Blog Tracker
23-04-2022, 07:00
Visit the Boak and Bailey's Beer Blog site (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/04/news-nuggets-longreads-23-april-2022/)
Every Saturday morning we round-up the best of the previous week’s writing about beer and pubs. This week, we’ve got everything from social enterprise to hot stones.
First, some local news: Bristol brewery Tapestry has gone into liquidation (we missed this) but has been bought by Props (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-61096975), a charity that works to provide routes into work for disabled people, as reported by the BBC:
Props had a partnership with the former Tapestry Brewery before the company went into liquidation, they provided training opportunities in brewing for charity members… Now, Props will take “complete control” of the business, this will include running the tap room in Totterdown, brewing their own unique craft beers and creating partnerships with fellow Bristol breweries… Andrew, a trainee, said he was “excited” for the opening and that the opportunity was “fabulous”… “I can’t wait to get started, its going to be hard work but it love beer so its going to be fun.”
(Via Ray’s mum who always sends us beer-related stories she spots in the news. Thanks, Mum!)
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/pub_door_light.jpg?resize=580%2C387&ssl=1David Jesudason (who is having a very good writing year) looks into the experience of disabled drinkers in UK pubs and taprooms (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/4/18/disability-pubs-and-taprooms-the-invisible-barriers-preventing-diversity-in-british-beer-culture):
I’d like to introduce you to beer and cider lover Steven Fenn… He travels around the world to find new beers, which for him is hugely difficult, because Steven is treated differently to any other drinker I have met. He has a condition called muscular atrophy type two, which means he can’t walk and is permanently reliant on a wheelchair… He gets stared at. He’s not allowed access to some establishments. He’s frowned upon when he looks like he’s drunk… Steven reveals the long list of barriers he faces when he wants to have a pint… These include being ignored when ordering, or having his personal assistant asked by the bartender what he wants to drink. Not being able to use disabled toilets as they’re being used as a store cupboard. Not being able to attend eating areas or events as they’re located in inaccessible rooms. Or travelling to London from Essex only to be told at a pub that it’s “too busy” for him to enter.
The most important here, perhaps, is that improving this situation is often a matter of a bit of thought, a bit of care and putting some processes in place. “We don’t put kegs in the disabled toilet: it’s never storage,” says one brewer interviewed for the piece, revealing a lot about how low the bar might be at present.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/not_cool.png?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1In her (blog style) newsletter Hugging the Bar Court Iseman asks a challenging question: is it even remotely cool to be “a craft beer person” in 2022 (https://huggingthebar.substack.com/p/45-cringing-on-main-craft-beers-not)? She reflects on this and the journey people go on as they discover a serious interest in beer:
And when you think about it in the terms of finding craft beer and diving in, getting obsessed – in a good way, where you read all the books and watch all the videos and plan all the beercations to learn all you can – and then moving toward balancing it with other aspects of your life as you get older, craft beer is like any other thing, too. It’s how I was with metal, and then when I finally matured and opened up to a whole bunch of other genres, it’s how I was with music in general. It’s how I was with fashion, it’s how I was with theatre… it’s infatuation, every time. You fall, you fall hard, it’s all about that thing, and then you settle into loving that thing as part of all the things you love in your life.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/stone_beer_brewery.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1A stone beer brewery. SOURCE: Austrian National Library (https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=ca1&datum=1962&page=285&size=45).For Craft Beer & Brewing Lars Marius Garshol has tackled the story – or, rather, the myth – of ‘stone beer’, AKA Steinbier (https://beerandbrewing.com/fire-and-brew-stone-the-real-story-of-steinbier/). His opening is delightfully blunt:
As we all know, steinbier is an old lager style from Franconia, made using hot stones to boil the wort… The problem is that none of that is true… We can trace our misunderstanding back to Michael Jackson. In his Beer Hunter TV series in the 1980s, when visiting the Rauchenfels brewery in Neustadt bei Coburg, Upper Franconia, he said the brewery came up with the idea of making a stone beer when business was going poorly. The recipe came from an earlier tradition for brewing beer with hot stones, in the time before people had metal kettles. Rauchenfels used the stones to boil the wort, Jackson said… Here’s what’s really weird: Most of that is technically true. It just doesn’t mean what it seems to mean.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/beer_bottles_selection.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1A t Oh Good Ale Phil Edwards has been thinking about the beers he relies on for his pub-at-home setup (https://ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2022/04/19/front-line-back-line/):
