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Beer Saints: St. Nicholas, Patron Saint of Brewers

December 6, 2024 By Jay Brooks

santa-claus
While St. Nicholas is best known — in America, at least — for wearing red and white and giving presents to Children each December 25, he’s actually the patron saint for a number of professions, places and afflictions. His feast day is not actually Christmas Day, but almost three weeks earlier on December 6. That’s the reason why the holiday beer Samichlaus is brewed each year on this day. The person we associate with Christmas, Santa Claus, was based on Saint Nicholas, who was originally known (and still is in some places) as Bishop Nicholas of Myra.

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Nicholas is the patron saint of brewers, among many others. He’s also the patron saint against imprisonment, against robberies, against robbers. And Nick’s the patron for apothecaries, bakers, barrel makers, boatmen, boot blacks, boys, brewers, brides, captives, children, coopers, dock workers, druggists, fishermen, Greek Catholic Church in America, Greek Catholic Union, grooms, judges, lawsuits lost unjustly, longshoremen, maidens, mariners, merchants, penitent murderers, newlyweds, old maids, parish clerks, paupers, pawnbrokers, perfumeries, perfumers, pharmacists, pilgrims, poor people, prisoners, sailors, scholars, schoolchildren, shoe shiners, spinsters, students, penitent thieves, travellers, University of Paris, unmarried girls, and watermen. Places he’s the patron for are Apulia, Italy; Avolasca, Italy; Bardolino, Italy; Bari, Italy; Cammarata, Sicily, Italy; Cardinale, Italy; Cas Concos, Spain; Creazzo, Italy; Duronia, Italy; Fossalto, Italy; Gagliato, Italy; Greece; La Thuile, Italy; Lecco, Italy; Limerick, Ireland; Liptovský Mikulás, Slovakia; Lorraine; Mazzano Romano, Italy; Mentana, Italy; Miklavž na Dravskem polju, Slovenia; Naples, Italy; Portsmouth, England; Russia; Sassari, Italy; Sicily; Is-Siggiewi, and Malta.

He also has many names around the world, such as Baba Chaghaloo, Father Christmas, Joulupukki, Kanakaloka, Kris Kringle, Pere Noel, Papa Noël, Santa Claus, and Weihnachtsmann (“Christmas Man” or “Nikolaus”), to name just a few.

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Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Saint Nicholas (March 15, 270 – December 6, 346) is the common name for Nicholas of Myra, a saint and Bishop of Myra (in Lycia, part of modern-day Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and is now commonly identified with Santa Claus. His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was the custom in his time. In 1087, his relics were furtively translated to Bari, in southern Italy; for this reason, he is also known as Nicholas of Bari.

The historical Saint Nicholas is remembered and revered among Catholic and Orthodox Christians. He is also honoured by various Anglican and Lutheran churches. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, and children, and students in Greece, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, the Republic of Macedonia, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro. He is also the patron saint of Barranquilla, Bari, Amsterdam, Beit Jala, and Liverpool. In 1809, the New-York Historical Society convened and retroactively named Sancte Claus the patron saint of Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch name for New York City. He was also a patron of the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors, who protected his relics in Bari. So beloved is Saint Nicholas by Russians, one commonly heard saying is that “if God dies, at least we’ll still have St. Nicholas.”

The American image of Santa Claus in red and white has more to do with marketing than anything else. I wrote about this in The Santa Hypocrisy a couple of years ago when the Shelton Brothers were in hot water from several states who tried to tell them Santa Claus on a beer label threatened the American way of life and especially the impressionable young kiddies who would all be led down the path to underage drinking and alcoholism because Santa was depicted on a beer label. It was an utterly ridiculous position and they ultimately backed down, but it’s indicative of our puritan hang-ups as a culture and our general paternalism where we believe everyone needs to be protected. And in retrospect I can now see how the “institutionalized demonization of alcohol” creates the conditions for such decisions. Remember the message? “Alcohol is evil. No one can be trusted with it.” When that’s the underlying assumption, you create rules for what can and can’t be displayed on a label that are way beyond reason; standards no other products have to follow because they’re not seen as inherently evil.
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But before the 20th century and in other parts of the world, Santa Claus was and still is depicted in many different ways and in various colors. Father Christmas, for example, is often seen wearing a green robe, as in the British Isles he’s more associated with nature and the old Celtic religions. The yule log, Christmas tree, wreaths, mistletoe and many other features we take for granted during the holidays do not have direct Christian origins, but were appropriated from pagan religions in order to make the transition to Christianity easier for the masses to make. Personally, I love a green Santa Claus because it reminds me of hops, and a Santa that stands for hops is one I can get behind.

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Few American beer labels show Santa precisely because of our peculiar brand of paternalism and the label laws spawned by our institutionalized demonization of alcohol. Santa’s Private Reserve, from Rogue in Oregon, is one of the few I can think of year after year. Most, not surprisingly, come from abroad, where people take a more reasonable approach to both the holidays and alcohol. There’s the famous Santa’s Butt from Ridgeway Brewing in England, but also Pickled Santa from the Hop Back Brewery and Austria’s Samichlaus is translated as “Santa Claus.”

santa-mugs
Why does it seem like we’re the only uptight nation on Earth when it comes to this silly issue. In Hong Kong, a giant Santa Claus is shown with a mug of beer, and no one seems to be that concerned. Try putting something like that up here, and all hell would break loose. We’re the only country complaining that there’s a “War on Christmas,” as stupid a notion as ever there was one, especially in a nation where those who celebrate Christmas constitute the vast majority.

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The point is if the church can have a patron saint of brewing, why do religious people object to St. Nicholas being on beer labels? Wouldn’t it make perfect sense for brewers to want to place their patron saint on their beer?

Throughout Europe, Monks not only kept alive the method of brewing beer but improved techniques for making it. A Benedictine nun in Germany, Hildegard von Bingen, is most likely responsible for the introduction of hops in beer. Religion and brewing are intertwined throughout history and, in every place except the United States, that continues to be the case. Why? What about our particular religiosity makes us incapable of seeing that and reconciling it? Why is it seemingly acceptable for Santa Claus to be used to sell everything under the sun … except alcohol. Santa sells cigarettes, soda pop, fast food and pretty much everything else with capitalistic glee yet alcohol is the corrupting influence? That’s going too far somehow? Please.

That Santa Claus only appeals to children is usually the rallying cry of the buffoons who complain about this sort of thing, but a survey of pop culture will reveal that St. Nick is used in all manner of adult contexts. Kris Kringle, like the spirit of Christmas itself, belongs to all of us, not just children. There’s no doubt that I love seeing Christmas through the fresh eyes of my children, their innocence and wonder adds a new dimension to my enjoyment of the season. But I loved the holidays as much before I was a father and after I was an adult, too.

That St. Nicholas appeals to wide array of people should be obvious from the huge number of groups and places that consider him their patron. When so many look to him for comfort in such a varied number of ways, how can anyone say what he is or what he isn’t, where he’s appropriate or where he’s not? They can’t of course, despite neo-prohibitionists and our government’s attempts to the contrary. As the patron saint of brewers, Santa Claus is, and ought to be, perfectly at home on a bottle of beer.

There’s also a wealth of information about the real Santa Claus at the Saint Nicholas Center online.

