Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer Birthday: Jay Sheveck

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Today is also the 46th birthday of Jay Sheveck, a beer writer and filmmaker in Los Angeles. In addition to writing for the Celebrator, Jay wrote the Beer Guppy’s Guide to Southern California . He’s also been working for many, many years on a documentary film about the early days of craft beer, Beer Pioneers. There’s a teaser trailer of it at the bottom of this page. Personally, I’m excited about his film (and not just because I may be in it, unless I end up on the cutting room floor, that is). Join me in wishing Jay a very happy birthday.

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Alec Moss, former brewer at Half Moon Bay, with Jay at the celebrator’s Best of the West Fest in 2009.

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Jay and a glass of Chimay.

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Jay and his wife Vicki at the Director’s Guild dinner in 1998.

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Jay and his new son Jake.

(Note: last three photos purloined from Facebook.)

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2016

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Today the the 16th annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this year owing to my daughter having a vaulting competition today. But owner Vic Kralj was kind enough to send me a list of this year’s winners. The full list is below. Apparently in this year’s judging, it was very close, so they decided to announce 4th place for both double and triple IPA.

Double IPAs

Triple IPAs

Congratulations to all the winners.

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Steve Sartori from Altamont Beer Works with The Bistro’s Vic Kralj accepting his 2nd place for his Triple IPA last year, though they won again this year, a bronze for their double.

Patent No. 123390A: Improvement In Beer And Water Coolers

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Today in 1872, US Patent 123390 A was issued, an invention of Charles Geenen, for his “Improvement in Beer and Water Coolers.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My device relates to that class of coolers or refrigerators which have an interior ice-receptacle, an outer inclosed chamber, in which is placed some non-conducting material or substance, and an intermediate chamber or chambers, in which, and through which, the beer is made to pass directly from the barrel or vessel in which the beer is contained. The object which I have in viewing my device is to furnish a cooler or refrigerator which Shall be portable, cheap, and conveniently handled or moved from one place or position to another in a store or other room, wherever it may be required to use it, and, at the same time, easily attached, by means of pipes, flexible or otherwise, to the barrel or vessel containing the beer which it is desired to cool; but my improvement will be more clearly understood by reference to the annexed drawing, whereon all that I claim as pertaining thereto is very clearly shown, and on Which- Y Figure l represents a perspective view of the cooler as when complete and ready for use. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same.

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Beer Birthday: Erin Fay Glass

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Today is the 45th birthday of Erin Fay Glass, Membership Coordinator and Brewery Detective at the Brewers Association. Erin is one of my favorite people in the BA, and the whole beer community for that matter. Join me in wishing her a very happy birthday.

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Several November 18ths ago, Maya Ryleigh was born to Erin and Gary Glass.

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Erin with husband Gary Glass, AHA director.

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Gary Glass, Erin and Bradley Lantham, from the BA, at Anchor Brewing for an AHA Rally.

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Gary, Maya and Erin. (Photo purloined from Facebook.)

Beer In Ads #1812: Benjamin Franklin — “Father Of American Diplomacy”

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Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1915, No. 5 in a series they did in 1914-15 called “Framers of the Constitution of the U.S.A.” The fifth one features Benjamin Franklin, and tells the story of Franklin in fairly gushing terms but, to their credit, at least they don’t mention that “quote.” And I love that they characterize his alcohol consumption as a “moderate user.”

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Patent No. 3789622A: Ice Box For Beer Barrel

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Today in 1974, US Patent 3789622 A was issued, an invention of Ralph Yanes, for his “Ice Box For Beer Barrel.” Here’s the Abstract:

An insulated barrel shape structure for housing and suspending a beer barrel in the horizontal position surrounded by ice. The rear circular cover of the device is removable for the installation and replacement of the beer barrel and surrounding ice. The circular front cover bears a circular opening for the spigot of the beer barrel. The structure provides for an air-seal between the sides and bottom of the housed beer barrel and the iced refrigerated area of the structure.

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Patent No. 667478A: Hop-Drying Box

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Today in 1901, US Patent 667478 A was issued, an invention of Adolf Wolf, for his “Hop-Drying Box.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to boxes for holding loose material, such as hops, in the process of drying the same, and has for its object to provide a construction which permits the box to be readily turned upside down without discharging the contents thereof and while leaving the top open for a thorough evaporation and escape of steam. For this purpose I provide the box with a removable top and a removable bottom, constructed and secured in a novel manner, as will be fully described hereinafter, and particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

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Beer In Ads #1811: Gouveneur Morris — “Father of the Penny”

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Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1915, No. 4 in a series they did in 1914-15 called “Framers of the Constitution of the U.S.A.” The fourth one features Gouveneur Morris (though it’s usually spelled Gouverneur Morris), and tells the story of Morris being a part of creating the Constitution, referring to him as both the “father of the American decimal system” and the “originator of the copper cent.” In reality, he was “widely credited as the author of the document’s preamble, and has been called the ‘Penman of the Constitution.'” But I guess that doesn’t sound quite as good as the “Father of the Penny.” Although there’s also this to add to his legacy. “He loved society, and his hospitality was famous. All his life he drank the creative brews of malt and hops.”

