Brewed Musings

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A pot of Oolong Tea

Some of you may have been wondering where I have gone to these past few weeks. For anyone who knows me I am very introspective and periods of quiet are quite normal for me. And that is where I have been. Plus I have been intrigued and engulfed in reading The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a book that has opened my eyes and mobilized me. The following is a quote I read this morning and found it interesting enough to write it down in my journal. So interesting in my opinion that I am going to share it with you. The quote is from Archibald MacLeish on Post World War 2, the U.S., and the peace process:

“As things are now going, the peace we will make, the peace we seem to be making, will be a peace of oil, a peace of gold, a peace of shipping, a peace in brief…without moral purpose or human interest.”

Not too sure how you may view this quote being out of context of the chapter. But like I said it moved me enough to write it down. Perhaps a more moving quote should be the one that I read in a local newspaper which lead me to get Zinn’s book. It came at the very beginning of my introspective period and opened my eyes…or better yet it allowed me the strength to use the voice I have been given.

“People who seem to have no power, whether working people, people of colour, or women - once they organize and protest and create movements - have a voice no government can suppress.” - Howard Zinn

Prost!

a no longer voiceless confucian brewer

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Pot of Green Tea and the return of the Spring Sun

The past few weeks have been chaotic to say the least, something that usually leads my mind to the far-reaches of the cosmos and returns with some ramblings of philosophy and a sense of calm. Alas, that point has not been reached yet and I am still far off in the netherworld taking notes. (Please send some trail mix and another pen.) So I thought I would keep you loyal readers busy with some notes from a conversation I had a while back, sitting with a friend over pints. I will also end it with the one and only thought I had the other day whilst chatting with a very special friend. Enjoy!

Every decision, whether conscious or unconscious, gives birth to a myriad of decisions of conscious and unconscious. Who is to say that nothing is predetermined.

I am destined to die some day. This I know to be pre-determined. All my decisions from birth til now gave rise to our meeting, yet I was not destined to find you.

Just because all things are pre-determined in the cosmos does not mean I will inherit a million dollars. The timing must be 100%. 99.98% and all is naught.

The only place destiny is found is in death.

The previous thoughts came from a conversation a friend and I had a while back about the difference in pre-determined and destiny and whether or not there is such a thing called fate. The point of our conversation was not to debate who is right or wrong, but to get us thinking on a different plane, thinking outside logic. Take it as you will…I hope it stirs something up in your mind. And I will leave you with the following:

Sometimes all it takes to start an avalanche is a whisper.

Prost!

the whispering confucian brewer

Brewed Beverage of Choice: Any good pint you would like to drink during a philosophical discussion

It has been a few days now and I believe it is time for the story that lead up to the previous statement about the talents of assholes. It is one of those statements that are clever at the moment, and depending on you outlook, be it as an optimist or a pessimist, remains clever or simply fades into obscurity. As a Mencian Confucianist, I still believe the statement to be true despite its status in the cleverness realm.

The other night a few of my friends and I were sitting around a table, pints in hand, discussing philosophy. If given the choice of discussing philosophy or politics, I will always pick philosophy. Political discussions tend to bore me because rarely does anything useful come from them save rhetoric and cliché. When I do get involved in ‘em I tend to do one of two things: 1. Sit quietly and let the others resolve nothing; or 2. Become an antogonist just to provoke said others. Most of the time it is the latter option. It seems more fun. But on this night I was around friends who felt inclined to discuss useless philosophy…My forte.

Somehow the discussion turned to “assholes.” Every one knows at least one. Some people attract ‘em like flies on manure. Some are attracted to them. Some, like me, have learned to ignore ‘em for the most part. But there is no escaping ‘em. They are there and not going away. Our discussion started because we have a few in the Timbers Army that we try to distance ourselves from because their actions reflect poorly on us as a group. It is somewhere in this lively discussion where I said, “It takes talent to be an asshole. Thankfully, I am talentless.”

That may sound like a very negative statement. Most people would rather think the opposite: the talent lies in being nice and being honest. To be honest I have a hard time coming to terms with my statement. But hear me out. As a follower of Mencius, who believed that humans were inherantly good, the asshole statement holds true. Which sounds more positive, that one has to try to be nice? or that one has to try to be mean? In my opinion, I would like to think that we as humans do not have to try to be nice. It just comes naturally. A person has to try to be an asshole. They have to perfect that ability. That is where the talent lies.

