Craft Terroir: a Reflection of Craft Beers

Tuesday evening, Sept. 16, I attending a talk about craft beers by a Kentucky University professor. Jeff Rice, professor of writing, rhetoric, and digital studies was asked to present a talk about craft beers and how they reflect the land upon which they were crafted. Needless to say I was very excited to hear what Mr. Rice had to say, and I walked into the talk with the expectation of having great things to blog about. Unfortunately that wasn't quite the case.

As Mr. Rice stood at the podium the room fell to a hush with an almost palpable anticipation . The first words uttered by Mr. Rice were lost upon me as my ears adjusted to the poor acoustics of the room. His voice emanating from the speakers behind him was muddled as the sound reverberated around the room making it difficult to understand what he was saying.

After a moment of adjustment I realized Mr. Rice was recounting his experience with the Pliny the Elder beer, an IPA crafted by the Russian River Brewing Co. in California. He used various words to describe the ale; floral, piny, hoppy and citrus among others. A brief history of hops followed to explain the name of the beer. Lupus salictarius, the origianal botanical name for hops which translated into “wolf among scrubs” grew wild among willows. And Pliny, a man who lived in the first century - 23 to 79 A.D. was credited being the first to name the plant or at least write about it. Hence the name of the ale.

Soon after the point about the original name of hops was made I was lost again. Jeff moved from topic to topic before I had a chance to understand what he was speaking about leaving me in a state of confusion and desperate strain for understanding. He read his talk from a paper like a speech rather than talking to his audience. I liken him to a man presenting a reading at a church service.

The most interesting part of his speech was when Mr. Rice started explaining terroir which means land. beers should reflect the land upon which they are crafted. Terroir was originally a political concept to protect food and products by tying them to the land of origin. Contemporary meaning of terroir is more closely associated with the culture surrounding the product than with the product itself. The land gives the product identity. Mr. Rice was making the argument that every ingredient that goes into the crafting of a beer reflects the land from which it came and gives identity to the beer. Emotional connections are also made between consumers and the craft beers from their region.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take away any more information from the talk given. The concept of Craft Terroir is interesting and I may have to do individual research into the subject. I wish the talk by Mr. Rice was more substantial and less about his own personal experiences with craft beers on the West Coast. Though some parts were interesting, on the whole I found the talk to be unengaging and difficult to follow. I attribute a large portion of that to the bad acoustics. Perhaps the venue for his next talk will have better sound.