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Beer In Ads #92: Snappa Cappa Red Cap

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ad-billboard
Wednesday’s ad keeps the week’s accidental theme of strange glances going. It’s a 1958 ad for Carling’s Red Cap beer, “the true Canadian ale” — at least according to the ad. The primary sidewards glance in this ad is looking up at someone looking to have their not-yet-empty glass filled. That’s odd enough, but notice the full glass just to his left (our right). Above that glass is another strange sight. Just what exactly is that out-of-focus man holding on to, and looking up at? A light saber? No, it was nearly twenty years before Star Wars debuted. A RC remote? A red fishing rod? At any rate, that makes two odd looks in one ad, two for the price of one.

58carlingredcap

Women In Brewing Festival This Saturday In Sacramento

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female
This Saturday, April 24, another festival will be taking place in Sacramento. If yo happen to be up that way — or live nearby, of course — check out the 4th annual Women in Brewing Festival at Rubicon.

Here’s the info, from Rubicon’s blog:

In 2007 the Rubicon Brewing Company established the Women in Brewing celebration. This is an event that digs up the history of women in brewing while spotlighting the talent of those brewers in our industry today. The 4th Annual Women in Brewing Festival will take place at the Rubicon Brewing Company at 2004 Capitol Avenue starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 24th and will go until the beer is gone. Many talented female brewers have been invited to showcase their special recipes and hard to find brews. Some of these ladies will make the journey to the Rubicon Brewing Company to chat with event goers while enjoying a day in the sun with their fellow brewster’s and a pint. This event is not a competition nor is it a “brewfest.” It is a typical day at the Rubicon where we will highlight the fabulous “brewed by women” beer on tap for tasting in sample, goblet or pint along with food specials and, as always, great friends. A silent auction will be held with great prizes donated by local businesses. While honoring and bringing recognition to our women in the brewing industry, the Rubicon Brewing Company is dedicated to raising money and awareness for WEAVE. The event raises more than $4,000 to support crisis intervention services for victims of sexual assault. WEAVE is the primary provider of crisis intervention services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Sacramento County.

Denise Jones, the head brewer at Moylan’s will be on hand, and probably additional brewsters, too. Stop by and help support a worthy cause. When I first met my wife, she was heavily involved in volunteering for a similar organization in the South Bay, Next Door, so it’s an issue near and dear to me and my family.

The beers below will be served Saturday, and each one was brewed by a female brewer:

  • Auburn Alehouse: Scarlet Red
  • Blue Frog: Ginger & Meyer Ann
  • Lost Coast: Scotch Ale
  • Moylans: Hell’s Lager
  • Rubicon: Bull of the Woods, Stardancer, 80 Grit
  • Santa Cruz: Witches Wit
  • Sierra Nevada: Summerfest, Scotch Ale
  • Urthel Al: Hop It, Samarath

Bay Area Firkin Fest This Weekend

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triple-rock
This Saturday, April 24, the 7th annual Bay Area Firkin Fest will be held at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley. Doors will open at 11:00 a.m. and tickets are $20. Admission includes a commemorative logo glass and six 4-oz. pours. Additional samples may be purchased for $2 each (or 3 for $5). This is one of the most fun festivals of the season, especially if you love cask beer. See you there.

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Beer In Ads #91: Schlitz Best Round All Day

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ad-billboard
Tuesday’s ad continues the week’s accidental theme of strange glances. It’s a Schlitz ad from the 1950s and features a clubhouse scene presumably just after the golf tournament ended. While the WASPy members of Bushwood Country Club look on, the “winner” pours a bottle of Schlitz into his “Club Champion” trophy. But it’s his smug, smirking sidewards glance at us that makes me shudder. The slogan, “Best round I’ve had all day,” also seems a bit to punny, and I love a great pun.

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Bacon Peanut Butter Mashed Potatoes

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fry
When I put the kids to bed, I often fall asleep myself after reading to them and snuggling. This happened again a few days ago, and when I woke up, I had an incomprehensible desire to make mashed potatoes with peanut butter. I figured it had to have been tried before, but came up snake eyes after I fired up the internet and found surprisingly few actual recipes, apart from mentions of it having been tried on Top Chef. My wife thought I was crazy — I am — and that it sounded disgusting. Undaunted, today I gave it a try. I used instant mashed potatoes because it was lunchtime and I was lazy, adding about two tablespoons of organic peanut butter to the milk (for what the potato mix says is for “6 servings,” which is just about the right amount for one me-sized serving.). After the water, salt and butter boiled, I added the instant flakes and then the PB-laced milk and began stirring. It actually mixed fairly easily.

