pairings. 

"With hundreds of attendees, the Wine and Food Society’s wine and cheese tastings had become sophisticated affairs. I’d think tickets were sold to the public. It seems unlikely, although possible, that the Society counted that many members at the time. Perhaps a current analogy is the whiskey festivals which occur regularly in large Western cities."
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Your BCS translation for the week! This time, one of the earliest references to barley and wheat by the Greeks.
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A study on working-class life in 70's era Britain, featuring the Black Horse pub.

"​Over the course of the book we learn that the downstairs of The Black Horse was converted into a disco but then, with rumours of sex and drug use among the teenagers, tensions arose and the estate elders withdrew their support. The pub was then systematically wrecked and then burned down in what the authors describe as a ‘professional job’."
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The Pop Culture Conference 2017 was recently held, and they have decided to hold another session on Beer Culture. The folks over at OHBA have done a fantastic job summarizing the different talks that were held, so it's a bit hard to pin down which session to link to, so be sure to check it all out!
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A recipe to brew Berliner Weisse according to Grenell.
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A great summary on brewing in Mesopotamia.

"As in many (perhaps most) other societies, both past and present, beer occupied an ambiguous position in the Mesopotamian social world. It was consumed and enjoyed by many people on a regular basis, but there was also a fine line between enjoyment and overindulgence, between acceptable and unacceptable levels of inebriation. The tavern, in particular, provided a distinct space within which this line (and others) could be crossed. The very existence of this conflicted stance toward beer and its potential effects provides some indication of the power of beer and its unique capacity to transform individual people, groups of people, places, and occasions."

Same as above, but replace Mesopotamia with China.

A print of an old punch recipe which is giving me strong rum cravings...

"A Washington, D.C. newspaper in 1903 gives a recipe for Planter’s Punch which is both simple and very good. This has to be one of the older references to the drink in the U.S., perhaps the oldest."
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A reference to Thracian beer from the play Lycurgus.

"Although beer was rife with such additions in antiquity, it is unclear what and when the additions were added to beer according to Thracian beer culture."
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The story of David Pollard, one of Britain's first-wave microbrewer.
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A dig into some records concerning cream ale, and what it really means.

"If style can be applied to the concept at all, cream ales at best probably represented styles. They were not a response to pilsners as they predate Gillig and were in mass production happily in their own right though the mid- and latter 1800s."
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But they're really important, at least to brewing history. This is a look into taxes around the 1870s.
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For those out in Oregon, there is an exhibit coming up on May 3rd which explores minority land ownership, featuring a talk from the OHBA!

The oldest pub in Devizes will be celebrating its 450th anniversary with a special beer on March 30th - April 1st.
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Antimicrobial properties of the starter culture for the indigenous brew Tchoukoutou.
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A quick how-to video on making prehistoric pottery.
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Boak & Bailey review a book from 1965 which details how to properly care for a pub.

"He opens the book with what we now recognise as the traditional ‘Abandon All Hope’ warning:

So you fancy entering the Licensed Trade? You have thought it over and made up your mind that serving drinks to an unappreciative and sometimes downright rude public is just the life for you? … To make a real success of Barmanship you have got to like it… From the customer’s side of the bar some very strange ideas prevail about the ‘wonderful life’ behind the bar. These often stem from semi-alcoholics who think it must be heaven to be surrounded by unlimited drink."

An ad from the Jewish Daily News from November 1916 promoting Wiedenmayer's Imperial Cream Ale.
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Brewing Classical Styles taste their millet beer they brewed a few weeks back! Also be sure to check out their weekly translation, this time from Athenaeus's Deipnosophists.

The wine and liquor merchant from New Haven, Mr. Hugh J. Reynolds, and his fight against calling neutral spirits Whiskey.

"And so, a local paper devoted many column inches in 1911 to Reynolds’ opinions on the now-resolved whiskey labelling question. In summary, he approved of long aging of straight whiskey, not even four years (a modern industry standard), but between 10 and 12 years."
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An attempt to find the first brewpub to open in the US in Yakima, Washington.

A brief look into the brewing industry of London.

"Assuming two bushels of malt to a barrel of beer, I calculate that in 1859 around  3.9 million barrels were brewed in London, an average of around 26,000 barrels per brewery. In total, 19,152,564 barrels were brewed in the UK in 1859*, leaving around 15.3 million barrels brewed outside London. Dividing that by the 38,976 brewers outside London gives an average of just 392 barrels per brewery. Clearly brewing in London was on a much grander scale."
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From April 6 to June 3, the Scottish Brewing Archive Association is putting on an exhibit on the history of brewing in Musselburgh.
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Theresa McCulla  begins her trip through the US researching American brewing history.

