According to a press release I received today from the National Beer Wholesalers Association, Costco has decided not to seek certiorari to appeal the appellate decision by the Ninth Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. This effectively means the matter is over and keeps in place almost all of the state’s regulatory power over alcohol. As almost every other state breathed a heavy sigh of relief, the NBWA “applauded” Costco’s decision, saying it was “a win for the people of Washington state.” From the press release:

[The earlier] Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [ruling affirmed] the right of states to regulate alcohol consistent with the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Ninth Circuit’s opinion unequivocally upholds Washington’s uniform pricing rule, delivered pricing requirement, volume discount ban, credit prohibition, central warehousing ban, minimum mark-up and retail-to-retail sales ban.

“Alcohol is different from other products available to consumers, and it should be regulated differently,” said NBWA President Craig Purser. “The Ninth Circuit’s ruling upholds the right of states to set alcohol policy. America’s beer distributors will continue to support state-based alcohol regulation that works to keep communities safe.”

Okay, it was just a slip of the tongue, but it was a funny one. On CNN’s Political Ticker blog, they’re reporting that Republican presidential hopeful John McCain accidentally said the following during a speech at the National Small Business Summit held in Washington, DC. “I will use the veto as needed. I will veto every single beer …” before quickly correcting himself. Hilarious. I wonder how his wife felt about that one? Maybe he was just parched and needed a beer. You can even watch a video of McCain’s gaffe.

CNN, through their sister website CareerBuilder.com, ran a fluff piece where they listed their choices for the nine coolest jobs that pay well. Topping the list was “Brewmaster.” I’m not quite convinced about the “pays well” part, but they list the median income as $42,430, based on data from CBSalary.com. They justified their choice with this questionable bit of logic:

To put it mildly, a lot of people like to drink beer. It’s associated with goods times, 21st birthdays and football games. (In fairness, it’s also associated with hangovers the next day.) Who wouldn’t want to be the creator of a tasty ale that will be imbibed by many the partygoer? Plus, you get to do taste-testing along the way, which is always fun.

Brewmaster beat out toy creator, doll fashion designer and even sommelier. I’m glad to see it top the list, and I’m certainly not arguing it doesn’t deserve to be there, I just think brewers deserve to be paid better. Now that would be cool.

I got a couple of e-mails today that Jay Misson, the head brewer for Triumph Brewing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, passed away today. He worked for Gordon Biersch for a time, training brewpub brewers, and I think I met him once during that period in his career. Lew Bryson, who knew him quite well, has a moving piece on his blog today.

On the first day of Summer, June 21, the Beer Chef will set sail for uncharted waters with a beer dinner featuring the beers of Craig Cauwels from Schooner’s Brewery of Antioch, California. It will be a three-course dinner and the cost is $70 per person. It will be held at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Friday, June 21, 2008, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Call 415.674.3406 for reservations by June 12. I’ll see you there.

The Menu:

Reception: 7:00 PM

Beer Chef’s Hors D’Oeuvre

Beer: Schooners IPA and Belgian Wit

Dinner: 7:30 PM

First Course

Salad of Honey Crisp Farms Yellow Peaches, House Made Mozzarella, Opal Basil and Dried Cherry Vinaigrette

Beer: Schooners Vindecation

Second Course:

Brined Berkshire Pork Tenderloin with Potato Risotto and Espresso BBQ Sauce

Beer: Irish Stout on Nitro

Third Course:

Butterscotch Bread Pudding

Beer: 2007 Old Diablo Barleywine

Schooner’s brewer Craig Cauwels, with Steve Altimari, from Valley Brewing athe Celebrator’s 18th anniversary party in 2007.

 
6.21

Dinner with the Brewmaster: Schooner’s Brewery

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
415.674.3406 [ website ]
 

Yesterday, June 7, the 17th annual Beerfest in Santa Rosa was held at the Luther Burbank Center (which has a new, corporate sponsor name, but I refuse to call it by that name). It’s one of the oldest of the small town fests that used to proliferate throughout the festival landscape. There aren’t nearly as many of this type of festival around anymore, which is a shame. But this is one of the best, and it’s no surprise it survived because since its inception they put an equal emphasis on food and beer, not to mention cider (a rarity in the U.S., especially when compared to British festivals). That set it apart from the average festival back in the day, but as food and beer is finally coming of age, it just seems obvious now. That’s also led to it being a much more crowded festival. C’est la vie.

The first “official meeting” of the Bay Area Beer Bloggers. From left: Merideth Nelson, from the Beer Geek, me, Chris Nelson, ditto, JJ, the Thirsty Hopster, and Gail Ann Williams and Steve Shapiro, both from beer by BART.

Brian Hunt, from Moonlight Brewing, explaining his latest beer, Out To Lunch.

For more photos from this year’s Santa Rosa Beerfest, visit the photo gallery.
 

Last month several beer bloggers from the Bay Area had an impromptu meet-up at the 2008 Boonville Beer Festival. Though all of us were very different and approached our blogs from a different perspective, we all shared a love of good beer and the geography of the greater Bay Area.

