Anchor Zymaster #1 To Be A California Lager

January 24, 2012 By Jay Brooks

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Yesterday Anchor Brewing announced their new line of beers under the “Zymaster Series,” with the first to debut during SF Beer Week in February.

This morning I spoke to the Zymaster himself — Mark Carpenter — who told me a bit more about the beer. It sounds like it will be a pretty interesting beer, and one I’m definitely looking forward to trying.

Carpenter told me they wanted to do something distinctly Californian, and they searched brewing logs and records that they could find from early California brewers. Reasoning that as soon as brewers had the technological ability to brew lagers, that’s what they did, so they turned their attention to lagers. In California, Boca Brewing is believed to have made the first lager in the state, around 1875 (according to American Breweries II). The town of Boca was located in northeast California, roughy 6.5 miles from Truckee. In 1880 it had a population of around 200 people, though today it’s literally a ghost town. The brewery was founded in 1875 and closed in 1892, four years before the Anchor Brewery opened.

So Anchor set about to recreate the first lager brewed in California. They used California-grown malt and California cluster hops. Clusters were the first hop variety grown in the United States. Though their origin is unknown, it has been “suggested that they arose from hybridization of varieties, imported by Dutch and English settlers and indigenous male hops.” They weren’t able to find enough cluster hops actually grown commercially in the state, but they did find cluster hops growing in Washington using the same bines that used to grow in California, before the hop-growing family took their rhizomes with them when they moved north from California to Washington.

So the first Zymaster Series beer from Anchor is also the first true lager they’ve made (with Steam beer being essentially a hybrid) and was brewed to try as best they could to replicate the first lagers brewed in California. It’s 5% a.b.v. and is a single-hop beer, using only Cluster hops. Because of quality issues in the late 19th century, lagers here tended to be more highly hopped then they are today, and Anchor’s new beer will also reflect that, though they have not yet calculated the IBUs, so no one can yet how hoppy the lager will be. Only one thing is certain, I can’t wait to see what it tastes like.

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Big Changes At A-B InBev

January 23, 2012 By Jay Brooks

Wow, there’s a lot going over at Anheuser-Busch InBev, and besides the slip in sales of their core brands. Last week, rumors abounded that ABI was planning to roll out some version of 100% Share of Mind, which had been the “unofficial” policy until a few years ago, when it became unworkable. I wrote about it four years ago as it started to wane in Losing Their Share of Mind, and you can get the history and background of the policy there, assuming you’re unfamiliar with it. In a nutshell, A-B insisted that their distributors focus ONLY on A-B and A-B-related brands, and there were ways they had for dealing with those distributors that didn’t toe the line. And it worked well enough while A-B brands were selling well, but when they began to slip, it became harder to enforce and harder for distributors to remain profitable without taking on non-A-B brands, especially craft brands.

According to Beer Business Daily, ABI “is again turning up the leverage with Sales Opportunity Teams starting next week.” Apparently “Sales Opportunity Teams” (SOT) is the new buzzword for it this time around. They continued:

The SOTs, which A-B chief Dave Peacock has repeatedly said are not punitive in nature, will certainly be uncomfortable for distributors with growing competing brands in the house, as they try to explain this or that competing display or tap handle on the floor.

It’s got to be even harder this time, with craft beer riding a wave, with great growth, higher rings and consequently more profits. Sell less, make more. Hard to walk away from that, but of course having the best-selling brands is also pretty attractive, too. So what’s a distributor to do?

Today, the other shoe dropped, as Anheuser-Busch President Dave Peacock — and the last of the pre-InBev top executives — resigned effective today. According to ProBrewer

Peacock was one of the few remaining high-level holdovers who had stayed with the company after it was acquired in 2008 by InBev. He was only one of two non-Busch family members to hold the title of CEO.
Peacock is well liked by wholesalers and is known as reasonable, fair and an advocate for the second tier. The latest pressure on wholesalers by InBevAB may certainly have prompted Peacocks departure.
Peacock began his career at A-B in 1992 and was promoted to president in 2008 in the wake of the acquisition after serving as VP-marketing since late 2007. Many U.S. executives departed after the InBev takeover, but Peacock was handpicked by the new owners to lead the U.S. operation.

Harry Schuhmacher, in his Beer Business Daily, broke the news this morning, calling it “a watershed moment in the history of A-B since its acquisition by InBev.”

