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Beer In Art #75: Eduard Grutzner’s Monastery Brewers

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art-beer
Today’s works of art are by a German artist, Eduard Grützner, who was born in 1846 and became well-known for his genre paintings of monks until his death in 1925. I had a hard time choosing from among his monk paintings, so there are a number of them presented here. Few of them are dated, and they would have been throughout his career. Many of them appear to be the same monk used as the model. And some of them can be purchased at Art Prints on Demand. But to me, they’re exactly what I envision when I think of 19th century monastery breweries.

Grutzner_braumeister-im-bierkeller
Bruder Braumeister im Bierkeller (a.k.a. Brother Master Brewer in the Beer Cellar from 1902).

Grutzner_cloister-snack
Braumeister bei der Brotzeit im Klosterkeller (a.k.a. Master brewer snacking in the Cloister cellar from 1892).

Grutzner_beer-test
Bier Test (1905).

Grutzner_monch
Mönch auf dem Weg zur Brotzeit (a.k.a. Monk on the Way to Snack).

Grutzner_connoisseur
The Connoisseur (a.k.a. Capuchin monk).

Grutzner_salvatorhumpen
The Klosterbräu with Salvatorhumpen as Well as Radish and Radish (1889).

Grutzner_brewmasters-break
The Brewmaster’s Break (1885)

Grutzner_kellermeister
Kellermeister (a.k.a. Cellarmaster).

You can read more about Eduard von Grützner at his Wikipedia page, and you can view more of his artwork at Art Prints On Demand and
Ask/Art.

Social Kitchen, SF’s Newest Brewery Opens

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social-kitchen
San Francisco’s newest brewery opened today, Social Kitchen & Brewery, at 1326 9th Avenue. Rich Higgins, who was our beer week director this year for SF Beer Week, is the brewer there. I know he’s been working on it for a while now, and it’s finally open. Stop by and say hello to Rich and wish him well … oh, and try one of his beers. There are also additional details on their Facebook page, too.

Outside the new Social Kitchen & Brewery.
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The initial lineup of beers.
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Moonlight Goes Wild

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moonlight
Brian Hunt, from Moonlight Brewing, sent me the photo below showing the two used French champagne foeders (oak barrels) he bought for the brewery. Each one will hold 34 barrels (1,054 gallons). He’ll be making spontaneously fermented beers with them, but don’t expect to see any beer for at least 18 months, because they’ll be aging for at least that length of time, possibly longer. This is going to fun. I can’t wait to try whatever he makes with these. What will they be called? Perhaps Sonambic (Sonoma + lambic), which as I understand it is a term Brian coined, and Vinnie also uses at Russian River, and both breweries are in Sonoma County.

moonlight-champagne
Brian Hunt and his assistant brewer, Jeff Barkley, in front of Moonlight Brewery’s new foeders.

Beer In Ads #99: Ballantine Ale Begins Where Other Brews Leave Off

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ad-billboard
Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale from — I’m just guessing — the 1950s, and is attempting to show the beer as high class, upscale even with the cocktail dress and morning coat. The slogan, “Ballantine Ale begins where other brews leave off … in flavor … in satisfaction!,” is one they used frequently. There’s another one, down below that’s pretty interesting. Just above the bottle and can, it reads. “The LIGHT ale that’s strong on flavor.” Obviously, that was before low-calorie light beers. It most likely was to combat competition from lighter color lagers.

ballantine-begins

The Tyranny Of The Disgruntled Minority

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lost-abbey
Tomme Arthur, from the Lost Abbey, has an incredibly restrained post up about the travails created by a single individual person who went to the trouble to lodge a complaint about every beer tasting room in the San Diego area. “Apparently they were concerned that we didn’t have a GIANT BLUE “A” on our cold boxes!”

a-card

So Tomme and every other San Diego brewery has spent the week, and boat loads of money, getting up to “code” to satisfy an army of inspectors who didn’t know there was a problem — and in fact there wasn’t — until some pinhead decided to bring it to their attention. Perhaps most remarkably, winery and brandy tasting rooms are exempt from any regulations — so typical — but I certainly hope they find out who this “concerned” soul is. Read all about it at Tomme’s latest rant, I’d Like To Thank Some People.

