Monday’s ad originally was published September 15, 1958 and is for Miller High Life, “The Champagne of Bottled Beer.” It’s a beautiful illustration of a man playing chess with only the beer, bottle and Miller logo in color. The art has an MC Escher quality to it, and though it’s signed, even at the original size I can’t make out who it was. The detail in the illustration is wonderful, especially the chess pieces.
Here’s how 21st Amendment described their Brewers Sunday Tea:
What do Brewers do on Sunday? We drink tea. Yeah, right. Join us Sunday February 14th, from 11:30 until 3:30PM for Brewers Sunday Tea with beers from the 21st Amendment, Stone Brewing, Elysian Brewing and Dogfish Head. Fatted Calf will be serving up brats and sausages with the 21A’s infamous egg pizza. And it’s Valentine’s Day — bring a date!
Merideth, with the “infamous egg pizza.”
And out back — really on the side — in the beer garden, they were serving more beers and Fatted Calf had several meat dishes, too.
Shaun O’Sullivan channeling Jackie Chan
Below is a slideshow of the Brewers Sunday Tea at 21st Amendment. 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.
Last year, Lagunitas hosted one of the coolest events during SF Beer Week, the Beer Circus. It was a terrific event but this year because of its popularity they’re moving it to May as a stand-alone event that will be bigger than last year and also to take advantage of the better Spring weather. So instead they treated us to a mini-circus at Taps of Petaluma. Taps is less than one year old, but is already making a name for itself as one of the area’s best beer destinations. The Boiler Bar Theatre, who also had a burlesque and cabaret stage at the Beer Circus last year, brought several acts which they performed on a makeshift stage.
Below is a slideshow of the Lagunitas Beerlesque. 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.
And here are a few videos of some of the Boiler Bar acts that performed at the Lagunitas Beerlesque:
Jodi’s Eastern Accent Dance
Hobo Strip Tease
Thursday night was the Sean Paxton — a.k.a. The Homebrew Chef — beer dinner at the Mercedes Hair of the Dog Cantina in San Francisco. A modest affair, at least in Homebrew Chef terms, it was a mere eight courses. The dinner was paired with almost all collaboration beers, from De Prouef and Firestone Walker. For that reason, it was known as the Collaboration Beer Dinner.
Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Bryildson and the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton.
You can see each course and photos from the beer dinner below in the slideshow. 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.
After nine days of eating and drinking through SF Beer Week, I feel like a vacation on a tropical isle would do me a world of good, but with one more day to go, today’s works of art will have to go tropical for me. Its title is Beer Thirty and is by South Carolina artist Mike Massengale.
Here’s a short biography of Massengale from Absolute Arts:
Mike Massengale is a professional artist from Greenville, SC. His artistic skills sets have been learned and developed over twenty-five years of on the job experience. His advertising clients have been AT&T, Universal Studio’s and Disney just to name a few. He has also attained many awards from print designs to animation. His skill sets include, but not limited to: multimedia, animation, video production, creative design, illustration and painting. He is also very proud that of his latest accomplishment, which is completion of a MFA degree from the University of Hartford.
You can read a longer biography at the Fine Art America website.
You can also see more of his work at Fine Art America, and all of the art there is available as prints on canvas or paper, framed or unframed or even as a greeting card. You can but the Beer 30 painting, too.
For at least the last few years, Westvleteren 12 has been the highest rated beer on Beer Advocate. But it’s now been overtaken by an American beer, Russian River’s Pliny the Younger, Vinnie’s once-a-year triple IPA that was released this year on February 5.
Judy Ashworth, Stephen Beaumont, me & Peter Hoey at the Pliny the Younger release last Friday. Opening at 11:00 a.m., by 7:00 p.m., only 8 hours later, they’d gone through all the Younger they had, the equivalent of 40 kegs!
Other kegs set aside for accounts throughout SF Beer Week similarly ran out very quickly. I’ve heard reports of people actually getting pissed off about that and yelling at proprietors for running out, though its popularity can hardly be blamed on the bars selling it. In case you were one of those people who was rude to bar owners, disappointment is the proper response, not anger.
Congratulations to Vinnie and Natalie, and Russian River Brewing, makers of the world’s highest rated beer, at least according to Beer Advocate.
The fifth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is one of many ads that are in a zoo. In this one, a bear has snatched the zookeeper’s Guinness and is trying to offer a trade, but the bear looks none too interested in giving up his beer for anything. The tagline is another common one, “My Goodness – My Guinness.”
Here are the results from the 2010 Toronado Barley Wine Festival in San Francisco:
The other beers that reached the final round were AleSmith Old Numbskull, Alpine Brewing Great, Anchor Old Foghorn, and Big Sky Old Blue Hair.
Congratulations to all the winners.
Wednesday was hump day for SF Beer Week, falling smack dab in the middle of the ten days. Here’s some more photos from Day 6. Below are individual slideshows from several Wednesday events during SF Beer Week. They’re 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.
The Bistro Cheese-Off
Barclay’s Bill Brand Tribute
Cobb’s SF Beer Week “Beer-In”
Toronado Nightcap
After Cobb’s, I went over to the Toronado for a nightcap and to see if any of the Lagunitas folks we re still there. They’re weren’t, but Gabbi Chan and Phil Lowry were still there, though about to leave. I made do with a Russian River Mortification, Vinnie’s quadrupel.
Gabbi Chan & Phil Lowry.
Having my last beer on Wednesday night at the Toronado.
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser cans from 1963. You have to admire her ‘do and the mod frock, but “Pick a Pair,” suggesting that the “smart way to buy” is to purchase two six-packs implies that the 12-pack had not yet been invented. To me, that’s the odd notion. When did the 12-pack debut as a lasting package? I know breweries experimented with varying package sizes, before the sixer became the standard. I also seem to recall its victory had something to do with weight and ease of carrying. Though despite the obscenely happy face she’s wearing, she seems to be struggling a bit with carrying two six-packs, or at least they’re perched precariously.
