Memphian McCauley Williams put his heart and soul into creating Alma del Jaguar tequila.
Alma del Jaguar means “soul or spirit of the jaguar,” says Williams, 34.
And Williams, founder of Morningside Brands, has a big heart. “Our goal is to donate 10 percent of our profits to support wild jaguar conservation in Mexico,” he says.
His tequila is now available in five states. “With another 15 states to come on line in the next 16 months.
“We’ve seen amazing sales from right out of the gate. We were profitable as a business in our first month of sales, which is remarkable.”
And, Williams says, “We won platinum medals at both of the ASCOT [American Spirits Council of Tasters] Awards and SIP Awards, which are two of the leading spirit competitions in the country.”
Esquire listed Alma del Jaguar as one of “The 28 Best Tequila Brands to Drink in 2023.”
In 2022, Williams left Blue Note Bourbon, which he co-founded, to explore other opportunities. “I’d always wanted to do something with my uncle, Rick Williams, since I was a child because of his amazing commitment to wild jaguar conservation in Mexico.
“About 25 years ago Rick moved to Mexico as a wildlife photographer to study wild jaguars with a team of biologists. He then co-founded the Northern Jaguar Project, which is a binational effort between biologists and conservationists in the United States and Mexico to study and protect the northernmost population of wild jaguars in the world.
“He also founded the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a 60,000-acre wildlife refuge in Mexico, where the wild jaguars actually live and breathe.”
McCauley wanted to “create a spirit brand” that raised awareness about wild jaguar conservation. “The reason it is important is this reserve and the cats they are studying are in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. And they cross the border. Jaguars come into our country and are native to our country.”
Environmental conservation of our borderlands is “a hot political topic when it comes to drugs, immigration, trafficking of any illegal goods.”
“So, by talking about jaguar conservation, we are literally talking about saving these big cats but also raising awareness about environmental conservation.”
McCauley got the ball rolling in 2022. “I bought a plane ticket to Guadalajara, Mexico, and rented a car and drove all around Mexico meeting with every tequila distillery that would see me.”
He chose a “fifth-generation tequila-making family — the Vivanco family. They’re in the Los Altos region of Jalisco, Mexico, a small farming community. They make some of the best tequila in the world. It’s a small operation. And they produce it all sustainably without chemicals.”
“We knew we needed the right partner for this brand. They shared our passion for protecting the land.”
McCauley spent “about nine months designing a recipe — a unique flavor profile for our tequila.”
His first batch was imported last March. “I have two different expressions right now. And we’re working on a third. Our Blanco tequila is unaged. And then our Reposado is rested in French oak wine casks that I bought in Santa Barbara, California, and then shipped to New Mexico.”
The new one is his Anejo. “That one we age for over a year in those French oak wine barrels. That will be released next spring.”
For the Blanco, McCauley says, “I hired one of the legendary master distillers, Sergio Cruz, to help me design a flavor profile that really embodied the elements of terroir,” a French word for the tastes and smells present in a drink based on the natural ecosystem in which it was made.
He wanted the Blanco to “taste the way the Vivanco family ranch smelled. It’s clean, pure. There’s elements of mineralogy, citrus, and spice. And we achieved that through using really old techniques of fermentation. Meaning most tequilas and distilled spirits use a cultivated yeast from a lab. We let the tanks sit open to let Mother Nature naturally ferment due to wild yeast that naturally occurs in the air.”
McCauley, who currently is “building an entire portfolio of spirit brands,” says his products are about sharing “good times and experiences together in camaraderie and fellowship.”
Alma del Jaguar is “the manifestation of those good times.”
Photo: Jose M | Unsplash
Why are so many father figures standing mute on the sidelines of change?
Women’s activism, including mothers in leadership roles, is legendary. Moms have long employed their moral authority as a parent to advance the social good.
Where are the fathers and grandfathers?
We care about our children and grandchildren, too. As parents, we have plenty of moral authority, right? Yes … but too often, we squander our identity as male role models, failing to leverage our unique perspective as men to advance issues of social justice.
Why are so many fathers and father figures standing mute on the sidelines of change?
MomsRising, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and Mothers Out Front are among the most well-known groups, but there are countless other mother-led organizations across the country. Where are DadsRising, Dads Demand Action, Dads Out Front? I don’t care where Waldo is; I want to know “Where’s Dad-o?”
In part, the answer can be found by looking at the decades of women-led efforts to challenge gender inequality. In the modern era, it began to take shape following the publication of Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book, The Feminine Mystique, 60 years ago. Nothing like a mountain of laundry, diapers to change, and supper to cook to raise your consciousness about gender injustice.
From the start of the women’s movement, women intrinsically understood the connection between nurturing and activism. After all, it was that very liberation movement that gave us the iconic phrase, “The personal is political.” (Carol Hanisch coined the expression in 1968.)
Meanwhile, activist men in the antiwar and civil rights movements of the 1960s rarely, if ever, considered gender. Of course, we were fervently committed to those struggles, but often more in our heads than our hearts. That disconnect may explain our dilemma today — why males have been unsuccessful organizing ourselves as fathers and men. Women in those movements understood the connections, integrating questions of sexual politics, motherhood, and marriage into a wide-ranging intersectional examination of identity that included equality, financial independence, and gender equity. Not us guys. If the term mansplaining had existed back then, we would have been called out for it regularly.
