Monday’s ad is from Részvény Serfözöde, a Budapest, Hungary brewery. The illustration was done by Paul Foldes. I’m not entirely sure when it was done. I chose it because today is Memorial Day, and the idea depicted that beer could end a war is an attractive one. I believe the scene’s supposed to be during World War I.
And below is a detail of the artwork from the ad.
Today’s work of art is by one the most famous artists to ever paint: Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens “was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.” Today’s painting was done toward the end of his life, around 1635-38, though others believe he may have started it much earlier in 1620, but then returned to it later. It’s known as the Village Fête, and sometimes as the Village Wedding.
The paintings hangs in the Louvre, which describes it as follows:
The picture, painted late in the artist’s life, around 1635-38, is manifestly neo-Bruegelian in inspiration. The pig’s snout poking out of the sty on the right is an ancient symbol of gluttony (gula). According to those who date the picture in the 1620s, the landscape was painted before the figures, which are in Rubens’ late lyrical style.
This monumental picture, also called the Village Wedding, is in the northern tradition of depictions of village fêtes. Pioneered by Pieter Bruegel, the enormous popularity of this genre contributed to the renown of the Flemish School. These compositions often had a moral message, denouncing the baseness of the human condition by showing it in all its excesses. However, even though a pig’s snout — a symbol of gluttony — can be seen poking out of the sty in the foreground, denouncing vices was not Rubens’ main preoccupation.
While there’s dancing going on on the right half of the painting, the lower left is consumed with drinking beer. You can see it better in the detail of the painting below.
You can see all of Ruben’s works online at the Complete Works or Peter Paul Rubens. There’s also a biography on Wikipedia, and more information at the Web Museum, the Art Archive , ArtCyclopedia and Olga’s Gallery.
Our 20th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features the iconic toucan, who’s just opened his bottle of Guinness with his impressive beak. The tagline reads “Opening Time is Guinness Time.”
A couple of years ago, someone did a map of the U.S. using a beer label from each state, which I posted in Labeling the States. A world travel website, Pure Travel, has done their own version but with a world map and labels for each country. Apparently there are 80 different labels represented. You can see inset maps at Pure Travel and there’s also a much larger map where you can see greater detail. As before, how many can you identify?
Boston Beer Co. recently announced their new IPA, Latitude 38, previously available only in a variety pack, would be going solo in its own six-pack beginning this fall.
With that decision, nine out of the ten biggest craft breweries will now have an India Pale Ale as a year-round beer. Only the Spoetzl Brewery in Texas doesn’t make one, and they’re primarily a lager brewery, as is Boston Beer given their flagship Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Of the top ten ale breweries, they all have an IPA in their portfolios.
A decade ago or so, hardly anyone had an IPA in their portfolio and fewer still made one all year long. Now almost every brewery feels they need to have one. I’d have to say that’s score one for the hopheads.
Friday’s ad is another one for Schlitz, from 1955. The slogan is “Your Thirst Can ‘Feel’ the Difference!” at the top and on the bottom of the ad it’s “If you like beer you’ll love Schlitz.” I love the happy looking man in the gray flannel suit holding the very colorful six-pack of 16 oz. bomber cans.
With merger mania and big business dealings heating up lately — with Pabst, ABI’s British Brands & China investments — I almost forgot about Foster’s. But the Foster’s Group said Tuesday that it’s splitting up the divisions of the company and is looking for a buyer for the brewing portion. Business Week is now speculating that MolsonCoors is a likely candidate to buy Foster’s, given their desire to “become a top global beer producer.” MolsonCoors currently owns a 5% share of the Foster’s Group.
The English version of the Chinese newspaper, The People’s Daily, had an interesting article about international breweries investing heavily in the world’s biggest beer market: China. Entitled, Big Brewers Fermenting Deals in Southwest, it details, for example, how MolsonCoors has “recently spent $40 million to buy a 51 percent stake in a new joint venture with the Hebei Si’hai Beer Company.” Coors Light “now accounts for 10 percent of China’s premium beer market.” Carlsberg is making similar investments, and Anheuser-Busch InBev “started work on a new brewery in Ziyang, Sichuan province, this year.” And that’s just in the southern part of China. It’s a big market.
