Thursday’s ad is for a defunct Pennsylvania brewery, from Allentown. Neuweiler’s Premium Ale; it’s “Premium brewed to please you.” I love all the Pennsylvania Dutch imagery, especially the Distelfink and the hex signs.
Stopping Underage Reading
This continues to just piss me off — I know, what doesn’t? — but it’s resurfaced again in a HealthDay News report on the television website for Channel 13 WTHR Indianapolis. The article, Alcohol Companies Use New Media to Lure Young Drinkers: Report, is about the time-honored practice of believing that current times are the worst they’ve ever been (not like when we were young) and today’s youth is in more danger (not like the innocent times when we were young). Every generation seems to go through these machinations that the corruption of the young is either a new phenomenon or is far worse now because of some modern innovation that wasn’t around (in those innocent days when we were young).
Today’s bogeyman is the “latest new media technologies — including cell phones, social networking sites, YouTube and other features of the expanding digital universe — [used] to reach young drinkers.” Or at least so says a new report, Alcohol Marketing in the Digital Age, by American University in Washington, D.C. The report naturally singles out Facebook, MySpace and other social media and the web more generally as the new moral vacuum where our youth is being corrupted. It’s slightly more grounded than many of these types of reports, but it’s still fairly alarmist of the-end-is-nigh if we don’t do something variety. The fact that every older generation is afraid for the younger generation and pretends to be protecting it by trying to stop some imagined danger makes such arguments fall flat for me.
But here’s the bit that continues to chap my hide:
One area the study authors want officials and activists to look at is weak age-verification mechanisms, pointing out how easy it is for a young person to enter a false birth date so they are legally “of age” to enter a Web site.
Yet I’m not aware of any website that can dispense beer or any other alcohol. All you can do at the average website is — drum roll, please — read. So why on earth do you have to be 21 to read? Could someone check out a book about beer at the local library if they were under 21? Of, course. But online, now that’s dangerous. Until it’s against the law to read then no one has to be “‘of age’ to enter a Web site,” whether it’s about beer or anything else. Trying to keep people from information, even if it’s perceived to be the wrong sort of information, is a very slippery slope. And frankly, keeping people in the dark about something that’s supposedly bad for them keeps them from the truth, forming their own opinions, and exposes them only to the “approved” message, which is often laced with propaganda and misinformation to promote a specific agenda. That’s in part, at least, why so many people today fall for neo-propagandist arguments about the evils of alcohol. As long as the propaganda is so one-sided and people, young or otherwise, have no access to a balance of perspectives, then ignorance will continue to rule the day, as it so often does.
Henny Youngman was probably the exception to the rule when he quipped “when I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.” Unfortunately, more people probably believed what they read and gave up drinking. And that will continue to be the case if we continue to keep people from reading about things that others believe to be dangerous. That’s the very definition of a society that’s not free. Now I need a drink. See how dangerous this all is?
Beer In Ads #112: Rolling Rock’s Pure Mountain Spring Water
Wednesday’s ad is for Rolling Rock, because it was today four years ago, in 2006, that Anheuser-Busch agreed to buy the brand from InBev. The Rolling Rock as from the 1960s, and it actually resembles a Coors ad from the same period of time, especially with its emphasis on “pure mountain spring water.”
SF Weekly’s Best of San Francisco
The weekly alternative SF Weekly announced the winners in their most recent “best of” issue for 2010.
- Reader’s Poll Winner for Best Brewery: Magnolia Gastropub
- Best Beer Bottle Selection: City Beer Store
- Best Cult Brew: North Coast Le Merle
- Best Microbrewery: Elizabeth Street Brewery
- Best Brewery Tour: Speakeasy Ales and Lagers
- Best Beer and Trivia: The Church Key
And a special shout out to Jesse Friedman, whose blog Beer & Nosh won for Best Food Blog.
Congratulations to all the beer winners. Here, you can read the rest of the Bars & Clubs winners or take in the entire Best of San Francisco 2010.
Esquire’s Worst 9 Beers
Esquire has an odd little piece this week choosing the Nine Worst Beers on Earth, a fairly bold claim given how many beers are brewed on our planet. The author, St. Louis columnist Evan S. Benn, has probably not tried everything yet since he’s only been writing his column since last June, but overall his list does include some truly awful beers.