It was men’s intransigence — and our obtuseness — failing to recognize how badly we were treating our activist sisters that hastened the birth of the women’s movement. For men, especially fathers and father figures, to fully join women as activist parents will require a lot of self-reflection on our part. I’m hardly exempt.
So how do we get men to leverage our gender identity to advance social justice goals? Mothers and other parenting partners are healthier and happier when fathers are highly engaged with their kids. That’s according to research conducted by Kevin Shafer, associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University, and Scott Easton, a sociologist and associate professor in the mental health department at Boston College.
They say that men who care for their kids benefit, too; they have improved self-image, sense of purpose, and healthy relationships. And communities gain increased trust and safety from the relationships built when fathers positively participate in their kids’ activities, schooling, and social networks. These are all essential if men and fathers are to integrate nurturing at home and social justice activism in the community.
To ensure that emotional openness and respect for women is widespread among future generations of men and fathers, researchers Shafer and Easton say we must value loving, supportive, engaged fathering. That means more support for fathers in public policy, workplaces, and institutions. Paid family leave, flexible work schedules, and including dads in both pre- and postnatal care are all essential to encourage more father involvement. This will aid men in gaining confidence to use our gender identity as a foundation for activism.
There are many routes to transformative fathering, all lead to men finding a way for activist dads to join moms on the front lines of social change. All fathers and father figures, not only biological ones.
All men who actively care for children have a critical role to play in instilling positive social values across generations — including addressing pressing social issues. Like mothers, they can parlay caring for their children into caring for the future, from gun violence to the climate crisis.
When that happens, we’ll begin hearing about groups like Dads Demand Action for Gun Sense and Fathers Out Front. Then it will only be a matter of time before we see intersectional dads organizing a Father’s Day march in the morning and firing up the grill in the afternoon.
Rob Okun (rob@voicemalemagazine.org), syndicated by PeaceVoice, writes about politics and culture. He is editor-publisher of Voice Male magazine, chronicling the antisexist men’s movement for more than three decades.
It’s an old, old story here in Memphis — in this case, told three times over. The friends in the band Black Cream all grew up surrounded by the music of Black churches, then matured and applied that experience to creating more worldly music with a distinctly pop-rock appeal. As a result, it’s hard to describe Black Cream with the usual labels of the music industry (though of course that’s another hallmark of Memphis groups). But there’s no denying they’re a “power trio,” for this three piece combo of bass, guitar, and drums can pack a wallop.
Should you walk in on their set at the right moment, you might think you’ve found a Jimi Hendrix tribute band — until the vocals kick in. The rich, soulful singing, sometimes breaking out into three part harmonies, sounds more like vintage Cream or perhaps latter-day Isley Brothers. But then you’d realize: This band was playing original music, and even their cover versions were approached from left field. That’s when you’ve found the real Black Cream.
Those soulful vocals are no accident. Chris Barnes, the group’s drummer and principal singer, is one half of The Sensational Barnes Brothers, an old-school gospel project he pursues with his sibling Courtney. But that’s just one iteration of the very musical Barnes family. Duke and Deborah Barnes were a sought-after gospel duo around Memphis in the ’70s and ’80s. By the 1990s, they had so encouraged their four children to sing that the kids formed their own performing group, Joy. Over time, they’ve become the go-to background vocalists on many local records, especially Chris, who also sings with the Bar-Kays.
Meanwhile, bassist and singer Derek Brassel says, “I come from a semi-musical family. My family roots don’t run as deep as the Barnes’, but my father is a great vocalist who sang with O’Landa Draper and other gospel groups. A lot of Memphis musicians start on drums, and I got my first drum set when I was 3 or 4. In seventh grade, I bought my first guitar. And I grew up watching, in Mississippi Boulevard church, Thomas Brown, the guitar player there. He’s legendary.”
That’s when Barnes chimes in more directly about Brassel’s current work: “And now Derek is Everlast’s touring bass and guitar player!”
Though guitarist and vocalist Thomas O. Crivens, better known as T.O., doesn’t tour with a Grammy-winning singer, he comes to the band with his own bona fides. As the executive director and producer of Beale Street Caravan, he certainly knows his music, but it’s more the way he throws himself into the guitar that’s distinctive. The group’s one release to date, “All I Need Is You,” reveals his crunchy electric tone from the opening notes, and his edgy rock riffing and soloing elevate the song beyond its more pop charms.
T.O. was also first exposed to music through church. “My dad was a pastor and my mom was a teacher, but she also played organ for dad in church.” He didn’t catch the music bug until later, though. “I started playing guitar in college, where a friend had a guitar and a Carlos Santana songbook. I wanted to play drums all my life but the guitar represented something musical that I could afford and do myself. Then my dad burned me some Wes Montgomery CDs. One of the first melodies I learned was Wes’ version of Eleanor Rigby.”
