LGM Beer Talk: Decolonize Beer Culture

I had meant to make this beer discussion pretty frequent, but it fell victim to my insane semester. Let’s get it started again.

One major problem with modern beer culture is its extreme whiteness and maleness. This is white libertarian dudebro central and it’s not surprising that this has led to a lot of overt sexism, terrible labor conditions, and a culture of discomfort for people of color. One way to decolonize beer culture is for Native women to open breweries, such as Bow & Arrow Brewery in Albuquerque.

Nowhere is this consumer movement more apparent, and unique, than at Bow & Arrow brewery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first and only brewery in the US owned by Native American women, it has carved a space in the predominantly white and male-dominated industry by showcasing elements of their tribal identities, communities and ingredients through beer.

“We have been very intentional about highlighting our special place in the south-west,” said Bow & Arrow’s co-founder and CEO, Shyla Sheppard, sitting with her fellow founder Missy Begay inside the high-ceilinged brewery. On one wall was a mounted cardboard sculpture of a buffalo bust – on another, a star-spangled Pendleton blanket set near a huge photograph of Monument Valley.

According to Sheppard, this regional and indigenized aesthetic is present at every level of the Bow & Arrow business, from the art on the walls to the brewery’s “hop arrow” logo – symbolizing the cultural significance of the arrowhead to many Native American tribes – to the “beer and beer names”. The menu features selections such as Bolos and Bling (a play on the bolo tie of New Mexico and the jewelry for which Native Americans are known in the south-west), and Denim Tux, a playful reference to popular south-western apparel as well as a nod the color of the main ingredient, local blue corn, that is used in the beer.

For Sheppard, an economist and former social impact investor from the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, and Begay, a physician from the Navajo Nation, the use of local ingredients is another way to celebrate the region.

“People take for granted what’s in the backyard,” said Sheppard, explaining Bow & Arrow’s unique use of additives such as New Mexican hops, sumac berries, blue corn, regionally sourced malt and Navajo tea, an earthy, herbal plant used by the local Hopi, Pueblo and the Navajo Nation. “It was the drink of the summer,” said Begay, recalling days in the Canyon de Chelly region drinking cold homemade Navajo tea.

Hops, among the essential ingredients in beer, have long been used by Native Americans for their medicinal properties. “They recognized the bitter aspect of [hops] as an antiseptic. That kind of naturally led us to use Navajo tea,” said Begay, noting how the medical properties of the Navajo tea leaves led them to “a curiosity that transformed into this unique beer”.

I’m pretty sure I was at this brewery a couple of years ago and that the beer was pretty dang good, though I visited so many breweries on that trip in the exploding New Mexico beer scene that I am not 100 percent sure. In any case, looks like a place to check out.

This also reminds me that in August, Pittsburgh held the nation’s first festival dedicated to black brewers. Pretty cool and I would have liked to check that out, just on principle given the painful whiteness of the beer world. It’s happening next year too.

In case you don’t hate Trump enough, the shutdown is likely to delay new beer releases.

Not sure I need beer infused ice cream.

An interesting Boston Globe piece on the state of beer in 2018, which includes really expensive cans of IPA that don’t have expiration dates on them, breweries opening and closing, and the fact that 85% of Americans now live within 10 miles of a brewery. I feel bad for the other 15%. On the canning of IPAs at high prices, it has been very interesting how rapidly cans have replaced the old bomber bottles. I’d say 2/3 or so of high end beers now are in cans, especially from new breweries. So Allagash and Stone might largely still be using bottles, but it’s been an amazing change.

Over the last few months, I’ve been to 3 breweries worth mentioning. Jack’s Abby in Framingham, Massachusetts is an all-lager brewery. That’s the only all-lager brewery I am aware of. They have a lot of beers too. Their IPLs provide the hops I love. But the real winner there–if this is your kind of thing–is the Fire in the Ham, a smoked lager. I love smoked beers. Especially when they taste like bacon, such as this beer. Yet this is a tremendously crushable beer, still really quite light. I hadn’t seen it in the stores in awhile so it was great to have a couple of those. I love this beer.

I was in Atlanta in November and had a few hours to kill before going to the airport. So I went to Orpheus Brewing. They make some of the best sours I have had in a very, very long time. When I was in Nashville a few weeks ago I had another Orpheus on tap at a bar and was again deeply impressed. Moreover, while Atlanta is largely a sprawling urban hellhole, Orpheus overlooks a little nature and bike trail that made for pleasant walking after I finished. So kudos on the location.

Yesterday, I was taken to Tree House Brewing in Charlton, Massachusetts. This opened last year but I hadn’t been since I got back to Rhode Island. This place was nuts. Lines out the door. Overflow parking with shuttles! Unfortunately, they developed forest land to build it as opposed to something in town. But in any case, you get there and you have two line choices. One is for drafts and the other is to buy cans as well. People were investing a couple hundred bucks in the cans. You buy a maximum of two drink tokens at $8 a piece, which can be used for a single beer or split between two eight oz portions, except for the big stouts. So that was cool, if pricey. But for me, the beer was–fine. I used my first token on short pours of two IPAs. They were OK, but nothing I would stand in a massive line for. I guess if I see that sort of scene and they have like 10-12 IPAs on tap, I expect them to be pretty awesome. And don’t get me wrong, they were pretty good. But not that level. I used the second token on one of their big stouts and that was pretty amazing, no question. The thing about a brewery like this is that it is almost all IPAs and big stouts. I have no problem with this and I appreciate brewers specializing in styles as opposed to brewing a brown ale just because they think they have to. And there were a couple of lighter beers for those who don’t like hop bombs or heavy stouts. But with that many beers on tap, it was mildly limited in terms of style selection. Somewhat interestingly to me at least is that there were no sours. That’s become such the huge thing in the the last few years and these people certainly have the skill to pull it off, but they choose not to.

Anyway, we will talk beer more often in the new year.