Saturday’s ad is for Frank Fehr Brewing Co.’s Bock Beer, probably from the 1890s. The brewery was located in Louisville, Kentucky, but started out as the Otto Brewery. Its name changed to Frank Fehr in 1890, and remained that name until it closed in 1964. It’s a twofer, with not one, but two, goats standing over a barrel of their bock, with “Try Our” on the head and “Bock Beer” just below.
Today in 1940, US Patent 2186835 A was issued, an invention of John J. Mccauley, for his “Foam Removing Utensil and Strainer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention is an improved foam removing utensil and strainer and is intended especially for use as a bartenders implement as will hereinafter be more fully set out.
There’s been a fair amount of talk lately about the number of U.S. breweries hitting a milestone number, and that there are now more breweries in America that at anytime in our history. And that’s great and all, but as Jeff Alworth recently suggested, we should Quit Counting Breweries. And although he meant as the only way to measure growth and improvement in the state of beer, it’s a fair point, although it does, I believe, offer some idea of the bigger picture. Plus, I think we’re all just a little bit fascinated with numbers — things we can quantify — so I doubt anyone will ditch the metric of number of breweries anytime soon.
But if you think we have a lot of breweries, Europe is even more on fire. Sure, they had a head start, and didn’t have that pesky prohibition to slow them down (except in a few places). And while they may have been slower to the movement, or whatever it should be called, of new, usually smaller, breweries opening it’s well and truly now a global phenomenon. As of 2015, according to The Brewers of Europe Beer Statistics, there are over 7,000 breweries in Europe.
The comparison to the U.S. number is helped along by the fact that they’re pretty close in area: 3.931 million square miles for Europe and the U.S. with 3.806 million square miles. Though in terms of people, Europe has more than twice the population of America, 742.5 million vs. 318.9 million in the U.S. But here’s the number of breweries in Europe, broken down by country.
Most of the countries have seen big growth, although a few are close to static, meaning they either stayed exactly the same or have shown only modest growth. Very few have dropped below their 2009 number. Really, it’s only Turkey although Poland was rising steadily, only to dip a little in 2014 over 2013.
Last week, Ron Pattinson at Shut Up About Barclay Perkins looked at this data (h/t to him for bringing it to my attention) and noticed a few other patterns.
The one exception? Germany. The number of breweries hasn’t changed significantly in the last few years. Which has left it lagging far behind. For the first time since the 19th century, it doesn’t have the most breweries in Europe. The UK caught up in 2012 and has since powered ahead. If you’d told me 10 years ago that there would be over 1,500 breweries in the UK, I’d have felt your bumps.
The effect has been to drastically reduce Germany’s share of the breweries in Europe. From over a third in 2009 it fell to less than a quarter in 2014. While the UK’s share has risen for just under 20% to almost 25%.
Paricularly striking is the growth in countries that aren’t traditionally beer drinking. In Italy, France and Greece the number of breweries doubled. While in Portugal the increase is fivefold. In Spain almost sevenfold.
Earlier today, Ron posted a new analysis that he put together, assembling another table that showed the changes in the number of European breweries by nation from 1956-2014. He used a dozen sources, plus his own, to compile it. Here’s what he found:
Only four countries had fewer breweries in 2014 than in 1956: Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Luxemburg. For Denmark it’s a tiny difference – just five breweries – and Luxemburg is an odd case, being so small. Which leaves just Belgium and Germany, both of which have about a third of the breweries they did 60 years ago. I have to admit, it makes the situation in Germany look much worse than the 2009 to 2014 figures.
And here’s that list:
I can’t help but come back to the population vs. brewery number ratio. It’s seems that per capita may have to more to do with how many breweries can be supported by a population after all. I’m sure it’s more complicated, of course, with history, culture and other factors playing a role, as well. Looking at the ratios, there’s a European brewery for every 104,710 people whereas in the U.S. there’s a brewery for every 77,171 people. So currently, we’re slightly more concentrated in these terms. Who’s got numbers on the rest of the world?
Today in 1872, US Patent 122592 A was issued, an invention of Morton Andre Foubert, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Cooling Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
The cooling-vessel a is made of a vertical cylinder containing double heads and numerous vertical pipes of small size and placed close together, the pipes opening at their ends through the inner heads, so that the cooling water supplied from the tank I) will run, by the pipe 0, through these tubes and pass up by the elevated pipe (I to the vat e, where the warmed water can be reserved for use in other operations. The beer is supplied by the pipe f and runs from the vat 9 into the upper part of the cooler a, passing gradually downward and running away, by the pipe h, to the refrigerator 7c. The pipes c fare provided with cocks that should have divisions or degrees marked upon them so that they can be opened the proper amount in order that the cooling-water may be supplied in the proper proportion to effect the cooling of the beer that runs through the ap paratus to the required temperature, and I remark that all portions of this apparatus that come in contact with the beer should be tinned to prevent any injury to the same from the copper or other metal made use of for the vessels and pipes. Within the refrigerator it there is a vertical group of pipes, 1, opening at their upper and lower ends into the chambers m, the lower one being connected with the pipe h and the upper one with delivery-pipe n, that leads to any suitable receptacle. The refrigerator is may contain water or ice, as required, and a pipe and cook at 8 may be provided to draw off the beer, if it is not desired to pass all of it through the apparatus, or for emptying the vessel a and pipes l. The pipe and cook at t can be used for admitting steam or hot water for cleansing the vessels a lo, and the pipe and cook a serves as a blow-off for the vessel a.
