Legends, Lore & Malt Bills

When I first started writing about beer, what interested me most was how people enjoyed it. I started off writing about pubs and their cultural impact—what makes towns unique, in my opinion, is its local pubs and the crowds that drink in them. I thought this would always be my niche within the sprawling world of beer.

As time’s gone on, I’ve found—through my interest in wine, weirdly enough—that I’ve become more and more interested in how beer is made. Not in its component parts, but from the brewer’s point of view. Why was a certain malt bill written up? Why did they choose this hop, or that one, when others would create a similar effect? When I read a brewery profile I find myself drawn to the nerdier aspects of the piece these days—their water, their equipment, their personal reasons for brewing in such a way. It’s a job of choices, brewing, just like cooking, or painting. You choose the ingredients, the spices, the paint, the colours. In this way you affect the outcome. After that, it’s up to the people to decide what you meant by it all.

I’ve been writing a brewery profile on one of my favourite breweries for almost a year, and I’m adamant that I’ll finish it today. What I’ve been wrestling with is the content. There’s so much of it. Do I take out detailed information on hop choices to tell the brewer’s personal anecdote? Would it be better to leave in 100 words bordering on brewing academia or skip it for brevity and levity? Is there room for florid storytelling?

This level of doubt is obviously clouding my judgement because it’s been so long since I wrote consistently, and about subjects that require deeper research. I’m out of practice. But I’m also feeling a little out of sync with the beer world since leaving Twitter and, admittedly, extracting myself from the scene for a while. Things have changed, drinkers have become more demanding, perhaps more sophisticated. Or am I wrong about that? Do people still want good old fashioned stories?

Other Stuff

• Pioneering sports photographer Gerry Cranham passed away this week. Here he is speaking to Amateur Photographer magazine about his incredible career.

• Baby snow macaques make snowballs.

• Lecker’s newsletter has a very interesting piece this week about breadmaking, and using proper wheat.

• Brazilian guitarist Bruno Takashy is a vioiliero—a specialist of the Brazilian ten-string guitar or “viola” who experiments with rattlesnake tails as percussion. Obviously after seeing this I went on a deep dive to learn about the history of putting rattlesnake tails into your guitar. It took me to Appalachia.

• In Bologna, men of retirement age who enjoy spending their time watching roadworks and construction sites are called “Umarell”. I am adopting this word.

• If you’re not already subscribed to Rachel Hendry’s newsletter J’adore le Plonk, what are you doing? Sort it out.

My Stuff

• Me, on Dolmitic Limestone

• You might have seen that I have started a new series of features on this newsletter. PROCESS began this week with an essay on Spam.

• I have written a—yes!—brewery profile on Bushy’s which will be printed in the next issue of SIBA’s magazine.

• Pre-order the upcoming Hwaet! zine to read a story by me about witchcraft, brewsters, ale wives and women’s work.

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