We’d just like to wish everyone a happy 75th anniversary of the return of legal beer to the U.S.

And now let’s all hoist a glass and sing along with us to Weird Al’s Beer Song:

Oh… what is the malt and liquor?
What gets you drunken quicker?
What comes in bottles or in cans? (Beer)
Can’t get enough of it (Beer)
How we really love it (Beer)
Makes me think I’m a man (Beer)
I could kiss and hug it (Beer)
But I’d rather chug it (Beer)
Got my belly up to here (Beer)
I could not refuse a (Beer)
I could really use a beer, beer, beer

What is the malt and liquor?
What gets you drunken quicker?
What comes in bottles or in cans? (Beer)
Can’t get enough of it (Beer)
How we really love it (Beer)
Makes me think I’m a man (Beer)
I could kiss and hug it (Beer)
But I’d rather chug it (Beer)
Got my belly up to here (Beer)
Golly, I adore it! (Beer)
Come on dammit, pour it!
Do it for me, brew it for me
Feed it to me, speed it to me (Beer)
The most wonderful drink in the world
HOORAY!!! (BURP)

Prost!

Hey everybody, we’re fine. Covered with an inch of snow-like ash and coated in a nice smoky smell that probably won’t leave the house for 9 months, but otherwise fine. After three days of tension and a 20 foot wall of fire as close as 1,000 yards, we managed to escape any damage whatsoever.

We live in a fairly rural, brushy area in North San Diego County and get our fair share of spot fires on and off. But it turns out this time we got lucky — really lucky. We live in Bonsall on the south side of the San Luis Rey river and the past two night’s fires weren’t able to jump the river. Our friends in Bonsall and Falbrook on the north side were not so lucky.

I grabbed a good map off of the San Diego Union-Tribune’s website so you can see the extend of the damage. When you look at it, keep in mind that San Diego county is about the size of Connecticut. (The blue arrow in the top center is where we are.)
(Click map for larger view)

Even though 400,000 people were evacuated and almost 2,000 homes burned to the ground, amazingly enough, only one person died. That’s a statistic I credit to the fact that, unlike the nearly as massive Cedar fire four years ago, a) this time the county and city governments were ready, and b) when people were told to evacuate, they left rather than staying behind and trying to fight a 3,000 degree fire with their garden hose. As a result, we’re all in pretty good shape.

Thanks to everyone who sent emails and called — it means a lot. Now someone pour a Rauch Beer and toast San Diego.

Updated photo
Just thought you’d like a look at the sky from the fire.

Normally you see this kind of red sky at sunset, but this photo was taken at 2:30 in the afternoon.

It’s about 6:45 PM and you’re looking at the Rice Canyon fire burning about a mile to the north of us. (Those little bright spots are flames.)

A quarter million people have been evacuated from San Diego — including all 45,000 people from the town of Fallbrook. We’re in Bonsall right next door and preparing to leave should the flames get any closer. We’ve got to load up the kids, pets, livestock, etc. and find a safe place to go, so you may not hear from us for a few days.

No worries though — if we get some good pictures of a California wildfire, we’ll make sure to post them. (It’s not beer, but it’s still cool.)

Be safe and drink one for Molly and Me!

I’m late to the party on this one because I was out of town (and I’ve been drinking Olde English 800). Over at Seen Through a Glass Lew Bryson is mulling the meaning of the term “craft beer” and whether it applies Anheuser-Busch’s Beach Bum Blonde Ale.

There’s a lot of back and forth in the comments as to the definition (including my own), but it’s not all that difficult as long as one remembers the meaning of the word “craft”. And I’m not talking some marketing hack’s spin on the word “craft” — marketers play fast and loose with words (I know, I am one) — I’m talking the real meaning.

From my handy-dandy Websters New International Dictionary of English:

Craft: \’kraft\ 1: Dexterity, Skill 2: an occupation requiring dexterity or artistic skill.

By extension, a “craftsman” is one who exercises his artistic skill, and one who is “crafty” is clever or skilled.

So then, what is a “craft beer”?

Obviously, it’s one that is produced by dexterity or artistic skill (and perhaps with a little cleverness).

Is AB’s Beach Bum Blonde good beer? Perhaps. (I’ve never tasted it.) But is it “craft beer”? No. Because anyone who’s ever taken a tour of an AB brewing plant knows that the system is highly automated and controlled. Malt is boiled, wort is pumped, hops are added, wort is chilled and fermented, and beer is eventually bottled all via computer control according to a pre-programmed recipe. Human involvement is usually limited to people in bunny suits pushing buttons and looking at display screens. (And maybe a QA person taking some weights and measures to see if the system is on track.)

Now go to your favorite local small brewery and take a look at its system. Do you see technicians in bunny suits behind big glass windows monitoring computer controlled hoppers and automated heating, transfer and chilling systems? I doubt it. Most likely you see guys in rubber boots running around the brewery checking gauges, running pumps and double-checking their notes.

AB is “technology”, your local brewery is “craft”.

I think people are getting muddled in their thinking because they are making “craft brew” synonymous with “micro brewery” and “good beer”, but that’s simply not the case.

“Technology breweries” and “craft breweries” can be any size. If you’ve got the money you can build a totally automated brewery that produces only 30 barrels. And if you’ve got the manpower, you can have a non-automated brewery that produces 3 million barrels. Each is equally capable of making good beers as well as bad ones. (I’d even go as far as to say that craft brewers produce more bad beer because the lack of automation allows for more human error.) Both would probably even employ true craftsmen as brewers. (Someone has to design the beer.)

It’s how they go about producing their product that separates the two. If you rely on technology and systems to produce your beer, you’re one kind — a technology brewery — and you’re usually large. If you rely on your skill, artistry and manual dexterity to make your beer, then you’re a craft brewer — and you’re usually small.

It’s that simple. One is not better than the other. (In fact, one often starts as the other — every big American brewery was a craft brewer at one point.) Don’t fall into the marketing hacks’ trap and let them make “craft brew” a code phrase for “microbrew is better than macrobrew”. It’s the beer that makes the difference, not how it’s produced.