I claim as my invention The cooler a, constructed as specified. and combined with the vertical group of pipes Z in the refrigerator k, the parts being constructed and connected, as and for the purposes set forth.
Friday’s ad is for Bock Beer, another one form probably the late 1800s, but nothing more specific about who it’s for or exactly where and when. Featuring a festive couple, it almost seems like she’s asking for his beer, while he’s holding it just out of reach, smiling, as she continues to try to talk him out of it. There must be something going on, because look at the goat’s startled eyes, and notice he’s looking away? There’s definitely more than meets the eye in this scene.
Today in 2013, US Patent 8348086 B2 was issued, an invention of Klaus-Karl Wasmuht and Cornelia Folz, assigned to Krones Ag, for their “Brewing Process and Brewery Installations.” Here’s the Abstract:
A brewing process including taking off a fluid having a starting temperature from a heat store; feeding the fluid to a plurality of heat consumers for releasing heat; and returning to the heat store the fluid which has a final temperature. The brewery installation has a heat store for controlling the flow of the fluid in the installation, and a plurality of heat consumers each of which is connected to the primary circuit for releasing heat. Improved efficiency is achieved in part by the final temperature of the fluid which flows out of the respective heat consumers is measured and the return of the fluid is controlled as a function of the measured final temperature.
Today in 2013, US Patent 8348086 B2 was issued, an invention of William P. Apps, assigned to the Rehrig Pacific Company, for his “Plastic Beer Keg.” Here’s the Abstract:
A beer keg includes a container having a base and a wall extending upward from a periphery of the base. A liner within the container includes a base, sidewalls and a mouth. The base of the liner interlocks with the base of the container to prevent relative rotation therebetween. A valve is disposed over the mouth of the liner.
Thursday’s ad is for Feldschlösschen Bock, from around 1910. It was produced by A. Trüb & Cie, a Swiss printer though I’m not certain if the brewery is likewise from Switzerland. There is a Feldschlösschen in Dresden, Germany which apparently been brewing there since 1858. I only remember Radebgerger being (near) there when I visited Dresden a little over ten years ago. Another source claims it’s for the “Feldschlösschen Bock brewery in Aarau, Switzerland,” but it seems unlikely there would have been two breweries so close to one another with the same name. It’s more stylized the older bock ads, but is still pretty cool.
Today in 1999, US Patent 2295931 A1 was issued, an invention of Makoto Kihara, Takafumi Kaneko, Kensuke Fukuda, and Kazutoshi Ito, assigned to Sapporo Breweries Ltd., for their “A Method For Identifying a Barley Variety and a Barley Having a Brewing Property.” Here’s the Abstract:
A method for identifying barley with good brewing properties using the thermostability of the barley .beta.-amylase as an indicator. The thermostability of the barley .beta.-amylase significantly affects the degree of the apparent attenuation limit. A method for determining the enzyme activity of an extract solution from one barley seed, an indirect method by an isoelectric point, and an indirect identifying method by DNA polymorphisms of the region containing the .beta.-amylase structural gene have been developed as a method for determining the type of thermostability for a barley .beta.-amylase. The selection method is not affected by environmental or climatic conditions.
Maui Brewing has announced that their new Director of Brewery Operations will be Jesse Houck. Houck was most recently at Golden Road Brewing in Los Angeles, and prior to that was in the Bay Area with both Drake’s Brewing and 21st Amendment.
From the press release:
“I am beyond stoked to be working with such a strong leader as Garrett and the talented team he has assembled here on Maui,” stated Jesse Houck.
“I’ve known Jesse for most of my career in craft beer and have always been impressed with his brewing talent, and proud to call him a friend. I’m stoked to have him at the helm of our brewing operations and we’re looking forward to some awesome projects coming down the pipe,” added Founder and CEO Garrett Marrero.
I recently visited the new facility that Maui Brewing built and turned loose in that brewhouse, Jesse’s going to do great things. It also really makes me want to go back to Maui again, not that I needed much incentive. It’s an amazing space that Garrett and Melanie Marrero built closer to the center of the island, and not too far from the airport. With two new planned restaurants in their future, adding Jesse was a prudent move. Congratulations to both.
Jesse (right) with Shaun O’Sullivan at the Toronado Barleywine Festival in 2008.