Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Art #88: Jamie Patrick Paul’s Lovely Day For A Bike Ride

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Today’s work of art is by contemporary artist Jamie Patrick Paul, who works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The title of his 5-color screenprint is Lovely Day for a Bike Ride, and features the iconic Grain Belt sign in the background.

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I love the work’s sense of whimsy. Below is a detail of the Grain Belt sign.

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And he also did a night time version, A Lovely Night for a Bike Ride, though it looks far more dangerous than during the day.

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He also did an interesting piece using a lot of different beer elements, including beer itself for a poster entitled Drunk Lightning. Here’s how he described what went into it:

Drunk Lightning poster, a poster made nearly completely of beer. Gmund Bier paper made of recycled hops, Beer was poured in each ink color. Stella in the red, Guinness in the black, Pabst in the varnish.

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You can see more of Paul’s work at his design portfolio and his website.

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2010

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Rodger Davis’ IPAX IPA, from Triple Rock in Berkeley, California, was chosen best in show at the 13th annual IPA Festival earlier today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full list of winners is below.

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Me and Rodger Davis, brewer of the first place IPAX IPA at this year’s IPA Festival at The Bistro.

Beer In Ads #167: Bieres de Chartres

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Friday’s ad is yet another French beer, this one for Bieres de Chartres. While I don’t know very much about it, or who the artist is, it’s from the same period of time — the 1920s — and is cut from the same cloth. It may even be a tad funnier, what with the waiter drinking the beer even as he delivers it.

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Session #42: A Special Place, A Special Beer

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Our 42nd Session is hosted by Derrick Peterman, from Ramblings of a Beer Runner. He’s chosen “A Special Place, A Special Beer” as his topic, which Derrick describes geographically, as follows:

The Session provides a unique opportunity to explore this connection between the beer in our glasses and the place it comes from with perspectives from all over the world.

So I ask for this 42nd Session that you write about a special place in your life, and a beer or brewery that connects you to that place. It can be the beer from your childhood home, a place you once lived, your current hometown, a memorable vacation you once took, or a place you’ve always wanted to go to but never had the chance. Please take a few moments to think about the how the beer connects you to this place, and share this with us. Of course, the definition of “place” is rather open ended, and in some cases, highly debatable, so it will be interesting to see the responses on what constitutes a place.

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This was actually a simpler question than I expected, once I stopped to think about it. For me, I believe the most special place to have a beer, any beer, is at the source. The place where it was created — the brewery — I always find is my favorite place to try their beer, especially for the first time. Plus, in certain places the brewery has beers available that can’t be found anywhere else.

A number of years ago, for example, I visited the Radeberger Brauerei just outside Dresden, Germany. Their pilsner is one of the best in the world, at least in my opinion. But even better is the unfiltered zwickel version that they have only at the brewery. To be fair, they also used to sell it at one bar in downtown Dresden but last I heard a flood had closed it.

I love drinking beer at home, at the bar, at the restaurant — okay, anywhere — but not quite as much as in the brewery itself. That’s hallowed ground, in a sense. I’m not really a “ticker,” so I have no idea how many breweries I’ve visited over the years but it’s certainly a fair number. And they’re almost always where I’ve had the most memorable experiences. I don’t know if it’s the setting — I do love the feeling of being in a brewery — or being with the brewer, or some other intangible, but I inevitably get the sense that that’s the beer’s home. And things just always taste better when they’re home.

No More Gluek Beer

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Cold Spring Brewing in Minnesota announced yesterday that they will no longer brew the historic Gluek brand. Gluek began brewing in 1857, before Minnesota was even a state.

In 1857 on the bank of the Mississippi River in an area which would someday be known as Minneapolis, German immigrant Gottlieb Gluek started the Mississippi Brewing Company. Soon the name was changed to the Gluek Brewing Company, and by 1964 Gluek became Minneapolis’s oldest continuously-operated business.

In 1858 the company brewed 3,996 barrels of beer, and by 1901 the annual capacity was second only to the two “giants” the Minneapolis Brewing Company (later renamed as the Grain Belt) and the Theo. Hamm Brewery of St. Paul.

