Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Help Free the Hops

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We live in an enlightened age of beer — The Silver Age — which is perhaps the best time ever for beer in America in terms of diversity, quality and innovation. If, however, you’re one of the unfortunate souls living today in Alabama, only 1/3 of the beers made in the world are legally allowed to be sold there. The Yellowhammer State is determined to keep its beers yellow and fizzy. Only beer under 6% abv is legal there and only in packages holding 16 oz. or less. As you might expect, wine has no size restrictions and can be up to 24% and spirits have no restrictions whatsoever. Hypocrisy is no stranger to Alabama.

There are other odd restrictions, too, such as homebrewing is still illegal, one of only four holdout states (along with Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma). For a more complete picture of the antiquated restrictions in Alabama, visit Free the Hops.

Free the Hops is a grassroots organization that started in 2004 that’s trying to drag Alabama’s beer laws into the 21st Century and, sadly, they’re meeting with a lot of resistance from … well, let’s say folks who would rather keep the status quo, don’t really understand what’s happening in the rest of the world, and would rather Alabamians stopped drinking altogether.

Despite these hurdles, and with the support of 61 businesses in the state, they’ve managed to get their “Gourmet Bill” through the house and the state senate is poised to vote on it later this week. As you might imagine, such effort needs money. To raise some funds for the fight, Free the Hops is conducting a raffle of rare beers at only $4 per raffle ticket, 3 for $10 or 5 for $15. There’s a special raffle website where you can buy raffle tickets online using credit cards or PayPal. It couldn’t be easier and it’s for a very worthy cause. I just bought five tickets. Who’s next? Let’s help Alabama to enjoy more of the wonderful beers we take for granted.

 

Top Beer Brandz

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Advertising Age had an interesting piece today entitled Recession Doesn’t Dent Total Value of Top 100 Brands, which is based on Millward Brown Optimor’s annual BrandZ Report. Each year MB Optimor releases their list of “the world’s most valuable brands measured by their dollar value.” As they put it, “strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.”

According to AdAge, despite the recession the top spots have not changed very much, nor has the overall total of the Top 100. The new rankings won’t be officially released until Wednesday, but here’s the Top 10. The number in parentheses is their rank last year.

  1. Google (1)
  2. Microsoft (3)
  3. Coca-Cola (4)
  4. IBM (6)
  5. McDonald’s (8)
  6. Apple (7)
  7. ChinaMobile (5)
  8. General Electric (2)
  9. Vodafone (11)
  10. Marlboro (10)

Some more analysis from the AdAge article:

All told, the value of the top 100 brands, which ranges from the ubiquitous search engine at the top to Lowes at the bottom, was about $2 trillion and didn’t suffer the decline one might expect in a recessionary environment.

There was, however, more volatility in the top 100 this year than in the past, with 15 brands dropping out. They were mostly car brands, such as Chevrolet, Ford and Volkswagen, and financial ones such as AXA, AIG and, of course, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia. They were replaced by brands such as Nintendo and Pampers.

Toward the end of the piece, finally they revealed what happened in the big beer world.

The beer category was dominated by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Bud Light was the largest brand, followed by Budweiser, and Stella Artois came in fourth behind Heineken. Miller Lite came in seventh, growing only 2% compared with double-digit growth for the A-B InBev brands.

So this is what we know so far about the 2009 rankings:

  1. Bud Light
  2. Budweiser
  3. Heineken
  4. Stella Artois
  5. ?
  6. ?
  7. Miller Lite

 

Here’s Millward Brown Optimor’s explanation of how they calculate their rankings.

 
Here’s the beer brand rankings from last year, 2008.

  1. Budweiser
  2. Bud Light
  3. Heineken
  4. Corona
  5. Stella Artois
  6. Guinness
  7. Miller Lite
  8. Skol
  9. Amstel
  10. Beck’s
  11. Cruzcampo
  12. Kronenbourg 1664
  13. Coors Light
  14. Labatt’s
  15. Baltika
  16. Carlsberg
  17. Brahma
  18. Miller Genuine Draft (MGD)
  19. Foster’s
  20. Molson

In the Top 100 of all companies for last year, Budweiser (including both Bud & Bud Light) ranked 70th and was the only beer brand to make the overall list.

Tune in later in the week to find out the new rankings for 2009.

