Happy 100th birthday to America's (and the world's?) oldest brewery employee: Henry 'Zadie' Benesch. A World War II veteran, Mr. Benesch works at Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
On Jan. 19, 2020, Henry will celebrate his 100th birthday. He isn’t sure what’s kept him alive for a full century. 'I can’t answer that, but I say I drank from the fountain of youth when I was 17 and I smoked cigars when I was 22 and I’m still smoking cigars and drinking bourbon.' [...] “His badass-ness just rubs off on all of us,” said Union Craft Brewing co-founder Kevin Blodger.
Blodger's fellow co-founder, Adam Benesch, is one of Henry Benesch's 16 grandchildren. On Saturday, he and the rest of Union Craft threw a 100th-birthday party for his grandfather.
Time was, preserving a leaf under a flyleaf was a life memento. Nowadays, there are e-variants thereof. Here: colors of autumn, from October 2019, seen in and around Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
And another: when spring's joy-green, its purchase failing, could yet be seen.
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Pam Bricker & Autumn Leaves
The song Les Feuilles mortes was composed for the 1946 French movie, Les Portes de la Nuit (Gates of the Night) by Hungarian émigré Joseph Kosma with lyrics by French poet Jacques Prevert. The song soon became a popular music standard (Edith Piaf's version, well-known) and a jazz standard. The American lyricist Johnny Mercer penned the English translation, Autumn Leaves.
Autumn Leaves, below, is from Washington, D.C.-vocalist Pam Bricker's 2001 album, U-Topia, named after a D.C. club in which she held a regular gig. Performing with her are her longtime accompanist, Wayne Wilentz, on keyboards, and Jim West on drums. It's a crystalline performance.
Ms. Bricker began her career singing folk music but, after moving to Washington, D.C., transitioned to jazz (and cabaret). In the 1980s, she performed with the vocalese group Mad Romance, then going solo in the 1990s. In the early aughts, she recorded with the acid-jazz Thievery Corporation.
I was fortunate enough to hear Ms. Bricker perform in person, on several occasions, in the early 1990s, at hotel lounges in Washington, D.C. Like any bar and lounge, there was a lot of inattentive audience chatter, an experience she compared to performing like "a living jukebox." Me, I paid rapt attention.
Bricker is blessed with perfect pitch, clear diction, more than average range, and a knowledgeable sense of the lyrics and feel for the beat, all packaged in a clear, cool set of vocal pipes.
There's sad news from YFGF's former bailiwick. Mad Fox Brewing Company, a brewpub in Falls Church, Virginia —a suburb of Washington, D.C.— is closing its doors and spigots later this month, after a nine-year run.
Friends of Mad Fox Brewing Company
July 9, 2019
Friends, Patrons, and Supporters,
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I inform you of the closure of Mad Fox Brewing Company. Our last day of business will be Sunday, July 21st.
The decision to close has been an extremely difficult one to make. We have witnessed restaurant competition in the 2.2 square mile Falls Church City become fierce since our opening in 2010 with multiple businesses opening in the last year alone. As much as we tried to compete, there is an overwhelming number of choices for the local population. Sales have been on a slow decline over the last several years and, unfortunately, staying open is no longer sustainable.
On the brewing side of our business, we continue to see more breweries opening in Virginia with two new Taprooms setting up shop within a mile of Mad Fox in the last year. When we opened in 2010, there were 40 breweries in Virginia. Now there are close to 250. The Brewpub business model is a tough one to maintain compared to a Brewery Taproom with little overhead, lower rents, and outsourced food trucks. Our draw from the surrounding areas has dwindled in what has become an extremely competitive craft beer market, which has resulted in this final decision.
We attempted to work with our Bank and our Landlord for more favorable terms and while both were willing, we ultimately could not come to an agreement that would allow Mad Fox to be break even or better.
We plan a closure date of Sunday, July 21st; however, we plan to continue with our 9-year Anniversary Party on Saturday, 13 July to honor you, our investors, our staff, and the Falls Church Community. Words cannot express how proud I am of the Mad Fox legacy and the opportunity to be a member of such a wonderful community, if even for a short while. We opened the first brewpub in the City of Falls Church and have won numerous medals at the Great American Beer Festival as well as the Virginia Beer Cup. We have celebrated christenings, birthdays, weddings, retirements and many holiday gatherings. You, our guests, along with our spectacular Mad Fox team have enabled us to build tremendous notoriety over 9 years in business. I thank you for allowing Mad Fox to be a part of your lives. Thank you for your years of support and I hope to see you at the Pub in the coming weeks.
Mad Fox has never been known for "notoriety." To the contrary, it has achieved renown for its good beer, often, award-winning —Kölsch, Orange Whip IPA, Mason's Mild, Wee Heavy, to name only four. I —and many more— thank CEO/executive brewer Bill Madden for all of those beers. And for his magnificent real ales.
