We Wants It, Precious: Real and Manufactured Scarcity in Craft Beer, 1992-2012

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Gollum. Gollum.I'll confess: I’m fully aware that's a ludicrous title, but it's absolutely what I'd use if I were to write a slightly overwrought academic monograph on the subject. We've arrived here because I kept intending to write something about beer and 'authenticity,' but that was too pretentious even for an overloaded title like the one above. I toyed with writing about the phenomenology of the beer landscape, but know that would appeal to the three, perhaps four other beer nerd ex-archaeologists who had to read Chris Tilley's A Phenomenology of Landscape back in the 1990s, I decided that, too, was impractical. But I still wanted to land in a similar space: how has beer evolved over the past two decades, and how has the way we experience it changed?

Back in the day - say, 20-25 years ago, at least for the US - the prevailing themes of craft beer* were around rejecting bland, macro-brew lager (recall, microbrew was the preferred term before 'craft' took over) and championing independent small businesses. Commercially-available craft beers had evolved from what was relatively easy to homebrew, so more ales than lagers in general, and there was often an emphasis on British styles; every brewpub seemed to have a brown ale as their flagship, and a pale ale as their entry point. Edgier ones would throw in something vaguely 'Belgian' (really, usually just something a bit yeastier), and those that were more confident in their abilities had German styles that were clearly distinguishable to the first-timer from the dreaded watery lagers sold at your local ballpark. Occasionally someone would really push the boat out, for example, Nodding Head's add-your-own woodruff Berliner Weisse** - a beer I sorely miss – but even double IPAs were relatively rare. It's easy to look back and decide that 'we' - the self-identified group that's decided that caring about quality beer is worth our time and, to some extent, allegiance - have succeeded. As consumers, we can get flavorful, reasonably 'interesting' beers everywhere from the ballpark to the high-end restaurant (though, perhaps, getting the dive bars to serve the local craft brew was the last holdout). But while in many cases the maturity of the beer market has meant you can get a good IPA at the airport, it's also led to the odd experience of *only* being able to get an IPA at the airport; the promise of endless variety has, rather ironically, led to more and more similarity.

Regional differences abound, however; in the Philadelphia area (where you can't buy beer at most supermarkets, convenience stores or similar retail outlets, because THINK OF THE CHILDREN), there is still certainly a focus on local and regional breweries. Despite that, it's much easier to find beers from further afield, whether that means from across the country or the other side of the world. The local emphasis makes plenty of sense economically and from a freshness perspective, but I had no trouble there finding excellent beers from my current coast - there's always Pliny the Elder if you want it, or many San Diego-brewed beers - or British favo(u)rites from Adnams or Coniston, not to mention good representation from Belgium, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and even Brazil. Popular styles fluctuate, but you can always count on being able to find a good lager from Victory (or Germany), an excellent bitter from Conshohocken Brewing Company, a great mild from Yards, or something experimental-but-fabulous from Tired Hands. Yes, everyone also brews an IPA of some sort, but they aren't necessarily company flagships. Local confidence in a great product seems to invite imports and collaboration, rather than a trend toward homogeneity and endless hazy IPAs.

I'm not.YES, WE'RE ALL INDIVIDUALS
By contrast, many - though not all - breweries here in the Seattle area seem to be playing follow-the-leader; there's variety in the IPA (and now, New England/hazy IPA) labels, but the beers are very much the same, and frankly not (again, with a few exceptions) amazing. Finding anything that's not a Fill-in-the-Blank 'IPA' or 'sour' can be tricky. I could write a very long, tedious piece on how 'sour' as a catch-all term is Not Particularly Accurate Nor Useful, but you already know that, so we'll take it as understood, but I'll also happily accept not buying someone's poor-sanitization accident in exchange for having Reuben's Gose or Dogfish Head's Seaquench readily available. But even at my favorite local bottle shop, which has friendly, knowledgeable staff and an interesting selection, there are far more refrigerated cases dedicated to 'sours' and 'IPAs' - 8 of sours alone, to 5 IPA, if you're keeping track at home - and about a quarter of a single case with 'malty' - the few local milds, porters and stouts still available, and many, if not most, of those stouts are 'imperial.'  No doubt this scene is replicated in bottle shops across the US to a certain extent, and this may be part of the shift in tastes that is leaving former ‘white whales’ on the shelf.

While 10 years ago it would not have been remarkable to see people lining up to buy Goose Island's Bourbon County Breakfast Stout, it's now something that sits on supermarket shelves. Some of this is, one presumes, in response to In-Bev's purchase of Goose Island; one wouldn't want to be seen drinking a Secret Macrobeer, because Craft Beer Is Part Of Your Identity. And shifting tastes are no doubt at play to some extent as well, but I suspect two other factors are also in play: novelty and availability. When it was hard to find, either because of true logistical constraints or by design, it was Important and Special. Nownot so much.

Great Notion Beer: I will take all the tasters from the hatersI'm certainly just as guilty as any other beer nerd of wanting to try All The Things; if it's new to me, it's got to be worth a try, right? While this is a lot of fun at beer festivals, and fabulous when traveling, it also means that the number of Really Terrible Beers consumed gets to be a lot higher than the number of Really Good Beers. I'm absolutely convinced the uptick in 'sours' is largely because many newer breweries have not mastered the basics (though, interestingly, they managed to get themselves funded by some means – there’s another avenue to explore), and slapping a 'sour' label on a large percentage of your offerings is a great way to attempt to cover this up. And, frankly, in an industry where a lot of people aren't making a lot of money, but there's a high cost for ingredients and distribution, it's hard to blame them. I'll reiterate that there are breweries that are doing absolutely fantastic things in this space - but more and more of what's generally available in these categories is not even good, and then they don't produce anything basic (or, perhaps to some, ‘Basic’) like a pale ale or pilsner (I know not to even both looking for a bitter from most producers around these parts). For too many of my local breweries, their current lineups seem to all have 2 hazy IPAs, something 'sour' with fruit, something 'sour' without and maybe, just maybe, a straightforward (albeit 7%-ish) IPA. If there's a stout or porter, it's most likely barrel-aged and around 12%.

Once again, I'm all for people who do those things well doing them - but it would be great to see them as a seasonal or otherwise special creation, rather than the only thing available. I recently went out to a new beer-focused restaurant in the area that had 22 taps - not one beer was under 7%, and the vast majority were either hazy IPAs or what I can only describe as fruity nonsense, with no real tie to any particular beer style. I had real trouble finding anything I wanted to try, let alone have more than one of. It seems we've officially jumped the shark on beer styles and variety - there's certainly the illusion of diversity, but when you take a closer look, it's the same thing, again and again. To be clear, I don't believe all hazy IPAs are bad, by any means; I've had some that were very good. My issue is that I can't seem to find ANYTHING ELSE of lateit was so refreshing to be back in London over the holidays, where the variety of beer on offer was a lot closer to what the US had in the early 2000s, and there were, of course, many more beers under 5% (even under 4%!).

Craft Beer CycleI'm not entirely certain whether this is just Where We Are in the beer cycle, or if this is a regional quirk; when we go to Portland, there is certainly plenty of variety and the quality bar is very high, thanks to a very sophisticated local consumer base (and, one presumes, a lot of cross-pollination from brewers moving from one local company to another), and our trips elsewhere on this coast have turned up more pale, cloudy IPAs than I would prefer, though also a wide selection of local stalwarts making things that are recognizably beer to the casual observer. Even tiny Bellingham, up near the Canadian border, punches well above its weight in terms of beer quality and variety. Nevertheless, it still seems that at least locally, in the rush to brew unique beers that appeal to the more hardcore - and much more fickle - beer nerd audience, everyone has managed do exactly the same thing.

