Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Marin Brewing Releases E.S.CHI

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Marin Brewing released their newest beer, an herbal beer made in collaboration with San Anselmo herbalist Dr. Yen-Wei Choong. He runs the Yellow Emperor Natural Healing Center and Zen Garden and has been involved with Chinese herbs all his life. For the last twenty, he’s been working on just the right combination of herbs to improve beer, and make more balanced from the perspective of Chinese medicine.

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Brewmaster Arne Johnson started with his E.S.B. as the base beer. To that, he added 38 pounds of the proprietary mix of Chinese herbs that Dr. Choong created. The nose was subtle herbs, almost gruit-like. The flavors were soft and also subtle, in a good way. The herbs were there but never overpowered the beer, and in fact the two integrated together quite well. It was smooth and easy drinking, almost like a session beer, though I believe the beer is around 5.5% a.b.v. A tasty collaboration.

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Marin Brewing owner Brendan Moylan, Dr. Yen-Wei Choong and Brewmaster Arne Johnson.

For now, the beer is draft only and will be at several events and places during SF Beer Week. They’ve submitted a label for approval, so it may be available in bottles eventually.

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Beer In Ads #34: Lone Star, Have Fun With Your Thirst

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Given that today is the 70th anniversary of Champion Brewing changing their name to Lone Star, it seemed only appropriate for Monday’s ad to be for Lone Star Beer. And it’s an odd one, in several ways. I’m guessing from the art that it was published in the late 50-early 60s. Are the couple at the beach? At night? It looks like a starry background and possibly ocean waves, but it’s awfully bright. Must be a full moon. There are a couple of humorous taglines. First, they’re “now in GLASS cans!” That’s an interesting way to market Stubbies. I knew that Stubbies were created by glass manufacturers to compete with the popularity of cans, but I hadn’t heard that so nakedly admitted in an ad before. And Lone Star claims to be the first “Certified Quality Beer,” with the footnote reading “Certified ‘As Fine A Beer As Is Brewed In The World,'” whatever that means. But the real crack-up is just how happy they seem to be with their food. The main tagline might be “have FUN with your thirst..,” but they’re looking at that sandwich and especially the hot dog way too longingly.

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A Rosa By Any Other Name

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One of the highlights of The Brewing Network’s Winter Brews Festival, held earlier today at Linden Street Brewery in Oakland, was Rosa, a sour beer brewed by the new Sacramento brewery, Odonata, recently started by former Sacramento Brewing’s Peter Hoey and Rick Sellers, formerly with Draft magazine. Here’s a short video of brewmaster Peter Hoey talking about Rosa.

Beer In Ads #33: Rolling Rock’s Great Minds

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Since Friday’s ad is number 33, I thought it only appropriate to feature one for Rolling Rock, since they so successfully exploited the mystery surrounding the number “33” being printed on their bottles, though the likeliest story isn’t that mysterious. This humorous ad plays on that theme with some of history’s greatest thinkers contemplating the mystery, which they call “Great Theories of ’33.'” The bottom row is Charles Darwin, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Thomas Edison. The top row is Sigmund Freud, Galileo and William Shakespeare. Also, the painting is called “Great Minds Drink Alike,” which is a pretty great name IMHO.

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Tune In Tomorrow

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If you live in the Bay Area and have nothing going on tomorrow morning (or have Tivo), I’ll be on television in the early morning to promote SF Beer Week. It will air around 8:45 during the three-hour KRON 4 Weekend Show that’s on from 7:00-10:00 a.m. The exact time will depend on how the show develops, then they’ll cut to us at a remote location. I’m told it will be a very short segment, something like 3-4 minutes during which time I’ll try to taste the host, Henry Tenenbaum, on three beers paired with cheese, sausages and ice cream. And at the same time, I’ll try to talk about what he’s sampling and also discuss SF Beer Week, too. I expect it will be a lot like juggling while riding a unicycle. Did I mention I don’t know how to juggle? Or ride a unicycle or that matter. So tune in to watch me make a fool of myself or do Bay Area beer proud. Either way, it should be good for a laugh.

UPDATE: My sister-in-law Kit made a video of the spot and I’ve uploaded it to my YouTube Channel.

Beer In Ads #32: It’s OK, I Saved The Schlitz

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Thursday’s ad is for a classic Schlitz ad from 1951. Like many ads from that time period, it was drawn by Bill Fleming. His work has a distinctive look to it. I confess I have a “thing” for old Schlitz memorabilia, especially their Schlitzerland campaign and the period of years where they used the globe logo prominently, as I also had an obsession with globes, too. This one is still funny nearly sixty years later.

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Beer In Ads #31: Estrella Damm’s Waves

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Wednesday’s ad is a contemporary one for Spain’s Estrella Damm. The illustration was apparently done for an Estrella Damm calendar. This work was done by Alex Trochut, a Spanish artist living in Barcelona. There’s a nice biography and short interview with him at It’s Nice That. I love art with a lot of detail, and this one has it in spades. Look closely at the waves and that alone should keep you occupied for some time. To see it larger, and see even more detail, click through the image and then select “all sizes.”

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Beer In Ads #30: Budwesier, That Bud … That’s Beer!

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Tuesday’s ad is for the Budweiser flat-top can from 1964. They’re going for that manly fisherman demographic. I found it interesting given yesterday’s post, Evolution of a Beer Label, just how much importance A-B was placing on its label in 1964. Notice what the ad copy reads. “The story is on every Budweiser label.” But I think the previous question asked by the ad, “[i]s there any real difference in the way beers are brewed,” will have the average beer geek laughing out loud.

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