Beer In Ads #1299: I Buy My Beer From A Foundation Member … Do You?

August 31, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Sunday’s ad is still another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. In some ways, this is a strange one, asking consumers to care if the brewers’ beer they’re buying is a member of the UBIF. For only the geekiest of beer geeks is that a serious concern. I especially love the sign hanging on the wall behind him. “This Place Observes the Law.” You don’t see signs like that in bars and retailers anymore, sad to say.

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Moonlighting At Moonlight: The Hop Harvest 2014

August 31, 2014 By Jay Brooks

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For a number of years, the winding down of summer brings one of my favorite traditions: hop harvest. Brian Hunt, from nearby Moonlight Brewing — the best brewer you’ve probably never heard of unless you’re from the Bay Area — has a quarter-acre of hops planted on his brewery property, known as “The Abbey de St. Humulus,” which he uses each year to make his Fresh Hop Ale, Homegrown. As we do every year we’re able, the whole family, mother-in-law included, made our way to hop harvest, which Brian does 19th century-style. Which means that entire families get together for the day, and spend hours cutting down the bines, and hand-picking the hops and filling up buckets, which will be dumped into the beer without being kilned the same day, all the while eating, drinking and socializing. In a few weeks, Homegrown will be on draft at select bars around the Bay Area, along with plenty of other fresh hop beers as beerjolais nouveau season gets underway. Below is a little photo essay of our day picking hops.

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A row of hops, ready to be picked.

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My son Porter helping me with the first stages of harvesting, cutting the bines along the bottom.

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The next step will be cutting them at the top, so we can pull them down to pick the hop cones off of the bines.

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Brin Hunt working the long knife, bring down a bine for harvesting.

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A shady spot is made under multiple pop-up canopies with a tarp floor, where the hop bines are laid out for picking, then everybody sits around and carefully pulls off the hop flowers, discarding the leaves, stems, bines and other material so only the hops that flavor the beer are separated into buckets.

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Only the flowers go into the beer.

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My wife Sarah demonstrating how when one bucket is filled, you move on to the next empty one.

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While hops are not simply loaded into your beer glass, like bitter ice cubes, with some hoppy beers, it certainly seems that way.

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There’s nothing quite like being in a hop field at harvest time, the sights and smells are amazing, with the intense aromas of hops hanging thick in the air.

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My daughter Alice digging in an almost-full bucket of freshly picked hops, nearly ready to be added to the beer.

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A very fun day picking hops in the warm California sunshine. While it was great fun, we’re all exhausted and a little sore, with scratches all over our bodies. Thank goodness, tomorrow is Labor Day, and we can relax without doing much labor, apart from enjoying a few beers.

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In a few weeks time, keep an eye out for Moonlight Brewing’s Homegrown Fresh Hop Ale, along with many other fresh hop, or wet hop, beers. They’re only around for a very short time, and once they;re gone, that’s it until next year. These are beers with intense hop aromas and flavors, and the fresher they are, better they taste.

Beer In Ads #1298: Raise An Extra Million Dollars A Day? WHO, ME?

August 30, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s ad is yet another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one ran in Life magazine, and is an extension of their earlier ads about how much taxes are paid by the brewing industry, over $1 million each day in 1939. And I love their reminder to the American people, with prohibition still fresh in everyone’s mind. “Yes, it’s a Fact: if beer didn’t pay a million dollars a day in taxes, the American taxpayer would have to find an extra million dollars a day to meet the costs of government!” And how about the look on the face of the man representing a typical American taxpayer, with his comically large glasses.

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Beer In Ads #1297: 15 Billion Pounds Of Farm Products!

August 29, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Friday’s ad is yet 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. This one talks about the fact that in the six years since prohibition, brewers used over 15 billion pounds of barley, corn, rice and hops planted on 3 million acres, roughly the same size as New England!

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How’d You Really Get That Drink?