1911-Christmas-Postcard-Santa-Claus-Beer-Mug

Filed Under: Editorial, Just For Fun, Politics & Law Tagged With: Christmas, History, Holidays, Religion & Beer

Historic Beer Terrorist Birthday: Carrie Nation

November 25, 2024 By Jay Brooks

hatchet
Today is the birthday of Carrie Nation (November 25, 1846–June 9, 1911). Many biographies of her today refer to her as a “famous leader and activist,” a “temperance crusader” or “temperance advocate.” But she was also a terrorist who tried to impose her will by smashing up bars. One simple definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” That’s exactly what she was doing, and why she was celebrated by temperance groups, especially the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which she was a member of and went so far as to start a local branch. None of these groups did much to stop her destroying private property and terrorizing people she disagreed with, because even though they wouldn’t come out publicly in favor of such tactics, in private they were just fine with the results. That she’s still revered in some circles today strikes me as quite odd. She was a criminal, and yet has her own page on The State Historical Society of Missouri’s “Historic Missourians,” (which is doubly odd since she was born in Kentucky and only moved to Missouri when she was a young girl). Many biographies refer to her “passionate activism against alcohol” or her “passion for fighting liquor” as positive attributes, which certainly seems like revisionist history and apologists for criminal behavior to me. Certainly, the bar owners and patrons whom she encountered have a considerably different opinion of her “passion.” According to Wikipedia, “She described herself as ‘a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn’t like,’ and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by destroying bars.”

carrie-nation
Here’s her entry from Wikipedia:

Nation was born in Garrard County, Kentucky, to George and Mary (née Campbell) Moore. Her father was a successful farmer, stock trader, and slaveholder of Irish descent. During much of her early life, her health was poor and her family experienced financial setbacks. The family moved several times in Kentucky and finally settled in Belton, Missouri in 1854. She had poor education and informal learning.

In addition to their financial difficulties, many of her family members suffered from mental illness, her mother at times having delusions. There is speculation that the family did not stay in one place long because of rumors about Nation’s mother’s mental state. Some writers have speculated that Nation’s mother, Mary, believed she was Queen Victoria because of her love of finery and social airs. Mary lived in an insane asylum in Nevada, Missouri, from August 1890 until her death on September 28, 1893. Mary was put in the asylum through legal action by her son, Charles, although there is suspicion that Charles instigated the lawsuit because he owed Mary money.

The family moved to Texas as Missouri became involved in the Civil War in 1862. George did not fare well in Texas, and he moved his family back to Missouri. The family returned to High Grove Farm in Cass County. When the Union Army ordered them to evacuate their farm, they moved to Kansas City. Carrie nursed wounded soldiers after a raid on Independence, Missouri. The family again returned to their farm when the Civil War ended.

In 1865 Carrie met Charles Gloyd, a young physician who had fought for the Union, who was a severe alcoholic. Gloyd taught school near the Moores’ farm while deciding where to establish his medical practice. He eventually settled on Holden, Missouri, and asked Nation to marry him. Nation’s parents objected to the union because they believed he was addicted to alcohol, but the marriage proceeded. They were married on November 21, 1867, and separated shortly before the birth of their daughter, Charlien, on September 27, 1868. Gloyd died in 1869 of alcoholism.

Influenced by the death of her husband, Nation developed a passionate activism against alcohol. With the proceeds from selling her inherited land (as well as that of her husband’s estate), she built a small house in Holden. She moved there with her mother-in-law and Charlien, and attended the Normal Institute in Warrensburg, Missouri, earning her teaching certificate in July 1872. She taught at a school in Holden for four years. She obtained a history degree and studied the influence of Greek philosophers on American politics.

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In 1874, Carrie married David A. Nation, an attorney, minister, newspaper journalist, and father, 19 years her senior.

The family purchased a 1,700 acre (690 ha) cotton plantation on the San Bernard River in Brazoria County, Texas. As neither knew much about farming, the venture was ultimately unsuccessful. David Nation moved to Brazoria to practice law. In about 1880, Carrie moved to Columbia to operate the hotel owned by A. R. and Jesse W. Park. Her name is on the Columbia Methodist Church roll. She lived at the hotel with her daughter, Charlien Gloyd, “Mother Gloyd” (Carrie’s first mother-in-law), and David’s daughter, Lola. Her husband also operated a saddle shop just southwest of this site. The family soon moved to Richmond, Texas to operate a hotel.

David Nation became involved in the Jaybird–Woodpecker War. As a result, he was forced to move back north to Medicine Lodge, Kansas in 1889, where he found work preaching at a Christian church and Carrie ran a successful hotel.

She began her temperance work in Medicine Lodge by starting a local branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and campaigning for the enforcement of Kansas’ ban on the sale of liquor. Her methods escalated from simple protests to serenading saloon patrons with hymns accompanied by a hand organ, to greeting bartenders with pointed remarks such as, “Good morning, destroyer of men’s souls.” She also helped her mother and her daughter who had mental health problems.

Dissatisfied with the results of her efforts, Nation began to pray to God for direction. On June 5, 1900, she felt she received her answer in the form of a heavenly vision. As she described it:

The next morning I was awakened by a voice which seemed to me speaking in my heart, these words, “GO TO KIOWA,” and my hands were lifted and thrown down and the words, “I’LL STAND BY YOU.” The words, “Go to Kiowa,” were spoken in a murmuring, musical tone, low and soft, but “I’ll stand by you,” was very clear, positive and emphatic. I was impressed with a great inspiration, the interpretation was very plain, it was this: “Take something in your hands, and throw at these places in Kiowa and smash them.”

Responding to the revelation, Nation gathered several rocks – “smashers”, she called them – and proceeded to Dobson’s Saloon on June 7. Announcing “Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard’s fate”, she began to destroy the saloon’s stock with her cache of rocks. After she similarly destroyed two other saloons in Kiowa, a tornado hit eastern Kansas, which she took as divine approval of her actions.

hatchetpinShe even sold hatchet pins.

Nation continued her destructive ways in Kansas, her fame spreading through her growing arrest record. After she led a raid in Wichita, Kansas, her husband joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, “That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you.” The couple divorced in 1901; they had no children. Between 1902-06 she lived in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women, she would march into a bar and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Her actions often did not include other people, just herself. Between 1900 and 1910, she was arrested some 30 times for “hatchetations”, as she came to call them. Nation paid her jail fines from lecture-tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets. The souvenirs were provided by a Topeka, Kansas pharmacist. Engraved on the handle of the hatchet, the pin reads, “Death to Rum”.

In April 1901, Nation went to Kansas City, Missouri, a city known for its wide opposition to the temperance movement, and smashed liquor in various bars on 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. She was arrested, hauled into court and fined $500 ($13,400 in 2011 dollars), although the judge suspended the fine so long as Nation never returned to Kansas City. She would be arrested over 32 times—one report is that she was placed in the Washington DC poorhouse for three days for refusing to pay a $35 fine.

Nation also conducted women’s rights marches in Topeka, Kansas. She led hundreds of women that were part of the Home Defender’s Army to march in opposition to saloons.

In Amarillo, Texas, Nation received a strong response, as she was sponsored by the noted surveyor W.D. Twichell, an active Methodist layman.

Carrie_Nation_postcardA common sight in bars and taverns at the time.

Nation’s anti-alcohol activities became widely known, with the slogan “All Nations Welcome But Carrie” becoming a bar-room staple. She published The Smasher’s Mail, a biweekly newsletter, and The Hatchet, a newspaper. Later in life she exploited her name by appearing in vaudeville in the United States and music halls in Great Britain. In October 1909, various press outlets reported that Nation claimed to have invented an aeroplane.

Nation, a proud woman more given to sermonizing than entertaining, found these venues uninspiring for her proselytizing. One of the number of pre-World War I acts that “failed to click” with foreign audiences, Nation was struck by an egg thrown by an audience member during one 1909 music hall lecture at the Canterbury Theatre of Varieties. Indignantly, “The Anti-Souse Queen” ripped up her contract and returned to the United States. Seeking profits elsewhere, she sold photographs of herself, collected lecture fees, and marketed miniature souvenir hatchets.

Suspicious that President William McKinley was a secret drinker, Nation applauded his 1901 assassination because drinkers “got what they deserved.”

Near the end of her life, Nation moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas where she founded the home known as “Hatchet Hall”. In poor health, she collapsed during a speech in a Eureka Springs park. She was taken to a hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas, the Evergreen Place Hospital and Sanitarium located on 25 acres at Limit Street and South Maple Avenue just outside the city limits of Leavenworth.

