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Vinnie Cilurzo’s Keynote Address

April 24, 2007 By Jay Brooks

Vinnie Cilurzo gave the keynote address at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference in Austin, Texas. Hoping to spark a new tradition, like Sam Calagione last year, he served some of his own beer so everyone assembled could drink a toast to craft beer’s success and to everyone’s efforts that led to that success. He set out bottles of the second batch of Russian River’s Beatification.

Vinnie spoke in part about innovation and the innovative contributions of many of the early pioneers of craft brewing. The video below is a little more than half of Ciilurzo’s speech from near the beginning until the toast. My memory card ran out at that point.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Business, History, Other Events, Southern States

New Albion Honored

April 23, 2007 By Jay Brooks

Last year, my friend and author Maureen Ogle was having a book release party at Anchor Brewery in San Francisco and she asked me to help her put together the guest list since I lived here and she was in Iowa. When she sent me her preliminary list of guests I was very surprised to see Jack McAuliffe’s name and address among them. It had been quite some time since anyone knew where McAuliffe was and I had heard he’d made it abundantly clear he wanted to keep it that way. I immediately asked about Jack, and Maureen told me that in the course of working on her book Ambitious Brew that she’d become good friends with him.

I mentioned all of this to Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing a week or so later and he told me that Jim Koch was looking for McAuliffe because he wanted the Brewers Association to honor him and New Albion Brewery for his great contribution to the craft beer industry. At GABF I let Koch that Maureen knew how to reach McAuliffe and the rest, as they say, is history. At this year’s Craft Brewers Conference, the Brewers Association Recognition Award was given to Jack McAuliffe, founder of New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma, California.

From the press release:

The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Jack McAuliffe, founder of New Albion Brewing Company. McAuliffe’s inspiration, enthusiasm and support have contributed to the development of American craft beer movement.

Steve Bradt, Head Brewer at Free State Brewing Company and Brewers Association Board of Directors member says, “As founder of what author Maureen Ogle calls ‘…the most important failed brewery industry’s history, the New Albion Brewing Co.’ Jack McAuliffe epitomizes the kind of tough, ingenious, and fiercely independent men and women who have come since in the Craft Brewing world. In fact, probably find reason to present him with each of the awards presented today, not just this one.”

Even though New Albion Brewery lasted only a few short years, it’s influence on the future of microbreweries cannot be underestimated. We all owe Jack a debt of gratitude. Pick up Ambitious Brew for the most thorough account of that period of history. Unfortunately, McAuliffe could be coaxed out of his self-imposed isolation. Instead, his assistant brewer, Don Barkley, was on hand to accept the honor on his behalf. After New Albion closed in 1982, Barkley went on to success as Mendocino Brewing’s brewer.

Bradt giving the Brewers Association Recognition Award to Don Barkley, who accepted it on behalf of Jack McAuliffe, founder of New Albion Brewing Company, who was unable to be present.

Don Barkley reminisced about working at New Albion and about McAuliffe. Maureen Ogle asked me take a picture since she wasn’t able to be there either, and I decided I could make her feel more like she was actually there my shooting some video with my camera, so that’s what I did and it’s below here.

 

Filed Under: Just For Fun Tagged With: Business, California, History, Humor, Northern California

Trouble Brewing in Ohio

April 23, 2007 By Jay Brooks

There’s a new budget bill before the Ohio state legislature that was intended to allow self-distribution of wine to retailers along with mail order wine. That’s all well and good, but somebody snuck into the amendment a provision “barring brew pubs from selling takeout bottles and sealed jugs of beer.” The author of the budget amendment, House Finance Chairman Matt Dolan (Republican), claims to have no idea how or who put in the anti-brewpub language.

The Wholesale Beer & Wine Association is reluctantly supporting the measure (they’re opposed to the direct sale of wine), but only if the brewpub language is deleted.

It was first noticed and reported on April 20, and by the next day several trade groups were in talks with lawmakers. On Saturday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer was editorializing how bad it would be for the state’s small brewers and had elicited a promise from the bill’s sponsor, Matt Dolan, “keep the brew pub provision out of the bill.”

