Today is Sam Calagione’s 43rd birthday. Sam is the owner and marketing genius behind Delaware’s successful Dogfish Head Brewing. Sam’s also a great guy, and a rap singer of sorts, with his duo (along with his head brewer) the Pain Relievaz. See the bottom of this post for a couple videos of him singing after hours at Pike Brewery during the Craft Brewers Conference when it was held in Seattle. Join me in wishing Sam a very happy birthday.
Sam gives the thumbs up behind his booth at the Great American Beer Festival a few years ago.
With Ken Grossman at a Life & Limb collaboration beer dinner.
Priming the Randle with fresh hops at O’Briens Pub in San Diego.
Sam at the Rare Beer Tasting at Wynkoop during GABF 2009.
Rapping at Pike Place in Seattle in 2006.
This first video is “I Got Busy with an A-B Salesgirl,” the Pain Relievaz’ first hit single.
The second video is “West Coast Poseurs,” a smackdown to the hoppy West Coast beer and brewers.
Thanks to an alert reader, Susan G., who noticed this video about a Monster.com job posting for an “Import & Craft Trade Brewer” position in the Bay Area advertised by MillerCoors. Actually, the person hired will work for 10th & Blake, which is their craft and import division. The company is looking for “a beer ambassador and homebrewing coach in the western U.S. [to] Teach sales teams and consult on new beer recipes.” They want someone who “knows all things beer.”
Today is the birthday of Julie Johnson, who until very recently was the editor of All About Beer magazine, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Julie is without a doubt one of the nicest people in the industry and a pleasure to work with. Plus she likes odd little German trolls almost as much as I do. Hers is pink, mine’s silver. Don’t ask. Join me in wishing Julie a very happy birthday.
Julie with Ray Daniels at Lagunitas during the Journalism Retreat before CBC this year.
Maureen Ogle, Jack McAuliffe and Julie at CBC in San Francisco earlier this year.
Julie and me at the Rare Beer Tasting at Wynkoop last year. (photo by Christopher Miller)
Julie provides guest vocals on Hop This Town at the Falling Rock in Denver, Colorado during GABF week in 2007. Click below to see a video of her performance.
Just saw this salacious little video while visiting Brewpublic and thought it was worth sharing. The video Beer Porn was apparently created by Michael O’Connor from Bailey’s Taproom in Portland, Oregon. It was filmed for the NW Film Center last fall. You can also read O’Connor’s hilarious description of his film on Brewpublic. Enjoy.
There’s at least one every April Fool’s Day. Here’s Marty Jones from the Wynkoop brewpub in Denver, Colorado with a short video introducing their latest style of beer: Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. Enjoy.
Today I had a great experience that’s been a few months in the making. Last October, one of my newspaper columns was about the 35th anniversary of the date in 1976 when New Albion Brewery, the first modern microbrewery built from scratch, was incorporated by Jack McAuliffe. A homebrewer and beer collector in San Jose, Ed Davis, read my piece in the San Jose Mercury News and contacted me with an intriguing proposal. He had some full bottles of New Albion beer — Ale, Porter and Stout — and did I know anyone who might be interested in them? Obviously, I knew at least one person — me! — and I suggested that it might be fun to open them with Don Barkley, who would been involved in their creation, since he had been the assistant brewer there. Finding a day we were all available took some time, but today Ed and I traveled to Napa to Napa Smith Brewery and met with Don Barkley, who’s now the brewmaster there. But in addition to working at New Albion, Don also founded Mendocino Brewing during his illustrious career, before building and running the new Napa brewery.
Ed told me he’d bought the beers originally at Beltramo’s around 1979 and they’ve been stored in his garage ever since. While they were stored at a slightly higher than cellar temperature, the temperature was relatively consistent and they hadn’t been moved in all that time.
Ed brought one bottle each of Stout, Ale and Porter.
Don Barkley, me and Ed Davis each with a 1979 bottle of New Albion beer, that Ed was kind enough to donate to the cause.
Each of the three beers and their bottles.
Below is a short video (about 14 minutes) of the three of us opening and tasting the three beers.
After the tasting, Don, Napa Smith lead brewer Michael Payne, me and Ed.
In addition to the New Albion beers, Ed also brought a few additional treats, too.
A bottle of DeBakker Porter. DeBakker was a short-lived brewery (1980-82, I believe) that was located in my hometown of Novato, California and was started by a fireman, Tom DeBakker, who had been a homebrewer for about a decade before he opened the brewery.
Ed also brought a run of old Anchor Christmas Ale, 1978, 1980 through 1985, 1991 and 1996.
What a great way to spend a Friday afternoon! I wish all my Fridays could be as enjoyable. The DeBakker porter also held up quite well, it still had a fair amount of carbonation with chocolate notes. The Anchor beers were a mixed bag, some were still terrific, others were past their prime though none were strictly speaking undrinkable. Some of the spicier ones were still showing those spices, though a few of the earlier ones were oxidized, at least a little. The real surprise, of course, was how well the New Albion beers had held up after 33 years. They were bottle-conditioned, which probably helped, but still I expected them to be in worse shape than they were. I think we all thought that, but we were pleasantly surprised. I could stand to be surprised like that more often. Thanks, Ed, for being able to not open those beers for over thirty years and for sharing them with us today. It was like opening and tasting a piece of history.
Anchor Brewing today posted a new video about the history of California Lager, and their new Zymaster series which attempts to recreate the beer brewed by Boca Brewing in the 1870s. You can read more about that history on their blog, too, in Part 1 and Part 2.
This is one of the coolest, albeit nerdy, songs I’ve heard since Tom Lehrer was doing the Vatican Rag and singing about the Elements. And thanks to Peter H. for sending me the link. It’s a St. Patrick’s Day song by a biologist, known only as Cadamole, who apparently lives in Washington, D.C. He sings [...]
Here’s an interesting short video from Full Sail Brewing, that showcases their bourbon barrel-aged beers, called The Art & Science of Bourbon Barrel Aged Beer. Enjoy!
I should confess right up front that I’ve never been a big fan of Martha Stewart. I’m not really sure why, but her advice and how she presents it has always bugged me for some reason. I guess for me, it always comes across as trying to be for everyone, the common people, but can [...]
Here’s yet another video showcasing SF Beer Week. This one is brought to you by the Top Shelf Society. It has great production value and music, including what I can only assume is an original song, Beer by the Bay, “written and performed by Jefferson Bergey.” There’s a lot from the opening celebration and then [...]
Steve Atkinson, who does great video work for the Celebrator and others, put together this fun video from last night’s SF Beer Week closing celebration at the Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley. I should give you fair warning; you will have to suffer through not one, but two interviews with yours truly. Enjoy.
Steve Atkinson, who does great video work for the Celebrator and others, put together this fun video from last night’s SF Beer Week opening celebration at the Concourse Exhibition Hall in San Francisco. Enjoy.
If this hilarious video for the annual The Repeal of Prohibition Beer Festival doesn’t make you want to attend, I don’t know what else would. The festival will be held at Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday, April 14th, 2012 from noon until 5:00 p.m.
Regular Bulletin readers know how much I love infographics, a marriage of data and graphic illustration that shows information in a beautiful and understandable way. So I was thrilled when I got an e-mail this morning from a new Silicon Valley start-up, Visual.ly, whose mission is just that, to create and help others create cool [...]
I was one of 42 beer writers who contributed to this big 960-page book telling the stories of 1,001 world-famous beers. The book is now available at Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.