He’s pursued that eclectic approach ever since those early days and now, at 42 years old, can navigate anything from Santana to jazz, soul, funk, and beyond with aplomb. Indeed, it’s the breadth of these players’ shared interests that sets Black Cream apart from most power trios. Of course, it helps that they have the talent to execute all those stylistic left turns. But to hear them describe it, they’re not using a road map.
As Barnes notes, “Organic — that’s our guiding word. How we came together was organic. We didn’t say, ‘Hey, let’s try this one thing!’ It kind of just happened.”
Brassel adds, “And our covers come together as organically as the originals do. And I think this sets us apart as well. People have said our sound, for it to be just the three of us, is a very full sound.”
And beyond that full-throated, eclectic, rocking sound, Barnes adds one last guiding principle of the band: “Keep it creamy,” he smiles. “And stay true to who we really are.”
Photo: Jan Huber | Unsplash
Just being in nature has benefits.
We’re experiencing disastrous climatic events because we treat the land — metaphorically speaking — like dirt.
Nature’s ecosystems regulate climate. In turn, the well-being of all nature, ourselves included, is dependent upon the health of the climate. The current level of global climate change is so extreme that climate scientists have issued what they call the final warning.
Work with the sliver of hope. We can combat global climate change by reestablishing our love for and connection to the only home we’ve ever known, Earth. We can start by simply going outside. Being in nature has health benefits for you, and the closer you are to nature, the more inclined you’ll be to protect it.
Please: Try it now. You’ll likely be surprised by the invigorating benefits, both for you and the planet. Improving one’s health by simply being in nature is called ecotherapy, and there is a growing field of practitioners. The science behind ecotherapy is new, but there is evidence that being outdoors has significant health benefits, both mental and physical.
Just being around plants and trees has been shown to lower blood pressure and pulse rate, reduce levels of stress hormones, increase levels of immune-boosting white blood cells, and improve sleep. Some therapists believe that in order to get the full benefit of ecotherapy, you need to give something back, such as plant a tree, start a garden, and so on. The beauty of this is that giving back to nature — even a little — will help combat global climate change.
The best way to experience the health benefits of ecotherapy is to find a nice quiet spot in a natural setting where you can be alone with your thoughts. The only hard part will be muting your smartphone, but you can do it. Pay attention to the sights, sounds, and smells of nature.
Acknowledge what you’re sensing. If it’s sunny, appreciate the warmth the sun is giving you. Appreciate the support of the rock or stump or ground you’re sitting on. You might try repeating to yourself over and over, “I have arrived, I am home,” and pay attention to the tension draining from your body. You won’t reach nirvana, but you might very well sense a connection to the Earth, and that’s a spiritual feeling.
You don’t have to go for a wilderness outing; simply spending time in a city park or backyard can achieve health benefits. And if you don’t have an opportunity to find solitude in a natural setting, you can also get some benefits of ecotherapy inside.
Look around your home. You’ve likely brought nature into your household in one form or another — perhaps a houseplant, pet, scenic painting, natural wood furniture, calendar with nature pictures, fire in the form of candles or fireplace, and so on. If you have brought such natural objects into your house, pause and notice them for a moment.
It may even inspire you to join a local environmental group, buy a bicycle for some of your transportation needs, start using only reusable bags when you shop, donate to a climate defense organization, testify at local public hearings on behalf of carbon reduction policies, or add insulation to your home, as examples of what we can all do once we see how much we care for nature.
We know what needs to be done to combat climate change, but too many of us lack the motivation to make lifestyle adjustments for the good of humanity and the planet.
If you are willing and able to take the above simple and healing steps, you will come to a deeper understanding of your connection to everything in the world around you. Then giving something back to nature will suddenly seem important. What could be better than taking steps to combat climate change? If enough of us contribute a little, the effect will be large, and together we can make the world a better place for everyone.
We need to do it now, while we still can.
Paul Hellweg is a freelance writer and poet. His writing can be seen at PaulHellweg.com and VietnamWarPoetry.com.
Photo: Abigail Morici
Matt Petty alongside his plant assistant.
“This is my assistant Ivy,” Matt Petty tells me as he massages the leaves of his pothos plant. Ivy is connected to a Bluetooth speaker that hums an ethereal tune, producing an otherworldly atmosphere, ripe for Petty’s practice of sound therapy. “The Bluetooth transmitter turns the energy of the plant into sound,” Petty explains. “It works with the electricity that’s moving through the water in the plant.”
Ivy is just one of the instruments in the room with us, along with quartz crystal singing bowls, a rain stick, gongs, and chimes. “All of these instruments are very resonant,” Petty says. “So when you play them, it sort of amplifies what’s already in the atmosphere. These are all sound healing instruments.”
Before learning these instruments, Petty was classically trained on the trombone. “When I was in college, one thing that I would do that would help my musicianship as a trombone player was yoga. Maybe that was kind of how I started deepening into that kind of [meditative] practice.” After his schooling, he taught music theory and ear training, where musicians learn to identify pitches, chords, and melodies solely by hearing.
