Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Samuel Adams Brings Back the Longshot

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Back in the mid-1990s, Boston Beer Co. sponsored a contest for homebrewers. For a couple of years, homebrewers submitted their efforts in the hopes of seeing their beer in a six-pack. That’s because the two winners for each year’s contest would have their beer commercially brewed and sold under the Longshot label by Boston Beer. Some of them actually sold fairly well. When I was the beer buyer at Beverages & more, the Hazelnut Brown did okay, as did the Pale Ale. It was a fun promotion and did a lot to publicize homebrewing and brewing in general, I thought.

So I was happy to see that they’re bringing back the Longshot contest this year. Three lucky homebrewers will have their beer brewed and released commercially in a six-pack. The top five beers will be available to taste at the Great American Beer Festival this September. Festival attendees will choose the three winners by voting for their favorite. In February 2007, six-packs will be available for sale with two bottles each of the three top vote-getters. Beers must be submitted between August 1-18. For more details, there is additional information about the promotion on the Sam Adams website.

 

Good News for Modern Beer Drinkers

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I know Stan already posted this, but it was too good not to talk about again. Story so nice we mentioned it twice. The Publican, a magazine for the British pub trade, reported on a recent conference in Brussels that focused on the health benefits of beer. As if great taste wasn’t enough, many individual health benefits have been reported over the last few years with the increased research, especially in the EU, on beer and health. But the conference brought all the disparate research together and presented a new, more complete, picture of health benefits that moderate beer drinking brings to the table. These have been ignored and will doubtless continue to be ignored by the American press because in this country scientific research isn’t enough to overcome prejudice and puritanism. Still, it’s great to know that out in other parts of the civlized world, beer is being recognized as not being the evil the neo-prohibitionists would have us believe it is.

From the Publican article:

Many of the health benefits of moderate beer drinking are unique to beer because of its ingredients such as hops and malted barley. Of all the alcoholic drinks on the market beer is also relatively low in alcoholic strength.

Chairman Professor Jonathan Powell of the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge said: “The media and public tend to focus on wine. However, the emerging evidence is the real benefits are related to the alcohol itself and so the positive story also relates to other drinks such as beer.

“Drinks such as beer have other nutrients and properties that can also be beneficial in terms of health. This conference is about redressing the balance.”

The nine health benefits of moderate beer drinking hightlighted at the conference:

  1. Reduces the risk of heart disease
  2. Helps keep blood pressure down and reduce the risk of stroke
  3. Benefits the immune system meaning healthy adults are less prone to get infections
  4. Has anti-inflammatory effects which contributes to heart health
  5. Could play a role in the battle against osteoporosis as it …
  6. Improves bone mineral density which contributes to healthy bones
  7. Helps fight cancer because of compounds in hops called flavinoids
  8. Decreases the risk of dementia due to its beneficial effect on preserving brain function in old age
  9. Can protect against type II diabetes

SABMiller Reports Drop in Profits, Rise in Earnings

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The Associated Press (AP) indicated today that “SABMiller reported a 5.3 percent drop in full-year profits.” Though confusingly, only a 4% drop in pre-tax profits is listed in the press release from SABMiller. The decline is blamed primarily on Miller’s price wars with A-B and Coors.

Reuters take on this story, in contrast, was that “SABMiller posted an 8 percent rise in annual earnings.” It’s interesting to see how the same story is framed by two different mainstream news services.

Anheuser-Busch Organic Beers Out of the Closet

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After about six weeks or so of being “temporarily down” the Wild Hop Lager website is back online. For those of you new to this story, Wild Hop Lager is actually a beer created and made by Anheuser-Busch though that fact was not disclosed on the package. It also made no mention of this fact previously on the website, though that has changed with the debut of the new (improved?) website. It’s just as slick as it was before and it’s remarkably similar in look and feel to A-B’s sister stealth organic micro, Stone Mill Pale Ale, which also recently changed its website to disclose its relationship (although they claimed it was a partnership).

Probably the biggest change is that the website does now disclose that this is a product of Anheuser-Busch. It’s right at the bottom in fine print, where it says. “Brewed by Green Valley Brewing Company in Fairfield, CA, the organically certified brewery of Anhesuer-Busch Companies, Inc.” And that’s almost the full story, although I’m pretty sure it’s the beer that’s certified, not the brewery. In my mind, they still make it sound like A-B is operating a little separate brewery called Green Valley in Fairfield, California. But unless they’ve set aside a small pilot brewery which I’m not aware of, the Fairfield Plant is a giant behemoth of a brewery that presumably churns out most of the A-B products for the northwestern quadrant of the Western United States (there is also a plant in Los Angeles). A-B operates about a dozen or so plants in the U.S., of which five offer tours, and none of them are exactly little. So while it technically may be full disclosure, it still seems a tad misleading to the majority of non-beer industry people who would not know that.