The first meeting of The Bay Area Beer Bloggers at Boonville. From left: Peter Estaniel, from the BetterBeerBlog, JJ (a.k.a. Jessica), from The Thirsty Hopster, me, and Jay Hinman from the Hedonist Beer Jive.
 

For our 16th Session, our host, Thomas, from Geistbear Brewing Blog, has chosen the topic “beer festivals” for June, the month when beer festival season really heats up.

Don’t get me wrong, I still very much enjoy beer festivals. But they don’t hold the same charm they once did. When I was first learning about beer and when the craft beer movement was in its relative infancy, new discoveries could be made every day and at almost every beer festival. Admittedly, some might be better left hidden, but there was a real sense that you might turn up something spectacular. In fact, you expected that you would. I was recently in New Zealand, and their national craft beer movement is where we were then in many ways. I tasted a lot of different beers there, and quite a lot were — to be diplomatic — problematic. They only started an actual brewer’s guild two years ago — similar to our Brewer’s Association — and only recently took over the country’s biggest beer festival, Beer NZ, and are trying to create their own GABF-like event. I’d love to go back there in September and judge at the event, but I’m not sure yet if I can work out the details. Consumers there are only beginning to discover that beer can taste differently than they have been led to believe by the big industrial breweries, who like our own, have turned beer into an interchangeable industrial product.

I’ve had several conversations about this phenomenon with different people. Roughly twelve to fifteen (or more) years ago, at GABF, it was not uncommon to find a beer with problems or even a defective sample. Over the last decade, that’s become harder, much harder. It’s now very much the exception. And while I think it signals a maturity of the craft beer industry that the vast majority of breweries are making consistently good beer, in some ways I miss those more romantic early days. Please don’t misunderstand that. I don’t miss finding bad beer. That’s certainly not what I mean by romantic. But that sense of exploration and uncertainty made finding something wonderful that much sweeter.

These days, in my dotage, I prefer the smaller, more intimate festivals, especially ones that highlight a particular style. Those type of festivals provide wonderful opportunities to really compare beers of a similar style and learn more about them. That’s still quite exciting. You can do that at bigger festivals, too, of course. I’ve been doing that at GABF since the beginning. Pick a particular beer style and then walk around the hall (or wherever) and just order samples of only that style. It’s a great way to learn about a style, who makes it well, or what you like or dislike about it more generally.

The modern beer festival, which probably began with CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival in the mid-1970s, is a far cry from the European harvest festivals and large scale trade fairs that were their likely progenitors. But they are probably the best tool we have to spread the word about great beer. Because in the end, words are meaningless compared to actually tasting the beer itself. So this summer, during the beer festival’s high season, try to invite as many non-craft beer drinker friends as you can to go with you to a festival. They might go kicking and screaming, but some day they might also thank you. If you can expose your friends to the lifelong experience of appreciating good beer, you know you will have improved their life and done them a great favor. Beer festivals provide the opportunity, all you have to do is provide your friends. See you there.

The proposed merger of U.S. operations between SAB Miller and Molson Coors has been approved by federal regulators after an eight-month investigation into possible anti-trust issues. In a statement released today, the U.S. Government said “the proposed joint venture between Miller and Coors is not likely to lessen competition substantially” and concluded that it “is likely to produce substantial and credible savings that will significantly reduce the companies’ costs of producing and distributing beer” instead. According to the Business Journal of Milwaukee, this was the last remaining “hurdle” necessary before the McMerger will take place, which more than likely will now occur in the next few weeks. The planned joint venture, which was revealed back in October of last year, would have Coors and Miller combine their operations in the United States (including Puerto Rico) “in an effort to better compete with dominant domestic brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.” The new entity will be known as MillerCoors, which is why I’m calling it the McMerger.

Each parent company will have a 50% voting interest but an economic interest of 58% for SAB Miller and 42% for Molson Coors, based on the assets contributed by each to the joint venture. Pete Coors will become the chairman and Leo Kiely, from Molson Coors will be CEO of MillerCoors. No word yet on how many employees of either company are likely to lose their jobs. Once completed, the “Big Three” will become the “Big Two.” A large brewery is generally defined as one which produces over 2-million barrels of beer annually. Currently, only four breweries meet that definition: Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors and Pabst. But as Pabst does not own a brewery and contracts to have all of its beer made elsewhere (primarily at Miller brewing facilities) they are generally no longer considered one of the big boys. The feds have declared the merger no big deal, but I’m not entirely convinced. We’ll see how it plays out, but I can’t help feeling a little uneasy about the prospects.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has now weighed in with their thoughts:

The merger combines Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, the second-largest U.S. brewer with about 18% market share, and Coors Brewing Co. of Golden, Colo., the No. 3 player with about 11% market share.

The companies aim to pare $500 million in costs over the first three years of the venture, in part through lower transportation costs derived from using each other’s breweries to make each other’s beers. As one company in the U.S., Miller and Coors will also have more leverage with retailers, which could help them garner more shelf space at bars and stores. Anheuser, based in St. Louis, controls nearly 50% of the U.S. beer market and boasts the nation’s top-selling beer, Bud Light.

Today’s L.A. Times had a nice write up of Charlie Bamforth and his advocacy of beer’s superiority over wine, typified by his most recent book, Grape vs. Grain.