NOSB Unanimously Votes That Organic Beer Should Include 100% Organic Hops

October 28, 2010 By Jay Brooks

usda-organic
I just heard that the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) earlier today voted unanimously “to require organic beer to include 100% organic hops beginning January 1, 2013.” If you haven’t been following this, under current USDA guidelines, a beer can be labeled “organic” if 95% of its ingredients are organic. Since less than 5% of beer consists of hops, that means almost any beer using organic malt may be called an organic beer. If a brewery uses 100% organic ingredients, they may label that beer “100% organic,” but all but the most savvy consumers are unaware of the difference. And it’s hard to argue that the current standard doesn’t cause confusion. I think most people who see a product labeled “organic” are going to assume that it’s all organic, not just mostly organic. There are actually four ways that beer can be labeled “organic” which includes the two I just mentioned plus “Made with Organic Ingredients” and “Some Organic Ingredients.” You can see the different standards at a post I did several Years ago, What Makes Beer Organic? The last two seem to convey the intended information, and so does saying “100%.” It’s that simple “organic” designation being only 95% that has people concerned — rightly so, I should add — and led the American Organic Hop Grower Association (AOHGA) to petition the USDA to “remove hops from the National List of non-organic ingredients allowed in organic food (section 205.606).” You can view the petition, and an addendum, at the AOGHA website.

Here’s some of the background, from an AOGHA press release:

Hops were first added to the National List by the NOSB in June 2007, when organic hops were primarily produced in Europe and New Zealand. Since then, the U.S. organic hop industry has made significant advances. Progressive, large-scale family farms in the Pacific Northwest and small, local growers across the country are now growing organic hops, even though the hop producers believe the market for them has remained weak due to the current NOSB policy which allows brewers to use less expensive, non-organic hops in their beer labeled organic.
In an attempt to remove hops from the National List, the American Organic Hop Grower Association (AOHGA) submitted a petition to the USDA in December 2009, supported by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, Lakefront Brewery, Seven Bridges Cooperative, and Hopunion LLC.

When the USDA denied the petition, BT Loftus Ranches VP Patrick Smith wrote an impassioned essay, National Organic Standards Board to US Organic Hop Industry: “Drop Dead”, that nicely laid out the organic hop farmers’ case. In the middle of October, “thanks to his efforts, and the attendant “response from consumers, organic hop growers, and organic brewers, the NOSB Handling Committee has revised their previous recommendation and is now recommending that hops come off the National List on January 1, 2013.” Good news, to be sure, but it still required the full board of NOSB board vote on the petition again and accept the changed recommendation at a meeting in Madison today, as reported by Patrick Smith in an Organic Hops Update.

organic-beer

The AOHGA website is now updated with the following: “On October 28, 2010, the National Organic Standards Board unanimously voted in favor of the removal of hops from section 205.606 of the National List of Approved and Prohibited Substances, effective January 1, 2013.”

Beer In Ads #225: Falstaff, This Is The One

October 27, 2010 By Jay Brooks

ad-billboard
Wednesday’s beer and baseball ad is the seventh one featured going into the World Series. The ad is our second for Falstaff and appropriately mentions the seventh inning stretch. The ad is from 1963 and starts out with “For your Light-hearted moments … This is the One.” I can’t tell if the ad is photographed or a hyper-realistic illustration. The pair just look so perfect that it’s hard to tell. The veins in his arms, the impish smirk, the perfect hair. Then there’s the woman behind him, throwing off her catcher’s mitt with tousled hair and a perfect come hither smile. The guy actually looks a little bit like a very young Ed O’Neil, the Dad on “Married with Children” and now on “Modern Family.” The text at the bottom begins “Seventh inning! Stretch for a Falstaff!”

Falstaff-1963-baseball

Super Drunk

October 27, 2010 By Jay Brooks

superman
This Halloween, a new law in the state of Michigan takes effect. Officially, it’s known as the “High Blood Alcohol Content Enhanced Penalty” law, though most people call it by its nickname: the “Super Drunk” law. Essentially, the new law targets persons driving with a BAC of 0.17 or above and carries harsher penalties than regular drunk driving, to wit:

Under the new law, drunk drivers with a level of .17 or higher will face harsher punishment. Jail time will be doubled, a drivers license will be revoked for a minimum 45 days. Drivers who register .17 or higher will also face mandatory alcohol treatment and costs that could reach as high as $10,000.

According to Michigan ABC television station WJRT Channel 12, the “National Highway Traffic Safety is behind [the new law]. More than 40 states already passed the law and Michigan is one of them.” Strange that I haven’t heard of this before, especially if all but ten states have a similar law on the books. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, not including Michigan, indeed 42 states have increased penalties for drivers stopped with a BAC of between 0.15 and 0.20, depending on the state.