“I really had to find a way to teach people how to listen,” he adds. “There was a TED Talk video I saw from this deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie. And she just talks about being a deaf musician, and how everybody thinks music just goes in through your ears. And that’s sort of how we are trained to be musicians, but actually, the way that she learned how to be the musician that she is, is through how to feel the instrument through using your body. I always felt really inspired by that. It helped me understand how people were thinking about sound and how they were psychologically processing it.”
But it wouldn’t be until after the pandemic when he would find sound therapy. “When the pandemic started, it was sort of like all of the gigs just kind of ended,” he says. “It really felt like my music career, like, ended at that point, at least for a long time. And so, one day I found out about this New Year’s Eve meditation, and I ended up going. And it was the first time I’d ever experienced a sound healing kind of meditation. It shifted everything for me. My life changed after that.” At last, Petty knew how transformative listening to music with one’s whole body in a meditative state could be, and the relief it could offer.
Now, Petty leads weekly sound baths at The Broom Closet, so others can feel that kind of peace that very first sound bath offered him. “It’s like a group meditation that’s guided by sound,” he says. “The way I usually do them is I just play the instruments, and I sort of guide people in a meditation. … Your mind may go into a dreamlike state, but the music is sort of nudging you along. And the body just innately knows what to do and can move into these really deep places of healing and transformation.”
In addition to the weekly sound baths, Petty also offers a monthly “Vibes from the Vines: The Sentient Sound of Plants in Memphis,” where attendees can try their own hand at playing the various instruments in a unique sound therapy session. Space is limited for each session, so keep up with Petty’s offerings on The Broom Closet’s Facebook.
Celestial Sound Bath, The Broom Closet, Mondays, 6:30 p.m., $20.
Vibes from the Vines: The Sentient Sound of Plants in Memphis, The Broom Closet, Monday, July 31, 7 p.m., $20.
Ethan Brown, 16, a junior at Jericho High School on Long Island, New York, is a hero among his classmates, the New York Post reported. Brown argued before the school board in March that his highly ranked school had 186 days in session — six more than the state’s required 180 — and that summer vacation ought to begin on Friday, May 26. “I was nervous, especially at first,” Brown said. “I almost sat back down before speaking but I’m glad I didn’t.” He noted that on a stormy day in February, the school did not close, and not a single snow day was used during the year. Superintendent Hank Grisham said Brown “did an absolutely incredible job. There is no requirement to give … snow days back to staff or the kids.” But the board was moved, and a day off was granted — dubbed the Ethan Brown Snow Day. “I’m getting a lot of thank-yous,” Brown said. In his upcoming senior year, he’s in line to take over the editor-in-chief position at the school newspaper. [NY Post, 5/25/2023]
Thong and Cheek
Protesters at the Massachusetts Statehouse bared more than their souls as they demonstrated against climate change on June 15, according to an NBC-10 Boston report. Shouts began to rain down from the public gallery just after 1 p.m. from eight members of Extinction Rebellion, an international environmental movement, followed by a warning: “We are going to be mooning you. … You can look away if you wish.” At that point, the octet turned their backs on the senators and dropped trou, revealing pink thongs and bare buttocks emblazoned with the words “stop passing gas.” The protesters continued with chants of “You’re a senator, not an ass, why are you still passing gas,” and “Butts out for climate” for about an hour before they were arrested and escorted out of the chamber. [NBC 10 Boston, 6/15/2023]
Reunited and It Feels So Good
• A first edition of George Orwell’s 1984 has been returned to the library … 65 years late. UPI reported that the Multnomah County Library in Portland recently received the return from an 86-year-old patron. The patron attached a note to the book, explaining that they meant to return it in 1958 after checking it out as a Portland State University student — they just “never got around to it.” But talk about excellent timing: The library just went fine-free. [UPI, 6/14/2023]
• Sheriff’s detectives in Kanawha County, West Virginia, made an odd discovery while executing a search warrant on an impounded vehicle in February: a 1965 class ring from Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, bearing the initials “M.P.” Their investigation determined the owner was one Michael Pedneau, who told the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail that he only vaguely recalls losing the bling some 50 years ago, perhaps on a trip to Princeton, West Virginia. “There’s probably 40 or 50 of us [classmates] who get together monthly for lunch,” Pedneau said. “We’re all old, so we enjoy swapping stories, and this is one I’ll share with them. I’ll show them the ring and we’ll have some fun around it.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail, 6/13/2023]
Up in Smoke
A dispensary in Baltimore faces fines for blowing smoke … literally. WMAR-2 in Baltimore reported that the Cookies dispensary opened May 27, only to be shut down less than a week later after a surprise inspection revealed a laundry list of violations, including “large plumes of medical cannabis smoke being blown from a large gun apparatus into the mouths of persons outside the dispensary,” according to the suspension notice. Cookies is part of a franchise, and Cookies San Francisco was the first to utilize a “Flame Thrower” smoke blower, created by Jeff Dick of Colorado. The blower has since become part of the Cookies brand. [WMAR-2, 6/15/2023]
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
News of the Weird is now a podcast on all major platforms! To find out more, visit newsoftheweirdpodcast.com.
