Propagating Culture Via Propagating Yeast

When I decided to start this beer blog, I titled it 7000 years to remind myself that I am part of a culture that has lasted and endured much. Thru this blog, I get to add my bit to one of the few aspects of our species' culture that survived the evolution from nomadic tribes. The one thing that I did not consider when settling on my title was how fragile that culture can be. The development of one's culture is not necessarily an additive process, but elements within the culture can be setback and even lost. But sometimes, when a tradition, knowledge, or skill begins to fade, something sparks and re-ignites it. This is what has happened to beer. It has happened probably more times than we can tell, but it has happened in a major way in the last few hundred years in our own back yard.

Imagine a restaurant/inn in a small sleepy town in VT that makes its own beer for traveling customers. Now, what is the setting that springs to mind? Is it colonial times? Modern day? Both are believable. During colonial era importing beer from far away was not an option due to spoilage. It also provided health benefits. No known pathogens can survive in beer, which made it an ideal thirst quencher when wary of unknown water sources. Fast forward to today, the U.S. has so many options that people seek even more choices. In a world of thousands of commercially made beers, people begin to desire the homemade. It is like eating out for months, an urge for a home cooked meal begins to swell. Oddly enough, this abundance of variety makes a brewpub's beer a damn special option due to its authentic nature. You know it was handcrafted because you are dining a few feet from where it was made.

So where am I going with this? We had inns that serve beer then and now. Big deal? It is, actualy. In the years separating colonial times and now, a lot happened (duh.). This part of our culture was almost lost, but not at the fault of one catastrophic event, rather many would pave the way. For example, during World War I, there was a large anti-German sentiment, which caused German owned breweries, the majority, to take a financial hit due to boycotts. There has been prohibition which effectively killed off most small breweries in the states. Then along came the scientific era, which brought about massive changes to the way we manufactured and delivered material and food which influenced the method in which beer was made. This was one more stumbling block for the surviving smaller breweries, who could not afford this new way of life and competition. The Second World War left a large female population at home as well as a rationed crop. This lead to the increase in usage of adjuncts like corn and rice, which created a lighter, less flavorful beer. A lighter beer was perfect for business because it was more palatable to the new female work force and cost less than the original formula. All of these events caused a booming American beer culture to dwindle from thousands of small breweries producing local, authentic and varied styles to the few, light, flavorless lagers millions of Americans drink today. This overwhelming popularity of lighter beer have now begun to alter European recipes that have been around for centuries. It is an endless domino effect.

In the mid-70's to early 80's, the American beer culture was in a sad state of affairs. 80 breweries were making beer for only 51 Brewing companies and it was almost all the same style and flavor profile. As nature tends to do, whenever an environment is off balance, some mechanism is tripped to restore the balance. Beer's purging fire was the homebrewing revolution. It eventually sparked thousands of small breweries all producing their own takes on a wide variety of beers, which filled a much need gap in the marketplace. To date, the swell has caused so much stir, that the major companies have realized that this is a growing sector and they, too, need to get back in the trenches and compete with these small creative producers. Today, almost 30 years later, it is a great time to be a beer drinker.

So what is the point of the history lesson? The point was to share with you how it is possible to loose part of your culture. The frailty of one's culture struck me while watching and episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. The episode was in Hong Kong and they were watching a man prepare noodles using a technique that was on its death bed. No more bamboo pressed noodles will ever be made in Hong Kong after this guy dies. I immediately thought of beer and loosing the technique to make a quality malt beverage. While at first, I thought "Good thing that won't happen", but then I thought about the above history lesson and realized that while we were not down to the only quality brewer in the world, we were veering way off course. Sad, but true.

I think what I am trying to say is, pick something that you get passionate about and think of a world that, for one reason or another, its traces have vanished from your life. It is important to think in terms like this because it happens. It has happened in the past and it will happen in the future. If you really care, do something to stop it. The most frustrating thing about that Bourdain episode was these two huge foodies, shrugging their shoulders at centuries of tradition going down the shitter. Nothing to do, but to point at culture circling the bowl with dispair. For me, I drink, I read, I write, and most importantly, I create. I am a homebrewer and should we veer off course again, I will have a homebrew in hand to keep me happy and that is a comforting thought.