Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Strong Beer Month Coming

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Beginning on February 1, 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub & Brewery, both in San Francisco, will team up again to host their fifth annual Strong Beer Month. Each brewpub will create five new and different seasonal beers — and if you haven’t figured it out yet, they’ll all be strong — that will be available at the two locations throughout February. Sample them all, and you’ll receive some sort of prize. I stopped by 21A this morning after waiting in line nearby to get an expedited passport (long story) and sampled a couple of the new brews, one of which was still aging in the brewery.

First, there was St. Martin’s Abbey Ale, a decidedly Chimay-like beer with nice chocolate notes. Second, and perhaps more interesting, was a Belgian strong ale that had been blended with a small amount (around 10 gallons per 300) of Lindemans Framboise which itself had been aged in an oak barrel. At 10% abv, the new beer’s strength is neatly masked by the lambic’s sweetness, which is evident in abundance. The thick malt presence comes through but only a hint of sourness peeks out of the sides. But the lambic sweetness and the Belgian strong combine to create something fairly unique. I’m not quite sure what yet, but more tasting is definitely in order.

Unfortunately, it will be hard to order because, so far, the beer has no name. Given the brewpub’s close proximity to [insert current corporate name here] Stadium, where the San Francisco Giants play, and the fact that the beer reminded me of a framboise on steroids, I suggested “Berry Bonds.” Despite the look brewer Shaun O’Sullivan shot me, I’m going to continue to call it that, though I’m pretty confident that will not end up being its official name. Too bad, I liked it.

Allagash Road Trip

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According to Allagash Brewing’s newsletter, beginning tomorrow in San Diego, owner/brewer Rob Tod will be on a beer odyssey of his own as he winds his way from the left coast to the right, ending up in Atlantic City, no doubt with a ring on his finger and no memory of how he got there.

Faux Canada

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According to an article in today’s Montreal Gazette, Canadians are increasingly looking to buy better tasting beer. And like their American cousins, the big Canadian breweries are flooding the market with faux or stealth microbrews in order to compete with craft brewers. With these faux craft beers, they’re trying to fool customers into thinking they’re getting just want they want, a beer that’s been hand-crafted to taste great.

Labatt has a line called Alexander Keith, named for an early brewer in Nova Scotia. MolsonCoors, likewise, has Rickard’s family of brands. Both Rickard’s and Keith’s are listed on their respective company websites and acknowledged as their brands. Alexander Keith’s own website does disclose that it’s a Labatt brand, but only in the legal stuff like “terms of use.” They certainly don’t go out of their way to associate themselves with the parent company.

An interesting parallel, though the article goes on to discuss tarrifs between provinces and what their removal will mean for small players. I don.t know enough about the market to form an opinion, but it’s an interesting read.

Alexander Keith’s IPA, owned by Labatt; and Rickard’s Red, owned by MolsonCoors.

The Duchesse

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Jon Bonné, the new big cheese at the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine section, had a little blurb in the Sipping News about a wonderful beer, the Duchesse de Bourgogne, imported by D&V International.

Bonné claims it’s a beer for wine lovers, though I assume he means others might enjoy it, too. His pairing suggestions are intriguing, matching it with “rich cream dishes (with mussels, for instance) or a firm, bold-flavored cheese like an aged Gouda.” He also mentions the City Beer store — 1168 Folsom (at 7th), 415.503.1033 — as a place to buy it, and it’s good to see them get some love. I could make a big deal out of Bonné’s selling as a beer for cork dorks, but I’m hoping what he’s trying to do is get people who might not otherwise try a sophisticated beer to try one, and because I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt after his gracious response to my earlier criticism about one of the first beer pieces he green-lighted after coming to the Chronicle.

Duchesse de Bourgogne is a favorite of mine, as I love the style — Flanders Red Ale — and I usually order one if I find it on a beer list. I was thrilled to see it in California beginning last year. It’s brewed at the Brouwerij Verhaeghe, located in Vichte, which is a ancient castle and farm in West Flanders, Belgium. By the way, it’s pronounced “Doo-shay.”

duchesse

Beer aside, the history of the Duchesse is fascinating. Her anglicized name was Mary of Burgundy, though she was born in Brussels on February 13, 1457, the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon. Needless to say she was quite a catch, especially after her father died in battle (at the siege of Nancy, not a particularly awful sounding name) in 1477, when she was nineteen. Louis XI of France tried to take Burgundy and the Low Countries for himself but was frustrated when Mary signed the “Great Privilege,” by which she gave Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, and all of Holland autonomous rule (leaving for herself the remainder of the Low Countries, Artois, Luxembourg, and Franche-Comté). She then married Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who was later the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and part of the Hapsburg Austrian dynasty. This sparked a long-standing dispute over the Low Countries between France and the Hapsburg family.

