Monthly Archives: July 2019

Beer Styles, Rituals

A Time For Everything

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I have lived in Toledo, OH for twenty-eight years. One of the things that I like about living in this part of the country is the seasonality of the weather. We have hot summers (average high July temperatures of 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and cold winters (average high January temperatures of 18.4 degrees Fahrenheit). In between we have beautiful spring and fall weather. Before moving to Toledo, I lived in the Phoenix, AZ for four years, where the average high July temperatures are 106.4 degrees Fahrenheit. I still recall June 26, 1990 when the temperature hit 122 degrees Fahrenheit – a record for Phoenix that stands to this day. Before emigrating to the United States in 1985, I lived in Scotland. When people ask me about the weather in Scotland, I jokingly say that if you watch the nightly news, there are one of two weather forecasts – wet with dry periods, or dry with wet periods. Glasgow, where I spent four years as an undergraduate student, gets on average 13 more inches of rain per year than Portland, OR.

The Book of Ecclesiastes (chapter 3) states that, “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens“. And so it is with beer. Just like the weather in Toledo, OH, beer is also a highly seasonal beverage. While all breweries have their year-round flagship brews, almost every craft brewery that I know have seasonal releases – Märzens in the spring, pumpkin ales in the fall, Christmas ales in the winter, etc. Some seasonal beers I really enjoy ( Märzens), while others (pumpkin ales) I can take or leave.

Over the years, I have come to realize that there is a seasonality to my own beer drinking habits. For example, I consume considerably more beer in the summer months than other seasons. This is directly related to the weather. During the winter months, when I spend more time indoors at home I simply do not drink as much beer. For example, I rarely drink beer at home when it is just my wife and I watching a movie on TV. If we have guests, that is a different matter, especially if at least one of those guests is a beer drinker. During the winter months I also go out less to bars and restaurants.

Summer is a different matter. At home, during the summer months, I spend more time outside, mowing the lawn or doing other yard work. Yard work of any type usually ends with a beer to two. Summer is also grilling season, and I never grill without a beer in my hand. One of my favorite summer beer rituals occurs right after I arrive home from work. I usually get home before my wife. So I take advantage of this time, grab a beer from the refrigerator, and sit on the front stoop and consume it. As I sit there, I observe the comings and goings of the neighborhood. I see others arriving home from their workday. I say “Hi” to folks walking their dogs, and even to those not walking a dog. More often than not, Barbara my neighbor is in her front yard pottering away. Barbara is an elderly retired African-American lady, She was there when we moved into our house in 1994. So as I sit and drink my beer, Barbara and I will exchange pleasantries and chat for a few minutes (usually about our yards). Sitting there with a beer in my hand also provides an opportunity to reflect on the workday just completed and to plan for the one ahead. Another habit that I gotten into is to take a photograph of the beer that I am drinking and post it on social media (Facebook and Twitter mainly). I have posted some of these pics below).

In terms of the styles of beer that I drink, I tend to have quite eclectic tastes. Unlike one of my friends who seems to have an IPA in his hand every time I see him (you know who you are Joe), my taste in beer is pretty wide ranging. Even within the space of one evening I can shift from a Lager to a Sour to an IPA. I do however, drink more Stouts and Porters during the colder months, with more Lagers, Sours, and Fruit beers in the summertime.

But sitting on the front stoop of my house with a beer is by far my favorite beer drinking ritual. There is quite a lot of evidence that having daily rituals are beneficial in all sorts of ways – from promoting creativity to giving us a greater sense of self awareness. According to one observer, “rituals, in essence, provide the structure and substance to our every day lives, and without their comforting presence, our lives are thrown into disorganization, uncertainty and chaos.” Who wants disorganization, uncertainty, and chaos in their lives? – certainly not me. Rituals can of course take many forms – exercising first thing in the morning, having coffee with friends at a local coffee shop, taking an afternoon nap etc. Apparently the Swedish movie director,  Ingmar Bergman and the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, took walks everyday to recharge their batteries. As far as beer is concerned, some people have attributed their longevity to having a daily beer. When Mildred Bowers, from Mount Pleasant, SC, turned 103 in 2016, she revealed that a glass of beer at 4pm every day was one of the keys to her longevity. I am not sure if my summer beer drinking ritual is going to add one day to my life, but it sure improves the quality of my life on those days when I do have one.

