Monday’s ad is one I don’t know much about, but chose it because it’s National Pretzel Day. The French translates as something like “pretzel singer with beer and wine.” I’m not even sure it’s for a brewery, it seems like it may be for a bar or restaurant instead. It’s most likely from 1920s France.
The Today Show today aired another segment on craft beer, which they still insist on calling microbrews, though I guess it’s better than boutique beers, which they used way too much in a previous segment. Overall the segment was comme ci, comme ça, with some good points made, some great beers, but also some of the same nonsense that always bothers me when mainstream media covers beer.
The guest was the Today Show’s Food Editor Phil Lempert, who also bills himself as the Supermarket Guru. While the beers he chose were all pretty good (all GABF winners, he said), the mix and the way he presented them showed he doesn’t know as much about beer as he thinks he does. The beers they tasted were, in this order:
All great beers, but it’s the order in which they tasted them that was awful: IPA, Barley Wine, Imperial IPA, pale lager, saison, brown ale and another IPA. Does that seem like the right order to anyone?
That, coupled with calling them microbrews, bothered me, though I know the rallying cry will be at least they’re covering craft beer. And while I agree that’s a good thing, I’d still be happier if they didn’t cover it quite so badly. This is especially true because Lempert characterizes himself as an “expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape.” For someone whose job description is predicting trends and being on top of what’s going on, you’d think he’s realize that no one’s been calling them microbrews for at least a decade, probably longer. I know it’s a small point, but it’s indicative of a larger problem with food “experts” who read a few websites, maybe glance at a book or two, and think they’re beer experts, too. I just think there should be beer experts on TV, too, not just food and wine pretenders.
Then there’s the subtle snarkiness, the ubiquitous jokes about drinking in the morning that never seem to accompany wine tastings on morning shows. Why can’t they treat beer with the same seriousness? Why must is always accompany casual jokes and no respect. When Jillian Michaels, the trainer on “The Biggest Loser,” joined the tasting, she remarked about Dogfish Head’s brown ale by smacking her lips and saying “it’s very masculine,” whatever that means. She then admits, seemingly grudgingly, that beer has health benefits but frames it that “dark beer has some health benefits,” which Lempert agrees with by saying dark beers are healthier. WTF is that? All beer has health benefits. Since when are all the health benefits in roasted malt? And that’s what I mean about them being pretenders. Yes, it’s good to see beer on TV, but the price is misinformation almost every time.
Today’s work of art was painted in 2007 by LC Neill, a North Carolina artist. She does a small painting every day, and this is one of them. It’s formal title is Two Will Do, though it’s also known as Heineken Beer Caps. It’s a 5″x 5″ oil painting.
Here’s what Lori Neill says about the painting:
This was an extremely challenging piece for me as I found the lettering to be a lot of work. You would be surprised how much you learn about a bottle cap after drawing it and painting it with this level of detail.
I loved the contrast of the deep green with the bright red graphic star, and ultimately wanted the finished painting to have a creative feel to it. One beer cap is lying face down and the other is standing inside the first one. They are sitting on a highly reflective surface. I hope you enjoy it!
There’s a short biography at her website, where you can also see a number of her other paintings. You can also see many more of her “daily paintings” at Still Rivers Studios and at Daily Painters.
Our fifteenth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is a balancing act, as a seal balances a bottle of Guinness on his nose while his exasperated trainer looks on. It’s also another ad using the “My Goodness, My Guinness” slogan.
Friday’s ad closes strange glances week with a 1957 ad for National Bohemian. The ad’s tagline is “Wet, Cold and Delicious … just the way you want your beer.” The woman in the bathing cap, popping up out of the water at the side of the pool is likewise certainly wet, possibly cold though I’m touching that last one. Still, I think it’s fair to assume that it was their unspoken plan to suggest that connection. Then there’s that hilariously odd sideways glance as she eyes the beer bottle.
If you want to see a larger size ad, there is one here, though the text is cropped.
