Two monkey heads in a row. What is going on? Well, for starters, I was messing around on these internets this week and, as is usually the case with ideas beery, I have come to realize again that the asides are the thing that are most interesting. I wondered whether beer really warranted beer nerds in 1985 and this very thoughtful response was written. I left a comment about the Pacific northwest US hop causing indigenous beer and Jeff made a post of it gathering up the idea and moving it ahead. And then I did twooted a twurt, too, and linked to a five year old post and, in a reply, read this:
And to answer the question--saison. Absolutely not biere de garde.
As with the others, it's a tangent but a very interesting one. See, that was not the question. The question from 2007 was an implicit and rhetorical one: what in that day and age as the meaning of "farmhouse" as it is a vague term. But there is that use of absolutely that catches my eye. Are things... or rather is anything in beery thought so certain that it is absolute? I don't think so. If anything lines up for first through the door of slippery thoughts, it's those weird beers of the Franco-Belgian borderlands... and especially their US interpretations. Think about it. If there was such a level of certainty about such things, there would be no need at efforts to reframe them in book after book which in large part cover the same idea: the whole meaning of all beer. The essential guide. The only book you will need. Vis, ie, for example, as it were... -> could there be drearier news?
Does this inherent lack of possibility of certainty leads to unfortunate things? I used to think that the jostling was only due to the small pot of available revenue. But does that explain the premature claims? Weird chippiness? Clever people even being labeled gurus?? ... because, I suppose, if we can't have certain knowledge mystic knowledge is the next best thing. What are the things we can know about beer? I do not ask what is worth knowing. What things are capable of being known? And, for extra points, ought we restrict our selves to those things or is all the other mumbo-jumbo, myth making, rumour mongering the stuff that really makes beer interesting?
Comments
Craig - August 11, 2012 1:42 PM
As Mr. Socrates said, I know that I know nothing. Those six words can go a long way.
Alan - August 11, 2012 5:39 PM
Yet, I look forward to the Atlas as Hugh Johnson's one for wine is a great resource. I have hope for Jeff's own upcoming book. Maybe I am still suffering from the post-OCB blues. I do want more local guides... and drink specific guides, too. The news that Pete Brown is doing a cider guide is very good news.
But another 1293898312 Beers Before You Die or a pan-style guide? Save me. Another article on the history of porter? Save me.
Jeff Alworth - August 12, 2012 9:42 PM
The trouble with me is I'm a hyperbolist. I get it from my dad. Temperamentally, I'm an anti-absolutist, a mushy-mushist. My estimates never exceed 99%. But my instinct to say things in wild hyperbole always undermines me. See: always. There it is. The good thing is I think I've just found the title to my memoir--The Hyperbolist.
I'm really happy to hear you say you're interested in the book. It's taking so long I'm already feeling that sense that it's moment is passed. Plus, it will probably be an unnecessary footnote once Tim and Stephen are done with the subject. But it has been an enormously fun education for me, so there's that.
"And, for extra points, ought we restrict our selves to those things or is all the other mumbo-jumbo, myth making, rumour mongering the stuff that really makes beer interesting?" Remember that when you finally receive a review copy, will you?
Alan - August 12, 2012 10:14 PM
I should have put that in the post. You didn't invent "absolutely" and it is a perfectly good point. Yet... these things get me thinking.
Here's a question, though. After doing all this, would you be inspired to write a regional or style specific guide? I would love to read a detailed study of British pale ale, saison or even the beers of Idaho. With mapping. And critical review telling me which brewer in 1878 sold his soul and which IPA sucks today. Would you go there?
Jeff Alworth - August 13, 2012 12:11 AM
Idaho, state of my birth. I can't see that being a riveting book, but perhaps it's the familiarity.
I do think there are a few avenues left unexplored. I believe people like to read stories. Guide books are a little dull because for the most part they read like Wikipedia. Styles lend themselves to stories, which has promise. (The Beer Bible is structured around styles, sort of, and so I'm getting a bit of a hit of that already.)
Another way to go might be breweries themselves. One of the things I enjoy most is talking to breweries about their businesses. They didn't spring up from nowhere, and each one reflects the personality of the founder--they lend themselves to stories.
Example: There's a guy named Alan Taylor here in Oregon who's looking to found a brewery. He got into brewing circuitously, but definitively. When he was in college, his RA caught him drinking beer and forbade him from drinking unless he could figure out how to brew it himself. A German major, he ended up in Europe and, eventually, in brewing school in Munich. (I forget whether it was Weihenstephan or Doemans.) After he graduated, he managed a brewpub in Germany. Eventually he found his way back to the Widmer Brothers where he stayed long enough to decide he wanted to open his own brewery. At some point, he will open that brewery, and it will have beer, probably good, but we have a boatload of good beer here. I will remember the teen learning how to brew in the dorms far longer than I'll remember the fourth beer in his line.
As always, I'm not sure how you monetize those kinds of stories, but maybe some publisher knows.
(Random side note. I was actually pitching a regional guide when I stumbled across Workman, who pitched the Beer Bible back to me. Since it was a WAY better project, I was happy to scrap the regional book. But you're right--I think it's possible to find a focus in a regional guide that could make it fascinating reading.)