Tag Archives: Catawba Island Brewing Company

A Taste of Place

In 2009, Amy Trubek, published her book The Taste of Place: A Cultural Journey into Terroir“. Trubeks’ book is about food. In particular, it is about local food and its connection to place.

One of the concepts that Trubek discusses at some length in her book is that of terroir. You may be familiar with this concept, but if you are not, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines terroir as “the combination of factors including soil, climate, and sunlight that gives wine grapes their distinctive character”. While it is a concept most commonly used within the wine industry, it is being increasingly used in discussions taking place around the craft beer. For example, a number of scientific studies show that the same hop varietal grown in two different places will exhibit different taste and aroma characteristics. A study conducted by scientists at Oregon State University showed that “Cascade hops grown in Oregon were characterized by strong citrus, floral, fruity, herbal and resinous aroma. Cascade hops from Washington displayed more tropical and sweaty aroma”. These findings have been replicated in numerous other studies, including one conducted in Italy. The reasons for these differences are quite simple, different soils and micro-climates impact hops differently. As noted by the Italian researchers, “the differences found in the hops were reflected in the beers, which were clearly recognized as distinct by a sensory panel.” In short, hops have terroir.

Approximately, 95% of all hops harvested in the United States are grown in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states od Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The growth of craft breweries, however, has resulted in farmers outside of the PNW experimenting with hops as a crop. Their primary customers are local breweries. Hops are now grown in 30+ states outside the PNW. This provides beer drinkers in states such as California, Michigan, and Ohio to taste beer with locally grown hops. And, because of terroir, one can make the case that they are experiencing a s taste of place.

But hops are not the only local crop being used in the brewing of craft beer. Other locally sourced crops are also commonly used. Earlier this spring, I enjoyed a basil honey ale at one of my local breweries, Earnest Brew Works, whose ingredients included locally grown basil. Other examples from across the country abound. Island Brewing Company in Carpinteria, CA brew an avocado honey ale using locally sourced avocados, while Cape May Brewing Company of Cape May, NJ use local beach plums in the making of their Beach Plum IPA.

This basil honey ale from Earnest Brew Works in Toledo, OH included locally grown basil as one of its ingredients.

Some breweries also forage for local ingredients to include in their beer. Foraging simply means “searching for potable ingredients from one’s own property, nearby park or forest, or even neighbors’ backyards” and harvesting these ingredients by hand. For example, Matt Hofmann, the founder of Sahale Ale Works in Grafton, WI brewed a farmhouse ale that included dandelion heads from a nearby nature preserve. In 2015, Bob Kunz, the owner of Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles, CA produced a Saison using fruits and herbs (lemongrass, sour flower and a half-dozen varieties of lemons and limes) foraged from the back yards of both him and his neighbors. The Saison is appropriately called Yard Beer.

On a recent trip to Italy, I had an opportunity to enjoy another taste of place. I was attending a local food and beer festival in the small town of Lecce nei Marsi (population 1,694) in Italy’s Abruzzo region. One of the local beers available at the festival was an English Browm Ale whose ingredients included the faggiola – beech nuts from local beech trees. The beer, Moricento, is brewed by Beer Park Brewery. What makes Moricento special, at least in my eyes, is that the beech nuts come from ancient beech trees that are located in a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Beechnuts are an ingredient in Moricento English Brown Ale
Moricento – a beer whose ingredients include beech nuts

Lecce nei Marsi is located in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The park covers 50,000 hectares, 60% of which is covered by beech forests. As noted above, the beech forests in the park are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is a somewhat an unusual World Heritage site, as it is part of a chain of beech forests that are spread across eighteen European countries. According to UNESCO, these “ancient beech forests are primeval beech forests that have changed very little over the centuries, because they are preserved in areas that are difficult to reach and because beech trees easily adapt to diverse climatic and geographical conditions. Among the various specimens, there are beech trees over 500 years old”. Thus, when you taste Moricento, you might argue that not only are you sampling a taste of place, but perhaps also a taste of the region’s natural history.

The ancient beech forests of Europe (Source: UNESCO)
Enjoying a taste of Moricento beer at the local food and beer festival in Lecce nei Marse

Further Reading

Carbone, Kayta, Giulia Bianchi, Maurizio Petrozziello, Federica Bonello, Valentina Macchioni, Barbara Parisse, Flora De Natale, Roberta Alila, and Maria Carla Cravero. 2021. Tasting terroir through craft beer: Quality and sensory assessment of cascade hops grown in central Italy and derived monovarietal beers. Foods, Volume 10, Issue 9.

