Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer Institute vs. Advertising Complaints

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The folks at the Beer Institute, themselves now essentially advertisers of beer, have created the Code Compliance Review Board (CCRB) to review complaints by consumers about beer ads, whether the ad itself or the appropriateness of its placement, that have not been satisfactorily resolved by the offending brewery.

From the press release:

Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute, announced today the implementation of an independent review board to assess complaints filed with the Beer Institute about the content or placement of beer advertisements. The board will address situations where the proponent of a complaint is not satisfied with the response received directly from the brewer that sponsored an ad. The decisions of the board will be based on the Beer Institute’s Advertising and Marketing Code.

The press release blathers on about self-regulation which, in my opinion, has never, ever worked. No business in the history of mankind has ever intentionally disciplined itself or found itself guilty of any wrongdoing beyond that which required a slap on the wrist. To me, the real question here is what kind of complaints cannot be resolved by the brewery? Who’s being stubborn? I’m not being rhetorical, I really want to know. Are the unresolvable complaints coming from neo-prohibitionists who won’t be satisfied until alcohol is illegal again? (Their motto: if if it didn”t work before, try it again.) Or are the breweries the unreasonable party here, putting up billboards across the street from schools or creating mascots like Joe Camel that appeal primarily to children? I’m sure both of these strategies have been employed, and not just by breweries but by companies selling tobacco, liquor, etc.

So I’m not quite sure what the angle here is, though I’m sure one will emerge. The press release is vaguely silent about what the CCRB will actually do to resolve compaints or what authority it has, especially if the complaint is regarding a non-member brewery. Are they just trying to assuage hardcore complainers with an axe to grind or do they really want to change how beer is advertised and reduce the number of complaints before they occur. Is that even possible? Or desirable? I honestly don’t know. It will certainly be interesting to see what develops.

Celebrator 18th Anniversary Party on the 19th

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One of the magazines I write for, the Celebrator Beer News, is having their 18th Anniversary Party on Sunday, February 19 from 4-8 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person and that covers your beer, food and entertainment. There will be 15 breweries pouring over 50 different beers for sampling, cajun food such as pulled pork and jamalaya cooked on-site and at least three bands, including a cajun band. This years theme, in case you haven’t guessed is Mardi Gras and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Louisiana breweries through Abita Brewing and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. The party will be held at Trumer Braurerei in Berkeley at 1404 Fourth Street, off of Gilman. I have tickets if anybody needs one or even easier, you can buy tickets online through PayPal. You can either follow the link on the left column of this blog or go to the Celebrator website. Hope to see you there.

Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California. [ Google Maps ]

Michelob Ultra Amber: Are You Kidding Me?

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I didn’t start this blog to rail against Anheuser-Busch. Really I didn’t. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Until recently, I hadn’t been paying as close attention to the daily derring do of the brewing world as I used to. I had taken a little over a year off from watching the industry that closely in order to care for my autistic son Porter and his little sister Alice. When I became a stay-at-home father I gave up my job as GM of the Celebrator Beer News and I decided not to watch the world of brewing quite as closely. But this January I decided to jump back in and see what I could do writing more seriously from home and it feels a bit as if I’ve just woken from a long nap. I’m still a little groggy and when I look around I feel disoriented. And every other day it seems it seems like Anheuser-Busch is doing something to make me wish I hadn’t woken up.

Today’s head scratcher is a dark light beer, Michelob Ultra Amber. Now I realize that to A-B a dark beer is really just a beer with a little color, an amber beer. Something on the order of 6-9 lovibonds, I suspect. Budweiser is 2 although Michelob Dark is around 18. Your average Guinness is 40, which is the upper end of the scale. So calling this dark is more than a little bit of a stretch.

But I have to be fair here about who should really take the blame for it being characterized as a dark beer. And a close look at the official press release reveals that they never refer to the new beer as a dark beer. In fact, the word is used only twice in reference to the use of “dark-roasted specialty malts” and in mentioning “using darker roasted malts to increase the flavor.” So much as I’d like to, I can’t fault A-B on this one. The blame falls squarely on the mass media who decided a catchy headline like “dark light beer” is better than accuracy. The AP story seems to have been the first to use this dark-light fallacy in their headline. This in turn was echoed all over the media that uses AP wire stories. So chalk up yet another example of the short shrift beer gets in the mainstream press. The author, one Jim Salter, appears to write about everything from business to sports. So he can’t expected to know anything about what he’s writing. The facts just don’t matter in today’s entertainment journalism.

