Tuesday’s ad is another oldie, based on the label, at least. I don’t know much about it either, but I love the association Bass is trying to make. While it’s obvious that they’re trying to evoke emotions of pride, it still comes off a little colonial and warlike. Of course, that may be because I live in a former colony. But with the tag line, “The Drink of the Empire,” I think I’m safe in saying the ad is somewhat imperial in its tone.
Here is quiz number three. This one is like the first, using the first letter of a beer brand name or the brewery. Your job is simply to figure out which beer or brewery it’s from. Good luck. Let me know how you did.
If you missed any previous quizzes, they can all be found on the beer quiz page.
Monday’s ad is one I have a reproduction of hanging in my office, a gift from my friend Steve Altimari, who is the brewmaster at Valley Brewing in Stockton, Calif. Valley Brewing sells the posters and uses the image in some of the promotional materials, but it’s 50s advertisement from the old El Dorado Brewery, a brewery that had been in Stockton from 1855 until it closed for good in 1955. You gotta love old cheesecake.
Today’s works of art is by a young Thai artist named Kitti Narod. He was commissioned by Chang Beer, the best-selling beer in Thailand, to paint an “interpretation” of their label. He came up with Rivers of Amber.
Here’s a description of the work:
In Bangkok artist Kitti Narod’s commissioned interpretation of the Thai favourite Chang Beer bottle and logo, an exuberant fountain of golden beer escapes the confines of its glass bottle and Narod’s painted encircling frame to flood the canvas with waves of vital refreshment. Four mystically illuminated corner elephants echo the prized white Thai elephants of the brand logo. Within the painted sphere, the forest, river, rainbow and starry sky exude energy to match the eddies of the amber torrent.
I love the look of this piece, especially having just watched the color-saturated Sita Sings the Blues. A lot of art from this region of the world uses dense, colorful designs where every square inch of the canvas is used.
Narod is appranetly a self-taught artist who “creates unique paintings of wildlife with brilliant dots of color.” According to a biography on Absolute Arts:
Kitti Narod’s acrylic dot paintings are inspired by Australian Aboriginal techniques. As a graduate artist working on collage paintings, Kitti came upon the dots on dots Australian Aboriginal art and found that this spoke to him personally as an artist. In Narod’s work, themes from nature, flowers, fruits, leaves, waves, trees, the sea and sea creatures are interwoven in colour schemes drawn from the blue of the sky and the warm palette inspired by Kitti’s tropical sun. This exceptionally versatile artist also produces dynamic Urban Abstracts, collages on a Chinese theme and, in collaboration with his “mom”, cutting edge textile compositions.
The Chang beer label, owned by ThaiBev. In Thai, the word “Chang” means elephant. Chang also has an interesting looking Thai Good Food Guide online.
You can see much more of her colorful artwork at Easy Art, the Magic Art Gallery and Thai Fine Art Online. You can purchase prints of his work at several online shops, including the X-Ray Mag Store or Easy Art.
I had a special treat today that was completely unexpected. One of the beers that my friend Phil Lowry — who owns Beer Merchants — brought along to the surprise birthday party for Rodger Davis (Triple Rock brewer) was BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin. I’ll have more about Rodger’s party on Tuesday, his actual birthday. For now, I’ll concentrate on the BrewDog beer. I had been very keen to try it ever since I’d read about it.
Tactical Nuclear Penguin, on the left, in its paper bag wrapper. In addition to the brown paper, it was also bound around the neck with a simple string, tied.
Removing the wrapper, we poured it into small glasses for sharing. It was nearly black in color with very little carbonation or head. It was not thick or viscous at all like an imperial stout, unsurprisingly, and also appeared thin and wasn’t opaque by a long shot. Swirling the beer produced nice lacing inside the glass. I’d read the nose was smokey, but it seemed more peaty to me, on the order of an Islay whisky. That was the overriding aroma, though underlying that was more subtle soy, a surprising sweetness and chocolate and toffee malt. And there was a bit of heat; hot alcohol, though not as much as I expected.
The peat character continues into the flavor profile, with plenty more going on, too, happily. Most surprising is that the alcohol heat doesn’t seem out of place (which it definitely did in the Paradox — Penguin’s base beer — I had at The Rake earlier this year) but works with the other flavors. Caramel and chocolate notes along with a treacly sweetness, licorice and a meaty saltiness, which combined for a very different, but thoroughly enjoyable, beer. It all came together well.
Though the two are very different, it’s hard to not compare it with Samuel Adams Utopias, since both made their reputations, at least in part, because of their extreme strength. I think the Utopias is more complex and a little more smooth, but not by much. The Penguin had much stronger flavors that lingered not only long afterward but even after I’d had other beers. Driving home, the peatiness was still with me. I say that as a plus. The beer really stays with you.
My overall reaction is that the beer did live up to its hype. I can’t say much about the price, admittedly high, but given its scarcity and what it took to create it, I can’t say it’s unreasonable. But as for the taste, it truly is extraordinary, like nothing else I’ve ever had in a beer.