Do not get me wrong. I do not think I am truly talentless. My talents lie elsewhere. I simply have no talent in being an ass. Our discussion ended, openly, on famous baseball player, Leo Durocher’s quote, “Nice guys finish last.” Many of us at the table agreed that we would rather finish last if it meant that we did not have to step on others to place first. We can argue about this quote on a another day and with another brewed beverage.

Prosit!

the talentless confucian brewer

It takes talent to be an asshole…Thankfully I am talentless…

Brewed Beverage of Choice:  A Pint of Hopworks Seven Grain Stout
For months I have been contemplating the idea of a beer style that was uniquely Portland.  That is right!  I am advocating adding another beer style to the 140+ styles already out there.  Munich has the Municher lager.  Vienna has the Vienna lager.  Dusseldorf…the Alt.  Cologne (Koln)…the Kolsch.  My dilemma, however, is this.  Can tehre be one unique beer style that can fully complement such a diverse culture as Portland?

In Milwaukee and Chicago, two cities in which I have lived, finding a unique style is simpler because both cities still cherish their European heritages.  One would figure a good lagerr would suit them.  In fact when I go home to Milwaukee, the first beer I get is Lakefront’s Riverwest Stein which is an Amber/Vienna Style lager.

I am not insinuating that Portland does not cherish its heritage.  I am still amazed by how much the citizens love their city.  Believe me.  I am one of them.  But I am also one of the majority of modern Portlanders: a transplant.  Native Portlanders are an endangered species.  At least they are in the fact that they are not as vocal about Portland as the transplants are about where they come from.  As one would suspect, this diversity created by the transplants causes an identity crisis of sorts.  It also makes it difficult to come up with something that says, “Portland!”

As beer styles go, the Northwest Pale Ale is the most common answer I get when I pose the question to other beer geeks.  But I find this style too bland to be Portland.  Of course the Portland beer style would have to be hoppy.  After all, we live in the middle of America’s hop fields.  The Portland style would also have to be organic with all the Sustainability geeks who call Portland home.  Again…Myself included.  But organic and hoppy are all I can come up with.

Maybe the answer is to make the beer style more regional.  The Bavarians have their Weizens.  The Flanders region of Belgium have their Sour Red and Brown ales.  Brussels and the Peyottenland have the Lambic and Gueze.  Maybe the answer is to have a style that says we are from the Willamette Valley or the Columbia River Region.  That way we can include Vancouver, WA, Eugene and Salem.

Perhaps the final answer is not to create a beer style that says, Portland.  Perhaps we should just celebrate the diversity within our brewing culture.  You can walk into a brewpub or brewery within the city limits and the tap lineup is as diverse as the culture living within the same city limits.  We have brewers who are doing their own version of the Sour ales of Flanders.  Brewers who do Alts and Kolsch.  Brewers who are masterful at the ales of Britian.  So what better way to celebrate our diversity of culture with a diverse lineup of great artisinal brews.

My mind can and will chew on this for a bit longer.  If you are a geek from the area who has their own idea, send it my way or come to the Green Dragon on April Fool’s Day and we will hash it out over a pint.  Right now I have to get on my bike and finish the last leg of my commute…in the snow…

Prost!

the confucian brewer

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A hot cup of Yerba Mate (10 Days since giving up Coffee…)

A while back I decided to streamline the brewery operations in my little roadhouse brewery. What resulted was not a faster, more efficient way of doing things. The brewery and I felt rushed, disjointed, askew. The other morning while on the train to work I had a moment of satori, an epiphany if you will. My streamlining disrupted the natural balance of the brewery.

It may seem strange to some to think that we could have a relationship with something such as a brewery. Many of the East Asian philosophies, Confucianism included, believe that the universe is made up of a plethora of these relationships. If I am not mistaken, this natural order is called Tao. Native Americans have a similar deep relationship between the tribe and the natural world. If you care to read about their relationship pick up a copy of God is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr.