Evergreen Place Hospital was founded and operated by Dr. Charles Goddard, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine and a distinguished authority on nervous and mental troubles, liquor and drug habits.

Nation died there on June 9, 1911. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Belton City Cemetery in Belton, Missouri. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union later erected a stone inscribed “Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition, She Hath Done What She Could” and the name “Carry A. Nation.”

Carrie-nation-1881
And this is her biography from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Carry Nation, in full Carry A. Nation, née Carrie Amelia Moore, (born November 25, 1846, Garrard county, Kentucky, U.S.—died June 9, 1911, Leavenworth, Kansas), American temperance advocate famous for using a hatchet to demolish barrooms.

Carry Moore as a child experienced poverty, her mother’s mental instability, and frequent bouts of ill health. Although she held a teaching certificate from a state normal school, her education was intermittent. In 1867 she married a young physician, Charles Gloyd, whom she left after a few months because of his alcoholism. In 1877 she married David Nation, a lawyer, journalist, and minister, who divorced her in 1901 on the grounds of desertion.

Carry Nation entered the temperance movement in 1890, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision in favour of the importation and sale of liquor in “original packages” from other states weakened the prohibition laws of Kansas, where she was living. In her view, the illegality of the saloons flourishing in that state meant that anyone could destroy them with impunity. Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women, Nation, who was typically dressed in stark black-and-white clothing, would march into a saloon and proceed to sing, pray, hurl biblical-sounding vituperations, and smash the bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. At one point, her fervour led her to invade the governor’s chambers at Topeka. Jailed many times, she paid her fines from lecture tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets, at times earning as much as $300 per week. She herself survived numerous physical assaults.

Nation published a few short-lived newsletters—called variously The Smasher’s Mail, The Hatchet, and the Home Defender—and her autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, in 1904 (rev. ed., 2006). Her “hatchetation” period was brief but brought her national notoriety. She was for a time much in demand as a temperance lecturer; she also railed against fraternal orders, tobacco, foreign foods, corsets, skirts of improper length, and mildly pornographic art of the sort found in some barrooms of the time. She was an advocate of woman suffrage. Later she appeared in vaudeville, at Coney Island, New York, and briefly in 1903 in Hatchetation, an adaptation of T.S. Arthur’s Ten Nights in a Bar-Room: And What I Saw There (1854). Despite her campaign, the enactment in 1919 of national prohibition was largely the result of the efforts of more conventional reformers, who had been reluctant to support her.

Nation-SF-Call-March-1-1903
This was the front page of the newspaper, the San Francisco Call, on March 1, 1903, when Nation visited the California city.

If you’re curious if her first name is “Carry” or “Carrie,” it’s actually both. “The spelling of her first name varies; both ‘Carrie’ and ‘Carry’ are considered correct. Official records say ‘Carrie,’ which Nation used for most of her life; the name ‘Carry’ was used by her father in the family Bible. Upon beginning her campaign against liquor in the early 20th century, she adopted the name ‘Carry A. Nation,’ saying it meant ‘Carry A Nation for Prohibition.’ After gaining notoriety, Carrie officially registered ‘Carry’ as a trademark.”

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1880-american-temperance-crusader-carry-nation

Filed Under: Birthdays, Editorial, Just For Fun, Politics & Law, Related Pleasures Tagged With: History, Prohibition, Prohibitionists

The 1899 Liquor Book

May 9, 2019 By Jay Brooks

liquor

I came across this interesting book, published by Charles Austin Bates in 1899. It’s called “The Liquor Book” and is essentially an early book of clipart for liquor stores to use in advertising.

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It’s 440 pages that begins with around sixteen pages explaining how to advertise your liquor store, along with some examples of ads. Below is their example of a beer ad on page 11.

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The remainder of the book is hundreds of images to be used for advertising. Printed on just one side of the page, presumably so they can be used in paste-up, each one has one seems to be an arbitrary number at the top for cataloging purposes, I imagine. There is clipart for all kinds of drinks, including whiskey, wine, cocktails, champagne, etc. Here are some of the beer ones in the book.

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Filed Under: Beers, Editorial, Just For Fun, Politics & Law Tagged With: Advertising, History

Beer Hints From Heloise

April 15, 2019 By Jay Brooks

heloise

Today is the birthday of Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans, better known by her pen name Heloise. She is “an American writer, author, and speaker specializing in lifestyle hints, including consumer issues, pets, travel, food, home improvement, and health.” Heloise has written over a dozen books of “household hints,” although it appears many of them have been recycled and repackaged. This is her book, “Kitchen Hints From Heloise: More Than 1,527 Time-Saving, Money-Saving, and Work-Saving Hints for Cooking, Cleaning, Shopping, and Storing,” published in 2005.

Heloise-kitchen-hints

I suspect she’s written a number of hints that had something to do with beer, but there were a few in this specific book, which are below.

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At least she’s acknowledging that there are different types of beer, and even mentions local ones. Since it’s meant for a very general reader, it’s very general advice, and I certainly can’t agree with having a light beer available (those beers are pure evil, in my opinion), but at least she’s suggesting some variety, and that’s a positive step, even fourteen years ago.

heloise-2

Her advice on clean glasses is mostly okay, but I absolutely hate that she’s saying “some beer drinkers prefer icy mugs.” I tend to think if you like your beer out of a frosted glass, then you’re not really beer drinker, you’re just drinking some ice cold liquid you don’t want to taste so you can get drunk. And what German beers does she think have a lemon slice “floating in the brew?” I know she means a Hefeweizen, but it’s not just tossed in the glass, Her advice her is pretty bad, actually, to my way of thinking. She ends with “it’s a matter of taste,” but that seems like a terrible thing to say in a book offering hints. She should be telling people what is the optimal way to enjoy their beer, instead she seems to throw up her hands and say just do whatever you want, which doesn’t strike me as great advice.

heloise-3

I guess she’s right that most beer is pasteurized if she’s referring to mainstream beers and imports, which she most likely is, but it still seems like the wrong thing to say, and should be explained better. But the funniest thing is her assertion that “most people … have no problem with beer that has gone flat.” Who did she ask for that advice?

Heloise-4

Sure, but I’ve never once thought of even putting wine in my stew.

heloise

So overall, I find it odd that a woman who’s spent a lifetime supposedly giving people great advice and household hints, would so obviously do so little research in doling out advice on beer. It sounds more like she just regurgitated what she’s heard rather than asked any beer experts, or people who might actually know what they’re talking about. That’s my advice to her.

Filed Under: Beers, Editorial, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Books, Mainstream Coverage

Flagship Friday #1: Lagunitas IPA

April 5, 2019 By Jay Brooks

lagunitas-ipa

Lagunitas Brewing Co. was one of the first breweries that I got to know well, shortly after becoming the beer buyer for the chain store Beverages & more in 1996. Ron Lindenbusch, who’s still at the company, was one of their earliest employees and he called on me at BevMo, inviting me to come for a visit to the brewery, I think in Forest Knolls. This was before their present location in Petaluma, but after they stopped making beer in founder Tony Magee’s kitchen, so brewery number 2, I suppose. Somewhere, I have photos from that visit. That’s where I first met Tony, and he’s been one of my favorite people ever since. I like that he says what he’s thinking, unvarnished, even though that’s ruffled some feathers more than a few times. But he’s also one of the most fascinating people to spend any time with, because his mind races from topic to topic in a form of stream of consciousness that I very much relate to. Since I tend to think in tangents, as well, I’ve always valued any chance I get to have more than a passing conversation with him.

