Jeff Alworth traveled more than 17,000 miles to six countries in search of beer. He visited 52 breweries from Germany to Japan, chatted with brewers about their process and discovered little surprises around every corner. He drank a few pints along the way.
The result is biblical in scope.
Alworth’s new book, “The Beer Bible,” which was inspired by Karen MacNeil’s “The Wine Bible,” is a comprehensive, style-by-style look at all things beer. From altbiers to swarzbiers, Alworth, a beer writer from Portland, Oregon, covers the gambit of beer styles, breaking down their origins, characteristics and examples. He also sprinkles in historical stories, bios and fun anecdotes throughout the book. It’s a great reference guide for those just getting into craft beer to seasoned brewers.
“I hope it’s a useful tool to learn more about the story of beer,” Alworth said.
Alworth started writing about beer in the late 1990s at Willamette Week. Since then he’s written “The Beer Tasting Toolkit,” and articles for magazines like Draft and All About Beer. He currently helms his own popular beer blog, Beervana.
I recently chatted with Alworth by phone in anticipation of his visit to Seattle on Sept. 10 (see below):
What do you hope people get from the book?
“It’s a reference guide, so I know people aren’t going to read it cover to cover. I think the big things I learned were that national tradition is a huge factor in all of this. Each one of these different styles of beer has its own story. We like to think of beer style as beer flavors, but there is so much more than that. There is everything from cultural preferences to history to wars and tax laws that affected how beers have been developed. I hope people who read it find weird stuff they didn’t know about and find the stories about these different beers interesting.”
What did you learn about American beer from all your travels?
“After traveling to Europe, I did learn that the United States brews differently than any other country. We have developed our own national tradition. We like more intense beers; whatever they are we like them to be more. If they’re hoppy, we want them to be hoppier.
“Also the way we use hops in our brewing is unprecedented. American brewing is still evolving. Other countries used hops as antibacterial and they became part of the flavor profile. In the U.S. we’ve learned that if you put hops later and later in the process, including after the boil, they produce different flavors than if you put them in at the start of the boil. So now many of the flavors we get out of hops come from that post-boil hops.
“We put beers through an American thinking. If we make a kolsch or a Belgian ale, we tend to think, ‘Well, this would be better with a little dry-hopping.’ Give it a little oomph. We all think hops taste so good, so wouldn’t it be better if we did a little bit more. No other country has ever really thought like that.”
Do you feel we’re reaching a saturation point for craft breweries?
“When it comes to brewpubs there really isn’t an upper limit. Gary Fish at Deschutes Brewing says, ‘Nobody tracks the number of coffee shops in America.’ The reason is because if it’s a neighborhood-scale business than you can afford to have almost an infinite number of those.
“But craft beers breweries are getting bigger and that does have a limit. You can only have so many bottles in a store and tap handles in a pub. What we’re seeing with Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitas and breweries like that is they’re trying to become national brands. There isn’t really that many national brands the U.S. can afford. That’s just a fact of scale. There is a scramble right now for large craft breweries to get dominance in the market and become established national players because they know that there isn’t that many that can do that. If you can establish yourself on the national scale now it’ll be a lot easier than it will be in 10 years.”
What surprised you the most during your research?
“I think the thing that surprised me the most was when I visited the Czech Republic. It’s a really cool scene. They have pilsners as we know, but they don’t call them pilsners. They call them “svetly lezaks.” If you order a pilsner, they’ll give you a Pilsner Urquell. They have all these other pale lagers and they’re all different from each other as our IPAs are different from each other.
“One thing in the U.S., we think of only two types of pilsners: German pilsner and Czech pilsner. And we think that the main thing that distinguishes these two pilsners is Czech pilsner has a little bit more Saaz hops. That turns out to be ridiculous. They’re really different beers. When we brew a Czech-style pilsner in the U.S., we’re basically brewing a German pilsner with Saaz hops. They don’t really taste like they do in the Czech Republic.
“To actually be called Czech beer, it has to go through decoction mashing. It’s an old system that pre-dates thermometers. They pull out part of the mash and boil it and then put it back with the mash to raise the temperature of the mash. They would do it up to three times. Every time they did it it would produce melanoidins, these caramely flavor compounds that provide body to the beer and give it a golden color. The beers in the Czech Republic are more rustic and thicker and aromatic than German pilsners.
“They also make these beers called polotmave that are amber lagers and cerne or tmave are interchangeable for dark lagers and they’re all over the place. And I’d never even heard of those styles.”
Is this trend new?
“No, not at all. They’ve always had it. Well, at least the last 150 years. We’re just ignorant about Czech beer. The one explanation is in the 20th century the Czech Republic really got hosed by world events. Thanks to the Germans and the Russians we didn’t have great access to those beers.”
What are your thoughts on Washington beer?
“Seattle beer is so close to Oregon beer I didn’t travel that much up there. It is possible Washington may have gotten short shrift because I live in Oregon — my apologies to Washington. I did give a shout-out to (Bellingham’s) Chuckanut Brewery. I really love them and their beer never seems to make it across the Columbia (River), so I rarely get to try it.”
Are you avoiding the breweries selling to In-Bev and other macro breweries?
“I don’t avoid them, but I’m going to keep my eye on them. Beer is beer and I don’t expect them to get much worse. I think the whole purpose of In-Bev buying those guys (Elysian Brewing, 10 Barrel Brewing) is access to those markets, so it seems to make zero sense to change the beer. On the other hand, I write a lot about beer, and talk to guys who max out their credit cards and work 65 hours a week, so all things being equal I’d rather they had my money than Anheuser-Busch.”
What do you think of the American craft beer boom?
“America is really starting to get it going on. I’m old enough to remember when you’d go to a place like Chicago or New York 25 years ago and go to a pub they’d have maybe one craft beer on tap. That is totally changing now. I think a lot of people look at the percentages, that 10 percent of beer sold is craft beer, and think that that means that only 10 percent of Americans are drinking craft beer. But that’s not true. A lot of the macro beer gets drunk by very few people — who buy it in suitcases. If you look at all the people who drink beer out there, half of them drink craft beer from time to time or regularly. So in any city with a decent population in the U.S. you’ll find a good local craft beer. And in weird places sometimes you’ll find really nice beers. In comparison to Europe, the U.S. looks really good.”
Really? How so?
“When I went to England a few years ago, the ale market occupied 11 or 12 percent of the market. Everything else is lager. You’d go into these British pubs and they’d have one cask beer and the rest was lagers like Kronenburg.
“Even when you get to the types of beer they’re making it’s American-style craft beer. In Prague you can buy American-style IPAs — they call them “eepahs.” If you go to a random German town you may find a brewery and they’re going to have a helles and a dunkel and maybe a weizen beer. That’s all they’re going to have. And that’s awesome and I personally love that. But when you walk into a pub in Salt Lake City, to take an unlikely candidate, you’re likely to find a better beer selection than you would in Munich. That’s kind of a weird and cool thing.”
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @swaney_aaron79. Follow the Hops and Sips blog at www.heraldnet.com/hopsandsips.
Author talk
Jeff Alworth, author of “The Beer Bible,” will discuss his new book, the boom of the craft beer industry and more at an event at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at Book Larder, 4252 Fremont Ave. N., Seattle. To reserve a spot or order the book, visit www.booklarder.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
