Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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A Little California Brewing History

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Yesterday I took the kids to the California State Railroad Museum, which is in Sacramento. My son Porter is obsessed with trains and he’d been wanting to go there since he’d seen it in one of the many train videos he watches over and over again. We had lunch in a converted train depot across the street from the museum in a part of town known as Old Sacramento. It too, was a little slice of history, and had some very interesting old beer bottles on some shelves behind the counter.

  1. The first one is from the Swan Brewery, Brewers & Bottlers, which operated in San Francisco for a very short time, from 1878-1880, on 15th and Dolores Streets. It had a cork top with a wire loop, similar to a Champagne bottle an the two examples they had both still had liquid in them.
  2. Next is Buffalo Brand Lager Beer from the Buffalo Brewing Co. in Sacramento. The Buffalo Brewery lasted a bit longer, and was in business from 1890 until finally closing in 1949. It was located between 21st and 22nd Streets, but had three different new owners beginning in 1897, when it became part of Sacramento Brewing Co. (which itself was known by several names from 1859-1920). After prohibition, it reopened in 1934 and apparently was independent again but then was taken over once more by Grace Brothers Brewing Co. of Santa Rosa in 1942. The 11 oz. bottle was already empty.
  3. This last bottle is more part of the brewery industry’s recent past but I can’t actually ever recall having seen this bottle of Pete’s before. According to the neck label, it was brewed by August Schell Brewery, which is still in business in Minnesota. Perhaps Pete himself can step in and let us know more about this one.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting a history lesson yesterday, but you never know when something beer-related and interesting is going to present itself.

Grupo Modelo to Distribute Tsingtao in Mexico

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Grupo Modelo, the Mexican brewer who is most famous for making Corona, announced late last week that by the end of the year they will distribute the Chinese beer Tsingtao exclusively throughout Mexico.

Curiously, Anheuser-Busch, who owns half of Modelo (though I understand it’s non-voting stock) also has a 27% stake in the Tsingtao Brewery. With a 13% share of the Chinese beer market, they are the largest brewery there among something like 400 breweries. Yanjing Beer is second and CRE Beer is number three. Less than a decade ago there were over 800 Chinese companies brewing beer, but increasing consolidation has led to the top ten breweries now accounting for 53% of the market vs. 22% in 1996.

The modern beer industry in China began in the 1950s when new facilities were built in most major cities throughout the country. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that true growth started and — due at least in part to its vast population — by 2002 China became the world’s largest beer producer, displacing us at the top spot. The beer industry itself is similar to our own 50-to-100 years ago, with most being regional or local, with few national brands. Partly that’s due to China’s size and partly to its economic system at the time. With changes to the Chinese economy, more nationally recognizable brands are having a greater impact today much in the same way things progressed in the U.S. after World War II, though things are definitely moving more quickly.

Part of that growth is fueled by the the influx of large western beer companies, who began investing in China’s beer market beginning in the 1980s. After several missteps, a second wave of investors started in the early part of this decade and so far has been more successful. Instead of importing unfamiliar brands into China, western breweries are instead buying minority shares in existing local and regional breweries already established there. In the last few years breweries such as Anheuser-Busch, Carlsberg, Heineken, InBev and SABMiller have all made investments in Chinese beer.

Previously the market had been price-driven but a growing economy is leading to greater demand for premium brands, much like what the U.S. is experiencing right now, as well.

Tsingtao was founded in 1903 by German settlers in Qingdao and first began importing its beer to the United States in 1972. In 1996 there were four Tsingtao breweries, but today they operate 48 in China. Tsingtao beer is now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Grupo Modelo, whose headquarters are in Mexico City, exports brands including Corona products, Estrella, Leon Negra, Modelo Especial, Pacifico, Negra Modelo and other beer brands to 150 countries. It is also the exclusive importer and distributor of Anheuser-Busch’s products in Mexico.

Denver Beer Dinner Announced

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Great Divide Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewery and Duo Restaurant, have an announced two beer dinners to be held at the restaurant in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, September 13, the first at 6:30 p.m. and the second at 8:30 p.m. The dinner will be four courses paired with 4 Colorado beers. The cost is $35 per person. For reservations, call 303.477.4141

From the press release:

Colorado has some of the best beers in the world so let’s drink them! Great Divide Brewing Company is teaming up with Duo Restaurant and Oskar Blues Brewery to offer a fun & delicious evening. Enjoy a four course specially created menu paired with four different beers. Meet the brewers and learn how to pair fantastic food with great beer. This evening is sure to be full of fun, laughter, and plenty of little brewery give aways so bring a crowd or have a fun date night.

