Ethan is one of the founders of CBW, and works as President & chief instigator. He has a long-standing passion for beer and brewing, sparked largely in the mid-1990's Boston of Sam Adams, Pete's Wicked Ale, and Catamount. He has been a homebrewer for over 10 years, and has won a few awards along the way, though he doesn't really compete that much. He is also certified as a homebrewing judge through the BJCP program. In a similar vein, he recently became accredited in the Cicerone(r) program, at the Certified level.
Along with fellow CBWer Dan Conley, Ethan has been writing about beer online at BeerOVision.com for about three years. He believes strongly that Buffalo can rebuild its pre-Prohibiton 'bierkultur,' which, aside from making awesome beer, is CBW's mission: we're here to Embeer Buffalo.
Welcome to Squibs 5, the 2012 Tra-la-la edition. I write when the spirit moves me–ok, well, to be perfectly honest, that is a necessary but not sufficient condition. I also need to have free time and can’t write these on my smartphone, so it’s also critical to have a real computer before me. It all came together for me last night, and so:
1) We couldn’t be more grateful for the support we received in 2011, and we promise you beer asap in 2012. Delicious, fresh, robustly hopped (remember, Pale Ale out of the gate) beer in growlers to go, even. When? Though it gets wearisome to have to preface the answer to the inevitable question with “well, you know, it’s hard to say…” we know we’re really closing in, too. January was a deluge of construction, and February for at least making beer seems reasonable. How much longer it will take to be able to sell it, alas… is really, indeed, far harder to pin down. Let’s just say we’ve gone at least Rounds 1 & 2 with the NY SLA, and so far, so good. Let’s see what Round 3 brings. In the meanwhile, kegs are on their way, all the Kickstarter stuff is in-production, and we are anxious indeed to start playing with our brewing toys.
2) File this under “I read Beernews.org so you don’t have to,” but imagine my surprise–and pleasure–at finding this video from TEDx San Antonio, in which Freetail Brewing‘s founder Scott Metzger discusses a transition from economies of scale to economies of authenticity; a very apt description of the rise of craft beer. Er, perhaps Craft Beer(tm), that is. Anyway, the theme of my own talk at Buffalo’s TEDx event back in September was slightly different, but in some ways complimentary or even overlapping. I was arguing for embeerment in Buffalo–or wherever, perhaps San Antonio, right?–as being great for community revival, when done on what I guess he might call a scale of authenticity. I think we’ll continue to see a lot of creative financing–kicstarter, public stock–as craft beer expands, and I like to think small scale hops farming and malting will also nestle right into that.
3) Squibs Book Review: America Walks Into A Bar, by Christine Sismondo. I got this book for Yuletide, and devoured it. Yum! Actually, it’s a nice segue from the last point, because the book is really a socio-cultural history of the role taverns (and saloons, pubs, speak-easys and grog shops) played in the history of our country. So, not really a history of beer itself, but fascinating to anyone who considers our relationship with alcohol and beer more generally. The writer, who teaches English at Reyerson College in Toronto, presents a nicely paced survey of not only the important things that went on in taverns, but also the way our relationship with the institution itself evolved over the course of our history, focused mostly on the pre-Prohibition era. Indeed, the book seems a little skimpy on the history thereafter, though I totally loved the chapters detailing how women gained acceptance (or didn’t) at the brass rail and the critical role bars played in the Gay Rights movement. My favorite anecdote, however, was that Mr. Theodore Geisel, whom we tend to better know as Dr. Suess, authored this fine anti-Prohibition poster to the right in 1942 (Yes, the Prohibitionists didn’t just curl up and die after repeal). Sismondo notes that Dr. Suess’s father was president of the Springfield Brewery, and so put out of work in 1920. Apparently, Mr. Geisel was not one to forgive and forget.
