Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Oregon Beer Up 16%

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An Oregonian Bulletin friend (thanks Jim) sent this in. Today’s Oregonian has a two-part piece by John Foyston, a veteran newspaperman and long-time advocate of good beer. The first part, Oregon beers grow by hops and bounds, details some great news about sales of Oregon beer in 2006, where again record growth ocurred for at least the third year in a row.

From the article:

Craft brewers in the state made 3.5 million gallons more beer last year than in 2005, a 16 percent increase and the third year in a row of double-digit gains. This at a time megabrewers such as Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Miller Brewing Co. have struggled to maintain their revenues and market share.

According to figures released this month by the Oregon Brewers Guild, the state’s 79 breweries produced about 792,000 barrels of beer in 2006, or 24.5 million gallons. That’s up from 21.1 million gallons a year earlier, and makes Oregon one of the leaders in a craft beer segment growing faster than any other part of the U.S. alcoholic beverage market.

The second part is a nice profile of Portland’s Amnesia Brewing.

Sad News About The Beer King

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Alan Eames, known to the beer world as “The Beer King” and “The Indiana Jones of Beer,” passed away Saturday, February 10. He was 59 years old. Eames was a cultural anthropologist, historian and writer by trade, and a tireless lecturer and advocate for beer. He will be deeply missed.

Here is a short biography of Alan Eames from Ohio Brew Week:

Dubbed the Indiana Jones of Beer and The Beer King by the world media, Vermont resident Alan Eames is an internationally recognized beer historian, author, consultant, and beer anthropologist.

Mr. Eames is author of A Beer Drinker’s Companion, Blood, Sweat and Beers, and The Oldenburg Beer Drinkers Bible. Eames has written about beer for a variety of publications, including All About Beer Magazine, Americas, Consumer Digest, Top Shelf; The Malt Advocate, Beer: The Magazine, Popular Science, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Eames provided entries spanning ancient times through the mid-19th century in his contributions to The Encyclopedia of Beer.

Mr. Eames was founding Director of the American Museum of Brewing History and Fine Arts in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky. Speaking of the ancient and valuable role of beer in human societies, Mr. Eames has lectured throughout the United States at such institutions as The New England College of Medicine, The Culinary Institute of America, the Departments of Anthropology at Brown University, University of Georgia, and The United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

As a beer historian, Mr. Eames has appeared internationally before an audience of millions on radio, television, and in the press. A veteran of more than 14 appearances on National Public Radio throughout the United States, include All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and the Splendid Table. Among mainstream television and talk shows, Eames’ work has been showcased in such primetime fare as NBC’s Today Show and Good Morning America. As a globetrotting beer anthropologist, Eames’ career was highlighted in Nippon Television’s documentary The World Beer Traveller, for Tokyo Television. Recently the Indiana Jones of Beer was the subject of a segment in Canada’s beery documentary FoodEssence. Mr. Eames may be currently seen on The History Channel’s MODERN MARVELS – BREWING. Mr. Eames has consulted on a variety of Hollywood feature films lending historical expertise to beer and barroom related scenes.

His most famous book was The Secret Life of Beer!: Exposed: Legends, Lore & Little-Known Facts

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The book’s description:

Beer has inspired, influenced, and excited human beings for thousands of years and Alan D. Eames, the certified “king of beer,” has traveled the world uncovering The Secret Life of Beer. In this book, he reveals untold stories, lore, and references to beer in poetry, song, literature, and history. Readers will be astonished to learn the esoteric facts Eames has discovered, such as that in most ancient cultures only women were allowed to brew, and for much of history beer was considered a nourishing alternative to drinking water!

From its origins among early civilizations to a hallowed place in the history of mankind, the art, the history, the culture, and the mystery of fermented beverages is the subject of historical fact, mythological speculation, and philosophical enquiry. The Secret Life of Beer! shares bits and pieces of this intriguing cultural history, along with quotes from such diverse beer drinkers as Nietzsche and Charles Darwin, in an inviting, highly browseable format.

Here is an interview of Eames by Robert Lauriston. And here’s an article from Yankee Brew News (1993) entitled Beer, Women, and History.
 

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Alan Eames — April 16, 1947 – February 10, 2007

Celebrator Beer News Anniversary Party This Sunday

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This coming Sunday is the 19th anniversary party for the Celebrator Beer News, one of the magazines that I write for. It will be held at Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California from 4 to 8 pm. This year will also feature a Mardi Gras theme, with three bands, craft beer from fifteen breweries and BBQ and Cajun/Creole food. Tickets are $40, and are available on-line from the Celebrator website. To get a flavor of what the party will be like, check out my photos from last year. I’ll be there, most likely working the door, so say hello when you check-in at the entrance.

