Wednesday’s ad is another one for Detroit’s Goebel beer, from 1953, and the last of the overtly winter ads I have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been driving up to the house in my sleigh just hoping someone would be holding a tray at the window with a freshly-poured beer. It’s good to have dream.
Tuesday’s ad for Detroit’s Goebel beer is presumably meant for the summer, despite showing a winter scene. The “Midsummer Day’s Dream” slogan is the dream apparently brought about drinking a cold brew. Drink Goebels and you’ll be transported to a winter wonderland. Better bring a coat.
Today in 1890, Utah became the 45th state.
Utah
Utah Breweries
Utah Brewery Guides
Guilds: None Known
State Agency: Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
Package Mix:
Beer Taxes:
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:
Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.
For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.
I just heard about a new brewery being planned for San Diego, the Societe Brewing Co. The new venture is a partnership between two brewers, one of whom is Travis Smith. If you haven’t heard of Travis, you will. He brewed at Russian River Brewing for a number of years, before moving south, where he brewed at both The Bruery and the La Jolla Brewhouse.
As of today, he’s just getting started, and when I wrote to ask how far along, here’s what he had to say.
Basically still working on everything. We have money to start but are still raising more capital. We have the concepts done, and are now in the phase were I just need to do it all. I feel like there is so much to do I don’t know where to start.
No estimated opening date yet, but I’ll continue to update Societe’s progress. Join me in wishing Travis the best of luck. Hopefully, we’ll be drinking his beer soon.
Travis “MacGyver” Smith showing off the cork gun he made with spare brewing parts lying around the Russian River brewery. It shot a beer cork a pretty fair distance and would pierce cardboard at 100 feet.
Here’s an odd new innovation (sent in by my friend Mike C.) from GrinOn Industries of Montesano, Washington. They’ve created the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System. As they claim, “GrinOn’s proprietary Bottoms Up Dispensing System is the fastest dispensing system in the world and fills at a rate of up to nine times that of traditional beer taps.” Take a look at in action below.
GrinOn lists a litany of benefits to their system, though the most obvious is that it “improves speed-of-service increases customer satisfaction and sales.” I don’t know about the “customer satisfaction” but an increase in sales makes sense in the right setting, such as an environment where long lines make speed a real issue, and one where plastics cups are the only option. It seems ideal for a sports stadium or a fair. The homepage features a video showing two people filling 44 cups of beer in one minute, without even breaking a sweat. There are also a number of additional videos on a separate page.
Below is what the dispenser base looks like.
They also claim that their system “reduces the stress and cost of ‘foamy beer problems.'” Filling the beer from the bottom does seem like it would produce head in a very different way, though in the video it certainly seems adequate for the type of beer being poured. It also must use a proprietary cup, though the website talks about there being a FDA approved MAG™ — a round magnet — at the bottom of the cup which seals the cup. It apparently can also be used after you drink the beer as a refrigerator magnet, and they even can sell you a customized magnet that can be a souvenir after the fact or otherwise used promotionally.
I can’t see it being used by small breweries or brewpubs, or even most beer bars, but where volume of just a couple of different beers — the big macros and high volume micros seem likeliest — is the key to the business, then it seems like it could be viable. What do you think?
Monday’s ad for is Rheingold beer from 1949, featuring Miss Rheingold for that year, Pat McElroy. With a broad smile on her face she’s threatening us with a snowball, and with at least one in reserve by her left hand. I’m not sure if her little dog, too, is part of her strategy, but I’m not picking a fight with Pat.
Today in 1959, Alaska became the 49th state.
Alaska
Alaska Breweries
Alaska Brewery Guides
Guild: Brewers Guild of Alaska
State Agency: Alcoholic Beverage Control Board
Package Mix:
Beer Taxes:
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:
Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.
Surprising no one who’s been paying attention, the Brewers Association today announced the revision of the definition of what it means to be a craft brewery, at least as far as the trade organization is concerned. In order to advocate for any specific group, it’s useful to know who is eligible to be a member. In 1976, Congress arbitrarily chose 2 million barrels for a tax differential and ever since the part of the definition that denoted a “small” brewery has been one making less than 2 million barrels annually.
From the BA press release:
In the BA’s craft brewer definition, the term “small” now refers to any independent brewery that produces up to 6 million barrels of traditional beer. The previous definition capped production at 2 million barrels.
The association cited several reasons for the change, including the recognition that “small” is a descriptive term relative to the overall size of the industry.
“Thirty-four years have passed since the original small brewers tax differential defined small brewers as producing less than 2 million barrels,” said Nick Matt, chair of the Brewers Association board of directors and chairman and CEO of F.X. Matt Brewing Company. “A lot has changed since 1976. The largest brewer in the U.S. has grown from 45 million barrels to 300 million barrels of global beer production.”
Matt added, “The craft brewer definition and bylaws now more accurately reflect and align with our government affairs efforts.” On the legislative front in 2010, the Brewers Association supported H.R. 4278/S. 3339, which sought to update the cap on an excise tax differential for small brewers to 6 million barrels per year in production for their first 2 million barrels.