This is a very frustrating situation for most beer writers I know. Any of us would happily fact check a beer article for almost any journalist just to insure the public is not told another ridiculous falsehood which will take a lot of work to undo. People tend to believe their daily paper and discount what they read in the free brewspaper they pick up at their local bar even though it’s generally the opposite. Most news outlets, if they cover beer at all, assign it to a wine or food writer who generally could care less about beer itself and any attendant accuracy. There are exceptions, of course. But sadly, not too many.

However, I can’t let Anheuser-Busch off the hook completely. They are still rolling out another pointless beer. An amber colored light beer is, after all, another light beer. And heaven knows we don’t need any of those. But as long as they’re the only beer category showing growth, I don’t think they’ll be disappearing any time soon.

Here’s to Beer: An Initial Review

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HtB
Here’s to Beer, the new website from Anheuser-Busch and the Beer Institute that’s supposed to be a celebration of beer à la the got milk? campaign that speaks for the entire beer industry was unveiled this morning. And it can be summed up in three words: style over substance. It uses macromedia’s shockwave and flash technology exclusively to deliver what little content is there. That means that if there were anything useful there you couldn’t copy the text to a word processor or other application. Luckily that’s not a problem.

After entering your address to “insure” you’re over 21, the sound of a beer filling a glass begins followed by the sound of the television commercial scheduled to air during this afternoon’s Super Bowl. You can also see the video to the commercial in a small window on the website. It’s very slick and shows (supposedly) real people enjoying beer all over the world and toasting the audience by saying “cheers” in their native tongue. But what does that really mean? In the end it doesn’t really say anything particular about the beer. Those same people could be drinking anything — wine, liquor, soda pop, even Clamato — and still be having a good time. Nothing in the ad explains “why” beer is integral to their enjoyment. It’s hard to believe that’s the best these overpriced propagandists could come up with.

The website’s content is even more comical, at least to someone who’s been involved with better beer most of his life. The site is divided into five main groups: The Brew House, The Beer Archives, The Bistro, The Theater and The Tavern. Only the most basic of information is available about beer’s origins, how beer is made, how to cook or pair foor with beer. And it’s done with such laughable simplemindedness that it feels a little insulting. There’s a big emphasis on “fun” like mini-movies, beer quotes, screensavers and wallpaper. There’s really nothing whatsoever here that hasn’t been said before, and said much better, frankly. I can’t conceive of how a beer novice, even one with a high level of interest, would learn much of anything useful here. There is far more information available from the average craft brewer’s website, in even rudimentary books or by going to any decent beer festival. If you want to turn someone on to better beer, this is not the place to send them.

But to be fair, I never thought it would be. Even though this is Anheuser-Busch’s baby, their name is conspiculously absent from the proceedings. Their name does not appear once on the website. But that’s how propaganda works. To the average consumer who doesn’t follow the beer industry (a safe bet at 99.9% of the population) Here’s to Beer is the work of the Beer Institute alone which in my mind forever stains that organization. They’ve become the face of the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz. Don’t look behind the curtain. Let’s click our glasses together three times. I want to go home.

NOTE: This post is a follow-up to Here’s to Beer — Here’s to to Making it Appear Relevant and Appealing

Here’s To Beer — Here’s to Making it Appear Relevant and Appealing

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HtB
It’s been talked about since last fall. The world’s largest brewer started seeing the handwriting on the wall, and it said to them of their customers, “we want to drink something else.” To the folks that make Budweiser that meant not beer rather than not their beer. But I guess that’s what happens to you when you’ve been the 100-lb. gorilla for as long as they have. The original rumor about this project was that A-B would be partnering with the rest of the industry, which means Miller, Coors and maybe a handful of others. To them, the craft beer segment is merely an annoyance, like ants at a picnic. So I doubt if any were even approached. Apparently their coalition includes them and Poland — wait a minute — no, I mean the Beer Institute. The Beer Institute is a trade organization that was formed in 1986 to “represent the industry before Congress, state legislatures and public forums across the country.” In consists of around 90 breweries, microbreweries, distributors, beer importers and suppliers. There are approximately 1,368 breweries and brewpubs in the United States and if you remove the distributors, importers and suppliers you’re left with 54 breweries, or less than 4% of American breweries, at least by the numbers. So that’s hardly a coalition of the willing.