But it's not all doom and gloom in Seattle, by any means; it's just a bit harder to get the good stuff than it should be. Machine House makes absolutely outstanding English-style ales, and I'm excited they are opening a second location, but alas, the fact that it won't be family-friendly means I'll have perhaps an annual chance to visit. Their existing brewery does welcome the whole family, but there's not a useful way for us to get there via public transit, so it's also something that means a special trip, not a regular weekend visit (although it's only 10 miles away in the south part of Seattle, it would nearly be faster to drive to Bellingham and walk from brewery to brewery there while enjoying a hotel getaway – but at least that will be less of an issue when our smaller child is old enough to Lyft and/or the older one responsible to babysit – someday). Fortunately, Machine House's cask ales do make an appearance at two bars that are walking distance from my office from time to time - though again, that's something that needs additional planning - but they are often the guest cask at nearby Elliott Bay Brewing, which does welcome the kids, so it's somewhere we may actually visit for a weekend meal. I'm still crossing my fingers that The Shambles, the excellent newish fancy bar across the street from me, will eventually get a hand pump or two; even though they are also adults-only, it's much easier to wander over for an hour when it's steps away. Additionally, Cloudburst makes outstanding IPAs and they are now quite easy to find all over the city, and Reuben's Brews does everything well, goat visits included.

And while much of this probably seems curmudgeonly (and you're not wrong to think that, by any means), although I've never seen a glitter beer in the wild, I'd absolutely try one, at least once - I'd just like to follow it up with a great ESB.

* Why I stick with the term 'craft beer' (for now): although I agree with the sentiment that it's largely meaningless to beer nerds, it does mean something to the wider public: seeing 'craft beer' listed on your airplane menu card or at the racetrack is at least a guarantee that you can get something better than a Bud Light - it may well be a 'crafty' beer owned or distributed by InBev or another global conglomerate (most likely, in that case, a former independent brewer), but it does mean that your bump up to business class is going to taste better than it might have.

** And a bit more about Nodding Head's Ich bin ein Berliner Berliner Weisse - they were brewing it back in 2000, long before most breweries anywhere in the world realized there was such potential in a once-obscure German beer style. They've always kept it traditional; your woodruff or raspberry syrup is on the side, to add to your taste, and when we lived in the Philly area, it was something I looked forward to every summer at their now-shuttered brewpub (though their excellent beers continue to be brewed elsewhere). While I'm very pleased that there are now a lot of Berliner Weisse-style beers generally available, I wouldn't classify them all as Berliner Weisses.

So many come pre-loaded with fruit flavors of every kind, and there is the inevitable wave of 'imperial' takes on the style that just don't appeal to me (though, clearly, they must appeal to someone) that it makes it harder to find something closer to the real deal, though I've just been reliably informed that Stoup Brewing has just released theirs, and it sounds delightful (but finding it beyond the brewery with the woodruff option will likely be tricky). I also want to make a special mention of Cactus Wins the Lottery from Ex Novo Brewing in Portland - it's a prickly pear Berliner Weisse that has similarities to nearly everything I've just complained about, but it's absolutely glorious. If you're going to go weird, do it right.

Thus concludes my slightly ranty footnote on Berliner Weisses.

Disney Aulani: Water, Entertainment & Spa Delight

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Welcome back to the final installment of our Disney Aulani musings and protips. Today’s wholly-unsolicited-but-largely-positive thoughts are on the pools, beach, entertainment and (amazing) spa. Dive in.

Pools & Beach
Surly teen is actually having a good time.The pools and hot tubs at Aulani are set around the 'volcano' in the center of the resort; the volcano in question houses two waterslides and is surrounded by the lazy river. There are a few adults-only pools and hot tubs, while most welcome the whole family, but the distribution seems to be close to ideal; I never had a problem finding a calm, quiet, child-free zone when looking for that, and I also found plenty of room to take my kids into beautiful pools and hot tubs, some overlooking the beach and ocean, and one hidden in a bend in the lazy river. As with other Disney resort pools, you show your room key to get a wrist band for pool access and a towel (and vest, for the not-quite-swimming smaller child), though finding a place to put them while you're actually swimming can be a bit of a challenge. There are cubbies next to the snorkeling facilities at Rainbow Reef - also right in the center of the resort - but for the pools, you are left to your own devices to find an empty pool chair to set down your towel and anything else you might have (sandals, etc.). More cubbies would be wonderful; I rarely needed a chair, but would love to have had a convenient place to stash my sandals and towels near the pools.

That would have been especially useful for the (really quite long) periods of time I was watching my smaller child on the Menehune Bridge (more on the Menehune themselves below), which she thought was the best thing that has ever been created - she would have happily stayed there all day. Aimed mostly at the under-5 set, it's a climbing/splashing/sliding structure with a seemingly endless ability to hold the interest of young children. It's not especially restful for the adults, since monitoring kids on the bridge involves a lot of moving back and forth (there's not a single spot that gives you a line of sight across the whole structure, so it's not a question of just relaxing in a pool chair while they splash, especially if they can't swim) - you may be carrying all your things with you while they play. But given that you also have the option of dropping them off at Aunty's Beach House, this need not be your entire vacation, and the kids adore it.

I could have happily stayed on the lazy river in the center of the resort for hours if I didn't need to constantly re-apply sunscreen, and the Volcano Vertical waterslide was gentle-yet-exciting enough for the 3 year old to go on with me. We spent less time at the beach (though it was beautiful, and we did look at it frequently at it from the restaurants, pools and hot tubs), but it was also wonderful. Chairs (with umbrellas) are free for Aulani visitors, and you can borrow sand toys and boogie boards at no additional cost. The Four Seasons part of the beach, only steps away, was nearly always deserted, despite the calm, warm waters and beautiful setting; there seemed to be much, much more to do on the Aulani side.

Music & Entertainment
At the luauWhile I was not expecting a Love Boat-style luau - although that was probably my primary exposure to the concept as a child - I was very impressed by the performances at the (optional add-on) Ka Wa'a luau. Granted, this is Disney, and they generally do a great job of getting top-quality performers at the parks (and, of course, in their wildly successful Broadway shows), but it really exceeded expectations. There's just enough exposure to Mickey and Minnie to keep the smaller children happy, but the full performance is thoughtfully constructed and expertly performed; no one is phoning this in. The actor playing 'Uncle,' in particular, reminded us very much of Brian Stokes Mitchell, at least vocally - for Broadway nerds like us, this was fantastic. The more traditional parts of the performance were the highlights, and they even manage to work in some mild references to colonialism not being so amazing for the native Hawaiians; Song of the South this is not (although it is a little odd to hear a Hawaiian-language version of 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' in the hotel elevators - I get that it's hard to repackage any intellectual property from Song of the South for a modern audience, but it's still a bit jarring to hear).

But back to Ka Wa'a - the food is also very good, and the pre-show activities, including taro pounding and 'tattoos' were very engaging for the kids (even the surlier teens); the performers do an amazing job of patiently dealing with children and adult tourists before putting on a physically-demanding show, as well as posing for photos before and after.

Hawaiian culture, filtered through Disney magic, is also aimed squarely at the kids via the Menehune Adventure Trail(s). There are two options: a shorter version that's largely indoors (mostly in the lobby), and a longer one that winds through the pools and gardens in the center of the resort. The conceit is that the Menehune, Hawaii's mythical craftspeople, are quietly working their magic around the resort, and that with the help of Aunty and some positive thinking, you can glimpse some of their hidden influence.  Once again, the actors in what could have been a very cheesy prepackaged entertainment segment were really wonderful; fully committed to the storyline, and educating everyone along the way.