History, Ohio

Carillon: Honoring the Past

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A few weeks ago, my wife and I were planning an overnight trip to just north of Cincinnati, OH. We were going there to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The drive would be approximately three hours. And given that we’re planning to leave mid-morning we decided to look for a possible lunch venue along our route. Anytime we are on the road and have a lunch stop, I always try to see if there is a brewery where we can eat and have a beer. We figured we would be near Dayton, OH around lunchtime, and so I looked for breweries there. In my search I came across Carillon Brewing Co. I had read about Carillon a few years ago and had always had an interest in visiting it.

Carillon Brewing Co. is a little different than most craft breweries. It is located inside Carillon Historical Park. The park is a sixty-five acre open-air history museum that depicts the history of Dayton from the late-1700s to the present.

Carillon Brewing Co.

Carillon Brewing Co. was established in 2014. One of the brewery’s claim to fame is that it is the nation’s only production brewery that is located inside a museum. Inside the brewery itself, there are displays highlighting Dayton’s brewing history. Like many other city’s across the United States, British-inspired ales were the dominant type of beer produced. When German immigrants started arriving in significant numbers in the 1840s, they introduced Lager to the city. By the 1880s there were as many as fourteen breweries operating in the city, and by 1900 Dayton’s breweries were producing three million gallons of beer annually.

This map inside Carillon Brewery provides information on Dayton’s brewing history in the 1850-1856 period

According to the brewery’s website, all of the beer brewed at Carillon is a “historical recreation of the earliest brews made in Ohio’s breweries.” Many of the processes used to brew the beer replicate those of the nineteenth century. Beer is brewed in open kettles, fermented in oak barrels, and is unfiltered. And when available , Ohio-grown hops are used. Beers on the menu include Coriander Ale, Irish Red Ale, and Pale Rye Ale (no IPAs!). The staff at the brewery are dressed in period costume. With my lunch, I opted for their Ginger Pale Ale. In addition to brewing beer, bread using spent grain from the brewing process is made daily onsite. My wife and I enjoyed some with the soup we had for lunch, and purchased a loaf to take back home with us.

For $150, Carillon offers you the opportunity to be a brewer for the day. It is quite a long day, which starts at 11:00 am and runs until 7:30 pm. While we can read about the process of brewing beer, and even look at diagrams that identify the various steps, it is my belief that there is nothing like a little bit of hands-on experience to enhance one’s understanding.

Carillon offers you the opportunity to be a brewer for the day

While craft beer has bought us a unprecedented diversity of wonderful beers (The Brewers Association recognizes over 150 different styles of beer), it has, I believe, also contributed to a growing appreciation of brewing history. This is manifest in any number of ways. In my town of Toledo, OH, for example, the Toledo Historical Museum organize a History and Hops Brewery Tour, in which participants learn about the city’s brewing history. The tour starts at one of the city’s craft breweries – Maumee Bay Brewing Company. In a similar fashion, the Over-the-Rhine Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (BDCURC) in CincinnatI, OH offer a number of walking tours that recount that neighborhood’s historical connection with beer. In St. Louis, MO, the Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum offer the Beer Barons Tour. The cemetery contains around forty burial sites that have a connection with St. Louis’s rich brewing history. The tour provides people with an opportunity to learn about the city’s beer entrepreneurs.

Individual breweries are discovering and recreating old beer styles that have not been brewed in decades. For example, breweries in Louisville, KY are brewing their version of pre-Prohibition Kentucky Common beer. The city’s Apocalypse Brew Works produce a Kentucky Common beer using a 1912 recipe from the Oertel Brewing Company; a recipe that calls for corn grits.

Kentucky Common – a beer style that was popular in the Louiseville, KY region in the pre-Prohibition era is now being produced by a number of Louisville breweries. The one pictured here was brewed by Louisville’s Bluegrass Brewing Company.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, DE have an Ancient Ales series, whose recipes are based on residue discovered on chemical analysis of drinking vessels from various sites around the world. They do this in partnership with University of Pennsylvania archaeologist, Dr. Patrick McGovern. The result has been beers with evocative names such as Midas Touch, Chateau Jiahu, and Birra Etrusca Bronze.

History is important. It grounds us in our roots, helps us understand change, and can inspire us to learn more. And thanks, in part to craft beer, there seems to be a growing interest in the history of both beer and brewing. This is a good thing.