There are lessons to be learned, unintended consequences, as alcohol laws evolve. Mr. Madden's succinct letter points that out. Closing a business can be a visceral pang; one can read 'between the lines' of his letter.
That being said, Mr. Madden is a successful doyen of the area's 'craft' beer scene, both with Mad Fox and for a quarter-century before that. Beyond his own personal successes, he has mentored area brewers, he has organized beer festivals for brewers (beginning back when that concept was foreign), he has long advocated (and practiced) cask ale cellarmanship, and, last, but not least, he was co-instrumental in bringing good beer to Washington baseball.
His influence is beyond doubt. If past is prologue, good things await him (and beer lovers of the Washington, D.C.-area).
Unfiltered cask-conditioned pale ale, served via handpump
I should like a great lake of ale, for the King of the Kings. I should like the family of Heaven to be drinking it through time eternal.
— Opening line of a poem attributed to Saint Brigid of Kildare
On 1 February, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Brigid of Kildare (c. 451 – 525 AD): a patron saint of brewers and one of three patron saints of Ireland (in league with Saints Patrick and Columba). Brigid herself was a brewer: one miracle attributed to her was turning (bath) water into beer, a gift she has since bequeathed to many brewsters and brewers alike (if without that spritz of sitz).
"Probably the best known Irish saint after Patrick is Saint Brigid (b. 457, d. 525). Known as 'the Mary of the Gael,' Brigid founded the monastery of Kildare, in Ireland. She was a generous, beer-loving woman, known for her spirituality, charity, and compassion.
Brigid worked in a leper colony which once found itself without beer. "For when the lepers she nursed implored her for beer, and there was none to be had, she changed the water, which was used for the bath, into an excellent beer, by the sheer strength of her blessing and dealt it out to the thirsty in plenty."
She also is reputed to have supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen churches, which sufficed from Maundy Thursday [Holy Thursday] to the end of paschal time [52 days]. Obviously, this trait would endear her to many a beer-lover.
It was sad news, yesterday evening, from Fair Winds Brewing in Lorton, Virginia.
It is with great sadness we inform you of the passing of Casey Jones, our owner and CEO. Casey’s vision, dedication, and commitment has been integral to our business from day one. He will be dearly missed.
We ask for privacy for his family and co-workers in this difficult time and will provide further information as it becomes available.
Mr. Jones, a veteran of the Coast Guard, opened Fair Winds in March, 2015. Only a few months later, he and the brewery team won their first medal —gold for saison at the Great American Beer Festival, no less.
The pub is the place that children's fathers get shouted at by children's others for having dallied in. The pub is a landmark in conversation: something happened outside the Rose and Crown; turn left at the King Charles; park your car 100 yards past the Star and Garter. Pub is a three-letter word serves so many purposes. The pub is the place where there is a wooden trapdoor in the pavement. Sometimes, especially in the mornings, the trapdoor is opened, to receive casks, rolling down the ramp. On such occasions, the pub is a parking-place for boldly-painted trucks, and sometimes, horses pulling drays. (The London brewery of Young's is just one which has retained horse-power.*) The pub is the place where lights shine through translucent glass in the evenings, the doors swing open to exhale noisy conversation and beery smells. the pub is the place where stubble-chinned schoolboys sneak in plain clothes to prove their manliness; anyone can fool around with girls, but only real men drink in pubs.
For more than thirty years, British journalist Michael Jackson —affectionately known as The Beer Hunter— was a prolific author of influential books on beer (and whiskey), in which he firmly established the concept of beer type and beer style.
It has been eleven years since Mr. Jackson died and four decades since he published The English Pub, his first book. Pubs have changed; the beer industry has changed; beer historiography has changed; mores have changed. But the Beer Hunter's writing abides.
Those who love the institution will continue to investigate it. Because no two pubs are the same (despite the worst efforts of the big brewers), the search can never reach a conclusion. Therein lies the joy.
I've just received terrible news about a great guy and brewer. Chris Mallon passed away on Sunday.
Chris was the original head brewer for Caboose Brewing, in Vienna, Virginia, which he shepherded from planning, in 2013, through its opening, in 2015, and until just recently.
Prior to that, he had been the Special Projects Brewer at Heavy Seas Beer in Baltimore, Maryland. Or, as he put it: "the Cask & Barrel Kemosabe."
Since leaving Caboose, he was said to be pursuing another brewery project in the area.
Yesterday, on his 70th birthday, Charlie Papazian —the 'godfather' of American 'craft' brewing and American homebrewing— announced that, after his more than forty-year career, he is retiring from the [U.S.] Brewers Association —the advocacy group for small and independent American breweries— that he founded in 1979 (or more properly, its predecessor, the Association of Brewers).
