It’s been brewing for a few weeks. I’ve been having conversations, discussing ideas and thinking about the future. And now it’s arrived … or almost. Beginning on Wednesday, April 15, I’ll be taking over Bill Brand’s old column and the Bottoms Up Blog. I’ll be writing a column for the Oakland Tribune newspaper which will appear every other Wednesday, and hopefully will get picked up by a least some of the news group’s 60 other papers. The first one will appear next Wednesday, and is more of an introduction for newspaper readers of who I am, information you no doubt already possess. After that, the columns will be all about the beer.

I’ll be taking a different approach to the Bottom’s Up Blog, inviting other Bay Area Beer Bloggers and even the occasional brewer to contribute to it in an effort to make it a true beer community blog. And in order to impose some order out of the chaos that news is, I’ll be running some regular items on the same day of the week and four monthly features, as well, though three of those will be guest-written. I’m still not sure about Bill’s weekly e-mail pdf that he sent every Wednesday. We’re still trying to figure out where that list is. If there’s enough interest, we may have to rebuild it from scratch.

The Brookston Beer Bulletin will remain largely unchanged, I’ll keep writing it as before. There shouldn’t be too much overlap. The Bottom’s Up Blog will be all consumer-oriented and the Bulletin will remain beer industry focused. On Bottoms Up, I’ll only opine about the beer, on the Bulletin I’ll continue to rant about everything else. There’s still a few more things to do to get ready for the launch. I’m having new head shots taken today and I still have to write a short biography for the website.

I’m very pleased that Bill’s column will continue — though under a new name — it’s an important legacy that at least some newspapers are willing to embrace craft and better imported beer. But I confess I’m a little nervous at the prospect of filling Bill’s shoes. He meant a lot to a great many people — myself included — and despite the fact that I’ve been writing about beer for almost twenty years and been fairly involved in the Bay Area scene for quite some time, I’ll still be the new kid for many mainstream newspaper readers. But, as the saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” It was also an opportunity to reach a much wider audience, and one I didn’t feel I could pass up. So I’m as excited as I am nervous, a curious mix of butterflies clenching in my stomach but filled with possibilities, like the feeling you get just before you go on stage. But, hopefully, I’m ready for my close up. I hope you’ll read me there, as well as here.

In a recent Chow article online, Lessley Anderson gives a fairly decent account of Brettanomyces beers. I would have preferred a different title than Your Beer Smells Like Goat, but I guess it does grab your attention. Apart from too many references to stinky aromas, it’s a good overview and includes a nice list of examples. Still, if you’re not too familiar with beers made with wild yeast, it’s a good introduction; worth a read.

Yesterday, Barack Obama picked Charles Hurley to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). His resume looks impressive. He was a VP “of the Transportation Safety Group for the National Safety Council and the executive director of the Council’s Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign.” All well and good.

What’s not so good is that since 2005, Hurley has also been at the helm of one of the country’s most influential and destructive neo-prohibitionist groups, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. And long before that, he was an active supporter of MADD. From the 2005 press release announcing Hurley as MADD’s new CEO:

A longtime friend and supporter of MADD, Hurley has played an important role in the organization’s history. He attended MADD’s first national press conference in October 1980 in Washington, D.C., and helped MADD win support for the Presidential Commission on Drunk Driving. He also worked for and strongly supported MADD’s efforts to pass the National 21 Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. From 1993 to 1998, Hurley served on the MADD National Board of Directors.

News reports are focusing on Hurley’s record of working on safety issues, and that’s certainly a good thing. But what troubles me is that MADD may have been about keeping drunk drivers off the road when it began, but at least since founder Candy Lightner left in 1985 (five years after its founding) it’s grown increasingly into a neo-prohibitionst group that’s become less and less about drunk driving and more about removing all alcohol from society. And obviously that includes the last four years that Hurley was running the propaganda organization. The idea of MADD setting government policy from within the NHTSA is frightening in the extreme. When it comes to the safety issues that’s all well and good but it seems all too easy to imagine the propaganda, exaggerations and misinformation that MADD has been spewing for years would be used to create policy without oversight, without listening to dissenting voices, and without regard to reality, truth or — probably — our civil rights. This could be very, very bad. Putting anyone with such an extreme agenda into a position of power with the ability to make policy seems like an incredibly dangerous thing to do, but especially so when he’s an insider to the neo-prohibitionist movement. That’s driving me to drink.

