Monday’s ad finds us at the beach with Ballantine Ale, probably from the late 50s, early 60s. The slogan “Try it for a change … and you’ll never change back!” is pretty interesting, though I’ve no idea what it has to do with being at the shore. The other text, “Ballantine Ale begins where other brews leaves off … in flavor … in satisfaction” is likewise great adspeak.
Today’s works are from a series entitled Will Work For Food by an artist from Providence, Rhode Island, Shawn Kenney. There’s a story behind the project, and a portion of each sale is “donated to agencies working to end hunger through education, outreach, and food distribution.” All of the beer paintings are already sold, but plenty of food paintings remain available in the food inventory. The first beer painting below is of a can of Narragansett beer, which is Rhode Island local.
Then there’s this bottle of Red Stripe.
And finally, a pint of Guinness. There are also a few more beer paintings at the Will Work For Food main web page.
Here’s a portion of Kenney’s biography:
I was tremendously fortunate to study under a stellar lineup of professors during my time at [the Rhode Island School of Design]. Among them: Tom Sgouros, Dean Richardson, Victor Lara, and David Macaulay. They, along with some amazing classmates, opened my eyes to a much larger world.
In the years since, I have worked as an illustrator, designer and art director, never leaving my love of the craft of drawing and painting behind.
You can also see more of Kenney’s work at his Studio Work and his blog. You can also see a few more pieces at the Charlestown Gallery.
Easter has to be one of the oddest holidays, a curious mix of religious and pagan traditions. Chocolate, bunny rabbits, eggs, and the newly undead happily mix for a curious stew of fertility rites and resurrection.
Joyeuses Paques — a.k.a. Happy Easter — with beer-drinking eggs.
There are very few true Easter beers, Het Anker’s Gouden Carolus Easter Beer being perhaps the most obvious exception. Russian River’s Redemption also springs to mind for the name alone. My friend and UK colleague, Jeff Evans, has a great list of Ten Beers For Easter. There’s also the Swedish Påsköl. Carlsberg used to brew Påskeøl and Paaske Bryg, which has been replaced by Semper Ardens Easter Brew, along with Tuborg’s Easter Brew — Kylle, Kylle. And let’s not forget De Dolle’s Boskeun.
But notice how the dedicated Easter beers are all European? That’s hardly an accident as American puritanism seems to bristle at the idea of Easter beer, though wine, as usual, gets a pass for the holiday. When I worked for BevMo I recall that we virtually ignored beer entirely, promoting only wine for Easter. I’m sure there was market research behind that decision, but never understood the rationale underlying it. Plenty of beers go great with ham, yet only wines were given as recommended pairings. I’m probably not even having ham today, but I can guarantee there will be beer.
Our twelfth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is another in the “Guinness For Strength” series, this time featuring a stone statue pining for a Guinness.
Thursday night, April 1, I attended a five-course beer dinner at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco celebrating Sierra Nevada Brewing‘s 30th anniversary and the release of their first collaboration of the year, Fritz & Ken’s Ale, which is a stout.
The evening was great fun with terrific company, food and, of course, beer. There was one feature of the evening I haven’t seen at a beer dinner before, but I fervently hope more will adopt. They served in-between-course beers so we had a new beer to sample while waiting for each course. That made the anticipation of each new course far more manageable. Also, between each course, both Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada, and Fritz Maytag, owner of Anchor Brewery, got up and told great stories from their early days. That may have been my favorite part of the night. Below is one round of tales, broken into two parts because of YouTube’s 10 minute max rule.
And here’s Part 2:
Having been at beer dinners and events at Anchor numerous times, they also made the space next to the brewhouse the most comfortable it’s ever been. They added sound-proof panels along the exterior wall, rented a carpet and hung banners of Anchor beer labels. It definitely worked.
But by far, this was my favorite story of the evening.
If you ever have an occasion to talk with Sam Calagione, ask him about a similar story where he had no trouble getting arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport with a brick of hops.
Ken Grossman, me and Fritz Maytag and the end of the beer dinner.
Below is a slideshow of the Sierra Nevada beer dinner at Anchor. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Friday’s ad is for a brand I’m not familiar with, Sodibo, which I believe was a French beer. I love the highly stylized pastel drawing with the sophisticated-looking woman partially obscured by a bright blue fog. It’s from the 1920s and the art is by a Jean Rousseau.
You can see more of the art in the poster below, but I still prefer the simpler one with almost no text. Below seems cluttered, above, elegant.
Our 38th Session is hosted by Sean Inman at Beer Search Party, is cult beers; those beers that are in short supply, high demand and often require going to great lengths to acquire.
Here’s Sean’s thoughts on the cult of beers:
I started thinking about what beer or beers that I would get up at 4:00 in the morning, drive across state lines, stand in a long unmoving line in the cold and rain for the chance to taste with a crowd the size of Woodstock.
So here is my question to you (with a couple addenda).
What beer have you tasted recently (say, the last six months or so) that is worthy of their own day in the media sun?