Curiously, some early reporting highlighted the benefit to the wine business while ignoring the potentially mortal blow being dealt to brewpubs and the beer community. Luckily, most are now reporting about the problems that will be created by the newly inserted language, such as an AP report entitled “Wine-sales amendment called flawed.” It appears likely now that the anti-beer language will be removed, but if you’re in Ohio, I’d recommend contacing your representative and urging him or her to make sure that it does get taken out. We can’t be too careful about these things. As this episode so aptly illustrates, neo-prohibitionists will stoop low to damage the beer industry if they think they can get away with it

When the dust settles on this, I’d really like to see them investigate who it was that was so hostile to beer and tried to effectively kill Ohio’s brewpub business. We should all know what or who we’re up against in the fight against neo-prohibitionists, but it’s even worse when they don’t show their face and work clandestinely under cover of darkness.

Filed Under: Editorial, News, Politics & Law Tagged With: Business, Law, Midwest

If There’s a Will …

April 21, 2007 By Jay Brooks

The San Francisco Chronicle reprinted one of George Will’s editorials, “Licensed to Drink,” from the Washington Post. In it, he critiques Choose Responsibility, the new advocacy organization founded by John M. McCardell Jr., the former Dean of of Middlebury College in Vermont. Having watched young people at his college, he decided that the drinking age of 21 was making the problem worse rather than helping it, which was the goal of raising it. I don’t often agree with George Will and in my opinion he’s sometimes a right wing nutjob, albeit more articulate than most, but he has some thoughtful ideas expressed in this piece, and surprisingly he isn’t against it. Given that he was a speech writer for Ronald Reagan, who gave in to MADD and came up with “Just Say No,” that was a something of a surprise to say the least. But this is a debate that’s not going away, and it’s interesting to hear about from so unlikely a source.

Filed Under: Editorial, News Tagged With: Business, Law, National

The Opening of CBC

April 20, 2007 By Jay Brooks

The opening Welcome & Keynote Address took place bright and early Thursday morning, right after the first round of seminars, which began at 8:15 a.m.

Brewers Association founder Charlie Papazian opened the conference in Austin, Texas, Thursday morning.

BA Director Paul Gatza went over the statistics and sales and growth numbers for the craft beer industry.

Then Texas populist Jim Hightower entertained the audience with tales of Austin weirdness and left us with this great quote about why people live in Austin. “We’re here because we’re not all there.”

Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker Brewing accepting the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing from Steve Bradt of Free State Brewing.

Brynildson addresses the crowd.

Bradt giving the Brewers Association Recognition Award to Don Barkley, who accepted it on behalf of Jack McAuliffe, founder of New Albion Brewing Company, who was unable to be present.

Keynote speaker Vinnie Cilurzo, from Russian River Brewing.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Business, Photo Gallery

Victories Down Under

April 20, 2007 By Jay Brooks

You may recall that at the end of January, there was an announcement that 19 American craft brewers entered their beers in the the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA )through the Brewers Association‘s Export Development Program (or EDP). Yesterday the results were announced with several American breweries winning medals. Now the Australian awards are somewhat different than the GABF or World Cup medals. The beers are judged in a similar fashion and assigned points with a total possible of 20, but instead of choosing first, second and third, any and every beer that gets above 17 points receives a gold medal, 15.5-16.5 receives a silver and 14-15 for a bronze medal. There is a Grand Champion Trophy for the Highest Scoring Beer, and this year it is Weihenstephan Kristall from Germany’s Weihenstephan Brewery. There’s also about a dozen additional awards such as “Champion Ale” and the “Best Packaging Award.”

The biggest victory by an American brewery went to Deschutes Brewing of Bend, Oregon, who won the International Malting Company Trophy for Champion Large International Brewery. They also won the Veolia Environmental Services Trophy for
Champion Stout for their Obsidian Stout.
 