Coincidence? Hard to imagine the two developments are completely unrelated, especially since Beer Business Daily, presumably working from a press release, states he’s leaving “to spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests.” I’m always more than a little suspicious when that’s the official reason for leaving, as it so often is in circumstances like this one.

Peacock is succeeded by Luiz Fernando Edmond, who until today was the Zone President of North America. Oh, and Bud Light Platinum is coming soon, in the cobalt blue bottle, and should be on store shelves as early as this week. They’re calling it a “game changer,” but I tend to think these other two developments will change the beer landscape far more than a Bud Light line extension.

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Anchor Announces New Zymaster Series

January 23, 2012 By Jay Brooks

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As promised on Friday, Anchor Brewing announced today a new series of beers they’ll be debuting during SF Beer Week. The new beers will be under the series designation “Zymaster,” which Anchor describes like this:

Zymaster n [Gk zyme leaven + master – more at ZYMURGY]
1: a new word coined by Anchor Brewing to describe a brewmaster with hands-on experience throughout the a-to-z process of creating a new beer, from the research and selection of the raw materials and development of a recipe to brewing, fermentation, cellaring, and finishing
2: a unique series of beers from Anchor Brewing, rooted in its exceptional respect for the ancient art and noble traditions of brewing and featuring extraordinary ingredients, innovative techniques, and unusual flavors

anchor-zymaster

The first Zymaster Series beer will be released at select events during SF Beer Week, which this year is February 10-19. The initial offering will be “available on draught only in 13.2 gallon and 5.16 gallon kegs,” and “[i]nitial distribution will be focused in California.”

No word yet on what the first beer will taste like, whether it will hew closely to any recognizable style, what ingredients were used to brew it, or how often we can expect subsequent offerings in the Zymaster series. Updates as they emerge.

Ukraine Beer

January 22, 2012 By Jay Brooks

Today in 1918, the Ukraine declared their Independence from Soviet Russia and unified the same day, a year later in 1919.

Ukraine
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Ukraine Breweries

Baltika Breweries
Chernomor Brewery
Chernihiv Brewery Desna / Чернігів
Donetsk Brewery
Lugansk Brewery
Lvivske
L’vivska Brewery / Перша Приватна Броварня
Obolon
Pivzavod Rogan
Radomyshl Beer and Beverages Plant
Slavutich
Slavutich Brewery
Švyturys
Umanpivo
Utenos Alus

Ukraine Brewery Guides

Beer Advocate
Beer Me
Rate Beer

Other Guides

CIA World Factbook
Official Website
U.S. Embassy
Wikipedia

Guild: None Known

National Regulatory Agency: None

Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known

Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.00%

Ukraine

Full Name: Ukraine
Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Romania, and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east
Government Type: Republic
Language: Ukrainian (official) 67%, Russian 24%, other (includes small Romanian-, Polish-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities) 9%
Religion(s): Ukrainian Orthodox — Kyiv Patriarchate 50.4%, Ukrainian Orthodox — Moscow Patriarchate 26.1%, Ukrainian Greek Catholic 8%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 7.2%, Roman Catholic 2.2%, Protestant 2.2%, Jewish 0.6%, other 3.2%
Capital: Kiev
Population: 45,134,707; 28th
Area: 603,550 sq km, 46th
Comparative Area: Slightly smaller than Texas
National Food: Borscht
National Symbols: Guelder Rose, Willow, Pine, Tryzub (trident)
Nickname: The Breadbasket of Europe
Affiliations: UN, Commonwealth of Independent States
Independence: On January 22, 1918, the Ukraine declared their Independence from Soviet Russia and unified the same day, a year later in 1919. They then declared independence again from the USSR on August 24, 1991.