And while it wasn’t my intention to disparage Benn, in a recent column, Navigate Beer Fests Like a Pro Drinker, he does recommend spit buckets with the following. “You would be surprised how quickly the alcohol in 2-ounce samples can catch up to you. You’d also be surprised at how many beers you thought would be great but end up being disappointing. Don’t be ashamed to use the spit buckets stationed near every table. If you feel like one sip is enough but still have more in your glass, dump the rest into the bucket and move on.” I think he means the “dump buckets,” which is what they’re called in the beer world, but it almost sounds like he’s suggesting not swallowing at least that first sip, a pretty important step in fully tasting any beer. I know judges who occasionally spit second, third, etc. sips when tasting a large number of beers, but that first sip, at least, must be swallowed.
But back to his list, with which, in fact, I can’t disagree with any of his choices except for one, though to be fair I haven’t tried the new Game Day Light. I received an offer to get samples, but maybe I should answer it after all, just to be sure. But the beer I strongly disagree with is the Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic. It’s not that I’d champion it as one of the world’s best, but from his write-up it appears Benn doesn’t realize that beer has been around since 1990 and the sweetness he finds so distasteful is from maple syrup. While the Sam Adams’ version of a lambic may not make my top 100 beers, it’s nowhere near my bottom 100 and I can think of sweeter, less appealing fruit lambics just off the top of my head.
Here’s Esquire’s list:
- Bud Light & Clamato Chelada
- 7-11 Game Day Light
- Rock Ice
- Sleeman Clear
- Michelob Ultra Pomegranate Raspberry
- Camo 24 Extra Smooth Super Premium High Gravity Lager xxXxx
- MGD 64
- Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
- Olde English 800
Why nine, and not ten — especially with so many bad beers out there — I can’t explain. But there are certainly many more beers that I’d put on such a list, beers that if offered to me outside of work, I’d politely decline. Corona and Heineken (and their light versions) leap to mind, as does Stella Artois and most of the nearly interchangeable American-style, European-style, New Zealand-style, Latin American-style, etc. mass produced light lagers. It’s not that they’re poorly made, in fact most are quite well-constructed, but I’m still not interested in drinking them. I want something with flavor … or more flavor, at least.
What beers would make your list of the worst?
Beer In Ads #111: Bud On Ice
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, who on this day opened not one, but two new plants. They opened a new brewery in Tampa, Florida on this day in 1959 and in Houston, Texas in 1966. I’m not sure of the date of the ad, but judging by the look of the cans, and the “Tab Top” text around the bottom of each can, I’d guess the early 1960s. But I do like the simplicity of the ad and the playful pun.
From Beer To Eternity
Here’s an interesting read about the tourism of breweries, From Beer to Eternity, focusing on the history of American brewing and the places that one can still visit.
Beer In Ads #110: Heineken’s Made To Entertain
Monday’s ad is for Heineken. It’s not particularly old, but I chose it because today in 1867 the cornerstone was laid for the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam. The campaign’s theme, done by the ad agency JWT, was “Made to Entertain.” As much as I don’t care for the taste of Heineken, they are masters of marketing.
The first is a stack of pizza boxes, made to resemble a Heineken keg.
The second is a stack of compact discs.
Beer City USA Poll 2010
Charlie Papazian is doing another poll this year during American Craft Beer Week to determine BeerCity USA. Last year’s winner was a tie between Portland, Oregon and Asheville, North Carolina. So far, after just one day, Asheville is out in front with Portland a close second. Everybody else, including the San Francisco Bay Area, is woefully behind. We are all the tortoise to Portland/Asheville’s hare. The poll closes just before midnight on May 23.
Let’s go Bay Area people, get out there and vote. Let’s see if we can win this year. Let’s declare the San Francisco Bay Area to be Beer City USA!
Beer In Art #76: Neal Barbosa’s Lagunitas Dog
Today’s works of art is by a very fast painter, Neal Barbosa, who bills himself as the performance painter and the live painter. I first saw his work at last year’s Lagunitas Beer Circus, which was held again today at the Lagunitas Brewery. Barbosa was there again, outside near the stage, painting to music, the way he prefers it. Last year, he painted a version of the Lagunitas dog, which I happened to catch him finish.
And here’s the original it’s based on.
Here’s a brief Biography:
Neal Barbosa paints during music. A performance artist based in southern & northern California, Neal’s art studio is often a stage he shares with bands such as Fishbone, Alfred Howard & the K23 Orchestra, Acacia, Frogdog Rocks, Shiny Toy Guns, New Orleans Social Club, Larry Carlton, New Soul Underground and many others. As the band performs, so does Neal. He paints what he hears and feels.
Neal Barbosa painting at the 2009 Lagunitas Beer Circus.
You can see more of Barbosa’s art on his Facebook and MySpace pages.