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Two portraits of Mary of Burgundy, the Duchesse de Bourgogne.

One of Mary’s favorite hobbies was falconing, which was popular among royals in the day. Falconry is basically training and hunting using a falcon. While engaged in this pursuit, in 1482, Mary’s horse tripped, tossing her onto the ground where the horse then landed on top of her, breaking her back. A few days later she died. Mary was only 25. The beer label’s portrait pays homage to her love of falconry and her ultimate death because of it.

Her young son Philip became heir after her death, though Maximilian was in charge until he reached adulthood. King Louis forced Maximilian to sign the Treaty of Arras the same year, and it gave Franche Comté and Artois to France. But Philip was a virtual prisoner until 1485, and then it took Max another eight years to take back control of their lands in the Low Countries. The Treaty of Senlis, in 1493, finally established peace in the area, but Burgundy and Picardy remained French.

So during her short life, Mary had such great impact on European politics that they can be felt even now in the present. So it’s quite appropriate that she have so wonderful a beer that bears her name and her portrait. It’s a fitting legacy.

The description of the beer from the importer:

The Duchesse de Bourgogne from Brouwerij Verhaeghe is the traditional Flemish red ale. This refreshing ale is matured in oak casks; smooth with a rich texture and interplay of passion fruit, and chocolate, and a long, dry and acidic finish. After the first and secondary fermentation, the beer goes for maturation into the oak barrels for 18 months. The final product is a blend of younger 8 months old beer with 18 months old beer. The average age of the Duchesse de Bourgogne before being bottled is 12 months.

Crazy Dave Calling It Quits?

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Dave Heist, better know in the brewing community as “Crazy Dave,” has been threatening to sell or quit, and hightail it to southern California for at least a couple of years. But he may really be serious this time, because now it’s in print. According to an article sent to me by two Bulletin readers, the Sunday Contra Costa Times is reporting Hoptown will close in two months.

Heist, along with a small group of investors is planning a new venture, in a larger location — possibly near Livermore — that will begin sometime with the year. It will be interesting to see what Crazy Dave does next. His beers are never boring and usually some of the tastiest around.

“Crazy Dave” Heist, owner of HopTown Brewing Co. in Pleasanton, California, along with fellow brewer Melissa Myers, currently at Drake’s Brewing. This was taken at GABF in 2002.

A Slice Missing

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A regular Bulletin reader (thanks Ben) sent in a link to a short blurb that was in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday. It was by wine business writer Cyril Penn, who also publishes Wine Business Online. Titled “Regular domestic beer loses its grip on U.S. market” it details another Mintel International research effort. The company does market and consumer research on a large scale around the globe and about big industries. So it’s not surprising they’d leave out an entire sliver of pie in their chart.

The new Mintel study claims that although “American light beers” (low-calorie diet beers) are showing growth, “domestic beers” are not. But by domestic, which should be all beer made within the United States, Mintel means only beers from the large manufacturers, such as Bud, Miller and Coors.

More findings from the Chronicle article:

Volume sales of imported beer have increased 27 percent over the last five years. In contrast, regular (non-light) domestic beer posted a 19 percent decline during the last five years.

According to Mintel’s research, only one quarter of American adults over age 21 drink regular domestic beer, a decrease of 15 percent since 2001.

The Mintel reasearch also found that the “light beer segment is the only domestic segment to gain sales over the last two years, growing 4.8 percent in volume.” Of course, that leaves a bit of the pie chart missing, specifically the craft beer segment, which has shown 11% growth through the first half of last year and 9% for 2005. It may be a small slice, but it is getting bigger. And that means the “light beer segment” is not the only domestic segment growing over the last two years. But that’s the way it is with the business press. Only the big, publicly traded multi-nationals are in their radar. For the craft breweries, the money just isn’t enough for them to talk about, except for a few exceptions like Boston Beer and Sierra Nevada.