Educated as a nuclear engineer, a homebrewer by hobby, Mr. Papazian, has an extensive curriculum cerevisiae.
He founded the American Homebrewers Association in 1978, when homebrewing in the U.S. was still technically illegal. Today, the hobby is legal in all 50 states. Papazian's efforts were a crucial part of that evolution.
In 1982, he organized (with Daniel Bradford) the first-ever Great American Beer Festival —since held annually, and considered the premier annual national competition for American breweries.
In 1996, he organized the first, now bi-annual, World Beer Cup.
In 1976, he self-published his seminal how-to, The Joy of Homebrew, formally published in 1984 as The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. He is the author of several more influential books on homebrewing, beer, and mead.
In December, Mr. Papazian donated his "charismatic" wooden spoon —the 'high-tech' instrument with which he has brewed and taught homebrewing to several generations of hobbyists and professionals— to the Smithsonian's American History Museum for its American Brewing History Initiative.
Mr. Papazian's advocacy was in no small measure instrumental in shepherding the successful revival of good beer in America. His books inspired and educated successive generations of homebrewers, many of whom would later convert their avocations into 'craft' beer professions (including the author of this blog).
Ninkasi-speed, Charlie! Thank you for all you've done —and continue to do. And, now, as you have long admonished us in your books and in person:
Graham Wheeler —the author of several editions of a seminal homebrewing guide published by U.K.-based CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)— died in late November 2017. His books provided instruction for several generations of budding homebrewers, British and stateside. Many of those amateur brewers —it would be safe to surmise— went on to brew professionally.
I already had been brewing when Wheeler first wrote Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home in 1993, but the book wet my whistle for Bitters. And I haven't lost that since.
In January 2008, I was in a wine & beer bar in Greenville, South Carolina, flogging the beers of my employer.
A vintage record shop shared an entrance with the restaurant.
These days, I avoid such places; they do great damage to my wallet. But that day, finished with the sales call, I walked in. Fortunately for my wallet, my working schedule was nearly filled for the day, so my browsing was limited. I purchased only one CD.
That compact disc was The Main Ingredient, a jazz album that Washington, D.C.'s own Shirley Horn —the late great jazz vocalist and pianist. The session was recorded in 1996 in Ms. Horn's D.C. home...but the quality doesn't betray that. It's an exquisite session of intimate jazz chamber-music
Steve Williams and Charles Ables, on drums and bass, respectively, back up Ms. Horn on piano. They comprise her regular trio. But, then, there's the who's-who remainder of the lineup: a young Roy Hargrove on trumpet; bassist Steve Novosel and tenor saxman Buck Hill, Washington D.C. stalwarts; and drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, stars of the first order in the jazz firmament.
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But wait! There's more.
Printed on the back page of the liner notes is an astounding recipe for...Beef & Beer (and Wild Irish Rose).
Look at the ingredient list. Scroll down to the final two ingredients: a bottle of beer — Heineken — and a lot of wine — Wild Irish Rose.
In case you've forgotten your days of reaching for a quick, cheap buzz, the latter is a sweet fortified 'wine' of a mere 18% alcohol. The recipe calls for a full half pint of it! It suggests you "open a beer or drink & chill"; and, maybe to regain a healthy veneer, the recipe concludes with an underscored admonition: "Remember no salt."
Although the recipe looks like winter comfort food, I've never cooked it (and probably won't *). But, since that day in Greenville, I have replayed the disc many times.
Ms. Horn died in 2005. I am fortunate to have heard and seen her perform live on several occasions. Her music —quiet and sensitive yet insinuatingly powerful— is the main ingredient. It lives on.
Umami and oleogustus! Today would have been the eighty-ninth birthday of scientist Dr. Morten Meilgaard, a man of good taste.
Born on 11 November 1928, Dr. Meilgaard would become a pioneer of the science of beer flavor identification and nomenclature. In 1979, he created the Beer Flavor Wheel, a landmark organoleptic tool that the European Brewery Convention, the American Society of Brewing Chemists, and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas soon designated as an accepted standard. His book, Sensory Evaluation Techniques, became a textbook for sensory science.
Dr. Meilgaard died on 11 April 2009, at age 80. His Beer Flavor Wheel is still being used today by brewers, beer judges, and sensory scientists. His textbook is now in its 5th (and revised) printing. His influence on brewing (and craft brewing) and on the enjoyment of beers is ongoing and substantial.
Above, Meilgaard is pictured in 1962, sailing in Australia (with beer and cigarette), at age 34. The photo is via Stephen Goodfellow, an adopted son of Meilegard, who wrote the following biography to accompany the photo:
Morten Christian Meilgaard was born on Fyn, Denmark in 1928. His younger siblings, Ida, Jorgen, and Erik, followed in short succession. As their father, Anton Meilgaard, was a country doctor, they were brought up in a rural milieu in Morud. Their school was a considerable distance away, and during some winters, they would ski to pursue their education.