I’ve now got six beers that are my ‘go to’ example of a particular style and which I’ve bought in quantity… [My] stash has a definite front line of multiple-purchase reliables, along with everything else that catches my eye (the back line)… I haven’t yet identified “the mild” (not enough candidates) or “the IPA” (too many candidates); “the black IPA” might also be worth a punt (and at the moment would probably be Thirst Class Penny Black). “The old ale” and/or “the barleywine” would be good – but as with milds, the field is small.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/the_pub.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1We enjoyed this piece about the perfect pub (https://www.goodfoodrevolution.com/its-your-round-the-best-pub/) by Robin LeBlanc and Jordan St John which takes the form of a conversation – like a podcast you don’t actually have to listen to:
J: I’ve been rewatching Cheers, and the important thing is that it is self contained. A really good pub has to be a part of the community that it is situated within, but it also has to be a little solipsistic; a small universe of its own. It should have gravity. It should make you think, “ah, well, just one more…”
R: Well, taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Finally, from Twitter – or, rather, from TikTok…
Imagine being able to visit this pub by boat again. Welcome to the Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich. Text is taken from our recent book, Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub. #londonpub (https://twitter.com/hashtag/londonpub?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) pic.twitter.com/HAK773EdDM (https://t.co/HAK773EdDM)
— Open House London (@openhouselondon) April 19, 2022 (https://twitter.com/openhouselondon/status/1516328269540478983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday (https://appellationbeer.com/blog/twtbwtw-what-if-micro-meant-micro/) and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday (http://abetterbeerblog427.com/2022/04/21/your-mid-april-2022-thursday-beery-new-notes/).
News, nuggets and longreads 23 April 2022: Open up the door (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/04/news-nuggets-longreads-23-april-2022/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/04/news-nuggets-longreads-23-april-2022/)
Every Saturday morning we round-up the best of the previous week’s writing about beer and pubs. This week, we’ve got everything from social enterprise to hot stones.
First, some local news: Bristol brewery Tapestry has gone into liquidation (we missed this) but has been bought by Props (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-61096975), a charity that works to provide routes into work for disabled people, as reported by the BBC:
Props had a partnership with the former Tapestry Brewery before the company went into liquidation, they provided training opportunities in brewing for charity members… Now, Props will take “complete control” of the business, this will include running the tap room in Totterdown, brewing their own unique craft beers and creating partnerships with fellow Bristol breweries… Andrew, a trainee, said he was “excited” for the opening and that the opportunity was “fabulous”… “I can’t wait to get started, its going to be hard work but it love beer so its going to be fun.”
(Via Ray’s mum who always sends us beer-related stories she spots in the news. Thanks, Mum!)
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/pub_door_light.jpg?resize=580%2C387&ssl=1David Jesudason (who is having a very good writing year) looks into the experience of disabled drinkers in UK pubs and taprooms (https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2022/4/18/disability-pubs-and-taprooms-the-invisible-barriers-preventing-diversity-in-british-beer-culture):
I’d like to introduce you to beer and cider lover Steven Fenn… He travels around the world to find new beers, which for him is hugely difficult, because Steven is treated differently to any other drinker I have met. He has a condition called muscular atrophy type two, which means he can’t walk and is permanently reliant on a wheelchair… He gets stared at. He’s not allowed access to some establishments. He’s frowned upon when he looks like he’s drunk… Steven reveals the long list of barriers he faces when he wants to have a pint… These include being ignored when ordering, or having his personal assistant asked by the bartender what he wants to drink. Not being able to use disabled toilets as they’re being used as a store cupboard. Not being able to attend eating areas or events as they’re located in inaccessible rooms. Or travelling to London from Essex only to be told at a pub that it’s “too busy” for him to enter.