The stated goal of the coalition was to persuade consumers that drinking beer is a positive experience in their lives à la got milk?, eggs, give ’em a break, or pork, the other white meat. But if it’s just the biggest brewery with falling revenue and one trade organization who’s more comfortable lobbying Congress than to me it seems more likely that this campaign will have all the subtlety of a galloping rhinoceros. It reeks of corporate desperation to get the share price up and little else. Frankly, I don’t believe that Anheuser-Busch is capable of extolling beer’s virtues simply because they stopped thinking of Budweiser as beer decades ago, if not longer. Like most large corporations, they sell a product. It could be widgets and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. The business is about numbers and in particular that those numbers must keep climbing … no matter what. Now I don’t mean to suggest that smaller breweries don’t care about their numbers — they do. They too are in business and have a bottom line to watch. But the difference is that the bottom line is not the only thing that’s important to them. Equally, and in many cases more, important is the quality and artistry of the beer they brew. Spend enough time with craft brewers and you can quickly see the passion they bring to their work. It’s downright infectuous.

The funny thing is the overall idea of celebrating beer is a good one. Beer definitely needs a makeover. The wine industry did an excellent job of taking American wine from nothing too spectacular (from a world perspective) to world class acceptance of quality wines in a matter of a few decades, less than a generation. And along the way they managed to educate the public about what fine wine means, how to use the proper glass, what foods to pair with it, and on and on. Beer had an opportunity to do that beginning in the 1980s but ironically any efforts along these lines were quickly stymied by the big breweries, of which Anheuser-Busch stands out as most prominent. Year after year they spend more per barrel on propaganda than any other brewer by a wide margin. Their relentless advertising and deep pockets insured that their voice would be the only one heard. So much so that most consumers today don’t know the first thing about why craft beer is so much better than anything produced in “vats the size of Montana” as one of the big brewery ads proudly proclaimed. Most not only don’t know about why proper glassware is important but believe drinking out of the bottle or can makes no difference. Restaurants still proudly serve beer in frozen glasses and few people even complain because so few recognize the damage being done to their beer. My point here is that there is still much work to be done for the craft beer industry to raise the standing of beer in this country. In addition to the difficulties of changing people’s minds about anything there is the additional, and perhaps more difficult, hurdle of the persistent and contradictory propaganda of the big breweries that has helped form the very opinions that need changing for the craft beer industry to be successful in bringing down the beasts.

History has a few lessons for us here. Before the days of national corporation’s dominance in the marketplace and before transportation was practical on a national scale, small and regional breweries dotted the landscape. No one brewery was national. Television helped change this because for the first time products could be advertised to virtually the entire country. It’s no coincidence that in 1950 Anheuser-Busch was the first brewery to sponsor a national television show. So even after Prohibition wiped out hundreds of breweries, the number of breweries continued to fall steadily. And that continued for at least five decades, or half a century. But it didn’t necessarily have to happen. Look at beer’s cousin, bread. While there are national breads available — Wonder Bread springs to mind — few are taken seriously. The very nature of bread and it’s perishability makes small local and medium-sized regional bakeries far more able to deliver fresh bread to market. Ask the average person to name a good bread they’d serve at a special meal and it’s the rare person who’d name Wonder bread. They’d more likely name a small local bakery. But far more intriguing is that when you ask the same question about beer, you’re not likely to get the same logic in the answer. And why is that? My belief is that beer has been presented for so long by the propagandists in such a bad light that people’s perceptions of beer run contrary to common sense and their actual education level about it is staggeringly incomplete.

So for the most culpable cause of people’s ignorance about beer to take on the task of celebrating its virtues is a bit like the notion of self-regulation. There’s really no incentive for A-B to be truthful or do anything that might really educate consumers about beer, especially since most “truth” about beer reflects rather poorly on the food product they produce that they then pass off as beer. So I suspect they may actually be the least qualified company in the world to undertake this enterprise. The best we can hope for is that they do no harm, and that’s a sad commentary.

Here’s the press release for the Here’s to Beer campaign:

Cheers! Salud! Kampai! The brewing industry will toast beer lovers around the world on Super Bowl Sunday with a new television ad to promote beer’s image. The ad celebrates beer’s global popularity and directs consumers to a new beer-themed Web site, http://www.herestobeer.com

The new ad and Web site were developed by Anheuser-Busch and are supported by the Beer Institute. Anheuser-Busch is donating 30 seconds of its highly coveted advertising time during this Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast to air the “Here’s To Beer” ad called “Slainte,” named for the Gaelic translation of “cheers.”

heres-to-beer

“Beer is about good times with good friends. It’s a social beverage that’s been a part of mankind’s history for more than 10,000 years, and it doesn’t carry the pretense of other alcohol drinks,” said Robert C. Lachky, executive vice president, global industry development, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “This ad reinforces beer’s appeal around the world and celebrates beer as the beverage of sociability and fun.