2019 Year In Review

As has been my tradition for the last couple of years, my final blog entry for the year reviews my brewery visits during the previous 12 months. This year I visited a total of 63 different breweries. That is an average of one brewery every 5.79 days. Overall, I visited three less breweries in 2019 than I did in 2018. Of the 63 breweries, 14 were in my home state of Ohio, 46 were in other parts of the United States (excluding Ohio), while three were outside of the United States. In addition to Ohio, I visited breweries in 10 different states – California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Of the 63 breweries I visited, I had been to 15 before (indicated in italics in the lists below). Late in the year, I did manage to visit some breweries outside of the United States. A late-November trip to the Netherlands afforded me the opportunity to visit three breweries in Amsterdam, two of which I had been to before. The most breweries I visited in one day was six – when I participated in The Napa Beer Mile in Napa, CA in February. The city where I visited the most breweries was Charlotte, NC. During a trip there in October I visited nine breweries. At the start of 2019, I set myself a target of visiting 52 different breweries during the year. I easily hit that target. I will set myself an identical target for 2020.

Below you will find a list of all the craft breweries that I visited during 2019. Following this list, you will find one photograph from each of the places that I visited. I hope that you enjoy these. They are intended to capture the beauty and diversity of craft beer and the places that brew and sell it.

Ohio Breweries (14)

US Non-Ohio Breweries (46)

Non-US Breweries (3)

Downtown Joe’s Brewery & Restaurant, Napa, CA
Bierfabriek, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
St. Elmo Brewing Company, Austin, TX
Round Barn & Brewery Public House, Baroda, MI
Catawba Island Brewing Company, Port Clinton, OH
Lazarus Brewing Co., Austin, TX
Pilot Brewing Company, Charlotte, NC
Goodwood Brewing Co., Louisville, KY
Inside the Five Brewing Company, Sylvania, OH
Pavlov’s Brewing Company, Temperance, MI
Earnest Brew Works, Toledo, OH
Black Narrows Brewing Company, Chincoteague Island, VA
Carillon Brewing Co., Dayton, OH
Birdsong Brewing Company, Charlotte, NC
Oddwood Ales, Austin, TX
Tannery Bend Beerworks, Napa, CA
Wooden Robot Brewery – The Chamber, Charlotte, NC
Sonder Brewing, Mason, OH
Against the Grain Brewery, Louisville, KY
Working Draft Beer Company, Madison, WI
Springfield Manor Brewery, Thurmont, MD
Resident Culture Brewing, Charlotte, NC
Fifty West Brewing Company, Cincinnati, OH
Brouwerij de Prael, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Southern Tier Brewery, Pittsburgh, PA
Neon Groundhog Brewery, Grand Rapids, OH
Live Oak Brewing Company, Austin, TX
Corner Brewery, Ypsilanti, MI
Protagonist, Charlotte, NC
South Bend Brew Werks, South Bend, IN e
Atwater Brewery, Detroit, MI
RAR Brewing, Cambridge, MD
Draught House Pub & Brewery, Austin, TX
Brewers at 4001 Yancey, Charlotte, NC
Ghost Isle Brewery, New Buffalo, MI
Der Bekeerde Suster, Amsterdam. The Netherlands
Hillsboro Brewing Company, Hillsboro, WI
Austin Beer Garden Brewing Company, Austin, TX
Findlay Brewing Company, Findlay, OH
Two Bandits Brewing Co., Hicksville, OH
Stone Brewing, Napa, CA
Patron Saints Brewery, Toledo, OH
St. Clair Winery & Brewery, Napa, CA
Pinthouse Pizza, Austin, TX
Bluegrass Brewing Company, Louisville, KY
Heist Brewery, Charlotte, NC
Hops & Grain Brewing, Austin, TX
Beer Church Brewing Co., New Buffalo, MI
Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., Madison, WI
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, Charlotte, NC
Anchor Brewing Company, San Francisco, CA
Bait House Brewery, Sandusky, OH
4KD Crick Brewery, Defiance, OH
Napa Palisades Brewing, Napa, CA
Grainworks Brewing Company, West Chester Township, OH
Railroad City. Brewing Company, Altoona, PA
Tapistry Brewing Company, Bridgman, MI
Legion Brewing, Charlotte, NC
Dented Keg Brewing Company, Mars, PA
Maumee Bay Brewing Company, Toledo, OH
Haymarket Brewing, Bridgman, MI
Trade Brewing, Napa, CA

2018 Year in Review

So another year is about to draw to a close. And with that, it is time to look back on my brewery visits for the year. This year, I visited a record sixty-six breweries. At the start of the year, I set myself a goal of fifty-two breweries, an average of one per week. So I more than met my target.