The most important here, perhaps, is that improving this situation is often a matter of a bit of thought, a bit of care and putting some processes in place. “We don’t put kegs in the disabled toilet: it’s never storage,” says one brewer interviewed for the piece, revealing a lot about how low the bar might be at present.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/not_cool.png?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1In her (blog style) newsletter Hugging the Bar Court Iseman asks a challenging question: is it even remotely cool to be “a craft beer person” in 2022 (https://huggingthebar.substack.com/p/45-cringing-on-main-craft-beers-not)? She reflects on this and the journey people go on as they discover a serious interest in beer:
And when you think about it in the terms of finding craft beer and diving in, getting obsessed – in a good way, where you read all the books and watch all the videos and plan all the beercations to learn all you can – and then moving toward balancing it with other aspects of your life as you get older, craft beer is like any other thing, too. It’s how I was with metal, and then when I finally matured and opened up to a whole bunch of other genres, it’s how I was with music in general. It’s how I was with fashion, it’s how I was with theatre… it’s infatuation, every time. You fall, you fall hard, it’s all about that thing, and then you settle into loving that thing as part of all the things you love in your life.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/stone_beer_brewery.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1A stone beer brewery. SOURCE: Austrian National Library (https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=ca1&datum=1962&page=285&size=45).For Craft Beer & Brewing Lars Marius Garshol has tackled the story – or, rather, the myth – of ‘stone beer’, AKA Steinbier (https://beerandbrewing.com/fire-and-brew-stone-the-real-story-of-steinbier/). His opening is delightfully blunt:
As we all know, steinbier is an old lager style from Franconia, made using hot stones to boil the wort… The problem is that none of that is true… We can trace our misunderstanding back to Michael Jackson. In his Beer Hunter TV series in the 1980s, when visiting the Rauchenfels brewery in Neustadt bei Coburg, Upper Franconia, he said the brewery came up with the idea of making a stone beer when business was going poorly. The recipe came from an earlier tradition for brewing beer with hot stones, in the time before people had metal kettles. Rauchenfels used the stones to boil the wort, Jackson said… Here’s what’s really weird: Most of that is technically true. It just doesn’t mean what it seems to mean.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/beer_bottles_selection.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1A t Oh Good Ale Phil Edwards has been thinking about the beers he relies on for his pub-at-home setup (https://ohgoodale.wordpress.com/2022/04/19/front-line-back-line/):
I’ve now got six beers that are my ‘go to’ example of a particular style and which I’ve bought in quantity… [My] stash has a definite front line of multiple-purchase reliables, along with everything else that catches my eye (the back line)… I haven’t yet identified “the mild” (not enough candidates) or “the IPA” (too many candidates); “the black IPA” might also be worth a punt (and at the moment would probably be Thirst Class Penny Black). “The old ale” and/or “the barleywine” would be good – but as with milds, the field is small.
https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/the_pub.jpg?resize=580%2C362&ssl=1We enjoyed this piece about the perfect pub (https://www.goodfoodrevolution.com/its-your-round-the-best-pub/) by Robin LeBlanc and Jordan St John which takes the form of a conversation – like a podcast you don’t actually have to listen to:
J: I’ve been rewatching Cheers, and the important thing is that it is self contained. A really good pub has to be a part of the community that it is situated within, but it also has to be a little solipsistic; a small universe of its own. It should have gravity. It should make you think, “ah, well, just one more…”
R: Well, taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Finally, from Twitter – or, rather, from TikTok…
Imagine being able to visit this pub by boat again. Welcome to the Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich. Text is taken from our recent book, Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub. #londonpub (https://twitter.com/hashtag/londonpub?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) pic.twitter.com/HAK773EdDM (https://t.co/HAK773EdDM)
— Open House London (@openhouselondon) April 19, 2022 (https://twitter.com/openhouselondon/status/1516328269540478983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
For more good reading check out Stan Hieronymus’s round-up from Monday (https://appellationbeer.com/blog/twtbwtw-what-if-micro-meant-micro/) and Alan McLeod’s from Thursday (http://abetterbeerblog427.com/2022/04/21/your-mid-april-2022-thursday-beery-new-notes/).
News, nuggets and longreads 23 April 2022: Open up the door (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/04/news-nuggets-longreads-23-april-2022/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)
More... (https://boakandbailey.com/2022/04/news-nuggets-longreads-23-april-2022/)