But after 1964 it fell on hard times and, like many regional breweries, was bought by G. Heileman. The original brewery was torn down but a new one was later built back in Cold Spring, Minnesota in 1997. A couple of years ago, however, they renamed Gluek Brewing to Cold Spring Brewing as fewer and fewer consumers knew or cared about Gluek’s history in the region.

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As an AP story reports:

By September, Gluek will be phased out. But vice president and general manager Doug DeGeest says Cold Spring Brewing is keeping the Gluek trademark, and it’s possible the beer could come back.

DeGeest says it was a business decision to discontinue the Gluek brand. He says the Cold Spring-based company cannot keep up with production and needed to decide which product in its portfolio of beers to discontinue.

When I was the beer buyer at BevMo, we brought in some of the Gluek beer in cans and they also sold us a beer exclusively (for California, at least) which we sold as a private label beer. That was Fat Cat Lager, which was a decent enough all-malt generic lager. I believe Randy Mosher did the label design.

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Regardless of Gluek’s ultimate place in American brewing history, it’s always sad to see another old brand consigned to the scrap heap of discontinued brands, but then I’m sentimental that way.

Beer In Ads #166: Marcellin Auzolle’s Supreme Biere Gangloff

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Thursday’s ad is another French beer, and like Tuesday’s ad, features an anthropomorphic sun. It was done by French illustrator Marcellin Auzolle and is specifically for Supreme Biere Gangloff. A lot of great artists worked for Gangloff in the 1920s, I hope their beer was as good as their taste in artists. It’s also great to see kids in beer ads, especially given our peculiar paranoia about mixing the two.

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Beer In Ads #165: Moretti Birra Friulana

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Wednesday’s ad is for one of the most well-known Italian beers, Birra Moretti. It’s the iconic Moretti man used on the beer label since just after World War II, which has a fascinating story in its own right, which is reprinted below from Moretti’s website.

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The story behind the label

The quality of Birra Moretti beer is guaranteed by the Man on the Label, the moustached drinker who is the symbol of the Birra Moretti brand. This moustached gentleman has an unusual history… In 1942, Birra Moretti had already been a popular drink all over Friuli for over 80 years. One day, Commander Lao Menazzi Moretti saw a pleasant-looking old man with a moustache sitting at a little table in the Boschetti di Tricesimo inn (Udine).

He was just the kind of character Moretti had been looking for to represent the qualities and character of his beer: wholesome, traditional and authentic. Commander Moretti didn’t let him get away. He went up to him and asked the man if he could photograph him and also asked him what he would like in return. “Cal mi dedi di bevi, mi baste” — answered the man in Friuli dialect, which means “Get me a drink, that’ll do.”

The photographs were taken and were used after the turbulent times caused by the war were over, when they were handed over to Professor Segala, a famous poster artist of the time. Segala, following Commander Moretti’s descriptions of the original colours (the photographs were, of course, in black and white), created an advertising billboard which was used for years, wherever Birra Moretti was sold. This billboard gave rise to the now-famous Birra Moretti label.

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose

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As Gertrude Stein — who was born in Oakland — famously said, “A rose is a rose is a rose.” On the other side of that coin, an alcohol tax masquerading as a fee is a tax, and a terrible idea, no matter what you call it. Today’s San Francisco Examiner, in their Under the Dome section on City Hall Politics, is reporting that Avalos hopes renaming alcohol fee makes it more potable to business. Apparently small businesses don’t like the newly proposed alcohol tax, but supervisor Avalos has the solution. Forget addressing their concerns, admitting it’s a bad idea or even conceding he was duped by the Marin Institute, no. His answer is to change the name of the “alcohol mitigation fee” to “alcohol cost recovery fee” so that — and I quote — “businesses might find the proposal a bit more refreshing.” How stupid does he think people are? You have to wonder.

Save A Slug, Have A Beer

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Add one more reason to drink beer, especially if you’re a nature lover. According to the e-mail I got from Fustigato — I believe from Italy — millions of slugs are killed each year using beer. To save the slugs, they’re suggesting you have a beer, and in fact all the beer in the world. I think the students and alumni of the University of Santa Cruz will get behind this campaign. So remember, you’re not just quenching your thirst when you drink a beer, you’re also saving a slug.

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Below is the video.