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Patent No. 3425839A: Continuous Beer Making Process Wherein The Wort And Yeast Are Separated By A Porous Partition

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Today in 1969, US Patent 3425839 A was issued, an invention of Michael Alan Pinnegar, assigned to Brewing Patents Ltd., for his “Continuous Beer Making Process Wherein the Wort and Yeast Are Separated by a Porous Partition.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

A potable beer is produced by circulating a body of yeast-containing liquor on one side of a partition and maintaining a moving body of wort on the opposite side of the partition. The partition is porous and has a pore size small enough to effectively bar the passage of yeast cells, but allows the passage of the soluble constituents of the wort and the soluble products resulting from the fermentation of the wort by the yeast.

The present invention relates to the production of potable beer by the fermentation of brewers wort by yeast in a continuous fermentation process. The term continuous fermentation process is used herein to refer to a fermentation process, in which brewers Wort is introduced in a stream into a fermentation zone. The stream of wort can be introduced at either constant or varying rates and may be continuous or discontinuous in the sense of being interrupted at constant or varying intervals. However in the generally preferred procedure brewers wort is introduced into the fermentation zone at a substantially constant rate over a substantial period of time e.g. not less than five days.

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Alice Cooper And Chicken And Beer, Oh My!

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Today is the birthday of American rock singer and songwriter Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948- ). Apparently early in Alice Cooper’s career, there was an incident at a 1969 show in Toronto that helped to create his bad boy persona and get him noticed in the world of rock and roll. That became known as the Chicken Incident, and there are different versions of it that have been told, with this one coming from Wikipedia.

Alice Cooper’s “shock rock” reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper, a feather pillow, and a live chicken garnered attention from the press; the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous “Chicken Incident” at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969 was an accident. A chicken somehow made its way onto the stage into the feathers of a feather pillow they would open during Cooper’s performance, and not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by wheelchair users, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces. The next day the incident made the front page of national newspapers, and Zappa phoned Cooper and asked if the story, which reported that he had bitten off the chicken’s head and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, “Well, whatever you do, don’t tell anyone you didn’t do it.”

Blueiskewl also has another account, with some additional context. Stemming from the infamous chicken incident, at some time in the 1970s, Cooper managed to be in the same room as Colonel Sanders — Harland David Sanders — the founder and face of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a connection not lost on Cooper.

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A perplexed Colonel Sanders posing with Alice Cooper, who’s holding a beer, sometime in the 1970s.

During an interview which was taped for a showing of the film Super Duper Alice Cooper in 2014, Cooper answered a question about his meeting Colonel Sanders in the 1970s.

“Here comes this nice old man in a white suit,” said Cooper. “Suddenly I realize that this is the Hannibal Lecter of chickens. I have the death of exactly one chicken on my hands, and this guy has a score of 10 billion. Yet everyone loves this guy, and hates me for being a chicken killer! The irony of the two of us being in the same room at the same time was not lost on either me or the Colonel.”

And in yet another one by Interviewly, he talks about tying the two together.

What can you tell us about meeting Col. Sanders? Did he bring chicken?

There was an INCREDIBLE thing that happened in the early 70’s! Somebody threw a chicken onstage, I threw the chicken in the audience, the audience tore it to pieces, and then in the newspaper the next day the headline read “Alice Cooper tears chicken to pieces.” It’s the most notorious story about Alice Cooper that’s been going on forever. And I thought “it just one chicken and I didn’t even kill it, the audience killed it, so I thought why not take a picture with the mass murderer of chickens Colonel Sanders?” so to me it had a sense of humor to it. I mean, one chicken for me, seven BILLION chickens for Colonel Sanders. And yet I’m the villain. I would say if you interviewed the chickens they would be more terrified of him than me.

Unfortunately, I can find no specifics about exactly when or where this meeting took place. It looks like it was in someone’s house, or maybe a hotel, but no one seems to know for sure. Perhaps it’s better to leave it mysterious and enigmatic. If it weren’t for the photos, we may not believe it every actually happened.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what beer it was? 19702 and with a foil neck and probably label. It’s not Michelob and it doesn’t strike me as a Lowenbrau. It might be something more local or regional, but given that we don’t know the location that’s not much help. It doesn’t look like the Colonel joined Cooper for a beer.

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