Thursday’s ad is for Tuborg Beer and was published in 1960. It features a beautiful-looking nearly empty gold-rimmed pilsner glass with lace on the insides. The text reads “A-H-H-H! HEARD THE WORLD OVER … AFTER A GLASS OF TUBORG!” Tuborg used to be a stronger brand in the American market when I was a kid, and was part of United Breweries in Denmark before being acquired by brewing giant Carlsberg in 1970, ten years after this ad ran.
Wednesday’s ad is for O’Keefe’s and was done around 1900, years before Miller put on a woman in the moon. O’Keefe’s was a Canadian brewery that in 1916 was purchased by Carling, and later merged with Canadian Breweries in 1930. In 1969, it became Carling O’Keefe again but merged with Molson in 1989. The ad is typical of the turn of the century, when ads were often low-key with grand illustrations showing idealized beauty. “Pilsener Lager” I understand, but “Special Extra Mild Ale” is a bit of a head-scratcher. Extra Mild makes about as much sense as Imperial Mild, and now we’ve seen both.
Sierra Nevada Brewing, of course, is celebrating their 30th anniversary this year in grand fashion. Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman is doing collaboration beers with some of the true pioneers of craft beer: Fred Eckhardt, Fritz Maytag, Jack McAuliffe and Charlie Papazian. The 30th anniversary website, Sierra 30, has a great little video of the pioneers with an overview of the collaborations.
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.
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.
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.
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.