A few years ago, in 2012 I believe, Beer Connoisseur magazine asked me to write a profile of Tony for their Innovator’s Series. So I met him for lunch at a bar that he chose near the brewery and we ended up talking on a myriad of subjects for nearly three hours. Between that, other research and what I knew about Magee and his brewery already, I wrote a 3,500-word profile which I was quite happy with. During our conversation, he told me the story of how Lagunitas IPA came to be, and how he deliberately set about to make it his brewery’s flagship beer, and more importantly, to essentially “own the category” after a fashion. A few sentences of that made it into the final article, but because the focus was on his entire career, it was brief. Luckily, I have our whole conversation on tape, so I went back to listen to it again, or at least the relevant parts where he was explaining his rationale for making his now-iconic flagship IPA.

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Tony Magee and Ron Lindenbusch at the 10th Anniversary Party for Lagunitas in 2004.

While the article itself began, “We were somewhere around Petaluma on the edge of Sonoma when the beer began to take hold,” the interview was far less dramatic. We took a seat at a table, ordered a pair of Lagunitas IPA pints, and looked over the menus. We chatting amiably, catching up, and then I started asking questions. And this is a little background from that.

Tony Magee’s first successful homebrew effort was a pale ale, brewed with Chico yeast, which he heard was originally acquired from Ballantine, one of the few breweries still making an ale before the microbrewery revolution. He rented some space down the street from his kitchen brewery, and Lagunitas Brewery was born.

Ron Lindenbusch, who in the early 1990s worked for distributors, stopped by the brewery and was immediately hooked, becoming something like employee number four or five, but apart from Tony and his wife Carissa Brader, is the oldest Lagunitas employee, followed closely behind by Robin McClain, who today is the controller.

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Tony Magee and me at the Bistro IPA Festival in 2006.

At around an hour and forty minutes into lunch, our conversation turned to Lagunitas IPA. Not long after moving to the second brewery, they outgrew the space again in Lagunitas, and found larger quarters in nearby Petaluma, several miles east and north from West Marin, in Sonoma County. Things changed fairly rapidly after the initial move, especially after the focus on pale ale shifted to IPA.

When we moved to Petaluma, I realized we were going to have to start growing pretty quickly, because costs went up. So I figured we had to bottle. From the moment we released the pale ale, the market was starting to move with our product, I saw this path forward with the IPA. I realized then — this is 1995 — that IPA was the future of the craft category. It was the highest mark on the tree. So we would just aim for that. Sierra Nevada made a pale ale. I didn’t want to compete with Sierra Nevada, it would have seemed like bad behavior anyway, and I was selling [Dogtown Pale Ale] because I knew that there were some customers that would be willing to trade over some number, low-hanging fruit. But it wasn’t to try to prey on their business. Even so, I couldn’t have gotten a tap handle if I wanted it.

But then something happened. There was a restaurant in Sausalito (in Marin County) called Margaritaville (which is no longer in business). And for some reason, they got into an argument with one of their distributors, who at that time was Mesa Distributing. And as a result, they pulled Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the place, even though as far as I know it wasn’t Sierra Nevada’s doing, and replaced it with Lagunitas Dogtown Ale.

Immediately, Margaritaville started going through five kegs of Dogtown Pale Ale a week, which was unheard of for it at the time. Tony thought, “this is not because of my beer,” and went there to investigate. So he sat at a table and just observed people ordering from the bar, and what he found was that people were not coming in and ordering a Sierra Nevada, or even a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. What they were ordering was a pale ale. And it didn’t really matter if it was Dogtown Pale Ale or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I should qualify that. I’m sure it mattered to Sierra Nevada, but it didn’t matter to the customer. They just wanted a pale ale. Essentially, Sierra Nevada, at that time and in that place, owned pale ale.

And that was a revelation to Magee, who figured he couldn’t really compete with that, and concluded he had to figure out another way. Here was his thought process.

So I realized that was a bad way to go. That was a path without a heart, to try to prey on somebody else’s business. So I thought, you always want to be selling up, so I thought, what’s a premium pale ale? Well, an IPA. I looked around. There was BridgePort, but they were hardly down here [in the Bay Area]. There was Anderson Valley making their 100-IBU IPA [Hop Ottin’]. So I just realized there was an opportunity to move through that space — an open field run — and gain a foothold in the market. That others would have to sell around us, when they came to the market. And it worked out that way. The packaging I did with the IPA as bold as I did because I realized in that pale ale moment that Sierra Nevada brewed pale ale as a brand, while we could only brew it as a style. And so when I did IPA, I wanted to try to brand IPA in whatever way I could, given our limited resources. So that is why the packing looks like it does. [On the label], Lagunitas is actually smaller than IPA. And so it worked out, at least around here. In some circles, there’s a number of IPAs that are in people’s minds. And we’re one of them. If a guy likes drinking in a little sphere of IPA, we’re probably somewhere hovering in an orbit around that idea.

lagunitas-ipa

And it does appear that having a label that emphasized “IPA” over anything else did help people associate IPA with Lagunitas. It definitely became a huge brand here in the Bay Area and fueled their growth into numerous other states. And that was true for quite some time, at least until IPAs became ubiquitous in the mid-2000s or so. Opening other markets undoubtedly kept sales robust nationally, but eventually the market became fairly saturated with hoppy beers. And that may have helped Lagunitas for a time, as Magee explains.

I didn’t realize everybody would be pressing so hard on the IPA category. This felt like a secret thing, but I realized when I made a pale ale, people might drink my pale ale, but what they would be doing all the time in their minds was comparing it to the one they knew and loved so in a way it was an uneven contest where I was helping to promote Sierra Nevada because the comparison would not always be favorable. Alright, so I like Sierra Nevada. They make such a beautiful beer that so consistent, so elegant. So I realized that if other brewers made a pale ale they’d promote Sierra Nevada. So my hope was that if we could be successful establishing our terroir around the IPA that as other brewers inevitably made IPAs it would help us out. I think it’s true, I think it’s working.

The idea wasn’t to find a way to capitalize on other people’s efforts, but I was trying to find a way to live with what I could see coming, and I saw everybody making IPAs down the road. And so when they did I wanted to be sure that at least it carried us up. So we’ve been very diligent over the years about making sure that IPA maintains about 60% of volume of the beer we make. So all these other things we do are our pilot lights and they push the brand up and keep it exciting and interesting, and who knows, it could be that Little Sumpin’ or DayTime will overtake the IPA at some point. So we’ll continue to make the IPA in the way that Miller kept making Miller at the same time they were selling a lot of Miller Lite. Branding is as much a chess game as it is anything else. You have to try to think three or four moves out, because somebody else probably is, as well.

I think the larger takeaway is that this is a case where a brewery had a definite plan to create a flagship beer for themselves, and which they executed quite successfully for a number of years. While there were, and are, countless other IPAs being brewed, Lagunitas did manage to become one of the most popular IPAs in their home market, as well as several others. And frankly, I hadn’t had one in some time before this February, when I managed to enjoy several throughout #FlashipFebruary. And I have to say, it’s still one damn fine beer.

FF J Finale 3
Having a Lagunitas IPA to end #FlagshipFebruary earlier this year at my favorite hometown bar, the Flagship Taproom in downtown Cotati.

Filed Under: Beers, Editorial, Flagships, Just For Fun Tagged With: California, Northern California

Top 50 Breweries For 2018

March 12, 2019 By Jay Brooks

ba

The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries and craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2018, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For the eleventh year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. In the past I’ve posted the two lists separately, but have decided going forward to present them together since the two are getting increasingly intermingled. I confess I used to look more forward to this list every year as it represented greater and wider acceptance of craft in the marketplace, but it doesn’t seem to hold the same thrill for me anymore, perhaps I’m getting jaded. Here is this year’s craft brewery list and overall breweries, too:

Top50_both_2018
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And below here is a map showing the Top 50 craft breweries, as defined by the BA, on a map. If you look at the press release itself, there are 22 footnotes of explanation for the Top 50 overall (a-v), which is one less than last year, but still seems like too many. I feel like it should be simpler. As many people predicted many years ago, the larger craft breweries seem more like the regional breweries of yesteryear, and have less in common with their smaller brethren than with the big breweries. That’s why many of them also belong to the Beer Institute, along with other organizations. I just realized I whined about this very fact last year, so it’s obvious this is not an issue that’s going away anytime soon. I don’t know what the solution is, but setting up the us vs. them dichotomy no longer feels to me like the right direction to me. I understand it up to a point, but the brewing world is not as black and white as it used to be, and I believe there needs to be a new way to look at it that isn’t so unforgiving. And it isn’t just the BA, I was disheartened to talk to a few brewers this year who were excluded from the SF Beer Week gala because they weren’t, or couldn’t be, guild members, which is not the original idea behind SF Beer Week. When we first started it, we wanted to include everybody. That was, indeed, the point. Anyway, congratulations to all the breweries in the Top 50 for another great year, and especially the few new names on this year’s list.