You check out a tablet from the Pau Hana Community Hall (between 10-7 for the shorter one, and 3-7 for the longer one - unless, of course, you are a DISNEY VACATION CLUB MEMBER*, and then you have more options - plus sparkly pool bracelets) and follow the video instructions from 'Aunty' to trigger the magical effects, many of which are really quite wonderful. You'll also learn a little bit about Hawaiian history and culture along the way.  The indoor trail was just about the right length for a 3 year old, and while she enjoyed a lot of the outdoor effects (as did I), it was probably a little too long for her attention span; it would be great if you could pause and resume where you left off, but as the tablets are a little glitchy anyway, that's not currently an option. That point aside, it's really well-designed and absolutely worth doing, even for teens and adults.

We also enjoyed storytelling by the fire pit (both my children probably inaccurately consider themselves experts on Maui lore now) and there are a wealth of activities and talks on traditional Hawaiian arts and crafts in the Pau Hana Community Hall - another option I wish I'd had more time to check out.

Lanawai Spa & Gym
I am a spa nerd; I wish I had more time and disposable income to go to amazing spas all the time. Lanawai Spa is one of the best I've ever been to; it's very close to perfection. The spa at the Grand Californian (just to keep things in a Disney context) is very pleasant, but Lanawai is a proper world-class spa. The treatments are amazing, the staff top-notch and the water garden absolutely fantastic. I loved the range of soaking pools and showers outside, and appreciated the variety of relaxation rooms, both single-sex and co-ed, available for pre/post-treatment Doing Nothing. The infused waters were delightful, and the bite-sized snacks much appreciated. In addition, the tables in the treatment rooms were the most high-tech I've ever personally experienced - amazingly comfortable and versatile. The variety of scents and scrubs perfectly reflected the Hawaiian setting, without going overboard. I tried to talk my older child into the Painted Sky teen spa, but alas, he refused, despite the range of options specifically aimed at young gentlemen; perhaps another time.

The gym next door to the spa was also very well equipped, and surprisingly empty when I'd roll in around 5 am; I assumed it would be full of similarly jet-lagged people, but there was never a problem finding open equipment. The instructor-led fitness classes sounded fantastic, but were (relatively speaking) late in the morning; if I hadn't been doing the Aunty's Beach House lunch line or having an early character breakfast, I would have tried a few out.
Another would-be-nice – how about a runDisney race, since there aren’t any on the west coast for the foreseeable future? Between Moana and Lilo and Stitch, there should be enough locally-themed Disney intellectual property to support different characters for the 5K/10K/half marathon options (though I’m sure finding enough road for a half marathon would be problematic), but it would be amazing. Perhaps someday

Disney loveSummary
This was the ideal first trip to Hawaii for us; as always, Disney made everything easy. On a future trip, we'd like to explore some other islands as well (and, indeed, other parts of Oahu), but Aulani offers a great introduction to Hawaiian culture.  The balance of Hawaii-to-Disney is clearly very carefully weighed and considered, and on the whole is a very effective presentation. We’d happily go back any time we aren’t juggling work/school/preschool/etc. – it was, on the whole, a wonderful experience.

*The DISNEY VACATION CLUB manifests itself in four stages on any Disney vacation:
1) Oh, that's funny - I forgot they will try to upsell us on the Disney Vacation Club.
2) *checks numbers again* There is no possible ROI on the Disney Vacation Club, but it's nice to easily re-confirm that.
3) I wonder what the research is on how they position the Disney Vacation Club information stands, it seems really deliberate – oh, hey, the DVC-exclusive merchandise is really cool!
4) EVERYONE SHOULD BUY INTO THE DISNEY VACATION CLUB, IT JUST MAKES SENSE.

Disney Aulani: Aunty’s Beach House, Tech & Merchandise

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By the koi pondWelcome back to another batch of unsolicited Disney Aulani protips and suggestions.  We last reviewed (mostly) food and drink, but today is where we really get into the Disney ‘tribal knowledge’ end of things – knowing When to Line Up and What to Buy.

 

Aunty's Beach House

Aunty's Beach House is the kids' club at Aulani; there are freeplay and 'premium' activities for potty-trained kids ages 3-12 – you could, in theory, leave your children there from morning until night for your entire vacation. Although we have Young People at both ends of that spectrum, the larger one skipped any of the structured activities the resort offered, despite the wealth of tween and teen options; our little one, though, fully embraced the Aunty's Beach House lifestyle and did not want to leave. As with many Things Disney, a little tribal knowledge goes a long way; some of these suggestions aren't necessarily spelled out on the website, so it's worth doing a little digging and advance planning:

 

  • Register online before you go - you'll still need to bring your child and your printed form to finish registration, but this will get you in the system; once you arrive, stop by as soon as you can to complete registration - you'll also need to provide a secret codeword to pick them up, so be sure to think of something memorable.
  • Call to book premium experiences in advance - they fill up. You'll have another *opportunity* to purchase photos from the event (more on photos in a bit). We did Kakamora Chaos with Moana, and it was a much-loved activity (including facetime and photos with Moana, plus some really quite nice crafts to take home) - we got the last spot by calling about a week in advance, and the other premium activities that week were completely full when we got around to calling.
  • If you want Aunty's to serve your child lunch or dinner (for an additional fee), line up outside before they open to make sure they can get a lunch or dinner ticket. We found arriving around 7.40 am was a good time, and our daughter loved the food.
  • The open house from 8-9.30 is the only time you can go into Aunty's Beach House with your child (and take your own pictures) - but if you want to make sure they get in immediately when it opens for drop-offs at 9.30, it's worth leaving a little early to go line up (again) to check them in.
  • If you want to do an evening dropoff, you may need to get them there in the later afternoon - it was filling up by 3.30-4 pm.
  • While you can send your child to Aunty's Beach House in a swimsuit and coverup, they do need to be dry - make it a pre-pool or beach activity, rather than a post-water one, unless you've had them change.

 

Moana fun at Aunty's Beach HouseOnce you get through the administrivia, Aunty's Beach House is a breeze - your child has a special green bracelet they can use to scan in and out (they can keep it or you can give it back at the end of your stay for a refund, if you kept your receipt), and there is plenty to do. Characters like Stitch come by to dance and play, there are Hawaiian crafts including lei-making, there's a very nice (fenced) outdoor play area and an enchanted living room (there's the occasional 'storm outside,' similar to the Tiki Room at the Disney parks) with child-sized furniture for watching, say, Moana. The Aunty's Beach House staff were excellent - they kept the kids happy and engaged for hours. Our daughter keeps asking to go back, and compares it favorably to her much-loved pre-school.

 

Tech Quibbles

If you've been to Disneyland in the past few years, you know that the Disneyland app is incredibly useful - you have a map, ride wait times and character events, plus the ability to book and track dining reservations. The PhotoPass feature in the Disneyland app is also great; it's simple to access your photos and a relatively low-cost add-on. There is no Aulani app, alas; it would be fantastic to make speedy dining, spa and Aunty's Beach House reservations from your phone, but the real miss is the DisneyPhotoPass situation. Your Aulani photos are much, much more expensive than your Disneyland photos, and they are not nearly as easily accessible; you can't get them in the Disneyland app, and on your phone, trying to log in to the DisneyPhotoPass site dumps you in to the Disneyworld login screen; it really only works properly on a desktop computer, so you'll need to save the wristbands you get from the various photographers and add the codes manually once you are back home (unless you are a terrible person who brought a laptop to do work on vacation). You can preview your photos from the TV in your room, or have them added to your account from Kālepa’s Store, but it's not nearly as seamless (or affordable). It seems like it would be a straightforward add - you'd assume all the Disney photo experiences use the same codebase - but having worked in Big Tech forever, I know that's an unsafe assumption.

 

Beyond the DisneyPhotoPass pictures, you'll also have other *opportunities* to buy photos - the luau and character dining photographs are also available, albeit for a separate charge, and they arrive via CD(!) - we had to really think whether or not we had a working CD drive before buying them. As always with Disney photographers, the pictures themselves are usually great and very flattering (I suspect that's the real Disney magic), but not having one single digital location (and the additional upcharges) is a bit of a pain. However, there is some pretty interesting metadata on the photos - you can confirm your suspicion that the luau photos of the performers were taken a few years ago, presumably with ideal lighting and weather, and not on the evening you went, but given the team has about an hour to process and make up the photo CDs, it's a reasonable tradeoff.

