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.
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.
Yeah, I have not posted in awhile. But here I am! There are just a few things on my mind and well… I have a soapbox, er, blog. So, getting down to it…
The first, really the big point is related to the title. Before Community Beer Works, there was Beer-O-Vision, the blog that Dan and I wrote at for a couple of years. I would not claim it was the world’s greatest beer blog, or even A Good Beer Blog, but I am proud of it nonetheless and I’d stand by every word we wrote. The thing is, when we wrote all that stuff–and made those videos–we were just a couple of guys who liked beer and wanted to talk about it. Once you get into the industry, things change a bit. For one thing, you become somewhat more attuned to the to’s and fro’s of the industry… I mean, we get The New Brewer now, so we are privy to a lot of ”insider” (like anyone can’t get it; we know) information. But more than that, you start to realize you need to be a bit more circumspect. By which I mean, you can’t go around shitting where you eat.
Possibly Offensive.
So, it seems like a bit of a risk to jump into any of the controversies that roil the beer blogosphere. Sure, we’ve made some noise here and there about various news items- AB-InBev’s acquistion of Goose Island for example, or Dan’s lovely peice of satire on the trademarking of area codes (picked up by another blog, incidently). But we aren’t editorializing so much in those posts, we’re mainly poiting out some news and I suppose, gently mocking the Big Boys. Low hanging fruit, as they say. Still, thisparticular one has been on my mind a bit since it went down earlier last week, and I am going to add my two cents.
linky (I’m just not sophisticated enough to embed the video, but if you don’t watch it, the rest of what I write might still make sense… eh, probably better watch it. Or read this, anyway.)
I’ll let the clip set the stage and save myself some typing. I’ve had a number of Clown Shoes beers, and they are, to my tastes, fine. Not mind-blowing, but pretty tasty. The labels–or let’s be precise, two of them, anyway–are to my mind not very classy, but I wouldn’t sayoutright sexist or offensive. Also, not light-hearted or funny, really. But you know, that’s a matter of opinion. I think, though, the question is more one of where to put the balance of your interest: in the beers themselves, or in the entirety of the beer, from price to label to the ethos of the company. Because really, at the end of the day, you don’t just buy a beer. You buy into a brand. Here’s two examples, pro and con.
I've come from 1882, to make beer for you
Pro: I love Pretty Things. I just like everything about them, from their artwork, to the company’s story, to the individuals Dann and Martha, and yes, the beers themselves. Is every beer they make the best beer ever? Meh, it’s unknowable and irrelevant. When I drink them, they are. Because it is about more than just the liquid passing over my tongue and off-gassing into my nose. Sure that matters, but it’s not everything, because ultimately the experience happens in my brain, not my mouth. Once the liquid sets off certain patterns of electrical activity in my tongue and in my nose, all sorts of other things interact with that: memory, expectations, time of day, blood-sugar levels, the context in which I am drinking, &c. We beer enthusiasts are foolish in some sense to rate beer, to attempt to quantify the subjective. Four people drink the same beer, and four very distinct and ineffable conscious experiences ensue. That’s the nature of human experience, and so if one person tells me the beer is crap, I’m in some sense best off leaving it at that; for all I know, that beer makes her remember a bad time, a sad time, a lonely time, or heck: it just makes her gag a bit. How am I supposed to tell her she’s wrong?
Con: I don’t drink Blue Moon. It’s not because it’s garbage; quite the contrary: it’s not a bad example of a Belgian Wit, on the ocassion I have had some. Seems to hit the BJCP style guidelines at a 38+ anyway, if I’m going to get all judge-y on it. But even if it were the ne plus ultra of the style, better than Hoegaarden, better than Ommegang’s… I’m still not going to enjoy the beer exactly, because I know to whom my hard-earned money is going when I buy that beer–MolsonCoors–and I am not interested in supporting a company that 1) hardly needs my money anyway, thanks, and 2) will turn around and put my dollars towards causes I do not support, politically. I simply do not like that company, and so their beers will necessarily taste a bit nasty to me, just as much as Pretty Things beers taste like teh awesome.