Of the breweries that I visited, twenty were in my home state of Ohio, forty-one were in states other than Ohio, and five were outside of the United States. In addition to Ohio, I had the opportunity to visit breweries in five other states – Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Texas. Outside of the United States, I visited breweries in Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Of the sixty-six breweries that I visited, I had been to thirteen of them at least once before (indicated in italics in the lists below), which means there were fifty-three breweries that I visited for the first time.

This year, I also kept track of the craft beer bars that I visited. Throughout the year, I visited nine craft beer bars – three in Austin, TX, and one each in  Toledo, OH and Ann Arbor, MI. I also visited craft beer bars in Rome (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal), Zurich (Switzerland), and Innsbruck (Austria).

Creating a list of craft beer bars visited did raise some interesting definitional questions. To qualify as a craft beer bar, does that mean that all beer that it sells must be craft beer? If not, what proportion of the beer must be craft beer? Does a bar that sells predominantly macro-beer, but has a couple of craft beers on tap, qualify as a craft beer bar? I did give this some thought as I set out to create this list. Here is where I ended up, from a definition perspective. To qualify as a craft beer bar, the beers available must be predominantly craft beers. It is ok to have one or two macro-beers, but no more than that. Also, it must have craft beers from more than one brewery. For example, while most of the beers available at the Brewdog bar in Rome are brewed by Brewdog, the bar does have a nice, albeit, small selection of other craft beers. While you may debate the criteria I used to define a craft beer bar, it worked for me.

Below you will find a list of all the craft breweries and craft beer bars that I visited during 2018. Following this list, you will find one photograph from each of the places that I visited. I hope that you enjoy these. They are intended to capture the beauty and diversity of craft beer.

For 2019, I will once again set a target of fifty-two craft breweries. While I am tempted to try to beat my 2018 total of sixty-six breweries, I want to keep this a fun, non-stressful, venture – fifty-two seems a reasonable target.

Ohio Breweries (20)

US Non-Ohio Breweries (41)

Non-US Breweries (5)

Craft Beer Bars (9)

Collision Bend Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH
Torn Label Brewing Company. Kansas City, MO
Grizzly Peak Brewing Company, Ann Arbor, MI
Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO
Basecamp Brewing, Portland, OR
Ethereal Brewing, Lexington, KY
Casual Animal Brewing, Kansas City, MO
Draught House Pub & Brewery, Austin, TX
Hair of the Dog Brewery, Portland, OR
Grapevine Brewing Company, Grapevine, TX
Border Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO
McMenamins John Barleycorns, Tigard, OR
Earnest Brew Works, Toledo, OH
Elbow Lane Brew and Smokehouse, Cork, Ireland
Nano Brew, Cleveland, OH
Great Black Swamp Brewing Co., Perrysburg, OHBlue Tractor BBQ & Brewery, Ann Arbor, MI
Maumee Bay Brewing Company, Toledo, OH
Black Fire Winery & Brewery, Tecumseh, MI
Flatrock Brewing Company, Napoleon, OH
Rising Sons Brewery, Cork, IrelandCatawba Island Brewing Company, Port Clinton, OHBlack Frog Brewery, Holland, OH
Patron Saints Brewery, Toledo, OH
Twin Oast Brewing Company, Catawba, Island, OH
Vanguard Brewing Company, Wilsonville, OR
Anbra Brewery, L’Aquila, Italy
Blueskies Brewery, Onsted, MI
Armadillo Ale Works, Denton, TX
Market Garden Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH
Franciscan Well Brewery, Cork, IrelandDeception Brewing, Dundee, OR
Brink Brewing Company, Cincinnati, OH
Blue Owl Brewing, Austin, TX
Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, OH
Austin Beerworks, Austin, TX
Mirror Twin Brewing Company, Lexington, KY
Wayfinder Beer, Portland, OR
Butcher and The Brewer, Cleveland, OH
B. Nektar, Ferndale, MI
Blue Stallion Brewing Company, Lexington, KY
Brewer’s Table, Austin, TX
Wild Side Brewing Company, Grand Rapids, OH
Brewery Emperial, Kansas City, MO
Little Beast Brewing, Beaverton, OR
Deep Ellum Brewing Company, Dallas, TX
Windermere Brewery, Ings, United Kingdom
Arbor Brewing Company, Ann Arbor, MI
Denton County Brewing Company, Denton, TX
Urban Artifact, Cincinnati, OH
10 Barrel Brewing, Portland, OR
Ill Mannered Brewing Company, Powell, OH
Country Boy Brewing, Lexington, KY
Jolly Pumpkin Cafe & Brewery, Ann Arbor, MI
Rock House Brewing, Lexington, KY
Cotton Brewing Company, Adrian, MI
Atwater Brewery, Detroit, MI
Black Cloister Brewing Company, Toledo, OH
Barley & Board, Denton, TX
Inside The Five Brewing Company, Sylvania, OH
Adelbert’s Brewery, Austin, TX
Double Shift Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO
Max’s Fanno Creek Brew Pub, Tigard OR
Brewdog Craft Beer Bar, Rome, Italy
Cerveteca Craft Beer Bar, Lisbon, Portugal
Banger’s, Austin, TX
The International Beer Bar, Zurich, Switzerland
The Casual Pint, Toledo, OH
Beer Plant, Austin, TX
Hop Cat, Ann Arbor, MI
Tribaun, Innsbruck, Austria
Growler USA, Austin, TX