Morten caught the travel bug early, taking a road trip with his friends Finn and Torben, pulling a creaky four-wheeled cart around Jutland in 1944, during the German occupation of Denmark.
After WW II, Morten pursued a degree as a chemical engineer and became a research chemist specializing in yeasts for Alfred Jorgensens Laboratorium in Copenhagen. This dovetailed nicely with his love of travel, and his job took him all over the World. He became the Johnny Appleseed of establishing the [nomeclature of] flavors of beer throughout the world, including in Japan, South Africa, and the Americas.
Morten's contribution to the field of sensory science cannot be underestimated; it was truly extensive. Amongst his many contributions, He is the major contributor to the flavor wheel, a Rosetta Stone of sensory evaluation science.
Morten's publication, Sensory Evaluation Techniques, is the educational standard in this field of science. He was quite possibly the foremost expert in his field.
During his work and travels in England, he met Manon Meadows. They fell in love and remained married for almost fifty years, until her death in 2007.
Justin Meilgaard, Morten's and Manon's son, was born in England, 1966.
In 1967, the entire family, including Manon's mother, Doris Meadows, moved from Denmark to Monterrey Mexico where Morten worked for the Cuauhtemoc Brewery from 1967 to 1973.
In 1973, Morten was hired by Peter Stroh of the Stroh Brewery, Detroit, where he worked as Peter's right-hand man until the brewery was acquired by the Miller Brewing Company in 1999, at which point Morten retired.
Even after retirement, he continued to be active in his profession for many years, doing consulting jobs for the Danish Government, working with his co-editors on a revised edition of his book, and donating his extensive collection of brewing literature to Wayne State University [in Detroit, Michigan].
In 2008 Morten returned to Denmark and Sweden to visit family and revisit the important sites of his childhood and early adulthood.
Morten is survived by his younger brothers and sister, Jorgen, Erik, and Ida, and by his sons, Justin Meilgaard and myself.
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Meilgard's Beer Flavor Wheel
[Beer descriptors in the Beer Flavor Wheel] are divided first into those perceived by sense of taste and those perceived in aroma. The descriptors are then organized into 14 categories, each of which contains between one and six descriptors. Meilgaard's aim in creating this wheel was to establish a standard vocabulary of beer evaluation and to this day many organizations use his Beer Flavor Wheel as a reference tool.
A more detailed description of the Beer Flavor Wheel —"Focus On Beer Flavor"— was written in 1997 by Scott Bickham (of the BJCP) for Brewing Techniques, a long defunct magazine whose articles are —thank goodness— maintained online.
In 2016, scientists Lindsay Barr and Nicole Garneau 'updated' Dr. Meilgaards' wheel with their Beer Flavor Map, a graphic explication of beer flavor rather than of chemical analysis. Among other changes, the new 'map' elevated “umami” (savory) and “oleogustus” (fat) to the subcategory of taste and designated “mouthfeel” as a primary sense.
We elected to use the common descriptors to make the Beer Flavor Map useful to anyone that picks it up, no matter if they had sensory training. This structure allows more people to speak using a common vocabulary of beer flavors. The map bridges the gap for people to begin to associate the descriptive vocabulary with the chemicals.
Lindsay Barr works as the sensory specialist at New Belgium Brewing and has her BS in biochemistry and molecular biology as well as an MS in food science and technology. Dr. Nicole Garneau received her BA in Genetics and her Ph.D. in Microbiology, and currently is the curator and department chair of health sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Both are members of the Beer and Food Working Group of the [U.S.] Brewers Association. The team is developing a companion model —to make the technical side of flavor just as accessible as the descriptive —and a mobile app— to combine the descriptive and chemical sides of sensory analysis.
Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of photos taken (or noted) by me, posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as the subject.
Ray Johnson —the indefatigable "I want a keg of your beer" man of Virginia beer— has died.
Rayner M. Johnson (Age 75) of Springfield VA, passed November 5, 2017 from complications of a sudden stroke. He is survived by his loving and supportive wife of 44 years, Kathy; sons, Matthew and Charlie (Anika) and the grandchildren.
If you're a good beer person who doesn't live in Virginia (or Maryland or the District of Columbia) you probably don't know Rayner (Ray) Johnson. But boy, oh, boy, those who do, do!
For nearly 40 years, Ray was an organizer of the Blue-Gray Show, a premier breweriana show of the East Coast. He was a member of the National Association of Breweriana Advertising (NABA) and the Brewery Collectible Club of America (BCCA), and a past national Board member of the latter as well as an inductee into its Hall of Fame. Maybe more so, Mr. Johnson was an indefatigable supporter of Virginia 'craft' beer. He visited every brewery in the state, those extant, some shuttered, and those many planned.