 

Additionally, the wifi is not amazing, but you're on vacation, right? Of course, if you are, say, nearly 13 and want to spend your beach and poolside time streaming music and TV (FOR EXAMPLE) this is a bigger issue, but if you don't care about eating through your parents' data plan, you are fine. Just saying.

 

(not really) ALL THE PINSMerchandising, Merchandising

This being a Disney resort, there are certainly opportunities to take home a bit of the magic, whether that comes in the form of t-shirts, bags, Mickey ears or, of course, Disney pins. (A slight aside for the uninitiated - Disney pins are A Thing, whether you simply buy and collect them or go all-in on pin trading - find out more here). I was actually slightly surprised that there are really only two shops - one with a fairly broad array of merchandise, including essentials like sunscreen, and a higher-end one that focused more on purses and the like. Neither shop is as heavy as they could have gone on Moana items - indeed, while Moana is a prominent character in person at the resort, the range of items for sale is practically restrained by Disney standards. There is a strong focus on the characters that are popular in Japan and China; Gelatoni, Shelliemae and Duffy, all hailing from Tokyo DisneySea, are on offer. I also discovered a secondary Lilo and Stitch character I knew nothing of - one Angel - and now that we are home, we're (naturally) looking to find her in the many and various Lilo and Stitch spinoff properties that seem to exist, since we picked up a not insignificant number of Angel-related items.

One thing has always puzzled me about Disney merchandise - why does Disney not have a dedicated coffee table book division? I would have absolutely made room for an enormous, photograph-heavy hardcover book detailing the design and evolution of Aulani, with a focus on the business decisions, cultural considerations and planning of the resort. I'd equally buy similar books on many of the classic Disneyland attractions - there's an excellent book on the Haunted Mansion, but there could be equally-detailed ones on, say, It's a Small World, the Enchanted Tiki Room, Space Mountain, etc. - there's a wealth of amazing documentation that's is beautifully-arranged in the Walt Disney Archives that would be more accessible (and remuneratively-rewarding) in a fancy book - someone at Disney Publishing should get on this.

 

But hey, we did get some really nice pins.

 

Next up: pools, beaches & entertainment

 

Disney Aulani: Getting There, Eating & Drinking There

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Beautiful jet lagWe've just returned from a much-needed (if barely-planned) trip to Aulani, Disney's Hawaiian resort. Although we're relatively recent coverts to the Disney vacation lifestyle, having a bit of Disney-specific knowledge helps make the vacation even more stress-free and relaxing for the whole family. In that spirit, I offer more than a few entirely unsolicited protips and suggestions.

Setting & Rooms
Aulani is a 20-ish minute drive from the airport in Honolulu; we used the recommended Hele Hele shuttle, which is essentially the equivalent of the Disneyland Express bus that runs from LAX and John Wayne airports to the Disneyland and 'good neighbor' hotels. It's not a large, branded bus, but a van (carseats are included for the smaller kids); the service was prompt and friendly. We arrived at night, and the resort is lovely even in the dark - the tree-hung lanterns and torches created a positive impression, even on very tired children (and adults). Despite the late hour, we were warmly greeted with leis and infused water (we didn't notice the Hidden Mickey in the water until the next day), and check-in was very speedy.

The lobby, largely open to maximize the warm breezes, is amazing day or night, though during the day it's possible to take a tablet-driven self-guided tour of the art and design features that provides much more detail and context. Aulani has the world's largest collection of contemporary Hawaiian art, and it's thoughtfully displayed everywhere in the hotel. There are, of course, even more Hidden Mickeys - and Menehune (more on them, and the art tour, later) - to be found all over the property.

We booked at the last minute, so had relatively few room options, but even our standard room with 'limited' ocean view had a great vantage point from which to see the ocean and the amazing pools and landscaping below. We ended up with two queen beds, which was a little tight with two kids with a huge age/size gap (and they don't have the extra sofabed that similar rooms have in the Grand Californian - though perhaps we've always just lucked out?), but certainly very do-able for our short stay.

Our flight home was late at night, well after check-out, but the luggage room is very straightforward and there's a suite with lockers to shower and change, so you can fully enjoy your entire day (and you can still charge things to your room until midnight, so no need to carry around your wallet if you're swimming - have that last Dole Whip).

Food & Drink
Olelo Room delightSpeaking of Dole Whips, Aulani offers the Dole Whip Twist, which cuts the pineapple with vanilla, and it rather was wonderful - I wish they offered them at the Disney parks. At the resort, you can get them poolside or beachside. But perhaps my favorite spot at Aulani was the 'ÅŒlelo Room; only open in the evenings, it had amazing cocktails and food - even great vegan tacos (and I say this as a non-vegan who happens to like good vegan tacos).  The Hawaiian-language theme and design of the ÅŒlelo Room was well thought-out and beautifully-executed, and I enjoyed their specialty drinks that weren't available at the other resort bars (or, for those that were available at the poolside bars, were much more expertly mixed and presented - the others weren't actively bad, just not quite up to the same standard).

There were one or two reasonable Hawaiian beers from Maui Brewing Company there as well, but most of the 'locals' were from Kona Brewing Company, and no different from their mainland offerings. For more interesting beer, you had to LEAVE THE RESORT and go across the street to Monkeypod, which had friendly, knowledgeable staff and a good selection of locally-brewed beers. I was intrigued to see more brown ales, stouts and porters than I usually see in the Pacific Northwest, so that was a pleasant surprise. There were a few other restaurants and shops in the same complex, so it was handy for cheaper sunscreen and basic groceries.

But back to Aulani: the Ulu Café, the quick-service restaurant, has quite decent breakfast wraps, and the quality of the tea was another positive surprise - it was rather good! It was even good enough to drink without milk or cream, which is important when your 'cream' option is of the shelf-stable cartridge variety, so perhaps best skipped. For the caffeine addict, you can buy a refillable mug for $18.99 that gets you 'free' refills on tea, coffee or soda throughout your stay (soda refills are located throughout the resort; tea and hot water are at the Ulu Café checkout, and coffee is outside the café); we did find this useful, given the 3-hour time change.

Your dining viewWe went to 'Ama 'Ama for a few of our 'fancier' meals, both with and without our smaller one (it's right next door to Aunty's Beach House, discussed in an upcoming post, so very easy to manage a child-free meal) - the brunch was outstanding, and the lunch and dinner options were also wonderful, though just enjoying the beach view from the tables (some covered, some open) was a major factor in enjoying the meal.

While I'm not normally a fan of buffet-style dining, Disney usually makes the effort worthwhile - and the breakfast and dinner buffets at Makahiki were both fantastic. We did a character breakfast, as is our wont at any Disney property, but this had much, much better food than the versions at either the Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian; of course, there are the standard Mickey waffles, but the Hawaiian breads (and the French toast made with them - with amazing coconut syrup) made things a little more interesting, as did the Asian breakfast options. It’s possible we have now developed a need for taro bread. We enjoyed seeing Mickey, Minnie and Goofy at breakfast, and an appearance by 'Aunty,' leading the smaller children in song, dance and activities around the restaurant was incredibly well-done. Across the board, the performers at Aulani are outstanding.

The dinner buffet was also excellent; the mix of Western, Hawaiian and Japanese options made it more interesting than usual, and the food was well-selected and properly-prepared, which I rarely find to be the case at non-Disney buffet restaurants. The range of desserts was amazing, and I appreciated that they were (nearly) bite-sized; it made it easier to try more of them. As with the rest of the resort, Makahiki has striking Hawaiian artwork throughout, and once again, I'm glad we were able to take the art tour to find out more about the artists and their inspirations for the pieces.

