Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

MADD Charity Rating Downgraded To “D”

By

mad
The American Beverage Institute (ABI), a trade organization representing restaurants and specifically on-premise alcohol issues, is one of the few groups to confront MADD’s deceptive practices and neo-prohibitionist tendencies head on. Yesterday they released the following press release:

The American Institute of Philanthropy’s (AIP) Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report has downgraded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to a “D” rating on a A-F scale in its August 2010 report.

“Under the leadership of CEO Chuck Hurley, MADD further diminished its focus on victim services and educating Americans about the dangers of drunk driving, instead pushing anti-drinking, anti-alcohol public policies,” said American Beverage Institute (ABI) Managing Director Sarah Longwell. “The public needs to realize that MADD isn’t the same group it was 20 years ago.”

MADD has consistently received low ratings from the Charity Rating Guide due to its poor fundraising and spending practices.

According to the AIP, it should cost most charities $35 or less to raise $100. In some years, MADD has spent nearly double that amount. The AIP also says most highly efficient charities are able to spend 75 percent or more of total expenses on charitable programs. In some years, MADD has spent as little as 57 percent on programs. In 2008, MADD spent almost $30 million on salaries and fundraising, leaving just 1/3 of its budget available for charitable work and victim services.

Another charitable giving guide, Charity Navigator, gives MADD an overall rating of 1 out of 4 stars. Charity Navigator reserves this embarrassing basement-level for a charity that “fails to meet industry standards.”

During Hurley’s tenure at MADD, the organization’s revenue declined while Hurley and other officers and directors saw their salaries increase — a whopping 56 percent. In contrast, MADD’s revenue declined nearly one-quarter over the same period. And MADD’s spending on community programs—what a charity should be about—dropped by 17 percent. In 2009, MADD had to lay off 50 employees nationwide—15 percent of its workforce—a move that cut much of the organization’s victim advocacy work.

These financial changes reveal a shift in MADD’s mission. In the words of its own founder Candy Lightner: MADD “has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”

Longwell continued: “MADD’s anti-alcohol agenda includes advocating for alcohol detectors in all cars, sobriety checkpoints and sky-high alcohol taxes. By spending on these new priorities, MADD has diverted money from programs created to help the victims of drunk driving and get dangerous drunk drivers off the roads.”

Hilarious, it’s great to see someone else holding their feet to the fire. You may recall back in August of last year, after the ABI had the temerity to criticize MADD, that MADD called the ABI “The Angry Arm of Alcohol.” At that time, I observed that we should be angry, and suggested someone make up “Angry Arm of Alcohol” T-shirts. So far, no one’s taken me up on it.

Vinnie’s 40th Birthday Party

By

blind-pig-cupcake
This Sunday, Vinnie Cilurzo, founder and brewmaster at Russian River Brewing, turned forty. His wife Natalie pulled out all the stops and made it a two-day celebration, beginning with a barbecue at the production brewery.

Vinnie & Terrence Sullivan, from Sierra Nevada, filling barrels
We arrived a little early, and Vinnie and Terrence Sullivan, assistant brewer at Sierra Nevada Brewing was there with kegs of a beer that Vinnie brewed in Chico, and they were now filling into wine barrels to store in the barrel room for aging. The beer is for a special project for next year, and I can’t say more than that at this point.

My son Porter & Terrence's son Riley in Russian River's barrel room
We brought our kids along and happily so did Terrence and his wife. Their son Riley and Porter got along immediately and were thick as thieves playing in the barrel room and the rest of the brewery.

P1000588
We dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, put them to bed, and rejoined the party, which had moved to the brewpub, where we caught up again with Natalie and Vinnie.

P1000591
Natalie had a bunch of great cupcakes made, including several custom ones with a few logos you may recognize.

P1000571
The band playing was one of Vinnie’s favorites, The Famous, a San Francisco band. They even did a special song for the occasion, Pliny the Elder.

P1000599
Vinnie and me toward the end of the evening. The next day, we had brunch at Willie BIrds, near the brewery. After that, the party resumed back at the brewpub, but sadly without us. It was time to get the kids home.