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Alcohol Legal: Yes
Minimum Drinking Age: 18
BAC: 0.00%
Label Requirements: N/A
Number of Breweries: 13

UkrainePNew-1Grivnya-2006

How to Say “Beer”: пиво or слабкий алкогольний напій
How to Order a Beer: N/A
How to Say “Cheers”: Budmo! (Shall we live forever!) / Boovatje zdorovi / Budem (Let’s stay healthy)
Toasting Etiquette: N/A

ukraine-map

Alcohol Consumption By Type:

Beer: 32%
Wine: 7%
Spirits: 61%
Other: <1%

Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):

Recorded: 8.10
Unrecorded: 7.50
Total: 15.60
Beer: 2.69

WHO Alcohol Data:

Per Capita Consumption: 8.1 litres
Alcohol Consumption Trend: Stable
Excise Taxes: N/A
Minimum Age: 18
Sales Restrictions: Location, specific events
Advertising Restrictions: Yes
Sponsorship/Promotional Restrictions: Sponsorship

Patterns of Drinking Score: 5

Prohibition: None

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Anchor Teases About New Beer Series

January 20, 2012 By Jay Brooks

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Anchor Brewery is teasing us. Earlier today they tweeted this enigmatic photo that vaguely hints at a new series of beers from the oldest craft brewery in America. All the tweet says is that we have to wait until Monday. “We’re brewing up a special announcement for Monday, January 23. Here’s a little taste…” Can’t wait.

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Loving the White Rabbit

January 19, 2012 By Jay Brooks

We all know good labels, packaging and artwork can help a beer sell. I may not like that a mediocre beer might sell better than a great one if it has more eye-catching artwork, but it happens all the time. It was especially true in the early days of craft beer when many people who were passionate about the beer they were making believed that was enough. They thought all they had to do was make great beer, and people would buy it. And so a lot of good breweries failed for no better reason than they weren’t good businesspeople, as well as good brewers. These days, as we close in on the 2,000th American brewery, most brewers now understand they have to do something to get noticed on the shelf. Good beer in the bottle or can will undoubtedly keep people buying your beer, but you have to get them to try it first. And so most at least try to be clever, artistic or interesting with their packaging. If they have the means, they hire inventive, capable people and agencies to help them.

As an unabashed art lover, a great label or package will impress me. As I’ve said, the beer inside ultimately has to deliver, but great art is an all but necessary first step. That said, I recently came across some of the most impressive new art for a beer I’ve seen in a long time. It’s for an Australian beer I’d never heard of, which makes sense since it’s brand new. It’s a new, separate brewery launched by the Melbourne brewery Little Creatures. It’s located in Healesville in the Yarra Valley, in Victoria, which is in the southeast corner of the continent of Australia. Victoria is the smallest Australian state and Melbourne is its capital.

The name of the brewery is the White Rabbit Brewery. (Note: their website was up and running yeasterday, but today is not.) The Facebook page, however, is working. The design for the beer that a design agency, BrainCells, came up with is just brilliant. This was their mission:

Little Creatures Brewing in 2009 commissioned the White Rabbit Brewery in the Yarra Valley Victoria. The new initiative is focused on delivering a unique dark ale using traditional European open fermenters that bring mysterious wild yeast character into play. brainCELLS was asked to develop the brand look and feel representative of the product, the region, and the eccentricity of the process.

whiterabbit03

I may be biased, I love rabbits. Always have. I’ve owned a few as pets over my lifetime. And it also doesn’t hurt that I love the works of Lewis Carroll, have a daughter named “Alice,” and my son’s first stuffed animal was a white bunny named “bunny” I bought him his first week (and which is still his favorite). Truth be told, my first stuffed animal when I was a kid was also a rabbit, but it had a much more embarrassing name, one that no amount of beer will ever ply from my lips.

Still, it’s such a beautiful scene, with the white rabbit jumping through the hop forest. It looks great on the six-pack carrier and the bottle, as well. If you look closely, you can see the rabbit is in a different spot on the bottle than the side of the sixer.

whiterabbit01

And below is the packaging for the white ale, which is ironically a night setting, while the dark ale is a daytime scene.

whiterabbit07

Even the glassware is cool, using a clever, and simple, two-fingered rabbit hand as a logo. It’s one that’s immediately recognizable.

whiterabbit08

I sure hope they paid as much attention to the beer as the design for the packaging. If the beer is even half as good as the artwork, it should be terrific beer. If anyone in Australia wants to send me some of the beer, or can tell me how to get some, I would be a very happy camper. I am loving the White Rabbit.