9.13

Denver Beer Dinner

Duo Restaurant, 2413 West 32nd Avenue, Denver, Colorado
303.477.4141 [ website ]

The Budweiser Film Studio?

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According to Advertising Age — and they should know — Anhesuer-Busch is creating a new film and TV production division within the company to create original content. Initially at least the new programs will be primarily “humorous shorts and sitcom-type programs to be broadcast over the Internet and to cellphones, according to four people familiar with the matter, and could branch into full-length films.”

They’re also reporting that this venture will draw from A-B’s $1.56 billion marketing budget and will be to date its “most ambitious by far.” Several years ago A-B tried “Bud TV” but nothing much came of its single effort. A-B did its first product placement deal in Wedding Crashers last year and it was apparently a big success, leading to other Hollywood alliances. That experience was undoubtedly the impetus to take things even further but also to keep creative control.

Critics hope the venture will distract them from their core business but that doesn’t seem likely. A-B is too big with too many resources for that to be a reasonably probable outcome. I can’t help but wonder what the upcoming film Beerfest would look like if it was a Budweiser film?

Craft Beer Up 11% for First Half of 2006!

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It’s been exactly ten years since the craft beer industry has seen double-digit growth. Back in the heady days of 1996 it seemed like a new brewery was opening every week. But that came to a screeching halt and things calmed down, the media turned its attention to the next big thing, and brewers got on with the job of making great beer.

Then a curious thing happened several years ago. Slowly but surely the craft beer numbers began to rise. Slowly at first, but more importantly it was happening consistently year after year. Now more great news today. So far in the first half of this year, craft beer sold looks to be 11% over the same period last year.

Said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association professional division, in a press release today. “The rate of growth in the craft beer segment appears to be accelerating. This is the third straight year we’ve seen an increase in the craft beer growth rate.”

Also from the press release:

The current surge in growth comes on top of strong performance by the nation‚s small, independent and traditional brewers over the last two years. In 2004, the volume of craft beer sold increased by 7 percent and in 2005 it rose by 9 percent.

“This growth represents strong performance by established craft brewers over several years,” said Ray Daniels, Director of Craft Beer Marketing for the Brewers Association. “Unlike the early days of our industry, newly founded breweries do not add significantly to industry-wide production.”

“The current trend in craft beer sales increases demonstrates a growing consumer preference for the diverse and flavorful beers made by craft brewers,” said Gatza.

Now that puts a smile on my face.

Russian River Beer Revival & BBQ Cook-Off

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Saturday I took the whole family to the Russian River Beer Revival & BBQ Cook-Off in Guerneville, California. It was held at Stumptown Brewery at a perfect location right along the river. I’m doing a story about the festival and the brewery for the next issue of the Celebrator Beer News, but in the meantime here are some photos from the event.

Stumptown Brewery on River Road in Guerneville.

The festival booths making barbecue and pouring beers was right along the Russian River.

Vinnie Cilurzo pouring a big bottle of Damnation.

Vinnie and Natalie.

Carla and Peter Hackett. co-owners of Stumptown Brewery, along with Natalie Cilurzo, the brains behind the success of Russian River Brewing.

Some people paddled their canoes to the festival.

Natalie snuggles with my daughter Alice.

The food and beer was great, with booths of fruits and vegetables along with all the barbecue. Throughout the day, several bands entertained the crowd, many of whom took to dancing.

Your Beer Personality

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I enjoy personality quizzes, actually quizzes of almost any kind, so I’m not necessarily predisposed to find fault with them. But this one is another story. There’s a website called Blogthings that has literally almost 300 quizzes for people to use on their blogs, presuambly to spice them up with something fun. Most are five questions with several choices each. Their tagline is Cool Things to Put In Your Blog.

A friend sent me this one, it’s “What’s Your Beer Personality?” Five questions, six possible answers to each one, and it purports to tell you your beer personality by determining what beer you are based on your answers. There are 7,775 different possible ways to answer the five questions but as far as I can tell from playing around with the quiz, there are only six different personalities possible: Bud Light, Guinness, Heineken, Olde English and Sam Adams.