People say if you don't drink you live longer. That's not true. It just seems longer.
Michael Jackson —the ungloved one, the one who didn't drink Pepsi, but the one who drank beer and wrote about it, the Beer Hunter— was an erudite Yorkshire, England, newspaper reporter who was the prime promulgator, in several wonderful books, of the concept of 'beer type' or 'beer style,' a nomenclature based on geography and tradition, and ingredient and process.
Jackson was a man who wrote as well as he drank, who demonstrated that beer —and whisk(e)y— was easily wine's equal (or was that vice-versa?). His concept of 'beer style' —a novel idea in the 1970s when he wrote his first books— is now well-established canon, if twisted well beyond Jackson's original premise.
Michael Jackson appeared twice on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien": first in December 1998 and again, a decade later, in April of 2006. The first was funnier; the second snarkier and more mean-spirited toward Jackson.
Jackson, so public in his advocacy for good beer, long waged a private battle against Parkinson's Disease, its progressively deteriorating symptoms observable as slurred speech, rigidity, and herky-jerky movements. Even at that earlier point in 1998, Jackson was already suffering from Parkinson's effects, although subtly. By the second appearance, very noticeably.
Jackson had plans of writing a memoir of his battle with the disease that he would impishly entitle, "I Am Not Drunk." Not to be. He died on 30 August 2007, at the age of sixty-five.
You can help find a cure for Parkinson's. You can link your home computer into a worldwide distributed computing effort —Folding at Home —run by researchers at Stanford University to better understand protein folding errors, believed to be a cause of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative diseases. I have done so, in honor of Mr. Jackson and of my father —who also died of Parkinson's, five years earlier— in the hope that, someday soon, no one will any longer need to suffer from that scourge. Please consider doing so yourself. There is no cost.
From that evening in 1998, here's another exchange Jackson had with O'Brien. The latter was no match.
Jackson: "This beer was made with hot rocks. [...] Didn't you get hot rocks when you tasted it?"
O'Brien: "No. I don't have a sophisticated palate. I'm like a Pabst Blue Ribbon guy."
Jackson: "You get hot rocks when you wear short shorts. I think that's what you need to do."
To my Baltimore and Maryland readers: a good beer man has died. I'm saddened to report that the family of John Bates released this statement in the afternoon of 22 July 2017:
John passed peacefully today surrounded by family and loved ones listening to his favorite NOLA music. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. In John's honor, have a Sierra and listen to some Blues.
John Bates (on the left in the photo above; on the right, below) was the longtime publican of the Baltimore Taphouse. And many also remember his years, from the latter 1980s through the early aughts, behind the bar at Racers' Cafe, then one of the few places to find 'craft' beer in Baltimore County. As a longtime supporter and advocate for good beer —and local good beer— Mr. Bates introduced its pleasures to many. An all-around good guy, he was a real fan of the blues: he and his wife Kristen shared a passion for the music and city of New Orleans.
In 2004, I reviewed Baltimore Taphouse on the former online beer review site Pubcrawler, a few weeks after the pub (then called Growlers) had opened:
If you've been to Baltimore's Racer's Cafe within the last 15½ years, you may have noticed one constant —bartender John Bates. John began at this northern Baltimore beer destination (and it's still there, thriving) back in the heady days of the late '80s. Difficult to overlook behind the bar, he was the gentle giant, always informative about the goings-on of the nascent and burgeoning local beer scene, and always a calming presence in the 'kettle'.
But past tense is inappropriate. Pushing the geographical boundaries of good beer in Bawlmer, a new beer friendly bar - Growlers Pub - has staked a claim to blue collar northern Canton. John Bates and his charming fiance, Kristen, have recently set up shop in a place of their own. They rehabbed an old neighborhood Patterson Park bar, rechristened it as Growlers Pub, and began serving at the end of February. There were two taps that day- Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and DeGroens Pils.
Since then, they've installed a sparkling new 10-tap system. Now there's Guinness, Dominion Oak Barrel Stout, Anchor Liberty, Olivers Irish Red, Clipper City Small Craft Warning, Sierra Nevada Pale, Victory Hop Devil, Brewer's Art Resurrection, and Dogfish Head Indian Brown. Many of the selections change weekly.
On the 10th tap is a, well, N.A.I.L., North American Industrial Lager. John hopes to wean the long-time locals off of it. Bottles include Belgians and, of course, Natty Boh, hon.
A friend on Facebook thanked John for “all the happiness he has brought into others lives.” Which should be, after all, the real point of 'craft' beer.
For John and wife Kristen, in thanks, I shall indeed enjoy a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale AND listen to the Blues.
***************** UPDATE:
"A celebration of John’s life will take place on August 5, 2017, from 6PM-8PM at Racers' Cafe located at 7732 Harford Road, Parkville, Maryland 21234. In lieu of flowers or donations, John would most appreciate random acts of kindness."