Also missing from the new website is the promise to make a donation to the Organic Farming Research Foundation of Santa Cruz, California “with every purchase of Wild Hop Lager.” It was actually a couple of days after I did a phone interview with Bob Scowcroft, Executive Director of the OFRF about the nature of the donation they were to receive, that the Wild Hop Lager website went down. And that’s a shame because it seems like a very worthwhile organization. But click on “Product Info” and you’ll see that A-B is still at least supporting the organic farming charity. And they say they’ll “join them to sponsor research relating to organic farming practices,” not that the OFRF does any other kinds of research. So while it appears they’ll no longer be donating a percentage of sales, at least A-B may make additional donations to the OFRF.

 
 

Of course, I doubt if disclosure has been made at the most important level, the packaging in the store. It may be that future packaging either on the label or the six-pack carrier — or both — will state that Wild Hop Lager is a product of Anheuser-Busch, but I’m sure there won’t be a recall. So until they sell through the initial package run, consumers will still be largely unaware of the product’s true affiliation. Until then, nothing much has really changed.

 
 

 
 

A screen capture of the new Wild Hop Lager website that has just come back online after having been down for well over a month. Click on the image to view the screen capture full size.

 
 

 
 

A screen capture of the original Wild Hop Lager website that has been down for well over a month. Click on the image to view the screen capture full size.

Crooked River’s Stone Mill Pale Ale

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Stone Mill Pale Ale, from Crooked River Brewing Co. of New Hampshire, is the newest organic stealth micro from Anheuser-Busch, not that you’ll find any information about it on their corporate website. That’s because like Wild Hop Lager of Green Valley Brewing Co., the packaging reveals no information whatsoever about who’s behind the beer. Both beers are brewed by Anheuser-Busch at either their plant in Fairfield, California or Merrimack, New Hampshire (although I have no independent knowledge of either beer being brewed anywhere but Fairfield).

Similar to Wild Hop Lager in packaging, marketing and secrecy about its origins, the Stone Mill Pale Ale is targeting high end consumers with folksy, farm-friendly images and its organic certification. The only difference I can see is one is a lager and the other an ale. Both Crooked River Brewing and Green Valley Brewing are not real breweries, they’re dba’s owned by Anheuser-Busch. There’s nothing inherently wrong with using a dba, many businesses use them, including many contract breweries.

Until they bought the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery in Ohio, Boston Beer Co. was probably the most well-known contract brewery. There were a lot of complaints about them in the early days, especially for Oregon Brewing (their own stealth micro), but for the most part the beer itself didn’t suffer. And by and large the majority of contact breweries are simply one company making their beer at a brewery they don’t own in order to keep capital investment low.

In this case, however, the difference is quite important. Here a giant company is trying to keep that fact a secret as a marketing strategy. They know that many consumers and potential consumers of organic products would likely be reluctant to buy organic beer from America’s biggest beer company. So everything about Stone Mill Pale Ale is calculated to make it appear like a small organic company that cares about organic farming and similar issues.

But another strange thing about this is that there is, or at least was, an actual brewery by the name of Crooked River Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio. They opened in 1994 but stopped brewing in their own facility in 2000. But the label was purchased by Frederick Brewing Co. of Maryland (which itself was just bought by Denver’s Flying Dog Brewery). As far as I can tell, the Crooked River label is still currently being sold. Given the number of attorneys Anheuser-Busch employs, it’s pretty hard to believe they would have missed that their made up name was already being used by another brewery.

In addition, there used to be a Crooked Waters Brewing in Peoria, Ilinois. It was a brewpub that opened in 1996 and closed in November 2000. Then there’s a Crooked Creek Brewery that’s a contract brew made by the Straub Brewery in Pennsylvania. As far as I can tell they’re still in business and making beer, too.

So that’s a strange development. The dba for A-B’s second stealth micro has the same name as a label still being made. I’m no legal expert and I’m not a lawyer but from what I have seen in these types of trademark disputes I can’t see how Frederick Brewing could lose. They appear to own a label that’s been around for twelve years. A-B is using the same name for essentially the same class of goods. That that fact would cause confusion among consumers seems prima facie.