In Confucianism one must rectify these relationships. They must study them. They must respect them. It is through this knowledge and practice of benevolence, or jen, that order and balance in life is maintained. I have always found this practice intriguing and at one time hoped to use it to teach Lindy Hop.

The Lindy Hop is a form of partner swing dancing that at its finest is fun, elegant and natural. Because it is a partner dance I believe it follows these same rules of relationships. The mistake though is to believe it is just a relationship between a lead and a follow. There is also a strong relationship between the dancer and the floor, between the dancer and the music, and between the dancer and the couples around them. Any disruption of these balances can cause chaos. But, when all the balances are in complete harmony a couple doing Lindy are beautiful to watch.

When I did teach, students would ask where I learned a lot of my fundamentals and movement. I found this question humourous because a lot of my dance comes not from the study of swing dancing and swing music. Most of my skills come from playing basketball, baseball, and even bowling. Yep! Bowling! But I also used what I learned as a physics major in regards to basic fundamental principles of fluidity and the laws of motion. Little of my dance is actually the art of dancing. It is more subtle athleticism and the knowledge of the basics.

And now with my eyes re-opened to these relationships, the balance of the brewery has been restored. My day to day operations may not be quick and easy. But they are efficient and in harmony. I respect my brewery more. Thankfully, she has forgiven me for the disruption.

Prost!

the confucian brewer

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Chalice of Blind Abbot Abbey

For your information, and perhaps you already know this if you happen to read as many beer blogs as I, but there are currently 140 beer styles according to the American Homebrewers Association and the Brewers Association. Believe it…I spent some of the day filing through ‘em all. Of course this revelation set my mind in motion. So as I was walking the White Wonder and subsequently later on as I sipped a pint watching some March Madness, I pondered the question of style.

Sometimes we in the brewing community get too caught up in style. Style serves a purpose in some respects to tell the consumer what to expect from their recently purchased pint of beer. It conveys some history behind the beer and the brewer. But in our culture here in the states we find it necessary to put things in neat little lines. The beers value is based on how close to style it is. Believe me. I am one of the many who at one time or another have stated, “Nice beer but it is not to style.”

This statement reminded me of a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago about a line up of swing bands which played here in town. Someone commented that the bands did not play traditional swing music. Nice music but it is not to style. But the important point brought up, and I cannot take credit for it, was did the musicians swing. Styles even in music can toe a thin line between decent peripheral vision and tunnel vision. Yvan de Baets says in Brew Like a Monk, “Making categories helps the human brain, but it also limits it. Descriptions don’t necessarily take into account complexity.” It is nice to have styles like Extra Strong Bitter or Swing, but there is always something underlying that a style guideline will miss.

In my opinion the underlying factor in beer styles is the brewer. One of the particular reasons I like the farmhouse styles of Northern France and Belgium, as well as Alts and Kolschs, is that while they follow a guideline to some degree they do not let that limit them. In the book Farmhouse Ales Phil Markowski says, “While style geeks insist that beers fall in line, most Belgian and French brewers prefer them to fall just outside the line, provided they taste good and are made by honest methods.” This is what I strive for when I brew up a new beer. The final product regardless of style should at least taste good and will have my own stamp on it.

It would be hypocritical of me to say I have never been one of those style geeks or the type of brewer that brewed specifically to style. Brewing to style is one of the first building blocks in brewing. It is the basics. It is that around which the beer molds itself. Ron Jeffries of Jolly Pumpkin Ales stated it best in Brew Like A Monk when he said the following:

“I brew to the taste. To the vision. Not to the guidelines. This was not always so for me. For years I followed the guidelines, trying to perfectly match any given style. Like the aspiring artist practicing year after year, painting a solitary stick of bamboo, exactingly replicating the master’s work. Only after years of painstaking perfection is the student allowed to add a leaf here, a sprig there. Such can be brewing. After years of pale ale, English versus American, porter, stout, robust, brown and the like, I began to brew differently. Asking not just how should it taste, but how I want it to taste.”

I like that quote because I have studied Chinese Brush Painting and it is just that precise. You spend days, months, years practicing the stroke to perfection. No pictures made. Just one stroke after another. I took what I learned from that experience and practiced it my brewing. Making batch after batch. Conducting one mash after another. Getting the style just right. And now I am to the point where I feel I can add my own spin on that style.

