Our tenth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is a variation on the iconic toucan on a weathervane, the difference here is he’s high above a town square on a bright Spring day where, as the tagline suggests, it’s a “Lovely day for a Guinness.”
Hard Liver Barleywine Fest Winners 2010
Here are the results from the 2010 Hard Liver Barleywine Fest in held at Brouwer’s Cafe in Seattle, Washington:
- 1st Place: Old Woody ’09; Glacier Brewhouse
- 2nd Place: Old Blue Hair ’08; Big Sky Brewing
- 3rd Place: Old Sebastes ’09; Anacortes Brewery
- Honorable Mention: Abacus; Firestone Walker Brewing
Congratulations to all the winners.
Beer In Ads #69: Japanese Anime’s Kotobuki Beer
Friday’s ad is a strange one, I don’t actually recall where exactly I found the image. I don’t believe it’s actually for a brewery’s beer but instead is a Japanese anime character called TsumugiKotobuki. According to one description, she’s a “high school student who walks in on the ‘light’ music club. She is inspired to join the club as a keyboardist and wields damn freaky eyebrows.” Actually I may have that wrong, as there appear to be a number of Japanese carton characters with the name Kotobuki and a different first name, like the several in the show Gals!. Whatever the truth about her is, I still thought it interesting that a cartoon character can be shown so happily holding a mug of beer. It’s just nice to see a culture that’s not so puritanical.
Pairing Beer With Your Zodiac Sign
I should confess at the outset that I think astrology is utter nonsense so this person’s attempt to pair with beer the twelve zodiac signs already seems to me to be an exercise in futility, a complete waste of time insofar as I can see no way such a list could ever be remotely useful or accurate. That being said, I can’t help but be curious about her choices. The list was complied by Fern Feto Spring and yes, that’s actually her name. She’s been a professional astrologer since 1990, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes primarily at her website Wisestars. To say I find it strange that she’d even attempt to divine what beers people should be drinking according to when they were born is an understatement. Do the results speak for themselves? Oh yeah, but I’ll interject a bit anyway.
Here’s her introduction:
There are as many different types of beer as there are people, with a myriad of brands and flavors to choose from. So whether you prefer light or dark beer, ale or stout, there is a beer out there for you. But do you know which beer is most likely to satisfy the inner workings of your astrological sign? Read on to find out what the cosmos have to say about one of America’s most popular beverages.
Where to begin. First of all, if we’re talking about alcoholic beverages, beer is America’s most popular beverage, not one of them, outselling the nearest competitor at least four to one. And, of course, stout is an ale, so I’m not sure about the distinction she’s making there.
So here are her suggestions for what beer should be your favorite, depending on your zodiac sign. If you want to read the full write-ups and her apparent rationale for choosing each beer, check out both part 1 and part 2. To give you an example, here’s the full write-up for Pisces, which is what I happen to be:
Gentle Pisces, your sensitive and poetic imagination encourages you to seek out a beer that has a slightly sweet flavor and an easy finish. You prefer light beers with a fruity signature. Paradise Ale has a flowery influence that is perfect for your artistic self. This beer mixes both new and traditional influences to create a taste that was made for you.
I confess I had to look up the beer, which is one of Theakston’s seasonal beers, Paradise Ale. As far as I know, it’s not one they import and though I’ve been to the UK countless times, I don’t believe I’ve ever run across it. That alone makes it an odd choice. You’d think she would have chosen beers people might actually have a good shot at finding.
The full list:
- Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 18): Anchor Humming Ale
- Pisces (Feb. 19–Mar. 20): Theakston Paradise Ale
- Aries (Mar. 21–Apr. 19): Killian’s Irish Red (Coors)
- Taurus (Apr. 20–May 20): Guinness Stout
- Gemini (May 21–June 21): Corona, with a slice of lime
- Cancer (June 22–July 22): Newcastle Brown Ale
- Leo (July 23–Aug. 22): Chimay
- Virgo (Aug. 23–Sep. 22): Anchor Summer Ale
- Libra (Sep. 23–Oct. 23): Smithwick’s Draught
- Scorpio (Oct. 24–Nov. 21): Theakston Old Peculiar
- Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21): Russian River Pliny the Younger
- Capricorn (Dec. 22–Jan. 19): Samuel Smith Indian Pale Ale (sic)
It’s an eclectic list to say the least. Two Anchor beers, one which they’ll likely not be making very often. Two from Theakston. Smithwick’s Irish Ale was imported around 2004, but has since been pulled from the American market. The list is certainly UK heavy given that she’s in the Bay Area. On the plus side, she’s included Pliny the Elder and Chimay, though not specifying which Chimay. But then there’s Corona, Killian’s and Newcastle.
As I said at the outset, silly and pointless, but there you have it. I’m stuck on an airplane with nothing but silly and pointless to entertain me. Perhaps instead of the cliched pick-up line “what’s your sign” this will inspire people to change it to “what’s your beer?” That’s a line I could get behind.
