Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #519: Bottoms Up With Colt 45

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In honor of Bikini Appreciation Day, Thursday’s ad is for Colt 45, from 1974. Showing the backside of a raven-haired woman in a white bikini playing the board game Bottoms Up while a side-burned lothario is looking way too intently at the game, which is especially odd since Bottoms Up is not exactly a game of strategy. In fact — believe it not — the game was commissioned by Colt 45 in 1970 and figured prominently in their advertising for a number of years. It was, not surprisingly, a drinking game. The couple here is drinking, of course, Colt 45.

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The game was produced by Taurus Creations and sold for a number of years. It was even advertised in more mature Men’s magazines without the bikini.

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Beer In Ads #517: Pouring Carling Black Label

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Tuesday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, from 1960, from their “People try it … and they like it” series. The ad simply shows a glass of Carling Black Label being poured into a glass. I’m thirsty. But does that glass look striped? Like it’s a crystal glass with vertical indentations? Hmm. Something is making it look that way, but I can’t quite figure out why.

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Beer In Ads #516: Next Time You’re Drinking Beer, Look At The Label

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Monday’s ad is for Budwesier, from 1957, from their “Where’s there’s Life … there’s Bud!” series. Showing a couple presumably making dinner as the wife tosses a salad while her husband pours the beer, which she appears to find far more interesting than the salad. But what I really love is the ad copy in the top left-hand corner. “NEXT TIME you’re drinking beer, look at the label. Does it list the ingredients? The Budweiser label does.” Wow, so that means it is better. Barley, rice, hops, yeast and water. And the others that don’t list their ingredients. What do you think they’re using? Grapes? Corn? Well, okay maybe corn.

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There Are 1,952 Craft Breweries In The United States

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This is a pretty cool piece or artwork that would look great on your wall. Los Angeles-based artist David Odere has created a poster entitled There Are 1,952 Craft Breweries In The United States, in which the glass of beer, head included, contains the names of every one of those 1,952 breweries. The poster is below, but to really get a flavor for it, look at in his website, Factry, where you can zoom in on it to read all of the brewery names. Last time I’d checked, the number was in the high 1800s, but I guess we’ve gone way past 1900 since then. Can hitting 2,000 breweries be very far away at this point? See if you can find your own or the ones in your area. For $20 (plus shipping) you can also but an 18″ x 24″ poster of it.

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And if you love bacon, be sure to check out his other poster, Everything Goes Good with Bacon.

Beer In Art #156: Adriaen Van Ostade’s Ale House Interior

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Today’s work of art is by the Dutch artist Adriaen van Ostade, a Golden Age painter of genre scenes. The painting is usually known simply as Ale House Interior though its full title is actually Ale House Interior with Nine Peasants Smoking, Drinking, and Playing Cards or Tric-trac. Completed in 1673, it’s “pen and brown ink, brown wash, watercolor in varying tints of gray, green, yellow, purple, and pink, with some bodycolor, over traces of graphite, on paper; [with a] framing line in brown ink.” Today, the original is in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

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Here’s how one source describes the painting:

This magnificent drawing was executed using a very elaborate technique, signed and dated by Van Ostade. In a highly detailed manner, it depicts the interior of a tavern and the different activities going on: a card game, beer drinking, a relaxing smoke by the fireplace. The dress, furniture, accessories and decor are all accurately rendered in this scene of daily life in Holland during the seventeenth century.

To learn more about Adriaen van Ostade, Wikipedia and the J. Paul Getty Museum each have a biography of him, and you can also see links to his works online at ArtCyclopedia. The Web Gallery of Art and the Wikimedia Commons also feature a number of his paintings.

Guinness Ad #101: Encore!

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Our 101st Guinness ad is from 1950, and appears to be by an artist named “Victoria.” According to an auction website, it was originally “printed by Mills & Rockleys Ltd., Ipswich.” The ad features a blonde lass in a red dress playing the harp on the Guinness label, while a glass of Guinness awaits her, sitting on a table by her side.

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Beer In Ads #515: Curl Your Hand Around A Frosty Glass Of Pleasure

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Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1956. Showing an ambiguous pair of dudes eyeing one another, with frosty glasses of pleasure curled around each hand, who are saying — in unison, perhaps? — “That’s Ale, Brother!” And then there’s this great copy below. “No other ale … no beer … has such refreshing flavor yet is so light and non-filling.”

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Beer In Ads #514: If You Like Beer, You’ll Love Schlitz

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Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1954. Here’s another way-too-happy looking salesman, with teeth so white I can almost see my reflection. Frankly — no pun intended — he looks a lot like Frank Sinatra. Perhaps that’s what ol’ blues eyes would have been doing had he not made it as a singer: selling Schlitz as a retail grocery clerk.

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