The Spirit World

Donovan,

Nice post. I recall a recent drive across country and my sadness at how every place seemed the same, with the same names wherever I went. This was a speed trip on interstates only, but still.

I can’t agree totally with your notion of complete segregation of beer by locality though. I too like to travel somewhere and enjoy the distinct products and lifestyle of the region. One of the reasons I like Maine is that it is so different from the rest of the country. Still I can’t travel everywhere and like to try new things.

I think breweries are at least meeting some of your need. Most seem to have brewery only brews. Deschutes here in Oregon does and Dog Fish Head has quite a few too back in DE and MD.

Tripp

Yeah, that whole “keep it local” thing is so hard to do now that we have tasted the wonders of beer from far away places. As a consumer I find it difficult to practise what I preach.

I love travelling because I get to go into an establishment and ask to sample some of the local microbrews. Of course, I’m often met with that stereotypical “we have Bud, Bud Light and Ultra.” Ugh, that trip to St Louis was beer HELL! Even the local micro in St Louis served a Pils that tasted incredibly similar to Bud. The way I see it, any beer recipe that calls for 10 pounds of cornmeal as its main ingredient is going to be horrible.

Anyway, I find that my local market is very slowly, yet very strongly, beginning to migrate to microbrews. I think the strongest factor for the change is that we have one of the world’s best micros right around the corner, Three Floyds - http://www.threefloyds.com/ (best as in ‘has won countless awards and medals’).

One interesting note. My weekend hangout is the local cigar shop. Every weekend, they are on pins and needles to see what new homebrew concotion I’ll bring in this week. The fridge was once full of Bud. It then migrated to better megabrews like Sam Adams. Now, you’ll find mostly unmarked bottles that have been hand-capped. The largest brewhouse in the fridge is Sierra Neveda, which some may argue is a megabrew, but is still fantastic. So, I think that possibly market saturation is the issue. The microbrew’s strongest asset is also its greatest weakness, small batches mean small market availability.

Rarely do I go into a liquor store and find any kind of micro selection. Heck, I’ve been looking for some mead for months now. People won’t buy it if it’s not on the shelves, and they won’t put it on the shelves unless people buy it. So, I think that your arguement that micros should be regional will actually strengthen the megabrew trend that you complain about. Plus, brews like Dogfish Head 90-minute would be unavailable to me, which would be a travesty!

Rob- Sounds like you are doing your bit to improve beer culture in your neck of the woods. If we all work together and put good beer into people’s hands—even if we have to brew it ourselves—some enterprising soul will knock themselves out to get their microbrew on the beer store shelves. Home(craft)brewers secure the beach-head and the commerical craftbrewers will come and rake in the profits. An article of faith? Perhaps, but it seems to be working.

I totally agree with the local thing, for two reasons. One, by volume the main component of beer is water. Water varies all over the world with different trace levels of things. A lot of brewers will adjust the water to make a specific style of beer, which is fine, but why should a beer taste the same in St.Louis as it does in Seattle? Why not let the local character show through?

Two, we buy fresh local food…at least in restaurants. Why not buy fresh local beer. Most produce (blueberries, peaches, apples) grows best in one area or another, why shouldn’t one region be able to make a better weisen, or IPA, or stout than somewhere else?

Although, since the microbrew boom of the 90’s…at least micros are still on the map. And it’s nice to have some largely distributed standards like Sierra Nevada or Anchor Steam. Unfortunately, there’s not an entirely seperate category…(i.e. spirits, wine, beer, and microbrew). Often the microbrew selection is clogged with pseudo-micro…stuff owned by A-B or Miller with flashy marketing and not much to speak of in the bottle (”Wild Hop” from A-B, marketed under “green valley brewing”…sneaky).

Until we have a distributor who can focus on regional markets and go head to head with the big dogs for shelf space, you’ll have to look for specialty shops, pubs, and breweries to get your fix.

Nice article though…agree, there are people who like an american lager and folgers coffee, no problem there. The problem is the imbalance of what’s represented in the market. A tide that will hopefully change.

Brian- You’re right about the water. Why should we burn so much fossil fuel to truck water around? The best thing for the environment is to keep water near the source. So brew local, drink local, and forget drinking the “national” megabrews. The tide will change. Cheers!

Like the first responder, I’m a bit torn on the “buy local” thing.