 

Draft Beer Manual Published

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One of the most interesting things announced at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston last week was the Draught Beer Quality Manual published by the Technical Committee of the Brewers Association, in collaboration with all of the large brewers, as well. As a result of working with virtually the entire industry, the manual should become the industry standard for all things concerning draft beer. The committee was headed by Ken Grossman, of Sierra Nevada Brewing, who is known for his attention to detail and thoroughness. Everyone I know who’s looked at the manual so far has nothing but high praise for it. If you own or work in a bar or any other place that serves draught beer, or are simply interested in the subject, you should get a copy of the manual. Happily, it’s available free of charge online at DraughtQuality.org as a Wiki and the entire thing can be downloaded as a pdf, also free of charge. It includes just about everything you ever wanted to know about draught beer.

 

Beer In Art #25: Copley’s Portrait Of Samuel Adams

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art-beer
Given that I’ve been in Boston for the last week, it only seems fitting to feature a portrait of one of Beantown’s own. So this week’s work is a portrait of Samuel Adams painted by John Singleton Copley.

Copley-sam_adams-lg

The painting hangs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Art, and I had a change to see the original on Saturday. It was smaller than I expected at 49 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. and is believed to have been painted around 1772. Its first owner, after the artist, was none other than John Hancock. His wife later gave it to Adams’ grandson and in 1876 it was given to the City of Boston. In the painting, he’s pointing at the Massachusetts Charter, which Adams believed was a constitution that protected peoples’ rights.

Copely was one of the most famous early American painters, especially of portraits. He also did paintings of John Hancock, John Adams and Paul Revere, as well.

Whether or not Adams was in fact a brewer is open to some debate. Stanley Baron’s Brewing in America suggests that he may have been involved in his father’s malting business, making him a Malster. In the footnote in the Wikipedia entry on Samuel Adams, it tells the following story.

Baron, Brewed in America, 74–75; Alexander, Revolutionary Politician, 231. However, Stoll (Samuel Adams, 275n16) notes that James Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company, reports having seen a receipt for hops signed by Adams, which indicates that Adams may have done some brewing.

It seems to me we might rarely hear of Sam Adams’ connection to the world of beer were it not for the Boston Beer Co. Historically, it doesn’t seem like that was a driving force in his life. There’s a statue of Adams at Faneuil Hall, often referred to as the “cradle of liberty.”

sam-statue

Below the statue, this is all it says:

sam-statue-detail

No mention of his brewing, though to be fair this is a historical site. But I still think absent Jim Koch, our history would likely not include his background in beer, whatever it really was. It’s certainly been a powerful and very successful association.

If you want to learn more about the artist, you can start with his Wikipedia page. There’s also information at Art Archive, the ArtCyclopedia, and the National Gallery of Art. Also, the John Singleton Copely Virtual Gallery purports to have a complete gallery of his works.

Roadhouse Craft Beer

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The last night of the Craft Brewer Conference in Boston, I went out to dinner with some friends, including Greg Koch (from Stone Brewing), Tom McCormick (from the CSBA) and Nancy Johnson (from the Brewers Association) and several new friends.

The Roadhouse Craft Beer & BBQ is a sister restaurant to the wonderful Publick House, just a block away in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

The gang at our table. Yes, I had frites, you can read the review, of course.

The evening was actually an event for Shorts Brewing in Bellaire, Michigan. Of those I tried, I most enjoyed the Rich’s Rye IPA, made with a generous 40% rye malt, though the Huma-Lupa-Licious IPA was quite nice, too.

Tom McCormick and Nancy Johnson, begging for a new birthday photo (since I’ve been using the same one since New Orleans).

Next door to the Roadhouse was the Publick House’s bottle shop.

While waiting for our cab back to downtown, Todd Alstrom and Greg Koch engaged in what I learned was a time-honored tradition where they punch one another in the arm, a contest I should hasten to point out Greg never wins. Here, Greg waits in anticipation of the blow to come.

Todd kept his perfect record that night, too.

 

Cantillon At Deep Ellum

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While I’ve been in Boston, I haven’t gotten out and away from the hotel and trade show as much as I might have liked, mostly just due to being busy and having to keep with my writing. But last night I finally got a chance to get over to Allston and see Deep Ellum, a great beer bar I’d heard a lot about. Dan Shelton, from Shelton Brothers, was having an event and brought several brewers with him from Belgium, two of whom I’d met on my last trip to Brussels.

Deep Ellum was as advertised, a very cool bar, small in size but with a great selection of both draft and bottled beer, a good menu and a beautiful space, including a great back patio.

I shared a cab over with Justin Crosley, from the Brewing Network, and we managed to get a seat inside before the crowds really started rolling in. We had a good vantage point to see the stream of new arrivees.

Which included Jeff O’Neil, from Ithaca Brewing, who while a mild-mannered brewer was underneath wearing the Bulletin supporter costume whereupon he turned into a superhero.

