You may recall that earlier in the week I wrote about British beer writer Roger Protz and his remarks regarding BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin. I don’t believe I was alone in thinking his observations were not the highlight of a long, distinguished career. I just read the response of Thank Heaven for Beer, and Mike’s take, in a post entitled Roger Protz Gets it Wrong: An Argument of Assumptions and Insult is nothing short of brilliant. Based on its length and the passion of his arguments, I have to count Mike as a kindred spirit. Well done.
Anchor’s Annual Christmas Party ’09
The lovely missus and I attended the annual Christmas party at Anchor Brewery, one of our favorite events of the year, and one of the few my wife regularly attends. Good friends, good food and great beer. I always start with a Liberty Ale — a perennial favorite — and also finally had a chance to try their new Humming Ale. The Humming Ale is brewed with an “unusual hop variety called Nelson Sauvin” and was brewed to commemorate the 30th anniversary at the brewery’s present location on Mariposa Street in San Francisco.
Me and Mrs. Brookston Beer Bulletin all dressed up and somewhere to go.
Though there was some terrific food this year, as always, I can never get enough Maytag Blue Cheese. There was also a tasty brisket with sage mashed potatoes, and a veggie table that included some wonderful au gratin potatoes. But my favorite was Pumpkin Soup Shooters with toasted mini-turkey and cranberry Panini.
The annual tree made from Christmas Ale mother cartons and decorated with bottles and bows.
The dessert was Spiced Gingerbread with dried fruit compote and Anchor Porter ice cream. The ice cream was so good I had seconds of just that, which I found paired really well with the Christmas Ale.
Below is a slideshow of this year’s Anchor Christmas Party. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Two Companies, 265 Brands
Anat Baron, who created the film Beer Wars, according to a recent post, “has received hundreds of emails and tweets since the film came out asking for a list of the beer brands owned by the 2 big brewers.” In Who Owns What?, she posted a first draft using IRI Data for the 4 week period ending 11/1/09. I spent the evening hastily putting together a second draft, which undoubtedly is still not complete, but I think moves the ball forward. My list of The Big Brewer’s Brands is on a separate page. Please let me know who’s missing or what I got wrong, as I didn’t spend as much time on it as I might have liked.
Charting Beer With Infographics
My friend and colleague Rick Lyke has the good fortune to have a son-in-law who’s a graphic designer and really, really good at creating graphs or infographics, which is essentially a chart that tell a story. For the second year in a row, Rick has persuaded his son-in-law, Mike Wirth, to create an awesome infographic of various GABF medal statistics for his Lyke2Drink blog. Since he introduced this back in August, about a month before this year’s GABF, hopefully he won’t mind my sharing it. I’ve parsed some of the most interesting mini-charts within the infographic and displayed them below.
These charts show the number of breweries by state and the total number by type or size of brewery.
This is a chart of states with the most per capita breweries vs. the states that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.
This is a chart of the breweries that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.
This is a chart of the individual beers that have won the most cumulative medals since they began awarding medals through 2008.
Lastly, here is a detail of the west coast and the medals won by breweries in California, Oregon and Washington.
This is the entire infographic, show smaller of course, but click here to see it full size or see it at Mike Wirth’s website or with Rick Lyke’s original analysis.
Beck’s Sale Called Off
Reuters is reporting that the impending sale of Beck’s by Anheuser-Busch InBev has been scuttled, by ABIB. According to the weekly German magazine WirtschaftsWoche, the 1.7 billion Euro ($2.54 billion) contract was ready to be sign by purchaser U.S. buyout firm Bain Capital when ABIB walked away from the deal. WirtschaftsWoche is speculating that the earlier “sale of 13 eastern European breweries for 2.2 billion euros in October eased Anheuser-Busch InBev’s debt burden enough for the brewing giant to call off the Beck’s deal.” That’s all that’s known so far, but I’m, sure we’ll learn more on Monday.
Toy Beer Trains
Today, of course, is the busiest shopping day of the year. I’m staying home and drinking, as usual, but yesterday at my in-laws, my mother-in-law put up on the wall a giant poster where the grandkids could list all the toys they were hoping Santa might bring them this year. My son Porter filled out his entire section with requests for trains, particularly Lionel trains. He’s been obsessed with trains as long as I can remember. First it was Thomas the Tank Engine, then the I Love Toy Trains series, followed by Geo Trax. For a while now, though, he’s been fully engrossed in the expensive model trains, especially HO and G gauge, which seem to be his favorites. It what almost appears savant-like, he knows more about trains than anyone I know. To me, the old black steam trains all look alike but he sees them and cries “that’s the Big Boy” or the “GG-1” or some other unfamiliar name with complete certainty. I’d think he’s just making it up but recently at the barber shop, another man waiting his turn happened to run a local train museum and the two of them talked about trains like equals. The man confided in me later that my son had truly impressed him with his train knowledge, confirming what I’d always believed, that Porter really is as obsessed as I can be, just about different things. The apple really doesn’t fall very far from the tree.