Created by DDB Chicago, “Slainte” was shot on location in four countries — Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic and Kenya. Instead of using professional actors, the ad features local consumers raising a glass of beer to toast in their native languages. The ad’s tagline directs consumers to the Web site, which features information on beer’s history, different styles of beer, food pairings and the latest “Here’s To Beer” advertising.

This ad and Web site were created to celebrate beer — from its social value to the romance of the brewing process,” Lachky said. “Beer clearly remains America’s alcohol beverage of choice, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all alcohol beverage servings. However, it’s the responsibility of the brewing industry to make sure beer remains relevant and appealing to our consumers, and that’s the goal of the ‘Here’s To Beer’ ad and Web site.”

The “Here’s To Beer” ad and Web site will focus on the following areas:

— Reminding consumers of the social value of beer — it brings people together in an unpretentious way.

— Romancing the product and the art of brewing — reinforcing beer’s refreshment, all-natural ingredients and the beauty of its liquid.

— Encouraging consumers to view beer differently — giving them new ways to enjoy beer including ideas and recipes for pairing with food.

Toward the end of the press release, an A-B exec. is quoted as saying “it’s the responsibility of the brewing industry to make sure beer remains relevant and appealing to our consumers.” My OED defines relevant as “closely connected or appropriate to the matter in hand” and appealing as “attractive or interesting.” The latter one I understand, to a point. But the only brewers making attractive and interesting beers are the ones on the fringes. The craft brewers. As for relevancy, since the damage to beer’s reputation was largely due to large breweries’ indifference and downright condescension toward their customers, as evidenced by both the increasingly bland products they sold coupled with the propaganda employed to sell them, it’s pretty hard to take them seriously when they now decide to take responsibility for beer’s future. Large corporations care about one thing. The present quarter. Keeping growth alive and making the numbers for the quarter. And they’ll do anything to succeed. It’s a short-sighted system we live in but we may have one advantage. If their numbers rebound, the Here’s to Beer campaign will quickly disappear again and will once again leave the job of celebrating beer to those most qualified: the craft brewer, the dedicated beer enthusiast, the home brewer and, perhaps — just perhaps — the lowly beer writer. Wish us luck. We’re going to need it.

UPDATE (Feb. 3): As reported on just-drinks.com today, “Miller Brewing has said it has ‘very low expectations’ that an industry-wide marketing campaign for beer in the US – set to be launched on Sunday – will succeed.” I guess they’re not part of the coalition, although they are members of the Beer Institute.

UPDATE (Feb. 5): See my subsequent Initial Review

Victory Brewing Reports Growth Milestone

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In contrast to Anheuser-Busch’s woes (see previous post), Victory Brewing Co. of Downingtown, Pennsylvania (near Philadaelphia) reported yesterday that as of January 27th they had produced more beer than during their entire first year of production. Congratulations to Bill and Ron, who provided the following press release.

Victory Brewing announced today a significant benchmark reached in their growth as a thriving craft brewery. On Friday, January 27, Victory’s 2006 production exceeded their total first year production. This event signifies a milestone for the near tenth anniversary of Victory Brewing operations. In 1996, Victory’s first year, total number of barrels produced equaled 2,550. That production amount was met and exceeded Friday, January 27, showing the more than 13 time growth in barrel production achieved in the ten years of company existence.

“This milestone shows how far we’ve come as a company and an industry [microbrewing industry]. It proves what Ron and I believed when we started Victory ten years ago, that Americans would grow to cherish full flavor beer,” said Bill Covaleski, Brewmaster and President of Victory Brewing Company.

The growth trend at Victory Brewing is part of a much larger market segment trend as U.S. craft breweries continue to steal market share away from large industrial brewers. In 2005, U.S. craft brewer sales increased by an estimated 7.1%, while domestic large brewers saw sales dip by 2%. This increase marks the 35th straight year that U.S. craft brewers have been able to increase market share.