So, back to Clown Shoes and tying this into CBW perhaps… I’m not going to boycott them, or rant about them from my bully pulpit, but I’m not probably going to buy more of their stuff than I have already, because I agree with Candice Alström down at Beer Advocate that they’re sort of tacky. I mean whatever, I’ve bought one of each of their beers so far and I’ll probably check out new ones as they become available to me; I’m curious and like I said above, the beers seem to taste alright to me. But I do think Craft Beer doesn’t really need to go there to sell beers to me anyway. To you? Don’t know. Have at ‘em, really. Personally, I recommend either the Clementine (speaking of Belgian wits) or Hoppy Feet (a bit on the roasty side for the style, but pleasant). But CBW’s ethos perculdes this kind of marketing effort. Sure, we’re silly and ocassionally obtuse (does anyone understand “In C” but us? Even us?). But we’re not going to stray anywhere near the arena Clown Shoes is playing in; it’s just not our style. We hope that doesn’t, em… offend you.
Having blown 1,000 words on that, I only wanted to make my other points but quickly. So first–second?–I want to make a tip of the hat to our own Mr. Dan Conley, who not only celebrated his 6th wedding anniversary this weekend but also wrote a damn fine peice of satire last week that drew some attention in the beer blogosphere: nicely done, Dan. Sadly, we don’t in fact own 716, so you can continue to dial your relatives back here from Charlotte all you want, but we do hope that when you come back for a beef on weck, you stop by the brewery and buy yourself some beer or at least a t-shirt. Well, right now, definitely a t-shirt, since we don’t exactly make beer yet.
Not Dan; Elixy. Suck it, hubby!
Secondly, did you hear we got out TTB approval? We’ll probably crow about it some more, because we’re really pretty over the moon about it, and we haven’t even all been in the same room yet to celebrate this milestone, but folks: There. Will. Be. Beer! Sure, we have more milestones ahead of us–the “brewery” is yet more of a warehouse with condensation on the floor ofttimes. But nonetheless, getting through the Federal permitting process pretty much guarantees us to be in the “not if but when” stage now. W00t!
Ok, that’s all for now; Dan will be back on Thirsty Thursday with more coolness; see you then!
As I write this, I’m 35,000 feet above the Rockies, on my way back from the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference, held this year in San Francisco. It was really an amazing experience for me, and for our humble start-up in Buffalo. What follows are just some impressions I wanted to relate to our fans.
First of all, the broad overview. This year saw nearly 4000 attendees- quite a number of people! They ranged, of course, from brewery owners and brewers themselves (not always the same person) to representatives from other aspects of the industry: equipment manufacturers, product suppliers, advertising specialists and others certainly see the merit of attending the conference and especially the associated Beer Expo. For example, also representing Buffalo were a couple of guys from Certo Brothers distributing, and as well I got to spend some time chatting with Tom and Jeff of KegWorks. Of course, the media was also in tha’ hizzy. Despite the many domains of the industry in attendance, it was actually pretty easy to spot the brewers: look for the elaborate beards and sideburns, and you’re probably looking at a brewer! (Rudy… hop to it!)
Beard? Check! Brewer? Check!
At any professional gathering, libations are going to be available, but as you might expect, the Craft Brewer’s Conference means beer flowed like water. That’s what you’d call an overwhelming understatement, in fact. Simply upon registration I was given a four-pack of special, brewed-for-the-symposim beers and a nice tulip glass, but that was just the beginning. Many of the exhibitors at the expo were pouring complimentary beers, the hospitality suites were well-stocked, and even most of the sessions included a sampling. More than the fact of much beer itself, in many cases the beers presented were special in some way. Among the aforementioned Symposium Beers was a unique collaboration between Russian River and Sierra Nevada (A Flemish sour brown) while at another session we were treated to a rare 4-year-old lambic from Cantillion. Perhaps the most impressive feat of the conference was the pouring of what must have been some 3000 glasses of Sierra Nevada’s “Ken & Fritz’s” collaboration beer—a stout—towards the end of their keynote address, which we all raised in a toast to the venerable pair. All kinds of after-parties and other Conference-inspired events throughout the Bay Area’s bestknowncraftbeerbars only added to the huge amount of great beer being consumed- it was amazing to behold. Seriously, I’m not going to drink a single beer today; my liver is begging for mercy. Ok, maybe one; but that’s it!!
