Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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New Mexico Beer

By

new_mexico
Today in 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.

New Mexico
State_NewMexico

New Mexico Breweries

New Mexico Brewery Guides

Guild: New Mexico Association of Small Brewers

State Agency: New Mexico Alcohol and Gaming Division

maps-nm

  • Capital: Santa Fe
  • Largest Cities: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho, Roswell
  • Population: 1,819,046; 36th
  • Area: 121593 sq.mi., 5th
  • Nickname: Land of Enchantment
  • Statehood: 47th, January 6, 1912

m-new-mexico

  • Alcohol Legalized: June 9, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 21
  • Rank: 24th
  • Beer Production: 1,584,745
  • Production Rank: 35th
  • Beer Per Capita: 30.9 Gallons

new-mexico

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 38.4%
  • Cans: 56.6%
  • Kegs: 4.9%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.41
  • Per Case: $0.92
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $12.71
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $12.71

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $38,934,311
  • Direct Impact: $359,750,948
  • Supplier Impact: $252,384,829
  • Induced Economic Impact: $219,847,060
  • Total Impact: $831,982,837

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: 7 a.m.–2 a.m., except Sundays, for establishments with full dispenser license. / 7 a.m.–11 p.m., except Sundays, for restaurants with beer and wine license.
    Off Premises: 7 a.m.–12 a.m. except Sundays
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: New Mexico issues two types of license for consumption on-premise: a full dispenser license allowing sale of all types of alcohol, or a restaurant license permitting sale of beer and wine only. An additional Sunday permit is available which allows sale (on and/or off premise) on Sundays from noon until midnight. Exceptions are the prohibition of alcohol sale on Christmas, regardless of the day it falls on, and a Sunday permit allowing of sale (on and/or off premise) until 2:00 a.m. January 1, if December 31 falls on a Sunday. Sunday permits are only available where approved by voters within a local option district. Selling, serving and giving alcohol to a minor is a class 4 felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

new-mexico-map

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.

Utah Beer

By

utah
Today in 1890, Utah became the 45th state.

Utah
State_Utah

Utah Breweries

Utah Brewery Guides

Guilds: None Known

State Agency: Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

maps-ut

  • Capital: Salt Lake City
  • Largest Cities: Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Provo
  • Population: 2,233,169; 34th
  • Area: 84904 sq.mi., 13th
  • Nickname: The Beehive State
  • Statehood: 45th, January 4, 1890

m-utah

  • Alcohol Legalized: December 5, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 15
  • Rank: 36th
  • Beer Production: 1,114,008
  • Production Rank: 39th
  • Beer Per Capita: 12.4 Gallons

utah

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 32.3%
  • Cans: 59.6%
  • Kegs: 8%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.41
  • Per Case: $0.93
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $12.80
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $12.80

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $47,793,674
  • Direct Impact: $237,261,674
  • Supplier Impact: $211,360,795
  • Induced Economic Impact: $124,753,226
  • Total Impact: $573,375,695

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: Yes
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: Restaurants: Noon to midnight for liquor, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. for beer. Bars may serve liquor from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Off Premises: Varies by state liquor store hours.
  • Grocery Store Sales: 4.0% (3.2% a.b.w.) or below only
  • Notes: ABV > 4.0+% sold in state-controlled stores only. State-controlled stores close on Sundays and cease operations no later than 10 p.m. the rest of the week. Restaurants must buy from the state-controlled store (no delivery) at retail prices. No alcohol may be served on Election Day until 8 p.m. No alcohol is served in restaurants without purchase of food. A ban on 4.0% or below beer available on tap was repealed in March 2009. Sales of kegs prohibited.

utah-map

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.

Filling Your Beer From The Bottom

By

bottoms-up-draft
Here’s an odd new innovation (sent in by my friend Mike C.) from GrinOn Industries of Montesano, Washington. They’ve created the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System. As they claim, “GrinOn’s proprietary Bottoms Up Dispensing System is the fastest dispensing system in the world and fills at a rate of up to nine times that of traditional beer taps.” Take a look at in action below.

GrinOn lists a litany of benefits to their system, though the most obvious is that it “improves speed-of-service increases customer satisfaction and sales.” I don’t know about the “customer satisfaction” but an increase in sales makes sense in the right setting, such as an environment where long lines make speed a real issue, and one where plastics cups are the only option. It seems ideal for a sports stadium or a fair. The homepage features a video showing two people filling 44 cups of beer in one minute, without even breaking a sweat. There are also a number of additional videos on a separate page.

Below is what the dispenser base looks like.
beer-dispenser-close

They also claim that their system “reduces the stress and cost of ‘foamy beer problems.'” Filling the beer from the bottom does seem like it would produce head in a very different way, though in the video it certainly seems adequate for the type of beer being poured. It also must use a proprietary cup, though the website talks about there being a FDA approved MAG™ — a round magnet — at the bottom of the cup which seals the cup. It apparently can also be used after you drink the beer as a refrigerator magnet, and they even can sell you a customized magnet that can be a souvenir after the fact or otherwise used promotionally.

I can’t see it being used by small breweries or brewpubs, or even most beer bars, but where volume of just a couple of different beers — the big macros and high volume micros seem likeliest — is the key to the business, then it seems like it could be viable. What do you think?

Beer In Ads #280: Miss Rheingold’s Snowball Fight

By

ad-billboard
Monday’s ad for is Rheingold beer from 1949, featuring Miss Rheingold for that year, Pat McElroy. With a broad smile on her face she’s threatening us with a snowball, and with at least one in reserve by her left hand. I’m not sure if her little dog, too, is part of her strategy, but I’m not picking a fight with Pat.

