Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Pint of Surly Bender Oatmeal Brown Ale
As I flew home the other day from Chicago, with a two hour layover in Cincinnati, I took out the Book The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters. A very dear friend of mine gave me this book for a gift, and I was getting tired of reading What is the What by David Eggers. As I skimmed through the first section, “The Art of Writing” by Lu Ji, it occurred to me that these 21 poems on the written arts could also be used as a guide for brewers.
When I first started this blog, I expressed my belief that to be good at brewing, we brewers should also study other parts of the brewing arts like coffee. Well, as a Confucian, I also believe that there is much to learn in other areas, like writing. The words of Lu Ji can be used by an Artisan Brewer as much as an Artisan Writer. To take it a bit further, I could not be a good brewer without being a good poet. In fact as I sat on that plane I came to the conclusion that a brewer is like a poet. Beer is liquid poetry. We make something that says a lot with only a few ingredients (Barley, Hops, Water, and Yeast.) Poets create something that says a lot merely by using rhythm, line breaks, and a minimal of words.
So naturally as a brewer of poetry, Lu Ji’s rhythmic treatise on the art of writing spoke to me. It was his seminal work after a life of scholarly Confucianism and military service. I highly recommend it to any craftsperson, or anyone for that matter. He eloquently goes through the steps of writing and breaks them down: such steps as Process, Revision, and what he calls the Riding Crop. He may be speaking of writing but I believe he speaks to everyone. So I will leave you with the one that I thought could be written about brewing if you just change a few words. He has titled this poem “The Many Styles.”
But styles are diverse;
there is no absolute standard for anything,
and since things keep changing all the time
how to nail down the perfect description?
Control of language (ingredients) shows an author’s (brewer’s) skills;
craftsmanship comes when rhetoric pays concept’s bill.
Writing (Brewing) is a struggle between presence and absence.
Wade through the shallows, and if it is deep, swim.
It is alright to abandon compass and square
if you are a mirror held up to real shapes.
To seduce the eye (palette) use a florid style,
but to please the mind be precise.
Still, a full description cannot be confined.
Discourse blooms when it goes beyond words.
Prost!
the confucian brewer
Note to Brewers: Remember that a good beer gets lost between presence and absence.