So I know what you’re probably thinking. “How could I possibly be against this?” Well, the truth is I’m actually not … not exactly, anyway. I’m not necessarily against having harsher penalties for different levels of intoxicated driving. My biggest problem with this law, and presumably it’s the same in the other states, is that while addressing the upper limit, it keeps the lower limit where it is, at 0.08, and also there continues to be “zero tolerance” areas that ignore the law and arrest people who are below 0.08 and also some jurisdictions that either have proposed or have already passed legislation allowing the arrest of people with a lower BAC. I’m just not sure any of this does much to actually stop people from driving drunk — the goal, one hopes — and it especially does nothing to stop the worst offenders. At least one Michigan newspaper agrees with me, writing In The Margins: ‘Super drunk’ law isn’t necessary, nor will it curb hard-core drunks.

To me the problem of the worst offenders driving drunk was never addressed by lowering the BAC. All that’s been accomplished is ruining the lives of more and more people. The argument is always, but what about the people who are hurt by drunk drivers? In a sense, that’s like asking “what about the people who might be accidentally shot during a robbery.” Making robbery illegal hasn’t stopped that problem, either, because people who will do stupid and illegal things will not stop just because the government says “hey you, stop.” Of course it would be great if everybody was responsible and didn’t get behind the wheel of their car when they’d had too much, but more and harsher penalties hasn’t worked before. Maybe it’s time to try a different approach?

Beer In Ads #224: Falstaff Double Play With The White Sox

October 26, 2010 By Jay Brooks

ad-billboard
Tuesday we feature the sixth baseball-themed add, which will continue through the World Series. The ad is for Falstaff and the Chicago White Sox. It’s most likely from 1971-75, because as far as I can tell those are the only years that the Sox used red and white in the way its shown in the ad. The theme of the ad is “Double Play …” with the twin pleasures of beer and baseball.

Falstaff-double-play

Beer In Ads #223: National Premium Beer & The Orioles

October 25, 2010 By Jay Brooks

ad-billboard
Monday we feature the fifth baseball-themed add, which will continue through the World Series. The ad is for Baltimore’s National Bohemian and specifically National Premium Beer. It’s hard to tell when the ad is from, because it shows a lot of old baseball memorabilia for the Baltimore Orioles. It’s at least after my childhood favorite player, Brooks Robinson, started playing — and that was 1955. Though it seems more likely it was after he became a legendary player, and I can’t say exactly when that happened. The tagline for the ad reads. “National Premium Beer. Our Name Says It. Our Taste Proves It.” After that, it’s all about the Orioles, which was my favorite baseball team growing up.

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And I just pulled out the box of baseball cards that my mother didn’t manage to throw away and found my Brooks Robinson baseball card from the 1970 season, forty years ago.
brooks-robinson

Discovery Channel To Explain “How Beer Saved The World”

October 25, 2010 By Jay Brooks

It seems that the Discovery Channel is also currently shooting a beer documentary entitled “How Beer Saved the World.” Sweetwater Brewing in Georgia tweeted a photo of the crew of the documentary at the brewery over the weekend.

sweetwater-discovery
“The Discovery channel’s, “How Beer Saved the World” Amanda from Emory with our Brewmaster Mark Medlin and the sound dude.”

There’s not much additional information out there, though on Sunday the Georgia Tech Glee Club performed the Anacreontic Song at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, also for the documentary. If you’re not familiar with the song, it’s also known as “To Anacreon in Heaven” and is an old British drinking song. According to AstroCocktail, “Anacreon was an ancient Greek poet (563-478 BC) whose many poems about the pleasures of wine and its results earned him the reputation as the bard of the grape.”

Even if you don’t know the lyrics, you probably know the tune, as it was used as the melody for our National Anthem. “Francis Scott Key wrote ‘Defence of Fort McHenry’ while detained on a British ship during the night of September 13, 1814, as the British forces bombarded the American fort. His brother-in-law, on hearing the poem Key had written, realized it fit the tune of ‘The Anacreontic Song.'” It was later retitled The Star-Spangled Banner. You can hear a version of it here.

“Anacreon” by Jean Leon Gerome, 1848

Admittedly, not much to go on, but it would appear there is definitely another beer documentary in the works for the Discovery channel, and that’s in addition to the new series, Brew Masters, debuting next month and starring Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head.

Giants vs. Rangers: San Francisco Brewery & Fort Worth Brewery Make Friendly Wager

October 25, 2010 By Jay Brooks

sf-giants texas-rangers
Craft brewers tend to not be as cutthroat competing with one another as a lot of other businesses. Most believe that the sale of one craft beer helps the sales of all other good beer, too. But that ethos doesn’t necessarily extend to sports. Case in point, the 2010 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers.