Anheuser-Busch’s Stone Mill Pale Ale.

UPDATE 5.17: The Stone Mill Pale Ale website does now state that they are “in partnership with Anheuser-Busch.” That’s a pretty euphemistic way of saying it is an Anheuser-Busch product. I don’t know the exact nature of the way the dba was set up, but the domain name at least is registered directly to Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Can you have a partnership with a name you made up and created out of thin air? As far as I know, the packaging does not reflect this disclosure, but perhaps new packaging will. Until then, unsuspecting consumers will still not likely know who’s making this organic beer.

Sorry this is hard to read, but this is a full size screen capture. It’s hard to read at the website, too. I guess that’s why they call it the fine print.

Canadian Craft Beer Mirroring U.S. Market

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According to an article in today’s Toronto Star, craft beer in Ontario is mirroring what’s going on in the U.S. After sales of macro beers have slowed and declined, craft beer sales have risen to take up the slack. Thirty Ontario craft brewers now account for 5% of total beer sales in the province, which represents $100 million and a 17% increase in jobs. That’s an increase of 100 basis points over last year when craft beer in Ontario was at 4% of the total, which is a huge increase in one year.

He’Brew: 2 New Chosen Beers

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Shmaltz Brewing Co., makers of Genesis Ale: The Chosen Beer, has announced two new beers that should be available on or around June 1. Genesis 10:10, for Schmaltz Brewing’s 10th anniversary and Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A, in honor of Lenny Bruce, who died forty years ago this year.

From the press release:

GENESIS 10:10:

“Come my beloved, let us go to the fields. If the pomegranate trees are in flower, then I shall give you the gift of my Love.” -Song of Songs 7:12 Creation, 1996, C.E.: On the floor of a San Francisco Mission District loft, intimate friends squeeze luscious pomegranates by-hand for the first 100 cases of HE’BREW’s Genesis Ale.
Evolution, 2006: Shmaltz Brewing renews this sacred covenant, sacrificing over 10,000 pomegranates for our 10th Anniversary offering, Genesis 10:10.
Revelation, on-going: In Jewish tradition, pomegranates symbolize righteousness, with seeds said to number 613, the total commandments in Torah. In Deut. 8:8, pomegranates, barley and wheat prove the bounty of the Land of Milk and Honey. In Exod. 28:33, G-d orders them embroidered on the robe of the High Priest. Kings 7:42 describes them sculpted on Solomon’s Jerusalem Temple. The calyx atop the fruit inspired the original Jewish crown. One Persian hero of myth consumed a pomegranate and became invincible. Muhammad instructed: “Eat the pomegranate, for it purges the system of envy and hatred.” Newlywed Greeks eager for a family crush one under-heel for fertility. Buddha cured a child-devouring demoness of her evil habit by instructing her to eat a pomegranate. Whether for knowledge or temptation, for virtue or strength, for art or for love — Behold Genesis 10:10, the crowning glory to a decade of brewing …with chutzpah! To Life…L’Chaim!

Also from the press release:

Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A:

“Satire equals tragedy plus time.” – Lenny Bruce
Emmis, Shmuck! 40 years alive. 40 years dead. And shares of Lenny Bruce commodities are still long-term performers – solid! Sure there’s been books, posters, films, plays, a box set of course. But the big Four-O inspires innovation, something hip, modern – unorthodox – a taste that really swings….
Ladies and Gentlemen, Shmaltz Brewing Co. is proud to introduce Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. Brewed with an obscene amount of malts and hops. Shocking flavors – far beyond contemporary community standards. We cooked up the straight dope for the growing minions of our nation’s Radical Beer junkies. Judges may not be able to define “Radical Beer,” but you’ll damn well know it when you taste it. Bruce died, officially declared a pauper by the State of California, personally broken and financially bankrupt simply for challenging America’s moral hypocrisies with words. The memorial playbill read: “Yes, we killed him. Because he picked on the wrong god.” -Directed by, the Courts, the Cops, the Church…and his own self-destructive super ego. Like Noah lying naked and loaded in his tent after the apocalyptic deluge: a witness, a patron saint, a father of what was to come. Sick, Dirty, Prophetic Lenny: a scapegoat, a martyr, a supreme inspiration. From Burlesque to Broadway, Carnegie Hall to the Courtroom, Long Island to Lima, Ohio to L.A., savor the provocative spirit of Lenny’s R.I.P.A, our HE’BREW monument to the richness, the bitterness and the sacred sweetness that is life…L’Chaim!