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JCCC PPresents resents
JJewish ewish Community Communit y Center Center SONOMA COUNTY
2013 JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
PARIS-MANHA PARIS-MANHATTAN ATTTTAN A W/ WOODY BE BEFORE EFORE ALLEN JOE PPAPP APP IN FIVE ACTS SPRING THE BALLAD OF THE WEEPING SPRI NG ORCHESTRA OF EXILES
October 3 October 10 October 17 October 31
1: 1:00 00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. 1:00 1: 00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. 1:00 1: 00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. 7: 30 p.m. 7:30
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BEER ISSUE
sshade hade of C Carneros’ arneros os’ o outside utside pouring po uring station—seriously, station—serriously, the the place pretty darn plush pl ace iiss pr etty d arn pl p ush ffor or a small brewery—I Ceja how hee sm all br ewery—I aask sk C eja h ow h them ccan an tell tell th em apart. apart. Even Even to to who writes ssomeone omeone w ho writ ess aabout bout beer they like ffor or a living, living, th ey aall ll look l like green pinecones me. ssquishy quishy gr een pin eccones to to m e. It’ss a matter both and It’ matter of bot th sight an d smell. hand Ceja the hop that sm ell I h ell. and C eja th he h op th at I’m Im holding, h olding, which which he he takes taakes in two two fingers and inspects, fin gers an d briefly briefly in nspects, before bef ore putting putting it up to to his his nose nose to to “Thiss iiss S Saaz,” hee rreplies, eplies, be ssure. ure. “Thi aaz, z”h without hesitation. thee “it with out h esitation. Noting Noting th lookss lik likee a pin pinecone” still look e one” ec my eexpression xpression on m y face, hee aadds that fa ce, h dds th at thiss on onee h has thi as more more threeof a thr eedimensional dim ensional than, sshape hape to to it th an, thee tight tighterssay, ay, th erclustered cl ustered Tomahawk. Then T omahawk. Th en there’s thee th ere’s th proportion pr oportion of aromatics: vegetal ar omatics: v egetal notes, grassiness, n otes, gr assiness, sslight liight citrus. I take take the the hop hop in question qu uestion over over to to where my friends have w here m y frien ds h ave ccongregated, ongregated, halving fingernails. h alvin i g it i with i h my my fi ngernail ils. It’s I ’s It’ not timee I’ I’ve n ot the the first first tim ve ssliced liced open a hop, but timee iit’s likee lookin looking h op, b ut eevery very tim t’s lik g in on a tiny, tiny, hidden world. world. Or at least tiny le ast a tin y hidden apartment apartment pockets ccomplex. omplex. Discrete Discrete po ockets aalong long both sides of the the hop’s hop p’s inner inner stem stem house what h ouse w hat aappears ppears tto o be pollen but fact aree th thee llupulin b ut in fa ct ar upulin glands; glands; i.e.,., the Thee i.e the reason reason hops hops matter. matter. Th aalpha lpha and and beta acids acids stored stored within thee glands th glands are are responsible, respo onsiblee, after aft f er they’re the hops’ main th ey’re boiled, ffor or th he h ops’ m ain bittering beer, bitt ering ccontribution ontributio on to to beer r, while thee h hop oilss ((also w hile th op oil also rresident esident in thee lupulin th lupulin glands) glands) contribute contribute myriad m yriad flavors flavors and and aromas— a omas— ar depending thee v variety, depen ding on th a y, ariet eeverything verything from from pithy pith hy grapefruit grapefruit Sauvignon Blanc tto oS auvignon Bl anc to to sspearmint. pearmint. Soft from thee S oft yellow yellow smudgess fr om th I’ve llupulin upulin dot my my notebook, noteb book, aass if I’ ve been cooking cooking with saffron. saffron. Our party party heads heads back back to to one one thee per pergola-covered tables of th gola-coverred ta bles in Carneros’ C arneros’ garden, garden, unpacking un npacking a and sipping picnic lunch lunch an d si p g ccold ppin old pints of Jefeweizen Jefeweizen and an a d Negra Negra IPA. IP A. We We can can see see the the pickers pickers they make their way aass th ey sslowly lowly m ake th eir w ay
down do wn th thee rrows, ows, s h handfuls andfuls of hops hops disappearing buckets. di sappearring into into b uckets. The The bin es (wit th a b ), aass th ey clim b th bines (with b), they climb thee tr ellises— —via scratchy scratchy h airs an d trellises—via hairs and rrobust obust stems, stem e s, differently differently th an a than true vine vine would—begin would—begin to to sslacken. lacken. W ith luck, luck k, the the pickers pickers will p ull With pull 500 po un nds aagain gain thi ear. pounds thiss y year. R elative to to m ost oth er br eweeries Relative most other breweries gr owing h ops locally, locally, that’s that at’s growing hops huge Com mpared to to ccommercial ommercial huge.. Compared h op-growiing oper ations farth er hop-growing operations farther n orth, however, howeveerr, it’ arely a dr op north, it’ss b barely drop in th buck ket. Though Though North North Bay Baay thee bucket. pr oduction n today today tends tends to to be on a production gent le upswing, upsswing, th ere’s minimal minimal gentle there’s chance of a chance return to to th return thee volume of huge volume Sonoma County’s Countty’s Sonoma heyday. Kilns Kilns are are heyday. expensive (even (even expensive Carneros simply simply Carneros hops in dries its hops the open air, airr, using using the ventilation efforts efforts ventilation instead of a fullinstead op kiln), blown h blown hop an d breweries breweries e aren’t particularly particularly and aren’t in clined to to get into into th hop-growing inclined thee hop-growing b usiness when when th eir focus focus should should be business their on the the final final outcome. outcome. B ut these these ar econdary points. But aree ssecondary E conomicc force, force, both in terms terms of Economic gr apes h e e or ec er onomies-of-scale grapes here economies-of-scale el sewhere, h as sshifted hifted around around elsewhere, has en ormoussly in the the decades decades since. since. enormously On really ccan’t an’t complain complain about about Onee really th litty of hops hops from from llargeargethee qua quality sscale, cale, m ecchanized enterprises enterprises in mechanized th Pacific Northwest, Northwest, n or about about thee Pacific nor th ose ccompanies’ om mpanies’ ccultivation ultivation and and those rresearch esearch h programs, p ograms, w pr hi h iintr hich t oduc d e which introduce eexpressive xpressive n ew v arieties each each year. year. new varieties B ut we’re wee’re b bless ed with a ssurplus urplus of But blessed gr eat local local breweries breweeries that, that, because because great th eir small-scale small-s l cale h arv vests never never see see their harvests a kiln, go all all out out in producing producing wetweeth op beers beers at h arvest, which which aff ord a hop harvest, afford fr eshness an d ar omatic quality qualitty th at freshness and aromatic that on ply doesn’ om dried onee sim simply doesn’tt get fr from h ops. W ee’ve rrounded ounded up aass m an ny aass hops. We’ve many w ould iin n th ar. wee ccould thee sideb sidebar. O On ce a y earr, at le lleast, ast, it i aalmost l ost ffeels lm eel e ls Once year, lik hop o industry industry never never left. likee th thee hop
By B y 11961, 961, harve harvest est rreports eports ep ceased d men tioning mentioning hop oper ra ation ns operations altogether r. altogether.
Ken K een Weaver Weeaver e is a pr professional rofeessional beer writer edito or bas ed in P etaluma. editor based Petaluma. His ‘North ern C aliffo ornia C raft Beer ‘Northern California Craft G uide,’ with h photography photography b nneliese Guide,’ byy A Anneliese S chmidt, iss o ut no w. Schmidt, out now. ) 26