And that’s fine if it’s business to business who’s utilzing this information. If one business is looking at this data and using it for their business decisions, then the limitations of the information doesn’t make much of a difference. For example when I was the beer buyer at BevMo, I regularly looked at IRI and Nielsen sales data. In both cases, they collect sales of beer at grocery stores, drug stores, big box stores, convenience stores and other mainstream sellers but ignore direct sales, independent liquor stores, and all sorts of non-chain store sales. That doesn’t make them useless, just incomplete. But knowing their limitations can still give revealing insights and show trends. They give a glimpse of what is happening to a certain portion of the market.

The problem is when that sort of limited research data is reported to the public in a news item without discussing those limitations. It gives the impression that the information is complete, reliable and unbiased. So when Penn’s little piece says that only light beer is growing, he’s not wrong insofar as the Mintel research data he’s reporting on, but that data itself is flawed in that it is not presenting a true picture of reality. It’s not meant to, it’s intention is just to show a very specific snapshot of the major portion of the industry. But as the headline suggests, all American beer is down, losing to imported beer. Maybe I’m not giving the general public enough credit, but how many people know the term “domestic beer” in this context is jargon for just the non-low calorie beers, the regular American light (in color) lagers manufactured by the big and traditional beer companies. They represent just a few handfuls of brands which mostly ignores almost 1,400 craft breweries and thousands of individual beers. And while “domestic beer” represents a large percentage of the total volume for beer sold in the U.S., it’s still not all the beer produced domestically. The stuff I — and hopefully you — love is growing again with wild abandon, and has been for a few years in a row. That’s a much rosier picture than the Chronicle’s piece suggests, at least for fans of the wonderful non-domestic beers made here in America, better known as craft beers.

Bud & Bud: Now They’re Buds?

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I saw this last Monday but was too busy with deadlines for paying gigs to do anything more than drop my jaw in amazement at the news. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. The vigor with which these two companies have battled one another is legendary. For them to unceremoniously bury the hatchet — and not into each other’s back — even in just the U.S. market defies logic. I can see why Anheuser-Busch would want the deal. To have a Bud with flavor and another import that’s been selling well, with even greater potential, is a no brainer for them.

But why Budějovický Budvar would be so eager is an entirely different matter. I have a hard time fathoming that it was simply the profit motive and the tantalizing carrot of making a killing here in the U.S. that drove their decision. Not to mention all of the people this move — along with the earlier InBev agreement — have put on the unemployment line. The very people who built all of these brands into ones that A-B would be interested in poaching are now left out in the cold, all of their hard work for naught. Many of the ones I know personally are great people, too, so it seems remarkably unfair.

I guess I just don’t want to believe that the principles Budvar has been arguing for so vehemently could be set aside so easily just for a wad of cash. There are currently something like 100 lawsuits going on in 30 countries around the globe over the brand names Bud, Budvar and Budweiser. A-B just lost an appeal in Portugal, so the disputes between the two companies are far from over. And generally speaking A-B has been the aggressor in a majority of the cases, at least as far as I’ve seen.

Here in the U.S., and other countries where A-B has prevailed in court decisions, Budvar, Budweis and Budweiser are labeled Czechvar, conveying none of the heritage of a beer brewed in the town of České Budějovice, which in German is Budweis. A-B has publicly acknowledged countless times that it was their inspiration for the beer they named Budweiser in 1876. Disputes began a century ago and have not subsided up through the present time. Even A-B’s press release acknowledges as much.

After nearly a century of disagreements in certain parts of the world over rights to the Budweiser name for their beers, Anheuser-Busch and Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar have formed a historic alliance in which Anheuser-Busch will become the U.S. importer of Czechvar Premium Czech Lager, the two brewers jointly announced today.

The agreement gives Czechvar, currently sold in 30 states, access to Anheuser-Busch’s marketing and sales expertise and wide-reaching U.S. distribution network. It gives Anheuser-Busch another European import as part of an aggressive push into high-end beer categories that has led to alliances with Grolsch, Tiger, Kirin and most recently InBev, which added Stella Artois, Beck’s, Bass Pale Ale and other beers to its import portfolio.