Obviously, I’m very happy to support my local brewers (or cheesemakers, or farmers, or whoever…), and I make a point of doing so often. But given my appetite and curiousity for trying new things, it’s not practical for me to say “local, and nothing but!”. If I did that, there’s no way I could ever drink a Gueuze or Flemish Red or Kolsch (or enjoy a real Brie, or eat a mango, or…).

Travel is an option, of course, but who can afford to travel everywhere they want to try everything they want?

Don’t get me wrong - I’m sure an imported Czech Pils tastes much better on tap in Prague that it does from a can in Ontario. But until I’m able to get to Prague, why should I go without?

At the end of the day, it’s all about balance. Support the local little guys as much as you can, but don’t cut yourself off from potentially enjoyable experiences just for the sake of sticking to a “buy local” mantra.

Greg-

Well put. I don’t think anyone wants to give up the luxuries of certain foods or drinks. The issue is that Chech Pils or Kolsch hold some historic and hedonistic value. Someone would seek these things out to have the experience, so yes…it’s about the balance between variety and proximity.
But…I personally don’t think the megabrews have much historic or hedonistic value. These are beers that gained popularity through economic hard times. The value of the “american lager” is in it’s consistancy, availability, and price, not in the flavor of the place where it comes from.
A Miller or Bud is not sought out because someone wants to know what it tastes like, only because it’s cheap and easy to drink. So why give so much space on the shelves and at the bar to something with so little flavor? It’s supply and demand I guess, but that’s the good part…it’s the consumer that controls it.

Greg- What about this? Every time we buy our bottle of Flemish Red from Belgium (like I did last weekend) we are taking money away from a local producer that could (in principle) make a sour red from local ingredients. Of course, our economic system doesn’t work this way because of many factors (legal regulations being just one), but it’s just possible that if we invested as much in our local economy as much as we did the global, that the available variety locally would increase. You could now cite all of recorded history in arguing that isolated local economies don’t really work this way, but the 21st century local economy isn’t the same as the one of a centry or forty ago. We can choose to build a non-isolated (in terms of information) local economy of diversity. What does all this economic talk have to do with beer? Well, the new local economy would employ a whole lot more brewers than today’s does and that’s good for beer culture.

Donovan: I get where you’re coming from, but have to take into account that craft beer isn’t a widget than can be made exactly the same everywhere - nor should it be. When I’m in the mood for a Rodenbach Grand Cru, I want a Rodenbach Grand Cru, not a local knock-off. On the other hand, when I’m in the mood for a Mill Street Coffee Porter, I want a Mill Street Coffee Porter, not an imported version of the style.

Like I said - balance.

Greg- “Local knock-off”? Ouch. What if the “local knock-off” is better? Just a thought.

Donovan - I didn’t intend “local knock-off” to be a derogatory term, sorry if it came across that way.

I was just trying to make the point that good beer, like wine, can have a terroir. For example, I would never expect a local brewery to produce a clone of a Cantillon lambic that matches the standards and complexity of the real thing - there are just too many factors at play in producing that sort of beer for it to be possible to replicate exactly anywhere else.

The same may not hold as true for less complex styles, but there is still something about the combination of water, ingredients and a brewer’s art that makes every craft beer distinct.

It’s like listening to a John Coltrane record when you’re really in the mood for Miles Davis - sure, they’re both jazz, but they can’t replace each other.

And even if the local version of a particular style is “better”, that doesn’t mean that I won’t want to have the non-local version from time to time. I love the locally brewed King Pilsner, it’s one of the best takes on the style I’ve ever tried - but sometimes I get a hankering for Pilsner Urquell or Budvar, and nothing but the “real” thing will do.

Greg- I understand what you are saying. I feel the “hankering” sometimes too and as long as I can I try to satisfy it. That’s a choice I make and I’m just trying to remind myself that my compulsion to self-satisfaction is not completely disconnected from the world I live in. I haven’t demonstrated that a world of restricted beer choices would be a better world to live in, so I understand that I have some explaining to do—I better write that book, hunh?

Donovan - yeah, it’s a tough line to toe sometimes. As much as I try to be Mr. Evironmentally Aware, I have to recognize that I enjoy reaping the rewards of our consumerist society, even though my reasons are on the other side of the fence from most people. While the majority seems to be happy with the idea of our global marketplace leading to a monoculture, where they can get the same food, drink or whatever no matter where they are, I’m glad that the same market has given me access to food, drink or whatever that I wouldn’t have been able to try just 10 or 15 years ago.