Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Soccer, Beer & Art

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soccer
As the Round of 16 is now over and there’s a couple of days break until the quarter-finals of the World Cup, I though I’d share some pretty cool artwork involving beer and the World Cup. A new design firm in Toronto, Moxy Creative House, has created a series of seventeen posters called Cheers! For the 2010 World Cup.

cheers-all

They design sixteen beer bottles to reflect each of the sixteen countries that made it to the semi-finals, including one showing all sixteen teams.

usa

Then there’s one each for every nation, like this one for the U.S.A.

netherlands

And here’s the Netherlands.

I asked Moxy president Danial Eckler why they used beer for the posters, and here’s what he told me. “The reason we chose beers is obvious, everyone loves to sip on one for soccer.” Also, they chose the retro look “because of soccer’s and the respective countries rich history” and the “minimalist style is a trademark of our creative company.” I just think they’re pretty cool.

Each of the posters is for sale, 11.75″ x 15.5″, for $25. Or you can get your favorite team plus the poster with all of them for $40, plus $5 shipping and handling.

Embedding is still not working, but you can see all 17 posters in my Flickr Gallery.

Beer In Ads #139: Pabst Pick O’ The Picnic

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ad-billboard
Tuesday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1947. It’s one of a series from around that time period that were all inside of a blue ribbon. I love the slogan at the bottom: “It’s Blended … It’s Splendid!” Also, check out the expression on the guy’s face as he’s about to bit into that fried chicken leg. Is it the beer he’s leering at, or could it be the gal in the tight red dress? Take a look. What do you think he’s looking at?

PBR-1947-picnic

Beer In Ads #138: Budweiser’s Do It Yourself Wallpaper

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ad-billboard
Monday’s ad is presumably supposed to be funny in that time when most women were housewives incapable of much else, and certainly putting up wallpaper was beyond their expertise. She has that “I guess I can’t do it” look on her face, but I’m sure the beer will make it all better. It’s from 1958. In my household the opposite is true. I’m all thumbs but my wife is the handy one.

bud-wallpaper-1958

Beer In Art #82: Pabst Art Contests

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art-beer
Today’s works of art were all created over the past four years, as a part of an art contest by Pabst Blue Ribbon. Now that Pabst Brewing Co. has recently changed hands, who knows whether the new owners will keep the art contest alive. As far as I can tell, it started in 2007 and has been held each year since, including this year. The PBR Art website has a gallery with 380 works of art that have been submitted. Many of them are quite good, and I’ve picked out some my favorites below.

Mark Cummings
A straightforward still life by Mark Cummings.

Christopher Galiyas
This fun one, an interpretation of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” is by Christopher Galiyas.

Josh Holland
This painting by Josh Holland reminds me a bit of a Grateful Dead album cover.

The blog is still acting up and throwing tantrums when I try to embed anything, but I created a slideshow of my favorite 40 Pabst works of art. Just click on the link to be taken to the Flickr slideshow.

Japanese Paper Beer

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origami
Most people have probably heard of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. But the Japanese propensity of coming up with unusual hobbies knows no boundaries. One of the tamer examples is the related art of making 3D paper models. Using vector software like Pepakura, 3D models are created in 2D and then sheets are created to cut out and build the paper models. I stumbled on one of these while searching for another image. It’s of a waitress serving beer to a bar patron. The title of it is Bunny Beer Maiden because the waitress is dressed in a bunny costume, a popular Japanese fetish theme. Instructions and more photos are also at Papercraft and also at Paperworks’ And Wind Until, which has even more views of the component parts of the paper models.

rabbgirl-00
First a vector drawing is created on a computer, and then individual pieces like a dress pattern are created that must be carefully cut out for assembly.

rabbgirl-01
After being put together, the server in bunny costume looks like this. See many other angles here.

rabbgirl-03
Here’s a close-up of the glasses of beer.

rabbgirl-04
And the customer with his beer. See many other angles here.

rabbgirl-02
And here’s the entire scene with the server, the customer and tables and chairs, all of which are made out of paper.

