I just saw this Re-Tweeted and I can’t pass up brewery porn. The photographs are of the St. Louis Brewery a.k.a. Schlafly Beer and were taken by a woman calling herself Truckey. The slideshow below is from her Flickr account and all the photographs can be purchased. According to her Flickr gallery page, “prices range from $10-$200, and range in size from 5×7 to 24×36. I can do matte, lustre, glossy or pearle paper, or even print on canvas!” There’s some beautiful shots there. They’d look great framed on your wall. But for now, enjoy the porn!
Loud Music Increases Drinking
I found this interesting bit of research at the PsyBlog, run by Jeremy Dean, a Psychology researcher at the University College London. The post is entitled Why Loud Music in Bars Increases Alcohol Consumption, and concerns some recent research conducted into the relationship between volume and drinking patterns. Specifically, Dean cites two studies, one in Glasgow, Scotland and the other in France. In some ways the findings are obvious, but it does tend to confirm what you probably already guessed. The PsyBlog starts with the premise that the average bar traditionally keeps the lights dim and the music loud.
But turning the music up so loud that people are forced to shout at each other doesn’t have quite the same beneficial effect on social interactions. Because everyone is shouting, the bar becomes even noisier and soon people start to give up trying to communicate and focus on their drinking, meaning more trips to the bar, and more regrets in the morning.
Of course this is exactly what bar owners are hoping for. People sitting around quietly nursing their drinks for hours are no good for profits. Talkers aren’t the best drinkers. At least that is the received wisdom in the industry.
The first study, Sound Level of Environmental Music and Drinking Behavior: A Field Experiment With Beer Drinkers, was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Their results indicated “that high level volume led to increase alcohol consumption and reduced the average amount of time spent by the patrons to drink their glass.”
The second study was published in the journal Popular Music & Society, and was titled Alco-pop? The Use of Popular Music in Glasgow Pubs.
Here’s a bit more as to how the research was conducted.
The level of the music was randomly manipulated to create the conditions of a true experiment. It was either at its usual volume of 72dB or turned up to 88dB. For comparison: 72db is like the sound of traffic on a busy street while 88db is like standing next to a lawnmower.
Sure enough when the music went up the beers went down, faster. On average bar-goers took 14.5 minutes to finish a 250ml (8 oz) glass of draught beer when the music was at its normal level. But this came down to just 11.5 minutes when the music was turned up. As a result, on average, during their time in the bar each participant ordered one more drink in the loud music condition than in the normal music condition.
The observers even measured the number of gulps taken to finish each drink — the level of the music was found to have no effect on this. So the faster drinking was as a result of more gulps rather than bigger gulps.
The conclusions from both studies seem to validate one another, suggesting a universal application. The results do seem to favor a causal connection between louder music and increased drinking, but what they don’t answer is why this is the case. As Dean puts it. “Some think that people drink instead of talking while others have argued that they drink more because the music creates greater levels of arousal, which then leads to more drinking.”
Personally, I prefer a bar where I can hear myself think, where pleasant conversation is encouraged, but then I prefer to sip, not gulp, my beer in almost any environment. So clearly, I’m not the target demographic, nor I suspect are most hardcore beer geeks, but it still is a fascinating peek into what makes us tick — and drink.
UPDATE: The BC Brews Blog also came across this study independently and posted about it in Loud Music = Heavier, Faster Drinking.
Evolution Of A Beer Label
Below is, as far as I know, the most recent label for Budweiser, updated in 2000. We all know that labels change over time, sometimes dramatically, but usually more subtly with just small tweaks from time to time. But even small changes over a long period of time become dramatic in the long view. So this is a fascinating peak into those changes.
Etiquette Systems, a label manufacturer, has an online gallery showing what they call the Evolution of America’s Most Famous Beer Label. It shows a dozen different versions of the Budweiser label, from the first 1876 version up to the 2000 latest one, with all of the changes in between.
More Sober Statistics
Yesterday, I had a post about some sober statistics that came from CDC — and specifically their Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System — by way of an article in U.S. News & World Report. The statistics from the article concerned the most sober American cities according to their (questionable) data.
But there were two additional data points from two other questions asked in the poll conducted by the CDC. So I thought I’d see what those questions were all about. Here are some more lists based on that data.
1. Alcohol Consumption: Adults who have had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days
In this one, pollsters asked people if they’d had a drink of alcohol in the last 30 days. The list below is the cities (which the CDC classifies as “Metropolitan Statistical Areas”) which had the most people who have not touched alcohol in the month before they were polled. The number is parenthesis is the percentage who answered no.