4) She Blinded Me With Science! This week’s Economist has a very interesting article on the relationship between flavor (well, aroma really) and music. Turns out, we’re all synesthetes, at least to some degree. The research, soon to be published in Chemical Senses and conducted by researchers at Oxford, looked at whether people would agree on the musical tones that paired with various smells, and found that indeed, there was a rather robust patterning of results. They had 30 subjects go through 20 odors from a wine-tasting kit, smells that ranged from smoke to apple to violet. For each smell, the subject chose the tone that best matched it from an array of 52 sounds which contrasted not just specific pitches but also timbre: the type of instrument playing the notes varied from piano to woodwind to brass.
The researchers’ first finding was that the volunteers did not think their request utterly ridiculous. It rather made sense, they told them afterwards. The second was that there was significant agreement between volunteers. Sweet and sour smells were rated as higher-pitched, smoky and woody ones as lower-pitched. Blackberry and raspberry were very piano. Vanilla had elements of both piano and woodwind. Musk was strongly brass.
Fascinating. Even more interesting was some follow-up research, only briefly mentioned, in which the same researchers looked at the impact of background music on flavor perception. In that study, they found that the perceived bitterness of toffee varied depending on whether the eater was listening to high- or low-pitched music while evaluating. Note to beer judges: if you’re on an IPA flight, might be a good idea to modulate those hops with some Lustmord over your iPod.
5) Behold! when you search You Tube for “beer twinkie,” of course you get drunk people eating said confectionary treat on web cams. Exciting! But you also get Deep Fried Corn Flake Beer-Battered Twinkies, from gardenfork.tv Brilliant, or Insane? You be the judge:
1) Well, the “OMGThatWasABigFreakinDeal” conference that hit ol’ Buffalo last month is really over and done now, though the chatter and back-patting continues. I mean, I am talking about it, right? I got to play tour guide for a few hours and explain what happened in the Perot Malt House down ConcreteAtlantis way. Friend of CBW Brian Castnerwrote an interesting piece over at WNYMedia.net, essentially asking “Hey! Did you know Buffalo is staking it’s future on architectural preservation instead of, say, BioMedical Research or Higher Education?” I’m not sure sure “we” “did,” but even if we did, I am absolutely sure that prioritizing one thing doesn’t mean other things are off the table. Let’s talk Embeering and Architecture for about a paragraph.
Form AND Function, Mr. Sullivan.
Community Beer Works is located in an historic building–part of the Meyer Malting Company complex–which we are adapting (to meet our needs) and re-using (vs., I suppose, tearing it down). There was a great article about Meyer in that Beer Issue of The Buffalo Spree earlier this year, by the way. Now, in locating in this building, I wouldn’t put us on a par with, say, McMenamin’s, but we’re in the same vein. We searched high and low for a good spot and this location combines everything we love: adaptive reuse, space for the present & the future, adjacency to a neighborhood & our target demographic, and of course, proximity to inexpensive but deliciously filling pasta fasool. But you wanna see what an old brewery could be? See that photo? Just click here, here and here. Indeed, that very project was given a Board of Advisors’ Award during the conference in Buffalo. Just imagine if Buffalo’s old Lang brewery had not been razed… and half a dozen other great old local breweries, for that matter.
Now of course, we could build a brewery just anywhere, or go into any ol’ space what was available and met our need. The modern brewery is far more likely to look like this than like the aforementioned Lang brewery did, no question. Cheaper, I’m sure, and depite it’s banal exterior, Lagunitas makes impressively awesome beer. But we’re contributing not just beer, but also to neighborhood revitalization here, and it is thus more broadly consistent with our philosophy and ethos. If we were in a quonset hut, we’d make the same amazing beers we aim to make on Lafayette, but I hazard to say our Embeering would be less-than-complete. But hey, that’s us. What other up-and-coming brewey startups in the area do is up to them, and we support them regardless. Still, can you imagine if beer was rolling out of the old Simon Pure building again some day? Don’t laugh: I’ll give you double nickles on the dime that it does one day, not too distant even.