Anheuser-Busch Reports Substantial 4th Quarter Drop in Income

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Anheuser-Busch, the makers of flavorless, mass-produced highly engineered food products, commands just a hair short of half the American beer market (49.8%). Their next closest competitor — Miller — has a mere 17.8% market share. And A-B got to that lofty position not by playing nice. Their bullying tactics, some would say underhanded, are legendary. I’ve heard more than a few first and secondhand accounts of their bluster. So while I generally don’t like to take too much pleasure in the misfortune of others, in this case I’ll make an exception. According to an AP wire story earlier today, A-B reported for the 4th quarter of 2005 a dip in profits of 39.8%. The spin on it was that “the increasing popularity of cocktails and wine kept beer sales flat.” But craft beer is up 7% so perhaps there’s something else at work here. Anheuser-Busch’s corporate website reported the 39.8% drop in net income but even more interestingly a 54.7% drop in income before taxes! (On a side note the same report also notes a drop in domestic market share to 48.7%). No wonder there were reports late last year about pairing up with the other big breweries to create a got milk?-like campaign for beer. Apparently the problem is not enough people are drinking beer. Well I plan to do my part. Would you like to join me for a pint? Let’s get that 7% up to ten.

Strong Beer Month Begins in San Francisco

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Magnolia and 21st Amendment have again teamed up to bring Strong Beer Month to the Bay Area. This is always a fun event and everyone should make a point to visit both brewpubs during the month. This year, there will be at least ten special beers available. Below is the press release with all the information you could ever want about the month’s activities:

4th ANNUAL STRONG BEER MONTH STARTS TODAY!

Here it is Strong Beer Month already. Once again, the 21st
Amendment and Magnolia have worked together to present you with a cornucopia
of very special beers, five at each brewery, and they all go on tap today.
Pick up a punch card at either brewery and sample your way through all ten to
get a commemorative tasting glass.

This year, Magnolia will be featuring:
Old Thunderpussy Barleywine
Promised Land Imperial IPA
Tweezer Tripel
Slipping Into Darkness India Brown Ale
Smokestack Lightning Imperial Stout

The 21st Amendment will serve:
Lower de Boom Barleywine
Double Trouble Double IPA
Golden Doom Belgian Tripel
Mac’s Strong Scotch Ale
Hendrick’s Espresso Imperial Stout

In addition, both breweries will dig into their beer libraries and serve some
vintage strong ales. Magnolia will kick off the month with two vintage
versions of Old Thunderpussy Barleywine in addition to the 2006 release. A
tasting flight of all three will be available for a limited time. We’ll tap a
cask of Smokestack Lightning and follow that up with casks one after
the other of Promised Land, Slipping Into Darkness, and Old Thunderpussy. A
couple of other vintages of Old Thunderpussy will make brief appearances
throughout the month, as will the last of Batch 700 and some 2004 Smokestack
Lightning. Last but not least, we’ve got some Smokestack Lightning currently
aging in a bourbon barrel (Oakstack Lightning) as well as another barrel-aged
surprise. Look for those around President’s Day Weekend.

Magnolia’s weekend food specials will be tailored for pairing with various strong
beers and there will be a few other treats throughout the month, like a
reprise of last year’s popular Old Thunderpussy/Stilton Cheese pairing.

And we are all very pleased to have legendary artist Michael Everett on board
for the glass, t-shirt and poster design this year. Michael has done a
wonderful job and we can’t wait for you to see his work. All Strong Beer
merchandise will be available for sale at both breweries while supplies last.

Planning and brewing for this exciting exploration of the more esoteric side
of craft brewing is begun as early as September and tomorrow we invite all of
you to visit both breweries to enjoy the results.

Pizza Port Acquires Stone Brewery in San Marcos

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Pizza Port, with three locations in the San Diego area, have acquired the old Stone Brewing Co. production brewery in San Marcos. A press release should be forthcoming, but Pro Brewer and others began reporting the rumor a couple of days ago.

Tomme Arthur
Director of Brewery Operations

 I spoke with Pizza Port’s Director of Brewery Operations, Tomme Arthur, this morning and he confirmed the news. He was already onsite and brewing. So it’s official. It lools like bottled Pizza Port beer should become more widely available in the near future which is good news for beer lovers everywhere.

Stone Brewing moved to a new larger facility late last year in nearby Escondido, and negotations had been ongoing between the two breweries. The Beer Yard, a Pennsylvania distributor where Tomme Arthur recently visited reported that he told them the following.

Two distinct lines will be produced and bottled at the 30-barrel brewhouse. Port Brewing will produce draft and bottled versions of Pizza Port’s core beers while The Lost Abbey will do bottle-only versions of “Belgian-inspired ales.”

The first beers from the new brewery are expected to be released in California by March and in Arizona by summer.