So style does serve a purpose, but too often in this culture it is blurred by competition and taken far too literal. Beers should be awarded on their own merit, a philosophy shared by my friend, Jason, co-owner of Roots Brewing who would rather have praise from customers than medals. So the next time you take a sip of a new brew, ask yourself not is this to style, but does this beer swing.

Cheers,

the confucian brewer

Local brewers take on the whole style issue 

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Cup of Green Tea

There is a discussion brewing (no pun intended) within our local swing dance scene on steps we need to take rebuild our community. As always, a topic such as this brings out some very good suggestions and some not so good. And despite the fact that we all cannot agree on everything, we must remember that there are two important factors that are coming out: one is that there is open discussion, and two, that people care about their local communities.

There is a similar conversation going on amongst brewers within the brewing community, especially considering the crisis regarding hop and grain prices and the lack of farmers growing both. The other day, while we were brewing the Glen Hay Falconer Legacy Brew, a few of us touched on the topic. Christine from Craft Brew Cast asked me specifically about my essay which helped win the Falconer Scholarship. A lot of what I wrote was specifically about how we as brewers must take more interest in the smaller things in brewing like grain and hop farmers. We do well within the craft brewing industry with marketing, maintaining the community of brewers, and educating the general public. But the time has come now where we as brewers must be more involved not only with the farmers, but also the local community around our specific brewers.

I grew up in a small, rural community. What I took away from that upbringing was the value of business owners helping out the community when it was down on its luck. People I recognize and admired were men and women like the grocery store owner, the local publican, and the restaurateur. These people went out of their way to help people in times of crisis. How did we repay them? By giving them business even though something cheaper was a mere 7 miles away. We in the community, at least the new breed that seems to be coming up, are very aware of this need as business owners and brewers. Roots Organic, for example, are donating some of the profits from the sale of one of their beers to help with a local watershed. And now with the grain and hop prices the way they are, we as brewers and owners must take more responsibility in those areas.

I wrote in my essay about my admiration for the owner of Stumptown Coffee Roaster. He goes to every farm and inspects it thoroughly. Everything from quality of the bean to the conditions the workers endure. If one thing is wrong, he will not buy the coffee. He was on record for paying the most per pound for a crop of coffee beans. It is this aspect that I believe brewers and brewery owners must actively pursue. We must go to the farmers of the grain and the hops, meet them and take interest in their work. We should be willing to pay them more so in turn they can plant more, make more, and earn a living. If they saw us as a face and not as an image, they may be more willing to help us out and not plant corn instead of barley. We should take care of our own.

So as I was walking my dog, contemplating the plight of the local swing dance community, I could not help but think of what we as brewers need to do to help rebuild our community. People can only handle so much globalization and mass marketing before they realize their identity is being stripped. I think I have been on my high horse long enough. I will get off now because I think I have developed some saddle sores. Support your local businesses.

Prost!

the confucian brewer (soon to lose his anonymity.)

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Goblet of Rose City Til I DiePA (This was Saturday afternoon…now I am drinking coffee…)

I was sitting at a pub Saturday fulfilling one of my shameless self promotion goals when the property manager for my pub came over to me and told me that I had to go and convince a patron to vote for my Rose City Til I DiePA (RCTIDPA) over another beer in the competition. Normally I do not like doing something like talking up my beers. If it was good enough, it would stand out on its own. But that philosophy is only so good, so I walked over to the booth and started to stump for the RCTIDPA.

There were many ways for me to attack this problem. I could tell him to just buy pints of each make the decision side by side, which I did actually do. Then I could play on the “More Is Better” philosophy that permeates in this culture and tell him that my beer is actually 9.5% Alcohol by Volume and not 8.6% as stated in the program. But it finally hit me as I was speaking to him. I should play up the “Less Is Better” angle of the RCTIDPA.