 

From the press release:

The Celebrator Beer News will celebrate its 19th anniversary on February 18, 2007, with a Mardi Gras-themed party from 4 to 8 pm at the Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, Calif.

At least 15 other breweries will pour favorite brews. Meet Celebrator writers and beer industry luminaries, including pioneer figures in the craft beer movement. Cajun/Creole food, music from three bands and beer are included!

Breweries pouring include Anchor Brewery, Anderson Valley, Pacific Coast, Deschutes, Ommegang, BridgePort, Russian River, Sierra Nevada, Triple Rock, Trumer Pils, Valley Brewing, Widmer/Redhook and more.

Music includes a Dixieland Jazz Band and an industry Battle of the Bands with performances by the Hysters (Anchor Brewery) and the industry-staffed Rolling Boil Blues Band!

Tickets are on sale now: $40 per person, including BBQ and Cajun/Creole food, beer and music. Discount rooms will be available at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco ($79 per night). Call 800-622-0855 and ask for the Celebrator rate. If you want to stay in Berkeley after the event, there is a deal at the Hotel Durant. Call 510-845-8981 and ask for the Manager’s rate. This event takes place one day after the start of the Barleywine Festival at the Toronado!

For more information, call 510-538-2739. Ticket sales by Visa/MC, phone 800-430-BEER or buy tickets here through PayPal.

Double IPA Festival Winners

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Ballast Point Point Brewing‘s Dorado was chosen best in show at the 7th annual Double IPA Festival today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full winner list is below.

 
 

 
 

Chilling Out

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I know marketing is necessary to sell things, to build awareness and demand. But I have this old-fashioned, almost quaint notion that the product should come first. I think brewers should come up with the best beer they can and from there the marketers step in and figure out the best way to sell it. There’s nothing wrong with looking around the marketplace and looking for a hole to fill, of course, that makes perfect sense to me. Or taking something people already like and tweaking it a bit, such as adding more hops to an IPA to create Imperial IPAs. But these days, increasingly the big company’s new products are being created by marketing and then the brewers create something to fit the marketing plan.

I realize that’s how the modern commerce-driven world works, but it’s not always the best way to create a beer. Committees aren’t the best way to do everything. Last year, Coors’ “frost brew lined” cans put a blue film inside the can, with the potential to effect the taste of the beer, but the marketing plan trumped those concerns. Anheuser-Busch has taken a scatter-shot approach in which they test literally dozens of new products each year in the hopes some will stick, but because there’s so may they can’t really get behind any of them. It’s also the reason that over the years we’ve been subjected to “dry” beers, “ice” beers, “light (low-calorie)” beers, “low-carb” beers, tequila-infused beer, and other fad beers.

As the late, great Bill Hicks was fond of saying. “If you’re in marketing in advertising … kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there’s no rationalization for what you do and you are the ruiner of all things good, seriously.” Perhaps an extreme view? There was also this great episode (the Competition) of the animated Dilbert series in which Dilbert goes to work for a rival company, Nirvana Co., that is a dream company to work for. It’s a company with bosses who listen, employees that treat one another with respect and best of all — no marketing department. After Dilbert suggests they might want a marketing department to sell a new product they’re launching, they add one … and all hell breaks loose. Within days (or is it hours) the headquarters is destroyed and the company is bankrupt. It’s a hilarious critique on what happens when marketing calls the shots and goes too far.

The newest example of a marketing-driven beer is Miller’s new Chill, a beer based on a Mexican drink — a chelada — and apparently aimed at Hispanic drinkers. For some reason that strikes me as odd, like making a malt liquor for African-Americans or a Sake-based beer for Asian-Americans. It’s one thing to create a product that you reasonably believe will appeal to a specific customer, but to so unabashedly go after an ethnic or cultural group just seems so, well, tacky. Most of the news reports about Miller’s new release used the AP opening. “Se habla Miller? Miller Brewing Co. is hoping Hispanics speak its name next month when the company introduces a beer flavored with lime and salt in Latino areas.” The initial test markets will be Arizona, southern California, Florida, New Mexico and Texas.