There’s a great post today by Pete Brown concerning more nonsense from Great Britain’s neo-prohibitionist-leaning government flacks. Yet again confirming, at least to me, his status as a kindred spirit regarding this issue, Pete begins with this understandably anger-fueled assessment of the situation. This story comes at the beginning of the year, when people are stopping to take stock of their lives, but instead “the neo-prohibitionists go completely fucking apeshit, pouncing on the moment when many moderate drinkers prove they don’t have a drink problem by taking a few weeks off the sauce, and use it to ram fear and alarm down the nations throats as never before.”
Effectively, the tortured math from the UK’s National Health Service suggests that one-and-a-half pints of lager constitutes “hazardous behavior,” even if that amount is consumed over a week’s time! Congratulations to England, they’ve finally beaten us in being completely ridiculous about drinking guidelines. Read Pete’s post, it’s brilliant stuff.
Need a giant promotional balloon for your business? How about a 15-foot mug of beer? If you’re in Florida, you can rent one from Giant Balloon Rental. They also have a giant Coors beer can, too. That one is 23-feet tall. I’m guessing if one balloon rental company has it, they all probably do. I want one for my next party, much better than a jumpie house.
The humor website Freaking News, whose tagline is “News Photoshop Contests,” apparently has held several contests involving beer, challenging people to create funny pictures using Photoshop. In some cases they offer an image to start with and manipulate and in others they just suggest a theme. Below are some of my favorites from the Cold Draft Beer contest.
Boom!
Beer Lake.
Drunk Bouguereau. The original is La Petite Mendiante (The Little Beggar) painted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1880.
You can see many more beer-altered photos in these contest galleries. Warning: it’s a time suck.
Our 35th Session is hosted by Christina Perozzi & Hallie Beaune, authors of the recently published beer book, The Naked Pint. For now the announcement is currently up on Beer For Chicks, but soon enough, the Session will be on The Beer Chicks, a new website by Perozzi & Beaune. But back to their Session topic — “New Beer’s Resolutions” — which they describe thusly:
So we want to know what was your best and worst of beer for 2009? What beer mistakes did you make? What beer resolutions do you have for 2010? What are your beer regrets and embarrassing moments? What are you hoping to change about your beer experience in 2010?
Hmm, that’s a lot to swallow. Ba-dump-bump. Rimshot!
Best and worst beers of last year? I certainly had plenty of great beer throughout 2009. The new Utopias? Life & Limb? Pliny the Younger? Black Tuesday? Dark Lord? Tasting directly from the barrels at Russian River? I don’t think I could pick just one favorite. A worst beer? I tend to forget the bad as soon as it’s gone. I’d rather focus on the great beer. Beer mistakes? Undoubtedly, at least I hope so. As Joyce said, “a man’s errors are his portals of discovery.” Beer regrets? I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention. Embarrassing moments? For a second year in a row, I didn’t make it all the way through the Keene tasting at Brouwers, the day after the Hard Liver Barleywine Festival.
“What are you hoping to change about your beer experience in 2010?” Okay, that’s a question I can sink my teeth into. This is probably going to sound odd, but I think I’d like to drink more beer in 2010. As it is, I drink almost every day. But usually it’s at home, afternoons and usually later in the evening with dinner. With a second grader and a kindergartner that need to get picked up every day and shepherded around to music lessons, etc., it’s not exactly easy to be out drinking every night. But in a sense that’s where the magic happens. Setting is important.
In 2010, I want to do this more. Just be out more, drinking with friends.
So that’s my hope. To share a beer with more people this year, get out of the house more. Spend more time in bars, restaurants and breweries. That’s one of my New Beer’s Resolution, to drink more beer. Join me?
Drinking my first beer on New Year’s Day at Barclay’s in Oakland with Bruce Paton, the Beer Chef. My first beer this year was Moonlight Toast, which I followed with Moonlight’s Christmas beer: Santa’s Tipple.
You can also see some more photos in this slideshow from today’s quick trip to Barclay’s.
It’s the first day of the new year, of course, and this year I’ll be highlighting beer ads every week day — Monday through Friday — instead of just once a week on Thursdays. I just have too many already collected that I think are wonderful and merit sharing, so I decided to make 2010 the year of the beer ad here at the Brookston Beer Bulletin. Some will be old, some from mid-century (the 50s, 60 and 70s) and other will be more contemporary. The only unifying theme is that I think they’re artistic, more clever than the usual beer ad or have something else going for them. Feel free to suggest an ad you like and, if I agree, I’ll put it in the queue.
The year’s first ad, from Schlitz, was published in 1952. I don’t know who the artist was, but it looks like many other Schlitz ads from the same period, so it may have been a house illustrator. But it seemed appropriate for today because it’s set in an art museum, where I believe all of these ads belong.
This man may not be an art expert, but he knows fine beer when he tastes it. There are millions of people like him … people who like the taste of Schlitz so much that no other beer is in the picture for them.