Taro bread joyAnother Disney protip: make dining reservations, especially for character breakfasts which are often packed, before you travel; while this is a lot easier at the parks via the app (again, more on that in a future post), don't be the party of 10 that showed up behind us without a reservation. Yes, you'll need to call (or arrange it when you arrive), but it's good to be prepared. There are plenty of places you don't need a reservation (Ōlelo Room, 'Ama 'Ama,Ulu Café, the poolside bars), but for Makahiki, call ahead.

Of course, this is Hawaii, so you can also get a shave ice (with or without Mickey ears, though the Mickey ears option isn't amazing when it comes to structural integrity); I can only compare to the slightly-less-tasty ones I've had in Seattle, but I was pleasantly surprised by the flavors - yes, they were sweet, but they weren't overpowering, and there were more than a few more unusual options to add that made it well worth seeking out. An extra towel from the pool area may be useful if you are supervising a small person with the Mickey ears version.

All told, you can eat and drink well without leaving Aulani – and there’s still much more to talk about.

Up Next: Aunty’s Beach House + other activities

Beer, Tech & Institutional Memory

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who lives who dies who tells your storyTech and brewing have the same problem. No, it's not sexism or a general lack of diversity (though there's plenty of both, in both) - it's the near-total absence of historic and digital preservation. As an ex-archivist, this has long irked me, and it's striking how similar many of the barriers are in two (theoretically) quite divergent fields.  Brian Alberts wrote a lovely piece calling on modern craft breweries to make a start at preservation, and he noted his (all-too-common) experience as a researcher; you know there are gaps, and sometimes you even know why, but you have to work with what you have. Let's delve a little further into why those gaps exist, and we'll review a bit about archival practice along the way.

First, let's imagine that a brewery (or fancy tech startup) has managed to consistently save some portion of their records - again, lots of credit to Brian for some suggestions on how to get started without investing a lot of time and money - what happens when they get to the archivist?

For this fun thought experiment, we're presuming that 1) records, both physical and digital, exist, and 2) there's a professional archivist being paid to process and describe the collection. Processing begins with 'appraisal' - simply figuring out what's there, and what should be kept; it (typically) has little to do with the monetary value - or lack thereof - of the records. No archivist wants to keep everything - it doesn't add anything to the historical record to keep 400 copies of invitations to an annual party, but it does add a huge burden to the administrative and storage costs associated with the collection. Once the collection has been appraised, the real processing begins - this is where things are arranged, described and re-housed - decisions will be made about keeping the original order or moving to something that may be more logical, paperclips and staples may (or may not) be removed, out will come the carefully-labeled, acid-free folders and boxes and Mylar sleeves for photos, and the collection will be described at whatever level (e.g. collection-level, folder-level, item-level) was desirable and/or possible.  Many assume that 'everything' gets digitized at this point - and archivists will laugh and laugh at this because it's enormously expensive and time-consuming. This doesn't mean there's a lack of interest or will to do that work - digitization projects are awesome - it's just rare that it gets funded, even in organizations with relatively deep pockets.

You'll notice we're primarily talking about paper and photographic records here - digital records, larger objects and other formats require even more work - and again, we're assuming that 1) someone has kept it and 2) someone is being paid to organize and provide access and (additional degree of difficulty alert!) 3) there are short and long-term preservation plans in place. Long-term digital preservation is incredibly complex, expensive and difficult, so we won't get too much into it here, but even short-term efforts require considerable thought and effort; every archivist has a story about getting a box of old Palm Pilots or 8-inch floppy disks that contain largely unrecoverable data.

And there are other allied efforts that could be taking place - an oral history program would typically try to cover a range of experiences; interviewing staff in different roles, at different levels and with different experiences to capture their stories. All too often, we only hear the perspectives of the company's founder, or the head brewer; we rarely value the stories of the junior coder, the middle managers or those on the packaging line.

Swinging back to tech for a moment, let's consider how deep those pockets are - and how none of that cash is going to preserve any aspect of most companies' histories. Of the larger companies, both tech and non-tech, that I've worked for (and I’m obviously excluding museums, libraries and archives here, since that is All They Do), I can count two that ever had any sort of formal archival program, and in both cases (HP and GSK) - that support has waxed and waned over the years; some of HP's historic records were destroyed in the Santa Rosa fires last fall, and when I left GSK, the formal management of the archives was a part-time effort. Many, if not most, of today's most successful and influential tech companies have no formal or informal program to capture their histories; in fact, they often have policies that actively undermine that goal - here's how.

When it comes to what archivists call born-digital materials - emails, Word documents, PowerPoints and so on - companies often actively delete and destroy those materials. There are a number of reasons for this, but the two biggest are legal and financial: the legal department is happy if there's a lot of regular deletion, since that means there's less to turn over in any discovery process in the case of a lawsuit, and those writing the checks don't want to pay for ever-increasing, expensive digital storage (cloud or otherwise). As a consequence, many companies have official records management policies that ensure email is deleted every x number of days if not explicitly stored elsewhere (though this is different if you work in fields that operate under a lot of preservation orders, like pharma - some things you'll need to keep forever). And not infrequently, all records management policies are drawn up by the legal department, with no input from any other stakeholders; historic preservation, either short- or long-term, is rarely on anyone's mind.

And knowing how quickly things change in tech, it's incredibly difficult even for those of us who work for global tech companies to trace through the path of a decision from a month ago, much less several years (or even decades) - it all becomes tribal knowledge and corporate lore. I could describe for you the cascade of poor decisions that the dot-com I worked for in the late 1990s undertook before finally failing in the dot-com crash, but it would be almost entirely folkloric; there is no trace of the emails, and I suspect I may have one of the few copies of one of the annual reports, though interestingly, a lot of my old code is still floating around on the Internet Archive, preserved purely by chance (but hey, you can still see some of our old job postings).

While it's a huge loss for future (or even modern) researchers, it's also a potential financial loss for companies; while the use case that most people understand readily is that of finding material to use in advertising or PR campaigns, keeping those records that record important business decisions can be key records in trademark disputes and other less-pleasant aspects of the business world. For tech companies, this means a lot of intellectual property, whether code or copy, would be preserved; for breweries, there's the obvious ability to find old recipes and packaging artwork, as well as beer names and labels for the now-inevitable trademark spat.

So, with all that said, is anyone doing it right?

Carlsberg BreweryIt's true that even larger breweries with long histories infrequently employ professional archivists - while Anheuser-Busch and Guinness have (or perhaps had, in the case of A-B?) formal programs, Guinness only got into the historic preservation game in 1998. Fullers does have a wealth of material, a fraction of which they display in a well-curated collection within the brewery, but the ongoing processing, arrangement and preservation strategies are overseen by one of the senior executives as something of a side project. If there is a model to follow, Carlsberg is one of the best; they have a team of professional archivists who manage the usual work you find in that sort of setting - arrangement, description, reference and digitization (where feasible). Carlsberg and Guinness both have the depth of history and wealth of materials that allow them to essentially run beer theme parks that use primary sources as the underpinning: a visit to the Guinness Storehouse is entirely unlike any brewery tour, but it does a fabulous job of highlighting historic advertising and key company documents, while the ongoing work of processing and preserving the collection goes on behind closed (but accessible by appointment) doors. The Carlsberg tour experience is certainly more like a brewery tour - indeed, their Jacobsen line is brewed in a small section of the historic brewery complex, while the modern brewery for their flagship lager is off-limits - but they do a very good job of mixing the history with the modern experience. An entire portion of the historic physical plant is set up as a museum, and it does a wonderful job of mixing 19th and early 20th century advertising with some of the company's documents that tell the story of Carlsberg, the Jacobsen family, the growth of brewing science and the globalization of the industry.

