Good news from Texas. Apparently beer contains no evil after all. I guess it must be lost in the boil. A former Baptist minister, Greg Methvin, said the following during the Dallas Uptown Church’s Theology Live lecture series held at — where else? — the Ginger Man. “There is no evil in your beer.” At first I thought he was talking about the ingredients, but no, what Methvin meant was different. He went on. “Even things that can be abused, such as alcohol and the Internet, are not of themselves evil.” I certainly hope that extends to multiples, insofar as I’m writing about alcohol on the internet. Might be a double whammy. With so many religious extremists involved with neo-prohibitionists and feverishly against any alcohol, it’s certainly nice to see a more reasonable take. The lecture series is apparently designed to win over young newcomers to the church. Next up in the series: “Tainted Love.” I guess they must be going for the Soft Cell.

If you live in Delaware and also love good beer, like Dogfish Head and Iron Hill, to name just a couple, please consider contacting your state senator as soon as possible, because the state is trying to raise the tax on beer 50% and the vote is on Monday, June 30, so there isn’t much time. Here’s the info from Support Your Local Brewery:

Dear Delaware Beer Activists and Homebrewers,

Delaware small brewers need your help! Please read the following information provided by the small, independent breweries of Delaware:

A proposal currently moving in the legislature would raise the state tax on beer almost 50%. The small brewers of Delaware are asking you TO CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR TODAY to ask him/her to oppose this unprecedented increase as an extremely harmful measure to the state’s small craft breweries.

At this point, this proposal has not been formally drafted as legislation, but will be amended into an existing bill and voted on Monday, June 30.

NOW IS THE TIME TO CALL YOUR SENATOR — CALLING IS THE QUICKEST, MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD AS TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

For contact information for your Senator, click here. You will find links to the Senate roster of members. Simply find your Senator and click on their link for contact information.

Following are several suggested points to make to your elected representatives:

1. Delaware has one of the most vibrant and varied craft brewing communities on the east coast.
2. Delaware’s small breweries are good for the economy and very good for tourism. Thousands of visitors journey to the state every year to visit these breweries and experience their unique products where they are made.
3. Small brewers are facing astronomical costs increases across the board – from malt and hops to energy and packaging materials – nearly 40% over last year. If a further tax burden is placed upon Delaware’s small breweries in this challenging economy it will surely put many of those small businesses at risk.
4. A tax increase of this magnitude will deter start-up breweries from considering locating in Delaware, as it will affect existing breweries’ ability to expand, stalling job growth and possibly forcing Delaware breweries to relocate to states that have more competitive tax structures.
5. The small, independent breweries of this state need their legislator’s support now more than ever.

Thanks for supporting Delaware’s small breweries!

Finally a reason to work myself into a patriotic lather. You travel around to enough beer nations and you realize, they all have one, sometimes more than one. I’m talking about beer museums. We have an American Hop Museum in Toppenish, Washington (in the Yakima Valley), and there’s at least one Beer Can Museum, if not more. And the Milwaukee Beer Museum will most likely also open next month, not to mention that a good friend of mine is working hard to get a Portland Beer Museum off the ground. But there’s been no National Beer Museum … until now.

It’s a joint project of the American Breweriana Association and the Potosi Brewery Foundation in the small town of Potosi, Wisconsin. The National Brewery Museum, which will also include a library and a brewpub, is located in the building that formerly housed the Potosi Brewery, which was founded in 1852. The museum, restaurant and gift shop opened on June 19, but the official grand opening will be held July 5.

The Madison Capital Times has a story about the museum’s opening. Looks like a trip to Wisconsin in the near future is in order.

Outside the National Brewery Museum in Potosi, Wisconsin.

Inside the museum.

Thanks to Jason at the Brew Basement for pointing this one out, it’s too good not to share. The New York Times did a fun article on beer cellars and there’s even a photo of Danny Williams’ legendary beer cave. If you’ve been around GABF judging you’ve no doubt seen Danny Williams, who’s been involved for many years. I’d heard about his beer cave — actually an abandoned gold mine — from Marin Brewing’s head brewer, Arne Johnson, who visited it a couple of years ago. The article also highlights Dr. Bill and Matt VandenBerghe from Brouwers Cafe/Bottleworks in Seattle.

The ultimate beer cellar, a Colorado gold mine, liquid gold that is.

Not surprisingly, things are moving quickly in the brouhaha — er, make that brewhaha — surrounding InBev‘s attempt to buy Anheuser-Busch. Frankly, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been about two weeks since InBev tendered their $65 per share offer. Within hours of the bid, the whining began that we shouldn’t allow such an “American” company to be bought by foreigners, despite the fact that A-B’s own record of ruthless business behavior is legendary. As a result, I have a hard time mustering much sympathy. I just don’t find the jingoistic rhetoric very convincing. I can’t say the idea of a beer company that would be as large as a combined A-B/InBev (InBusch is still my favorite suggested name for the newly merged entity) sounds like a good idea. I certainly don’t think it would do the beer world any favors. It would likely screw up distribution for years, and make it even harder for small breweries to get access to market.

