LT Saloon

It’s not easy being a pioneer and to survive.  Former brewer and now Mayor of Denver, Colorado John Hickenlooper always reminded brewing entrepreneurs, “The pioneers get all the bullets, spears and arrows, while the settlers that follow get all the land.”  Brazil has become a wasteland for beer variety and choice.  Megabrand beers dominate the landscape in every nook and cranny of the marketing, distribution and retail, bar, restaurant and leisure beer drinking community.

Marcelo has learned from his beer travels in the USA and elsewhere that educating beer drinkers is an essential and very slow process.  Some Brazilians now want to learn about better beer, ales and lagers from their own travels and through the emerging homebrewing networks sprouting up in various metropolitan areas.

Brazilian born beer enthusiasm has been contagious, but by no means is it anywhere near epidemic proportions.  It’s a start.  Marcelo and many of the other approximately 80 small and independent craft brewers in Brazil are supporting the homebrewing community.  They offer meeting places and ingredients with which homebrew enthusiast can brew and learn about beer.

There are no homebrew supply shops in Brazil.  Homebrewing in Brazil is an all-grain affair, right from the start. In the USA and several other countries beginning homebrewers can easily immerse themselves into the joy of homebrewing with the use of malt extract syrups and kits.  That’s not the case in Brazil.

I was invited to attend a homebrewing, beer enthusiast brew-in and barbecue at the Colorado Brewery in Riberaõ Preto, a small city about a 3 1/2 hour drive northwest of the world’s 7th largest city, Sao Paulo. Surrounded by endless sugar cane fields, there is brewed Colorado Indica IPA, Colorado DeMouselle (coffee) Porter, Colorado Cauim Pilsener (made with cassava/manioc as an ingredient) and Colorado Appia Honey Weiss (wheat) beer (made with orange blossom honey and light rapadura as ingredients??

There was also something else brewing that particular day.

Brazilian homebrewers were stirring their pot of American-style IPA.  Formulating their brew with German pilsener, caramunich and aromatic type malts was relatively easy.  Determining dosage and hop rates was a more animated affair.  Given bags of American grown Northern Brewer, Amarillo and Cascade hops courtesy of Marcelo and the Colorado Brewery I encouraged them to be judicious with their hopping, while still understanding they wanted to make a 20 liter batch of “hop whompus” inspired super hoppy brew.

I hope to receive word in the coming weeks how the beer turned out.  Perhaps comments will appear below.   I’m quite sure hop bitterness exceeded the threshold of excess-differentiation; 80+ bitterness units may be a conservative guess..  I suggested doses of hops late and in secondary to achieve the hop aroma that’s allusive in most Brazilian craft beers.

Brazil is both a mild temperate country in the south and tropical in the north.  Beer does not receive cold storage during transport through the distribution system. Most beer sellers only refrigerate the beer they expect to sell within 24 to 48 hours.  Draft beer is usually not refrigerated at all, but rather warm beer is run through a chilling “jockey” box.

If you’re fortunate to have a microscope nearby to read the packaging it is evident that most beers have additives “antioxidant #316(Sodium erythorbate)” and “stabilizer #405 (Propylene glycol alginate)” to their beer.  The Brazilian environment is tough on beer.

With regard to the hop qualities that Brazilian beer enthusiasts were just beginning to discover, appreciate and seek, it is little consolation knowing that heat, time and rigors of transport diminish hop quality in commercial beer quickly. Hop qualities diminish quickly in any beer attempting to suggest hop character.

The best beers in Brazil are enjoyed best near the brewery where they are made.  The very best is homebrewed and craft brewed.  Brazilian beer enthusiasts have embarked on perhaps the world’s most challenging undertaking.  They wish to transform their country into a country recognized as a culture of better beer.

They face almost insurmountable odds, with a virtual monopoly of the beer market by Anheuser-Busch Inbev with such brands as Brahma, Skol and Antarctica.  The “beer force” may be with beer enthusiasts, but the beer muscle and beer minds are currently overtaken by Brazil’s megabrand light lagers.  To the pioneer beer enthusiasts, craft brewers and homebrewers – may the force be with you.

Offer a toast for the better beer pioneers of Brazil.  Once upon a time, long, long ago, insurmountable odds also existed in the U.S.A.