In short, there are a few models for brewers to look up to when thinking about how to begin saving and organizing to tell their stories in the long-term; what about tech? In truth, the examples are just as few and far between, if not more so. HP (another of my former employers, although as a contractor I was, ironically, safe from the decimation happening all around me during Carly Fiorina’s reign of terror) and IBM have both made some efforts (and, if memory serves, both had full-time corporate archivists at one time, though I believe that is not the case now for either one), but they seem to be rather piecemeal; indeed, the majority of HP's historic preservation now seems to be done by volunteers; it's not unlike the breweriana community. While fans and enthusiasts may do a great job of collecting and documenting certain things, they can't save the depth and quality of material that should be in a real archival facility.

We're all stories, in the end; just make it a good one, eh?And there are certainly ways to ensure records and artifacts are preserved without launching a brand-new department: companies can partner with their local museum or university archives to get going (this also means they should fund some permanent headcount and ensure there is a physical space for their collections) - the expertise they need is already available locally. Cisco has taken this approach to good effect, and the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archive is a natural partnership opportunity for Pacific Northwest breweries, though again, some financial help could help move them from a 'community archiving project' into a fully-funded program with more scope to collect, preserve and share brewing history.

And partnering with other organizations doesn’t mean giving up control over who sees what and when; there are plenty of archival collections out there with restrictions on what can be accessed or published, often with a specific timescale built in (e.g. ‘not for public access until 2050’ or similar requirements; you can put all sorts of complications in your deed of gift documentation if you so desire), so worries that a competitor may steal a recipe or other intellectual property can be relatively easily managed.

Although it's likely not feasible for every brewery to get to the world-class standard of the Walt Disney Archives, there is no real excuse for most deep-pocketed tech companies to not make at least a gesture in that direction (and here's a handy case study that can start the wheels turning). While corporations cannot control how future historians view them, by passively (or actively) limiting the available records, they limit the stories that can be told; by ceding the narrative to chance, they abdicate all opportunity to select which stories might be told.

Finally, a quick postscript: the white glove thing. In most archival facilities, white cotton gloves are only used for handling photographs; you are more likely to damage paper - especially brittle, highly-acidic, 19th and 20th century paper, which is typically in much worse condition than earlier, rag-based paper - with gloved hands than you are with clean hands. Your television lied to you.

This piece also appears on Medium. 

Hyperlocal Seattle Beer: The Shambles

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tasty goodnessAfter a long period of construction and, one presumes, permit and license application bureaucracy, The Shambles finally opened a few weeks ago, just a short walk from my house. Although it was initially disappointing for us that it wasn't going to be an all-ages venue – the state of Washington has very peculiar square-footage requirements for restaurants with liquor licenses to legally allow in those under 21, whereas breweries and taprooms that don't serve food are generally able to welcome visitors of all ages, for reasons passing understanding - the fact that it's so close means we can still enjoy it, albeit only as alternating adults.

The name is a nod to York's famous tourist-laden medieval street in the north of England, which, as it happens, is also only a short walk from one of my favorite beer establishments, House of the Trembling Madness (also undertaking its own construction and relocation project).  The aim at The Shambles is to offer not only dine-in options for house-cured meats, accompanied by delicious beverages, but also a fancy butcher shop. The deli counter portion will go some way toward placating my older child, who had been very much looking forward to meat and cheese plates before the 21+ announcement (he was lamenting the fact that 'we have no  jamón ibérico,' just like all normal tweens, only the other day). That said, what I've been most impressed by (so far) is the experience of settling in at the bar.

totally like Disneyland, for realsThere's a lot of really lovely reclaimed wood that's been carefully crafted into said bar and tables, and the backlit wood carving above the taps is a bit like a more subtle version of the light-up headboards at the Disneyland Hotel (and this is a compliment, not a snarky comment). The rotating small plates have all been interesting, and while the meat and cheese were, as expected, fantastic, I'm always a sucker for a good bread and salty butter option - I miss the one at Tired Hands very much on this coast - and The Shambles delivers. There are no televisions (though there is some well-chosen music), and the top-notch service, combined with the woodsy surroundings, makes for a very soothing atmosphere.

And what of the beer? So far, it's been an interesting selection of (mostly) regional choices, from breweries like Cloudburst, Seapine, Fort George and Urban Family. As is the norm in US beer bars, there aren't a lot of options under 5%, but there are at least a few; some of that may be a function of the season as well, and I expect it will change often.  My only real complaint is that a beer engine would not go amiss, especially with the English-lite theme; it would be great to see rotating casks of ESBs and porters (as a start) in the neighborhood.

And speaking of the neighborhood, a slight, hyperlocal asideThe Shambles has taken to calling the immediate area, which, depending on your real estate agent may be Maple Leaf, Ravenna, Roosevelt or merely 'northeast Seattle near Lake City Way', Maple City, while the portmanteauic Ravenleaf Public House (one of our  regular family go-to options) across the street has gone for the other local name elements; I hope this leads to some sort of entertaining rivalry during the summer.

All told, it's a most welcome addition to the area; we've long had a few dive-ier places nearby, but that's rarely my thing (even though, this being the Pacific Northwest, most have some pretty good tap lineups and occasional beer events); The Shambles is much more my speed.

Add a ghost walk and a few hand pumps and it’s perfect…

London (Beer) Loves

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Best coaster ever. TFL FTW.The jet lag may still be lingering, but getting back to London is always worth it. While much has changed since I first moved there in the 1990s - most notably, that everything is so clean, which was absolutely not a feature of so-called Britpop London - it was lovely to see some of my old stomping grounds in a new (visible) light. It's probably fair to say that I drank 'reasonable,' albeit cheap, beer as a postgrad/early career adult back in the day; lots of pints of Directors at my local Wetherspoons, but there wasn't much beyond that, at least so far as I was aware.

Fast forward to the present day, to a (I have to say it again, very clean) London where specialist beer bars and small breweries abound, and there is so much choice that it requires some navigation; for that, we relied on Des De Moor's excellent guidebook, plus regular last-minute Twitter ideas from Melissa Cole and Pete Brown (though we never did make it to his Stoke Newington ‘hood - I looked at a cheap bedsit there nearly two decades ago and would love to go back to see it now, though I'm sure I'd lament not having had the wherewithal to buy some portion of it then, when I had £25/week to spend on rent - I ended up getting something for the same amount in East Ham instead, which had the distinction of being near The Who Shop, though little else - but I digress).  We upped the degree of difficulty by having our kids in tow, and while our older one claims he could easily pass for 16 (and he's probably right), finding a place with great beer that is also reasonably welcoming to a 3-year-old is a trickier challenge.

With that in mind, we were thrilled to have great experiences at The Rake, CASK Pub & Kitchen and The Craft Beer Co. Covent Garden. Each one had a fantastic lineup of CASK ALE (I miss real handpumps so much) and a variety of interesting kegged options. They also had friendly, deeply knowledgeable staff and a largely non-bro-y clientele, which was very pleasant indeed. We found traditional pubs a bit more hit and miss (though I'm mindful that we were often firmly in Tourist London, which can veer toward the more generic), but thoroughly enjoyed The George - re-reading Pete Brown's book on the plane was useful - and The Lamb, which was an occasional hangout spot of mine as a student; visiting as an adult with children was a very different experience, as its proximity to Coram's Fields was a major selling point in ensuring a less-fussy meal - and I had one of my best beers of the trip there.

