Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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The Top 50 Annotated 2015

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ba
This is my ninth annual annotated list of the Top 50, skipping two years ago because the BA provided that information then, so here again you can see who moved up and down, who was new to the list and who dropped off. So here is this year’s list again annotated with how they changed compared to last year.

  1. Anheuser-Busch InBev; #1 last ten years, no surprise
  2. MillerCoors; ditto for #2
  3. Pabst Brewing; ditto for #3
  4. D. G. Yuengling and Son; Same as last year
  5. Boston Beer Co.; Same as last year
  6. North American Breweries; Same as last year
  7. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Same as last year
  8. New Belgium Brewing; Same as last year
  9. Craft Brewers Alliance; Same as last year
  10. Lagunitas Brewing; Up 1 from #11 last year
  11. Gambrinus Company; Down 1 from #10 last year
  12. Bell’s Brewery; Same as last year
  13. Deschutes Brewery; Same as last year
  14. Minhas Craft Brewery; Up 2 from #16 last year
  15. Stone Brewing; Down 1 from #14 last year
  16. Sleeman Brewing; Down 1 from #15 last year
  17. Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits; Rocketed up 20 from #37 last year
  18. Brooklyn Brewery; Down 1 from #17 last year
  19. Firestone Walker Brewing; Up 3 from #22 last year
  20. Founders Brewing; Up 3 from #23 last year
  21. Oskar Blues Brewing; Jumped up 9 from #30
  22. Duvel Moortgat USA (Boulevard Brewing/Ommegang); Down 4 from #18 last year
  23. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Down 4 from #19 last year
  24. Matt Brewing; Down 4 from #20 last year
  25. SweetWater Brewing; Down 1 from #24 last year
  26. Harpoon Brewery; Down 5 from #21 last year
  27. New Glarus Brewing; Down 2 from #25 last year
  28. Great Lakes Brewing; Up 1 from #29 last year
  29. Alaskan Brewing; Down 3 from #26 last year
  30. Abita Brewing; Down 3 from #27 last year
  31. Anchor Brewing; Down 3 from #28 last year
  32. Stevens Point Brewery; Same as last year
  33. Victory Brewing; Up 2 from #35 last year
  34. August Schell Brewing; Down 1 from #33 last year
  35. Long Trail Brewing; Down 1 from #36 last year
  36. Summit Brewing; Down 2 from #34 last year
  37. Shipyard Brewing; Down 6 from #31 last year
  38. Full Sail Brewing; Up 5 from #39 last year
  39. Odell Brewing; Up 1 from #40 last year
  40. Southern Tier Brewing; Up 1 from #41 last year
  41. Rogue Ales Brewery; Down 3 from #38 last year
  42. 21st Amendment Brewery; Jumped up 7 from 49 last year
  43. Ninkasi Brewing; Down 1 from #42 last year
  44. Flying Dog Brewery; Same as last year
  45. Narragansett Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
  46. Pittsburgh Brewing (fka Iron City); Down 1 from #45 last year
  47. Left Hand Brewing; Up 1 from #48 last year
  48. Uinta Brewing; Down 2 from #46 last year
  49. Green Flash Brewing; Not in Top 50 last year
  50. Allagash Brewing; Same as last year

Not too much movement this year, except for a few small shufflings. The top is virtually unchanged, with only numbers 10 and 11 switching places. And apart from those two small changes, the top 13 were all the same as 2014. The biggest jump came from Ballast Point, which leapt up 20 spots, while Shipyard slipped the furthest, dropping six slots. Only two new breweries made the list; Green Flash Brewing and Narragansett Brewing. Off the list was World Brew/Winery Exchange, a California contract label brewer making private label beers for retailers, and Bear Republic Brewing.

If you want to see the previous annotated lists for comparison, here is 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Top 50 Craft Breweries For 2015

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ba
The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2015, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For the eighth year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:

2016_Top_50-craft

Here is this year’s press release. The last couple of years, the BA has helpfully annotated the list, saving me lots of time, since I’ve been annotating the list for the last eight years, but they’ve abandoned that practice this time around. So for the eighth consecutive year, I’ll also posted an annotated list, showing the changes in each brewery’s rank from year to year, but it will take me some time to put together so I’ll have that again later today.

The BA, this year, did create a map showing the relative location of each of the breweries that made the list.

Print

Patent No. 3244326A: Apparatus For Dispensing Fluid Material

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patent-logo
Today in 1966, US Patent 3244326 A was issued, an invention of Glen C. Bull Jr., for his “Apparatus For Dispensing Fluid Material.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

The present invention comprises, in brief, maintaining a substantially constant desired pressure on a body of beer within a spigotted container of draught beer by incrementally admitting gas under pressure from a reservoir into an expansible bag within the container, to preserve the effervescence of the beer and to discharge desired quantities of beer when the spigot is opened.

The primary object of this invention is, therefore, to effectively, economically, and safely store, transport, and incrementally dispense beer at a nearly constant pressure from a packaged unit.

Another object of this invention is to provide for the u safe, convenient, and economical handling, storing,l preserving, transporting, and/or dispensing of any liquid which requires a continuous surface pressure, or freedom from contamination by air or other similar infuences, or a covering membrane which will effectively follow the liquid surface as the liquid is dispensed, or any combination of these requirements, at a pressure which remains nearly constant as the liquid is dispensed.