This type of iconography has been used for a hundred years or more to sell all sorts of products to the public. Cheese, butter, cereal, soup – everything you can imagine. Farmers are the honest, hardworking backbone of this country.

So why then the creation of the National Dairy FARM Program : Farmers Assuring Responsible Management?

“Dairy farmers throughout the United States share an important responsibility to provide the optimum in care for their animals. It is a charge they assume willingly as caretakers of that gentle creature recognized as the source of nature’s most nearly perfect food – milk. Development of the National Dairy FARM Program affirms the US dairy industry’s commitment to assuring the best in animal care and product quality assurance. It represents an important step forward in the preservation of consumer confidence that farm production practices are consistent and address concerns for animal well-being.”

- Jan K. Shearer, DVM, MS., Professor and Extension Veterinarian, Iowa State University

from the National Dairy FARM Program website. http://www.michiganfarmbureau.com/farmnews/transform.php?xml=20090515/New_York_dairy.xml

Consumers are becoming more aware every day that farming has become industrial, and not pretty. We have seen programs like a recent Nightline report (Jan 25, 2010) on cruelty to animals. http://abcnews.go.com/video/video?id=9671990&tab=9482930&section=1206872&playlist=1887643 We have known for decades that some chicken facilities have kept their employees locked into production facilities working for long hours at tedious jobs that create repetitive stress injuries. Reports of non-documented workers working long hours and inadequately housed and paid have appeared on national news programs.

Whereas some farm managers simply puff out their chests with snark attacks at “tree huggers” and “bedroom communities” http://www.michiganfarmbureau.com/farmnews/transform.php?xml=20090515/New_York_dairy.xml while stretching the truth about “harrassment suits”, and advising their colleagues to suit up with legal representation, some farm groups are cautioning their members to proactively document their compliance with legal regulations so that they may be percieved as responsible members of their communities. Imagine that – try being a good neighbor in order to be percieved as one.

Alas, critic that I am, I see this FARM program as a typical corporate public relations effort. If you’ve worked for a corporation you are familiar with them – lots of glossy pamphlets, a video all employees are forced to watch, a nice certificate to hang on the office wall – while behind the scenes it is life as usual.

I am glad that there are people in the Ag Industry that care enough to point out what should be best practices, and that are willing to lay it on the line that, working with the land and livestock should encompass respect for the land, livestock and the community. I just don’t think Mega (dairy, pig or chicken) Factories are going to put it into practice.

We need a return to small to medium scale facilities that can be worked by the manager, and managed by the workers, who intimately know and care for the farm and it’s livestock. And America – if you want a clean, healthy, reliable food supply that complements and sustains your community – your going to have to pay enough for it, to provide a living wage, to those who do it. In the long run it will be healthier for you, the environment, and your pocketbook too.

What, did they expect Joe, the Neo Con Conservative Republican; drunk on power, ego and pure partisanship, to come home and say, “Great speech. Now I realize how bad I’ve been. Sorry. All these years I’ve been beating up on you, calling you names, making fake accusations. I know you weren’t all ‘traitors’ when you challenge the Patriot Act, questioned WMD, or the war in Iraq. Obama’s not some foreign born socialist out to control and own everything. Max Cleland lost his limbs doing his patriotic duty. Hillary didn’t murder Vince Foster. Can I stay and work things out if I stop: become more honest, cooperative and kind?”

Would you believe them even if they did do that? If you did, then you had to have sniffed gasoline after smoking a few pounds of crack first. Or maybe just be one of these “get along at any cost” Dems. Same damn thing. And there are far too many of them these days.

So we wait for the obvious to happen, as it has so often. The pattern seems to be set in concrete: kind of like a Democratic Jimmy Hoffa. We’ll make suggestions. They’ll toss us into the river of unreasonable, baseless, accusations and laugh while we sink in the polls. Sink in the polls because the media will insist on being “fair and balanced:” rarely if ever pointing out the lies, never commenting on their vicious nature.

Oh, we have our own moments of rage, like the recent Supreme Court decision. And that rage will last… how long? Will we organize and take to the streets? Pound on doors? Get arrested? Characterize them in unflattering ways? Do what they do and use every weapon we have to beat back those who beat us so often?