Top50_2018

Filed Under: Breweries, Editorial, Just For Fun, Politics & Law Tagged With: Brewers Association, Press Release, Statistics

Celebrator Beer News Ceases Print

April 3, 2018 By Jay Brooks

celebrator-long
While staff was told earlier last month, Tom Dalldorf of the Celebrator Beer News, today made the official announcement that he was shutting down the print side of the business, suspending the printed version of the 30-year old brewspaper. As the former GM of the Celebrator, it was sad to see this news, but in today’s media climate where many breweries use guerilla marketing and social media over traditional journalism, it’s not terribly surprising. People have to support a robust media in order for it to thrive. The model of how people consume their beer news has undoubtedly changed in the last three decades, and there are less advertising dollars being spent, despite the growing number of breweries, on a greater number of media outlets. C’est la vie.

IMG_2071
The Celebrator writers in attendance at the 30th Anniversary Party held at the end of SF Beer Week this February.

Here’s the press release from publisher Tom Dalldorf:

After 30 years of publication the Celebrator Beer News, the first publication to focus exclusively on craft beer, has suspended its print edition. Tom Dalldorf, editor and publisher, stated that the economics of a print magazine requires an advertising base that simply is no longer viable.

“The pervasive use of electronic media has rendered print media superfluous. The expense of design and layout and printing and distribution doesn’t work for the beer enthusiast the way it did just a few years ago,” said Dalldorf. “The craft beer world has grown tremendously in the last twenty years and beer enthusiasts, craving news and opinions on their favorite subject, are depending on websites and apps for news and reviews,” he said recently.

Consequently, Celebrator has re-launched its website on a WordPress platform that will allow it to be more timely in its coverage of the rapidly changing craft beer world. “Our new site allows us to get stories, news and information up instantly rather than waiting up to two months for the next print issue to drop,” said Dalldorf. Celebrator Beer News is now available 24/7 at celebrator.com. A mobile app is in the works as well, according to the publisher.

Hopefully, the Celebrator can make the transition to an online publication.

IMG_2098
Tom and me at the 30th Anniversary Party.

And this was the final cover of the last Celebrator Beer News in print.

CBN_1802_Cover

Filed Under: Editorial, News Tagged With: Announcements, California, United States, Writing

Top 50 Breweries For 2017

March 14, 2018 By Jay Brooks

ba
The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries and craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2017, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For the tenth year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. In the past I’ve posted the two lists separately, but have decided going forward to present them together since the two are getting increasingly intermingled. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:

Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies

RankBrewery NameCityState
1D. G. Yuengling & Son, IncPottsvillePA
2Boston Beer CoBostonMA
3Sierra Nevada BrewingChicoCA
4New Belgium BrewingFort CollinsCO
5Duvel MoortgatPaso Robles/Kansas City/CooperstownCA/MO/NY
6GambrinusSan Antonio/Berkeley/PortlandTX/CA/OR
7Bell’s Brewery, IncComstockMI
8Stone BrewingEscondidoCA
9CANarchyLongmont/Tampa/Salt Lake City/
Comstock Park
CO/FL/UT/MI
10Deschutes BreweryBendOR
11Brooklyn BreweryBrooklynNY
12Dogfish Head Craft BreweryMiltonDE
13Minhas Craft BreweryMonroeWI
14Artisanal Brewing VenturesDowningtown/LakewoodPA/NY
15SweetWater BrewingAtlantaGA
16New Glarus BrewingNew GlarusWI
17Matt BrewingUticaNY
18Harpoon BreweryBostonMA
19Alaskan BrewingJuneauAK
20Great Lakes BrewingClevelandOH
21Abita BrewingAbita SpringsLA
22Odell BrewingFort CollinsCO
23Stevens Point BreweryStevens PointWI
24August Schell BrewingNew UlmMN
25Summit BrewingSaint PaulMN
2621st Amendment BreweryBay AreaCA
27Shipyard BrewingPortlandME
28Flying Dog BreweryFrederickMD
29Full Sail BrewingHood RiverOR
30Troëgs BrewingHersheyPA
31Long Trail BrewingBridgewater CornersVT
32Rogue AlesNewportOR
33Rhinegeist BreweryCincinnatiOH
34Narragansett BrewingProvidenceRI
35Gordon Biersch BrewingSan JoseCA
36Allagash BrewingPortlandME
37Uinta BrewingSalt Lake CityUT
38Ninkasi BrewingEugeneOR
39Surly BrewingMinneapolisMN
40Revolution BrewingChicagoIL
41Karl Strauss BrewingSan DiegoCA
42Bear Republic BrewingCloverdaleCA
43Green Flash BrewingSan DiegoCA
44Left Hand BrewingLongmontCO
45Three Floyds BrewingMunsterIN
46Saint Arnold BrewingHoustonTX
47Lost Coast BreweryEurekaCA
48North Coast BrewingFort BraggCA
49Wachusett BrewingWestminsterMA
50Avery BrewingBoulderCO

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This list, by contrast, is the Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2017. This includes all breweries, regardless of size or any other definitions or parameters.

Breweries in bold are considered to be “small and independent craft brewers” under the BA’s current definition. That there are so many footnotes (23 in total, or almost half of the list) explaining exceptions or reasons for the specific entry, seems illustrative of a growing problem with the definition of what is a craft brewery. I certainly understand the need for a trade group to have a clearly defined set of criteria for membership, but I think the current one is getting increasingly outdated again, and it’s only been a few years since the contentious debate that resulted in the current BA one. But it may be time to revisit that again. This is the same number of footnotes as last year, so this is a problem that is not resolving itself.

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

RankBrewery NameCityState
Bold = small and independent craft brewery
1Anheuser-Busch, Inc (a)Saint LouisMO
2MillerCoors (b)ChicagoIL
3Constellation (c)ChicagoIL
4Heineken (d)White PlainsNY
5Pabst Brewing (e)Los AngelesCA
6D. G. Yuengling & SonPottsvillePA
7North Amer. Breweries (f)RochesterNY
8Diageo (g)NorwalkCT
9Boston Beer Co (h)BostonMA
10Sierra Nevada BrewingChicoCA
11New Belgium Brewing (i)Fort CollinsCO
12Craft Brew Alliance (j)PortlandOR
13Duvel Moortgat (k)Paso Robles/Kansas City/CooperstownCA/MO/NY
14Gambrinus (l)San Antonio/Berkeley/PortlandTX/CA/OR
15Founders Brewing (m)Grand RapidsMI
16Bell’s Brewery, Inc (n)ComstockMI
17Sapporo USA (o)La CrosseWI
18Stone BrewingEscondidoCA
19CANarchy (p)Longmont/Tampa/Salt Lake City/Comstock ParkCO/FL/UT/MI
20Deschutes BreweryBendOR
21Brooklyn BreweryBrooklynNY
22Dogfish HeadMiltonDE
23Minhas Craft Brewery (q)MonroeWI
24Artisanal Brewing Ventures (r)Downingtown/LakewoodPA/NY
25SweetWater BrewingAtlantaGA
26New Glarus BrewingNew GlarusWI
27Matt Brewing (s)UticaNY
28Harpoon BreweryBostonMA
29Alaskan BrewingJuneauAK
30Great Lakes BrewingClevelandOH
31Abita BrewingAbita SpringsLA
32Odell BrewingFort CollinsCO
33Stevens Point (t)Stevens PointWI
34August Schell (u)New UlmMN
35Summit BrewingSaint PaulMN
3621st AmendmentBay AreaCA
37Shipyard Brewing (v)PortlandME
38Flying Dog BreweryFrederickMD
39Full Sail BrewingHood RiverOR
40Troëgs BrewingHersheyPA
41Long Trail Brewing (w)Bridgewater CornersVT
42Rogue AlesNewportOR
43Rhinegeist BreweryCincinnatiOH
44Narragansett BrewingProvidenceRI
45Gordon Biersch BrewingSan JoseCA
46Allagash Brewing CoPortlandME
47Uinta BrewingSalt Lake CityUT
48Ninkasi BrewingEugeneOR
49Surly BrewingMinneapolisMN
50Revolution BrewingChicagoIL