Here’s how the American brewers fared:
 

Gold Medals:

Blue Point Brewing: Winter Ale
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Brown Ale
Boston Beer Co.: Long Shot Old Ale
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Honey Porter
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Winter Lager
BridgePort Brewing: BridgePort India Pale Ale
Deschutes Brewery: Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Deschutes Brewery: Cinder Cone Red
Deschutes Brewery: Black Butte Porter
Deschutes Brewery: Obsidian Stout
Great Divide Brewing: Hercules Double India Pale Ale
Matt Brewing: Imperial IPA
Pelican Pub Brewery: Doryman’s Dark Ale
Pelican Pub Brewery: Kiwanda Cream Ale
Sprecher Brewing: Imperial Stout
Stone Brewing: Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Trumer Braurei: Trumer Pils
 

Silver Medals:

21st Amendment Brewery: 21A IPA
Blue Point Brewing: Hoptical Illusion
Boston Beer Co.: Long Shot Dortmunder
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Black Lager
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Light
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Pale Ale
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Boston Ale
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Cream Stout
Deschutes Brewery: Inversion IPA
Deschutes Brewery: Hop Henge IPA
Deschutes Brewery: Cascade Ale
Deschutes Brewery: Jubelale
Deschutes Brewery: Hop Trip
Deschutes Brewery: Bachelor ESB
Firestone Walker Brewing: Firestone Pale Ale
Firestone Walker Brewing: Firestone Bravo Brown
Flying Dog Ales: Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
Great Divide Brewing: Titan India Pale Ale
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales: Maracaibo Especial
Left Hand Brewing: Sawtooth Ale
Matt Brewing: Saranac Pale Ale
Odell Brewing: 90 Shilling
Odell Brewing: Cutthroat Porter
Odell Brewing: East Street Wheat
Pelican Pub Brewery: India Pelican Ale
Pelican Pub Brewery: Tsunami Stout
Pelican Pub Brewery: Saison du Pelican
Pelican Pub Brewery: Bridal Ale
Pelican Pub Brewery: Grand Cru de Pelican
Pelican Pub Brewery: Stormwatcher’s Winterfest
Pelican Pub Brewery: MacPelican’s Wee Heavy Strong Scotch Ale
Rogue Ales: Hazelnut Brown Nectar
Rogue Ales: American Amber
Rogue Ales: Mocha Porter
Sprecher Brewing: Dopple Bock
Widmer Brothers Brewing: Widmer W’07 Pale Ale
 

Bronze Medals:

Blue Point Brewing: Toasted Lager
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Double Bock
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Hefeweizen
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Cranberry Lambic
Boston Beer Co.: Samuel Adams Scotch Ale
BridgePort Brewing: Blue Heron
BridgePort Brewing: Beertown Brown
Deschutes Brewery: Abyss
Flying Dog Ales: Old Scratch Amber Lager
Flying Dog Ales: Gonzo Imperial Porter
Great Divide Brewing: Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout
Issaquah Brewhouse: Menage A Frog
Kona Brewing: Fire Rock Pale Ale
Left Hand Brewing: Black Jack Porter
Left Hand Brewing: Milk Stout
Odell Brewing: 5 Barrel Pale Ale
Pelican Pub Brewery: MacPelican’s Scottish Style Ale
Rogue Ales: Juniper Pale Ale
Rogue Ales: Shakespeare Stout
Rogue Ales: Smoke Ale
Shipyard Brewing: Shipyard Chamberlain Pale Ale
Shipyard Brewing: Brewers Choice Honey Porter
Shipyard Brewing: SeaDog Bluepaw Wildberry Wheat Ale
Sprecher Brewing: Piper’s Scotch Ale
Stone Brewing: Stone IPA
Widmer Brothers Brewing: Broken Halo IPA
Widmer Brothers Brewing: Drop Top Amber Ale
Widmer Brothers Brewing: Widmer Hefeweizen

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Australia, Awards, International

CBC Brewers Reception

April 19, 2007 By Jay Brooks

The BA hosted a Brewers Reception at Stubbs Bar-B-Que in downtown Austin Wednesday night before the official start to the annual Craft Brewers Conference. There was great food and beer from local breweries. Some highlights were the Rye Pale Ale from the Real Ale Brewery here in Austin and a nice barleywine, though I can’t recall who made that one.