This has nothing to with beer per se, except insofar as the economy affects the brewing industry, too. Which is to say, it has everything to do with it. Called the Crisis Of Credit Visualized, it’s an 11-minute animated explanation of the credit crisis. If you’re at all confused about what caused the mess we’re in — and let’s face it, who isn’t — this is a great, simple, relatively easy to follow explanation told in cartoon form. The subtitle is “The Short and Simple Story of the Credit Crisis,” which is exactly what it is.

The guy who created it, Jonathan Jarvis, did it as “a part of [his] thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.” His goal was to give “form to a complex situation like the credit crisis [and] to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated.” I believe he succeeded. Interesting, educational and entertaining. Enjoy.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

If you read the previous post about the economic impact of beer on the State of California, here is the same press release, but for the entire country, all 50 states. I’ve removed the mostly duplicated paragraphs.

Here’s the relevant bits of the press release:

A new economic impact study shows America’s beer industry, made up of brewers, beer importers, beer distributors, brewer suppliers and retailers, directly and indirectly contributes more than $198 billion annually to the U.S. economy. The study, commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA), also shows that the industry provides nearly 1.9 million jobs — generating nearly $62 billion in wages and benefits. The industry also paid $41 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes in 2008.

According to the study, the beer industry directly employs more than one million people, paying $28 billion in wages. Beer sales help support roughly 888,000 retail jobs, including those at supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, bars, stadiums, and other outlets and generate more than $25 billion in economic activity in agriculture and manufacturing sectors

If you hunt around, you can find press releases for several other states, too.

And yes, that means that California accounts for 1/8 of the total beer market in the U.S.

Sure it’s a press release, but it still provides newer, updated numbers on just how much beer, not even including all other alcohol, contributes positively to our economy, an economy I hasten to add is not doing terribly well. Still, many in our state legislature continue to think we should be punished with higher taxes than any other goods sold in the state. This moral crusade gets harder to defend when you point out how many jobs are created by beer, and not just brewers and brewery workers, but all the way downstream it includes, distributors, truck drivers, warehouse employees, salespeople, bar and restaurant owners, grocery, convenience and liquor stores, specialty shops, waiters and bartenders, concession stand workers, and let’s not forget the writers who write about this stuff called beer. A great many people depend on beer for their livelihoods, and the state depends upon on salaries and its sales to collect taxes. Tax those businesses out-of-business, and a ripple effect will be created that puts many more people on the dole and no longer paying taxes. Higher prices means lower sales equals less sales and other business taxes, too, so I struggle to understand the New Drys’ priorities. It seems they’d prefer a world without alcohol that’s in a great depression economically to a more sensible world that’s stable financially but with alcohol available for a reasonable price.

Here’s the press release:

A new economic impact study shows that America’s beer industry, made up of brewers, beer importers, beer distributors, brewer suppliers, and retailers, directly and indirectly contributes $25,252,333,555 annually to California’s economy. The study, commissioned by the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) and the Beer Institute, also shows that the industry’s economic impact in California includes 211,082 jobs — paying $8,348,855,437 in wages — as well as $1,282,032,097 in federal, state, and local taxes.

“Beer distributors are proud providers of 95,000 quality jobs with solid wages and great benefits in every state and congressional district across the country,” said Phil Terry, chief executive officer of Monarch Beverage Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, and chairman of NBWA. “As privately-owned businesses, beer distributors are invested in their communities and work hard to ensure the effective state-based system of alcohol regulation, which works to keep communities and consumers safe.”

“America’s brewing industry continues to play a pivotal role in supporting this nation’s economic viability,” said Tom Long, president and chief commercial officer of MillerCoors, and chairman of the Beer Institute. “Brewers in California have been a driving force in their communities for years by creating jobs and tax revenue for public services, and promoting alcohol awareness responsibility initiatives for retailers, schools, and families.”

According to the study, the beer industry directly employs 108,199 people in California, paying them $3,625,642,816 in wages. The 207 beer distributors in California employ 11,519 people. Large and small brewers and beer importers employ approximately 5,391 people. Beer sales help support roughly 91,289 jobs at licensed retailers, which include supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, bars, stadiums and other outlets.

“In addition to providing quality jobs with solid wages, the three-tier beer distribution system provides transparency and accountability and works to keep American consumers safe,” added NBWA President Craig Purser. “This time-tested, effective system of state controls, in which America’s beer distributors play a critical role, works to ensure alcoholic beverages are sold only to licensed retailers who in turn are responsible for selling only to adults of legal drinking age.”