Finally, mainstream magazines are learning. A number of them, usually men’s magazines, publish an annual list of their picks for good beers, whether global or just American, and varying in the number on the list. But they go wrong by trying to call their lists the “top,” “best” or some similar hyperbole. With such a subjective sensation as taste, getting people to ever agree on a list is a fool’s errand, and ends up pissing people off whose favorite wasn’t included or wasn’t high enough on the list. Personally, I love lists but have found they can be dangerous enterprises.
GQ published one today they’re calling I’d Tap That! 50 Beers to Try Right Now. And despite the awkward “I’d tap that” beginning (why do mainstream beer stories always start with a bad pun?) I think they’re taking the right approach. Just presenting 50 beers they think are worth trying to an audience who may not be familiar with many of them is, I think, the way to go. There’s no rankings, no suggestion that these are the beers, or that they’re better than all the rest. They’re just suggestions. And there are some pretty good ones, too. Of course, there are some I wouldn’t have put on the list, but that’s the nature of these lists.
Then there are five more “bonus beers” under the sub-heading “In Defense of Bodega Beer,” which presumably means the downscale contrast to the upscale first fifty.
Thursday’s ad during strange glances week also a 1958 ad, this time for Budweiser, under their campaign “Where there’s life .. there’s Bud.” Mr fix-it watches intently as his wife pours his beer from a can into a pilsner glass. What I can’t quite understand is how use fix a telephone with a hammer. There’s also an odd bit of text there, right next to the hammer.
THE KING’S CREDENTIALS: The King of Beers prints its ingredients right on the label. Know of any other beer that does?
Was that really such a bold claim in 1958? I think I was under the impression that most, if not all, beer labels contain at least the primary ingredients on them, but perhaps that’s a more recent development. Since there are only four, I wouldn’t think that would be a point of differentiation. But maybe then most people didn’t know what the ingredients were, or that they were virtually identical from beer to beer.
Wednesday’s ad keeps the week’s accidental theme of strange glances going. It’s a 1958 ad for Carling’s Red Cap beer, “the true Canadian ale” — at least according to the ad. The primary sidewards glance in this ad is looking up at someone looking to have their not-yet-empty glass filled. That’s odd enough, but notice the full glass just to his left (our right). Above that glass is another strange sight. Just what exactly is that out-of-focus man holding on to, and looking up at? A light saber? No, it was nearly twenty years before Star Wars debuted. A RC remote? A red fishing rod? At any rate, that makes two odd looks in one ad, two for the price of one.
Tuesday’s ad continues the week’s accidental theme of strange glances. It’s a Schlitz ad from the 1950s and features a clubhouse scene presumably just after the golf tournament ended. While the WASPy members of Bushwood Country Club look on, the “winner” pours a bottle of Schlitz into his “Club Champion” trophy. But it’s his smug, smirking sidewards glance at us that makes me shudder. The slogan, “Best round I’ve had all day,” also seems a bit to punny, and I love a great pun.
7-11, the largest convenience store chain in the U.S. with over 6,000 stores, sells a lot of beer, most of it from the big beer companies. In fact, they’re the third-largest beer retailer in the country. With more limited shelf space, C-Stores tend to focus on fast-moving brands and usually carry very few local or craft beer brands. So those stores have been one of the few outlets where space has not be eroding due to craft beer’s growing popularity. But, according to an announcement in Fortune magazine, that’s about to change, though not toward more craft beer. 7-11 has announced the release of their own private label beer, called Game Day. Apparently it’s a “premium beer selling at a budget price,” though further details were not forthcoming. While not yet confirmed by 7-11, it’s being reported that there will be two varieties of Game Day, Game Day Light and Game Day Ice and each will likely be sold in two package sizes, 12-pack cans and 24-oz. singles. Prices are expected to be between $6.99-$8.99 for 12-packs and between $1.49-$1.89 for singles, depending upon distribution and state specific costs, like taxes. The contract brewing is being done by City Brewing in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