And to add a little extra to it, how does “great” expectations affect your beer drinking enjoyment?
AND If you have attended one of these release parties, stories and anecdotes of your experience will be welcomed too.
So that’s the assignment, so to speak. While I’m not big on actually standing in lines, if anything might so motivate me, it’s the promise of a truly extraordinary beer for my trouble.
But what makes a cult beer? Scarcity seems to be a factor. An intangible hype also sees to be part of the legend. Of course, Coors was once a cult beer, at least East of the Mississippi. Some people think of PBR as a cult beer even though it’s hardly difficult to find. So beers that were once cult favorites can lose that peculiar appeal to become more pedestrian beers. Years ago Mendocino Brewing’s Eye of the Hawk was considered a cult beer and its biannual release was highly anticipated, but they foolishly decided to make it all year round. As a result, it’s really lost virtually all its cache.
Of course, it better taste good to back up the hype or it’s going to lose its cult status pretty quickly. All but a couple of the beers on my list were pretty damn good. So perhaps the real question is does having to work to get a cult beer to try bias one toward rating it higher, in effect giving it points just for the effort involved? I think that can be a factor. Human nature being what it is, most of us don’t want to admit that all that effort wasn’t worth it. In a sense, like many quests, it’s really the journey that’s important.
Every geeky discipline has it’s holy grails that its most ardent fans will seek out. I also collect View-Master reels and there’s one reel among the early single reels (before packets — never mind, V-M geek talk) that always commands the highest price in auctions. It’s Reel #1305 and the last time it was auctioned, it fetched over $800. I think it’s title will explain, at least in part, why: “President Kennedy’s Visit To Ireland.” And indeed, the late John F. Kennedy is in several of the reel’s seven pictures. View-Master geek that I am, I’ve had the reel for a number of years and while it’s certainly a highly-prized part of my collection, there are countless reels with more stunning 3-D photography that I like to look at far more often.
But one thing you can say about geeks is that they’re never satisfied, always restless and in search of the next thing, big or small. And so cult beers will always be a part of the craft industry. Making too little beer for demand is something small brewers can easily excel at. All they need to do is make sure the demand is high enough, sprinkle some hype around and a quick sell out is all but assured, which in turn makes its cult status only grow. And, naturally, they need to brew a beer that can live up to the hype, something most seem readily able to do.
I frankly think the scarce beers are great for the industry. They provide a creative outlet for the brewers, beers for the most ardent fans and make reputations for the breweries themselves while simultaneously allowing them to concentrate on their core brands that make the majority of their profits for them. The most successful breweries seem to me the ones that can both have a flagship or stable of beers that everybody loves and a few stand-outs that appeal primarily to the beer geeks. That’s real multitasking, brewery style. Think New Belgium’s Fat Tire/La Folie. Deschutes’ Black Butte Porter/The Abyss. New Glarus’ Spotted Cow/Everything Else. Sam Adams Boston Lager/Utopias. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale/Bigfoot, Celebration and quite a lot more. I don’t think it’s an accident those are some of the most successful modern era breweries.
Drink the cult beer Kool-aid.
But which beers are cult beers? Which ones belong on a list of cult beers? I’ve made a list below off the top of my head Without putting too much thought into it, these are a few that immediately came to mind.
These seem like no brainers, for the most part. Of course, I’ve tried all of them. I assume there’s plenty of ones I can’t think of simply because I’ve never tried them, or perhaps even heard of them. What else should be on the list? Anchor’s Christmas Ale? Sierra Nevada Bigfoot?
As it happens, I recently sampled a number of the beers on this list at this year’s Keene Tasting at Brouwer’s Cafe in Seattle. I’ll have my report from that tasting posted shortly and will update it here with a link.
The original cult figure Pliny the Younger.
Thursday’s ad is for Genesee Brewing from 1968 since today is their 77th anniversary. It’s a pretty simple time-honored strategy showing a sexy, scantily-clad female atop a giant beer can. I love the arrow pointing to the slogan “a little more exciting …” I guess they worried no one would even read it, what with their eyes unable to look below the dangling foot.
Perhaps you’ve noticed the latest television ads from the Boston Beer Co. trying to position Samuel Adams as a small fish in the big beer pond. I understood it immediately, as I’m sure you did, too. As sales of Sam Adams eke north of the 2-million barrels per annum threshold, they want to reclaim their position as the underdog little guy that made them successful. It’s a delicate tightrope walk and Advertising Age has an interesting article about it today entitled Sam Adams Wants to Show You Just How Small It Really Is.
While I can’t abide the assertion that in “a market dominated by Anheuser Busch and Miller-Coors [sic], finding beauty in beer is a difficult task,” this post from the Coolist showcasing 10 Brilliant Beer Bottle Designs is still a fun look at some cool designs for beer bottles and cans. While I have no trouble finding beauty in beer, I concede many of these beer packaging designs are a cut above. What are your favorites? And what did they miss?