I often make for lunch what I call “mashed potato surprise,” where I also add bacon, cheese and whatever else we happen to have in the refrigerator, like vegetables, or something similar (that’s the surprise part). It’s a quick and filling lunch. I decided that the peanut butter mashed potatoes would benefit from having bacon, too, and then I also added some shredded cheese just because. The bacon and peanut butter was awesome together and the cheese, while not standing out, didn’t get in the way either. It was actually much better than I expected and I’ll definitely be adding this to my lunchtime menu. Oh, and I paired it with with a hoppy Blind Pig IPA, from Russian River, which I have to say, worked pretty well..

Bacon Peanut Butter Mashed Potatoes
You can’t see it very well in the photo, but the normally snow white mashed potatoes are dulled a bit from the brown peanut butter. The lumps are the bacon bits.

7-11 Debuts Game Day Private Label Beer

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7-11
7-11, the largest convenience store chain in the U.S. with over 6,000 stores, sells a lot of beer, most of it from the big beer companies. In fact, they’re the third-largest beer retailer in the country. With more limited shelf space, C-Stores tend to focus on fast-moving brands and usually carry very few local or craft beer brands. So those stores have been one of the few outlets where space has not be eroding due to craft beer’s growing popularity. But, according to an announcement in Fortune magazine, that’s about to change, though not toward more craft beer. 7-11 has announced the release of their own private label beer, called Game Day. Apparently it’s a “premium beer selling at a budget price,” though further details were not forthcoming. While not yet confirmed by 7-11, it’s being reported that there will be two varieties of Game Day, Game Day Light and Game Day Ice and each will likely be sold in two package sizes, 12-pack cans and 24-oz. singles. Prices are expected to be between $6.99-$8.99 for 12-packs and between $1.49-$1.89 for singles, depending upon distribution and state specific costs, like taxes. The contract brewing is being done by City Brewing in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

game-day

PLCB Bad For Business

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pennsylvania
I haven’t seen much yet from the joint hearing by the Senate Law Committee and House Liquor Control Committee looking into the PLCB that took place April 13, but Jack Curtin posted something from the Scranton Times-Tribune entitled PLCB Bad for Business.

Beer In Art #73: Charles Spencelayh’s The Steward

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art-beer
Today’s work of art is something of a find. I wrote about it when I highlighted another work by the same artist early in my Beer In Art series. In fact, it was the sixth work back in 2008, Charles Spencelayh’s Good Health. After sharing his biography from Wikipedia, I also discovered the following.

Supposedly, he may have done a painting commissioned by the Bass Brewery for them to use in advertising entitled The Steward, depicting a steward opening a bottle of Bass. But so far I’ve been unable to find anything more about it or see what it looks like.

Happily, Diane Hadley, a pub owner in the UK, wrote me to tell me she had one of either 6 or 10 copies Bass gave out hanging in her pub. It was given to her by a Bass representative “some 22 years ago.” And more importantly, she was kind enough to take a few photos of it and send them my way, so I can share it with the world. So here is The Steward, by Charles Spencelayh. Thanks Diane.

Spencelayh-steward-1

The bottom of the print includes the following text:

‘THE STEWARD’
by Charles Spencelayh H.R.B.S.A., R.M.S., V.P.B.W.S.
The subject of this finely executed work is thought to have been the Steward at the old Bass Club in High Street, Burton upon Trent. Spencelayh, however, kept very poor records of his work which he frequently did not sign or date. He is known to have produced a number of other outstanding paintings of well known commercial products in his early life.

Here’s a closer view.
Spencelayh-steward-2

And here’s a close-up of the Bass Ale bottles sitting on a tray.
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Five of his paintings are at the Tate in London and a few more are shown at the online Art Renewal Center and Bridgeman has quite a few. There are also some links at the ArtCyclopedia.