As it happened, I was enjoying his “Brute,” a delicious wild ale with a plate of fries. You can see my full review of the fries at Frites.

I loved this black and white painting hanging on on Deep Ellum’s wall.

Out back I finally found Jean Van Roy (on right, from Cantillon), Yvan De Baets (center, who plans to open Brasserie De La Senne by the end of the year) and I believe Bernard (on left, also from De La Senne). Did I mention how wonderful the Cantillon Vigneronne was on draft?

 

I Am A Craft Brewer

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Well, not me personally, obviously, I’m just a writer and supporter of craft beer. But that’s the name of the very cool video created by Greg Koch, co-founder of Stone Brewing, which he used for the Keynote Speech at the Craft Brewers Conference yesterday morning. This shows the best in craft beer and why I love and support it so readily. Enjoy.

Here’s how Greg himself describes the effort:

“I Am A Craft Brewer” is a collaborative video representing the camaraderie, character and integrity of the American Craft Brewing movement. Created by Greg Koch, CEO of the Stone Brewing Co. and Chris & Jared of Redtail Media…and more than 35 amazing craft brewers from all over the country. The video was shown to a packed audience of 1700 craft brewers and industry members at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference as an introduction to Greg’s Keynote Speech entitled “Be Remarkable: Collaboration Ethics Camaraderie Passion.” As is tradition for the CBC Keynote, a toast to the audience was offered. This time, the beers offered for the toast were all collaboratively brewed craft beers including Isabella Proximus, Collaboration Not Litigation, AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple, Jolly Pumpkin/Nøgne-Ø/Stone Special Holiday Ale, and 2009 Symposium Ale “Audacity of Hops.”

 

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

 

A Rose By Any Other Name

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On the drive to Los Angeles last Wednesday to see the premiere of Beer Wars, I also took the opportunity to visit some friends along the way. My second stop on the way down was in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, to see Eric Rose’s Hollister Brewing, which opened less than a year ago. Rose used to be the brewmaster at Santa Barbara Brewing for many years, but left to open his new place with his father.

 

I sat at the bar and had a nice, long conversation with Eric about this and that, while sampling a number of his fine beers. I tried the H.I.P.A. (made with hemp seeds), Pigman Pale Ale, Table 42 Red, the Fairview Farmhouse Ale and the Barleywhine.

Father and son brewpub owners, Marshall and Eric Rose.

 

For more photos from my visit to Hollister Brewing, visit the photo gallery.
 

Michael Jackson Tweets: A Joke?

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As retweeted by Rate Beer, one of three he’s following, along with Beer Advocate and the Lost Abbey, some prankster has set up a Twitter account under the name “mjbeer” with Michael’s photo as the avatar and “The REAL Michael Jackson Beer Twitter” in the Bio.

So far, only three tweets have been done, all within a little over an hour. The first is a review of the Lost Abbey’s Angel’s Share.

Drinking Lost Abbey 2008 Brandy Barrel Angels Share. This beer is cloyingly sweet and undercarbonated. It’s official I’m rolling in my grave.

In the second, he (or she) confesses it’s all a “little joke” and hopes they’re “not offending anyone.”

Waiting for ratebeer to reboot. It appears that they have found my little joke. I hope that I am not offending anyone. More reviews to come.

I’m pretty hard to offend and have a fairly broad sense of humor, but reading tweets purporting to be from an old friend and colleague who died tragically too soon less than two years ago is, I must say, more than a little offensive. Am I off the mark here? Am I being a stick in the mud? Does anyone find this funny? I’m pretty sure Michael’s estate won’t find someone impersonating him very funny. It just seems wildly inappropriate to me and in very bad taste.

 
UPDATE: I’m happy to report that the mjbeer Twitter account appears to have been deleted and removed.
 

Frites Love

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If you’ve ever eaten with me, then you know how much I love frites. Along with bacon, cheese, potato chips, Monte Cristo sandwiches, and anything with peanut butter and chocolate, French Fries are among my favorite foods. I can eat them by the truckload, and usually do. I love all shapes and sizes, loaded with salt and with a variety of dipping sauces. One of favorite things to dip frites into is a chocolate milkshake. Yum.

Anyway, since I’m often out on beer adventures where there are also frites, I decided to start documenting the frites I encounter on a separate blog, which is called simply Frites. Wherever I encounter my beloved French Fries, I’ll take a photo, describe the frites and rate them. If you know some damn fine frites I should try, please let me know.

 

The wonderful shoestring frites from Father’s Office 2.