Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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The Death Of The Coaster?

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Most of us take the humble beer coaster for granted. I know I do, even though I have a casual collection of them that probably numbers in the thousands. I say casual because they’re in some boxex in the garage and I’ve never tried to organize them at all. Their formal name is the beermat, and “the first beermats made of cardboard were introduced in 1880 by the German printing company, Friedrich Horn.” Today, there are believed to be something on the order of 5.5 billion coasters worldwide. One company, The Katz Group, absolutely dominates the industry, with an estimated 75% market share.

But the economic crisis has reached the beer coaster now, too, as The Katz Group recently filed for bankruptcy relief in their native Germany. Spiegel reported that no one is sure what will happen to the market if the
Katz Group cannot successfully reorganize through the courts. Though they don’t say so, this has to be one of the worst potential side effects of consolidations and mergers that has been taking place worldwide for decades, with many, if not most, industries becoming increasing concentrated in just a few large corporations.

The BBC also has their take on the story and the ramifications, especially for collectors. The sheer ubiquity of them seems to all but guarantee their survival, but as priorities go, I also can’t see them rising to the top of anybody’s key businesses needing saving, like Wall Street or the auto industry. So if you have a lot of coasters lying around, best hang onto them for now.

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Beer In Art #33: Rik Olson’s Saint Of Beer

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Today’s work of art is one that I own and is hanging on the wall in my kitchen. It’s by a local artist, Rik Olson, who’s an illustrator as well as a fine artist. Olson has a studio in Sebastopol and I’ve been to it a few times during the annual Sonoma County Art Trails, where artists open up their studios two weekends each year. The title of the work is The Saint of Beer.

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According to his website:

For many years now Rik Olson has created strong graphic illustrations for corporate, advertising, and publishing clients. He is well known for both his black and white and color work in scratchboard, pen and ink, acrylics, linoleum cuts and other media. He is especially well known as one of the few living masters of wood engraving and has taught that art to appreciative students for over ten years. His work also hangs in a number of fine arts galleries, chief among them the Graton Gallery.

Rik’s work has been used for logos, packaging, brochures, advertising spots, textbooks, books, editorial, wine labels, web sites, signs, illustrative maps, and just about any other use you can imagine.

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And here’s his biography:

A California native, Rik received his B.F.A. from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He has studied under such masters as Barry Moser, John DePol, Richard McLean, and Ralph Borge. He has lived, studied and exhibited in Italy, Germany and the U.S. His influences include the years he lived in Europe and currently the beautiful countryside of Sonoma County, California. He enjoys pushing the envelope in printmaking and has recently been working on editions of multi-color linoleum cut prints. He recently took part in a fund raising event where the works of ten artists, whose over-size prints were printed by an actual steamroller, were featured.

Rik and his wife, Brita, live in rural West County with their two dogs and goldfish. He also participates in ArTrails, the annual artist open studio event in Sonoma County and invites you to visit his studio.

His stuff is great, and he’s become one of a handful of artists we like to visit each year. We’ve also bought several of his linocut prints, one of a starry night seen through trees, a winter moon seen through a bare tree, a Steller’s Jay and some poppies.

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Here’s another one from his gallery, but I’ve never seen this one at his studio.

There’s not much more biographical information online, but there are several online galleries of his work, including these at the website of his agent Ann Koeffler, another rep., Tom Maloney, and at Folio Planet. There’s also a Steamroller print he did for a charity auction that I saw in his studio the last time I was there.

When Thursday Is Fryday

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You probably noticed that last week I was in Boston for a day, judging the Longshot Homebrew Contest finals at the Boston Beer Co. brewery there in Jamaica Plain. After we finished and had a late lunch, the rest of the day was open. My only plan was to try some more beer and, hopefully, some more frites. As we were waiting for judging to begin, several people in the Samuel Adams marketing department had suggestions of places around town with great frites. Armed with several names, I had a mission. And that’s how Thursday became a Fryday.

At lunch, Todd and Jason Alström, from Beer Advocate, mentioned they had to go to Boston Beerworks where they were being interviewed and then afterwards would be pleased to join me on my fry crawl. Bob Townsend, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (and my favorite new person from Georgia) also tagged along since he had time to kill until he was meeting a friend for dinner later. So the Frites Foursome hailed a cab and our adventure began.

Out first stop was Boston Beerworks, the one near Fenway Park. Todd and Jason had to meet Boston Globe reporter Joseph P. Kahn so he could interview them about Beer Advocate and their upcoming beer festival. The article was subsequently published yesterday, entitled The Beer Necessities.

The brewery is just inside the door.

New signs hang behind the bar announcing which beers they have on tap. Bob and I waited here while Todd & Jason were interviewed and had some beers and, of course, an order of frites. Here, you can see my review of their frites.

The unsubtle sign above the entrance door, in case you weren’t sure what you’d been drinking as you leave. Our next stop was the first recommendation, Eastern Standard. For some reason I only took a photo of the frites here, oh and their handmade chips, so here’s what it looked like inside.

After that, we stopped for a quick pint at The Other Side, a cool organic dive bar near my hotel.

No frites, but they had a pretty decent beer list, both on tap and in bottles.

The vibe was Toronado meets Santa Cruz Organic Cafe, with loft seating, local art on the walls and an impressive menu of unusual dishes all made with local and natural ingredients.

Our next stop was another recommendation, Brasserie Joe, a French bistro, also attached to a hotel, the Colonnade Hotel.

Another nice place, with a contract beer on tap made by Brooklyn Brewing (tasted like their Pilsner). The frites were appropriately Belgian-style, served in a silver cup lined with a checkerboard paper. After I took photos of the frites for their review, our bartender asked me what I was doing and then, bemused I suspect, brought us over some delicious hot bread and carrots in a horseradish-based sauce. Also, Dann Paquette, from Pretty Things, met us at Brasserie Jo and joined us on our crawl.

Our last stop on the fry crawl was Cambridge Brewing, where we were to meet up with Bob Townsend again and also where Andy Crouch would join us. Bob had ordered some frites, so I was able to try his. They were somewhat different than the ones I had the last time I was there. I had a great talk with Dann there, and he has some exciting things going on. I was dying to try some of his beers, so …

Our last stop of the evening was the nearby Hungry Mother, where I had an opportunity to try two of Dann’s beers. First, I sampled the Jack D’Or, a really wonderful beer. Pretty Things took a saison and really put their own stamp on it, Saison Americain indeed. I also tried the Baby Tree, his interpretation of quadruple. It was likewise outstanding. Between talking beer and philosophy with Dann and how good his beers are, I think Pretty Things may be my favorite new brewery. So far they’re only in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.

 

Dann Paquette, Andy Crouch and Todd Alström showing off Pretty Things’ Baby Tree at the Hungry Mother..

 

Cheesesteak Love

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Thanks to Jesse from Beer & Nosh for tweeting me about this. It seems fellow Pennsylvanian Dave McLean, who owns both Alembic and the Magnolia Gastropub, loves cheesesteaks. What do you know, so do I. Perhaps most people from Pennsylvania do. If you grew up on them, you know how hard it is to find a decent one outside of the Keystone State.

Jesse probably didn’t know that I, too, am obsessed with cheesesteaks. He sent me the link because of Dave’s keen fashion sense. So I was pretty excited when I saw he was wearing my logo shirt. Way to go Dave!

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Photo by Stefanie Michejda

In a profile about food obsessions, Dave McLean reveals his own cheesesteak love. But he’s from Pittsburgh (BTW 7×7, Pittsburg is in California, Dave’s from Pittsburgh) whereas IMHO real cheesesteaks come from the Eastern part of the state, near Philadelphia. Both Pat’s and Geno’s are in Philly, where the cheesesteak, if not originated, is thought to have been perfected. Those two are the most famous, but I realize which is best and which other places are better is a volatile subject and everyone has an opinion on the subject.

I actually grew up west of Philadelphia, near Reading, and prefer the V&S Cheesesteak which used real cheese, not cheese whiz. I think whatever taste profile was your usual when you were a kid is the one that stays with you, like Mom’s home cooking. But Dave is also right that the Cheesesteak Shop, with 26 locations around the Bay Area, does probably the best job of approximating a Pennsylvania cheesesteak. As Dave points out, they do use Amoroso’s rolls from Philadelphia — a key ingredient — and they have Tastykakes, too. But I have to gently take exception to the assertion that a Tastykake is “like a Hostess cupcake.” That’s like saying Filet Mignon is like a hamburger.