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2017 Top 50 Overall U.S.
Brewing Companies Notes

Footnotes from brand lists are illustrative, and may not be exhaustive – ownership stakes
reflect greater than 25% ownership:

(a) Anheuser-Busch, Inc includes 10 Barrel, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Point, Bud Light,
Budweiser, Breckenridge, Busch, Devils Backbone, Elysian, Four Peaks, Golden
Road, Goose Island, Karbach, King Cobra, Landshark, Michelob, Natural Rolling
Rock, Shock Top, Wicked Weed, Wild Series brands and Ziegenbock brands.
Does not include partially owned Coastal, Craft Brew Alliance, Fordham, Kona,
Old Dominion, Omission, Red Hook, and Widmer Brothers brands;
(b) MillerCoors includes A.C. Golden, Batch 19, Blue Moon, Colorado Native,
Coors, Hamms, Hop Valley, Icehouse, Keystone, Killian’s, Leinenkugel’s,
Mickey’s, Milwaukee’s Best, Miller, Olde English, Revolver, Saint Archer, Steel
Reserve, Tenth & Blake, and Terrapin brands;
(c) Constellation Brewing Co includes domestic brands Ballast Point, Funky Buddha,
and Tocayo Brands; it also includes imported brands Corona, Modelo, Pacifico,
and Victoria;
(d) Heineken Brewing Co includes domestic brand Lagunitas Brewing Co as well as
imported brands Dos Equis and Tecate;
(e) Pabst Brewing Co includes Ballantine, Lone Star, Pabst, Pearl, Primo, Rainier,
Schlitz and Small Town brands;
(f) North American Breweries includes Dundee, Genesee, Labatt Lime,
Mactarnahan’s, Magic Hat, Portland and Pyramid brands as well as import
volume;
(g) Diageo Brewing Co includes both domestically produced and imported Guinness
brands;
(h) Boston Beer Co includes Alchemy & Science and Sam Adams brands. Does not
include Twisted Tea or Angry Orchard brands;
(i) New Belgium Brewing Co includes Magnolia Brewing Brands (partial year);
(j) Craft Brew Alliance includes Kona, Omission, Red Hook and Widmer Brothers
brands;
(k) Duvel Moortgat includes Boulevard, Firestone Walker, and Ommegang brands;
(l) Gambrinus includes BridgePort, Shiner and Trumer brands;
(m)Founders ownership stake by Mahou San Miguel;
(n) Bell’s Brewery, Inc includes Bell’s and Upper Hand brands;
(o) Sapporo USA includes Anchor Brewing Co (partial year), Sapporo and Sleeman
brands as well as export volume;
(p) CANarchy includes Cigar City, Oskar Blues Brewing Co, Perrin and Utah
Brewers Cooperative brands;
(q) Minhas Craft Brewery includes Huber, Mountain Crest and Rhinelander brands as
well as export volume;
(r) Artisanal Brewing Ventures includes Victory and Southern Tier brands;
(s) Matt Brewing Co includes Flying Bison, Saranac and Utica Club brands;
(t) Stevens Point Brewery includes James Page and Point brands;
(u) August Schell Brewing Co includes Grain Belt and Schell’s brands;
(v) Shipyard Brewing Co includes Casco Bay, Sea Dog and Shipyard brands;
(w)Long Trail Brewing Co includes Long Trail, Otter Creek and The Shed brands;

BEER-generic

Here is this year’s press release. For a few years, the BA had helpfully annotated the list, saving me lots of time, since I’d been annotating the list for nearly a decade, but they abandoned that practice three years ago. And I’ve also given up on annotating, too. It used to be fun to see who was doing well and rising and who was slipping, but it’s as much about business dealings as hard work and brewing, so I give up.

And similar to the last couple of years, the BA created a map showing the relative location of each of the breweries that made the list.

Top50_2017

Filed Under: Breweries, Editorial, Just For Fun, News, Politics & Law, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Big Brewers, Brewers Association, Business, Statistics, United States

Sapporo Buys Anchor Brewing

August 3, 2017 By Jay Brooks

anchor-new sapporo-crest
This morning Anchor Brewing and Sapporo anounced that Sapporo Holdings Limited was acquiring all of the equity interest in Anchor Brewing Company, and that they’ll take over at the end of the month, August 31. As large as the beer industry is, it’s also a small community where everybody knows everybody, and everybody talks. As a result, there are few secrets. This was one of those rumors that has been circulating around the beer world for months. It’s a rumor everybody was talking about but no one could confirm, though no one was denying it either. Anchor’s press release holds back the amount of the sale, but the news release from Sapporo gives the transaction as $85 million, which seems like a bargain. Sapporo bought only the brewery; Anchor’s distillery business will be spun off into a separate company.

anchor-steam-label

Here’s Anchor’s press release:

San Francisco, CA (August 3, 2017) – Anchor Brewing Company announces that Sapporo Holdings Limited will be acquiring the company with plans to continue Anchor’s traditions and legacy in San Francisco while growing the brand globally. Anchor Brewing Company’s flagship beer, Anchor Steam® Beer, has been brewed in San Francisco since 1896. Sapporo has a long-standing history in Japan dating back to 1876 and an appreciation for tradition, craftsmanship and provenance which are all fundamental tenets of Anchor.

“Sapporo shares our values and appreciates our unique, time-honored approach to brewing,” said Keith Greggor, Anchor Brewing Co-Owner. “With both a long-term vision and the resources to realize it, Sapporo will keep brewing Anchor’s beers in San Francisco while expanding to new markets worldwide.”

“Anchor Steam Beer is a San Francisco original, inspiring a new generation of brewers and beer lovers around the world,” said Masaki Oga, President and Representative Director, Sapporo Holdings LTD. “Both companies share a brewing philosophy backed by long histories and this transaction enables both Sapporo Group’s US business and Anchor Brewing Company’s global business to make a further leap forward.”

More than 50 years ago, Anchor started the modern craft beer movement with a series of innovations. Anchor brewed the first post-prohibition Porter, ignited todays IPA boom when it introduced dry-hopping and the cascade hop and created the industry’s first seasonal beers. Since then, the emergence of thousands of craft breweries within the United States and around the world has created the need for scale and synergies to compete in a growing global market for craft beer.

Anchor’s experienced management team will continue to run the business but now benefit from superior financing and additional resources. Sapporo is committed to preserving and maintaining Anchor’s operations in San Francisco, including the historic Potrero Hill brewery. Sapporo will invest in the brewery to improve production efficiencies and will strengthen all aspects of management and production to ensure the highest quality of beer is consistently delivered. In addition, Sapporo is fully supportive of Anchor’s new public taproom concept that will be opening soon. Sapporo will also export Anchor to new international markets using its global distribution resources.

The transaction is expected to close on August 31st; subject to customary closing conditions. Terms are not disclosed. Anchor Distilling Company is not part of this transaction and will now become a fully independent company in its own right.

