BN Winter Brews Festival Announced

January 15, 2011 By Jay Brooks

January is usually a slow time for beer in the Bay Area, so it’s nice that last year the Brewing Network stepped up and put on a great new beer festival featuring winter beers in Oakland. They’re back again and this year it will be held in a new location at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, just two blocks from the Downtown Berkeley BART station.

The 2nd Annual Winter Brews Festival will be held on Saturday, January 29, 2011, from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. “Tastings will feature a wide variety of local brews and unique innovations from some of the best brewers around, many of whom will be pouring their own beers giving visitors an opportunity to learn more about how the beer is made.”

Tickets are $35 before the event, or $40 at the gate, and include unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. Advance tickets can be purchased online. For more information on the event, visit the Brewing Network website.

BN-winter-fest-2011

Army’s “Flying Beer Keg” Tapped Out

January 14, 2011 By Jay Brooks

army
Only marginally related to beer, the U.S. Army calls one of their spy drones the “Flying Beer Keg.” Technically a “Micro Air Vehicle” developed by Honeywell, it’s official name is the “T-Hawk.” According to an article in Wired, the pentagon is shutting it down because “it didn’t fly as smoothly as the Pentagon would have liked” and also because it was “known for its loud noise when flying.” Apparently, though, the Miami-Dade Police Force bought two of them to “fight crime.”

flying-beer-can

Frankly, I don’t think it looks that much like a beer keg. What do you think?

Beer and Dieting

January 13, 2011 By Jay Brooks

The UK tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mirror, reported today that a study at the University of Barcelona revealed that “[d]rinking up to a pint of beer a day is good for your health — and can even help you lose weight.” They also “found those who have a Mediterranean-style diet and drink moderately are healthier than those who don’t” and that “beer could cut the risk of high blood pressure.”

Daily Brewery Porn Returns

January 12, 2011 By Jay Brooks

camera-zs6
A while back I had a photoblog up that featured my favorite beer-related pictures that I’ve taken over the years, Brookston Beer Pix. It got lost in the internet migration last year but it’s now been rechristened as a Tumblr blog. Each day I’ll post a new fave picture from my photo archives, of which I have literally thousands. Quite a few of them are brewery porn, which is what I call photos of brewing equipment in all their naked glory. I also have a thing for photographing hoses in the brewery, so you may see a few of those along with many more of my visual obsessions.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll automatically be notified when a new photo is posted. Or you can, of course, follow along on Tumblr, which is especially easy if you already have an account there.

Our Kids Ain’t Learning Too Good

January 12, 2011 By Jay Brooks

Did you know that words can have more than one meaning? Pretty elementary stuff, you’d think. Unless, of course, you can use ignorance to create propaganda for your cause. This one might be funny, if it wasn’t presented so seriously. I can almost understand that the kids of Roseburg, Oregon might be confused, but their parents and the Marin Institute should feel at least a little embarrassed.

Here’s what happened. The Marin Institute today accused Anheuser-Busch InBev of targeting families by advertising “Family Packs” of beer for sale around the town of Roseburg. A youth group there, apparently confused, sent photos of the ads to the Marin Institute who promptly went on the attack.

Bud-Family

Here’s some of the rhetoric inspired by these ads:

“We knew that the Anheuser-Busch InBev marketing team was willing to stoop low, but this time they’ve really outdone themselves.”

“Cheaper than Capri Sun, it makes a perfect addition to a brownbag lunch for preschoolers and teenagers alike!”

Busch-Family

And here’s the final volley:

How does Anheuser-Busch InBev think they can get away with this? Maybe they figure if they keep it in local communities, next to your kids’ school (as opposed to say, on national TV during the Super Bowl), they won’t get caught. All the while, of course, proclaiming all the wonderful work they do to counter underage drinking with useless educational brochures. Sorry, Bud – you’re not fooling anyone.

Except that ABI isn’t advertising “Family Packs,” they’re advertising “24 Pack Cubes” and “30 Packs” of the “Bud Family” and “Busch Family.” Notice in the Bud ad, the two statements are on separate lines, “Bud Family” on one line, then “24 Pack Cubes” on the second. By “Bud Family,” ABI means the family of products under the “Budweiser label, which are:

The Bud Family

Budweiser
Bud Light
Budweiser Select
Bud Light Lime
Bud Light Golden Wheat

In the Busch ad, it’s on three lines. In this case, it includes the following beers:

The Busch Family

Busch
Busch Light
Busch Ice

Nobody’s trying to fool anybody. The ads are pretty clear if you know how to read and understand what words mean in context. Somebody really needs to buy the Marin Institute a copy of Eat, Shoots & Leaves. I don’t know the ages of the kids in the local “youth group,” so I can forgive them, but at some point an adult they encountered should have had enough book learning to point this out to them.

As to the fact that they accuse ABI of being “willing to stoop low” and declare “this time they’ve really outdone themselves,” all I can do is shake my head and think — yet again — this is such a perfect example of “the pot calling the [brew] kettle black.”