Another Tempest in a Teapot: Legacy Brewing

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Every few years one of these pointless beer label scandals comes around again, as if to remind us how Puritanical our American society really is. Off the top of my head there’s been Bad Frog Beer, Polygamy Porter, Wanker and Nude Beer, to name but a few. During their fifteen minutes, the press lavished them with free publicity and pandered to a vocal minority determined to force their own morality on the rest of us. Usually some fake debte is trotted out asking questions on the order of “is it too offensive,” “too obscene” and my personal favorite, “what about the children?”

The latest fake controversy comes from my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. The beer is question in from Legacy Brewing, but the last time I visited them it was called Fancy Pants and before that it was Neversink Brewing. This time the offending label is Hedonism Ale because it features — gasp — hedonism. Ot at least an artist’s rendition of hedonism. The artwork is not in the least bit tittilating; it reveals everything but shows nothing.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I like it. I think artist Deric Hettinger’s label drawing nicely conveys the idea of hedonism. And it’s different enough from most beer labels that controversy aside, it would stand out on a beer shelf. But it’s beer. It’s made specifically for adults. You know, people who can probably deal with a little hedonism, or at least should be mature enough to handle things like adults. So when beer distributors themselves complain, I have to laugh at the hypocrisy. Out loud. As reported in the online local news site, Lancaster Online (which covers the county directly southwest of Berks, where Legacy Brewing is located), Bob Dano, owner of Engleside Beverage Mart on South Prince Street sent his back, saying “[m]y wife thought it was obscene and so did I.” Well, golly Bob. Did you know you work in a beer distributor and sell beer to adults. If the state and the Feds approved the label, get over yourself. But wait, there’s more. What about the children? Who’s looking out for the children? Don’t worry, Apal Shah is on the case (pun intended). He’s still selling the beer, but he’s literally wrapping each case up in a brown paper wrapper. You can’t buy publicity like that at any price.

“It’s not proper for my store,” said Beer Ink (another yahoo beverage store, this one on Centerville Road) owner Apal Shah. “We have lots of small kids coming in here with their parents. I don’t want them seeing those pictures.” Small kids at the beer store? With their parents? Oh, the humanity! Are you kidding? Your objection is that children might see vaguely representational drawings of people touching one another. Do you think they’ll rush right out and try what they saw in the pictures. And then you’ll be somehow responsble? Will the parents who brought their kids in your store in the first place think it was your fault because you didn’t make a beer store safe for the kiddies? Hey Apal, your sign says “think you are old enough for this beer?” Isn’t everyone at the beer store old enough? My understanding of PLCB regulations is that you have to be of legal drinking age to shop in a beer store. Unless, of course, you’re fool enough to take your kids with you on a beer run. You never know what sort of hedonistic sights they might inadvertently see, ruining their innocence forever. Why they’d have to run home, bar the door and only watch clean, wholesome television. My point here is simply that kids are exposed to far worse — from the prude’s point of view — in an average hour of TV watching. And I’m not even talking about the programming, what’s affectionately known as “filler” by TV execs. Just look at sixty minute’s worth of television commercials and then look at this beer label. What’s the first thing you notice? That only a complete buffoon would have an objection to it, especially on the grounds that have been reported.

But since Legacy Brewing has thoughtfully provided a link to every story that has reported on the controversy, I’m pretty sure they’re on to the game. As PR people are fond of saying, there’s no such thing as good publicity or bad publicty, only publicity. So while I can’t necessarily blame Legacy for creating the controversy, I suspect that they had some idea of how some of their customers might react. After all, there are certainly no shortage of uptight, narrow-minded conservative types in the Reading area. Believe me, I grew up there. Religious intolerance is rampant in the Commonwealth I knew. They’ve got Arlen Spector and Rick Santorum. I defy you to find a state where both U.S. Senators are as conservative as these two chuckleheads. In Pennsylvania you can only buy wine and liquor from the state, in state stores, many of which in 2006 are still closed on Sunday because of traditional religiously-based blue laws. So the Legacy folks had to know what they were doing. They may not have been able to predict with absolute accuracy what would happen, but they must have known they were stirring the pot.

Anyway, the real test is how the beer tastes. Wanker and Nude Beer are mercifully no longer with us while Bad Frog isn’t really taken seriously by any beer enthusiast I know. Polygamy Porter is, at least, a decent Porter. So when the controversy ebbed, the beer could still flow. And that’s as it should be. If Hedonism Ale is a good beer, it should still be around when I make my next pilgrimage to Pennsylvania to see the family. And if that’s the case, I can’t wait to try a pint.