Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

De Koninck Sold To Duvel

By

de-koninck
Not sure how I missed this, but late last week, Duvel Moortgat announced that they had acquired De Koninck. I learned about it from Stephen Beaumont, but the press release has all the details:

Duvel Moortgat nv has reached agreement on the acquisition of 100% of the shares of the Brouwerij De Koninck group. With this acquisition, Duvel Moortgat expands its portfolio of specialty beers; it also aims to reinvigorate the De Koninck beer brand.

Brouwerij De Koninck is located in the heart of Antwerp and has a unique bond with the city. The De Koninck “Bolleke” is most popular in Antwerp and the surrounding area as well as in the Netherlands, but it also enjoys strong brand recognition throughout Belgium. Brouwerij De Koninck started its activities in 1827 when Jozeph De Koninck bought a coach house on the border between Antwerp and Berchem, currently known as “Afspanning De Hand”. These premises were converted into a brewery in 1833. Since then, the image of a hand has been immortalized in the brewery’s logo. Over the years, the Van den Bogaert and Van Bauwel families succeeded in building De Koninck into a valuable brand with a solid local reputation.

Bernard Van den Bogaert states: “This acquisition is a logical step. Because of the small size of our brewery, we have experienced a lack of commercial strength and distribution channels. During the last couple of years, Duvel Moortgat has proven that it possesses the right experience. And the fact that the two breweries have maintained an excellent relationship for generations adds an extra dimension to this acquisition.” Brouwerij De Koninck experienced its greatest success during the nineties, achieving a yearly production level of 130,000 hectoliters. As a result of a shrinking beer market and a strong decline in the pale ale segment, today less than 50% of that volume remains. Duvel Moortgat is also acquiring significant real estate, mainly located in the Antwerp region. This comprises the brewery site, about seven other properties and 63 cafés, including Antwerp icons such as “Den Engel” at the Grote Markt and the “Boer van Tienen” at Mechels Plein. The acquisition also includes beer trader Brouwerij De Valk, based in Wijnegem. De Valk has grown to become a key supplier in the Antwerp region, delivering to hundreds of cafés and restaurants on a daily basis.

Michel Moortgat (CEO of Duvel Moortgat) states: “We are very pleased to be able to incorporate Brouwerij De Koninck into the Duvel Moortgat Group. The “Bolleke” is not only a strong brand but also a quality specialty beer that fits perfectly into Duvel Moortgat’s range (Duvel, Chouffe, Maredsous, Liefmans, Vedett, Bel Pils). Our international distribution, including our own branches in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the UK and the USA, provides an ideal operating base to progressively develop De Koninck. It did not take us long to reach agreement: family values and traditions are concepts that both breweries feel strongly about.”

De-Koninck
The De Koninck brewery in Antwerp.

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

By

art-beer
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.

Jamie-Patrick-Paul_Lovely-Day-For-A-Bike-Ride

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

Jamie-Patrick-Paul_Lovely-Day-detail

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.

Jamie-Patrick-Paul_Lovely-Night-For-A-Bike-Ride

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.

Jamie-Patrick-Paul_Drunk-Lightning

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

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2010

By

bistro
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.

P1000771
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

By

ad-billboard
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.

bieres-de-chatres

Session #42: A Special Place, A Special Beer

By

location
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.

session_logo_all_text_200

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

By

gluek
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.

gluek-dark

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.

Fat-Cat-label

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

By

ad-billboard
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.

marcellin-auzolle-supreme-biere-gangloff

Beer In Ads #165: Moretti Birra Friulana

By

ad-billboard
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.

moretti-beer

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

By

rose
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.