President Obama’s attempt to ameliorate angst between a cuff-happy cop and a Harvard professor is causing a certain amount of spazz hissy fits amongst the American craft brewing scene. The New York City Homebrewer’s Guild e-list is abuzz with discussion of the Wall Street Journal article describing the reactions of American breweries, large and small, to the choices chosen for the President’s table.
First of all I am glad he invited Professor Gates as well as Sgt. Crowley, because that is only fair. I therefore retract my comments yesterday about drinking beer with stupid people. Inviting the professor makes the gesture more genuinely about fairness and enlightenment, a real effort to promote what we valkyries call “frith” (sacred hospitality) and “grith”, the “peace” which is part of my username, Randgríðr.
Initial announcements did not infer that Gates would be invited too, which was making it look like the President was willing to reward over-enthusiastic law enforcers who end up victimizing innocent citizens. That really pissed me off. But the issue is now moot, so enough said on that, and I am pleased that the President has chosen a way of solving this issue which is well known to be linked to (if not founded in) my own religious tradition.
Anyway, it would seem that Jim Koch of the Sam Adams brewery, Bill Manley of Sierra Nevada, and several other craft brewers have weighed in on the subject of what frosty libations should be offered at the Presidential table. One unfortunate but notable absence is Garrett Oliver, one of the founders of the 22-year-old NYC Homebrewer’s Guild; brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery; and author of “The Brewmaster’s Table”, an authoritative reference on the pairing of food with beer. I am guessing that Mr. Oliver is probably in his way trying to be classy by not saying anything, but I am just another sarge-mouthed tough cookie from Brooklyn and have no such worries, so I am willing to pipe up, LOL!!!
The article is a bit silly in that the thrust of it’s message of protest is that the three beers chosen (Red Stripe, Blue Moon and Bud Light) are apparently all owned by foreign corporations. It is true that Red Stripe is a beer based out of Jamaica, but Blue Moon originally hails from a small craft brewery in Tennessee that was purchased several years ago by Coors, who now distribute it nationwide.
As to Anheuser Busch, don’t EVEN get me started. Does Barack Obama know that John McCain paid for his eight frigging houses by marrying the sugar momma who was heiress to that fortune? As if that beer wasn’t a joke already. Never in my lifetime will I pay money for that stuff. I will only drink it if 1) it’s free and 2) it’s the only thing around. However I will most gladly pick up and cash in the empties, and I say that with a vengeance. That bastard can bloody well help ME pay for MY house, he already has enough of his own, LOL!!!
As for my own brewing activities, this is a very busy time of year for me as a mead specialist brewer. Pennsic, the SCA’s two week private renaissance event, is in progress and all my medieval re-enactor friends who are heading off to it this week are wanting to bring bottles of my own frosty libations; plus there’s a contest to enter and bulk varietal honey to arrange delivery logistics for. So the BrauFrau is bizzy bizzy. I must get back to it, in fact.