Wednesday’s ad is entitled Impromptu Concert, and the illustration was done in 1950 by John Gannam. It’s #39 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. In this ad, after many beers, a group of young people decided they could make their own music. The guy in the bow tie grabbed a guitar, because nothing screams rock and roll like a bow tie. And of course, to rock out you definitely need an accordion. This one’s going to be epic. But at least they’re reading music and playing their own instruments. I hate to say it, but that’s becoming a lost art. Lastly, check out the inset picture below the art, where it reads “Springtime is Bock Beer Time … Try It!” That mug is pretty awesome.
Archives for May 11, 2016
Jackson Family Wines To Build Sonoma County Brewery
You know the brewing industry must be doing something right if one of America’s largest producers of wine has decided to jump in with a new brewery. Brewbound has the scoop, with Jackson Family Wines Proprietor Launching Sonoma County Craft Brewery.
It’s certainly not the first time. Does anybody else remember Sonoma Mountain Brewing? And more recently, Carneros Brewing built a brewery on the grounds of their Ceja Vineyards. And don’t forget that Korbel Winery once launched their own small brewery, hiring a young brewer to make the beer. After a short time, they decided to get out of the beer business, and brewer Vinnie Cilurzo obtained the name and moved Russian River Brewing to downtown Santa Rosa, and with his wife Natalie Cilurzo, built it into a destination brewery that’s undoubtedly helped put Sonoma County on the map for beer, as well as wine. So some have worked great, others not so much.
This one at least seems off to a big start. It’s not officially a project of the Jackson Family Wines, but Christopher Jackson, who is the son of winery founder Jess Jackson. Of course, most start-ups don’t have the resources to start by “constructing a 25,000-barrel craft brewery” with “an initial brewing capacity of 8,000 barrels.” Most start-ups don’t have $8 million as their initial capital, even though Jackson states that “[i]t is a passion play” and I “am the sole proprietor and it is my project going forth, but we are employing a lot of similar philosophies from my wine background.”
The new brewery will apparently be called Seismic Brewing Company, which name Jackson bought from San Diego’s Rough Draft Brewing. The new brewery will be located at 2870 Duke Court, Santa Rosa and plans to open in late summer.
It sure seems like Sonoma County is indeed becoming a “craft beer Mecca,” as Jackson called Santa Rosa. I think that’s truer of the whole county, but certainly between Santa Rosa and Petaluma the county’s doing pretty well. Sonoma County currently has 31 licensed breweries, at least according to the latest number from the CCBA, which means we’re nowhere near the 100+ that are now open in San Diego County. Still, I think Sonoma probably has more than most counties.
Patent No. 1139007A: Barrel Rack
Today in 1915, US Patent 1139007 A was issued, an invention of Randolph L. Wright, assigned to Anheuser-Busch, for his “Barrel Rack.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to barrel holders and particularly to a device for supporting barrels, preferably kegs containing nails, in position whereby the said keg may be tilted to discharge the contents thereof wholly or in part without undue effort of the operator, the said invention furthermore including novel means whereby the keg is held in a vertical or upright position by gravity when manipulation thereof ceases.