With that segue, I'll again call out the range of cask beer on offer, essentially everywhere we went, which is absolutely not an expectation in Seattle (though I wish it were - it was much more readily accessible in Philadelphia, but there you go). Particular standouts included the aforementioned beer at The Lamb – Jack Brand Mosaic Pale Ale from Adnams was one of the best pale ales I've had in recent memory, and certainly the best cask pale ale I enjoyed.  And as it's a Young's house, the Winter Warmer was firmly on the agenda, and as lovely as I remember it. Another favo(u)rite was Barnsley Bitter from Stancill Brewery, which is exactly the sort of beer I wish I had as a regular go-to; it was very nearly perfect. Moving to the dark side, Glamorgan Brewing Co's Welsh Cake Stout was delightful, as was Truman’s Brewery's Original Porter - finally, a good porter! Also of note was a black IPA from Windsor & Eton, Conqueror; ironically, the style seems to have vanished from our home in Cascadia, so it was very pleasing to find a well-crafted, hoppy/dark beer elsewhere. We had two historical beers from The Kernel, and while both were very fine, the edge went to their Export Stout London 1890, which was absolutely fantastic though the Imperial Brown Stout London 1856 was also excellent.

Obviously we did some non-drink-related things too - you may have heard of a can-do little musical called Hamilton, and I have nothing but praise for the talented London cast - and the Harry Potter exhibit at the British Library is well worth a visit. We also made some discoveries and rediscoveries. I've long been a Foyles partisan, but we didn't have a chance to make it to their (still new to me) headquarters. We made up for that omission by taking over Daunt Books and buying up as much of their stock as we could carry (including Boak & Bailey's 20th Century Pub, at long last). Persephone Books made themselves more even more dangerous by ensuring we left with a catalogue, and I enthusiastically recommend the London Transport Museum. While I've been there before alone, there is no better place to take an alternately happy, clingy, angry and curious jet-lagged toddler, and the current exhibit on women artists is spectacular. The kids get to touch, climb and play while adults enjoy the exhibits, and everyone comes out happy (if lighter in the bank account). They also had quite reasonable tea, though the dearth of good tea in London may need to be its own post - why did so many otherwise-good hotels, restaurants and pubs want to foist their Twinings supermarket tea upon us? I realize we may not be the target tourist market, in that there is really great tea everywhere you go in the Pacific Northwest and so we expect it, but it did seem odd that we had to seek out teas we'd normally consider passable, rather than really good.  If any venture capitalists are looking for a new vertical, let's get top-quality fair trade tea to become A Thing - only the museum cafes delivered.

Finally, I'll recommend two very different experiences: the London Mithraeum, well-preserved and well-presented underneath the new Bloomberg building, may be one of the best public archaeology installations I've seen. I won't say that no expense has been spared, as I'm sure there's been some sort of trade-off, but it's really very impressive, and should serve as some sort of model for other developers. And as it's only a temporary happening, you should make your way soonish to the Southbank Centre for ABBA: Super Troopers: The Exhibition. If you've ever wondered what an immersive ABBA-themed experience, narrated by the dulcet northern tones of Jarvis Cocker, would be like, wonder no more. It is utterly delightful (and my 12 year old will vouch for this as well).

Out of the many places I've lived, London and New York are still my favorites - hardly surprising for a city-obsessed theatre nerd, but London does edge out New York when it comes to beer; I wish I had more excuses to get back to both more often (ideally, of course, on someone else's dime, but who wouldn't want that?).  All outrageous job offers happily considered!

[Another] Wildly Subjective ‘Best Beers’ of 2017

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Great Notion BeerIt’s that time of year again; time to comb through my Untappd history to see what I loved immediately, what grew on me, what I had second thoughts about, and what I’ll be leaving out entirely to keep things positive. Although I frequently lament the preponderance of IPAs here in Seattle, there are quite a few on the list that stand out – equally, while there aren’t enough bitters, porters and stouts around these parts for my taste, those that did impress are highlighted.

Travel, of course, influenced some choices as well, and I’ll wager that some of those I selected as especially interesting to the non-local are considered boring or ‘too accessible’ by some, but that’s what fresh eyes taste buds are for. We were fortunate to make it to ‘both Californias this year, as well as Portland, our old Philly-area stomping grounds, Vancouver and Victoria, BC, and London, though most of what features here is, indeed, local (for local people).

Without further ado, my fully-owned and wholly-subjective favorite beers of 2017 (US and Canada edition):

Fort George Brewery, Great Notion Brewing, Reuben’s Brews – 3-Way IPA
We rarely go to official beer release events, because 1) it’s a pain with children and 2) crowd hassle in general, but this beer was well worth our trek over to Reuben’s Brews for the event. We love Reuben’s, one of our favorite local breweries (see the next entry), and were completely won over by Great Notion on our first visit to Portland (of which more below as well). Everything we’ve had from Astoria, OR-based Fort George has been top-notch, and this was no exception. Again, I may complain that it sometimes seems that everything in the area is an IPA somewhere north of 7%, but was simply wonderful.

Reuben’s Brews – Kentucky Common
Reuben’s has been building out an ever-larger set of year-round beers, but their one-offs are always interesting. This particular one went well beyond that – my only complaint was that it was gone so soon. It had a lot of depth and complexity, and nailed a unique brand of ‘sour’ I’m always a fan of reviving an underappreciated historic style, even if only in inspiration rather than specific recipe, so this ticked many boxes for me.

Spinnakers Gastropub – Firefighters Session
Once again, it was hard to pick just one or two from Spinnakers, since everything – especially their cask bitter – was delightful, but this beer, brewed to give a nod to the firefighters who saved the brewpub during a devastating fire last year, was a subtle standout. Also of note: fantastic scones, most likely the best in North America.

Karl Strauss Brewing Company – Mosaic Session Ale, Red Trolley Ale
You can get decent beer at Disneyland! Well, more accurately, you can get not just decent, but really quite good beer, in California Adventure at the Karl Strauss beer stand. We were also pleasantly surprised by everything on offer in their brewpub in the otherwise-vaguely-dystopian mall next to Universal Studios (and after a day of shepherding children small and large around Universal Studios, drink is certainly called for), but these two beers were my favorites, and have become go-tos when trapped in California airports.

Machine House Brewery – Fresh Hop Talisman Pale Ale, Best Bitter, Cambridge Bitter, Battel Special Bitter
Can you tell I love bitters? Yes, I complain they are hard to find here in Seattle, but Machine House makes some truly outstanding ones, as well as a great mild – they just don’t make it up toward my neighborhood very frequently, though I’m always pleased when they appear on cask as a guest at our nearby Elliott Bay Brewing outpost. And while this region does produce many great fresh hop beers in the fall, the Fresh Hop Talisman was my favorite. Again, rather lower-key and more subtle than many of the more heralded fresh hop beers, but really lovely.

Tired Hands Brewing Company – Gatherer
We made it back to Philly! Imperial Stouts are not usually my thing, but as always, Tired Hands excels where other breweries often seem a little ‘try-hard.’ It was also wonderful to have another HopHands. I miss being within walking distance of what is, for my money, the most interesting brewery in the US.

Seapine Brewing Company – Sea Witch Stout
Seapine is another local brewery that flies somewhat under the radar (at least in my part of the city), but I’ve really enjoyed most of their output, chiefly their pale ales and IPAs. But their seasonal stout was another standout for me; in a land where it’s hard to find a stout that’s not preceded by ‘imperial’ or ‘barrel-aged’ (again, all well and good from time to time, but not something I’m seeking out regularly), this was most welcome.

Victory Brewing Company – Home Grown
More from our return trip to Pennsylvania, and we finally had a chance to see Victory’s new(ish) production brewery and taproom. The self-guided tour is very well-designed, and it’s fantastic to see how they’ve grown. While they do distribute here in the Pacific Northwest, I haven’t seen Home Grown here yet, but I hope it makes its way to this coast soon; it’s a really flavorful lager that’s neither too much nor too little. I miss Yards Brawler, my favorite US mild, and this makes a perfect lager analogue to a great ale.