SF Beer Week One Month Away

January 11, 2011 By Jay Brooks

sfbw-11
In exactly one month, SF Beer Week will start up again. For ten days beginning on February 11, beer in the Bay Area will be front and center. Last year we had over 225 diverse events and this year promises to have even more beer-centric events throughout the Bay Area. In a couple of hours — at 4:00 p.m. — this year’s website will go live with the first batch of events added to the schedule. Start filling up your dance card now, to make sure you have a seat at as many of the great events as you and your liver can manage.

sfbw-11-banner

Wikio Beer Blog Rankings For January 2011

January 9, 2011 By Jay Brooks

wikio
I noticed today that the Wikio Top Blogs for Beer badge on the Bulletin still listed me as the #1 beer blog, so out of pure vanity I checked it out to see if the new Beer Blog standings for January 2011 were out. Apparently, I’m still clinging to the top spot. Here’s what happened to the Top 20 over last month:

Wikio January 2011 Beer Blog Rankings

1	Brookston Beer Bulletin (+/-0)
2	Beervana (+/-0)
3	The New School (+2)
4	Brewpublic (-1)
5	Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home (+1)
6	A Good Beer Blog (+1)
7	The Stone Blog (+5)
8	Drink With The Wench (-4)
9	BetterBeerBlog (+7)
10	Burgers & Brews (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
11	Washington Beer Blog (-1)
12	Beer in Baltimore (-4)
13	Seen Through a Glass (-4)
14	Beeronomics (-1)
15	Brewed For Thought (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
16	The Brew Site (Not in Top 20 for Dec.)
17	Brouwer’s Cafe (+3)
18	Seattle Beer News (-7)
19	KC Beer Blog (-3)
20	It’s Pub Night (+3)

Ranking made by Wikio

I again added the relative movements of each blog from last month. Like last month, three blogs dropped off the Top 20, and three new ones appeared.

Again, it’s all a bit of fun so long as we don’t take it too seriously. Hoppy 2011.

Ominous Sign For The Future of Rock Bottom’s Beer

January 7, 2011 By Jay Brooks

rock-bottom
I’d been hearing rumors about how the merger between Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom was going, and the news wasn’t all good. I’d heard there had been few changes for Gordon Biersch brewers, but that life was getting more difficult for Rock Bottom’s brewers, who were used to having a certain amount of freedom to choose what they brewed. It probably didn’t help that Allen Corey, who had been running Gordon Biersch, became President and CEO of the newly merged company consisting of both brewpub chains, plus a third chain. One chain’s philosophy was bound to be favored over the other.

That all seems to have come to a head, as John Fosyton reports in the Oregonian, the Portland Rock Bottom’s celebrated brewer, Van Havig, has been “asked to leave” the company. Havig had been brewing for Rock Bottom for 16 years and consistently brewed some of the best beer I’ve had at any brewery. Foyston speculates that Havig may have been shown the door for publicly voicing his concerns with the direction the company had been taking since the merger, and primarily the loss of freedom for the brewers, for the first time imposing standardization. That was one of the hallmarks of Rock Bottom, their independence, and was the reason they won so many awards at GABF over the years. That they’re now apparently losing that independence can’t be a good sign for the future of the chain’s beers, if not the chain itself.

But the real loss is Havig. Van’s a terrific brewer and not having him brew for Rock Bottom makes them all the poorer. If you know about a brewing job, preferably in Oregon, drop John Foyston a note and he’ll see that Van gets it.

Announcing “High Water Brewing”

January 7, 2011 By Jay Brooks

You may recall the formerly wonderful beers of Valley Brewing in Stockton, California. That was due to one singular reason, their longtime brewmaster, Steve Altimari. Steve’s beers have became some of the most creative, innovative and diverse of any brewer. He perfected one style after another and brewed some truly experimental gems. His Uber Hoppy Imperial IPA was one of the best and his London Tavern Ale, a delicate English-style mild was a great session beer. But back on June 12th of last year, Steve was summarily dismissed under circumstances that could charitably be termed “odd.” I got the full story a couple of days after that, when I spoke to Steve in New York, where he was vacationing with his family. The owners initially told him that they’d sold the brewery (something he himself had been trying to do at that same time) and that the new bosses no longer needed his services. That tuned out to be not true in the least, and they instead brought in a scab brewer who flew in from Bend, Oregon, apparently, to do the brewing. I’m told they also locked Steve out of the brewery and refused to return his personal property that was there, including beer, barrels, etc. The good news was that since he’d been trying to buy Valley brewery, he already had investors and a management team in place.

So it’s six or so months later, and I’m pleased to announce that Steve’s new brewery — High Water Brewing — has begun brewing. They’ve set up offices and cold storage in San Leandro, California, near Drake’s Brewing, whose brewing equipment they’ll be using to make High Water’s beer. They’re also installing their own fermenters on site but will store the finished beer in their separate offices nearby.

high-water-logo

Initially, they’ll be offering three regular beers:

Hop Riot IPA (7.3% a.b.v. / 73 IBUs)
Retribution Imperial IPA (9.5% a.b.v. / 95 IBUs)
Old and In the Way Barleywine (11% a.b.v. / 95 IBUs)

The beers will debut on draft — 5 & 15.5 gallon kegs — in February during SF Beer Week (yet another reason I can’t wait for SF Beer Week!). Packaged beer, in 22 oz. bottles, will follow in early Spring, most likely in April. You can see the new labels on the website. They’re also still seeking additional investors, and if you’re interested, you can read about High Water’s investment opportunities.

high-water

In the interest of full disclosure, the name High Water Brewing was suggested by me in a post back in June when this all went down, and after an exhaustive search, my suggestion turned out to be the one they liked best. The founders of the brewery were kind enough to thank me by awarding me some shares in the company, giving me a very teeny tiny interest in the company, essentially a symbolic, but very much appreciated gesture.

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