Miller is calling it an “American take on a Mexican classic,” which may be good propaganda but that’s about it. Anytime we — and by “we” I mean America as a whole — do “our” version of something we tend to ruin it. Americanization is not always a good thing, especially when it happens to the stuff we eat and drink. Think what Taco Bell did for Mexican food, or Olive Garden for Italian, or American-light lager for an authentic pilsner.

Chelada is essentially a drink you create at a bar, and one definition is a “cerveza that has been poured into a glass with a salted rim containing lime juice and ice.” So essentially that makes a chelada a drink that is prepared at the bar, like a black and tan or a shandy. And while there are pre-packaged versions of both of those, I’ve never liked the idea of pre-made cocktails. There’s just something about the process of them being create in front of you (or making one yourself) that can’t be duplicated by the pre-made variety. Maybe it’s the fresh ingredients. Maybe it’s something else — but whatever it is — they definitely taste different.

From the AP report:

The low-calorie beer will compete with mainstream light beers, such as top selling Bud Light and competitor Coors Light, Marino said. It’ll be priced slightly higher than Miller Lite to compete with premium beers such as Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser, he said.

“It’s a different beer,” Marino said. “It’s a different take on light beer than what consumers are used to.”

The lime green bottles feature green and silver modular designs reminiscent of Aztec art, with the word “Chill” in bold black letters across the front and “Chelada style” below. A television advertising campaign with the slogan “Se habla Chill” will air in the test markets, Marino said.

And, of course, a light green bottle is a bad choice because it will allow beer photooxidation, meaning the beer can easily become lightstruck. This will make it taste skunky after even minimal exposure to light, especially direct sunlight. This is Heineken’s biggest problem. But again, marketing the green bottles is more important than what the beer tastes like because Heineken could obviously switch to brown glass any time they wanted to. It would throw off all their marketing and advertising and brand awareness, and that’s why they don’t and aren’t likely to change any time soon. It is interesting to note that in the Netherlands and indeed much of the rest of the world, Heineken does come in a brown bottle. (As an aside, actually brown isn’t the best, either, as it does allow some UV rays in. But brown bottles offer the best protection for the money. Dark red would be best, but red glass is prohibitively expensive. That’s the reason photographer’s dark rooms use red bulbs when working with photo paper and manually developing photographs.)

Miller has been putting several of their beers in clear glass for many years, but to a certain extent have solved the lightstruck problem by using pre-isomerized hop extracts, which don’t oxidize. The culprit is 3-methyl-2-butene thiol (from iso-alpha-acid hops) combined with another thiol radical (from compounds in malt) that form prenyl mercaptans. Lew Bryson, in his piece “How to Ruin a Beer,” explains it like this.

Miller Brewing takes a further step. They take the iso-alpha acids and hydrogenate them, much like is done at refineries, by forcing hydrogen through the oils at extremely high pressures. This produces rho-iso-alpha acids, also known as tetralones. These tetralones have intensified bitterness, increase foam stability and retention, and offer a better resistance to sunlight. They would be ideal, only they do not maintain the precise flavor of fresh hops. Hopping rates in mainstream American beers being what they are, this isn’t a serious problem as long as the bitterness is right.

There’s no word whether or not Chill is manufactured in this way or not, though I presume it must be. Unless, of course, Miller sees Chill’s main competition as Corona. Since Corona is another popular beer that comes in clear glass, it too is more often than not lightstruck. It may be the reason they market it with a lime in it in the first place, to mask the inherent skunkiness. But strange as it seems, it’s possible Chill could be marketed with the same defect customers have come to expect in their Corona, making switching to Miller Chill that much easier. After all, it’s the marketing that sells Corona, not it’s taste. For the big beer companies, it’s always about the marketing and rarely about the beer. Perhaps that’s why I have such a hard time chilling out.

EU Court Upholds Price Fixing Verdict

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The European Court of Justice upheld a 2005 price fixing verdict against the French company Danone. A fine of €42.4 million ($54.2 million U.S.) was imposed after being found guilty of participating in a Belgian beer cartel in which one of their subsidiaries — Alken-Maes — colluded with InBev (then still Interbrew) to control pricing in the Belgian beer market. According to the EU’s prosecution, the two companies “struck a general non-aggression pact to fix retail prices, to share information on sales volumes and to limit investments and advertising in hotels, restaurants and cafes from 1993 to 1998.”

This was Danone’s second such fine, the first being in 2004 when the EU fined them €1.5 million ($1.95 million U.S.) for a similar scheme in France with Heineken (who owned 30% of the French market). At that time, Danone also owned Kronenbourg, which had 40% of the French beer market.

