And I thought we got a lot of inquiries about working at a brewery......

It never fails, after each tour and a few samples, we get lots of hopeful inquiries about job openings at Philadelphia Brewing Co. I can't imagine how long the lines would be if we had a staff like this Tui's ad:

Beer is Good for you....

We all know that drinking beer makes you live longer....right?

Well, good ol' David April and the Fishtown Beer Runners are living proof that beer loves us and makes us happy. Check this out:

http://fishtownbeerrunners.blogspot.com

Absolutely nothing to do with beer, wine, cheese, or anything other than.....I love Ren & Stimpy:

~JOY!~

Value

Here's something that puzzles me; how do drinkers interpret value for the purchase of a pint of draught, or a bottle, or can of beer?

A lot of this has to be subjective and I'm sure that it's different for each individual. Recent increases in raw material and energy costs are driving up the cost to brew, package, and distribute beer so I think that cost is starting to become more of an issue for even craft brew drinkers. At Philadelphia Brewing Co we've kept our costs low by retaining our local market focus and self distribution.

So, as a consumer, is a $3.00 pint of Newbold IPA or Rowhouse Red a better value than a $3.00 pint of Kenzinger or Walt Wit? As a drinker I would say no. For me, grabbing a couple pints of Kenzinger at a good price while out at a bar is what I'm looking for. I personally don't often drink bigger beers while I'm out - I usually save that for when I'm home or at least close to home :)

For me a $3.00 pint of Kenzinger is what I'm looking for so that represents the greater value.

I can tell you, and it may be obvious, that Newbold IPA and Rowhouse Red cost more to brew than Kenzinger and Walt Wit just because of the greater amount of malt and hops required for those bigger beers. Maybe value for beer is sorta like price+features for some folks. So maybe getting a pint of IPA for $3.00 which naturally costs more to brew than a Kölsch represents a better value for some people.

I know that some folks lump beers into categories based on their style. Is an imported Belgian Abbey Ale worth more than a domestically brewed Abbey-style Ale? If your view of beer is bound to style categories, do you differentiate between an all-malt craft brew like Kenzinger and a low cost lager that uses corn or rice and a whiff of hop extract in order to keep cost (and flavor) low?

What about packaging? Are we conditioned to expect to pay less for beer in a can than we would pay for beer in a bottle? You can get some damn fine craft brewed beer in cans now. Sly Fox and Oskar Blues both make excellent craft brewed beer in a can using the finest malts and hops.

So, we all make value judgments on our beer purchases. How do you make yours?

Maybe I just need to have another Kenzinger! :)

Cheers!

Momentum

Sometimes ideas get momentum and become "truths".

I've already spouted about the evils of Internet anonymity and the rampant habit of posting noxious, vitriolic, and just plain useless opinion or commentary in various forums. It's easy and cowardly to slam somebody's work or opinion when you hide behind some false ID. It's easier than ever to get information out there using Web tools such as blogs and forums. Truth, is becoming more difficult to find. Truth, is being replaced by opinion and hearsay. A lot of the stuff that's out there is either being prepackaged by somebody with an interest in a particular version of a story - like news media spinning things up to sell more advertising; people who are presenting an image of themselves that is just plain false; or people who are just too busy or too lazy to check the facts. I'm guilty of this to a certain extent - the lazy/busy thing I mean. I've accepted certain statements as facts because I'd heard them more than once or from somebody that I thought was respectable. Unfortunately, sometimes even people you respect are too busy or too lazy to check the facts. Sometimes, respectable people accept stories as fact just because they too heard them from a respected source.

It ain't hard to appear to know what you are talking about. Speak confidently and be able to spout tidbits of evidence and you'll gain the support of most people.

The other side of the ease of communication and information access provided by the Internet is the fact that you can find the facts. You can find the truth. It just takes work.

So, here's where we get to the point where we find out why this duffus who only cares about fermentable stuff is rambling on about truth and the Internet.

Well, I read the blogs of a few folks in beer-land who are working their butts off researching and posting information about the history of beer and beer styles. Some of the information that these guys are posting basically pulls the carpet out on a few "facts" about the history of certain beer styles that I comfortably held as fact up until now. These are some pretty widely held beliefs in beer-land North America but the research performed by these guys either completely disproves the stories or shows them to be "Americanized" interpretations - partly true but not historically accurate.

Here's what I'm talking about:

The truth about IPA from Martyn Cornell's Zythophile - I always accepted and often retold the legend of India Pale Ale being so named due to its use to fortify sailors on the trade routes between England and India during colonial times. Martyn provides some pretty compelling facts that debunk this old brewer's tale.


Ron Pattinson ruffles feathers on his Shutup about Barclay Perkins Blog - It is widely held in North American brewing communities that the difference between an Ale and a Lager is the yeast used in fermentation and the process followed for fermentation. Both professional and hobbyist or home brewers would argue this to be fact in North America. Ron brings a cultural and historical argument to light in his post. Germans do not widely make a distinction between beer styles based upon the North American convention of yeast type and fermentation process. To a German brewer, an Ale is a style that comes from England. While I will most likely continue to use the modern, western, terminology to distinguish my brews, I can certainly see that it is a modern use of the terms Ale and Lager. Vive la différence! :)

Ron also got into it with the lovely folks on the RATbeer . com forum - Read this at your own peril; I did and ended up exhausted by the time I finished. Sometimes people can be like a dog with a bone - holding on to their views. The link above takes you to Ron's blog entry - from there you'll find a link to the RATbeer . com thread. I'm amazed how firmly people cling to their own view of the world - where's the fun in that?

Here's one that seems to come back every year - Bob Skilnik fights the common idea that prohibition in the USA ended on April 7 - Man, Bob is a trooper. He seems to post something about this topic year after year. Even the Brewer's Association bought into the April 7th thing and they started to organize country wide events to honor the end of prohibition.

By the way...I should mention that I heard about Ron Pattinson and Zythophile on Lew Bryson's blog - Seen Through a Glass

This may be ironic, but hey - don't believe everything you read on the Internet! :)

Cheers!