I confess. I’m cheating. I originally wrote this as a column for the Local Rag in November of 2009. The Local Rag is shifting over to a new website, and only keeping the really local stuff, so I decided to intercept this column and run it on my own blog. My column there was called “The Beer Snob,” an idea that came about because of another column in that paper entitled “The Cheapskate Wine Snob,” written by my friend Randy Tracy. As I wrote in my first column:
It may make sense for the “wine snob” to be a cheapskate, but when the price of a really good beer is usually less than twice the price of a crummy cheap beer, it doesn’t pay to be cheap.
People have been writing poems about beer as long as there has been beer to write poems about. One of the oldest written recipes was found on a set of stone tablets that were inscribed almost 4,000 years ago. The recipe is in the form of a poem called the Hymn to Ninkasi, and it is a recipe for making beer (Ninkasi was the Sumerian goddess of brewing and beer).
In late October, a poet named David Ash came to Red Lodge Books to read his poems and sign his books. He has a dozen books of haiku, including Haiku for Chocolate Lovers, Haiku for Coffee Lovers, Haiku for Tea Lovers, and Haiku for Wine Lovers. He did not, alas, have anything for beer lovers.
In my own modest fashion, I’ve decided to express my thoughts on beer this month in haiku, to fill the glaring gap left by Mr. Ash. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry consisting of three lines with a fixed number of syllables in each line, forming a 5-7-5 pattern.
Here, then, is my personal commentary on beer, in Haiku form. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTSAromatic vines Harvest the barley Small organisms How do you unlock Yeast carbonates beer MAKING BEERMash, sparge, decoction The hydrometer: The fermentation: Brettanomyces: To filter, or not? SERVING BEERSome like it ice-cold Mugs, steins, and glasses Have a yard of ale! What size of serving? In bottles, in cans |
BEER STYLESMade for sailing ships Remove some barley Deep, rich, dark color Crisp, frothy Coors Light Lots and lots of malt Top-fermenting ale, Berries in wheat beer, A long, hot workday RANDOM NOTESSince this is Haiku The people of Budweis Haiku for coffee, |
Gary D. Robson 