Retaining Market Share for Craft Brewers
The industry’s largest craft brewer, The Boston Beer Company, is poised to become the first craft brewer to surpass 2 million barrels of traditional beer within the next few years. Loss of The Boston Beer Company’s production in craft brewing industry statistics would inaccurately reflect on the craft brewing industry’s market share.
In addition to Boston Beer, the current growth trajectory of other sizable BA member breweries places them on a course approaching the 2 million barrel threshold in the coming years.
“With this change to the craft brewer definition and BA bylaws, statistics will continue to accurately reflect the 30-year growth of market share for craft brewed beer,” said Matt. “Brewers Association statistics on craft brewers will continue to keep pace with the growth of the industry.”
Craft brewed beer market share is now approximately five percent of the U.S. beer industry, and growing. The BA has a stated mission of helping America’s craft brewers achieve more than five percent market share by 2013.
Matt added, “Rather than removing members due to their success, the craft brewing industry should be celebrating our growth.”
This week’s work of art is not strictly beer-oriented, except that we use our fives senses, and in particular smell and taste, to create and enjoy the flavor of beer. It’s by the Austrian painter Hans Makart and it’s title is Die Fünf Sinne, or “The Five Senses.” The oil painting consists of five panels completed in 1879, though other sources claim he worked on it off and on from 1840 until 1884.
Here’s a description of the painting from the Columbian World Exposition of 1893.
The five-paneled oil painting which is portrayed above was, on account of the notoriety of its author, one of the chief attractions of the Austrian galleries in the Art Palace. It was a study in the nude, showing five different views of an ideal female human form. The senses of Smelling, Seeing, Hearing, Feeling and Tasting are represented as in action, and in Tasting, Eve plucks the fruit from that forbidden tree “whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe with loss of Eden.” The sense of Feeling, on the other hand, flatters woman with a recognition of her principal attraction, the love of the young and the joy that comes with its touch. Hans Makart, the sensational Austrian painter, was born in 1840 and died in Venice in 1884.
Below are “Smell” and “Taste” shown a little bigger, since those are the two most important for tasting beer.
You can see more of Makart’s paintings at the Art Renewal Center and also the Museum Syndicate.
One of the books I got for Christmas this year, and so far probably my favorite (thanks Mrs. BBB) is by British author Niki Segnit. The book is entitled The Flavor Thesaurus and is subtitled “A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook.” Just from skimming it and starting to read it, I know I’m going to love and it will be a favorite, much referred to book.
In the introduction was this gem, which should be obvious, but we rarely think about it.
Flavor is the not the same as taste. Taste is restricted to five qualities detectable on the tongue and elsewhere in the mouth: sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness and “umami” (or savoriness). Flavor, on the other hand, is detected mainly thanks to our sense of smell, by the olfactory bulb and, to a lesser extent, orally. Pinch your nose and you can tell if an ingredient is sweet or salty, but not what the flavor is. Your sense of taste gives you a back-of-an-envelope sketch of what particular foodstuff is like: flavor fills in the details. Nonetheless, in its general, broadest terms use, the term “flavor” tends to incorporate taste, as well as the “trigeminal” qualities of ingredients — that is, the sensation of heat from chili, pepper and mustard, the cooling properties of menthol and the drawstring pucker of tannins in red wine and tea.
And while she’s talking about food, flavor is flavor. Naturally, it’s true of beer, as well.
The books itself is fascinating, here’s how it’s divided up, from the book’s website:
The back section lists, alphabetically, 99 popular ingredients, and suggests classic and less well known flavour matches for each. The front section contains an entry for every flavour match listed in the back section and is organised into 16 flavour themes such a Bramble & Hedge, Green & Grassy, and Earthy.
There are 980 entries in all and 200 recipes or suggestions are embedded in the text. It covers classic pairings such as pork & apple, lamb & apricot, and cucumber & dill; contemporary favourites like chocolate & chili, lobster & vanilla, and goat’s cheese & beetroot; and interesting but unlikely-sounding couples including black pudding & chocolate, lemon & beef, blueberry & mushroom, and watermelon & oyster.
It’s set up just like a regular thesaurus, but the headings are each specific foods. Take, for example, one of my favorites: the potato, which is under the “Earthy” section. There are 44 separate flavor pairings for potato with another flavor. Some are obvious, some are surprising, but all are intriguing. It’s very well written, in a casual, funny style. Here’s what she has to say about “Potato & Bacon.”
POTATOES & BACON: Driving past the Farmer’s Market Cafe on the A12 in Suffolk, England. I saw a sign outside that read, in huge letters. Ham Hock Hash. Nothing else. No other food, no opening times, nothing. Just three little words that launched a thousand U-turns.
If you love food, and especially pairing foods,, you’ll want to pick up this book.
Below is the overall flavor wheel she created for the book, listing the 16 major flavor types in the center ring and the main kinds of food that fall under each, in the outer ring.
