Tuesday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1947. It’s one of a series from around that time period that were all inside of a blue ribbon. I love the slogan at the bottom: “It’s Blended … It’s Splendid!” Also, check out the expression on the guy’s face as he’s about to bit into that fried chicken leg. Is it the beer he’s leering at, or could it be the gal in the tight red dress? Take a look. What do you think he’s looking at?
This isn’t exactly news, the effect known as “beer goggles” — where after a few pints people appear more attractive — was confirmed in 2002 and the mathematical formula was announced in 2005. Whether Matt Damon wrote it out on a hallway blackboard one late night is still not known. But How Stuff Works (under the TLC Cooking imprimatur) has a nice summary of the formula.
The first study I recall seeing was in 2002, and was conducted by the University of Glasgow. Both the BBC and the Daily Collegian had the story. Then, in 2005, researchers at the University of Manchester stumbled upon the formula for how it all works. They also discovered that “alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:
The formula is laid out below.
Here’s how to decode the formula:
The formula works out a “beer goggle” score ranging from 1 to 100+. When ø = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10.
And one last odd finding of the second study. “A nearsighted, sober person who isn’t wearing his or her glasses can experience a beer-goggle effect equivalent to drinking eight pints of beer.”
I got confirmation last night on how exactly the proposed San Francisco alcohol fees will be applied. The actual language in the ordinance is incredibly vague and open to interpretation (and misinterpretation). My source has either spoken to several city supervisors or talked to others who have, a combination of the two, I believe. And here’s what we’ve learned. There’s good news and bad news, so to speak.
Despite the change in language — apparently an “ethanol ounce” is common European parlance — the proposed ordinance will still be applying the tax “per fluid ounce of alcohol,” forcing a lot of math and administrative headaches, to say the least. So every single bottle containing alcohol, even changing vintages, will require a formula be applied to it. For example, take a 12 oz. bottle of beer that’s 6% a.b.v. Here’s how it will work.
To say the least, it will be an administrative nightmare — primarily for wholesalers, brewpubs and self-distributing breweries who will be filing the reports and paying the fee.
Here’s a few more examples of what the fee would be for various alcoholic beverages.
And let’s not forget that the fee will be imposed at the wholesale level, meaning that it will be marked up and the fee passed along to consumers at a much higher rate, and then marked up again by the retailer or bar, whoever sells it to you and me.
Monday’s ad is presumably supposed to be funny in that time when most women were housewives incapable of much else, and certainly putting up wallpaper was beyond their expertise. She has that “I guess I can’t do it” look on her face, but I’m sure the beer will make it all better. It’s from 1958. In my household the opposite is true. I’m all thumbs but my wife is the handy one.
Zymurgy magazine, which is published by the American Homebrewers Association for its members, today released the results of their latest poll, asking their readers to “readers to send us a list of their 20 favorite beers. The only rule [was] that the beer [had] to be commercially available somewhere in the United States. A record number of votes were cast this year, with 1,192 different beers from 450 breweries represented in the poll.” So while the name of the poll is 2010 Zymurgy Best Beers In America, the list does include a few imported beers that are sold in the U.S.
For the second year in a row, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder took the top spot.
That’s the top 25, but the top 50 can bee seen at Zymurgy’s press release.
They also picked the top 25 favorite breweries, of which Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. of Fort Worth, Texas was number one and they “tabulated which breweries had the most brands in the voting. That honor went to Boston Beer Co. with 22 of its Samuel Adams brews getting votes. Dogfish Head was close behind with 20 brands.” You can also see the full list of Beer Portfolios and Favorite Breweries at the American Homebrewers Association website.
The UK’s Publican recently included a report from the Scotsman regarding the emergence of the two likeliest candidates to buy Bass from ABI.
A North American brewing giant and small regional UK brewer have emerged as the front-runners to buy beer brand Bass in this country .It is believed brewing major Molson Coors and Well’s & Young’s, based in Bedford in England, are favourites to land Bass as current owner Anheuser-Busch Inbev is understood to be considering a sale to want to focus instead on its premium lager portfolio, which includes Stella Artois, Beck’s and Budweiser. It declined to comment on what it called “market speculation” about a potential sale.
