Howlin' Chinaski

Origin Story

Dortmunder is a pale lager that originated in the then industrial city of Dortmund in Germany. Originally brewed by Dortmunder Union brewery in 1873, this soft pilsner style beer became very popular with industrial workers, and was responsible for Dortmunder Union becoming Germany's largest brewery, and Dortmund having the highest concentration of breweries in Germany. Dortmund was one of the earliest commercial brewing centers in Germany, establishing itself as a major brewing city, which exported its beers to the neighboring cities. The Dortmunder breweries originally brewed a wheat based, dark coloured, short fermented beer. However, in 1873, when the golden coloured, pale barley based, slow fermented beer brewed in Pilsen known as Pilsner, became popular, several of the local breweries grouped together, under the name Dortmunder Union, to produce their own pale lager. As for the name of our Dortmunder Lager, we need not look any father than to our very own Mr. Jack "Arch" Archiable. The original idea to brew a Dortmunder was conceived by Jack, and went a little something like, "hey Tony, we should brew a Dortmunder," and Tony said, "yeah, ok." I know, riveting, but that's all it takes sometimes to get the creative juices flowing. Tony, being the noble guy that he is, followed through on this promise to Jack and explained to him "your idea, you name it." Jack, not expecting to be graced with such an honor, did the first thing that came to mind and jumped on the old inter-web. Within a few minutes he stumbled upon a very cool coincidence. The same day he was researching a possible name for his new beer, also happened to be Allen Ginsberg's birthday. Ginsberg was an American poet who vigorously opposed the militarism, materialism, and sexual repression taking place in the United States back in the 1950's. A leading figure of the Beat Generation, his most famous poem, "Howl," is credited by many as a driving force that lead to much of the nonviolent political activism that rocked the 50's and 60's, and ultimately changed the face of Democracy in our country forever. He was also one of Jack's oldest and most favorite hero. Seeing as he was already paying homage to one influential character in his life, Jack decided that this would also be a good opportunity to show his respect for another one of his all time favorite individuals, Charles Bukowski. Bukowski was an American poet, novelist, short story writer, and dubbed by Time magazine as a "laureate of American lowlife". His writing focused on an emphasis of the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. He frequently wrote himself into many of his own stories under the pen name "Chinaski". There you have it, short and sweet right? Well done, Arch. A perfect name for an unassuming beer style (pale lager) that changed the face of the beer drinking world, much like the heros it was named after changed their own.