... in (the humbly named 'city' of) Avondale Estates, Georgia, located just east of the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
There, on Labor Day, 1955, the first Waffle House diner opened for business. The building is now, yes, a (working) museum.
I took this picture on 7 March 2017, because of sad news from a few days earlier ...
Joe Rogers Sr., the restaurateur who founded 24-hour diner chain Waffle House with his partner Tom Forkner, died on Friday [3 March 2017]. He was 97. As a young man, Rogers worked as a short-order cook and manager at the now-defunct Toddle House chain. He opened the first Waffle House with his neighbor Forkner in Avondale Estates, Georgia, in 1955. Rogers and Forkner decided to call it Waffle House because waffles were the most profitable items on the menu.
The duo expanded slowly, opening just a few more locations during the restaurant’s first decade in business. But growth accelerated in the ’70s and ’80s and now the chain has more than 1,900 outposts, most of which are located in the South. Even though he was the co-founder, Rogers liked to hop behind the counter from time to time. In 2004, the restaurateur told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I’m not an executive, I’m a waffle cook.” Rogers pulled himself out of day-to-day operations of the chain decades ago, but he was still active at the company’s headquarters into his mid-80s.
Fifteen years since 11 September 2001, remembering the heroes and the victims of that terrible day, the veterans of the war(s) that followed, and the soldiers killed since.
And the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
And you, God's little flowers
May you blossom all around
So that my son
May sleep happily.
Hello, my name is Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, but I am on a world tour. My tour is in pursuit of exceptional beer. That’s why they call me the Beer Hunter.
That other Michael Jackson (1942-2007) died nine years ago, today, of complications related to the neurological Parkinson's Disease. Of his legacy, Gavin D. Smith, a Scottish author on whisk(e)y and beer, wrote this, in a thirteen-writer tribute book, Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser (2009):
The World Guide To Beer was written by Michael Jackson [in 1977]. Almost immediately, the volume earned him a place as one of the most influential drinks writers around. He was to confirm that position during the succeeding years with a plethora of important titles on the subjects of beer and subsequently whisky. [...] The modern theory of beer 'style' was largely developed by Jackson and expounded in this book, with beer classification being formalized into three essential categories of 'bottom-fermented,' 'wheat beer' (also 'bottom-fermented'), and 'top-fermented,' with many sub-division in each classification.
As well as its categorization-based approach, one of the factors that made Jackson's study of beer highly unusual at the time was a passionate attachment to the locale and the manner in which [beer] was drunk, the food it accompanied, and the heritage of the brewing operations in question. [..] To borrow a phrase from the poet WH Auden, he helped [beers] to become 'like some valley cheese, local, but prized elsewhere.'
In the nine years since Jackson's death, and prior, beer scholarship has advanced much, history researched more at original sources, and 'facts' redacted or debunked, but the kernel of what Jackson planted remains, and the tree has grown fruitful. Here's Portland-based beer writer Jeff Alworth, writing recently at his blog Beervana, re-defining Jackson's legacy:
Jackson was fundamentally an ethnographer. He wasn't a brewer and he wasn't an historian. He called himself a journalist, but his biggest contribution was understanding beer in the context of the culture in which it was brewed. He might have approached beer from the sensory perspective, as much wine writing does, or he could have gone out to breweries and described the beer they made, like a simple journalist. Instead [...] Jackson situated beer in a place. He demonstrated how it was an expression of the culture of the people who made it.
The thing that fueled the American brewing revival was how people fell in love with beer, and Jackson's culture-rich writing was one of the main vectors of that romance.
Worth looking for, and looking at, is The Beer Hunter, a four-part video series written and hosted by Jackson, and broadcast in the United States in 1989 by the Discovery Channel. It's a VHS(!) snapshot, now nearly thirty years past, of beer appreciating its nobility but reveling in its common-man freshness (the latter, a joy, that, these days, often seems to be 'experted' and curated away). Jackson provides wit and pith, limning the players, but, as in his books, never upstaging them.
The logical beauty of Jackson's writing remains vibrant even today, when it can still outshine a lot of current writing in praise of 'craft' beer, so fanciful and jargon-draped. Take this Jackson gem, for example, composed on British beer, his first and true love.
Before British beer can be enjoyed, experience is required, but the same could be said for sex. In both cases, mistakes are inevitably made, but the triumphs make the disasters worthwhile.
In 1974, he began his wholesale beer career, flogging Budweiser in northern Virginia. But he would grow to know and love the upstarts, the 'micro-breweries,' and he would never look back.
In the 1990s, he signed as beer manager with northern Virginia wholesaler Select Wines, Inc. to develop a 'craft' beer portfolio.
There, he would guide small breweries through the difficulties of building their brands. He would convince skeptical barkeeps and store managers to stock those beers.