Sapporo first made its way to America in 1964. In 1984, SAPPORO U.S.A., INC. was founded to help preserve our high standard of quality throughout the country. Today, Sapporo stands alone as the best-selling Asian Beer in the United States for more than 30 years.

anchor-brewery-early-1900s-lg

Sapporo’s announcement on their website is more perfunctory and all-business, but in some ways more illuminating:

Sapporo Holdings Limited (hereinafter “Sapporo Holdings”) will acquire all of the equity interest of Anchor Brewing Company (California, US; hereinafter “Anchor”).

The Sapporo Group plans to further expand its US beer business by adding Anchor, a prominent beer manufacturer which produces the leading brand “Anchor Steam® Beer,” to its group.

1. Equity transfer agreement

Sapporo Holdings will enter into an equity transfer agreement with Anchor’s parent company Anchor Brewers and Distillers, LLC (hereinafter “ABD”). The transaction will be conducted through Sapporo Holdings’ subsidiary, to be established for the purpose of entering into the agreement. Sapporo will obtain all of ABD’s equity interest in Anchor which will join its group companies.

Execution date of agreement: August 3, 2017 (Thursday)

Equity transfer date: August 31, 2017 (Thursday)

2. Rationale behind Agreement

Last year, the Sapporo Group formulated the new Long-Term Management Vision “SPEED 150” through 2026, the year marking the Group’s 150th anniversary since its founding. The vision set forth in Speed 150 is for the Sapporo Group to be a company with highly unique brands in the fields of “Alcoholic Beverages,” “Food,” and “Soft Drinks” around the world.

Regarding its “Promote Global Business Expansion” policy, a key driver of its group growth strategy, Sapporo Group is pushing forward a distinctive plan that designates North America its business base and the rapidly growing “Southeast Asian” region as its highest-priority markets. In the US where the SAPPORO brand has maintained its position as the No. 1 Asian beer in the country over 30 years, the Group has been considering expanding its beer business through the acquisition of a new brand as well as further growing the SAPPORO brand.

Anchor is a prominent and historic US beer producer founded in 1896 in San Francisco. “Anchor Steam Beer,” its flagship brand, is said to be an icon that ignited the current craft beer boom in the US. Armed with its strong brand power primarily in San Francisco, where it is based, as well as other areas across the US, it has been enjoyed by countless beer lovers throughout the years.

The addition of Anchor’s strong brand power and network to the Sapporo Group’s US beer business portfolio through the conclusion of this agreement is expected to accelerate its speed of growth in the US.

3. About Anchor

Name: Anchor Brewing Company, LLC (beer manufacturing and sales)
Location: 1705 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, California, USA
Year founded: 1896
Representative: CEO Matt Davenport
Num. of employees: 160 (as of December 2016)
Production plant: One plant (San Francisco, California state)
Sales volume Approximate: 1.75 million cases (equivalent to 355ml × 24 bottles in 2016)
Annual sales Approximate: 33 million U.S. dollars (about ¥3.7 billion in fiscal 12/2016)

(Note 1) Sapporo Holdings acquired Anchor Brewing Company’s “equity” instead of its shares due to the fact that the latter is a limited liability company.

anchor-steam-label

This is, of course, big news, especially locally. The Chronicle got the exclusive on the story because Fritz Maytag had a good relationship with his local paper and after the Griffon Group bought Anchor they continued that tradition. So my newspaper group, like everyone else, was a little behind, and while their reporters are working on the story itself, they asked me to write an analysis of what the sale means for beer lovers, written for a mainstream audience, so please forgive the explanations of everyday things known by most beer aficionados. After an introduction similar to the one that began this post, here’s my initial thoughts on the acquisition of Anchor:

We know why Sapporo wanted Anchor. Their 150th anniversary is coming in 2026, and they’ve made it policy “to be a company with highly unique brands in the fields of ‘Alcoholic Beverages,’ ‘Food,’ and ‘Soft Drinks’ around the world.” They call it “Speed 150,” or the “Promote Global Business Expansion” policy. For the last thirty years, Sapporo has been the number one beer in the Asian market, but they have plans to expand worldwide through the acquisition of new brands. For example, in 2006, Sapporo bought the third-largest brewer in Canada, Sleeman Breweries.

Sapporo considered Anchor a prime target, characterizing the brewery as “a prominent and historic US beer producer founded in 1896 in San Francisco. ‘Anchor Steam Beer,’ its flagship brand, is said to be an icon that ignited the current craft beer boom in the US. Armed with its strong brand power primarily in San Francisco, where it is based, as well as other areas across the US, it has been enjoyed by countless beer lovers throughout the years.”

So what about Anchor? Why were they interested in being part of Sapporo? According to the rumors, Anchor’s been looking for funding to help fuel their growth for at least a year, as sales faltered somewhat in recent years. They’ve remained a strong brand, but the many new beers they’ve been releasing haven’t all done as well as hoped, and it’s been widely rumored that capacity has been down. Capacity is the maximum amount of beer a brewery can brew in a year, and the closer to 100% a brewery is, the more profitable they are. According to Anchor’s president, Keith Greggor, they’re currently operating at between 55 and 60 percent. The grand Pier 48 plan to build a new brewery and event space near AT&T Park has been on hold for a while now, and it’s unclear if that will change. What will change is Anchor will have access to expansion money and other resources that a company as large as Sapporo can make available for them. For example, they’ve already announced a new public taproom on De Haro St., across the street from the existing brewery will go forward as planned.

As is almost always the case, initially nothing will change at Anchor Brewing. None of the beers will change, they’ll continue to brew at their location on Potrero Hill and the current management team will remain at the helm. When Fritz Maytag sold Anchor to the Griffin Group in 2010, very little changed initially, though many hardcore beer lovers were concerned. As the beer industry is going through a period of time where breweries being bought by other breweries or financial groups is becoming commonplace, these deals are often met with a backlash. After an announced sale, many vow to no longer drink beer from the acquired brewery. It was particularly strong when Anheuser-Busch InBev bought 10 Barrel Brewing, Golden Road Brewing and several others recently or when Constellation Brands bought Ballast Point.

Most beer drinkers will be unaffected. Most don’t follow the beer industry’s news at all, and just buy the beer they like to drink. That’s what recent history has shown. There’s a small subset of all craft beer drinkers who really do follow the beer news, and care deeply about whether or not the brewery is independent. They’re often vicious on social media and once a brewery has “sold out,” they become dead to them. But in almost every case, the new markets and increased distribution that resulted from the acquisition more than makes up for losing their business and sales overall increase, often dramatically.

The trade association for craft breweries — The Brewers Association — has been promoting the value of independent breweries for many years, and rewrote their definition of a “craft brewery” in part to reflect that but also to determine who can be a member. They also recently rolled out an “Independent Craft Beer Seal” that members can put on their labels to indicate that they’re not owned by another company (or at least not more than 25 percent).

Being bought by Sapporo will make Anchor no longer eligible to be a member of the Brewers Association, which is particularly strange since Anchor Brewery is credited with starting the entire craft beer movement that resulted in the conditions that led to a trade group representing small brewers being viable. So as the days and weeks unfold, it will be interesting to see how hardcore beer lovers react. So far this morning, after the announcement, reactions have been fairly tame, at least compared to previous sales. Maybe we’re getting used to these things. They’ve definitely become part of the maturing of the craft beer industry, and we’ll continue to see many more in the coming years. This is simply part of the ups and downs of any industry.