Of course this topic has been rummaging around in my head for a week or so when I was having two very similar conversations. The first involving a renewed interest in English Mild Ales and Brown ales. These two beers are usually lower in alcohol and, subseqently, in the case of the Mild, are finding it hard to break into the American beer culture. The other conversation involved an article on the farmhouse beers of the Franconia region of Germany. In it, Dan Shelton, a beer importer stated the following:

“When American beer drinkers spend more money on a beer they want more alcohol. It’s a real challenge to sell something that’s not rare in its homeland but that costs a lot to get in. People need to get used to paying for character.”

So how does this relate to the RCTIDPA, which as stated is over 9.5% ABV? Well, the Rose City utilizes one of the most underappreciated factors in brewing: the longer boil time. It is more common on the Continent to use fewer types of grain and getting colour from the longer boil. For whatever reason, brewers in the states inevitably try to throw everything plus the kitchen sink into their brews when it comes to hops and grain. The more the better. I find this tactic to sometimes make the final product a bit overwhelming and “glamourous.” That is glamour for the sake of glamour. Pretty on the outside.

The Rose City only has one type of grain: a local organic pilsener malt. It is practically the lightest malt on the market and if boiled for 60 minutes to 90 minutes, makes a beautiful straw colour. Straw being the colour of a pilsener or some American IPAs. But the Rose City was boiled for two hours and has a pleasant medium orange hue. The two hour boil causes caramelization in the beer, hence the flavour profile is a bit different than if only boiled for a shorter period of time. This caramelization adds a different bit of flavour than if I had used a Crystal or Caramel malt for colour and flavour. When you look at the RCTIDPA in a glass it is remarkable that one type of malt made that colour. See for yourself.

So this is what I had to impress on the voter. The Rose City Til I DiePA packs all that flavour and colour from one type of grain and 4 types of hops. The other beer had as many as 4 grains and 4 hops. The RCTIDPA received more from less. So in a long winded conversation basically it boiled down to “Less Is Better.” I went back several times to talk to this group of gentlemen, but when they were about to tell me who they voted for, I stopped them. There are some things better left unsaid. Same philosophy…

Prost!

the confucian brewer

Brewed Beverage of Choice: A nice pint of Porter…preferably a cask conditioned one…an old favourite I had forgotten about until recently…

Today I picked up one of the local newspapers because there is a weekly article on brewing within its pages. Fred Eckhardt, a local and national beer writer, was this week’s guest author, and he wrote about brewers as artists. While at Siebel, this very topic came up several times. The instructors thought that brewers were not artists because artists create something once and move on to a different project. While this may be true, artists also spend years and years honing their artform to create those works of art much like brewers. So are brewers artists?

According to the second definition in Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary an artist is “one, esp. a public performer, whose work shows great skill.” That to me sounds remarkably like a brewer. A great brewer creates memorable quaffs through great skill and ingenuity. I am not a huge fan of the first definition which basically defines an artist as someone who practices the fine arts. That definition is too circular for me.

As I stated earlier, artists and brewers have the study of their respective crafts in common. A good brewer spends years learning the little details of different varieties of malted barley: their flavour, their colour, how grain from France is different than grain from the Pacific Northwest, etc. A good brewer studies the hops he or she uses, the equipment, and the eccentricities of every yeast strain. Just like an artist who must know about all the mediums, paints, inks, etc. This is how a brewer can be viewed as an artist.

Although I do see brewers as artists, I prefer to use the term “artisan.” The same dictionary defines artisan as “a manually skilled worker,” or a craftsman. The artisan is very similar to an artist. He or she must know the elements to be “molded.” The one major difference is that an artisan creates a work of usable art, something that can be consumed or used as a tool. (Sorry about my own circular definition…) A piece of art can be admired but is, at most times, decoration. (Jeez, I am going to have artists on my ass now…) But an artisan’s work not only can be admired for the skill used to create it, but it also serves a need.

So while I agree somewhat with my instructor’s at Siebel that brewers are not artists, it is not for the reason they give. There is a lot of common ground shared by artists and brewers, skewing the line between them. But by and large, brewer’s are artisans. They are craftsmen and craftswomen who create usable versions of “art.” I guess the bottom line is do we as a society have to change our perception of what art is? Can we say that a finely crafted brew or horseshoe is a piece of art? I do know that walking in a British pub is essentially walking into a museum.

Prost!

the confucian artisan brewer