Rheingold-1949

Alaska Beer

By

alaska
Today in 1959, Alaska became the 49th state.

Alaska
State_Alaska

Alaska Breweries

Alaska Brewery Guides

Guild: Brewers Guild of Alaska

State Agency: Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

maps-ak

  • Capital: Juneau
  • Largest Cities: Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Sitka, Ketchikan
  • Population: 626,932; 48th
  • Area: 656,425 sq.mi., 1st
  • Nickname: The Last Frontier
  • Statehood: 49th, January 3, 1959

m1-alaska

  • Alcohol Legalized: August 24, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 17
  • Rank: 31st
  • Beer Production: 424,712
  • Production Rank: 50th
  • Beer Per Capita: 865.9 Gallons

alaska

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 39.4%
  • Cans: 52.8%
  • Kegs: 7.5%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $1.07
  • Per Case: $2.41
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $33.17
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $33.17

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $52,164,509
  • Direct Impact: $170,869,901
  • Supplier Impact: $65,295,912
  • Induced Economic Impact: $53,629,253
  • Total Impact: $289,795,066

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: 8 a.m.–5 a.m., except election days (liquor stores may not open until polls close)
  • Grocery Store Sales: No (although many grocery stores have separate areas that sell all forms of alcoholic beverages and many bars sell packaged liquor as well.)
  • Notes: Most communities have more restrictive laws, ranging from restrictions on operating hours to bans on sale and possession. Sellers/servers may not, for any reason, give a person alcohol for free or sell it for less than its cost. Sellers/servers may drink while on duty, but no intoxicated person may remain on the premises, so an impaired server could be arrested.

alaska-map

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.

Georgia Beer

By

ga
Today in 1788, Georgia became the 4th state.

Georgia

State_Georgia

Georgia Breweries

Georgia Brewery Guides

Guild: Georgia Brewers Guild [No website.]

State Agency: Georgia Alcohol and Tobacco Division

maps-ga

  • Capital: Atlanta
  • Largest Cities: Atlanta, August, Columbus, Savannah, Athens
  • Population: 8,186,453; 10th
  • Area: 59441 sq.mi., 24th
  • Nickname: The Peach State
  • Statehood: 4th, January 2, 1788

m-georgia

  • Alcohol Legalized: May 23, 1935
  • Number of Breweries: 22
  • Rank: 23rd
  • Beer Production: 5,596,058
  • Production Rank: 10th
  • Beer Per Capita: 16.4 Gallons

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 37.8%
  • Cans: 55.6%
  • Kegs: 6.5%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.48
  • Per Case: $1.08
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $14.88
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $10.00

georgia

Economic Impact (2008):

  • From Brewing: $1,300,853,614
  • Direct Impact: $2,699,329,013
  • Supplier Impact: $2,293,594,311
  • Induced Economic Impact: $1,398,800,452
  • Total Impact: $6,391,723,776

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: Hours of sale determined by county. No alcohol sales on Sunday (although restaurant/bar sales allowed). No alcohol sales on Christmas Day.
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: ABV > 14% ABV cap on beer
    No Sunday off-premises sales

    In general, one may not be drunk in public. Though there is no state law prohibiting drinking in public, most municipal corporations and political subdivisions limit the possession of open containers of alcohol to private property, with one notable exception being Savannah. Public drunkenness is only warranted when one is drunk in public and his acts are either loud or disorderly.

georgia-map

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.

A Truly Cheesy Beer

By

belvoir

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a brewer,
Who sat down beside her
And took all her whey away.

That’s how the Mother Goose nursery rhyme might have gone if the folks at Belvoir Brewery in England’s Old Dalby. Leicestershire area had been around when she wrote that one. What Belvoir has done is taken the blue Stilton cheese and made a beer with it. They infused Stilton whey by mixing 25% whey with 75% fresh wort and then fermented it normally, producing a 4.2% a.b.v. chestnut-colored beer. Happily, the beer itself is not blue, just the name.

belvoir-blue-brew

According to a BBC article:

Nigel White, secretary of the Stilton Cheesemakers Association, said: “People often think of Stilton as a cheese just for Christmas and forget how versatile it is.

“Traditionally the whey from cheese making would have been fed to pigs. We wondered if it could be used for other purposes and Belvoir Brewery has now made a new beer.”

Belvoir’s website says they’re currently out of the Stilton beer, but that new beer should be available shortly. I know cheese and beer together as a pairing is miraculously good, but premixed together? I’m game, certainly and most reports claim that it’s better than it sounds, with “delicate” flavors and “a smooth, creamy texture.”

webbluebrew

A short BBC video also reveals there are no plans to brew a cheddar beer or a Wensleydale beer, which is a shame to my Monty Python-loving ears and brought their hilarious cheese shop skit rushing back. I guess cheddar’s just not popular ’round those parts.

Customer (John Cleese): You…do *have* some cheese, don’t you?

Owner (Michael Palin): (brightly) Of course, sir. It’s a cheese shop, sir. We’ve got–

Customer: No no… don’t tell me. I’m keen to guess.

Owner: Fair enough.

Customer: Uuuuuh, Wensleydale.

Owner: Yes?

Customer: Ah, well, I’ll have some of that!

Owner: Oh! I thought you were talking to me, sir. Mister Wensleydale, that’s my name.

And a little later in the skit:

Customer: (pause) Aah, how about Cheddar?

Owner: Well, we don’t get much call for it around here, sir.

Customer: Not much ca– it’s the single most popular cheese in the world!

Owner: Not ’round here, sir.

But see it for yourself: