OpenFermenter Open space for fermented beverages

I think back growing up in the 70’s. My dad was true renaissance man in my eyes. He was a mechanic, a plumber, an electrician, a rancher, a teacher, and a fireman. He could fix anything. He had a garage full of tools and he taught me to use them all. Our trucks always had mud caked on them from our ranch where we grew grapes and citrus. I learned to drive on a Ford 400 tractor and at the end of the day, after spending time doing things on the ranch, I was tired and slept like a log.

The common Wisdom has always been that the beverage industry, beer, wine and liquor, is recession proof. That when times get bad, people drown their sorrows in adult beverages. Well, that common belief seems to be wrong, on the whole. Maybe this recession is just worse than the last few we have had. Maybe it is hitting more broadly across the demographics. Maybe the past is not a good predictor of the future. Or, maybe the pundits and economists don't know what the heck they are talking about. Maybe the answer is "E": All of the Above.

It makes sense. Wine and food have always been about people sharing an activity with other people. Wine and food is best experienced with friends. Even when you’re with people you don’t know, wine and food seems to spark the conversation, lower the firewalls, provide the commonality for a shared experience that, many times, leads to discussion and friendships.

When I first heard of Mayfield Brewing company in Belmont, I was intrigued with the beer, the brewery history, and the brewer. The brewer is a microbiologist as well as a beer and wine enthusiast, and a businessman.

The brewery is a reincarnation of an 1868 brewery that started in the San Francisco community of Mayfield, are area now known as Palo Alto. The brewery was serving the local peninsula until it closed down due to prohibition.

Don't expect to give up you day job. But lately, there seems to be more reports and articles about getting paid for blogging about wine than reports about the job market coming back.

Who would have thought that wine blogging would become a leading indicator of the economy turn around? But it makes sense. When times are tough, you tend to recall your passions. That passion might be wine. Or, wine might be the muse that brings that passion to the surface.

In any case, here are some opportunities for a mash up between wine and social media.

Tell them you heard it hear first!

David vs. Goliath. That was the billing. Who was the evil villain in this film? Was is Big Beer, as exemplified by Anheuser Busch? Was it the beer distributors themselves, or the whole schizophrenic American 3 tier system?

One Night Only – April 16, 2009

Beer Wars (the movie)

In the battle for the hearts, minds, and drink of choice of the American beer drinker, there is a war.

Documentarian Anat Baron has chronicled the fight to bring real beer to the American beer drinking public and the steps that the much larger beer industry has taken to keep that from your lips. As he calls it, the “Battle in the Bottle”.

These two beers are from a small, craft brewer in a Flemish borough of Bruges, Belgium
Called Assebroek.

The Brewery, De Regenbook (which means The Rainbow) was founded in 1995 by Johan Brandt and they currently produce about 300 HL of beer per year, making it one of the
smallest of the Belgian craft breweries. Johan is also a bee keeper.

As I continue my series of Belgian beer, I am again struck by the completely unique and distinct character of Belgian beer. More than any other type or style of beer, Belgian beer can be identified immediately as a representative of the style. Where other beer have hybridized from area to area and sometimes it is hard to discern a California Steam beer from and English IPA. A blindfold and nose plug would still not provide anonymity to a traditional Belgian beer.

Today’s beer is from a small brewer in Flanders, Belgium.

Urthel
Hibernus Quentum
Tripel Ale
9.0% ABV