Up from Mediocrity

Mediocrity isn't what it used to be.  A simple fact is that as goods and service improve in various sectors, what once was considered excellence or of high quality becomes today's mediocrity.

Music is a field that demonstrates that point.  Once an industry that wasn't just difficult to break into, it really may have been next to impossible and the style of music was strictly regulated by the industry.  Industry executives dictated what would sell and wouldn't.  So, when The Beatles gave their first audition, they were told that "guitar bands were on the way out."  However, music that became known as "rock and roll" was just beginning, and The Beatles managed to break through the unwritten rules of the industry, more often the chokehold on excellence more than regulations, changing the face of music.

Today, I don't even need a studio, record label, and distribution system deal to get my music out.  I need a Mac, a place to record, and an Apple account or Amazon account to make my music available and some great social media contacts to distribute my music.  This has opened up the world of sound to artists otherwise caught in a log jam in earlier days and given rise to a new definition of excellence.

We see this truth applied to the world of ales as well.  Once regulated by major breweries and distributors, and aided by state and federal regulations on the creation of fermented and distilled products, we had beer.  Beer was beer.  Clear, gold in color, and available in areas where it was sold (post-Prohibition) in bottles, maybe cans, and draft.  You could have a Schlitz, a Budweiser, or a Miller.  Maybe a local brewery gave you a Hamms, Pearl, or Old Style, but your choice was pretty much mainstream.

Today?  The rules have changed completely.  Small craft brews that can now distribute thanks to de-regulation and a market that has changed in tastes and we have beers that have opened up the palates and given rise to a change in what we call excellence.  Major breweries and distributors are still trying to find their foot hold in the landscape.  In other words, we just hate it when people are given more options and allowed to make choices. 

Alaskan Winter Ale - recommended to me from a friend who enjoys fine craft ale after I reviewed winter ales, he was even kind enough to give me one and insisted I try it.  I was taken by the label immediately, the first beer with a bald eagle clearly on it in vivid colors (Bud uses the eagle too, but not as colorfully as this).  To my point earlier, not so long ago I would have had to go to Alaska to find this beer (Alaskan Brew Co. founded in 1986), but now with changes in tastes and times, it finds its way to West Texas.  This beer says it is brewed with "tips from spruce trees," so around Christmas time, this winter ale is using a Christmas tree in its brew.  This beer was an excellent beer to have at this time of year.  It had a refreshing taste, and the website says it is brewed in old English ale style.  Alcohol content of 6.5%, and a nice copper color.  I think you will like it.

A friend of mine kept raving about Jeremiah Red, an Irish Red Ale sold at BJ's Brew House.  BJ's is definitely corporate, so the beer is not necessarily brewed on site as it may be with a local brew house/restaurant.  Yet that doesn't make it evil to the craft brew lover either.  I have no background with an Irish Red, so I am not able to compare them to others.  Another friend of mine and I brewed his first batch which was an Irish Red, and he gave me a couple of bottles which were very enjoyable. That said, I enjoyed the Jeremiah Red at BJ's (both are registered trademarks).  It had a great flavor and was good with the chicken tacos I ordered.  The alcohol content was 7.3% which may explain why I was pulling for the Dallas Cowboys as they played the Washington R******ns (name withheld due to political correctness and cultural sensitivities).

To end this lengthier blog, I enjoyed having friends refer me to beers to try.  I really enjoyed being given one, but that did not influence my tastes.  I would have been honest.  Choice is a great thing, and the beer world is now exploding in that.  Mediocrity ain't what it used to be.  Enjoy!

Garage Jam Sessions: Session 1 - Pecan Pie Ale

Back in my day, high school students throughout the US sought status among their peers using a variety of methods.  Some were athletes, some were intelligent, some used their quirkiness to make themselves unique.  One group of youth at that time to note was the youth who comprised a segment of the population known as "musicians."  Some read music and some did not, yet all were involved in music for one reason or another.  There was, among the "musicians," a segment who sought a status of greatness at their one day promise to be a legendary rock star playing before hundreds of thousands in some distant arena.  This group gets its start in almost the same universal place across America - the garage.

Ah yes.  Garage bands.  Jam sessions in the garage featuring a really bad guitarist, a vocal, a bass, and a set of drums.  The leader of these groups was usually the one who had the garage available to jam in (or basement if your geography permits it), or he/she was probably the one with the more dominant personality (and maybe even the one with the coolest stuff).  Talent rarely had much to do with it, but at least in the garage, you were one really bad group.  Names were as random as the people who came and went in these groups, and no one ever really kept track of how many made it out of the garage to some level of performance notoriety.

I thought these had long sense gone until I was running through a neighborhood near Texas Tech about a month ago.  Lo and behold, I heard in the distance that familiar sound of a garage band, drums the most prominent "sound," so I changed my path and ran past the garage.  Sure enough, there they were.  The drummer, the guitarist, the bass, and a keyboard tossed in playing some song not in my repertoire.  And some kid on a Mac probably recording the session (computers clearly not part of our band in the day).

My jam sessions these days are part of a generational shift.  Gone are the dreams of being a big rock star, having been replaced by the dreams of one day becoming the next great craft brewer in a region where tourists will come because they have heard of, or tasted, your craft.

This past month, Baldner Reserves (as it is now called), produced a formula driven recipe in time for Christmas called, "Pecan Pie Ale."  Purchased from the brew store here in Lubbock, the formula took the time to copy that favored southern tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas known as Pecan Pie, especially favored in Texas.  So, I got out the brewing equipment around Thanksgiving to have this potential delight ready for Christmas.  Kettle for brewing.  Large glass bottle (carboy) for fermentation.  Everything cleaned and sterile.  Ingredients all laid out in logical fashion ready for their turn in the soup (wort in beer language).  Heat sources, back ups, and a wide array of other stuff for the three hour process of preparation, heating, boiling, and storing.

Opened on Christmas Eve, the jam sessions from November had produced a fine ale.  The delight of the flavor and taste did not disappoint.  We didn't cross the line and make a sweet, "fruity" drink, but instead produced a beer that had an excellent taste and after taste.  If you find such a recipe and have jam sessions of your own, I recommend it. It turned out to be a great Christmas beer.

Next up:  Beers you have suggested.