In 2000, Danone sold off all of it’s breweries, French and Belgian, to the British Scottish & Newcastle.

It’s the Hops, Stoopid

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Lagunitas is introducing a new line of beers in 22 oz. bottles under the name “Sonoma Farmhouse.” The idea according to Lagunitas owner Tony Magee is to be able to do different kinds of beers than the usual Lagunitas fare under the new label.

The Sonoma Farmhouse labels are a little more serious, less playful than the regular ones, too. They also lack Tony’s famous — or infamous — rambling label stories. But for what they’re missing on the outside, inside the bottle is another story. The first release is a Saison Style Ale, and it’s one of the best American versions of the style I’ve had. Like all good saisons, it’s very refreshing, clean and would be great with food. I’m told there are herbs and/or spices in the beer, but Tony’s not saying which one or ones. The beer has a certain zestiness so it’s possible grains of paradise are at least one of the ingredients and there are also herbal notes, but who knows. Since the yeast also imparts spicy elements, it’s always a challenge to identify the exact ingredients in these complex beers. And in the end, it’s pointless, since it’s the synergy of how all the elements work together that really matters. The Sonoma Farmhouse Saison flavors are quite delicate, a quality Lagunitas is not exactly known for, but there’s nothing I don’t like about this new beer.

Saisons were originally made by and for farmers to have in the fields. They were generally brewed late in the season so they’d stand a better of chance of making it through the summer. Saisons also walk a tightrope of strength (to last the summer) and drinkability (they need to quench a summer thirst). At 5.2% abv, this one is quite modest, but happily we have refrigerators, a luxury the French and Belgian farmers who pioneered this style did not.

Next up in the Sonoma Farmhouse line is Hop Stoopid, something on the order of a triple IPA, around 100 IBUs. Meant to be a gentle spoof of the increasingly hoppy west coast beers, bottling should begin on Wednesday and be in stores shortly thereafter. I’m told it’s a huge hop bomb brewed with hop oils and hop extracts to really ramp up the bitterness. I’m going to the brewery on Thursday to try some of the first bottles. Tony has done some hop bombs before over the years, and as someone who has definitely acquired a taste for bitter beers, I suspect this beer will seem like night and day to the delicate flavors of the Saison.

Lagunitas’ flagship is their IPA, itself an excellent example of a west coast IPA and quite hoppy, though still well-balanced.

The next Sonoma Farmhouse beer from Lagunitas, Hop Stoopid.

It’s Raining Men … and Beer

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UPI has a funny story that happened Saturday night — where else but in Canada — in which a woman was saved from serious injury by beer. At an NHL match between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks, Glennis Bradshaw felt beer splatter on her head, which understandably caused her to bolt upright in her seat and look up. As she did, a man fell from the balcony above, landing on her lap instead of her head as would have happened only a split second before. Apparently two men in the upper level both slipped while carrying beer back to their seats and fell over the railing. One landed on Bradshaw, breaking an ankle and knocking himself unconscious, while the other landed two rows ahead without injury. Glennis Bradshaw’s thigh was bruised but was otherwise okay, noting “it’s not often young men fall in my lap. Thing is, normally I’d like them conscious.”

Reunion Beer to Benefit Bone Cancer Research

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Once upon a time, Pete Slosberg created Pete’s Wicked Ale. And the brown ale was good. He had help spreading the word, of course, and in the early days Alan Shapiro and Virginia MacLean also helped Pete’s become a nationally known microbrewery. Pete, of course, moved on to chocolate and Alan Shapiro worked for a time with Merchant Du Vin and now heads his own import company, SBS Imports. Virginia MacLean, in the meantime, left the beer business but as she approached her fortieth birthday was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which is a type of bone cancer that currently has no known cure. For more information about the disease, see the MMRF or the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research.

Recently, Pete Slosberg and Alan Shapiro got together and decided to help their friend by creating a new beer to help raise awareness and money to fund research into this disease. The beer is named “Reunion,” and it’s a big, imperial brown ale and is the first commercial beer Slosberg has done since selling Pete’s Wicked Ale to Gambrinus in 1998. He worked with award-winning brewer Daniel Del Grande at Bison Brewing in creating the organic beer. In the Bay Area, Beverages & more and Whole Foods will be carrying the beer. Please support this worthy cause and buy a bottle or a case.