One thing that’s surprised me is that I see toy trains with breweries on them all the time. But what I’ve learned about model trains is that despite the word “toy” often being associated with them, there are far more adults collecting them than kids. For one thing they’re very, very expensive. So I suspect that’s why they can get away with so many beer-themed boxcars and the like. When we got home last night from or holiday feast, I decided to do a quick Google search for toy trains for breweries. Lots of lots of them, big surprise. There’s even a guy out there who collects toy beer trains, and he’s cataloged 780 of them with 658 photos. Check out The H.O. Beer Car Collectors Website and be amazed.
The most I’ve ever seen in one place is in Germany, at Weyermann Specialty Malt in Bamberg.
In Weyermann’s meeting room, the wall is completely filled with brewery signs and every available shelf, mantle and ledge has toy trains on them.
Mostly European brands, but there are a surprising number of American brewery trains, too.
Below is a slideshow of just a sampling of all the toy beer trains I found online. Most are from the The H.O. Beer Car Collectors, which is hands down the best resource I came across. The Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen.
Beer In Ads #7: National Premium & Turkey
Today’s ad is more modern, because it’s Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to use one that was done for the holiday. This juicy turkey ad was for National Premium Beer, subtitled a “Pale Dry Beer,” and brewed by National Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland from 1936-1995. While accounts of the brewery’s origin vary from around 1850, 1855 or 1872 (and under several different names), after Prohibition ended, it returned as National Brewing with its most famous beer being National Bohemian, or “Natty Boh,” which today is owned by Pabst and brewed by Miller. This ad is for their premium beer, and is from the 1950s. Hoppy Thanksgiving.
Vermont Consolidation: Long Trail Buying Otter Creek/Wolaver’s
In case you missed it, yesterday my friend and colleague Andy Crouch dropped the bombshell that Long Trail Brewing of Bridgewater Corners, Vermont was in the early stages of purchasing Otter Creek / Wolaver’s Brewing, also located in Vermont. Not that I doubted him, but I was able to confirm the news through a well-placed anonymous source. Apparently it’s too soon for an official announcement and the story leaked (not by Andy, I should stress) so I was unable to get any additional details. I tried to reach owner Morgan Wolaver, but so far I haven’t heard back from him. I’ll update the story when I can. For now, you can read the full story at Andy’s Beer Scribe.
Beer Lover’s Britain
Looking for a nice overview of the beer scene in Great Britain? 2001 British Beer Writer of the Year Jeff Evans has a comprehensive and affordable solution. He’s written Beer Lover’s Britain and it’s available at his Inside Beer online store as a pdf e-book for less than $10.
At a little more than 100 pages, it’s packed with information about British beer, how best to enjoy it and where to find the best beers that England, Scotland, Wales and even Northern Ireland have to offer.
From the press release:
The first e-book in the series is Beer Lover’s Britain, a comprehensive guide to enjoying beer in the United Kingdom, written by award-winning British beer writer Jeff Evans. With the UK pound trading low against most foreign currencies, including the US, Canadian and Australian dollars, there’s never been a better time for beer fans to check out what the British Isles have to offer, especially with this new publication to guide them through.
British pubs are often spoken of as ‘the envy of the world’, with their historic charm and embracing conviviality, and Beer Lover’s Britain reveals how to make the most of them with tips on everything from which type of pub will suit you best to how to order a pint. Essential information on pub food, games, gardens, opening hours, children’s facilities and entertainments is also provided, along with recommendations for the very best pubs to visit around the UK.
The British brewing industry – father of such beer styles as pale ale, IPA, stout, porter and barley wine – is explored in just enough detail for visitors to understand the context of what they are drinking, with recommendations provided for beers and breweries to seek out as they travel around the country.
What is real ale? Where can I find it? Should my beer be warm? Have I been overcharged? What can I eat? Where should I stay? These are just some of the important questions Beer Lover’s Britain answers in more than 100 packed pages.
According to author Jeff Evans, travellers are often baffled and a little intimidated when they first encounter British beer and the British pub.
‘The British pub is quite unlike many pubs and bars found elsewhere in the world and visitors can be more than a little confused if they don’t know the procedures and etiquette’, he explained. ‘Beer Lover’s Britain aims to demystify the pub and the British beer scene for travellers from other countries by offering sound advice and handy hints to smooth the course of their travels and boost their enjoyment of British beer.’
Iron City Auctioning Off Brewery Equipment
Originally, Iron City Brewing (f.k.a. Pittsburgh Brewing) claimed they were only closing the canning line, but it appears the whole kit and kaboodle is leaving Pittsburgh for the greener pastures of Latrobe. That’s another big loss of a historic brewery, one that’s been around since 1861. The Pittsburgh City Paper has a long, interesting article on what’s going on, entitled Bitter Beer: The Loss of Iron City Has Left A Bad Aftertaste. Needless to say, it doesn’t look good.