US3244326-0

Beer In Ads #1871: Moving Day

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Monday’s ad is entitled Moving Day, and the illustration was done in 1946 by Stevan Dohanos. It’s a second #2 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. There are just a couple of these I know about, and I’m not sure why they duplicated the number. New ads were created roughly every month and were published in the popular monthly magazine of the time, so possibly they ran concurrently in magazines reaching different groups of people. In this ad, a family is moving. The house is nearly packed up (hopefully that painting is staying behind on the junk pile!) though I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the bird or the goldfish bowl. As the truck is undoubtedly nearly full, they’re thoughtfully rewarding the movers by pouring them glasses of beer.

002b. Moving Day by Stevan Dohanos, 1947

Inside A Brewery Circa 1892

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poths
If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed that this year’s project is posting “Historic Beer Birthdays” with as much information as I can find about each person. It’s been a lot of fun, especially getting to know more about a lot of the early brewers and breweries that make up the history of our brewing industry. One especially fun find was this piece of breweriana which I found when looking into Frederick J. Poth (whose birthday was March 20, 1840). His father, Frederick A. Poth (born March 15, 1840) founded the F. A. Poth & Sons’ Brewery, and his other son Harry A. Poth (July 11, 1881) also worked for the family business. It was one of the largest breweries in Philadelphia in its heyday.

Around 1892, they had a local printer, Avil Printing Co., create a lavish Souvenir Album of 20 pages, with 26 illustrations done by A. M. J. Mueller. The prints are Chromolithographs, a popular process at the time. The booklet presumably would have been given to bars, wholesalers and maybe even consumers as a promotional item, but as these things go, this one is pretty awesome, and gives a great glimpse into the inner workings of a turn of the century American brewery.

Here’s its description from “The Library Company of Philadelphia,” founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731.

Album containing 26 lithographic illustrations documenting the Philadelphia brewing complex at the northwest corner of Thirty-first and Jefferson Streets, including exterior and interior views of individual buildings within the complex and detailed scenes of laborers operating equipment and transporting the finished product to and from railroad stations. Shows exterior and interior views of the office building, boiler house, stable, and malt house; exterior views only of pitching house, pitching yard, and shipping department; interior views of private offices, beer stube, refrigerating machines and engine room, brew house, fermenting room, beer storage, racking room, wash house, and kiln house; and modes of transport including a delivery wagon loaded with barrels of beer approaching the F.A. Poth depot at Trenton, New Jersey. Includes a “bottled by” list on the last page with names and addresses next to two F.A. Poth bottles of beer. Under the list: “100,836 barrels were sold between January 1, 1890 and January 1, 1891.”

Established in 1865 by Frederick August Poth at the northeast corner of Third and Green Streets, and moved to Thirty-first and Jefferson Streets in 1871. Incorporated in 1877, and later renamed F.A. Poth & Sons, Incorporated.

This is the hardbound cover.
poth-brewery-cvr

Opening the book, you’re greeted by the title page.
poth-brewery-00

General View of [the] Plant.
poth-brewery-04

Office Building & Beer Strube.
poth-brewery-06

Main Office.
poth-brewery-05

Private Offices.
poth-brewery-07

Boiler House & Interior.
poth-brewery-01

Refrigerating Machines & Engine Room.
poth-brewery-08

Interior Brew House.

poth-brewery-02

Fermenting Room.
poth-brewery-03

Beer Storage.
poth-brewery-10

Beer Storage.
poth-brewery-11

Racking Room & Wash House.
poth-brewery-12

Pitching House & Pitching Yard.

poth-brewery-13

Shipping House & Refrigerator Car.

poth-brewery-14

Stable & Interior.

poth-brewery-15

Malt House.
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Interior Malt House.
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Kiln House.

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Depot at Trenton, N.J.
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poth-brewery-20

Patent No. 988899A: Apparatus For Cleaning Beer-Pipes

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patent-logo
Today in 191a, US Patent 988899 A was issued, an invention of Theodore Diem and John J. Ryan, for their “Apparatus for Cleaning Beer-Pipes.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

Our invention relates to improvements in apparatus for cleaning beer pipes and has for its object the provision of such an apparatus which shall be of simple construction and eflicient in operation.

US988899-0
US988899-1

Beer In Ads #1870: Family Musicale

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Sunday’s ad is entitled Family Musicale, and the illustration was done in 1946 by Mead Schaeffer. It’s #2 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. In this ad, at least four family members are performing — though it’s an odd combination of organ, violin, cello and harmonica — but it looks like a fifth is just arriving, case under his arm (with a possible sixth behind him), as the two apparently talentless men of the family watch. But at least they get to drink beer during the concert.

002a. Family Musicale by Mead Schaeffer, 1946

Patent No. CN202842451U: Glove Capable Of Opening Beer Bottles

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patent-logo
Today in 2013, US Patent CN 202842451 U was issued, an invention of 张津川, for his “Glove Capable Of Opening Beer Bottles.” Here’s the Abstract:

Provided is a glove capable of opening beer bottles. The glove capable of opening beer bottles is characterized in that the top of the glove is sewn with a velcro, a bottle opener is installed on the glove through the velcro, and the bottle opener can be dismantled. The glove capable of opening beer bottles has the advantages that people can use the bottle opener on the glove to open a beer bottle when the glove is needed, hands can not be frostbitten and the glove capable of opening beer bottles is convenient to use.

202842451

I’m not sure if this commercial example is based on this patent, but it’s certainly pretty close and the same idea.
tailgating-gloves-with-a-bottle-opener-on-the-palm

Beer In Ads #1869: Uncle From The West

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Saturday’s ad is entitled Uncle From the West, and the illustration was done in 1946 by Stevan Dohanos. It’s #1 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. In this ad, it appears that a relative who lives out west is visiting a more easterly family and bringing western gifts along with him.

001. Uncle From the West by Stevan Dohanos, 1946