Matt Sweeny, from Fatty Matty Brewing, a homebrewing and craft beer website, announced yesterday that he’s started a small hop farm in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, named Simple Earth Hops.
From the press release:
Simple Earth Hops is a new 1/4 acre hopyard located at Greenspirit Farm CSA in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. The hopyard was founded with the idea of providing a much needed agricultural product for local craft brewers. Simple Earth Hops was established to demonstrate that local farmers can produce a consistent, sustainable supply of ultra high quality hops by working directly with local craft brewers while still maintaining a focus on ecology, the land and the people involved.
“Craft beer producers have made it clear that they desire a local source of hops. Simple Earth Hops will address this need for a local sustainable supply of hops by small locally owned craft beer producers.”
Raising the trellises.
Look for Simple Earth Hops to elaborate more on the details of a Grand Opening hopyard tour/beer tasting event in late July, 2010 and for the hopyard harvest tour & beer tasting in early Fall, 2011.
Funding for Simple Earth Hops is provided in part by a 2009 NCR-SARE (USDA) grant. This small-scale commercial hopyard has been established by the Sweeny family of Dodgeville, Wisconsin who slowly grow earth friendly hops for local brewers with similar locavore ethics.
The hop trellises on Greenspirit Farms.
According to the Canadian National Post (sent in by an alert reader — thanks Brian S.), the LCBO — the Liquor Control Board of Ontario — has banned the Christmas beer Samichlaus, from Schloss Eggenberg. Here’s the reason, if you can even call it that.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has decided the beer’s label contravenes rules against advertising to children. It features the name of the beer, Samichlaus, a Swiss-German nickname for the saint behind the Santa Claus legend, and a small black-and-white bearded figure.
It’s apparently a violation of “section 1(4) of the commission’s advertising guidelines, which prohibits liquor packaging aimed at children.”
But the notion that Santa Claus, and by extension Christmas itself, is exclusively the domain of children is absurd on its face. But set that aside for a moment, and look at the label. Have you ever seen a less kid-friendly label? Nothing pulls in kids like a brown label, almost devoid of holiday colors. And the image of Santa Claus they believe puts children at risk? As the article suggests, the label’s image looks more like an “old fisherman [o]r a weather-beaten hobo.” I just see an old man with a beard and a nondescript hat; anything but someone kids would be drawn to the dark side over. How could any reasonable person look at that label and conclude it’s “aimed” at marketing to children?
Of course, Santa Claus — or St. Nicholas — is also the patron saint of brewers and the brewery only makes Samichlaus once a year, on December 6, which is his saint’s feast day.
I’m not sure why this issue keeps coming up, apart from some people seem to have some very strange ideas about who Christmas is for and who gets to decide. And that brings us back to this idea that Santa Claus somehow only appeals to children and is not for adults. I don’t know who the adults are who feel this way, but they must be some of the least empathetic, most stingy, unfeeling curmudgeonly people on the planet because for me the spirit of Santa Claus is about giving, regardless of age. I’m 51, a devout non-believer, and I love Christmas and especially the idea of Santa Claus. And I know I’m not alone on this one.
What’s perhaps most unsettling, is that the entire province has been mobilized to eradicate this scourge of Samichlaus based on a “single complaint from a private person.” Yes, that’s right. One person didn’t like the label and now the rest of the people in the province will be deprived this great beer. Nice going, jackass. This seems to keep happening — in the UK, Philly, San Diego and elsewhere — where the opinion of one person seems to matter more than the collective sensibilities of a whole community or society.
In an earlier post, I referred to this as the “tyranny of the minority,” but perhaps the better question is why government agencies spring into action over just one complaint? With a large population and just a single (or even just a few complaints) shouldn’t the silence of the many be taken into account, too? Ontario has an estimated population of just over 13 million people (as of last year) yet access to a (very good) product has been removed from the entire population because one guy didn’t like it. This is not how decisions should be made in a democracy or even in a “federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy.”