"Embarking on a research trip is always an exciting time for a historian, but this trip is especially important to me because it's the first one I'm making as brewing historian for the Smithsonian's Brewing History Initiative. I'll be on the road in northern California conducting oral histories with brewers, touring their operations, and delving into storage rooms to identify objects for possible future collection."
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(I never thought I'd link to a Daily Mail article) Recently, researchers uncovered three beers which were stored in a brewery cellar around World War I. According to the sensory analysis team, the flavors ranged from fecal to fruity.

Apparently I need to go to Serbia.

"Beer has been steadily gaining in popularity in Serbia and two new beer museums have opened in the last few years alone. A third is set to open in 2018."

A more in depth look into Cyperos (Tiger nuts) and its uses.
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Lars recounts his visit to the såinnhus (malt house), where he gets to sample more raw ale.

"He takes us to see the malt kiln. It looks exactly like the other ones I've seen. The process is also the usual one: first steeping the barley, then sprouting it in the wooden box that lies on top of the kiln, and finally drying on the wooden boards on top of the kiln. He says the distance from the fireplace (kjerringa) up to the planks is important, in order to get the right temperature without setting fire to the planks. Because the drying lasts several days the risk of fire is very real, and it's necessary to always keep an eye on the process. Svein says that if the wooden boards start making a creaking sound that means you're approaching the danger zone and need to reduce the fire."
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An account of a barman who ran a hotel saloon in the 1930s.

"Leonard recalled his father’s hotel and saloon in Morley, a small crossing a few miles from Potsdam. This was the late 1860s, when he was a teenager.

The account is full of colour and recalled a time when beer and liquor were usual incidents of small town life, part of running a hotel which served varied meals and hosted many special gatherings fondly evoked by Leonard."
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Brief descriptions of historic top fermented beers from Germany.
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An article from the 1940's reveal the life of the barmaid.

"She went on to detail the various ways barmaids in London pubs compensate themselves for their miserable lot, namely ‘fiddling’.

‘Go on with you,’ said the barmaid. ‘You know what fiddling is, making a bit on the side.’ She gave a mascara wink."
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A brief look into the history of brewing in Sacramento, California.

"1849 – A brewery and distillery begin operation at Sutter’s Fort and run for two years, catering largely to parched gold miners.

1849 – Peter Cadel (his name is also spelled Kadell) opens Galena Brewery, the city’s first commercial brewery, at 28th and M streets about 100 yards from Sutter’s Fort. The first beers were brewed and sold for 25 cents a glass (about $10 today). This marked the start of the first boom in local brewing, with a dozen or more breweries opening between 1849 and 1865."

Recent attempts of organic residue analyses on thirteen samples from eleven amphorae found in Southern Italy in order to see what was inside.

The 100-year push for Prohibition in Nova Scotia.

"From a religious base, the movement transformed to a political and popular one, which legislators ignored at their peril. The idea was to re-make society bolus-bolus, re-engineer it to banish the evils associated with drink such as poverty, domestic violence, and workplace inefficiency. From settlement to about 1825 there was a kind of golden age for liquor (perhaps similar to what exists today), but after 1825 pulpit and parliament worked steadily to root out alcohol from the social fabric of the province."
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A few highlights from the Red Barrel magazine, containing info about a British brewery in Belgium.
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Weekly translations, with Roman beer bashing! Still, useful information as it tells us that brewing is occurring in Britain and Iberia.

Stumbled across this article which determines the fermentation techniques of Chinese 'strong liquor'. I will need to read into what that is exactly.

"Chinese strong-flavor liquor (CSFL) is fermented in cellars lined with pit mud (PM). This PM, specific fermented clay, contains microbes that play important roles in CSFL production."

A research paper by Gary Gillman (of Beer Et Seq. fame) on 'musty ale' is to be published soon by the Brewery History Society!
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There was a recent twitter scuffle on the legitimacy of calling a beer 'Zoigl' since it was brewed outside of the Zoigl region in Germany. Now, I am usually in the mind that if friggin Champagne gets protective rights, so should beer. But this post sums up nicely how I've felt as an American living in Europe, having to deal with European stereotypes of my home country.
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A translation of an entry by Pliny shows how Inula can be used to counterbalance overly sweet (i.e. wine) foods. More excitedly, the Brewing Classical crew are planning to brew a millet beer with it!
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Last Friday was this months Session, this time all about Bock beer. This post briefly delves into the history of the style...
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...while this one is an excerpt from Brewing Battles, describing Bock in pre and post prohibition era America.
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New book on Scottish beer by Ron Pattinson!
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"​It’s a small error, as they go, but it has been around for at least 40 years, and it appears everywhere from Michael Jackson’s World Guide to Beer to the labels on bottles of Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout, so let’s try to stamp it to death: Albert Le Coq was NOT a Belgian."
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A good description of what we're all doing.