Fritz Maytag & Keith Greggor Talk About Anchor On PBS

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anchor-steam
This morning on KQED, San Francisco’s PBS station, aired a live interview with Fritz Maytag and Keith Greggor about the sale of Anchor Brewery. The podcast of the interview, Anchor Steam Sold, is now up and you can listen to it on the KQED Archive or download it for you iPod. Or you can just push the play button below.

Odonata Saison Released Today

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odonata
Odonata Beer, a new brewery is Sacramento, is releasing their Saison today. Below is the press release with all the details:

ODONATA (OH-DOE-NAH-TA) is ecstatic to announce the arrival of its flagship beer, Saison! Brewed with malted barley, wheat & rolled oats, Saison is a rustic interpretation of the traditionally Belgium-brewed beer. Spiced with Styrian & East Kent Golding hops Saison has an aromatic, floral & peppery aroma and a modest hop bite. Our Belgian yeast strain also lends the slightly wild scents of passion fruit and spice. Saison is designed for refreshment & complexity; perfect on its own, or paired with ripened cheeses or classic Belgian-style seafood dishes. Saison bottles are bottle-conditioned, so serve chilled.

ODONATA Saison will be available on draft at select Northern California retailers beginning Friday, April 30, 2010 and will begin distributing bottled Saison in mid-May throughout Northern California. For further information regarding Saison, its availability or other inquiries, please contact Rick Sellers using the information found below.

ODONATA Beer Company is based in Sacramento, Ca. Brewmaster Peter Hoey is an experienced, award-winning brewer as well as an instructor at UC Davis’ prestigious brewing school and The American Brewers Guild. Sales Director Rick Sellers is an experienced beer journalist and former Beer Director for DRAFT Magazine, the world’s largest beer publication. Together Peter & Rick started ODONATA in 2009, with their first beer release (Rorie’s Ale) scoring a 100 on RateBeer and was named one of the best beers in the world.

Odonata-saison-btl

ABV: 6.4%
IBUs: 24
PKG: 22 oz. bottles
Suggested Food Pairings: Ripened cheese like Cyprus Grove Chevre’s Humboldt Fog; Pasta & Cream Sauce; Steamed Mussels
(The Homebrew Chef has also created a special recipe using Odonata’s saison for Saison-Steamed Mussels.
Serving Suggestions: Store Saison upright at cellar temperature & serve chilled, between 40-48 degrees, in a sturdy glass.

Beer In Ads #98: Acme’s Dietetically Non-Fattening

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ad-billboard
Thursday’s ad is from the 1930s and is part of a series of pin-ups done for San Francisco’s Acme Brewing by one of the most famous pin-up artists ever. George Petty is probably one of a handful of well-known pin-up artists who also made the transition to commercial and mainstream work. Some of his most famous work was done for Esquire magazine, where he worked from 1933 to 1956. The women he painted had a look that was dubbed “the Petty Girl.” You can see more examples at the Pin-Up Page, BPIB and the Pin-Up Files.

Acme-Lady-in-Red-shadow

Today’s Petty ad was part of the Dietetically Non-Fattening series, which Brewery Gems describes.

In the mid ’30s Acme came up with a brilliant marketing concept directed at an untapped market – women. It advertised its beer as “Dietetically Non-Fattening,” and following the asterisks, the fine print says: “Relatively so, compared with other foods.”

This caused the Federal Trade Commission, who was devoted to fair practices in advertising, to move against Acme Breweries. However, it took until 1951 for the Commission’s decision that the words “Acme beer contains no fattening substances and will not increase consumer’s weight” was still considered a “deceptive nutritional claim,” so Acme dropped the advertising campaign, but by then they had doubled their capacity and captured nearly 50% of the California beer market.

Petty apparently painted three works for Acme Beer, the other two are below.

Petty’s Cowgirl.
Cowgirl by Petty

Petty’s Reclining Lady.
Redhead by Petty

New Oakland Beer Fest This Weekend

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oakland
A new Bay Area beer festival will be held this Saturday, May 1, from Noon to 3:00 p.m., at Jack London Square. It’s sponsored by the local radio station KGO. It will be called the Craft Beer and Fine Food Celebration and will a benefit for the Alameda County Food Bank. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. According to the website, you’ll be able to “taste 30 different craft and specialty beers, along with delicious food from fine Bay Area restaurants.” So far, nineteen breweries are listed on the website along with ten food providers. There’s also a Facebook event page with additional details.

Craft-Beer-Fest