Let’s see how this plays out.
Today’s works of art were all created over the past four years, as a part of an art contest by Pabst Blue Ribbon. Now that Pabst Brewing Co. has recently changed hands, who knows whether the new owners will keep the art contest alive. As far as I can tell, it started in 2007 and has been held each year since, including this year. The PBR Art website has a gallery with 380 works of art that have been submitted. Many of them are quite good, and I’ve picked out some my favorites below.
A straightforward still life by Mark Cummings.
This fun one, an interpretation of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” is by Christopher Galiyas.
This painting by Josh Holland reminds me a bit of a Grateful Dead album cover.
The blog is still acting up and throwing tantrums when I try to embed anything, but I created a slideshow of my favorite 40 Pabst works of art. Just click on the link to be taken to the Flickr slideshow.
Our 24th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features a slow turtle with the unusual slogan “Have a Guinness When You’re Tired.” Though I suppose the idea is that a Guinness will make a turtle faster.
They’ve also used the same image with the more common “Lovely day for a Guinness.”
Most people have probably heard of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. But the Japanese propensity of coming up with unusual hobbies knows no boundaries. One of the tamer examples is the related art of making 3D paper models. Using vector software like Pepakura, 3D models are created in 2D and then sheets are created to cut out and build the paper models. I stumbled on one of these while searching for another image. It’s of a waitress serving beer to a bar patron. The title of it is Bunny Beer Maiden because the waitress is dressed in a bunny costume, a popular Japanese fetish theme. Instructions and more photos are also at Papercraft and also at Paperworks’ And Wind Until, which has even more views of the component parts of the paper models.
First a vector drawing is created on a computer, and then individual pieces like a dress pattern are created that must be carefully cut out for assembly.
After being put together, the server in bunny costume looks like this. See many other angles here.
Here’s a close-up of the glasses of beer.
And the customer with his beer. See many other angles here.
And here’s the entire scene with the server, the customer and tables and chairs, all of which are made out of paper.
Friday’s ad is the oldest piece of American breweriana known to exist. It was a poster created by Anheuser-Busch, who commissioned the original painting, Custer’s Last Fight, which was painted by Cassilly Adams in 1884. A lithograph was then prepared by F. Otto Becker in 1889. It was distributed as an advertising poster by Anheuser-Busch. It has since become one of the “most famous views of of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, referred by Indians as the Battle of Greasy Grass.”
Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Little Bighorn, which has become famous as Custer’s Last Stand. It began on June 25, 1876 and ended the following day.
According to one history website, Indian Wars — Wyoming Tales and Trails, “it is, however, best charitably described as fanciful. The Indians’ attire is in error; Custer’s hair is in error, he had it closely shorn before leaving Ft. Abraham Lincoln; he is wearing a red scarf; and, perhaps most importantly, the battle is being fought on the wrong side of the river.”
As possibly the very first piece of breweriana, an original will set you back a pretty penny, at least from $1,699 to $2,250. One of the eBay sellers includes the following information about the lithograph:
Measures approx. 32 ” X 42″across Great colored lithograph depicting the grisly battle between General Custer’s troops and Indian warriors at Little Big Horn. Custer is featured at center waving a saber and dressed in fringed buckskin. The remaining cavalry officers (except for his brother Tom) are dressed in military uniform. Indians are armed with scalping knives, tomahawks, clubs, spears and rifles. Dead of both parties appear in foreground, with several being identified in the bottom margin as Courier from Sitting Bull, Squaw Killing wounded, Rain In the face and the Sioux Warrior who killed Custer. Custer’s medals and banners are in lower left margin. Mounted Indian poses beside a monument in lower right margin. In the small margin directly under the picture it is marked Entered According To Act Of Congress By Adolphus Busch march 30th 1896 In The office of The Librarian Of Congress At Washington, D.C. In the lower center portion it is marked The Original Painting has been Presented to the Seventh Regiment U.S. Cavalry By Anheuser Busch Brewing Association, St. Louis, Mo. U.S.A.