"​For the professional historian, by contrast, beer is less an end in itself than a means for telling critical stories about broader subjects such as gender, capitalism, and empire."
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If I had another life to live, and was born in the right country, I'd pick up this trade in a heartbeat.

A thread to follow, to be sure. On various types of top fermenting beers from Germany.
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Weekly translations from the good folks over at Brewing Classical. This time with elephants!
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This one came my way thanks to Cider News. A study group on Welsh cider, whose aims are to:

1. Work with 14 community groups to regenerate old orchards and/or identify areas for new plantings. 

2. Explore and record Welsh Heritage cider and perry fruit through DNA fingerprinting, qualitative observation of trees, and single variety juice fermentation trial to produce a comprehensive online catalogue. 

3. Tell the modern story of orcharding and cider making in Wales through the collection of oral histories and digital stories. 

Be sure to check out the videos on their vimeo page here!
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A brief overview of Dr. Peter Kopp and his recent book ​Hoptopia: A World of Agriculture and Beer in Oregon's Willamette Valley (California Studies in Food and Culture).

The Oregon Hops & Brewing Archives are diving into the history of hop farming in Benton County, Portland.

"I​’m currently in the midst of a quest to learn more about the history of hops in Benton County, more specifically the land in south Corvallis owned by the Lilly and Seavey families. That’s a post for another day, but in talking to folks about hops in Corvallis and digging into some research on labor for a food history guide, I got distracted by the story of German POWs who picked hops during WWII. Again, a story for another post. Looking for info about POWs in Salem didn’t lead in a straight line to my field trip to Independence, but it did FINALLY get me to the Heritage Museum."
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Great piece on exploring Mesopotamian cuneiform text.

"Which leads to another thought. Is that pattern a constant? Four grades of beer naturally created solely by the relationship between the sparge fluid and mash?  Following these rules you will have a 11%-ish beer, a 4%-ish one and a 1.25%-ish one. As well as whatever the heck double double was to create all that toil and trouble. A constant pattern. Could be. Could be."

"Back in the early 1950’s Edinburgh city council had rather grand plans for redeveloping the Holyrood Palace end of the Royal Mile. Which was home to several breweries, including the Abbey and Holyrood breweries of William Younger."
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Boak & Bailey just scored some photos of pubs in the 1960's.
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Some tasting notes for the lentil beer brewed by the Brewing Classical crew.
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A look into the definition and history of the symposium.
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I feared this would come up eventually. Hope it doesn't happen!

"Traditional South African beer, brewed for centuries by peoples such as the Xhosa, is in danger of disappearing, according to Slow Food International, an organization trying to revive local food cultures."

Investigating brewing terms found in a letter dated on 1720. 

"Just bask in that passage for a moment. It’s (i) a contemporary that British beer was prepared for transport to warmer climates and (ii) among a few other techniques, the intentional deadening a beer followed by bottling was a technique used for export. Burton was, after all, brewed for export. As was Taunton for Jamaica’s plantations. The British simply shipped beer everywhere. IPA was not unique. Was there a beer brewed for Hong Kong that we’ve also forgotten about?"
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An old technique used to quickly sour ales.

"​First, he distinguishes true vatting from the later method, which was to ferment beers at high temperature and rouse them (to permit air to enter the fermenting wort). These practices had the result of producing acidic beers in a relatively short time, perfect for blending, but they lacked the “ethereal” taste of beers stored a year or two as ales and stouts used to be stored. "
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Weekly translation from the good folks at Brewing Classical.
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Brewing up a sweet stout from the 1960's.

"Associated with old codgers sat in the corner of the pub with a half, Mackeson became as fashionable as the Bay City Rollers. Along with Brown Ale and Light Ale, Sweet Stout was a bottled beer that suddenly fell from favour. So much so that it’s hard to imagine now the enormous quantities of it that were sold."
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A brief review of the history of the brewing industry at Thunder Bay, Ontario.