Shaun O’Sullivan, from the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco — in fact just a stone’s throw from the ballpark where the World Series will be played — got a call today from his friend and colleague Fritz Rahr, who owns Rahr & Sons Brewing in Fort Worth, Texas, proposing a friendly wager on this year’s World Series.

So here’s the bet, as told by Shaun O’Sullivan on the 21st Amendment website in a post entitled It’s On Like Donkey Kong:

If the Texas Rangers win the World Series (highly unlikely in my opinion, but I digress), I will wear a Texas Ranger’s shirt, drinking a Rahr and Sons delicious beer outside of San Francisco’s AT&T Park. And when the San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers (they will), Fritz will be wearing a Giants shirt and drinking a 21st Amendment delicious canned craft beer outside of Arlington Field.

I can’t wait to see those photos. Just one more reason to cheer on the Giants. Though I confess that Rahr makes some outstanding beers and it would be nice to taste a few of them during the series, I think for now I’ll stick to Bay Area beers to root for San Francisco beginning this Wednesday. What will you be drinking during the ball games?

world-series-2010

Beer In Art #99: Cap Anson and Buck Ewing “E.&J. Burke Ale” Beer Poster

October 24, 2010 By Jay Brooks

art-beer
Today’s art is a beautiful lithograph from 1889 featuring both beer and baseball, our recent topic during the MLB Playoffs and World Series. Although the lithograph is essentially an advertisement, its age, historic nature, value and artistic beauty make it artistic enough to be featured here, at least in my opinion. Known as the Cap Anson and Buck Ewing “Burke Ale” Beer Poster, it is the first known time that a baseball player was paid for his endorsement for advertising. The two baseball players were Cap Anson, of the Chicago White Stockings (the team that eventually became the Cubs, the modern White Sox took their name from the Cubs’ abandoned nickname in 1900), and Buck Ewing, of the New York Giants (now, of course, the San Francisco Giants, on their way to the World Series). The beer being advertised is essentially from Guinness, their Finest Pale Ale and Extra Foreign Stout, both of which were sold under the label “E. & J. Burke,” which was for Edward and John Burke who, had a liquor importing company and was licensed by Guinness to sell their products under that name, beginning in either 1849 or 1880 (accounts disagree) and continuing through the start of Prohibition.

anson-ewing-1889

Here’s the description from Robert Edwards Auctions, who auctioned one of only three known posters in 2008:

Both Anson and Ewing are pictured in their respective uniforms as they take a break from a game to enjoy a refreshing glass of beer. Anson is seen enjoying a glass of Finest Pale Ale, while Ewing opts for a glass of Extra Foreign Stout. The timeless appeal of this piece, aside from the colorful graphics and high-quality production values, lies in the artistry of the scene as a whole. In what was then a nostalgic homage to the game’s early history, Anson and Ewing are pictured relaxing outside a large retiring tent. Such tents, which were holdovers from the game of cricket, were a common site at ball games during the 1850s and early 1860s, but were no longer in vogue at the time. A large banner displayed above the tent reads “Champions,” which most likely refers to the many championships won by each player’s respective teams in the preceding years, to which they now toast. Pictured in the background is a game-in-progress scene (presumably between the White Stockings and Giants), with the field bordered by a filled-to-capacity grandstand. The foreground image further promotes the company’s products, as Anson is sitting on a keg of Finest Pale Ale and Ewing is resting his arm on a barrel of Extra Foreign Stout. Boxes of “Burke’s Old Irish Whiskey” and “Garm Kirk Scotch Whiskey” are also visible among the barrels. Perhaps the most amusing detail are the numerous empty bottles of each respective beverage that are strewn all along the ground at their feet, along with various pieces of baseball equipment (base, ball and box, and bat). Also in the foreground, lying next to a beer barrel, is letter of endorsement from the brewery that bears an “Arthur Guinness Son & Co.” seal. The name of the lithography company, “Wagner & Co. Lith – 75 Murray St. N.Y.,” is printed in the lower right corner of the poster.

The Robert Edwards Auctions also has a lot more information about the poster. According to Collectors Corner, the poster “sold for an astonishing $188,000, setting a record for a baseball-related advertising poster and a record for any American advertising poster featuring a product of any kind.”

Guinness Ad #40: Steamrolling

October 23, 2010 By Jay Brooks

Our 40th Guinness poster by John Gilroy shows a man lifting up a manhole cover — and also lifting the steamroller resting on the cover — in order to rescue his pint of Guinness. Naturally, the tagline is “Guinness for strength.”

Guinness-steamroller

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