I realize this things are just for fun, they’re not meant to be taken too seriously. But it seems to me they should bear at least some passing resemblence to reality. Whoever put this quiz together apparently knows nothing about beer and thinks there are only six personality types. I certainly wasn’t expecting a Westmalle Tripel personality or Rodenbach Grand Cru but not even a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? And the beers don’t really seem to fit the personalities, but they do say a lot about stereotypes many people have about beer and what certain brands mean or have come to mean through marketing and advertising.
 

Here are the 6 beer personalities:

You’re not fussy when it comes to beer. If someone hands it to you, you’ll drink it. In fact, you don’t understand beer snobbery at all. It all tastes the same once you’re drunk! You’re an enthusiastic drinker, and you can often be found at your neighborhood bar. You’re pretty good at holding your liquor too – you’ve had lots of experience.

Okay, this one’s near the mark. If you’ll drink this beer, you will drink anything and not notice the difference. It all tastes the same, even if you’re not drunk.

You don’t drink for the love of beer. You drink to get drunk. You prefer a very light, very smooth beer. A beer that’s hardly a beer at all. And while you make not like the taste of beer, you like the feeling of being drunk. You drink early and often. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes alone. All the party needs is you!

How could you, at least not if this is your choice. “Hardly a beer at all.” Hilarious. Corona was the answer to the question “what is your least favorite beer?” when posed to Michael Jackson when he was a guest on the Conan O’Brien Show in April of this year.

You know beer well, and you’ll only drink the best beers in the world. Watered down beers disgust you, as do the people who drink them. When you drink, you tend to become a bit of a know it all – especially about subjects you don’t know well. But your friends tolerate your drunken ways, because you introduce them to the best beers around.

This was the one I got when I answered the questions seriously, and it’s pretty sad that in the mind of the quiz, this is one the best beers the world has to offer. Which of the at least eleven different recipes of Guinness brewed worldwide are they talking about? Hopefully not that abomination that Diageo foisted on America, the widget bottle, which tried to undo decades of progress by marketing it to be consumed directly from the bottle. It’s also funny that they claim Guinness drinkers don’t like their beer watered down, since Guinness is a low alcohol beer and not heavy at all.

You appreciate a good beer, but you’re not a snob about it. You like your beer mild and easy to drink, so you can concentrate on being drunk. Overall, you’re a friendly drunk who’s likely to buy a whole round for your friends… many times. Sometimes you can be a bit boring when you drink. You may be prone to go on about topics no one cares about.

This is a bit surprising, since all of Heineken’s advertising is aimed at creating a perception of sophistication and premium quality, despite the fact of its legendary skunkiness. This, along with Corona, is one of the world’s worst beers. That it’s so popular is a testament to the advertising industry. That it is a personality is truly frightening.

Drinking is more than a hobby for you. It’s your favorite drug. When you drink, you want to get wasted. As quickly and cheaply as possible. Looking back on your best times drinking… well, you don’t remember them at all. You may be a few brain cells short, but you still can chug a 40!

This one’s just too easy. I guess there must really be people like this. Malt liquor does sell, after all.

You’re fairly easy to please when it comes to beer – as long as it’s not too cheap. You tend to change favorite beers frequently, and you’re the type most likely to take a “beers of the world” tour. When you get drunk, you’re fearless. You lose all your inhibitions. You’re just as likely to party with a group of strangers as you are to wake up in a very foreign place.

This one doesn’t even make much sense to me. It’s not like Sam Adams beer is expensive. And frankly, why is a “‘beers of the world’ tour” a bad thing? Or changing your choice of beer? As the only beer personality in the canon approaching craft beer, I can’t understand why it’s not the pinnacle.

Alright, I know this whole thing is pretty silly, but it was a quiet Sunday. Don’t take my word for it. Take the quiz for yourself. See what your beer personality is.

Chugging Contests to Promote Brewfest

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A few weeks ago I opined that the upcoming movie Brewfest was going to do nothing good for the good beer movement, and might even cause further harm to beer’s already beleaguered image. I even argued that position on a recent interview on the Brewing Network. Even though I’ve not seen the movie, everything I have seen has filled me with a growing sense of dread.

Along comes today’s Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capitol city’s newspaper, with a story about how the co-creators and stars of Brewfest are promoting the film. It seems director Jay Chandrasekhar and “his co-writer/co-star/co-producer Paul Soter, 34, have been touring the country challenging locals to beer-chugging contests.” So to all of you who’ve defended this movie, I ask you. Is that really a good way to promote good beer? Is that good for beer’s image? I can just image how the MADD mothers will use this to their advantage.