Beer In Ads #137: Anheuser-Busch’s Custer’s Last Fight

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ad-billboard
Friday’s ad is the oldest piece of American breweriana known to exist. It was a poster created by Anheuser-Busch, who commissioned the original painting, Custer’s Last Fight, which was painted by Cassilly Adams in 1884. A lithograph was then prepared by F. Otto Becker in 1889. It was distributed as an advertising poster by Anheuser-Busch. It has since become one of the “most famous views of of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, referred by Indians as the Battle of Greasy Grass.”

Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Little Bighorn, which has become famous as Custer’s Last Stand. It began on June 25, 1876 and ended the following day.

Cassily_custers-last

According to one history website, Indian Wars — Wyoming Tales and Trails, “it is, however, best charitably described as fanciful. The Indians’ attire is in error; Custer’s hair is in error, he had it closely shorn before leaving Ft. Abraham Lincoln; he is wearing a red scarf; and, perhaps most importantly, the battle is being fought on the wrong side of the river.”

Cassily_custers-last-fight

As possibly the very first piece of breweriana, an original will set you back a pretty penny, at least from $1,699 to $2,250. One of the eBay sellers includes the following information about the lithograph:

Measures approx. 32 ” X 42″across Great colored lithograph depicting the grisly battle between General Custer’s troops and Indian warriors at Little Big Horn. Custer is featured at center waving a saber and dressed in fringed buckskin. The remaining cavalry officers (except for his brother Tom) are dressed in military uniform. Indians are armed with scalping knives, tomahawks, clubs, spears and rifles. Dead of both parties appear in foreground, with several being identified in the bottom margin as Courier from Sitting Bull, Squaw Killing wounded, Rain In the face and the Sioux Warrior who killed Custer. Custer’s medals and banners are in lower left margin. Mounted Indian poses beside a monument in lower right margin. In the small margin directly under the picture it is marked Entered According To Act Of Congress By Adolphus Busch march 30th 1896 In The office of The Librarian Of Congress At Washington, D.C. In the lower center portion it is marked The Original Painting has been Presented to the Seventh Regiment U.S. Cavalry By Anheuser Busch Brewing Association, St. Louis, Mo. U.S.A.

Beer In Ads #136: Phipps’ Pale Ale

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ad-billboard
Thursday’s ad is another old one that shows off the brewery with industrial glee. It’s for a British beer, Phipps’ from Northampton. They’re actually still in business under the name Phipps’ NBC (or Northampton Brewing Co.), having been revived in 2004. There’s a nice detailed history online, too. But it’s a beautiful poster, with both the brewery in the center and the surrounding scrolling, especially the hop vines. It’s like a rectangular coat of arms.

Phipps

Beer In Ads #135: Century’s Rheinlander

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ad-billboard
Wednesday’s ad is from 1935 and is for Rheinlander Beer from the Century Brewing Association of Seattle, Washington. 1935 was the last year under that name, the following year they changed it to Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. and later it was even Rheinlander Brewing off and on after 1965. I love the paean to industrial wonders and the giant bottle towering over the brewery. Just two years after Prohibition ended and the trucks are still streaming out of the brewery making deliveries. Life was good.

Century-Brewing-Assn-1935

Beer In Ads #135: Bieres de Lutece

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ad-billboard
Tuesday’s ad is for Brasserie Nouvelle de Lutece in Paris, France, most likely from the 1950s or early 60s. According to Articles of Incorporation for AB InBev France, it may be at least partially owned by ABI, though I’ve seen references to the brewery possibly no longer being operated, too. Still, I love seeing such innocent ways of advertising beer, with cartoons and young women that would all but be forbidden in today’s America. She almost reminds me of a Little Red Riding Hood character, only her basket of goodies includes beer.

Bieres-de-Lutece