But many beer lovers tend to be more emotional and feel an attachment to their favorite brewery, much more so than seems to happen in other businesses. Many breweries, in addition to their beer, sell a brand lifestyle that’s a part of the brand’s identity. Small brewers regularly promote themselves as being mavericks, rebels, independent or just different as a way of distinguishing themselves from the larger breweries. And it often works too well, so much so that their fans sometimes feel betrayed when they reveal themselves to have been a savvy business all along. I think with Anchor Brewery, who’s been around since 1896, they’ll be less of a backlash than in some of the more recent high profile sales. Anchor, and Fritz Maytag, re-invented itself in 1965 and sparked a revolution in beer-making. No one can take that away from them as they start the next chapter of their journey. As long as I can still get a fresh Liberty Ale the next time I stop by the brewery, everything will be fine.

anchor-liberty-label

As I’m sure many people are wondering, I asked Anchor’s press contact whether or not Fritz was consulted — not that they’d have to, of course — but just as a courtesy, and if so, what his thoughts were. As far as I can tell, I don’t think they did talk to him (again, not that they had to at all) and this was the response I got:

We think they would recognize the difficult decision we had to make and would approve of the care and diligence we have made in the route chosen. This acquisition and investment insures that Anchor will be able to continue its time-honored brewing tradition in San Francisco for a long time, which was Fritz’s goal when he sold the brewery.

Filed Under: Breweries, Editorial, News, Politics & Law Tagged With: Anchor Brewery, Announcements, Japan

Top 50 Breweries For 2016

March 15, 2017 By Jay Brooks

ba
The Brewers Association has also just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2016, which this year they’re calling the “Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies.” This includes all breweries, regardless of size or any other definitions or parameters. Here is the new list:

Top 50 Overall Brewing Companies

Breweries in bold are considered to be “small and independent craft brewers” under the BA’s current definition. That there are so many footnotes (23 in total, or almost half of the list) explaining exceptions or reasons for the specific entry, seems illustrative of a growing problem with the definition of what is a craft brewery. I certainly understand the need for a trade group to have a clearly defined set of criteria for membership, but I think the current one is getting increasingly outdated again, and it’s only been a few years since the contentious debate that resulted in the current BA one. But it may be time to revisit that again.

six-glasses

RankBrewing CompanyCityState
1Anheuser-Busch, Inc (a)Saint LouisMO
2MillerCoors (b)ChicagoIL
3Pabst Brewing Co (c)Los AngelesCA
4D. G. Yuengling & Son, IncPottsvillePA
5North American Breweries (d)RochesterNY
6Boston Beer Co (e)BostonMA
7Sierra Nevada Brewing CoChicoCA
8New Belgium Brewing CoFort CollinsCO
9Lagunitas Brewing Co (f)PetalumaCA
10Craft Brew Alliance (g)PortlandOR
11Gambrinus (h)San AntonioTX
12Duvel Moortgat (i)Paso Robles/Kansas City/CooperstownCA/MO/NY
13Ballast Point Brewing Co (j)San DiegoCA
14Bell’s Brewery, Inc (k)ComstockMI
15Deschutes BreweryBendOR
16Founders Brewing Co (l)Grand RapidsMI
17Stone Brewing CoEscondidoCA
18Oskar Blues Brewing
Holding Co
(m)
LongmontCO
19Sapporo USA (n)La CrosseWI
20Brooklyn BreweryBrooklynNY
21Minhas Craft Brewery (o)MonroeWI
22Artisanal Brewing Ventures (p)Downington/LakewoodPA/NY
23Dogfish Head Craft BreweryMiltonDE
24SweetWater Brewing CoAtlantaGA
25New Glarus Brewing CoNew GlarusWI
26Matt Brewing Co (q)UticaNY
27Harpoon BreweryBostonMA
28Alaskan Brewing CoJuneauAK
29Abita Brewing CoAbita SpringsLA
30Great Lakes Brewing CoClevelandOH
31Anchor Brewing CoSan FranciscoCA
32Stevens Point Brewery (r)Stevens PointWI
33August Schell Brewing Co (s)New UlmMN
33Long Trail Brewing Co (t)Bridgewater CornersVT
35Summit Brewing CoSaint PaulMN
36Odell Brewing CoFort CollinsCO
37Shipyard Brewing Co (u)PortlandME
38Full Sail Brewing CoHood RiverOR
39Rogue AlesNewportOR
4021st Amendment BreweryBay AreaCA
41Flying Dog BreweryFrederickMD
42Ninkasi Brewing CoEugeneOR
43Gordon Biersch Brewing CoSan JoseCA
44Allagash Brewing CoPortlandME
45Narragansett Brewing CoProvidenceRI
46Green Flash Brewing Co (v)San DiegoCA
47Tröegs Brewing CoHersheyPA
48Uinta Brewing CoSalt Lake CityUT
49Bear Republic Brewing CoCloverdaleCA
50Pittsburgh Brewing Co (w)PittsburghPA

six-glasses

2016 Top 50 Overall U.S.
Brewing Companies Notes

Details from brand lists are illustrative and may not be exhaustive. Ownership stakes reflect
greater than 25% ownership:

(a) Anheuser-Busch, Inc includes 10 Barrel, Bass, Beck’s, Blue Point, Bud Light,
Budweiser, Breckenridge, Busch, Devils Backbone (partial year), Elysian, Four Peaks,
Golden Road, Goose Island, Karbach (partial year), King Cobra, Landshark, Michelob,
Natural Rolling Rock, Shock Top, Wild Series brands and Ziegenbock brands. Does not
include partially owned Coastal, Craft Brew Alliance, Fordham, Kona, Old Dominion,
Omission, Red Hook, and Widmer Brothers brands;
(b) MillerCoors includes A.C. Golden, Batch 19, Blue Moon, Colorado Native, Coors,
Hamms, Hop Valley (partial year), Icehouse, Keystone, Killian’s, Leinenkugel’s,
Mickey’s, Milwaukee’s Best, Miller, Olde English, Revolver (partial year), Saint Archer,
Steel Reserve, Tenth & Blake, and Terrapin (partial year) brands;
(c) Pabst Brewing Co includes Ballantine, Lone Star, Pabst, Pearl, Primo, Rainier, Schlitz
and Small Town brands;
(d) North American Breweries includes Dundee, Genesee, Labatt Lime, Mactarnahan’s,
Magic Hat, Portland and Pyramid brands as well as import volume;
(e) Boston Beer Co includes Alchemy & Science and Sam Adams brands. Does not include
Twisted Tea or Angry Orchard brands;
(f) Lagunitas Brewing Co ownership stake by Heineken;
(g) Craft Brew Alliance includes Kona, Omission, Red Hook and Widmer Brothers brands;
(h) Gambrinus includes BridgePort, Shiner and Trumer brands;
(i) Duvel Moortgat USA includes Boulevard, Firestone Walker, and Ommegang brands;
(j) Ballast Point Brewing Co owned by Constellation brands;
(k) Bell’s Brewery, Inc includes Bell’s and Upper Hand brands;
(l) Founders ownership stake by Mahou San Miguel;
(m) Oskar Blues Brewing Holding Co includes Cigar City, Perrin and Utah Brewers
Cooperative brands;
(n) Sapporo USA includes Sapporo and Sleeman brands as well as export volume;
(o) Minhas Craft Brewery includes Huber, Mountain Crest and Rhinelander brands as well as
export volume;
(p) Artisanal Brewing Ventures includes Victory and Southern Tier brands;
(q) Matt Brewing Co includes Flying Bison, Saranac and Utica Club brands;
(r) Stevens Point Brewery includes James Page and Point brands;
(s) August Schell Brewing Co includes Grain Belt and Schell’s brands;
(t) Long Trail Brewing Co includes Long Trail, Otter Creek, The Shed and Wolaver’s
brands;
(u) Shipyard Brewing Co includes Casco Bay, Sea Dog and Shipyard brands;
(v) Green Flash Brewing Co includes Alpine and Green Flash brands;
(w)Pittsburgh Brewing Co includes Iron City and Old German brands

BEER-generic

Here is this year’s press release.

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries, Editorial, Just For Fun, News, Politics & Law, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Big Brewers, Brewers Association, Business, Statistics, United States

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