The agreement does not impact existing litigation or trademark disputes between the two brewers in other countries, and they have agreed the partnership cannot be used to support either side in any trademark cases.

“After years of differences, this is a meaningful step for two great brewers to form a relationship that is good for both of our businesses,” said August A. Busch IV, president and chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. “For Anheuser-Busch, it also represents an opportunity to enhance our import portfolio with a super-premium Czech import. Working with our family of wholesalers, we look forward to introducing Czechvar to a new audience of beer lovers.”

“At the same time, the agreement represents a historical turning point between our companies. We have managed to move away from discussions between lawyers and toward a practical dialog, which is going to be beneficial to both sides. Our corporation has therefore gained the best importer in the USA,” added Budejovicky Budvar’s CEO, Jiří Boček.

The agreement was effective Jan. 5. Terms were not disclosed.

Hmm. When a brewery with so much reason to feel a deep-seated animosity toward the world’s largest beer company can make nice for a fistful of ducats, what does that mean for the rest of the world’s breweries trying to sell their products here. Between the InBev brands (like Stella Artois), Grolsch, Tiger, Kirin, and now what many people refer to as “the real Budweiser,” Czechvar, this will make it increasingly difficult for other imported beers — and especially the smaller brands — to find a willing distributor to carry their products. Certainly no Bud distributor who wants to stay in Augie’s good graces would carry a non-A-B import. And that clutters the remaining distributors, especially where there’s only one other house that carries both Coors and Miller. Few distributors can carry everything presented them and that means less diversity in their territories, more so in states where it’s difficult or impossible for companies to self-distribute.

As usual, the losers will be you and me when we try to find that obscure import like Westmalle Tripel or Urthel Hop-It. Every time the highly efficient behemoth A-B distribution network adds another “official” beer to its portfolio, the available beers across the country become increasingly the same. If it keeps up like this, the only remaining diversity you’ll see at the local grocery store will be completely illusory. They’ll all be owned or have exclusive distribution agreements with a very small number of companies. And that will make it nearly impossible for a newcomer, whether an imported brewery or a local craft brewer, to find a spot on the shelf.

Beef & Beer

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There’s a delicious sounding recipe for “Carbonnade of Beef” in today’s Belfast Telegraph. Irish cookery expert [their description] Paula McIntyre makes her dish sound tantalizingly good. I defy you to read it and not start salivating.

Bulgarian Boza for Bigger Breasts

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There are probably as many early forms of beer as there are people who made them. Every nomadic tribe and early civilization had their own at one point or another. A few of them are even still around today, having changed little, making up an important tradition in pockets of the world. Most use varied and locally available ingredients, rarely hops and are an important part of their heritage.

One of these malt beverages is “Boza,” originally brewed in Babylonia and Egypt 5-6,000-years ago and in Mesopotamia as long ago as 8-9,000-years ago. There is also speculation that our word “booze” comes from this drink. Traditionally, Boza is made with millet but local variations also use maize (Turkey), wheat (Ethiopia), rice meal (Turkmenistan) or flour (Albania). In Bulgaria they use millet, one of the earliest used cereal grains and the one used in the original Bozas. Today, it is wildly popular throughout Eastern Europe and the Ottoman areas. It’s also quite low in alcohol, around 1% abv.

It appears to be fairly easy to make at home, too. There are several links on preparing homemade Boza, such as at Yogurtland, My Bulgaria, and Bulgarian Food.

But a story in Ananova, a news service for mobile phone delivery, is decidely more titillating. Apparently Bulgaria’s recent membership in the EU brings welcome tax relief on customs duties on Boza. Hundreds and thousands of establishments all over Europe are now starting to stock Boza, at least in part because Boza is believed to make women’s breasts grow. I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to. According to Ananova, “European men are flocking to Bulgaria to buy ‘breast-boosting beer’ after EU accession led to customs duties on the drink being abolished.”

The article continues:

They are said to be keen for their wives and girlfriends to benefit from its reported ability to make women’s breasts grow.

Constantin Barbu crossed the Danube from Romania to buy Boza in the Bulgarian border town of Ruse.

He said: “I’ve bought a case for my wife to try out. I really hope I see an improvement.”

Given our nation’s obsession with large breasts, I’m surprised it’s not available here. It’s got to be cheaper than silicon implants.