Nashville versus Memphis? (Photo: Rod Gimenez | Dreamstime)
There are eight candidates recognized as viable in the city’s race for mayor this year. Some are well-known to the public, with records of achievement in governmental and other public spheres. Others, not so well-known, have money to pour into their races to rectify that problem.
The field ranges across metrics of gender, race, and political party. Individually and collectively, the candidates exude a sense of optimism about the city and its future, though their evident pride at its impressive recent successes is balanced by a concern about maintaining various kinds of equilibrium, including fiscal, going forward.
These candidates are nothing if not transparent. Most of them have been appearing regularly at a series of televised and in-person events, and …
At this point it may have become obvious to sentient readers that the city whose mayoral race we are describing is not Memphis. It is Nashville, the sister city and state capital a three-hour drive from here up I-40.
Pride? Optimism? Transparency? Not so much in the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race, where the modest number of public forums has been spottily attended, both by candidates and by audiences, and focused on the doldrums of public life — poverty, economic stagnation, educational failure, inequities and fallings-short of various kinds, and crime, crime, crime.
Nashville has its problems, also, including aspects of those just mentioned, which rage in the Bluff City like out-of-control dumpster fires. But, with their August 3rd city election looming, the essential problem that Nashville’s mayoral candidates are vexed by can be summed up in such conundrum as: “What else can we afford to pay for out of our tourist bounty?”
Dig it: The Nashville City Council has already agreed to spring for the city’s share of a fancy new enclosed $2.1 billion football stadium to house the NFL’s Titans. Now, the city is also meditating on developing an in-city state-of-the-art driving track suitable for prime events on the NASCAR circuit.
To be sure, there are Nashvillians (and mayoral candidates) who wonder if the city is overextending itself. An ad hoc group called CARE (Citizens Against Racetrack Expansion) says via a public petition — “We respectfully ask: How does spending millions of dollars to bring in bigger, louder NASCAR races solve the most pressing concerns of Nashville? Doubling down on turning Nashville into a Las Vegas-style destination for tourists ignores the desires and needs of a vast majority of our city residents.”
CARE goes so far as to say that “pressing issues like increasing affordable housing, fixing decaying infrastructure and public transit, and approaching the problems of homelessness and crime need our attention and funding urgently.”
Now we’re talking. So, in some ways Nashville, for all its plethora of building cranes and new skyscrapers and ongoing city projects and point-of-origin TV spectaculars, may still have some major issues in common with the struggling city to the west on the banks of the Mississippi?
We know that it does. Both cities inhabit home-rule counties and, as such, have another concern in common: that of maintaining local options in education, health, social policy, what-have-you in the face of an ever-encroaching state government. More on this anon.
Craft beer changed here in 2013 — and it changed Memphis.
Drinking local a decade ago gave Memphis beer fans two choices: a trip to Boscos or picking up a sixer of Ghost River Golden.
However, that year, 2013, promised to be a watershed, flowing rivers of local beers and new styles to the Memphis market. That promise was delivered.
“Within the next year,” the Flyer’s Hannah Sayle wrote in April 2013, “Memphis will have three new craft breweries.”
And it did. By year’s end, Wiseacre, Memphis Made, and High Cotton began production, raising the total local beer sources to five. This changed the craft beer game in Memphis. This first rush of local breweries opened a gate — but not a floodgate, exactly — to more brands and breweries here. It all led the way to triple the total local beer sources to 15 in 2023.
The 2013 beer boom was good news for the curious craft quaffer. But local beer’s rising tide raised many other boats. It has brought new opportunities for business and development, new tourist experiences, new ways to build community, and new ways to celebrate the city.
“When Wiseacre, High Cotton, and Memphis Made opened that year, that really launched a new era of craft beer in Memphis and paved the way for the vibrant scene that we have now,” Mike Erskine, founder and author of the Memphis Beer Blog, told the Flyer earlier this year. “Prior to 2013 for fans of craft beer, what you could buy in Memphis was really limited. Back then you might head to Walgreens in West Memphis to get beers that are not sold in Memphis. You might travel to Nashville and bring home beers from breweries that didn’t distribute in Memphis.
“So when those three breweries opened in 2013, there was a shift, and all of a sudden you had options for a good, local beer.”
Ghost River and Boscos were well-established in 2013. The Flying Saucer had poured craft styles from other markets since 1997. And other entrepreneurs had stabbed at (and missed) bringing local craft here before. Here’s how Sayle explained it in her 2013 Flyer story:
“Craft brewing entered the Memphis scene in the mid-1990s, when the first Boscos brewery and some other, less successful brewpubs opened around town. Chuck Skypeck [then] of Boscos and Ghost River Brewing Co. recalls a brewery in the old Greyhound station on Union Avenue, a chain brewpub on Winchester called Hops, and the Breckenridge Brewery above what is now The Majestic Grille, which still [at the time housed] all the old brewing equipment. Aside from Boscos, none of these brewpubs lasted more than a few years.
“In the mid-’90s, homebrewing hobbyists and beer nerds, whom Skypeck refers to as ‘old guys with beards,’ were determined to create an alternative to the big brewing industry: Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. The enterprising ones among them opened brewpubs, assuming the quality product would drive demand and a market for craft beers would build up around them.