August 29, 2014 By Jay Brooks

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Navigating the maze of state liquor laws is a challenge for anybody, but especially any bar, restaurant or brewery trying to do business in many, if not every, one of the states. A Chicago law firm, the Hays Firm LLC, with a practice area in Restaurant and Bar Services, created an interesting infographic detailing many of the quirky differences of U.S. Liquor License Laws & Facts, particularly their laws on licensing, BYOB and corkage, introduced with the following:

When you wind down at the end of the day or meet up for a social night with friends for a drink, have you thought about how and why you have access to alcohol? Maybe you ordered a beverage at a bar or restaurant, or maybe you picked up a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer before watching a Sunday football game at home.
But, how’d you really get the drink in your hand? There are U.S. regulations that provide or limit public or business access to alcohol. Furthermore, alcohol sales and serving in restaurants, bars, liquor stores, grocery stores, and even patios and events are subject to local or state laws, or consumers or sellers risk losing permission to interact with it, which could result in legal penalties, and even decreased revenues that keep businesses thriving. Many restaurants aim to have alcohol sales account for 30% of their revenue, so not adhering to liquor license and Bring-Your-Own-Beverage (BYOB) laws, could drive customers away and negatively impact profitability.

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Beer In Ads #1296: Thanks For The Job!

August 28, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is yet another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one ran in Life magazine, using a precursor to the “America’s Beverage of Moderation” tagline with “Beer … a Beverage of Moderation.” This one’s about job creation, with a list of over a dozen occupations brought back by prohibition’s repeal. Showing a child meeting his father walking home from work, I love this bit of ad copy: “Happy man, happy boy, happy home.” Works for me.

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Sonoma State To Offer Beer Course

August 28, 2014 By Jay Brooks

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So this is great news, and feels even a little bit overdue, though to be fair I may be a little biased, as you’ll soon see. With craft beer persuading people that good beer is every bit as complex and worthy of respect as wine or whiskey, Sonoma State University, in partnership with Lagunitas Brewing, will be offering a certificate course on beer during their spring semester next year. I can say it should be amazing — with my tongue firmly in my cheek — because they’ve hired the best teachers. My little joke there, is the class will be great because Sonoma State has hired me to develop it and be the lead instructor for the course, although I’ll be bringing in a great roster of guest speakers from the beer industry and related fields to teach students everything they want to know about beer, and then some. At least that’s the plan. And right now, we could use your help in figuring out what potential students are most interested in learning about when it comes to beer and brewing.

We’re developing the curriculum now, and the program is being fueled by Lagunitas Brewing, which is where the majority of classes will be held. On Wednesday evenings, beginning next spring, students will spend three hours in the loft at Lagunitas learning about beer and how it’s made, the business of making and selling beer, along with a better appreciation for it.

Officially, the course will be taught through a partnership between the School of Science & Technology and SSU’s continuing education program, the School of Extended & International Education, along with Lagunitas Brewing, and students will receive a transcripted Certificate of Completion in one semester.

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So what do we need your help with? Simple, we’re trying to figure out what potential students are most interested in learning about when it comes to beer. Do you want to know more about how its made, how to taste it analytically and appreciate it better? Or are you interested in possibly joining the beer industry and so are interested in learning more about the business and what opportunities there might be where you could find your dream job? To figure that out, we’ve created a short survey — just rate 22 possible topics, answer two multiple choice questions, then add any other suggestions you might have, that’s all.

So if you’re not in the industry, simply a beer lover, what subjects would most interest you if you took a class about beer? If you are in the industry, what do you think are the most important things to cover?

Please fill out the survey by Sunday, September 7 to help us identify the key topics that you are most interested in. As a token of our gratitude, Lagunitas Brewing Company has graciously offered to give a special deck of playing cards to survey participants that can be picked up at the brewery in Petaluma. You will be notified by email when your cards are ready for pick-up at Lagunitas. Or you could just take the survey for the fun of it and to help out.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY

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These are what the cards look like that you can pick up at Lagunitas brewery as a thank you for taking the survey.

Beer In Ads #1295: Bill For Taxes

August 27, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Showing a simple bill template, with a lot of negative space for impact, makes the point just a few years after prohibition ended, that beer was providing quite a lot of money into the economy, over one million dollars each day. According to the CPI Inflation Calculator, $1 million in 1939 would be $17,140,287.77 in today’s money.

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Beer In Ads #1294: Why Responsible Brewers Are Adopting This Symbol

August 26, 2014 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. It looks like it most likely was published in a trade magazine of some type rather than a consumer periodical. But I especially love the logo as if it were the sun, coming down from the heavens.

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