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2017 – The Year in Review

This is the time of year when many people reflect about the year that is coming to an end. So as I was thinking about a topic for my final blog entry of 2017, I thought I’d compile an inventory of the
breweries I visited during the last twelve months.

Continue reading 2017 – The Year in Review

Back to School at Beer University

TerraEntrance
Terra State Community College in Fremont, OH are exploring the possibility of developing a Certificate Program focused on brewing

Back in February I participated in a meeting at Terra State Community College. Terra State is located about forty miles southeast of Toledo, OH just outside the town of Fremont, OH. Terra State are interested in developing a curriculum for a Certificate Program around the topic of beer and brewing. I was invited to attend the meeting by Ellen Wardzala who is Associate Dean of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) at Terra State. In addition to Ellen there were three other Terra State administrators in attendance. Also there was Mike Roder, the Founder of Catawba Island Brewing Company in Port Clinton, OH.

Prior to the meeting I did my homework on what other colleges and universities across the country are providing with respect to education in the area of beer and brewing. It is apparent that an increasing number of community colleges and universities are offering programs with such a focus. The website of The Brewers Association lists fifteen university-affiliated brewing programs in the United States and Canada, although a more extensive search of the Internet suggests that this list is not comprehensive.

Several types of brewing programs are offered by colleges and universities. These range from individual stand-alone courses, to certificate programs, to fully-fledged undergraduate degree programs. Terra State’s interest lies in exploring the possibility of offering a certificate program. Certificate Programs in many different areas of study are increasingly common at American universities and allow students to acquire basic knowledge of and expertise in an area of study. My own department at the University of Toledo offers one in Geographic Information Science and Applied Geographics. They typically require the successful completion of four or five courses. Certificate programs focused on beer and brewing at American colleges and universities appear to focus in one of two areas – the science of brewing or the business side of the industry.

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Central Washinton University’s Craft Brewing Certificate focuses in the scientific side of brewing

The certificate program at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA is a four-course (ten weeks per course) sixteen-credit program that focuses on the science of brewing. The four courses that comprise the certificate are Principles and Biochemistry of Brewing, Topics and Strategy in the Craft Brewing Industry, Brew Process Technology, and Brewing Microbology. The program is designed for current craft brewing professionals who are interested in further developing their skills and individuals working in other professions who may be interested in a career change and entering the world of commercial craft brewing.