The press release:

INTRODUCING REUNION
A BEER FOR HOPE UNIQUE COLLABORATION TO BENEFIT
THE INSTITUTE FOR MYELOMA & BONE CANCER RESEARCH

In the early days of the craft brewing business in the U.S. Pete Slosberg brought Alan Shapiro and Virginia MacLean to help lead his emerging namesake company and take his Wicked Ale® to new heights. While these long-time friends ultimately pursued different professional paths, some 18 years later they have reunited to create a beer inspired by Pete’s early recipes.

REUNION – A BEER FOR HOPE is an organic imperial brown ale brewed by Pete and Dan Del Grande at Bison Brewing Company’s organic brewery in Berkeley, CA. It will be sold in 22 ounce screen printed bottles via Shapiro’s SBS Imports distributor network in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, and Illinois. It has a suggested price of $4.99 per bottle. All profits generated by SBS from the sale of REUNION will benefit The Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research in Los Angeles, CA. “Alan informed me that our good friend Virginia had been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma — a form of bone cancer,” Pete Slosberg recalled. “He later called with the idea of reuniting to create a beer to celebrate our friendship and bring hope to Virginia and others battling this disease. I am thrilled to be a part of the effort to raise funds for this worthwhile organization.”

“Virginia has been a close friend from the day we met at Pete’s back in 1989,” noted SBS Imports President, Alan Shapiro. “I wish I was a great scientist who could help find a cure — but at least I can make a small contribution by raising both funds and awareness for this disease. I have met Dr. Berenson’s team at IMBCR and have seen their work in progress. I know the funds we raise will help make a difference.”

About Multiple Myeloma & IMBCR:

Multiple Myeloma is a unique cancer of plasma cells that attacks and destroys bone. The term is derived from the multiple areas of bone marrow that are usually affected by the disease. Worldwide, over 1,000 people a day are diagnosed with this currently incurable form of bone cancer. Led by Dr. James Berenson, IMBCR is one of the world’s leading research organizations combating this disease. IMBCR specializes in developing novel chemotherapy drugs and treatments. For further information on multiple myeloma or IMBCR, please visit www.imbcr.org or contact 310-623-1210.

About the Beer:

REUNION is a collaborative beer created by Pete Slosberg & Dan Del Grande and inspired by Pete’s original recipe. It is brewed with 6 different organic malts, 3 different hops and dryhopped. It is 7.5% alcohol by volume. REUNION will be available at leading specialty beer retailers and many Kimpton hotels in the western United States. More information is available at www.reunionbeer.com.

The back label:

 

R.I.P. Here’s to Beer?

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It’s been exactly a year now since Here’s to Beer debuted at last year’s Super Bowl. But this year there wasn’t even a whisper about the beer advocacy campaign and a quick survey of the website reveals that news there hasn’t been updated since September of last year and the most recent industry news is from last July. Now that Bob Lachky has been promoted onto greener pastures (he became chief creative officer in October) it doesn’t seem like A-B’s attempt to promote beer is really going anywhere.

I met with Bob Lachky at an A-B reception held in conjunction with GABF last September. He was quite gracious, even about all of the criticism about Here’s to Beer from me and others. He spoke with great enthusiasm about the project and indeed seemed quite sincere. But he also was so polished and well-spoken that he seemed a bit like a politician. That’s not necessarily a criticism but it made what he was saying lack spontanity and you couldn’t help but think he’d given this speech before, and probably over and over again. But, of course, you don’t rise quickly in a large corporation without learning a few things about how to present yourself, and I suspect that’s the reason Bob Lachky is where he is today.

But the week following GABF, Augie IV had a new job for Lachky and I’ve heard nary a thing about Here’s to Beer since. Nor has there been any news about the documentary film they are supposedly sponsoring, American Brew, by Roger Sherman. Sherman’s Florentine Films website still lists the film as “in production,” but they were showing a healthy, polished looking percentage of the film as a teaser at GABF back in September. The point is, with Lachky gone I suspect the enthusiasm for the Here’s to Beer idea has likely faded, too. A-B is no longer feeling as threatened as they did in late 2005, which is what led to them starting Here’s to Beer in the first place.

I continue to think an advocacy campaign to educate and promote good beer generally is a terrific idea, but A-B was never the right company to take on such a task. Perhaps the Brewers Association or the even the Beer Institute could take it over and do something with it. Until then, we’ll just have to continue promoting beer in the same we have been for years and years; one drink at a time, one person at a time.

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Bob Lachky, me and Bill Brand at the GABF reception given by A-B.