There are several videos up now from events during SF Beer Week. I heard from Steve Atkinson this morning that he has three up at his Beer Videos YouTube Channel. There are also three more at the SF Beer Week YouTube Channel. Steve Shapiro, from Beer by BART, also has a cool one up on YouTube of people on camera explaining why they love SF Beer Week. If you know of any more that are online, let me know and I’ll add a link here.
Beer In Ads #45: Dorothy Dandridge For Jax
It’s not just any Tuesday, but Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday — Mardi Gras — so today’s ad is for a New Orleans beer, Jax. It’s a celebrity ad, with actress Dorothy Dandridge hawking Jax Beer. Dandridge was the first African-American woman nominated for an Academy Award and Halle Berry played her in the award winning HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Using the tagline “Get the Light Idea!” That’s followed by “Drink Mellow Jax Beer.” You rarely see mellow used as a positive attribute these days, which is a shame, I think. I’m not sure when this ad is from, though Dandridge passed away in 1965, so it’s most likely it was before then. It was brewed by Jax Brewing Co. until 1956, when the New Orleans’ Jackson Brewing Co. bought the brand and brewed it there (the old brewery is now a shopping mall) until 1974, when Pearl Brewery bought them out. Since 1985, Pabst has owned the brand, but as far as I now, is not brewing it anywhere. Happy Mardi Gras.
Celebrator Anniversary Party 2010
The last big event during SF Beer Week was the Celebrator Beer News 22nd Anniversary Party, which was held at Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California. It felt good and appropriate being back in a brewery for the event, after two years in the cavernous Marriott Convention Center. There was a great turnout, all in a celebratory mood. Over thirty breweries were pouring their finest beers for four hours on a beautiful February Sunday evening.
Lars Larson, from our hosts, Trumer Brauerei, with Homer Smith from the Oak Barrel and Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment.
It felt like a fitting end to ten days of events for what to all accounts seems like a very successful 2nd SF Beer Week. Although a lot of hard work by quite a large number of people went into the festival this year, it feel like it ran far smoother too, thanks to great work by everyone, and especially Rich Higgins, Meg Gill and Dave McLean, who spearheaded a lot of the effort this year.
Me and Tom Dalldorf (photo by Mike Condie).
Below is a slideshow of the Celebrator anniversary party. 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.
Below are a few videos of random happenings at the party.
One interesting impromptu phenomenon that occurred Sunday night was that I kept noticing a seemingly random number of people who had dressed more dapper than most (excluding the people in costumes). At some point in the evening, they all came together and broke into song with the Trumer brewery as a picturesque backdrop. Below is a video of one of their acapella numbers.
Late in the evening, with less than an hour to go before closing time, someone started throwing coasters high into the air and it became epidemic with almost everyone there joining in. I felt sorry for the clean-up crew, so I didn’t participate, but I did capture a few minutes of the melee on video.
Beer In Ads #44: Miller High Life Plays Chess
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.
Brewers Sunday Tea
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.
Lagunitas Beerlesque
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
The Homebrew Chef’s Beer Dinner At Mercedes
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.
Beer In Art #65: Mike Massengale’s Beer Thirty
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.
Pliny the Younger Takes Top Spot On Beer Advocate
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.
Guinness Ads #5: Bear’s Beer
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.”