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Portland State’s Craft Brewing Certificate program focuses on the business side of the industry

In contrast, Portland State University in Portland, OR offers a certificate program that focuses on the business side of the craft brewing industry. Again, this is a four-course program with students being required to complete courses in Basic Business for Craft Beverage and Craft Beverage Business Management. Students then have to take two of the following three courses – Strategic Craft Beverage Marketing, Finance and Accounting for the Craft Brewery, and Craft Beverage Distribution. All courses are only offered online with each one taking four to five weeks to complete. The target audience are home brewers who might be interested in commercializing their hobby as well as industry professionals who wish to advance their knowledge of the business aspects of the industry. While brewing is emphasized in the courses many of the principles taught can be applied to operating and running distilleries and cideries.

ShannonWorking
Getting hands-on experience is a critical part of a brewer’s training.

While knowledge attained in a formal classroom setting can be very useful it is only a piece of the training that someone working in (or hoping to work in) the craft brewing industry may find beneficial. The other piece is hands-on-experience and that can come in a variety of forms including an internship, job shadowing, and on-the-job training. Many of the courses of study offered  by professional brewing-focused organizations are hybrid in nature, combining theoretical knowledge with practical experience. The American Brewers Guild (ABG) is one such organization that offers a variety of brewing-focused courses. These include courses in Brewing Science for the Advanced  Homebrewer, Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering, and Lab Practices for the Small Brewery. Some of these courses of study comprise a combination of formal  instruction and practical training. For example the Guild’s twenty-eight week Craftbrewers’ Apprenticeship Program requires twenty-five weeks of formal instruction (via distance learning), one week at a working brewery, and five weeks of on-site practical training at another working brewery.

But spending five weeks in a brewery is not just about getting practical training. It is also acquiring what is referred to as tacit knowledge. Social scientists who study knowledge often make the distinction between codified and tacit knowledge and to to be a successful brewer both are critical. Codified knowledge is that which can be attained from reading a textbook, referring to an instruction manual, listening to a lecture etc. An example of utilizing codified knowledge would be baking a cake using the recipe in a cookbook. However give two people, a novice and a professional chef, the same recipe and chances are the dish produced by the chef will be superior. The difference in outcomes can be attributed to the chef’s tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge are the skills, ideas, and experiences that the chef has acquired over many years of practicing his or her profession. He or she carries this knowledge in his or her head and because it is experiential in nature it cannot be easily shared with and transferred to another individual. It is knowledge that is  difficult to articulate. In a very informative paper Thomas Thurnell-Reed of Coventry University interviewed craft brewers in England. It is clear from these interviews that tacit knowledge is a critical part of the brewers’ knowledge base. Several brewers spoke of the value of spending time in other breweries and seeing how things are done. As noted by Thurnell-Reed “craft skills often draw on tacit knowledge which is often easier to demonstrate than it is to explain and describe verbally” and “being around a working brewery and seeing how things ‘get done’ thus appeals to a sense of tacit knowledge.”

Being a successful commercial craft brewer requires the command and application of wide range of diverse knowledge. Some of that knowledge can be attained from reading, some via the process of formal instruction, and some through on-the-job experience. This knowledge is both codified and tacit in nature. Universities and community colleges can play an important part in helping commercial craft brewers, both current and aspirational, improve their knowledge base, particularly with respect to the scientific and business sides of the brewing industry. This is an emerging student market for institutions of higher education. As such it has the potential to get saturated as more and more colleges and universities recognize and develop curriculum to meet what is surely to be a growing demand. However those colleges and universities that already have developed, or are in the process of developing, their curriculums can get ahead of the pack. And if they provide a high quality product they can establish their reputations and thereby position themselves to be successful even as the market becomes increasingly crowded. So kudos to Terra State Community College for taking the initiative in northwest Ohio.

With respect to the meeting that was held at Terra State I suggested that a valuable next step might be to bring together some local craft brewers in a focus focus group setting and pick their brains with respect to what type of curriculum (both in terms of content and format) might be useful to the craft brewing industry. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of these focus groups.

Further Reading

Thurnell-Read, Thomas. 2014. Craft, tangibility and affect at work ina microbrewery. Emotion, Space and Society, Volume 13, pages 46-54.

Norwalk This Way: Back To The Barley Future

In the 1840s, newspapers in Norwalk, Ohio, published numerous advertisements for breweries begging farmers to sell the beer makers more malting barley. Today, over 170 years later, Norwalk home brewers and craft brewers alike could make the same largely
unanswered request. In fact, in most places in the U.S., local malting barley production does meet the needs of beer makers. The same could be said for hops, but that is a story for another blog entry. Continue reading Norwalk This Way: Back To The Barley Future