No, for the most part I’m sure we will do what we always do, slink away as soon as the corporate owned media finds a way to distract us. Where’s Michael Jackson or balloon boy when they need them? Oh, I’m sure if something doesn’t happen they’ll just make it up.

My guess is by the time this is published the rage is about to fade into semi-obscurity, just as it has for the most part over torture, no WMD, Bush’s fake National Guard record and and his statements that “Saddam never let the inspectors in/kicked them out.” Remember how Bush’s National Guard problems were all washed away simply because the information, while correct, wasn’t on the original form; using the original font? Why do I hear even lefties claim it was a bogus document when the secretary who handled the original information said the information was correct?

Couldn’t all this be a bit like the abused wife who tells the police, or her neighbor, that her black eye was caused by a doorknob?

Or how abuse over Whitewater turned into abuse over Bill and Hillary murdering Vince Foster, turned into…. and the only thing they got him on was saying “there is no relationship,” when at that time there wasn’t? Now even most lefties claim Bill was convicted of perjury, something that never happened.

“I’m sorry officer. No, he hasn’t been abusing me. Broken arm? Yes, I do need to be more careful in the shower.”

More than a decade later after all that we hoped that would all change, it obviously hasn’t. You cannot have change if you continue to empower those who created the mess to begin with.

The mainstream press eagerly ran with the lies and did little to correct them. Maybe we keep “letting it go,” because we hope to win the next one, make them see, make them understand. Maybe we just hope that the voting public will see how poor little us were victims all this time, not understanding that re-victimizing victims has become great theater.

And maybe we’re just being damn fools, especially when we think a good speech will break the cycle: solve bloody anything. This endless cycle reminds me of the woman beaten at the mere mention of how much she doesn’t want to be berated and abused…

“He balls up his fist and smacks her. She’s left crying in a corner, asking, ‘What did I do wrong? How can I make it better?’”

But she can’t, can she?

Like an abused spouse we wince and cry about what been done. Then blame ourselves. It’s Barack’s fault. Hillary’s fault. If not for Joe Lieberman, or Ben Nelson, or… But actually do something? Toss Joe out the political window as he so richly deserves? Enforce party discipline even one iota, a smidgen, a mere speck? No, no, no. That won’t do. It’s “our fault.” We just weren’t cooperative, understanding or bipartisan enough. We’ve got to move more to the “center,” do everything more like how “he” wants things to be.

But the real question, the real quandary, is will we continue to allow him to beat us? Nothing will ever satisfy him: even if he kills us the media will claim it’s our own damn fault.

Being more cooperative sure isn’t the answer. How much more “cooperative” could we be? Why would even a damn fool think “cooperative” would work with the Right as it exists today; the same Right who cheer on their hero when he claims he wants our President to fail? Who cheer on talk show hosts making vague references to assassination? “Bipartisanship” with that kind of abusive spouse is a death encouraging act.

But instead of realizing this and doing something about it we seem to say…

“He beat me again. I must have done something wrong. Maybe he’ll stop if I just say I’m sorry.”

For “he” always does the same thing: comes home; finds something, anything: real or imaginary, to be mad about and then beats us senseless. He expects, demands, that we try to soften the blows by attempting to please him with that grand make up sex: bipartisanship mixed with compromise. Then he will tell us we’re still being difficult and beats us again, attempting to pound any ounce of independence out of us.

“He” is obviously the Right in this analogy, and the corporate owned mainstream media. And all the compromise and over eager adjustments from our side should be painfully obvious.

Take, for instance, the nice summer opportunity Barack gave them to get their act together on health care; gather the gang to oppose anything proposed, and especially to make up lies, spew spurious, vile, accusations. He could have pushed harder. We could have done the “up or down vote” mantra popular when they were in power. But no… that wouldn’t be “fair.”

So what was their cry after that gift? Oh, yeah, “Democrats are trying to ram this down our throats!”

“He balls up his fist and smacks her again. She thinks, ‘It’s my fault. Why do I keep making him so mad? Maybe I should try to find some way to avoid anything he finds disagreeable.’”