Below is a slideshow of Vinnie’s 40t birthday party. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Death By Rattlesnake Beer

By

rattlesnake
Continuing my unintentional theme of dead animals and beer, here’s an odd one from the archives of Minnesota news, as highlighted in Yesterday’s News, 140 Years of Minnesota News by Ben Welter. Although reported in the Minneapolis Tribune in 1900, July 19 to be exact, the incident actually occurred in Iowa. The report assures us, however, that it was near the Minnesota border. Since it’s archival, here’s the original news report in its entirety:

DEATH LURKS IN THE BEER

Three Men Die in Agony After Drinking Lager.

By Wire From Fort Dodge, Ia., July 19.

Four young men living in Cerro Gordo county, near the Minnesota line, purchased and drank a keg of Eastern-brewed beer some days ago, and as a result three of them have died and the fourth is now in terrible agony, and is reported to be on the point of death.

The day was warm and the beer was consumed hurriedly by the friends, who little realized that they were sipping a death-dealing draught. They were all taken sick immediately, and although a physician was soon summoned, the taking off of three of the young bibbers could not be prevented.

To ascertain, if possible, the strange cause of the sickness, the keg was broken into and the decomposed remains of a genuine rattlesnake was found. Improbable as the story sounds, it is true; and is rendered plausible by the fact that empty kegs are often left lying around for weeks before being shipped back to the breweries. It is thus easy for reptiles and insects to crawl into the kegs as cool resorts.

The scalding out of the kegs upon their return to the brewery would naturally kill any living organism, which would remain right in the keg. It was only a few years ago that a man here became sick from drinking keg beer and an investigation showed that a dead toad occupied the keg with the beer.

I’m certainly glad sanitation standards in breweries have improved markedly over the last 110 years.

rattlesnake-pint-glass
This mug, believe it or not, is available for purchase at What on Earth.

Some Beery Trends

By

trends
Over the weekend, I got the latest newsletter from Michael Kuderka of the DBBB, the book of Domestic Brewers and their Bottled Brands, published by MC Bassett. One highlight was some interesting trends from recent IRI data.

If you’re not familiar with IRI data, it’s one of the two major data reporters, along with Nielsen, of sales trends along a variety of products. IRI is short for Information Resources, Inc., though the company is now known as the Symphony IRI Group. IRI data only covers certain kinds of retailers that sell beer, primarily grocery stores and convenience stores, and usually only chains at that. So it’s of limited use, but because the sales data is collected from consistent sources, it is fairly reliable and can show trends. I used to see it all the time, when I was a beer buyer, because most package brewers subscribe to one or the other service and usually bring carefully mined data to show their own positive trends. Anyway, here’s the interesting bits.

Fat Tire, from New Belgium, apparently “made more gains than any other brand when considering both year-over-year case sales and total dollars,” with case sales up 26% and total dollars just under $50 million. What that doesn’t take into account, of course, is that New Belgium opened several new states and a good portion of that bump may have been from being in new markets that weren’t in the data last year. But that does catapult them into the number 3 spot, making the top three best-selling craft beers as follows:

  1. Samuel Adams Boston Lager
  2. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
  3. New Belgium Fat Tire

And here’s some additional trends and brands to watch, at least according to IRI:

  • IPAs: Trending up 29%!
  • Sierra Nevada seasonals: Up 23%
  • Magic Hat #9: Up 22%
  • Alaskan Brewing seasonals: Up 21%
  • Amber Ale & Pale Ale also trending up

Beer In Art #86: Erik Olsen’s Faux Beer Posters

By

art-beer
Today’s works of art are by an illustrator apparently living in the Bay Area, Erik Olsen. I say apparently, because a number of the links from his blogs are dead ends, and the faux beer poster’s I’m highlighting here were abandoned in 2006 after only three posts on that blog, Faux Posters. He created three posters as an homage to the great beer posters on the early 20th century. There he described the idea for the project:

It’s a tribute to some of the great poster designs in the early twentieth century. (Specifically those early French beer posters) Our first series is focused on the theme “beer”, each series of 12 prints will be focused on a new topic with limited prints runs. We have many sizes of prints available, everything for the beginner collector to the serious collector. Stay tuned as we add new Images and new themes to our gallery as we design more Faux Prints!

