Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Oakland Brewing Finds A Home

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oakland-brewing
Steve McDaniel and the folks trying to launch Oakland Brewing Co. have some good news. They’ve found a location, finally. It’s the Old Cottonmill building at 1010 22nd Avenue in Oakland. It looks like a great old brick building with some history to it. As Steve is quick to remind me, they still have a very long way to go before the building can be turned into a working brewery, but if their luck holds they hope to have beer in the market by the end of 2010.

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The building, I’m told, is located “a short diagonal off Livingston Street (terminating at I-880), which intersects Embarcadero where Quinn’s Lighthouse sits, just northwest from Coast Guard Island. Once you’re on 22nd Ave, drive toward the freeway and the building will be on your right … if you hit Numi Tea at I-880, you’ve gone too far. Irish Monkey Cellars, who make a fine Cabernet Franc, is right in that same area too.”

You can see more photos of the building at their website.

Beer In South Africa

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If you’re like me, you don’t know all that much about the beer market in South Africa. In today’s Business Week, however, there was an interesting article about the market and how Heineken is going after the market leader, SABMiller. (Thanks to Anat for pointing this out.) You probably knew the SAB part of SABMiller got its start in South Africa, having been founded as South African Breweries in 1895, with Castle Lager as their best-selling beer. The article, entitled Heineken Targeting SABMiller’s Beer ‘Monopoly’ in South Africa, gives some interesting tidbits about that market. For example:

  • SABMiller has 89% of the South African beer market.
  • That’s “the largest existing monopoly market in the world.”
  • South Africa is the 9th largest beer market worldwide.

1001 Beers Today

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The book I contributed to, 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, comes out today in the U.S. The book is the collaborative effort of 42 beers writers from around the world. We each wrote up beers from our areas of expertise, telling the beer’s story and also including tasting notes. There are 1,001 beers from 69 different countries listed, though the United States has more in the book than any other nation. I contributed 35 beers to the project, many of them from the Bay Area or the West Coast, with seven more American beer writers — all friends and colleagues — filling in the rest. Some of the beers were chosen by the editorial staff and the Adrian Tierney-Jones who headed the project, and the rest were suggested by all of the other writers. Some of the other contributors you might be familiar with include Stephen Beaumont, Pete Brown, Melissa Cole, Chuck Cook, Stan Hieronymus, Rick Lyke, Lisa Morrison, Randy Mosher, Chris O’Brien and Don Russell.

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It’s a beautiful book, I must say, fully illustrated with nearly every beer’s label or bottle shown in full color. With every beer getting at least a half-page and most a full one, it’s also one seriously heavy book, weighing in at nearly five pounds and with 960 pages! I’m not sure where it will be sold, but it is currently available on Amazon.com, though the American cover is the one above, showing a full pint and bottle of our own Anchor Steam beer. It’s certainly great to see a book about beer from around the world that uses a San Francisco favorite on the cover.

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Most pages look like this, which is the first beer reviewed, Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale (it’s also one of mine.)

The True Joy Of Homebrewing

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Congratulations to Charlie Papazian, and his wife Sandra, on the birth of their daughter, Carla Vitoria, born March 19. Charlie, of course, is the founder and president of the Brewers Association, and the author of The Joy of Homebrewing. According to a recent tweet, mother and daughter are doing fine. Join me in wishing Charlie and Sandra warmest wishes and congratulations on their new bundle of joy.

Particulars:

Original Gravity: 9 lbs., 1 oz.
IBUs: 21 3/4 in.
Style: Girl
Release Date: March 19, 2010
Label: Carla Vitoria Papazian
Notes: “Full bodied. Long on enJOYability. Fermentation has commenced.”

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Charlie with his new daughter, Carla

MillerCoors: Is A Global Merger Possible?

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Several sources are pointing out a Reuters interview last week with Peter Swinburn, head of MolsonCoors. In that interview, Swinburn suggests that while he considers his company to be a “buyer,” he doesn’t discount the notion that MolsonCoors could be a takeover target. He further remarked that “SABMiller, Molson’s partner in the MillerCoors joint venture, would be a natural fit as a buyer.” While going on to say he doesn’t believe that will happen, this is, after all, how these types of things begin. A rumor that’s denied and discounted by all involved parties becoming a reality is nothing new, so you never know. Currently SABMiller is the 2nd largest global beer company and MolsonCoors in sixth. Though a merger wouldn’t eclipse A-B InBev at the top spot, it would move them closer together. Only time will tell.

The New Anderson Valley: A Chat With Trey White

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Recently it was announced that Ken Allen, who founded the brewery in 1987, is selling Anderson Valley Brewing to Trey White, a former USB executive. The response on the series of tubes we all know and love as the internet was swift and surprisingly negative. Also, there was quite a lot of speculation that was simply untrue. Even the local Anderson Valley Advertiser detailed some of the negative reactions. So I spoke with Trey White this morning to clear up some of the misinformation swirling around and get to the bottom of what he has planned for his brewery when he takes over next month, after the sale closes.