jammed econo
2) Stanford MBAs + beer + The Economist = this. Course, I don’t have to tell anyone reading this blog that drinking goes well with endeavors actuarial & fiduciary. And that, my friends, is the kind of vocabulary to you can have if you read The Economist regularly. Other cool features this week? America could use a political middle right about now (er, ok; I’d settle for a middle class, thanks); Qaddafi–like Osama and Sadam before him–gets an obituary (I know it’s from 22nd October, but hey, I’m catching up on back issues here, mm’k?); What’s happening in Greece, explained; So how did those Vikings navigate, anyway? I know: I just didn’t talk about beer for a second there- hold on, it’s coming.
3) Did you catch all the furor, the rending of clothes, the nail-biting and vehemence that accompanied the release of the Oxford Companion To Beer? No? Oh. Well… all those links will certainly get you up to speed- don’t skip the comments, they are where all the fun is really at, I would say. <sigh.> Now, I do spend a lot of time thinking about, reading about, drinking about beer- so I feel I’m as far down the rabbit hole as anyone else, frankly. But some of commentary takes things a bit too far, at least in terms of making it personal. Sorry, you seem to be right when you say the book is imperfect… though it is hardly shocking that a book with 1100 entries would have errors. You might still be right to say that some of the myths it purpetuates about the history of beer would not have taken much energy to correct. You can even be right that, of all imprints, the Oxford University Press really ought to have done a better job, being the voice of authority that it is. I don’t diasgree with any of that.
Who's Your Daddy?
But the tone of some of the detractors, to me, is impertinent, unnecessary, uncivil, and makes me want to say: Relax, folks, and have a beer. I am sure further editions will be better, and in the meanwhile A Good Beer Blog‘s Alan McLeod has set up an excellent wiki, so you can feel free to read an entry in the Companion, and double-chceck to see if anyone’s called it out yet, and if so, their references and authority in so doing. I will bet double nickles on the dime (damn Minutemen reference again!) you’ll find very few corrections on the technical entries. As for the history… it can (like all things historical) take its sweet time coming unto perfection, if indeed perfection is possible. Yes, it’s scholarship, and yes, scholars get snippy… but this is beer scholarship. Let’s keep it classy and casual, as we like our pubs.
5) The 5th and obligatory Squib sometimes is an obscure reference, a link to a strange YouTube video search (like ‘beer metal‘), or other minutae… but y’know, we do have our Kickstarter on, and so it seems like somewhere in public–and in bolditalics!–we ought to give thanks and praise to Marc Odien of WNYMedia.net for helping us with the oh-so-clever-and-meta-video we’re using to convince folks we’re for real. So: hey! Marc! THANKS! Now remember, Tuesday is election day, so get on out there and vote for something, k? If any kind of beer-maker were running, we’d endorse them, but since none are (locally anyway, we do support Paul Dyster For Mayor in Niagara Falls) we simply endorse taking the time to have a beer after the heavy lifting that is your civil responsibility. Cheers!
1) While I appreciate & agree with the overall point of this article, I think it could be made with a little less demonizing of alcohol. Perhaps it was beyond the scope of a short report in Salon.com, but can’t we all admit that while yes, teenagers/college students will always drink, em, a bit too much (learning all kinds of things in the process, should they do it safely enough), America has a peculiarly unhealthy relationship with alcohol. (Well, intoxicants generally, let’s be frank.) An unhealthy relationship which predates, but was exacerbated by, Prohibition and the way it was both set-up and dismantled. Why did we have to use GIS to figure out where all the churches and schools in Buffalo were, in order to find a location location to brew? (disallowed within 500 feet of the former and 200 feet of the latter, for the record). Heck, why is the entire regulatory process underlying a brewery so overdone? It’s beer, folks: Beer.
Community Bud Works?
