“Call me Ishmael.”
There are a lot of great books out there. There are a number of excellent books about beer out there as well. But how many truly great books about beer have there been?
A few.
I’d be seriously remiss to not give credit to the great Michael Jackson, the beer writer who brought us classics like the New World Guide to Beer
and Great Beers of Belgium
, classics that appear in most beer libraries around the world. And reference books such as 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die are in use for a great many beer drinkers as a checklist of beers to seek out. But how many books out there are fun, entertaining reads, that help the beer drinker, the beer collector, the beer lover build a greater connection to their beer? The book that does for beer what Sideways
did for wine?
I can’t think of any!
For this month’s Beer Blogging Friday Session, Alan McLeod asks, “What beer book which has yet to be written would you like to see published?” As soon as I saw this question, my thoughts immediately turned to an article I read recently on All About Beer Magazine about a legendary Ghost Whale Tasting of extraordinarily rare beers that occurred during the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado in 2013.
This article, by Patrick Dawson, the author of the book Vintage Beer
, was very well written, and really drew my interest, but it made me want to know more about the story. This traditional metaphor of the White Whale and Ghost Whale beers, the Moby Dicks of the beer world, made me long to see this story not as a new piece, but a modern, beer-infused retelling of the classic tale by Herman Melville.
“It is not down in any map; true places never are.”
I would love to read a more literary take on what makes a beer a whale. What is it about this elusive bottles that make them so coveted to the hunters. These beers of legend, these holy grails. How do the enter into the lore of the beer collecting circles? When I read this article, I hadn’t even ever heard of many of these beers that others have been seeking out for years. Where do these mythical names find there way into the consciousness of the obsessed?
“There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.”
What is it about these beers that strikes such a chord with the die-hard aficionados who collect these treasures? What is the story behind them? What makes them so great? Is it a special recipe? A limited availability? A combination of both? How do the stories get out, and how do they spread? Even while reading Mr. Dawson’s piece in the magazine, it was apparent that even to those involved, the back-stories are not always 100% clear.
“Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!”
What causes these beers to be so elusive? There are a lot of great beers out there, and a lot of rare beers. But somehow, these Ghost Whales have become the thing of legend. The beers spoken of only in whispers among other collectors. The bottles that are the subject of search alerts, and constant scrutinizing of sale/trade boards around the world. What is that X-Factory that turns a whale into a Ghost Whale?
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
And the search. The days, months, even years spent in search of the great Ghost Whale. The networking. The contact building. Perhaps even a level of espionage and intrigue that would rival the Cold War, or the world of high finance. How do the great hunters of the mighty Ghost Whale track their prey, the cold, relentless pursuit. Stalking the prey across the continents. Smooth talking the lucky few who have a bottle in their cellars, hoping for a chance to pry it away in a deal of a lifetime.
“Thus, I give up the spear!”
You have it! Your mighty whale, your ghost beer. The bottle for which you have searched. Your Moby Dick. What do you do with it now? How will you enjoy it? Does it sit in a cellar? Do you open it among friends? What then? How do you move on, now that your quest is completed? Is there another ghost whale to search for? Or are you just another craft beer orphan?
“Then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.”
This article is written in participation with Session #95, hosted by Alan McLeod on A Good Beer Blog. The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s archive page.
The round-up of this month’s session is available. I’m happy to see some other calls for “The Great American Beer Novel”, as well as a time-travel-based hunt for the great ghost whale, inspired by the same All About Beer article, in the mix.
Note: All quotes above are from Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
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