Pic(k) of the Week: Brewster Fashion

A brewery is a high moisture work zone. Boots are de rigeur as protective wear for brewsters and brewers. Likewise at beer festivals, such as here, at the World Beer Festival, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on 28 April 2007.

The terms brewster and brewer may have been, for a time, at least in northern England and Scotland, interchangeable terms, feminine or masculine, for one who makes beer.

From the Oxford English Dictionary (as quoted by Martyn Cornell at his beer history blog, Zythophile):

In northern M(iddle) E(nglish), perh. owing to the frequent adoption by men of trades like weaving, baking, tailoring, etc., the suffix [-ster] came very early to be used, indiscriminately with -ER, as an agential ending irrespective of gender.

It is probable that “-ster” was often preferred to “-er” as more unambiguously referring to the holder of a professional function, as distinguished from the doer of an occasional act [emphasis mine]. In Scotland, baxter and webster survived as masculines down to the 19th c.

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• All About Beer Magazine organizes three World Beer Festivals: in Raleigh and Durham, in North Carolina, and in Columbia, South Carolina. The Columbia festival occurs today, 28 January 2012. The Raleigh festival is scheduled for 4 April 2012; the Durham event has no 2012 date listed as of today's post. A fourth festival, in Richmond, Virginia, is no longer held.
• The Pink Boots Society is an association of and for women brewers and beer professionals: pinkbootssociety.org.
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as subject. Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

VeggieDag Thursday: Quick Links

VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post on an animal-free diet and its issues.

• Some thoughts on whether or not to promote veganism as a weight loss diet. Via The Vegan RD.

  The latest research on weight management —some of which was highlighted in a recent article in the New York Times— raises questions about the pursuit of a slender body. ¶ The evidence suggest that the majority of people who lose weight regain as much as 95 percent of it within five years. <...> People who diet may have to exercise more and cut back more stringently on calories to maintain their weight loss compared to same-weight people who haven’t dieted. <...> For many people, however—especially those who have dieted unsuccessfully numerous times—resolutions that focus on healthy lifestyle rather than on dropping pounds could be the best and smartest option. <...> Go vegan, or at least get started on the transition. Eating more plant foods can improve your health no matter what your body size.



• A new 'crop' of farmers in the Washington, D.C. area. Via Flavor Magazine.

  There’s a crisis in farming: The average age of a farmer in the United States is between 57 and 59. Thirty percent of our farmers are beyond retirement age. And the USDA says we need 100,000 new farmers a year – that’s right, every year – to continue American food production at current levels. ¶ Meet the new generation of farmers in the Capital Foodshed. The 29 local farmers under 40 on these pages combine a love for good food and hard work with scientific inquiry, bountiful philosophy, and, in most cases, a finely honed aversion to cubicles.



• Bugs are developing resistance to GMO corn (up to 60% of US crop). Via Yahoo News.

  One of the nation's most widely planted crops — a genetically engineered corn plant [Bt corn introduced in 2003] that makes its own insecticide — may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected. ¶ The U.S. food supply is not in any immediate danger because the problem remains isolated. But scientists fear potentially risky farming practices could be blunting the hybrid's sophisticated weaponry.



• One of the features of Atlanta, Georgia's Botanical Garden is a year-round 'Edible Garden.'

  The garden boasts colorful vegetables to eat 365 days a year, from orange cauliflower in spring to purple beans and burgundy okra in the summer to a kaleidoscope of apples, pears, persimmons, figs, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and muscadines in fall [to cabbages in the winter].

  
  The garden includes an Outdoor Kitchen where Atlanta's top chefs present Cooking Classes, and, every weekend May through October, the Garden Chef showcases seasonal recipes using ingredients harvested from the Edible Garden. Any harvested food not used in educational programs is donated to local charities.



• From the New York Times' Recipes for Health: Sweet Potato Soup with Ginger, Leeks, Apples.


• A beer blogger has an edible New Years' tradition of Black Eyed Pea & Jicama Salad. The recipe, via Musings Over A Pint.


• Prince Fielder, a baseball slugger, is a vegetarian (most of the time). How about vegan bodybuilders? Via New York Times.

  There is little official data on competitive bodybuilders who are vegan, though the Web site veganbodybuilding.com has more than 5,000 registered users. <...> Nutritionists and bodybuilders have argued that a disciplined vegan diet, consisting of things like hemp-based protein supplements, peanut butter, nuts, vegetables and legumes, can yield similar, if not better, results than a meat- or dairy-filled diet. Carefully monitored, vegans can get the same amount of protein with less fat or toxins, they argue.

And ...
• An exasperated mother admonishing her children, as overheard in a supermarket: "No! Olives are NOT a food group."

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• VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post on vegetarian issues. Why the name? Here.
• Prior VeggieDag Thursday posts: here. Follow on Twitter: #VeggieDag.
  
• Suggestions and submissions from chefs and homecooks: welcomed!

Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 2/3, 2012

A non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 2/3
8 January - 21 January 2012

• 2012.01.21
  Mac McGarry to make his final appearance on "It's Academic", the longest running quiz show on TV. Via NPR.
  
  
• 2012.01.20
  Remembering Etta James, stunning singer. 1938 – 2012. Via NPR Blog Supreme
  
  
• 2012.01.20
  British Parliament challenges brewers to produce 'session' beers, with reduced duty. Via BeerNews.org.
  
  
  
• 2012.01.20
  A gloomy worldwide forecast for barley grown for brewing. Via Brewers Association.
  
  
• 2012.01.19
  LewBryson's "American Beer Blogger" video project reaches its Kickstarter goal to fund a pilot episode.
  
  
• 2012.01.19
  After FIFA insists that the 2014 World Cup soccer events must have beer, Russia and Brazil reconsider their stadium alcohol bans. Via Washington Post Sports.
  
  
• 2012.01.19
  No Mo Poe. The mysterious 'Poe Toaster' fails to appear at Edgar Allan Poe's grave for 3rd year in a row. Vigil of over fifty years to end. Via Yahoo News.
  
  
• 2012.01.18
  Virginia wineries cop 22 medals in San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition; Maryland wineries, 2. Via Dave McIntyre at Washington Post.
  
  
• 2012.01.17
  At 2.5 million barrels produced in 2011, Yuengling is now the largest US-owned brewery, surpassing Boston Beer (Sam Adams) at 2.4 million barrels.
  
  
• 2012.01.17
  Wikipedia to go off-line Wednesday at midnight for 24 hours as protest againat SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act bill in Congress. Via Slate
  
  
  
• 2012.01.16
  Draft Magazine reveals its list of 100 Best US Beer Bars for 2012.
  
  
• 2012.01.16
  Anheuser-Busch InBev has NOT acquired Budvar. It HAS acquired the trademark for the name "Budweiser." The Budvar Brewery remains independent, brewing in Budejovice, Czech Republic. As reported by beer writer Stephen Beaumont at his Twitter feed.
  
  
• 2012.01.16
  On this day in 1919, the 18th Amendment —Prohibition— was ratified. The Amendment would take effect one year and one day later, and continue for nearly 14 years until repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. More from Wikipedia.
  
  
• 2012.01.13
  "The Beer Hunter" —a film about Michael Jackson the late beer writer— has reached its Kickstarter funding goal. More at the film's website: www.beerhuntermovie.com.
  
  
• 2012.01.13
  Turn the damn cellphone OFF. What the conductor of the New York Philharmonic did when, while he was conducting Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, a cell phone began to chirp. Via Yahoo News.
  
  
  
• 2012.01.10
  Brewery Ommegang says planned fracking —hydraulic fracturing extraction of natural gas— will pollute its well water, forcing the uptate New York brewery to relocate or close.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Drinking, Again: Bitter & Twisted (review)

An occasional series of reviews of beer (and wine and spirits).
No scores; only descriptions.
From Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland: Bitter & Twisted. Here, served, hand-pulled cask-conditioned —across the ocean— at Rustico Restaurant, in Alexandria, Virginia. 20 January 2012.

In a cultural cross-pollination, Rustico served this Scottish cask ale in a Stange, a 0.2 liter German glass (just under 8 fluid ounces), traditionally used to serve kegged Kölsch beer.

Harviestoun itself has engaged in a bit of cross-pollination. It bittered and flavored Bitter & Twisted with with Styrian Goldings and Hersbrucker, two noble hops from central Europe, more commonly found in lagers. The hops gave a bright lemony character, not the overwrought grapefruit juice 'blunderbuss' of so many U.S. cask ales. The aroma is chased by a fresh yeasty flavor, a hint of biscuity malt, more of that lemony flavor, and a firm finish (again from the hops). At 4.2% alcohol-by-volume, Bitter & Twisted is both 'sessionable' and more-ish.

In 2003, the beer was crowned Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival.

Full-flavored, but elegant. Hops part of the flavor, rather than the only flavor. Alcohol at a level which invites another. Now, that's what I wish more U.S. cask ales would aspire to be.

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• A past official of the Ford Motor Company founded Harviestoun in 1985, in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. In 2006, the brewery was purchased by Caledonian Brewery. It became independent again, two years later, when Caledonian was purchased by Scottish & Newcastle, itself owned jointly by by Heineken and Carlsberg. The international conglomerates wanted nothing to do with small Harviestoun and its cask ales. Our gain!
• Read more on the practise of cask ale in the U.S. at CaskAleUSA.
• Drinking Again is a series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits). The graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Pic(k) of the Week: Fountain, Glass Sculpture, & Lights

In December, the Nepenthes Chandelier —by glass sculptor Dave Chihuly— sat atop a fountain at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

During an annual December tradition —Garden Lights, Holiday Nights— the Atlanta, Georgia, garden was illuminated by over one million energy-efficient LED lights strung throughout the flora of its 30-acres.

30 December 2011.

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• A slideshow of photos from the exhibit: here.


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as subject. Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.