Smaller than CBW, actually
Yet, the drinking of beer was really beside the point. As with any proper conference, the goals were information-gathering and networking. I did as much of both as I was able to, but burnout was unavoidable. I attended sessions on brewery financing (timely!), yeast management, sour beers (a panel discussion between Yvan De Baets and Jean Van Roy (of Cantillion,) moderated by Vinnie Cilurzo; just amazing). Certainly the most inspiring hour of the entire conference was a session entitled “Micro-startup via the Nano route” given by Matt McClug who started Schooner EXACT on a 1/2-barrel system in a storage space in Portland in 2008. CBW’s existence proof? I’d say so, definitely.
As for networking, I did my best but I’m not really the most extroverted guy you’ve ever met- I don’t love going up to people apropos of nothing and I certainly hate to interrupt ongoing conversations. Still, I caught up with some people I knew a little bit before (Dan of Ellicottville and Phin of Southern Tier, for example) and managed to meet the dean of the current crop of nano startups, Mike Hess of Hess Brewing in San Diego. I figure two brushes with fame is not bad overall- I don’t expect I made any impression on either Charlie Papazian or Pete Slosberg, but I was definitely thrilled to shake their hands and thank them both for sparking the passion that is driving me & all the CBWers.
But the thing I most took away from the conference was the total camaraderie of the Craft Beer Industry. I’m coming into it from academics, so I can’t speak for the level of this in other businesses, but I can’t help but think that the CBC is one of the friendlier events in the business world. (Did I mention all the beer? Can’t hurt!) This was very well summed-up by Mr. Slossberg in our short conversation. I thanked him for Pete’s Wicked Red in particular and we talked a bit about the rise and fall of his brand. In parting, I wished him well on his chocolate endeavor, which he informed me he had just sold, so I asked “Are you going back into beer- is that why you’re here?” He replied “Oh, this is like Old Home Week for me; I just came to say hi to a lot of friends at once.” I look forward to seeing it that way myself, one day.
More valuable today than on Jan 31st, 2011
CBW has a lot of work ahead, but the last 4 days confirmed that we’re all getting into the best industry in the world. All the work will be so worth it when we can pour it into a glass someday for you, and—who knows?—maybe someday 4000 conference-goers as well. Cheers!
We had no idea that CBW, in addition to being a brewing juggernaut and collection of gaming geeks, would also turn out to be a hotbed of lyrical craftsmen of the highest order. But that’s what happens when you get a team of people together: hidden talents come to the fore, and quirks sometimes blossom into full annoyances. We’re already discussing both our quarterly litererary magazine and the annual talent show. But until we got those plans nailed down, tonight’s feature will have to do.
I have extolled my love of triolets before, somewhere on Facebook if not also this blog or another, so I’ll say but a few words on the form here. I know of it thanks mainly to 7th grade English class and frequent Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me panelist Roy Blunt Jr, the latter being more relevent to my tinkering with the form of late (I recommend his book Alphabet Juice to word nerds everywhere.) You can read all about ‘em here of course and this site has a nice collection, but the short story is 1) The rhyme scheme is simply ABaAabAB and 2) use any meter you want; iambic tetrameter is kinda “traditional” So, without further ado, I give you:
Triolet Upon Starting A Brewery
If you should want to make some beer
You’ll find it is no simple task:
colossal hurdles you must clear
If you should want to make some beer.
The endpoint- is it far or near?
Call up some agency and ask
if you should want to make some beer;
you’ll find it is no easy task.
~~~~~
The guy in the costume? He's never even *seen* Star Wars!