- Provo-Orem, UT (88.3)
- Ogden-Clearfield, UT (75.3)
- Kingsport-Bristol, TN (72.3)
- Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH (71.1)
- Idaho Falls, ID (71.0)
- Charleston, WV (67.9)
- Tuscaloosa, AL (64.6)
- Chattanooga, TN-GA (64.0)
- Okeechobee, FL (63.1)
- Memphis, TN (62.6)
- Salt Lake City, UT (62.5)
- Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir, NC (62.1)
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (61.6)
- Lake Charles, LA (61.2)
- Louisville, KY-IN (59.6)
Not many surprises again from what you might guess, all the states are from the south plus nearby West Virginia and Utah, where Mormonism holds sway.
So here’s the opposite list, the metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of people who have had alcohol in the last month.
- Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA (69.5)
- Nassau-Suffolk, NY (69.4)
- Barnstable Town, MA (69.0)
- Burlington-South Burlington, VT (68.8)
- Boulder, CO (68.7)
- Barre, VT (68.7)
- Concord, NH (68.7)
- Denver-Aurora, CO (66.2)
- Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI (65.6)
- Fargo, ND-MN (65.5)
- Essex County, MA (65.4)
- Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT (65.2)
- Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME (64.8)
- Boston-Quincy, MA (64.5)
- Worcester, MA (64.3)
- Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA (64.2)
2. Alcohol Consumption: Binge drinkers (males having five or more drinks on one occasion, females having four or more drinks on one occasion)
The second question asked people if they’d had a drinking binge (by their ridiculous definition, of course) but curiously it doesn’t say within what period of time. So without the actual question asked, we have to conclude that there was no time period (because it would almost certainly appear in the statistical data). That means this is an expression of who’d had five or more drinks at one session … ever. Hmm.
Here’s the ten metropolitan areas with the fewest binge drinkers. The number in parenthesis represents the percentage of people who have never had five or more drinks at one sitting.
- Provo-Orem, UT (95.7)
- Wauchula, FL (94.6)
- Charleston, WV (92.2)
- Chattanooga, TN-GA (92.0)
- Fort Smith, AR-OK (91.8)
- Louisville, KY-IN (91.6)
- Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH (91.3)
- Idaho Falls, ID (91.3)
- Ogden-Clearfield, UT (91.3)
- Asheville, NC (91.0)
I must live in truly decadent places because I can’t even imagine a place where 9 of the 10 people you meet on the street have NEVER had five drinks at one time.
But here’s my people, the areas where the most binge drinking takes place. I should hasten to point out that I don’t believe for a second that binge drinking is a good idea, but that the CDC definition is complete and utter nonsense.
- Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI (21.4)
- Fargo, ND-MN (21.2)
- Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA (21.2)
- Austin-Round Rock, TX (20.6)
- Burlington-South Burlington, VT (20.5)
- Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN (20.4)
- Boulder, CO (20.3)
- Key West-Marathon, FL (20.3)
- Gainesville, FL (20.2)
- Greeley, CO (20.1)
The numbers themselves still seem a bit low. The percentages are for people who said yes, they’ve had five drinks at one sitting. Even the highest percentage are would be roughly 1 in 5. But it may simply be a factor of people under-reporting what they perceive to be bad behavior.
Sober Statistics
Here’s an interesting list. Usually, we hear about the top drinking cities, but this is the top ten (or bottom ten, depending on your perspective) cities for NOT drinking, that is the cities and towns that don’t drink very much. I found the list in a U.S. News & World Report article but the data comes from the CDC (and is for communities of 10,000 or more people). The first four are pretty clear, but then it’s a four-way tie for fifth followed by a two-way tie.
- Provo-Orem, UT (99.4)
- Idaho Falls, ID (97.9)
- Hickory, NC (97.8)
- Ogden, UT (97.5)
- Brownsville, TX (97.2)
- Fayetteville, NC (97.2)
- Raleigh, NC (97.2)
- Wichita, KS (97.2)
- Cheyenne, WY (97.0)
- Farmington, NM (97.0)
Not many surprises from what you might guess, except that when you look deeper at the statistics, something odd emerges, at least to me. Those parenthetical numbers represent the percentage of people surveyed who said they don’t drink “more than two drinks per day” (if adult males) or “more than one drink per day” (if adult females). Otherwise — get this — they’re considered “heavy drinkers.” That’s right, have more than two drinks on the same day ever and you’re a heavy drinker. It’s hard to imagine a more useless way to define this, unless you’re trying to inflate the numbers and make it appear that problem drinking is more of a … well. problem, than it actually is. Defining heavy drinkers as “adult men having more than two drinks per day and adult women having more than one drink per day” undoubtedly accomplishes that, especially when you consider that the CDC defines binge drinkings as five or more drinks during one session (4 if you’re female). This is how to create a problem that doesn’t exist. (Note: I don’t mean that there aren’t problem drinkers, I only question that it’s as epidemic as these statistics suggest.) The way it is now, drink one or two beers a day, you’re fine. But have a third and you’re a “heavy drinker.” Have two more for a total of five and you’re — gasp — a “binge drinker.” Really?