This thread over at Alan’s blog touches on this theme a bit, but put succinctly, I think having more family-friendly drinking establishments (pubs/biergartens) would help our ‘tude immensely. ’Course, I have a family, so there is some self-interest at play in my opinionating bloviating. Just the other day, PJ of The Wooden Barrel and I were discussing this down at Pearl Street- with The Blue Monk having covered the Belgian-style beer bar* most excellently, the next best move for a Buffalo bar would be to go fully German, with a über-authentic beer garden. Equally welcome would be an English-style pub, like Rochester’s Old Toad perhaps (but bigger!). As at the aforementioned Monk, presenting these venerable beery cultures correctly also mandates a certain understanding of the familial nature of old-world-quality imbibing of our favorite potent potables; my own kids certainly love and are welcome at such establishments. So… anybody up for it?
2) US barley production is down 7% this year, and so is hop production (–2%), according to Beernews.org via the USDA. Look for price increases to follow, and try to remember this kind of thing when you’re looking at craft beer prices in particular: the smaller the brewery, the greater the impact of fluctuations in the cost of raw ingredients. And CBW is VERY small… jus’ sayin. (Don’t worry, our aim is to grow, and as well, to source locally & directly as much as possible.)
3) You may have heard that Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who Wednesday was awarded a Medal Of Honor for his service in Afghanistan (the first such medal awarded to a Marine in that war), requested a beer with the President beforehand. You may also remember from back in March that the White House has brewed its own beer: our own Mayor Byron Brown has had it, in fact. (perhaps.) Well, guess what it was that our newly decorated war hero drank over conversation with Mr. Obama? Correct: White House Honey Ale. They seem to be on batch three or so, and the honey also comes from the White House’s own apiary: Nice touch, that. Sure beats the choices at the fabled “beer summit” early in Obama’s term.
Saved 32 lives, killed 8 insurgents: deserves a beer
4) Our rallying cry, our mission, our-oh-so-clever-wordplay is Embeer Buffalo! But practically speaking, we’re just one brewery, and a nano at that: our own embeerment will be small, but we hope significant. We aim to encourage other people to get their dreams on locally, and are willing to help as we can, though our resources are limited. (and will remain so until we’re open.) So, we are very happy to hear that New Buffalo Brewing Company is on the hunt for a location! They want to be in the city if possible, so if anyone knows about a good 10,000-15,000sqft rental property that might meet their needs you should contact them, via the website. (By-the-by, if their graphic design looks familiar, that’s because it’s another excellent product of Michael Gelen’s Inkwell Studios. Nice touch!)
Ok, so that’s an in-joke, probably, or not- the title refers to Chris Smith’s lamented column at WNYMedia.net, The Morning Grumpy. Like him, I spend probably a little too much time scanning news & views, and it seems perfectly squibbish to rack a few from the fermenter, so to speak, from time to time. Look, I even used a sensible Category AND tag here. Watchout!
This has nothing to do with beer, really
1) The beer-blog-o-verse is all atwitter today about this WaPo article reporting on the illegal sale, via eBay at least, of rare beers. Look for some serious self-loathing to follow, as we/beer bloggers/beer-enthusiasts accuse one another of “wine-ifying” beer and bringing it to this level, food-pairing is evil, “it’s just beer”, &c. Meh. As far as the practice itself goes, well… First, I think beer traders are doing it right- quid pro quo. As well, I know real friendships start to spring up though trading circles, which is such a part of beer anyway- it is a very friendly industry as a whole. I suppose it might yet be illegal, but profiteering it most certainly is not. Secondly, to me the big appeal of beer is as a pretext for–or at least an accompaniment to–travel. (e.g., See Rudy’s post of last week, and also point 1.) So while Russian River release events might seem absurd to some, if it is the kind of beer-geekery you go for (I do!), at least you could roll your 2012 Dark Lord Day into… seeing a show & some great breweries in Chicago, or a longer road trip visiting relatives in Nebraska, or… some kind of travel, exploration, horizon-busting. Go, enjoy the beer on-site or in the intended context, and then be done with it. And the reverse for us: CBW hopes people come to our awesome ci-tay and drink the beer here, by and large.