“‘The younger consumer was drawn to Smirnoff Ice and flavored malt beverages and froufrou cocktails,’ Skypeck says. ‘I told people that craft beer has to attract the 21-to-25-year-old, or it’s not going to go anywhere. The sea change that’s made craft beer grow now is that the younger consumer is now on board.’”
Cans of Wiseacre’s Tiny Bomb (Photo: Wiseacre Brewing Co.)
Millennials and Memphis Pride
They were and still are. You can tell that by having a look around a local taproom. Much credit is heaped on millennials for craft beer’s rise. For proof, look at a market research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, “Millennials and the Take-Off of Craft Brands.”
“Millennials buy more craft beer than earlier generations,” reads the paper. “This shift in preference could overturn a nearly century-old structure dominated by a small number of national brands.”
In 2018, the Brewers Association said the huge millennial generation accounted for more than half (55 percent) of craft beer drinkers. They were willing to try new things, polls found, but they were also attracted to the authenticity of locally made beers over the mass-produced stuff still largely favored by baby boomers.
Young people also loved where they lived and — as the urbanist adage goes — they wanted to “live where they lived.” In the early 2010s, a swell of civic pride gripped cities all over the U.S. Memphis was no different; just look to the Choose901 T-shirt catalog for proof.
Holly Whitfield fueled the I Love Memphis Blog for nearly a decade before helming the digital team at The Daily Memphian in February. The first story she worked on for the Memphis Tourism blog was about the opening of Wiseacre’s Broad Avenue taproom in September 2013. So while she had a front-row seat to beer and city pride for a long time, the movement was “about more than beer.”
“Breweries started serving as community gathering places, venues that can host other kinds of events like comedy shows, markets with Memphis artists, concerts with Memphis music, fundraisers — so, a gathering place for other aspects of culture,” Whitfield said. “They’re family-friendly, and casual, too.
“[Craft beer is] a local product with a local flair. The branding for a lot of breweries is locally flavored.
“Also, craft beer had been thriving in other places for a while so for Memphis to sort of finally have arrived and have our own scene, I think people were proud and happy about that.”
Younger drinkers and their love for the city helped push Memphis craft beer’s success forward. In turn, local beer helped forge a new Memphis identity and breathed new life into some dormant and sometimes “spooky” urban spaces.
Sips ahoy at Memphis Brewfest (Photo: Memphis Brewfest)
Building with Beer
Urban planners might not have predicted that local beers and places to drink them could become building blocks to transform the city. But they did. The New York Times wrapped this idea up in a 2018 story headlined, “From Blight to Bright Lights in Memphis.”
“In a city long known for its crime problem, increased local efforts have transformed blighted areas into buzzy social hot spots, attracting tourists along the way,” reads the subheading. The story referenced Loflin Yard, Railgarten, Broad Avenue, the Tennessee Brewery, Rec Room, and more. All of them — in one way or another — were reactivated spaces because creative planners and developers gave Memphians a reason to go there, and many times that reason was to drink a local beer.
One sultry summer afternoon in 2014, the late Tommy Pacello looked around the packed courtyard of the once-crumbling, then-vibrant Tennessee Brewery and said, “It’s amazing what some string lights and a few kegs of beer can do.” The Tennessee Brewery Untapped event, which centered on a beer garden with local craft beer, drew thousands to the old building that spring and summer. For many, it was the first time they’d seen the building in years. For some, it was the first time ever.
We know now the brewery was saved from the wrecking ball, underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation, and is now the home of upscale apartments. Did Memphis craft beer save the building? Not on its own, of course. But it did draw people to the spot in a way that, say, local ice cream probably might not have.
It’s the same story with Loflin Yard and the south end of South Main. Overgrown and abandoned (save for carriage horses and their stables), the former safe and lock shop was an unlikely destination for anyone, local or tourist. But that changed in 2016 when visionaries reimagined the yard, its barn, and office as a hangout magnet with a laid-back yard, live music, and, of course, local craft beer.
“When I was in high school, I never would’ve thought in a million years that Florida and Carolina and Georgia would be a residential area,” Josh Whitehead, former director of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Planning and Development, told the Flyer in 2016. “It was one-story, kind-of-cool brick warehouses. But at night, it was, you know, spooky. The street lights were always out, and it was all these dark brick warehouses from a thousand years ago.”
Loflin Yard gave people a new place to go. Local craft beer gave them something to do there. Again, beer didn’t do it alone. But it’s an important ingredient in the special sauce.
Pacello agreed. In 2013, he was part of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team. He later led the Memphis Medical District Collaborative. Pacello passed away in 2020. But he’s well remembered as one of the brightest, happiest advocates of Memphis, always finding ways to make it better through urban planning and development.
“There are lots of examples of craft breweries being urban pioneers and becoming an anchor for neighborhoods, especially if they have restaurants or taprooms associated with them,” Pacello told Sayle for her 2013 story. “They help activate the streets and become gathering spots for the neighborhood. Like how Boscos was a pioneer in Overton Square.