He would be the first to bring the beers of Sierra Nevada to beer drinkers of northern Virginia back when that California brewery was only beginning to grow into the national juggernaut it is today. And he would introduce other further-afield 'craft' breweries, such as Allagash, Abita, and Brooklyn Brewery). In the process, he helped establish a 'craft' beer retail paradigm.
He ... is Ted Curtis — a pioneer of the 'craft' beer business in northern Virginia. And, today, he'll be responsible for his final beer keg delivery. After forty-two years of bringing good beer to the people of northern Virginia, Ted Curtis is retiring. Beer lovers in Stafford, Fauquier, Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church may not see his like again.
Ted Curtis spoke (and speaks) his mind; he's easy with a laugh; he plays a mean drum set; he's old school for a new world.
And he is my friend.
I’ve known Ted for almost 20 years now. He’s a good beer guy – and that’s a high compliment from me. I will miss his enthusiasm and good humor going forward. Have a great retirement!
— Hugh Sisson, Heavy Seas Brewing (née Clipper City Brewing)
So you young'uns out there, never forget to respect all who laid down the foundation. Happy retirement, Ted A. Curtis! Thanks for joining me on drums one more time before your World Voyage, my good friend.
— Jeff Wells, Global Brewers Guild
Ted Curtis is one of the people I have had the great pleasure of working with in my 21 years in the beer community of the Mid Atlantic. That is only half the number of years Ted has been on the scene...WOW! I can remember Ted hauling kegs for one of our festivals in his personal vehicle since the work truck was down for repairs. No doubt, Ted was a bit salty about it, but he relented and made sure we were taken care of, even though the tires on his Explorer were about to burst. That was Ted to a T. As our industry grows and the beer festival seasons grind on, there will be something missing with Ted not there to shed some good humor on us all. I wish him all the best in retirement. Cheers!
— Bill Madden, Mad Fox Brewing Company & Taproom
In the "old days" of Allagash when I was getting started, I spent tons of time on the road in our markets doing ride-withs in all of our territories. I always looked forward to riding with Ted... I learned a lot from him, and loved hearing all of the classic stories from the beer biz that he had spent so much time in. Fond memories for sure... I'll miss him!!!
— Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company
What can we all say about Ted? More than we can put here, I can tell you that.
Ted was an integral piece of where I am today in craft beer. During my early days with Hard Times Cafe back in 1999-2000, Ted helped introduce me to the amazing beers of Baltimore Brewing Company and Clipper City (it's still Clipper City to me.....sorry Hugh!), as well as learn so much more about what Sierra Nevada could be, beyond just Pale Ale and Celebration.....although those were damn great! That is of course how I came to know this man, Tom Cizauskas, as well as the ubiquitous Hoppy Jeff Wells. Just one big happy family.
The early days of beer dinners with Ted and all these guys was my indoctrination to what the craft beer community can be and has become. I've never worked with anyone so dedicated to his customers, so honest in helping them in any way. Now that all culminated into the opening of Ornery Beer Company. Ted has his mark here forever. Ted's dedication to craft beer will be sorely missed around here. I'm honored to call him a friend and damn sorry I missed the big retirement party!
The American 'craft' brewing industry —and make no mistake, a business is what it is— congratulates itself this week during American Craft Beer Week (16-22 May 2016).
For the 11th year in a row, the [U.S.] Brewers Association has declared American Craft Beer Week (ACBW), the nationwide celebration of U.S. small and independent craft brewers. The weeklong tribute provides an opportunity for craft brewers to share their diversity, creativity and passion for the beverage they love with the greater craft beer community. From May 16 – 22, 2016, all 50 states will be holding events including exclusive brewery tours, special craft beer releases, food and beer pairings, tap takeovers and more to celebrate the ever-advancing beer culture in the United States.
In 2015, more than 60,000 beer lovers across all 50 states were also part of the ACBW Facebook Community. With over 4,100 craft breweries now open—an all-time high for our country—there’s even more to celebrate.
American Craft Beer Week is a fitting time to reflect on how craft brewers revolutionized not only the way beer is viewed, but also the landscape of American beer distribution and retail sales in a single generation. Consider that in 1980 there were a mere 42 brewing companies left after decades of consolidation producing, among them, a handful of different beer styles. Today we have more than 4,300 breweries—99% of them small and independent contributing myriad beer styles to a vibrant beer marketplace.
In the last four years alone, the snowballing interest in craft beer has resulted in a doubling of the number of breweries, while the mergers and acquisitions involving multi-national conglomerates and local favorites alike continue to create new challenges. There is little argument that craft beer is booming, but it’s imperative to understand how far we’ve come and do what’s necessary to protect the choices that our craft beer ancestors have enabled. Let’s celebrate and educate, all while inspiring others to join us—either through raising a well-crafted pint or pulling on those boots to brew themselves.