Unfortunately, only these three were done, beginning with the monster below.

Erik_Olsen-Monster
Bete Biere translates as “Beast Beer,” with the slogan “Ugly But Delicious.”

Erik_Olsen-Mermaid
Biere de Sirene, essentially the Siren’s Beer and the slogan is “Faire attention a l’Appel” or “Heed the Call.”

Erik_Olsen-Prehistoric
“Biere Prehistorique,” simply Prehistoric Beer, “Aged to Perfection.”

The first and the third are available for purchase as a poster, but it’s looks like he abandoned the project before the Mermaid was made available.

You can read Olsen’s biography and see his resume. There’s also a portfolio at his personal website and a few more on Coroflot.

Dead Rabbits, Carrot Beer & Manly Men

By

carrots
This is a strange one I stumbled on while searching for something else. It’s about a carrot beer, which isn’t strange in and of itself. I remember reading that turnip beers weren’t uncommon centuries ago, so why not carrots? Anyway, apparently there’s a high-end fashion store in San Francisco called Carrots. They sell primarily women’s clothes but recently added a men’s fashion line. So they hired an ad agency, Pereira & O’Dell, to help them reach male customers. Here’s what they came up with, according to Dieline:

The objective was to create a buzz around this high-end fashion boutique (CARROTS) and specifically around their men’s line, driving new male customers into the store. We created a limited edition, designer beer made from carrots. We brewed the beer, handcrafted the bottle wraps, and applied the labels. The 22(oz.) burlap-wrapped bottles were hand-delivered as gifts to specifically targeted men and the 12 oz. beers were served at CARROTS-sponsored events and in-store to enhance men’s shopping experiences. Among the hundreds that received the bottle as a gift and the ones that tried it in the store, many people actually placed orders for beer to take home, turning a unique promotional item into a sexy and successful new product. Not to mention creating a buzz around the store.

I guess I don’t understand metrosexuals enough or the type of men who might shop at Carrots. While I understand using beer to attract a male customer, I don’t see how a carrot beer would be the best choice to make for that purpose. I get the joke, but still. According to the label, it’s a Belgian Wit. So perhaps carrot juice was added? I know of of other wits that have been made with orange juice. It also says that the ad agency brewed the beer, which I find hard to believe. Since they also claim to have sold some of the beer, they’d have needed to have a brewing license or have had it done by a licensed brewer and paid the taxes on it. There’s not one mention of the beer itself on either Beer Advocate or Rate Beer, which is also surprising given how unusual a carrot beer is. You’d think somebody would have tried it, just for that reason alone.

carrot-beer

I’m also not sure why the rabbit is dead. The packaging is not without its charms, but I’m just not sure it makes much sense if you stop to think about it. But it’s still odd that I discovered two dead rabbit beers the same week. There’s not much chance of trying it apparently, as the Carrots website doesn’t mention the beer at all, so it may no longer be available.

Lovin’ The Ladies: Beer Ads

By

women
My wife pointed this one out to me, and it’s pretty funny despite highlighting some fairly ugly trends in beer advertising by the big breweries and imports towards women. From the Current TV show InfoMania, the clip is introduced as follows:

Everybody loves beer — men, women, children with fake IDs. But beer companies don’t want one of these groups to enjoy their beer: women. Modern Lady Erin Gibson is on the case of how beer companies like Miller, Budweiser, and Heineken have gone from depicting women in commercials as eye candy hanging out with Spuds MacKenzie to the target of aggression and humiliation.

Beer In Ads #157: Hamm’s Big Fresh Taste

By

ad-billboard
Friday’s ad is from 1963 and is for Hamm’s in the Land of Sky Blue Waters. The text is a wonderfully nonsensical mishmash of adspeak, beginning with “Refreshingly yours!,” whatever that means, followed by “Taste the secret Hamm’s has captured from nature’s purest waters.” Ooh, what could it be, what could it be? The answer, of course, is “BIG FRESH TASTE.” What great meaningless platitudes. And check out the head on that beer. Does that look like a comb over to anyone else?

Hamms-1963