Nationally, the beer industry directly and indirectly contributes more than $198 billion annually to the U.S. economy and provides nearly 1.9 million jobs — generating nearly $62 billion in wages and benefits. The industry also paid $41 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes in 2008. Consumption taxes included $3.8 billion in federal excise taxes, $1.7 billion in state excise taxes and $5.7 billion in state and local sales taxes.

“These numbers demonstrate that our industry is essential to several sectors of the U.S. economy, particularly as the nation struggles to regain its footing in this uncertain climate,” said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute. “For this reason, it is important that state and federal officials consider equitable tax policies that do not unduly harm an industry that provides so many domestic jobs and so much economic growth.”

In addition to strengthening the California and U.S. economy, the industry plays a significant role in promoting responsible consumption of its products. Beer distributors (which are licensed by the state and the federal government), brewers and importers have invested in communities across the country to develop and implement programs that promote responsibility and help fight alcohol abuse. These efforts, along with those of parents, law enforcement, federal and state alcohol beverage regulators, educators and other community groups, have worked to contribute to declines in illegal underage drinking and drunk driving over the past two decades, according to independent and government data.

The Economic Impact study was conducted by John Dunham & Associates based in New York City and covers data compiled in 2008. The complete study, including state-by-state and congressional district breakdowns of economic contributions, is available at Beer Serves America.

Sounds to me like beer is not hurting our society, but the New Drys are trying to do just that.
 

I know that there are many doctors who believe themselves to be god, and act accordingly. Having the power of life and death tends to do that to a person. Michael Crichton, who himself completed medical school at Harvard even though he never practiced, wrote about this phenomenon in a collection of essays; either in Travels or Five Patients, I can’t recall which one. And indeed, medical schools even instill this into their students, with presumably the idea that confidence begets confidence. In other words, doctors who act decisively and confidently are perceived as being better doctors. It probably works most of the time, but, of course, not always. I think it especially goes off the rails when doctors go outside their sphere of expertise, and try to act as godlike on subjects on which they’re mere mortals.

Case in point, today the senior medical doctor in the UK, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, has decided his M.D. makes him an expert in economics, too. In order to combat binge drinking, he’s recommending that the price of all alcohol across the board be raised. He may be a good doctor, but he’s an idiot at economics. You can read the full story at the Telegraph online, in the story Government’s Top Doctor Recommends Price Hike For Alcohol. If adopted, Dr. Loony’s proposal would double the price of many alcoholic drinks, including beer. With the British pub already threatened, and the world economy on the ropes, what does he think this would do to the economy?

As many have already pointed out, raising the price for everyone, punishes the vast majority who drink responsibly and in moderation. “This would hit the pockets of hard-working families who are already struggling to make ends meet, and it would not deter those people who drink to get drunk.” Said David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group.

Dr. Donadlson’s proposal addresses not one of the multitude of reasons that cause people to binge drink. And of course, the definition of what constitutes binge-drinking is as suspect in the UK as it is the US, where it’s an arbitrary calculation divorced from reality. Whatever the real percentage of binge drinkers, addicts and habitual alcoholics, making them pay more will not stop them from drinking. From the Telegraph article: “Doctors working in casualty departments and specialists in liver disease backed the proposal, but said price alone was unlikely to change an increasing culture of binge drinking on Britain’s streets.”

The main problem for binge drinking in the UK, at least according to many, is that grocery chains are offering beer at below cost as loss leaders to lure customers in the store, where they hope they’ll buy other, more profitable, stuff while they’re there. But there’s no reason why they can’t just restrict that practice, if it is believed to be one of the causes. In many U.S. states, like California, it is illegal to sell alcohol at or below cost, presumably to stop just the sort of problems the UK is experiencing. Why not at least propose that first and see if it helps, instead of going straight for punishing everybody for the sins of a few. Even if I thought what he’s proposing might work — which I emphatically do not — is the cost to society of the binge drinkers greater than what it would do to tens of thousands of people in the form of businesses going under, people out of work and greater harm to the already fragile economy? Because that’s what would surely happen if overnight the price of a drink doubled. What industry could afford to cut its revenue in half? It’s preposterous in the extreme and not very well thought out, just a knee jerk reaction to a problem without considering the consequences. Luckily, I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Government sources said ministers were aware of Prof. Donaldson’s views on alcohol prices, but one said “I cannot see any way that we will accept Liam’s recommendation on this”.