Pull-Tab Craftiness
When I was searching yesterday for images to use for my post about pull-tabs, I was surprised by how many websites there are devoted to finding other uses for the little aluminum pull-tabs, both the old-style ones and the more modern one-piece tabs. There are so many of these and they’re so inventive I thought I’d share a few of them. This is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a whole world of DIY, recycling and craft people who are finding amazing ways to use the discarded pull-tabs. So here we are, from head to toe:
Here’s a kid’s hat and shirt, and there are lots more at the wonderfully named Art of Tabistry.
Here’s a woman’s top from Apocalypse Creations Chainmail in Canada, whose website is no longer available.
And a colorful vest by Tiffany, posted on Craftster.
How about a dress made entirely of pull-tabs? Here’s one posted at Recyclart.
And let’s not forget the shoes, shown at This Next.
Or if you want to be covered head to knee, here’s an entire suit of pull-tab armor, from Geekologie, but the website, http://www.geekologie.com/2009/12/impressive_kid_makes_beercan_t.php is currently been hacked and is showing as Malware.
And don’t forget to accessorize with this fetching purse, also from This Next.
In case you get tired wearing all that heavy metal, here’s a pull tab chair for you to sit down and rest made by Studio G.
I can’t say I’d actually wear any of them, but they impressive nonetheless. Enjoy.
Poisoning People During Prohibition: A Disturbing Parable
This may well be the most disturbing story about our Nation’s Prohibition ever told, and one that’s certainly been kept fairly secret. While doing research on her book, The Poisoner’s Handbook, author Deborah Blum discovered that anti-alcohol factions of the U.S. government became so fanatical that they poisoned illegal alcohol either directly or indirectly, possibly killing, or more correctly murdering, as many as 10,000 U.S. citizens! Let that sink in. The whole sordid tale can be found on Slate, entitled The Chemist’s War: The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences. I’d encourage you to read the entire article, but here are the nuts and bolts.
The government added chemical substances to alcohol used for other purposes, like paint thinner, and unscrupulous bootlegger’s were stealing industrial alcohol and then converting it to something that could be consumed. So the government, knowing full well that it would end up being drunk by people, started spiking it with chemicals that were very, very harmful, ones that the bootlegger’s chemists couldn’t deal with and the result was thousands of deaths. Why would our government do that? Here, Blum cites the frustration of lawmakers to stop people drinking along with prohibitionists who were surprised by our “country’s defiant response to the new laws [which] shocked those who sincerely (and naively) believed that the amendment would usher in a new era of upright behavior.”
During Prohibition, however, an official sense of higher purpose kept the poisoning program in place. As the Chicago Tribune editorialized in 1927: “Normally, no American government would engage in such business. … It is only in the curious fanaticism of Prohibition that any means, however barbarous, are considered justified.” Others, however, accused lawmakers opposed to the poisoning plan of being in cahoots with criminals and argued that bootleggers and their law-breaking alcoholic customers deserved no sympathy. “Must Uncle Sam guarantee safety first for souses?” asked Nebraska’s Omaha Bee.
Only a handful of people in fact spoke out against this practice. One was Charles Norris, chief medical examiner for New York City, who referred to the program as “our national experiment in extermination.”
“The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol,” New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference. “[Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible.”
Frankly, I don’t see why they couldn’t be held legally responsible since they were in effect knowingly poisoning people, especially after the first deaths occurred. That they didn’t stop it then says quite a lot about how determined they were. It often appears to me that modern day prohibitionists take an ends-justify-the-means approach to further their agenda and will employ just about any tactic, despite its consequences or ethical disconnect. It would appear that’s nothing new after all. The fact that more people don’t know about this dark chapter of our history of prohibition makes it easier for today’s anti-alcohol supporters to continue their quest for another national alcohol ban. Let’s hope we can all learn from this mistake of history and aren’t doomed to repeat it.
Beer In Ads #68: Schlitz Pop Top Holiday
Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, when they introduced their version of the pop top can, which I talked about yesterday in my post John Updike’s Paean to the Beer Can. The ad is also from 1964, when by then nearly 75% of American brewers had some version of the pull-tab.
The New Anderson Valley: A Chat With Trey White
Recently it was announced that Ken Allen, who founded the brewery in 1987, is selling Anderson Valley Brewing to Trey White, a former USB executive. The response on the series of tubes we all know and love as the internet was swift and surprisingly negative. Also, there was quite a lot of speculation that was simply untrue. Even the local Anderson Valley Advertiser detailed some of the negative reactions. So I spoke with Trey White this morning to clear up some of the misinformation swirling around and get to the bottom of what he has planned for his brewery when he takes over next month, after the sale closes.
First, the biggest piece of misinformation, which I didn’t even need to talk to him about to correct. A number of negative comments took the form of “how sad, another case of a big business swallowing up a smaller one.” Wrong. White is a former VP with USB. That means he doesn’t work there any more, and in fact hasn’t for several years. I, and most of the accounts that mentioned his former job did so to show that he brings beer industry experience with him. That’s a good thing. It means he knows how the industry works. As I learned when I spoke with White, the business will be family-owned, just White and his wife. No big company in the background, just a mom and pop operation.