Coors Light: Now The Avis Of Beers

January 14, 2012 By Jay Brooks

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I’m not exactly sure why this appears to be such big news, but it seems to be everywhere. Beer Marketer’s Insights is reporting that, based upon estimated numbers for 2011, Coors Light has overtaken Budweiser to become the 2nd best-selling beer in America. According to the report, “[t]his is the first time in almost 20 years, since 1993, that AB didn’t have top 2 brands.” But I note that according to IRI data, Miller Lite held the #2 spot at least as recently as 2007. Though to be fair, it’s true that Bud Light and Budweiser have enjoyed the top two spots, if off and on, for quite some time.

But the story isn’t so much about Coors Light being up (they were, but only 0.8%). What’s more interesting is that Budweiser was down 4.6%, which had more to do with the switch in positions. InBev seems to be struggling with the A-B core brands ever since they took over Anheuser-Busch. It can’t help that they’ve laid off countless employes, bullied suppliers and lost a great deal of goodwill through their cost-cutting way of doing business. They don’t seem to have the same relationship with consumers that the company did when it was run by the Busch family. And while the big breweries are losing ground to craft beer overall, ABI seems to losing more. So it makes sense that another brand would pick up the slack, catapulting Coors Light into the number two position, a spot Avis once upon a time used to great effect in their advertising. Maybe we’ll see Coors do something similar. “Coors Light is No. 2 in beer. We try harder.“

Yuengling Becomes Biggest American Brewery

January 13, 2012 By Jay Brooks

yuengling-eagle
According to new estimated beer sales data for 2011 from Beer Marketer’s Insights, Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania has now eclipsed the Boston Beer Co. (makers of Samuel Adams) to become the biggest American brewery. Yuengling’s area newspaper, the Lehigh Valley’s The Morning Call, had the story this morning. The numbers shake out like this:

Yuengling sold 2.5 million barrels of beer in 2011, up 17 percent from the previous year, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights in Suffern, N.Y., a magazine that tracks the beer industry. Boston Beer sold 2.4 million barrels in 2011, the magazine estimated.
Boston Beer, a public company, has yet to release final sales for 2011. Beer Marketer’s Insights based its estimate on Boston Beer sales in the first three quarters and the company’s own sales forecast for the fourth quarter.
Even if Boston Beer had a surprisingly good fourth quarter, it wouldn’t close the gap with Yuengling, said Eric Shepard, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

The Morning Call also created the chart below to illustrate the shift in sales between the two companies over the last five years.

yuengling-vs-boston-beer-2010

Winter Brews Festival In Concord January 28

January 4, 2012 By Jay Brooks

The 3rd annual Winter Brews Festival, sponsored by the Brewing Network, will be held this year on Saturday, January 28 from Noon to 4:00 p.m. Thanks to the Occupy Berkeley movement, last year’s location was not available and BN thought they’d have to cancel. But the City of Concord came to the rescue, and this year’s event will be held at Todos Santos Plaza, just two blocks from the Concord BART station.
BN-WinterFest2012
Tickets went on sale tonight, and can be purchased online through Eventbrite.

Here’s all the info from the press release:

Todos Santos Plaza is normally closed to public events during the winter months. Due to the extreme situation, however, they graciously opened their doors to allow the event to go on uninterrupted. Partnering with the Todos Santos Small Business Association and a local environmental non-profi t organization, this event will proudly promote the value of local breweries, local businesses, and fresh beer.
Visitors will enjoy unlimited tastings from more than 30 world class breweries. Confirmed breweries include the 21st Amendment, Drakes, Heretic, Lagunitas, Magnolia, Triple Rock, and Russian River. This Winter Brews Festival promises to expose beer lovers, new and experienced, to a variety of appetizing and innovative beers. A portion of the proceeds will also benefit local nonprofit, the Coral Reef Alliance.
The 3rd Annual Winter Brews Festival will be held at the Todos Santos Plaza in Concord on Saturday, January 28, 2012, from 12pm to 4pm. Tastings will feature a wide variety of local brews and unique innovations from some of the best brewers around, many of whom will be pouring their own beers giving visitors an opportunity to learn more about how the beer is made. The event will happen rain or shine, with arrangements in place to keep festival goers dry or out of the sun. And with the Concord BART station just two blocks away, this afternoon event will no doubt satisfy locals wanting to enjoy some beers for a great cause. Tickets are $35 pre-sale or $40 at the gate and include unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. For more information on the event, and to purchase tickets, please visit The Brewing Network Ontap.

See you there!

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