So what’s been happening lately? Last Friday, Anheuser Busch’s board met for the first time to discuss the offer on the table. Their initial response? No comment. Then, after rumors of a merger between A-B and Grupo Modelo (in which Bud owns a 50% non-controlling interest) designed to strengthen A-B’s position went south, Modelo president Carlos Fernandez resigned from the A-B board. Shortly thereafter, rumors surfaced that SABMiller was also in talks with Modelo about a possible merger. And if that wasn’t crazy enough, Modelo also reportedly has met with InBev, too!

Then yesterday, InBev sent a third letter to Anheuser-Busch restating their $65 cash offer and urging A-B to make a decision quickly. Later the same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the board had quickly met and decided to reject InBev’s offer, surprising no one. The next step for InBev, they said, was to “increase its bid, or take it straight to shareholders.” But that’s not what InBev did. Instead, this morning they filed suit against A-B in Delaware (where they’re incorporated) seeking to remove all thirteen directors on A-B’s board. Essentially signaling that the gloves are off, the takeover bid is definitely turning hostile. Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that A-B is working on their own plan to boost share value, though they speculate that it’s still won’t be as attractive as the InBev offer.

Curiously, that’s the “official” reason A-B gave in rejecting InBev’s offer; that it undervalued the company (despite the offer being higher than A-B stock has ever been). A-B is claiming that “the InBev proposal fails to be competitive with alternative plans the company has developed in recent months to generate significant top-line and bottom-line growth, which will increase value for the company’s shareholders.” Yeah, right. That and $5 will buy you a decent pint somewhere. They’re obviously trying to convince shareholders not to support InBev’s offer with pie-in-the-sky promises. But if A-B had a plan that could really get the share price up to where the offer is at, wouldn’t they already have done so?

It’s been a busy couple of days, filled with deadlines and the stomach flu. Finally on the mend and with at least one article filed, it’s time to catch up with what’s going in the beer world. And one article on MS Money was sent to me more than any other in recent memory, entitled “Will Microbrews Kill the King of Beers.” It makes some interesting points, though dwells a bit too much on Blue Moon’s success. But I think it’s a little too early to start predicting A-B’s demise. They still hold a commanding lead, which isn’t going away overnight. Even if the InBev takeover bid is successful, not much will change concerning Bud’s market dominance. And even if the big breweries did disappear, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to blame the good beer segment. The reasons for flat sales of the big beers is more complicated than that. And let’s not forget that the big breweries very easily could make all-malt, well-hopped flavorful beers. They just choose not to for economic reasons. So perhaps they are as much to blame as anyone else, acting like old dinosaurs unwilling to change with the times and provide their customers with the products they really want. Can you really blame craft brewers because they do just that?

Coming soon to a bar in California: more crap you don’t need trying to buy customer loyalty for beer you don’t like! Today, the California state senate GO committee passed AB 1245 (a.k.a. the Trash & Trinkets bill) by a vote of 7-1. It will now move forward toward a rendezvous with the appropriations committee sometime in the next 4-5 weeks. If approved there, it will then move on to the Senate floor, the Assembly Go committee, the Assembly appropriations committee, the Assembly floor and then finally to the Governor’s desk for signature or veto.

The bill, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, will without question confer yet another economic advantage on large corporations and again make it harder for small breweries to compete. How out-of-touch do our state senators have to be, to think that’s a good idea? Or is it simply a matter of looking where their campaign financing came from to figure out why they’d vote so obviously against small businesses?

A big thanks to my good friend, John Bryant, from Odell Brewing, who flew out from Colorado to testify on behalf of small brewers, and also to Susan Little, who owns St. Stan’s in Modesto (and where one of the senators on the committee also hails from). Also, thanks to those of you who contacted your senators to help the cause. It’s not over yet, though this is obviously a setback.

Consider this a friendly Monday morning reminder that California bill AB 1245, the “trash and trinkets bill,” will be heard in committee tomorrow June 24, so there’s not much time to let your state Senator know how you feel. To read the full action alert with details about what’s going on how you can help, see my earlier post. Thanks for helping, if you can.

Last night, the beers of Schooner’s of Antioch, California — and brewer Craig Cauwels — were featured at a Beer Chef’s Dinner with the Brewmaster held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel. It was another terrific beer dinner with good food, good company, and, of course, great beer.

Schooner’s brewmaster Craig Cauwels, Brian Yaeger (author of the soon-to-be-published Red, White & Brew), the Beer Chef, Bruce Paton, and me at the Schooner’s beer dinner.

Our dessert of butterscotch bread pudding, with “I Had Dinner With the Beer Chef” written in chocolate around the plate.

For more photos from the Schooner’s Beer Dinner, visit the photo gallery.