Well, Superbowl XVL is over, and this year I really watched absolutely none of it; I haven’t even seen the ads, though I know they’re on YouTube already. I have it from Facebook that the Packers won, whats-her-face sang the National Anthem (and forgot some lyrics), and the halftime entertainment was predictably lousy. My family went ice skating and then to the venerable (and mostly empty) Towne Restaurant. And in fact, I wrote the rest of this post last week, but realized it was more timely for today and just decided to hold off on it. So read on, if bravely!
This week, as per my sort-of directive, I’m going for the ol’ book report post. It is a book I devoured between Christmas and New Year’s (thanks Mom!), Dethroning the King, by Julie MacIntosh. She relates the story of the Anheuser-Bush takeover by Belgo-Brazillian mega-corporation InBev in 2008, a merger that I think is still the largest cash buy-out in history at $52 Billion, every cent of which was leveraged in the shadow of a slowly collapsing global financial system. Quite honestly, though it was as dry as you’d expect for financial reporting in a lot of places (MacIntosh is a writer for the Financial Times), it was generally good reading otherwise and some of the personalities involved are as interesting as any fictional characters ever written; maybe better by virtue of their absolute reality.
Will get you through times of no money...
None more so, perhaps, than August Busch IV, to whom all (even the author) refer simply as “The Fourth”. I was surprised to learn that he attended as an undergraduate my graduate school alma mater, the University of Arizona, where he managed to “get in a little trouble,” as they say. The big question is of course, was he to blame for the takeover? He certainly was CEO of A-B at the time, but had not been for very long. And despite his evident flaws as a leader, the facts could also be read to suggest that his own father (that’s right: “The Third“) sort of threw him under the bus in a number of ways. Not the least of these indecencies was The Third’s installation of an interim CEO rather than handing the reins directly to The Fourth upon his retirement in 2002, marking the first time the company had been out of a Busch’s direct control in it’s entire history. And then even after The Fourth took over formally in 2006, The Third continued to hang around and dilute his son’s power. As well, August Busch III though having admirably brought the company to a +50% US market share (his ani-Miller obsession was a legendary drive) never looked much beyond the US, missing an opportunity in the 1980′s to merge or at least integrate with the very proto-corporation that would one day absorb the company his grandfather founded. The poor relationship between the father and son Busch really didn’t serve Budweiser well in the end, and I felt the two kind of seemed to grate on one another like the long sledge of a Mogwai epic, and so there you have the reference in the title.
The beer's free, but the snacks are BYO
But I felt the company itself was a fascinating character study, too. Sure, a company is a collection of people, but those people, especially under the directive of personalities like the Busch family, create more than a company over 150 years: they create a small but enduring culture. In the case of Budweiser circa 2008, it was a wealthy and corpulent culture with a slipping shareprice and which was in dire need of some serious budget-cutting and self-examination. As an example, all the execs traveled 1st class for everything–that was, if they didn’t ride on one of the 9 corporate jets. (The Third liked to have meetings at the private Lambert-St Louis hangar and also often flew his helicopter into the brewery’s 9th floor landing pad; the Fourth inhabited the soccer-stadium offices more.) And all the way down the ladder the rewards of being a Bud employee were pretty lavish- all employees had a lot free beer, of course. They were basically throwing money around, their profits were so high, and they weren’t watching the global consolidation of the industry emerging in Brazil, Belgium, and South Africa.
Still independent, great with spicy food
At the last, true to form, when a fiercely-wrought deal with Mexico’s Grupo Modelo might have expanded A-B’s size out of reach of the quietly hostile InBev, The Third intonated to scuttle the deal and InBev called A-B’s last bluff, raising their price per-share offer from $65 to fully $70 (A-B was trading at $56 at the time); the rest was lawyers and huge exchanges of money, naturally. An intersting note there is that, had any of InBev’s financiers been unable to meet their monitery obligation and the deal fall though, InBev would have been so indebted to Anheuser that the only legal resolution would have been for A-B to take over InBev! Thecherous indeed: the deal was hardly ever a sure thing for about 5 months.
It was a great book, and I definitely reommend it for it’s description of the high-finance side of beer and brewing. Does it contain lessons for CBW? Well, we do have helicopters in our strategic planning, no question. RC Helicopters. I mean- it’s a big, mostly empty space for now!