The media cheers and jeers, like the crowd who gathers to encourage a bully on an elementary playground. From not one, single, mainstream media source did I hear them pointing out how much of a lie this “ram” claim was in the face of the obvious summer recess opportunity they were given, the fact that single payer wasn’t even considered, that insurance companies were handed back pretty much everything they already had and offered even more than they had; especially when public option was quickly dropped.

Who pointed out that these facts made “ram” a damn lie? No one. Not MSNBC. Not CBS. Not ABC. Not ABC. Not the Times, the Post, the… not one.

And someone please tell me when Republicans during the previous administration were this cooperative and Dems used any opportunity to come back and beat on the Republicans?

So now Scott Brown has been elected, are we going to try to get health care through before the ax falls? No, that wouldn’t be “fair.” If you listen to his acceptance speech you would think Democrats were refusing to seat him, like Republicans did Franken, as they chanted, “Seat him now! Seat him now!”

Like the husband who keeps complaining that his compliant wife isn’t compliant enough, they know no one on our side would be brave enough to stand in his way. No one is trying to stop Brown from being seated. Indeed we’re paving the way. Not only will he be seated, but the Commander in Chief and Nancy Pelosi insist we “play fair” and wait for him to be seated before we continue the health care circus.

Oh, but we’re “Nazis” for even trying to improve health care? “Nazis” because we know that selling such things across borders means less coverage for the needy as insurance companies cherry pick communities? Yes, I do remember Adolph Hitler making sure even the Jews had health care.

“Just enter that gas chamber over there and you will be taken ‘care’ of.”

The Jews you see, like the poor, had a “precondition.”

Yes, we know who is really acting like Brownshirts, and who supports the true “death panels.”

But, that’s OK, Ken. Calm down. After all, they’ll appreciate the fact we’re waiting for Brown to be seated, right? Everything thing will be puppies and roses now we’ve shown how “fair” we are, right? “He” will forgive us for what “we’ve done,” right? They’ll calmly discuss health care and come to some compromise, or politely say they can’t vote for it.

No, what will happen once he’s seated?

“He balls up his fist and breaks her nose, then says: ‘Serve me what I want now, faster, bitch, not this socialist crap. You’re too slow. You’re my servile slut. Your ass is mine.’”

So what did the President who did so well confronting them the other night according to reports do previous to that speech? Barack promised that once Brown’s been seated the all too thin bill that everyone worked on so hard will be thinned out even more… thin enough that I imagine even Snuggles the Charmin bear will be embarrassed. It will melt in our hands; turn into… a big bonanza for the insurance thieves who brought us here to begin with.

So after all that, will they be thankful?

No…

“He balls up his fist and smacks her over and over again. Her nose is broken, her face is raw. Still she thinks, ‘It’s my fault. It must be my fault. What can I do to make him happy?’”

Nothing will “make him happy.”

Not if we “play nice”

Not if we “play fair.”

Every compromise will lead to more angry demands. Our very compliant nature feeds the abusive behavior.

How far will this go? Soon they will simply demand we all shut up, and be able to make it happen. Think net neutrality. Why do you think the Right Wingers are so focused on this? If they can deliberately slow down access to beyond noisy dial up slow, while provide lightening to the rich, the well connected…. who will have free speech; more ability to be abusive? Combine that with corporate “free speech” and the limitless ability to pump money into pols and causes. Get the picture yet?

And who will have little to no free speech, thanks to the Supremes and intentionally slowing down the net? Who will have all they can buy? With all the money flooding into the system, the politically incorrect, un-bought and unconnected will have “free speech rights” more like this…

“Her teeth are broken. Her mouth is swollen shut and her very existence only angers him more.’”

Maybe someday Dem leadership will wake the hell up. Abused spouses sometimes do stand up for themselves: do what they have to do to kick them out of their positions of power, or at least limit the damage they do: and do whatever it takes.

It’s 2010.

We are at a crossroads.

We can have a repeat of 1994. only worse, or we can energize our own base.

Forget trying to pacify the party of mostly abuse. No matter what they say they’ll never play “fair,” “nice,” or back off.

Or we can follow the advice of those who would rather take the beatings than really do anything about it. The kind of advice that has a spouse who follows it end up in a body bag, while those who gave the advice still blame them.

These enablers would rather us join them than stand up for ourselves.

Excuse me.

Hell, no.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

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Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
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