“All three of them [Memphis Made, High Cotton, and Wiseacre] have these common patterns. They’ve chosen core city neighborhoods, the key being neighborhoods. They’re not choosing to be buried in an industrial park. It’s a key part of revitalization. Is it a silver bullet? Probably not. But it’s definitely a key part.”
Memphis craft breweries are still creating destinations. They’ve opened their taps in different parts of town, giving even more people even more places to go, and something to do when they get there.
Eric Bourgeois is the marketing director for Packed House, the local-craft-beer-friendly parent company for Bardog Tavern, Slider Inn, Momma’s, and Aldo’s Pizza Pies. His company is a presenting sponsor of Memphis Brewfest, set for September 16th at the Memphis Sports & Events Center.
On a recent call, Bourgeois referenced a Memphis beer map in his brain to point to Ghost River on South Main, High Cotton in The Edge, Grind City in the Snuff District, Soul & Spirits in Uptown, Wiseacre’s OG Broad Avenue location, and Memphis Made in Midtown.
“They’re creating all these different nodes and attractions for people to get out and experience local beer and, maybe, see a part of the city they hadn’t explored before,” he said. “From there, it branches out to the nearby retail and restaurant spots, a lot of which are partnered with those breweries. It’s a good synergy for everyone involved.”
All of this has helped to shape Memphis’ modern identity. The new places to go and new things to do gave a sense of moving forward. It helped give Memphis a new, positive narrative, and that helped push civic pride.
Grind City beers and a seltzer (Photo: Grind City Brewing Co.)
Beercation?
It’s a thing. Google it. Nielsen Media Data said an average American had visited 2.1 local breweries while traveling in the last year.
The Memphis Tourism website has a dedicated craft beer page that brags “our artesian wells produce the crisp water that has been filtered for 2,000 years to help create some of the best craft beer in the world.” That famous Memphis water is soft, and brewers say that’s great to create just about any style of beer they want.
Memphis probably does not rank high on beer tourists’ bucket lists, but many tourists make pints a point once they get here. Memphis Tourism even offers tourists a special Hop Stops program with directions to and descriptions of local breweries.
But Stephen Guenther’s company removes that step and takes beercationers directly to the breweries on the Memphis Brew Bus. It’s an example of at least one new business that began around the city’s craft scene. Every Saturday, tourists load up on the bus for a three-and-a-half-hour-long tour of three Memphis breweries.
“It just really fit a certain class of traveler, like epicurean people who travel for food,” Guenther said of the tourists who board the Brew Bus looking for local craft beer. “[Craft beer] expanded our overall attractiveness to folks coming in. There’s just one more thing to do, especially when it’s hot here. When you can spend a Saturday afternoon with a cold beer on an air-conditioned bus; that’s a pretty good day.”
More sips and suds at Memphis Brewfest (Photo: Memphis Brewfest)
Where to?
Memphis craft beer has come a long way in the last 10 years. But there is room to go further, some say.
A few years ago, Kyle Johnson, an avid craft fan, moved to Memphis from Atlanta, a city with “an incredible brewery scene and overall beer scene” jammed with brewpubs and beer bars. He’s come across many beers here that are just “forgettable,” he said, and beer bars do too little marketing to make the scene seem fresh and exciting.
Breweries here, Johnson said, either have all the same stuff to appease many tastes, or they brew to the tastes of the brewers with little regard for the market. Either way, Johnson hopes Memphis breweries will take more chances down the road.
“More people are coming through this city either via tourism or just moving here in general, and a lot of them have experienced other cities,” Johnson said. “If you take a chance and try something new or possibly ‘out of the norm’ for Memphis, you might be surprised that it’s what the crowds are craving.”
There’s another national craft beer trend that vexes industry insiders and makes outsiders roll their eyes at craft as a “white person thing:” racial diversity. It’s a nationwide issue but is easily seen in Memphis. Just have a look around many local taprooms.
The latest study (in 2018) by the Brewers Association, the industry group for small and independent brewers, showed that more than 85 percent of craft drinkers were white. Minority groups made up the rest, and while that was an increase, it wasn’t enough.
“Given that only 68.7 percent of the 21+ U.S. population is non-Hispanic white, that’s not progress,” the study said. “Minority craft drinkers are growing, but only because the total population of craft drinkers is growing, not because craft drinkers are getting more diverse along racial lines.”
What’s Ahead?
In our 2013 beer story, Sayle called Skypeck “the godfather of craft brewing in Memphis.” He left Memphis that year for a job with the National Brewers Association group.
While he’s not current on the Memphis beer scene, he said he’s seeing the craft beer industry leveling off. Brewers, like many other businesses, are facing the headwinds of inflation. For example, the costs of malt and cans rose by 40 percent recently, he said. This could mean Memphis might not see many new breweries soon.
But Skypeck said the leveling off could just be a market cycle as craft beer competes with other products like hard seltzers, flavored malt beverages, and, now, ready-to-drink cocktails. But, Skypeck said, “Those things come and go, and craft beer always stays.”