Of course, I’m also obsessed with Tastykakes. I grew up on them and they’re definitely light years ahead of any other pre-packaged desserts I’ve ever tried. Although I love the Butterscotch Krimpets, the cream-filled cupcakes and even the now-defunct coffee cake, my all-time favorite is the peanut butter Kandy Kake. But I swear that they used to be called “Tandy Takes” when I was a kid (can anybody corroborate that?). Safeway carried them briefly in the Bay Area a decade ago, but then abruptly dropped them. You can also buy them online, which I confess I’ve done. They’re that good. Their tagline used to be “all the good things wrapped up in one.” Too true. Damn, now I’m hungry.

 

Delirium Fashion

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If you’ve ever met me in person then you know I’m not exactly a fashion maven, far from it. I have several friends for whom fashion is a way of life, but for me I’m happy in the most comfortable, nondescript clothes possible. Lots of plain colors, nothing too bright or showy, probably my Mennonite roots showing though. My “look,” such as it is, is probably best described as rumpled.

But as usual, that places me squarely in the minority, the corner of the world I tend to inhabit where all the out-of-step people congregate. About the only goal I hope to achieve through clothing is not sticking out too much, so my oddness is not immediately apparent; I just hope people can’t judge that by my cover.

The same cannot be said for Xenia, who writes a fashion blog called Doe Deere Blogazine, which she describes. “Doe Deere Blogazine is an express ticket to your most fabulous self, delivered to you daily in a hot pink envelope! Daily articles include makeup tutorials, style & fashion tips, tales of living in NYC, as well personal musings from miss Deere.” According to her website, by her “mid-20s [she] had been an owner of a fashion business, a freelance make-up artist and a model, designed websites and released 2 music CDs of different genres to tolerable critic reviews.”

Why am I telling you about Ms. Deere? Well, in one of her posts, entitled Fashion Inspired By A Beer Bottle, she was inspired by a bottle of Delirium Nocturnum from Brouwerij Huyghe, located in Melle, Belgium, which is in the Ghent region of the country. It was the bottle here on the left that inspired her. Here’s what she wrote:

Inspiration can come from most unexpected places — like a beer bottle! When I saw this Belgian ale at the Russian store (they sell a lot of European stuff), I had to have it immediately. Not only did it have an unusual look — check out that purplish-blue foil! — the name also appealed to me: Delirium Nocturnum. Apparently, it’s a brewery in Belgium. The beer was excellent, by the way; experts give it 86 out of 100.

Below is the outfit she came up with, or as she put it, the outfit she translated from the bottle. “The trick with red-white-&-blue palette, of course, is not to end up looking like an American flag. So I threw in some gray boots just in case, and a deer necklace.”

Below is the outfit she came up with. Did she succeed in making an outfit that looks like Delirium Nocturnum? I’ll let you be the judge. What do you think? You can also see more photos, including aome close-up, of her outfit at the Doe Deere Blogazine.

Cartoon Propaganda

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Back in the early 1990s, Warner Brothers ran a new cartoon series called Tiny Toon Adventures, and it was presented by Stephen Spielberg. Instead of the iconic Warner Brothers cartoon characters, they featured their nephews, Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck and Hampton J. Pig, among many others.

There were 98 episodes done over three seasons from 1990-92, with the animation done by seven different studios. Some were of middling humor, though the animation quality was often less than stellar. Few, if any, ever came close to the earlier Warner Brothers cartoons prior to 1964.

Episode #68 from the 2nd season was animated by AKOM in South Korea (famous for animating The Simpsons) and was called Elephant Issues. It aired only once in the U.S. (on September 18, 1991) and was thereafter banned. I’m not entirely sure why, though the last of three segments is a horrible piece of anti-alcohol propaganda called “One Beer.” At the YouTube page where it was posted, RayOfHope612 gave only the following information:

This is a banned cartoon from the banned episode, Elephant Issues. It’s about the dangers of alcohol. This cartoon was only shown once in America, when it first aired, afterwards, it was never shown again on TV in America in later channels like Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network.

But watch it for yourself and see if you can spot the propaganda.