My love of bacon is hardly a secret, it should be it’s own food group as far as I’m concerned. So this is especially good news I learned today, courtesy of my friend and colleague Rick (thanks, amigo). According to a story in the Science and Technology section of the UK’s Telegraph, Bacon Sandwich Really Does Cure A Hangover.

Elin Roberts, of the Centre for Life at Newcastle University had this to say about food and hangovers. “Food doesn’t soak up the alcohol but it does increase your metabolism helping you deal with the after-effects of over indulgence. So food will often help you feel better.

She continues in the Telegraph article:

“Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good.”

Ms. Roberts told The Mirror: “Bingeing on alcohol depletes neurotransmitters too, but bacon contains a high level of aminos which tops these up, giving you a clearer head.”

Researchers also found a complex chemical interaction in the cooking of bacon produces the winning combination of taste and smell which is almost irresistible.

The reaction between amino acids in the bacon and reducing sugars in the fat is what provides the sandwich with its appeal.

My that’s good news. Perked up my day, that did.

According to scientists, “a bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover — by boosting the level of amines which clear the head.” Personally, I like the bread toasted and with some cheese, too. That’s perfection.

On the blog Politico today, there’s a ten-minute podcast with Craig Purser, President of the NBWA, the National Beer Wholesalers Association. The title of the piece is Beer Fans Glad White House Has A Drinker. Give it a listen below.

Politico introduces the podcast, in part, with the following:

Purser admits that lobbying on behalf of alcohol can be a sweet gig. “I’ve got a very good job,” he said. “I enjoy working and representing America’s beer distributors. … We do represent a product that is one of celebration, that brings people together and that makes it fun.” Still, “there are days, however, when it truly does feel like work.” The NBWA held its annual legislative conference last week, and Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Kevin O. McCarthy delivered keynote addresses. “We have 127 members of Congress that have been sworn in in the last 26 months,” Purser said, and the NBWA has focused on catching them all up to speed on the group’s issues.

Perhaps most interesting is the way Purser answered the question about beer being recession-proof:

Beer is not recession proof, that’s a big misnomer. Some have even incorrectly asserted that consumption goes up in times like this. The fact is that the on-premise folks; retailers, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, are all feeling the pinch, as folks deal with uncertainty in the employment arena, uncertainty as it relates to the investment markets. There’s real concern when it comes to that. Likewise, we see a real emphasis in some sectors in trading down, where perhaps you were maybe a consumer that enjoyed a craft beer or an import. Most of those sectors are experiencing some softness.

I know imports are down, but the most recent numbers of craft beer sales seem to contradict his assertion that people are trading down to cheaper beer from craft beer. According to the most recent sales figures from the Brewers Association, released in late February, “from 2007 to 2008, estimated sales by craft brewers were up 5.8 percent by volume and 10.5 percent in dollars.” Unless that can be accounted for by former spirits and wine drinkers jumping ship — doubtful at best — then something doesn’t quite add up for me. I hate to engage in conspiratorial speculation (not enough not to do it, of course) but since the NBWA represents beer wholesalers, a.k.a. distributors, whose bread and butter comes from the Big Two (A-B InBev and MillerCoors), perhaps Purser is spinning things toward where his meals come from, too. Imports are down, macro brands are flatlining, only craft has been consistently up. They’ve slowed a bit in the last two years, dropping below double-digit growth by volume, but otherwise are still showing the most growth of any segment of the beer industry. I’ve heard that there is statistic data showing consumers trading down from so-called “premium” brands like Budwesier to “sub-premiums” like Busch, but that’s vastly different from what Purser is asserting is happening.

Saturday, April 4th, was the 6th annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Fest at Triple Rock in Berkeley. But it was the first time new brewmaster Rodger Davis was at the helm, after five years of Christian Kazakof, who moved to Iron Springs Pub & Brewery last year. Rodger, however, did, help Christian with set-up in the early years, so was quite familiar with the process. From what I could see the festival went off without a hitch, beyond the typical fussiness of firkins.

Brewmaster Rodger Davis looking surprisingly spry after being at the brewpub until 4 in the morning setting up for the festival.

The weather was beautiful, making the deck upstairs at Triple Rock the place to be.

For more photos from this year’s Bay Area Firkin Gravity Fest, visit the photo gallery.