First, the biggest piece of misinformation, which I didn’t even need to talk to him about to correct. A number of negative comments took the form of “how sad, another case of a big business swallowing up a smaller one.” Wrong. White is a former VP with USB. That means he doesn’t work there any more, and in fact hasn’t for several years. I, and most of the accounts that mentioned his former job did so to show that he brings beer industry experience with him. That’s a good thing. It means he knows how the industry works. As I learned when I spoke with White, the business will be family-owned, just White and his wife. No big company in the background, just a mom and pop operation.

Here’s what else I learned about his plans for the brewery. White first visited the brewery three years ago and immediately fell in love with the place. He and Ken Allen have been discussing the purchase for nearly that long. He’s committed to its success and it wasn’t just a quick flash in the pan decision.

White and his wife currently live in downtown Chicago, ironically walking distance from the Craft Brewers Conference which will take place the first week of April. For the first six months to a year after taking over, the Whites will spend about 75% of their time in northern California. All of the current staff and brewers will remain in place and no changes will be made to any of the recipes. The first year, some of the packaging may be changed and it’s possible some additional styles and/or special releases will be created.

The Boonville Beer Festival will be unchanged and the planning for it will continue apace and it will be held, as scheduled, on May 8. The Disc Golf Course will also remain on the brewery grounds.

While the brewery continues to hum along, White will turn his attention to what he knows best: marketing, merchandising and selling. He’ll immediately begin working to increase distribution and get Anderson valley beers into a greater number of chain locations, making it even easier for fans to find the beer in a wider array of outlets.

Ken will be the first to tell you that his passion for the brewery has not been 100% over the last few years and he’s been looking forward to taking a much needed rest from running the business. Ken had this to say, in the press release:

“I have enjoyed immensely growing the Anderson Valley Brewery from a start-up operating a modest brew pub in Boonville into a world class regional craft brewery. The people and friends I have made in the industry will last a lifetime. I want to thank the many customers and brewery fans who have become key parts of the Anderson Valley Brewery family.

I have looked long and hard for the right person to whom to entrust our legacy and I could not have found a better partner in Trey White. His passion and knowledge of the craft beer industry, coupled with his respect for the brands we have developed, will make him the ideal person to take the Anderson Valley Brewery to the next level within the growing craft beer industry.“

So I can’t help but think this will a positive step for everyone, from Ken Allen, the new owners and fans of the brewery’s beers. In talking with Trey White, he has that passion that can propel the brewery to the next level. He seems sincere in his reverence for the brands Anderson Valley has created over the years and has no plans to alter them in any way. He has the right experience and contacts to grow the business successfully while keeping it true to its roots. Let’s wish Ken a happy retirement and Trey good luck with his new job as a small brewery owner.

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The changing of the guard: new owner Trey White, at left, with founder Ken Allen in the Anderson Valley brewhouse.

Mergermania & The Global Beer Picture

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Yesterday Charlie Papazian had an interesting post about recent production numbers of brewers worldwide and how the top Four brewing companies control 50% of the world’s beer. That’s due to the increasing mergermania in the brewing industry, with the recent purchase of Mexico’s FEMSA by Heineken but not including the announced acquisition of Grupo Modelo by Anheuser-Busch InBev. According to a UK Reuters report, the Top four brewers make up half [the] global beer market. The supporting data comes from a researcher for Plato Logic, a beer industry analyst company in Great Britain that produces their world beer report each October. Presumably his statistics are preliminary, taking into account changes in ownership that have taken place since the last report.

But roughly, here’s what his data shows in a chart I made, using the estimates given for millions of hectoliters produced by the top five beer companies. It shows the relatives sizes of them, and how the top four are so far out in front that it’s almost ridiculous and frankly, you can make that same argument for the top four or the top three. There’s a lot of separation, but one big merger and the deck gets shuffled again.

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Though the production numbers aren’t given for the bottom half of the top ten, here they are by rank.

  1. Anheuser-Busch InBev
  2. SAB Miller
  3. Heineken
  4. Carlsberg
  5. Tsingtao
  6. MolsonCoors
  7. Grupo Modelo
  8. Beijing Yanjing Brewery (China)
  9. Kirin
  10. Asahi

Estimating world beer production (it’s not given in the article) from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac, I made the chart below to show how the top four do indeed account for just north of half the beer produced in the world.

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And finally, including number five Tsingtao, here’s how the overall picture looks.

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Anderson Valley Brewery Sold

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There have been rumors floating around for a few months now, and it’s been no secret that owner Ken Allen has been trying to sell his Anderson Valley Brewery for several years. According to the North Bay Business Journal, it looks like a sale is now official. The terms have not been disclosed, but pending the necessary approvals, a sale is expected to close next month. The buyer is HMB Holdings LLC, a company created for the purchase by Trey White, a former VP with United States Beverage. In addition to the USB portfolio, White has also worked with such brands as Goose Island, SLO and Grolsch. Anderson Valley will continue to be brewed at its present facilities in Boonville, California.

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Beer, Health & Nutrition

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health
There’s a nice article by the nutrition correspondent for Ask Men, Simon McNeil, entitled The Health Benefits of Beer. There’s no new ground covered, but he does offer a good overview of recent findings showing that beer is healthier for us — in moderation of course — than previously believed. It’s also great to see that message get some play in a mainstream magazine.