In his 30 years in the craft beer business, Skypeck said he’s heard many ring the death knell for his industry, especially when a high-profile brewery closes.
“How many times do you see a high-profile restaurant close and people say it’s the end of dining out?” he asked.
Last Friday, in a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court shot down President Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, which would have reduced or canceled federal student loan debt for millions of borrowers. Payments and interest have been paused since March 2020 as part of Covid-19 emergency relief. According to studentaid.gov, after the hiatus, interest will start accruing again this September, with payments becoming due the following month. Some people are very upset about this ruling. Others were very upset about the possibility of folks having their loans forgiven.
A few years ago, I proudly exited college with a hard-earned journalism degree and a shiny new debt of nearly $26,000. Welcome to adulthood, you’re starting off in the negative, good luck! I worked service and retail jobs until I landed an internship here at the Flyer my senior year, and even then, held two jobs for a while just to be able to pay bills and buy groceries. There wasn’t much left over for savings. When the loan came due, I applied for a brief deferment, and later income-driven repayment. The interest really got me. I was getting nowhere for a long time. I bemoaned how dumb it was to have taken the max loans each semester. But at the time, I was stoked to receive a “refund” check after tuition was covered. Silly me didn’t ask questions, didn’t speak to financial aid counselors to fully understand what I was getting into — which wound up covering college expenses and additional money to help me get by, but with a good $7,000 in interest piled on over time.
No one is to blame but me, but what does society expect of 18-year-olds, fresh out of their parents’ homes, who have no clue what they’re doing? Making a laughable income with mounting new responsibilities at every turn. Taking out loans and cashing the refunds and having a big ol’ time until graduation when reality hits.
Of course I understand that when you’ve agreed to take out a loan, you commit to repaying it. You can’t have your mortgage or car note forgiven. But — hear me out — student loans are a sham. Furthering education should be affordable. Walking out with $25k+ in debt — because you must have a degree to pursue just about any career — is total horse shit. I can’t imagine how much it must sting for those with six-figure loans. Bless you, and I’m sorry, and I hope your income reflects that value.
The goal of the debt relief program was to assist low- to middle-income debtors — $10,000 in federal student loan debt would be canceled for borrowers making below $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 income per year. An additional $10,000 would be forgiven for Pell Grant recipients, who historically have a greater need.
Thankfully, I’ve paid most of my student loan debt. Would I like to have the rest dismissed? Absolutely. Would I be upset that this happened after I’ve doled out over $30,000? I mean, it sucks, but I’d still be supportive of offering relief to those who need it. College tuition and textbook costs increase year over year. The cost of living continues to increase, too. Why not give people attempting to better themselves a little break?
Are we as upset about bank bailouts? Three banks failed earlier this year, and the United States Federal Reserve loaned more than $300 billion to the “cash-short” institutions through its emergency Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) in March. Forbes reported in March that “many experts note the Treasury Department’s plan to save depositors doesn’t constitute a bailout because it draws from insurance funds paid by banks — and not taxpayer dollars — others worry the implications could ultimately fall to consumers through economic consequences like inflation.” Last week, Cointelegraph reported that the reserve’s “bailouts” reached a new weekly high of $103 billion for the week ending June 28th, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
What about the more than $200 billion in pandemic business loans that appear to have been fraudulent? The U.S. Small Business Administration, in its “COVID-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape” report, said of the $1.2 trillion given in COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds, at least 17 percent went to “potentially fraudulent actors” in the “rush to swiftly disburse” funds. New studies show this could have been a driver in inflation, particularly in the housing market. About $742 billion in PPP loans were forgiven.
So we’ve got corporations, big banks, scammers, and regular people seeking financial relief and assistance. Are we mad at the kids who took out loans to attend college because the world told them they had to? The big banks whose expertise is finance but can’t seem to manage their own accounts? The scammers who got billions in free government money?
There’s mismanagement, fraud, or forgiveness. And a whole lot of moolah tangled up between. It’s pretty clear who could use the help. It’s the average hard-working American. The “consumer” struggling to live amid inflation. Maybe one day, someone will vote and act in our favor.
“I don’t know about y’all but my number one election issue is going to be that everyone loses power if there’s a stiff breeze in Memphis,” Allie Mounce said on Twitter.
Thousands here were left in the dark last week after a storm pushed through the county. Mounce’s tweet brought a discussion on the issue of power, what Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) could and should do when bad weather hits, and what political candidate could best solve the issue.
For the problem, some pointed to MLGW’s outsourcing of cutting trees and such. For a solution, some suggested burying power lines. As for politics, one suggested asking the current mayoral and Memphis City Council candidates how they’d handle the situation and who they’d put on the MLGW board.
Thirst Trap
Posted to Facebook by MLGW
Hot, bored, and powerless MLGW customers might have paused a bit on the utility’s Facebook post last week for the truest object of their desire: a row of electric repair trucks.
Power is back, but …
Posted to Reddit by u/NotFeelingItOrThat
Lots of frustration and hilarity about the outages on the Memphis subreddit, including the meme above. A video over there shows just how strong the storm’s winds were. Another shows what happens when He-Man turns the power back on.
