
Recycle Now, the organization putting on Recycle Week, which begins today, also has a very cool little animated video showing the process that beer cans go through during the recycling process.
Cans – how they are recycled from RecycleNow on Vimeo.
By Jay Brooks

Recycle Now, the organization putting on Recycle Week, which begins today, also has a very cool little animated video showing the process that beer cans go through during the recycling process.
Cans – how they are recycled from RecycleNow on Vimeo.
By Jay Brooks

Recycle Now, the organization putting on Recycle Week, which begins today, has a very cool little animated video showing the process that beer bottles go through during the recycling process.
Glass Bottles – how they are recycled from RecycleNow on Vimeo.
By Jay Brooks
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Today in 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state.
West Virginia

West Virginia Breweries
West Virginia Brewery Guides
Guild: No Known Guild
State Agency: West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration



Package Mix:
Beer Taxes:
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:

Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.
For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.
By Jay Brooks

This week’s work of art is by the famous French artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who painted Dance at Bougival, in 1883. Today it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and remains one of his most famous works of art.

The website for Boston’s MFA includes a typical description of the painting:
The open-air cafés of suburban Bougival, on the Seine outside Paris, were popular recreation spots for city dwellers, including the Impressionist painters. Renoir, who was primarily a figure painter, uses intense color and lush brushwork to heighten the sense of pleasure conveyed by the whirling couple who dominate the composition. The woman’s face, framed by her red bonnet, is the focus of attention, both ours and her companion’s.
But look closely beyond the dancing couple to the green tale behind them and you’ll see mugs of beer in front of the people seated there.

You can read Renoir’s biography at Wikipedia and also at the Web Museum, which also has a gallery of other works, too. Other galleries include Olga’s, the Artchive and a third claims to contain Renoir’s Complete Works.
By Jay Brooks
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Our 73rd Guinness ad is again from the “Guinness For Strength” series, with a pair of golfers walking the links, but the one with the bottle of Guinness in this bag seems far more able to manage his large bag while his compatriot is struggling with not only a smaller bag but a wheeled cart. Since it looks likely that the U.S. Open will again be won by an Irish golfer, and in fact Northern Ireland, a golf ad seemed appropriate.

By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is from 1968, when Karate had worked its way into public consciousness, and shows a black belt karate master posing beside four blocks of wood resting on a pair of cinder blocks, ready to be karate-chopped. The only thing standing in his way is a glass of Ballantine Ale. The tagline is pretty funny. “Stronger, Bolder, really means business!”

By Jay Brooks
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Our 53rd Session takes us down a more spiritual path, the road to redemption … sort of. Our host, John Holl, of his eponymous Beer Briefing, has chosen the topic Beer Redemption, for which he offers the following confession:
One thing about drinking a lot of beer is that occasionally you’re going to have a bad one. Perhaps it was infected or spoiled by light. Perhaps the brewer or brewery was new and still working out the kinks on a particular style. Regardless, you couldn’t finish the beer in your glass and moved onto the next one.
John goes on to tell the tale of a beer that, in his youth, he found all but undrinkable and gave short shrift to ever after, only to discover — years later — that it wasn’t so bad after all. He continues.
In that moment I realized the foolishness of youth and how many earlier chances I passed up to properly taste this beer. These days it is not uncommon to find [his beer] of various styles in my refrigerator. I haven’t actually visited the brewery yet, but they are now high on my list.
So, what has been your beer redemption?
So drink three Bloody Marys (made with beer) and two Old Foghorns and seek forgiveness, my sons and daughters, just so long as you blog about it for the next Session on Friday, July 1. Your beer redemption is at hand. To start you down the righteous path, say the Beer Prayer aloud every night before retiring from the evening’s drinking:
“Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as I am in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
and lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Barmen.”
By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is from 1959 and is for Rheingold beer. It features a formal horse riding outing and Miss Rheingold for that year, Robbin Bain, the 19th woman to hold the title. The tagline for the ad is “There’s Fun A-Field With Rheingold!” Personally, I don’t know how much fun you could have in such stiff attire, but I’m not much of a horse person anyway.

By Jay Brooks
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Today in 1836, Arkansas became the 25th state.
Arkansas

Arkansas Breweries
Arkansas Brewery Guides
Guild: Arkansas Brewers Association
State Agency: Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Division



Package Mix:
Beer Taxes (Under 5%):
Beer Taxes (Over 5%):
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:

Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.
For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.