“No team has beaten them yet.” The pair of filmmakers told the paper. Well, congratulations. You must be very proud. It’s good to have goals, and such lofty ones at that. That’s exactly what the beer industry needs, high-profile people in the media spotlight with the goal of chugging more beer than anybody else. It may sell newspapers and even the movie, but it does nothing to give beer any respect and in fact even undermines it more that the damage done year after year by the advertising created by the big breweries.

The Patriot-News describes the movie thusly:

The movie “Beerfest,” opening Friday, is most definitely an R-rated comedy that proudly features gratuitous nudity and all sorts of rude behavior, mostly involving imbibing lots of alcohol.

In and out of the movie, chugging beer is a bad idea.

Beer Only Fit for Guzzling

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I realize that the Ventura County Reporter isn’t exactly mainstream media, but they’re in print and people believe what they read in print, so they’re fair game as far as I’m concerned, especially when they wear their ignorance on their sleeve. A regular column in the alternative weekly, called Body Politics, is written by Robert Ferguson, who apparently is a diet guru, at least according his byline, which reads:

Robert Ferguson is recognized as the weight loss “guru” and wellness expert, co-author of Fat That Doesn’t Come Back, speaker and has Diet Free Life offices in Southern California. E-mail him at robert@dietfreelife.com, or visit his Web site at www.dietfreelife.com.

Apparently in his column each week he answers questions sent in by readers. This week’s is particularly troubling. The question is innocuous enough, here it is:

You often talk about the benefits of drinking wine, but what about beer?

— Cia W., Thousand Oaks

Okay, Bobby, you got my attention, please tell me. What are the benefits of drinking beer? He brings up only one of the numerous studies showing health benefit for moderate beer drinking, this about “men who drank 11-24 pints” having a 66% reduced chance of getting a heart attack over teetotalers who drank none at all. All well and good, but he also says that the scientists conducting the study were “shocked” by the findings. Hardly. It’s not like the health benefits of beer is a new phenomenon. People have known beer is good for them for millennia and there were centuries when it was preferable to water, health-wise. But it shows his true disdain for beer while at the same time trying to appear unbiased.

Ignoring the many other and different ways beer provides health benefits, he then suggests that “[j]ust because there is a hint [my emphasis] of health associated with beer doesn’t mean it’s to your benefit to rush out and purchase a case of your favorite flavor.” Setting aside that beer doesn’t really come in “flavors,” but styles, just because he apparently knows only about a single study doesn’t mean there’s only a hint of benefits. A simple Google search of “health benefits of beer” would have revealed to him over 9 million hits! Even if only a tiny fraction were legitimate scientific studies, that would still be many more than one. Just in the last few years, there have been many new major findings on the health benefits of beer. But why use facts, when as a “guru” you can pretend to know what you’re talking about.

But Bobby’s not done insulting beer yet, as he ends with this bit of wisdom:

The challenge with beer is that it’s not usually sipped, but guzzled. And guzzling positions you to consume more than if you were to sip it.

Now here was a perfect opportunity to educate Cia and his readers that there are thousands of great beers designed to be sipped rather than knocked back. But instead Bobo, who appears to know precious little about beer, chose instead to recommend the following:

If you want weight loss however, choose a five-ounce glass of wine instead.

Dammit this is the sort of thing that if I were a cartoon would make smoke shoot out of my ears. Why does wine always get trotted out as this saintly stuff, perfect for a diet? Ferguson cautioned earlier in the article that beer had “alcohol and calories,” making it bad for dieting, apparently. But so does wine. And ounce for ounce wine has more calories than beer does. There’s 100 calories in five ounces of wine, while a similar amount of beer contains (depending on the amount of protein) between 50-75 calories which is — say it with me — less. Why couldn’t he have suggested that Cia share a nice bottle of Cuvee de Tomme (Ventura is in Southern California, after all) with some friends, having only five ounces herself in a nice tulip glass? She was asking about beer, after all, not wine. But talk of alcohol and health always seems to work its way back to grapes, despite the mounting evidence of beer’s positive benefits in a myriad of areas. This perception of wine as angelically good and beer as demonically bad is one tough nut to crack. People seem very, very attached to this misconception. We could debate the reasons for this and where the culpability lies, but that’s for another day. The fact is our cause it not helped by so-called experts like this guy who in his zeal to sell diet books, magazines and his online weight loss program, ignores the facts and plays on old stereotypes to misinform the public.
 

Robert Ferguson, the “Diet Guru.” “Remember kids, don’t guzzle that beer, you’ll get fat.“