Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1309: Where’s That Beer?

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Wednesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1941. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. However, this ad ran in February, meaning it was after the war in Europe began, but before America entered the war. This one shows a doctor returning from work at one o’clock in the morning, having just delivered twins. Sitting down to take off his shoes, before he’s even taken off his hat or coat, he calls to the other room, asking “where’s that beer?” It’s good to have priorities.

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Beer In Ads #1308: Right Down Their Alley

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Tuesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1941. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. However, this ad ran in Collier’s in November, meaning it was shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so it was just before America entered the war. As a result, this one is a bowling themed ad, “Right down their alley … a glass of mellow beer or ale!” War ads would follow next year, but for now things were still “mellow”.

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Beer In Ads #1307: Beer Contributes To The Re-Building Of America

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Monday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, another one from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one is second ad talking about how “What Beer contributes to the re-building of America would fill a great volume.” For example, “the entire cost of the C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corps) could be paid for by the taxes of the brewing industry!”

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Beer In Ads #1306: Nature Makes Beer

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Sunday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, another one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one focuses on the fact that “Nature Makes Beer,” but it’s hard not to love this. “A wholesome beverage, it deserves to be sold only in wholesome surroundings.”

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Beer In Ads #1305: The Moderation Hour

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Saturday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, this one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Ah, “The Moderation Hour,” where “Good Beer and Ale in wholesome, modern taverns, offer Americans pleasant inexpensive relaxation!” In all of the 1939 ads I’ve been running, they’ve been saying annual taxes brewers pay is $400 million but now the results are in for 1939, and the new number is $411,596,780, for both state and federal.

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Beer In Ads #1304: It Brings A Livelihood To Thousands Of Farmers

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Friday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Showing an order for $100 million dollars worth of crops, including 3 billion pounds of barley, along with hops, corn and rice, the ad points out how important the brewing industry is to farmers growing those crops.

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Hops, One Of Our Nature Neighbors

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Here’s an interesting look at hops from a 1914 publication. The book is Nature Neighbors, a lavishly illustrated multi-volume set of nature books published by the American Audubon Association in Chicago, which was limited to only 2,500 printed copies. It was edited by Nathaniel Moore Banta, with “articles by Gerard Alan Abbott, Dr. Albert Schneider, William Kerr Higley, Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, John Merle Coulter, David Starr Jordan, and Other Eminent Naturalists.”

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In Volume 4, covering minerals and plants, under Chapter III: Medicinal Plants, by Dr. Albert Schneider, beginning at page 133, they include a description and illustration of hops.

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“The Hop has been called the Northern vine. It is found in a wild state throughout Europe, excepting the extreme North, and extends east to the Caucasus and through Central Asia. It is a handsome plant and not infrequently used as an arbor plant. The lower or basal leaves are very large, gradually decreasing in size toward the apex.

Hops is also cultivated in Brazil and other South American countries, Australia, and India.

The principal use of hops is in the manufacture of beer, to which it imparts the peculiarly bitter taste, and its repute as a tonic. For this purpose enormous quantities are consumed in Germany and England. The exhausted hops
from the breweries form an excellent fertilizer for light soils. The leaves have been used as fodder for cows. Leaves, stems, and roots possess astringent properties and have been used in tanning. In Sweden the fiber of the stem is used in manufacturing a very durable white cloth, not unlike the cloth made from hemp and flax.

Hops is used medicinally. It at first causes a very slight excitation of brain and heart, followed by a rather pronounced disposition to sleep. Pillows stuffed with hops form a very popular domestic remedy for wakefulness.

Hop bags dipped in hot water form a very soothing external application in painful inflammatory conditions, especially of the abdominal organs. It has undoubted value as a bitter tonic in dyspepsia and in undue cerebral excitation.”

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Description of plate : A, staminate (male) inflorescence; B, pistillate (female) inflorescence; C, fruiting branch; 1, staminate flower; 2, perigone; 3, stamen; 4, open anther; 5, pollen; 6, pistillate catkin; 7, 8, 9, pistillate flowers; 10, scales; 11, 12, 13, scales and flowers; 14, 15, fruit; 16, 17, 19, seed; 20, resin gland (lupuhn).

You can see the book in its entirety at the Internet Archive, where you can also download a pdf, ePub or Kindle formatted file there. Or read it online via Open Library, where you want to look for page 308.

Beer In Ads #1303: One-Sixth Of A Nation Blowing Away!

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Thursday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. That “One-Sixth of a Nation Blowing Away!” is referring to the dust bowl of the midwest. But not to worry, it can all be saved, thanks to beer taxes — “a million dollars a day!”

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Beer In Ads #1302: Which Road, America?

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Wednesday’s ad is still another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. The ad shows Uncle Sam (who first appeared today in 1813) peering out on a sunlit landscape, with a road spreading out before him. He’s stop, holding his hat behind his back, deep in thought trying to decide which of three roads to take just up ahead. What are his choices? “It is not blindly that we of today must choose our path. Many men before us have travelled each of the three roads … the dead-end road to excess, the harsh road of intolerance, the straight road ahead which is the way of moderation and sobriety.” I vote for the way of mod sob. But I also love the text from the inset box:

“Beer is one of the oldest and best of beverages; its use is widespread in every land; it is within the reach of every purse … The growth of its use in this country is bound to make for general temperance; for there is nothing more promising to combat the evil of too much alcohol than the opportunity of drinking good beer.”

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Anchor’s BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red Returns For Fall

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BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red, Anchor Brewing‘s fall seasonal, is back on store shelves and on draft in bars from now until the end of October. This is just the second year for the 6% a.b.v. red ale, which debuted last fall. The beer uses a “unique blend of hops — Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Cascade for dry hopping — specialty malts including a combination of two caramel malts and pale malt,” with a hint of maple syrup that makes it “unlike any other red ale today.”

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First released in August 2013, BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red was inspired by a native California tree, its incredible leaves, its delicious syrup, and the colors of fall. The tree, known as Bigleaf maple, thrives along the banks of California’s mountain streams. Native Californians once made rope and baskets from its bark. Bigleaf maple sugaring in California dates to the 1800s; yet this tree’s unusually flavorful syrup remains the product of a small group of hobbyists. A hint of maple—including bigleaf maple—syrup in every brew perfectly complements the malty complexity, balanced hoppiness, and rich fall hue of BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red.

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Anchor also released a video about their fall seasonal.