Here’s what else I learned about his plans for the brewery. White first visited the brewery three years ago and immediately fell in love with the place. He and Ken Allen have been discussing the purchase for nearly that long. He’s committed to its success and it wasn’t just a quick flash in the pan decision.
White and his wife currently live in downtown Chicago, ironically walking distance from the Craft Brewers Conference which will take place the first week of April. For the first six months to a year after taking over, the Whites will spend about 75% of their time in northern California. All of the current staff and brewers will remain in place and no changes will be made to any of the recipes. The first year, some of the packaging may be changed and it’s possible some additional styles and/or special releases will be created.
The Boonville Beer Festival will be unchanged and the planning for it will continue apace and it will be held, as scheduled, on May 8. The Disc Golf Course will also remain on the brewery grounds.
While the brewery continues to hum along, White will turn his attention to what he knows best: marketing, merchandising and selling. He’ll immediately begin working to increase distribution and get Anderson valley beers into a greater number of chain locations, making it even easier for fans to find the beer in a wider array of outlets.
Ken will be the first to tell you that his passion for the brewery has not been 100% over the last few years and he’s been looking forward to taking a much needed rest from running the business. Ken had this to say, in the press release:
“I have enjoyed immensely growing the Anderson Valley Brewery from a start-up operating a modest brew pub in Boonville into a world class regional craft brewery. The people and friends I have made in the industry will last a lifetime. I want to thank the many customers and brewery fans who have become key parts of the Anderson Valley Brewery family.
I have looked long and hard for the right person to whom to entrust our legacy and I could not have found a better partner in Trey White. His passion and knowledge of the craft beer industry, coupled with his respect for the brands we have developed, will make him the ideal person to take the Anderson Valley Brewery to the next level within the growing craft beer industry.“
So I can’t help but think this will a positive step for everyone, from Ken Allen, the new owners and fans of the brewery’s beers. In talking with Trey White, he has that passion that can propel the brewery to the next level. He seems sincere in his reverence for the brands Anderson Valley has created over the years and has no plans to alter them in any way. He has the right experience and contacts to grow the business successfully while keeping it true to its roots. Let’s wish Ken a happy retirement and Trey good luck with his new job as a small brewery owner.
The changing of the guard: new owner Trey White, at left, with founder Ken Allen in the Anderson Valley brewhouse.
Mergermania & The Global Beer Picture
Yesterday Charlie Papazian had an interesting post about recent production numbers of brewers worldwide and how the top Four brewing companies control 50% of the world’s beer. That’s due to the increasing mergermania in the brewing industry, with the recent purchase of Mexico’s FEMSA by Heineken but not including the announced acquisition of Grupo Modelo by Anheuser-Busch InBev. According to a UK Reuters report, the Top four brewers make up half [the] global beer market. The supporting data comes from a researcher for Plato Logic, a beer industry analyst company in Great Britain that produces their world beer report each October. Presumably his statistics are preliminary, taking into account changes in ownership that have taken place since the last report.
But roughly, here’s what his data shows in a chart I made, using the estimates given for millions of hectoliters produced by the top five beer companies. It shows the relatives sizes of them, and how the top four are so far out in front that it’s almost ridiculous and frankly, you can make that same argument for the top four or the top three. There’s a lot of separation, but one big merger and the deck gets shuffled again.
Though the production numbers aren’t given for the bottom half of the top ten, here they are by rank.
- Anheuser-Busch InBev
- SAB Miller
- Heineken
- Carlsberg
- Tsingtao
- MolsonCoors
- Grupo Modelo
- Beijing Yanjing Brewery (China)
- Kirin
- Asahi
Estimating world beer production (it’s not given in the article) from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac, I made the chart below to show how the top four do indeed account for just north of half the beer produced in the world.
And finally, including number five Tsingtao, here’s how the overall picture looks.
Beer In Ads #67: Guinness’ Why Was The Hatter Mad?
Wednesday’s ad, since it’s St. Patrick’s Day, is for Guinness, but I wanted to pick one that wasn’t by John Gilroy. This one is a spoof of Alice in Wonderland from I don’t know when. The art is similar, of course, but it seems later. Beginning in 1903, numerous films have been made based on Lewis Carroll’s surreal story, but the Disney version from 1951 probably did more to popularize the story than any other, especially for kids. So based on that I’m just guessing this was before that since the artwork looks more inspired by the original illustrator, John Tenniel, than Walt. Anyway, the text spoofing the scene with the Mad Hatter is pretty funny. Happy Stout Day.
Why Was the Hatter Mad?
“Have some Guinness!” said the March Hare.
“I don’t see any Guinness,” Alice replied.
“There isn’t any” said the March Hare.
“Then you must be mad to offer me some!” said Alice indignantly.
“It’s after hours,” said the Hatter, “and we can’t get any. That’s enough to make anyone mad.”
“But surely you could have ordered some to drink at home,” said Alice.
“There!” said the March Hare. “We never though of that. That just shows how mad we must be.”