Great Notion Brewing – Over-Ripe IPA, Juice Junior
Hey, look - IPAs from Portland! Great Notion is one of those few breweries where we enjoyed absolutely everything (even some very fruity beers that I was highly dubious of before trying), but these were especially tasty. Juice Junior was everything you expect from a really great IPA, and Over-Ripe is the best New England IPA I’ve tried thus far; as much as some like to malign the style (often with good reason, given a few I’ve had that simply didn’t make the grade), this showed it can work very well indeed.

Ex Novo Brewing Co. – Cactus Wins the Lottery, Where the Mild Things Are
Great Notion and Ex Novo are now our favorite Portland breweries. Ex Novo is somewhat similar to Tired Hands in terms of being able to do the weird stuff, and do it well, while also producing top-quality ‘normal’ beers. Cactus Wins the Lottery is a prickly pear Berliner Weisse, which may sound gimmicky at first, but it’s absolutely delicious; it’s rare for me to go back for ‘more of the same’ when I’m only on a flying visit, but this was a fabulous exception. The mild was also just as good, and in Portland, that’s saying something.

Cloudburst Brewing – Talk and Not Talk, O Pioneers
It’s impossible to live in Seattle and not appreciate Cloudburst. Whenever I’ve been underwhelmed by yet another generic/too strong/wildly unbalanced IPA, they remind me that a really fantastic one can, indeed, be worth seeking out - and they are consistently creating those top-quality IPAs, like Talk and Not Talk. But they went off-piste with O Pioneers, which was a really lovely porter; proof that they really can do anything, and do it superbly.

So, there you have it…we’ll be following up with thoughts on London in the near future…here’s to a better 2018.

 

More Beer & Tea: Victoria, BC

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At SpinnakersVictoria, BC, has a bit of a reputation for being 'more English than England,' and we put this notion to the test on our most recent trip across the border. It's an easy journey from Seattle, even with a toddler who can ratchet up the degree of travel difficulty considerably, but the sensible people in charge of boarding the Victoria Clipper make sure that you can pre-board with your fussy, awakened-pre-dawn child. The trip is a relatively speedy 2.5 hours, and the quick check at immigration is one of the friendliest I've ever experienced - clearly, there's something to the Canadian stereotype.

There are no water taxis this time of year (though they do have a water taxi ballet in summer, which seems something we'll need to investigate at some point), but even in less-than-ideal weather - this is the Pacific Northwest in late autumn, after all, so rain is a certainty - the walk around the harbo(u)r to our destination was pleasant. Having been deeply impressed by their beer and food on a previous visit, we opted to stay at Spinnakers, Victoria's longest-serving (and, let's be honest, best) brewpub, in business since 1984. We were not disappointed by our room, which had ample space to allow our children to ignore us when they so desired, and breakfast is included as a perk of staying on-site.  (In case you were wondering and/or feeling cynical, there’s no need for any sort of 'full disclosure' here - no freebies, just a great experience). And the breakfasts are amazing - fantastic scones, a variety of great entrees and a beautiful water view; it's actually rather a good thing the water taxis weren't running, because we needed the longer walk downtown to work off the generous portions of wonderful food.

I have no shame.And, of course, there's the beer. While everything was lovely, I especially enjoyed the cask bitter; our friendly, if bemused, waitress had to come ask me if I was really fondly stroking my pint. I had to explain that a great bitter is a rarity for me, so yes, it's all true. Also of special note was the Firefighter Thirst Extinguisher Session Ale - we didn't realize we had arrived on the anniversary of a large fire a year ago, but everything looked perfect - there was no sign of damage any more, and the 'thank you' beer was really quite wonderful. It could be argued that there isn't the range of 'adventurous' beers we are used to on this side of the border, but I certainly did not feel their absence.

We also did the usual tourist-y things - a tour of Parliament, a return visit to their excellent historical ghost walk (those not with the smaller member of the family also enjoyed the Chinatown history excursion), went to Munro's to buy far too many books - and then we started on the tea. We didn't make it to Murchie's last time, but visited a few times on this trip; while I'm sure the fancy high tea at the Empress is lovely, it's likely not geared toward a 3-year-old's attention span, so we opted for basic tea and cakes. I'm not sure if it's simply down to a sampling error, but on each visit it was full of transplanted Scots; it may be that Victoria is secretly more Scottish than Scotland, rather than more English than England. And a side note for people like me, who love good tea but can't have too much caffeine: Murchie's Decaf Afternoon Tea is actually good! Most decaf tea is, frankly, appalling, so this was a very welcome discovery, as was the fact that the local supermarkets stock most of the terrible British snacks and cereals I miss from living in Britain in the 1990s.

Finally, a bit of an unexpected recommendation: we had another great meal and some fine beers at the Irish Times Pub. I quite wrongly assumed it would be like every 'Irish' pub in North America - Guinness and Stella on tap, and some microwaved shepherd's pie - and while there was indeed Guinness, it was accompanied by simple, but well-prepared fresh food and a wide selection of local beers. I'm very tempted to go back again for their breakfast at some point in the future.

We've already made a list of galleries we'd like to spend more time in on a return visit; there is a wide selection of works by local First Nations artists we didn't have enough time to explore, we skipped over the major museums and gardens on this trip, and I didn't even mention the range of shoe stores that stock shoes actually made for walking - another rarity around these parts.  Victoria's well-preserved (and thoughtfully re-used) older buildings are a draw, but even the new construction had me checking prices; I'd happily go back in any season.

The Session 129: O Porter, Where Art Thou?

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They didn't make porter, but had a pretty building.
[Photograph: Dave Sizer on Flickr]
It's been far too long since I've participated in The Session, but this month was one I couldn't pass up - really, what beer nerd would pass up the chance to pontificate about talk missing local beer styles? Were I still a Pennsylvania resident, I'd have ample opportunity to talk about Pennsylvania Swankey in all its possible permutations, but here in Seattle, something much more familiar is (mostly) missing - porters and ‘steamed beers.’

I recently had the slightly surreal experience of re-reading an old column and only partway through realizing that I'd written it, though to be fair, it's been a while and my smaller child is continuing an ongoing campaign of disallowing sleep in her general vicinity. But after reviewing the piece on Seattle beer history, I was struck by the mention of porter, and duly went back to my source material to see if there were more mentions of Seattle porter – and there were, albeit only for the late 19th century. And while there are a few good local porters nowadays (shoutouts to Machine House, Reuben's Brews and Georgetown Brewing), they aren't always easy to find on tap very much beyond the immediate neighborhood of each brewery. This is true of British styles in general, which is a bit ironic since the earliest beers in the Good Beer Revival in the Pacific Northwest were very much along those lines, especially those brewed by or under the tutelage of Bert Grant.  And compared to our previous Philadelphia-area stomping grounds, there are vanishingly few beers imported from the UK to this coast; while not surprising, given the cost and potential quality concerns, there are few locals beers that fill that gap. A good bitter is hard to find (again, Machine House excepted), but mediocre IPAs are ubiquitous. That's not to say there are not some great Seattle IPAs - Cloudburst does an amazing job - but there are so, so many that only elicit a 'meh.'

But back to porters - I was quite envious of the recent wealth of porters around Britain mentioned by Boak and Bailey, and hope to find a good many of them still around when I'm next in London over the holidays, but I think a lot of my porter problem (kids, feel free to steal The Porter Problem for your new free-jazz combo) is the absence of Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter; to me, this is the beer that means fall has arrived. While I'd love a special coast-to-coast tap sending me Troegs (and, let's be honest, Yards Brawler, my favorite US mild) from the source(s), I'd hoped that there would be a readily-available local equivalent; if there is, I have yet to find it. So, let this be a challenge to Seattle brewers - make your best porter! Try a few historical recipes! Feel free to make it hoppy if you must - hey, Troegs did it, and it's wonderful.

Seattle used to be (briefly) known for portersit would be lovely to see more of them on the local market.  Now, about those equally-disappeared ‘steamed beers’