Using the same data from the CDC survey, the top 10 heaviest drinking cities are:
- Reno, NV
- Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL
- Boulder, CO
- Austin, TX
- Charleston, SC
- McAllen, TX
- Naples-Marco Island, FL
- Riverside, CA
- Cape Coral, FL
- Barnstable Town, MA
That’s a strange list, too, and not what I would have predicted. Three in Florida and six total from the southern states. You just have to wonder how truthfully people answer a question like this when it’s posed.
Balls Beer For Health Care Reform
This is hilarious, especially so depending on which way you lean on the issue of health care reform. My wife found it on Daily Kos, but apparently it’s popping up everywhere on political blogs.
Stone To Release Collaboration Video
Stone Brewing, at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time, will be releasing their latest video project, Stone Skips Across the Pond, a record of their collaborations with two breweries. [NOTE: the video, once released at 1:00 p.m. PST, will be available at Stone’s Blog.] If you just can’t wait to see some of it, check out the trailer.
The first collaboration is with Nøgne Ø, the Norwegian craft brewery. After brewing there, the Stone team heads to Scotland to brew yet another collaboration with BrewDog.
I had an opportunity to screen the video last night, and it’s a fun short film at just under 30 minutes. It was filmed again by Redtail Media, the same team that created I Am A Craftbrewer. The production values are amazing. The film stars not just Greg Koch, but also his business partner Steve Wagner and head brewer Mitch Steele, some amazing landscapes, terrific looking food, some beer you’ll be jealous you didn’t have along with the brew crews at both Nøgne Ø and BrewDog. Looks like it was a fun time. It’s a great window into the camaraderie among brewers, regardless of national boundaries, in the craft beer world
Next Thursday, Part 2 will be released, followed by parts three and four on each subsequent Thursday. For now, enjoy part one.
Beer In Ads Special Edition: John Gilroy
You probably know John Gilroy’s advertising artwork, even if the name is not familiar. John Gilroy is responsible for the iconic Guinness ads that ran from 1927 through the 1960s. Featuring toucans, kangaroos, bears, ostriches and other animals along with the occasional steel-carrying strongman, lumberjack and zookeeper, the roughly fifty posters Gilroy produced are some of the most famous beer ads ever done. So many of his posters are famous that it seems a shame not to highlight them separately from the other ads I’ve been featuring during the week. So each Saturday I’ll post a new Guinness poster or ad. Gilroy is believed to have done nearly 50 of the posters and another 100 print ads for Guinness over a 35-year period working on the Guinness account, first with a firm, and later as a freelancer.
Below is a sample of what you’ll see over the coming year or two, every Saturday.
For more about John Gilroy, see Wikipedia (and their page on Guinness advertising), Celtic Shamrock, Newcastle University (where Gilroy was an alum), Journal Live and especially at the Guinness Collector’s Club, which has a great biography page.
Brookston Beer Quiz #4
Here is quiz number four. This one is without images, because there were problems last time (see below). For this quiz, there is a beer slogan that is or was used for a particular beer or brewery. See how many you can get right. Good luck. Let me know how you did.
If you missed any previous quizzes, they can all be found on the beer quiz page.
NOTE: A number of people in the last quiz told me they couldn’t see the images. If you were one of those people, please send me the name of the browser you were using so I can try to see what’s going wrong. I tested it using Firefox and Safari and it worked fine. Perhaps it’s Microsoft Explorer or other browsers that is the problem?
Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Fictional Beers
For my first Top 10 list of 2010, I’ve decided on a decidedly unreal topic, Fictional Beers. By fictional, I mean beers that were created in literature, film, television or other similar media. I drive my wife nuts whenever we watch a TV show or film, trying to identify the beer on the screen to see if it’s a real brand or one the filmmaker’s made up. At least initially, all of the brands here were conceived and created only in the mind of a writer. You’ve seen them in the hands of your favorite characters on the screen or read about them in the pages of comics or novels. Some proved so popular that they made the jump to real products. So for my 21st Top 10 List, I present my favorite fictional beer brands. Let me know your faves. Here’s List #21:
Top 10 Fictional Beer Brands
| Spud Beer from Saturday Night Live While SNL spoofed many beers over its long television run, being a potato fanatic makes this one my personal favorite. Most people seem to like Schmitts Gay Beer or ColdCock Malt Liquor, but I prefer “the beer that made Boise famous.”  | |
| Olde Frothingslosh from the Pittsburgh radio show “Cordic & Company,” with host Rege Cordic Olde Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale might have stayed a footnote in radio history, had it not been for Iron City Brewery (then Pittsburgh Brewing) making up actual cans of this beer (with just regular Iron City inside) for collectors. The beer started out out as just another joke on Cordic’s radio show in the 1950s with the beer’s taglines “A whale of an ale for the pale stale male” and “Hi dittom dottom, the foam is on the bottom.” The first cans were done in 1955, but they were revived again in the 1970s, this time featuring plus size go-go dancer Fatima Yechberg (real name: Marsha Phillips) on the label and the popularity of the cans soared even more than in the fifties.  | |
| Dharma Beer from the TV show “Lost” This might be higher if I was still a fan of Lost, but I stopped following the show somewhere in the muddled season three. Still, like Repo Man before it, I love it when everything looks the same, as if it was all made by one entity.  | |
| Heisler Beer from the ISS, featured on countless programs. Heisler Beer is the most famous beer you’ve never heard of. It was created by Independent Studio Services as a prop to be used in television and films. A partial list of TV and films it’s been used in includes American Pie Presents: Band Camp, Beerfest, Bionic Woman, Bones, Burn Notice, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Desperate Housewives, Dollhouse, Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother, The Hulk, Malcom in the Middle, My Name Is Earl, The Pretender, Prison Break, The Rainmaker, Star Trek: Enterprise, Stealing Harvard, Superbad, The Shield, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Training Day, Two and a Half Men, Veronica Mars and Weeds. See Wikipedia for a more complete list.  | |
| Olde Fortran Malt Liquor from “Futurama” Also created by Matt Groening, Futurama had several fake beer brands on the animated series, such as Benderbrau Cold-Fusion Steam Beer, Löbrau Beer, Pabst Blue Robot and St. Pauli Exclusion Principle Girl Beer. But Olde Fortran is the one I recall seeing most often, so that’s why it’s number six.  | |
| Buzz Beer from the “Drew Carey Show” Years before the FDA stuck their nose into caffeine and beer, Drew Carey was working on Buzz Beer in his garage.  | |
| Samuel Jackson from “Chappelle’s Show” I loved Dave Chappelle’s show, and while he had many more poignant and funny moments, as far as beer spoofs go, this one was freaking hilarious.  | |
| Shotz Beer from the TV show “Laverne & Shirley” This one may be lost on the young folks, as this Happy Days spin-off has been off the air since 1983, having run for eight seasons beginning in 1976. But all the leads worked at a brewery, Shotz in Milwaukee, so it sticks with me in my memory, at least, and perhaps those who are old curmudgeons like me, too. In retrospect, it’s surprising no brewery stepped up and made a Shotz Beer.  | |
| Elsinore Beer from the film “Strange Brew” Given that Strange Brew is the greatest beer movie ever made (though I still hesitate to actually call it a “good” movie), it’s only natural that Elsinore Beer — no longer with rats or drugs in each bottle — should be one of the top fake beers, too.  | |
| Duff Beer from the TV show “The Simpsons” How could it be otherwise? No brand so thoroughly explored all that’s repugnant in big beer advertising and marketing as Duff Beer has done for twenty years.  |
It was, as always, really difficult to keep the list to ten, and to put together this list I also compiled a more complete list of Fictional Beer Brands, listing as many as I could remember or research. Take a look and see if there’s any you can think of that I missed. Here’s a few more that nearly made the list:
Butterbeer, from the Harry Potter series, Flager Lager, from “Magnum P.I.,” Newton & Ridley from England’s “Coronation Street” (I have friends who are fanatical about the show), Pawtucket Patriot Ale, from “Family Guy,” Rocketfuel Malt Liquor, from “News Radio,” Romulan Ale, from “Star Trek,” Tenku Beer, from “Kill Bill,” and last, but not least, the generic Beer (like every other product in) the film “Repo Man.”
Let me know your favorites, and if you see any that you think should have made the list, please post a comment.
Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.