I'll commemorate these seven days in May in a different fashion.
I will not be honoring 'craft' beer's rock stars or its self-regarded revolutionaries; not the tribunes of "epic" nor the 'craft' solipsists; not the markete(e)rs, style promulgators, or experts.
Nope.
In honor of the gals and guys who actually make our beer, I'll be commemorating the week, instead, as American Craft Brewers Week.
Thank you, brewsters and brewers, all 121,843 of you. This beer's for you.
For decades, Mr. Kunze taught brewing, in Communist East Germany. His book, Technology Brewing and Malting, written in his native German — as well as translated into English, Spanish, Polish, Serbian, Hungarian, Chinese, and Russian— has long been a 'textbook' textbook for brewers throughout the world.
Wolfgang Kunze, born on 7 August 1926 in Dresden, made an apprenticeship as “Brewer and Maltster" at the Waldschlößchen Brewery in Dresden (Saxony) from 1947 to 1949. Following he moved to Berlin where he began to study brewing technology at the VLB Berlin and Humboldt University. Against all the odds of the divided postwar Berlin, he graduated as a Diploma Brewing Engineer in 1952. The newly married young father decided - for family reasons - to move back to his home city Dresden which was located in the GDR. There he took a job as a teacher at the Vocational School for brewers and maltsters. What was originally conceived as an interim solution became his professional passion that occupied him for 38 years. So in the course of nearly four decades countless brewers and maltsters from across the GDR went through his classes.
In 1959, he met a request to develop an official textbook for the training of brewers in the GDR. This project was realized in 1961 when the first edition of the book “Technology Brewing and Malting" was published. During the decades the textbook was published in the GDR in six editions, but also became very popular with the brewing trainees in West Germany. Wolfgang Kunzes credo “express complicated matters as simple as possible and in the language of the people” describes one of his key success factors both as a teacher and as an author.
Continuing his career as Director of the Vocational School Dresden, Wolfgang Kunze additionally took over the lessons for brewing technology at the Engineering School for the food industry in Dippoldiswalde (Saxony). However, he refused an offer of the Technical University of Dresden for an unscheduled promotion due to a lack of time. In 1990, Wolfgang Kunze had been replaced by its successor Herwig Bittner, who has been the head of the Vocational School Centre for Agriculture and Food in Dresden until today.
With his retirement in 1991, a new and very active period of his life began. He brought his extensive contacts and experience into the newly founded “VLB Office Dresden”. In this position, he was a respected unifying figure who has rendered great services in the convergence of East and West German brewing industry after the German reunification. In addition, the VLB took over the publishing rights of “Technology Brewing and Malting”, so that the future of this book was secured. In 1994, the 7th revised edition was published by the VLB, later followed by international editions in English, Polish, Chinese, Russian and Spanish as well as three additional German updates. Overall, his work with more than 60,000 printed copies in 7 languages has become one of the most successful textbooks for brewers worldwide.
Wolfgang Kunze was also the initiator of the “Dresdner Brewers’ Day” in 1992. As a joint project of VLB with the Brewers Association of Saxony this meeting devoted mainly to the technical and technological development of the breweries in the new federal states. In its 22nd edition the Dresdner Brewers’ Day takes place on 8 April this year - the first time that Wolfgang Kunze will not be there.
With great dedication, honesty and his Saxon humor, Wolfgang Kunze had accompanied the brewing industry up until old age. He was a regular and welcome guest at numerous trade events and on trade fairs at the stand of the VLB he was always available for an interview, a photo or even for an autograph.
His merits for the brewing industry are documented in numerous awards: He was an honorary member of the VLB Berlin (2001), an honorary member of the German Association of Brewmasters and Maltmasters (DBMB, 2001), an honorary member of the Brewers Association of Saxony (2006), holder of the Bavarian Beer Medal (2008) and awarded with the Golden Badge of Honor of the VLB Berlin (2015).
His withdrawal from public life began two years ago when a serious illness weakened him. Although he temporarily recovered somewhat again, he died on January 17, 2016. Wolfgang Kunze is survived by his wife Christa, with whom he was married since 1948, three children, eight grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and a dog.
Kunze's obituary was published by the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei (VLB), the organization he captained in Berlin, Germany. I defer to its translation.
The VLB is a members association and was founded in Berlin in 1883 by German brewers and maltsters. For more than 125 years VLB has been working in the field of research, development and training for the brewing industry. Today, round about 120 people work at the VLB in the fields of research, teaching, information, consulting and service. As a "Registered Association" VLB is an independent institute, which co-operates with Berlin University of Technology in the field of brewing science and has a very close network into the brewing and related industry. Since 2002 VLB is the sole holder of Institut für Gärungsgewerbe und Biotechnologie zu Berlin (IfGB).