Their descent into madness is swift indeed, taking no more than the first slug of beer to turn them into complete degenerates. And curiously, throughout the entire episode that “one beer” lasts all three of them, meaning 4 oz. per person was all it took to get them drunk and keep them that way. So drunk, in fact, that they steal a police car, drive off a cliff and actually die. How subtle. What a great message for kids. And so honest, too. This should keep the wee ones off the sauce. Reefer Madness redone for the toddler set, ’cause they’re the age group at risk. WTF?!? Anybody have a theological take on why after committing so many “sins” they still got their wings and went up to heaven?

Flag Day Buds

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You’ve probably seen this before, it’s been around since at least 2002, but it seemed appropriate for Flag Day. It’s from a “[s]torefront display in a West Virginian town situated along the New River.” It was taken by Marjorie O’Brien, who at the time was a photography major at Northern Michigan University’s School of Art and Design in Marquette. It’s a great photo, though due credit has to be given to the store for putting together such a simple yet effective display using cases of Budweiser, Bud Light and Natural Light in the front window.

 

 

Beer In Art #32: Flag Day Beer Art

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Since today is Flag Day, I thought I’d look at some beer art that also uses the American flag. The reason it’s Flag Day is because in 1777, “John Adams introduced the following resolution before the Continental Congress, meeting at Philadelphia, PA: ‘Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.'” Since that time, breweries (and all other business ventures) have been wrapping themselves in the flag to sell products, invoke patriotism or just celebrate living in America. It will probably not surprise you to know I’m also a flag geek, though I think I may have already revealed that tidbit before now (oh, yes I did).

 

Here’s a typical example from the 19th century, a New York brewery’s calendar for 1899.

But even in modern times, several microbreweries have used flag imagery on their labels, most notably Stoudt’s American Pale Ale. Stoudt’s flagship (pun intended?) APA uses a bold, stylized painting of an American Flag that looks like a cross between a Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns.

I don’t know who painted it and there’s no information on the label itself. I could call Carol Stoudt and ask, but it’s Sunday and it can no doubt wait until tomorrow. They even extended the artwork to the six-pack carriers.

But I’ve always liked its jagged edges, the indistinct stars created from the white paint alone, and how the colors mix between all the ribbons of red and white while remaining clearly defined nonetheless.

Until I know about the painter, there isn’t much else to look at, unless you’re curious about Flag Day itself, in which case Wikipedia has a summary; or, if you want to know more about the U.S. flag.

 

Longshot Judging

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On Wednesday I flew to Boston to judge the finals of the Longshot American Homebrew Contest. This is the third year for the new contest, which Samuel Adams also did in the mid-1990s in a slightly different format. But the idea is the same. Homebrewers submit their beer, which is judged in regional competitions. The two big winners will then have their homebrew made commercially and bottled. There were 1300 entries this year which was whittled down to four, from which our job was to pick two. You can read more of the story at my post at Bottoms Up.


Jim Koch was at the head of the table, with six more of us there.


Tony Forder (Ale Street News), Bob Townsend (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and me.


Todd Alstrom showing off one of the homebrew beer bottles.


The seven of us, to break any ties, afterwards in the back garden picnic area. From left: Jason Alstrom (from Beer Advocate), Tony Forder (from Ale Street News), Bob Townsend (a food & drinks columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Jim Koch (founder of the Boston Beer Co.), yours truly (on assignment for Celebrator Beer News), Julie Johnson (from All About Beer magazine), and Todd Alstrom (also from Beer Advocate).

The Conscience Of A Liberal Drinker

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If you’re a regular reader of the Bulletin, you know I’m a economics junkie and my politics run to the more liberal side. So you probably won’t be surprised to learn I’m a fan of recent Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, who also writes a column for the New York Times. I read his last two books (and the re-issue/update of his The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 is on my reading list). Jack Curtin, who appears lately to be hunkered down in his bunker/cabin in the woods doing nothing but blogging, passed along this little gem about Krugman’s vacation in Brugge. According to the Times, Krugman is in Brugge and had a beer dinner yesterday at Den Dyver. Den Dyver has a 3, 4 and 5-course fixed menu available with a beer paired with every course. I love that fac that he opted for the beer, good beer. Hey Draft magazine, I think you just found your next cover celebrity.
 

Krugman with his dessert beer.