A local sign proclaims Austin as Beer Land, Texas.

The reception was held outdoors in this great open space with a stage on one end and bars and buffet tables ringing the area.

Brian Dunn (owner of Great Divide) and his new director of brewing operations, Brit Antrim, with Joanne Carilli from White Labs.

cbc07-04
Steve Hindy (Brooklyn Brewery), Kim Jordan (New Belgium), Dave Keene (The Toronado in SF), Eddie Friedland (former owner of Philadelphia’s Friedland Distributing) and Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River).

Ralph Olson, the Big Cheese from HopUnion. If you look carefully in between his “Sponsor” and “Exhibitor” badge you can see his officially “the Big Cheese.”

Horst Dornbusch and his wife, Ralph Olson and Jeannine Marois, who puts on the Le Mondial de la Bière.

Charlie Papazian leads a toast the memory of Linda Starck.

Daniel and Julie Bradford and Amy from All About Beer magazine.

The Rolling Boil Blues Band took the stage in the last hour of the reception.

Which got the crowd up and dancing.

Tom Dalldorf does his Pete Townsend impression.

Filed Under: Events, News Tagged With: Other Events, Photo Gallery, Southern States

Victory for Families

April 19, 2007 By Jay Brooks

Excellent news from Oregon: the OLCC will allow minors to attend the Oregon Brewers Festival with their parents. Here’s the press release:

The Oregon Brewers Festival (OBF) is pleased to announce that, as in the past, minors under age 21 will be allowed all-hours access to the 20th annual Oregon Brewers Festival, provided they are accompanied by a parent. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission granted permission for minors/parents to attend after receiving a new OBF compliance plan. The internationally-recognized craft beer festival will be held July 26-29 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

“After thoroughly reviewing the Oregon Brewers Festival’s amended proposal, we believe it meets our licensing and enforcement concerns regarding minor patronage at the 2007 festival,” explained Rudy Williams, OLCC deputy director. “We appreciate the OBF’s willingness to work with the OLCC to help satisfy the public safety interests of Oregonians.”

“We are thrilled that the OLCC has made this decision,” said Art Larrance, founder of the OBF. “The festival has a long-standing history of being a family-friendly event. We promote responsible drinking, and as a result, we have responsible attendees who come together to celebrate our local culture.”

Minors will only be allowed at the OBF with a parent; guardians are not acceptable. Minors are informed of and encouraged to attend the root beer garden, in which complimentary handcrafted root beer is served in cups (no mugs allowed) for all minors and designated drivers.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Law, Oregon, Portland, Press Release

Bound for Texas

April 17, 2007 By Jay Brooks

I’m flying to Austin with the family this morning for the Craft Brewers Conference. It will a pretty busy few days, but I’ll try to post photos and a little narrative from the conference. The week after I’ll be taking some time off and taking my son, Porter, to Mission Control and the Space Center in Houston, then on to Dallas to see some friends. We’ll find time to stop at a few breweries on the way, of course.
 

First stop Austin and the annual Craft Brewer Conference.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: National, Southern States

Fill ‘Er Up, Please

April 16, 2007 By Jay Brooks

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), Great Britain’s beer advocacy group has just completed a survey of pubs and how full they fill your pint, and it doesn’t look good. They’re calling for people to sign an online petition and asking the Prime Minister to fix the problem. In addition to CAMRA’s figures, a Telegraph story today has additional details.

New figures from CAMRA show that a whopping 26.6% of pints served in pubs contain less than 95% beer. CAMRA is taking its campaign for a full pint straight to the top by launching a national petition calling on the Prime Minister to put an end to short beer measures.

Full Pints Key Facts

  • 26.6% of pints are more than 5% short measure
  • Short measure costs consumers £481 million a year, or over £1.3 million a day
  • Pubs serve customers 208 million more pints than they buy in

CAMRA needs your help to ensure you receive a full pint of beer every time. Please sign CAMRA’s National Full Pints Petition calling for an end to short beer measures.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Business, Europe, Great Britain, Press Release, Promotions, Websites

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