2) Searching for a shared-file solution, with automatic updating and security plug-ins as well? Community Beer Works endorses Dropbox! That is all, but no, we don’t work for them or anything.
You should see what I didn't choose from the Google Image Search
3) Speaking of the Washington Post, actually… If you know me, you know I’m not likely to be a huge fan of anything George Will writes, but you know what? When a man’s right, he’s right. So it was a pleasant surprise to get this link from my Dad and to actually pretty much dig the article. John Hickenlooper For President, 2016? I like the idea quite a bit, frankly. Brewers as politicians might not always work, but at the very least, they’ll always bring beer and excellent facial hair, so how bad can that be? Note to local people: Our very own Pearl Street Brewery was initially an offshoot of the Pearl Street brewpub Hickenlooper started in Colorado, iirc, though he was also bought-out so long ago now as to be no more than wee footnote to the whole story. Unless he runs, I add cynically; Hickenlooper on one of those wrought-iron railings would make a great photo-op. NB: The Franklin quotation will not die, but it should.
4) In ridiculous label news, Funkwerks (of, in fact, Colorado) had to change a beer name/label–nice of them, but seriously?–and Clown Shoes (Of Massachusetts) stayed very far from risque on their latest release, the awesomely-themed Blaecorn Unidragon Russian Imperial Stout. I will check that out, but sadly, Funkwerks is not in our distribution area, alas.
5) The Morning Grumpy often included a Youtube clip of one sort or another so The Afternoon “Cheerio!” will thus present: searches for “beer” plus a random word. Today, it was squirrel. You really can’t go wrong with Andrew W.K., ever, but the squirrel doesn’t really drink the beer, which is a bit disappointing. To the extent that he does, though, he’s getting Harpoon, it seems to me- good call.
b. A broken firecracker that burns but does not explode.
By extension, a squib is also a dud round of ammunition, one that doesn’t even quite make it out of the barrel… (and it’s the next shot that’ll really screw things up, see the photo!)
And of course there’s the Potteresque meaning of
“A Squib is someone who was born into a wizarding family but hasn’t got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual.”
“In this musical comedy, a Cockney flower girl is in love with a policeman whom she wants to marry. Unfortunately, her father opposes the union because he is involved in a little crooked investing. Fortunately, the young woman wins a lottery and is able to find wealth and marital bliss”
“A squib is a brief satirical or witty piece of writing or speech, like a lampoon, or a short, sometimes humorous piece in a newspaper or magazine, used as a filler. It can be intended to ignite thinking and discourse by others on topics of theoretical importance – e.g., see MIT Press’s journal, Linguistic Inquiry [1], but is often less substantial than this and just humorous”
Which makes sense if you know that my non-beery background is in linguistics & cognitive science… I remember friends in the linguistic graduate program at the UofA submitting them to LI and I always liked the concept.
Filler, brief, humorous… meant to spark discussion. On the web, what isn’t a squib, really?
So, I am declaring my intent to write a bunch of squibs for the blog. What that means is, these spontaneously occurring posts will be like a Tweet, but usually longer. Or like Tumblr, but more blog-like. Or not. Or just, you know… a lot like this:
Facebook:
I just referred to our future as “teh beerz ov CBW” on a friend’s status update. How do you feel about “teh beerz ov CBW?” as a marketing slogan? If it makes you think of a band called Sleepchamber, you’re probably me.
I’m not saying CBW’s beers will be brimming with industrial noise and sexmagick; Briess simply doesn’t make any kind of malt yet that really expresses that. On the other hand, if any brewer can make a beer taste like John Zewizz makes music sound/look/feel, it’s RudyBob, so… Look for our series of genre-defying melchizedeks (hand bottled, corked & caged! Available only by subscription!) soon after opening.
