Friday’s ad is another one for Budweiser, this one from 1969. Showing a stubbie bottle of Budweiser bookended by a pair of actual Clydesdales bookends. My daughter would love those. As to whether “reading” the label makes the beer better and helps you “appreciate” it more, I’m not terribly convinced.
Today’s beer video is a cute little film showing the 10 Biggest Beer Drinking Countries, produced by All Time 10s. I’m not sure where their exact data comes from, but it’s the usual suspects that make the list.
I’m not sure what my fascination with spelunking is, apart from enjoying it as a kid, but the number of brewery caves certainly adds a new dimension of interest. Last year, my post Brewery Caves dipped its toe into the subject, and recently I noticed there’s even more out there about it. For example, the James River Steam Brewery in Richmond, Virginia was built in 1886, right along the bank of the titular James River. The brewery also included a brewery cave and remnants of it can still be seen. The brewery only lasted thirteen years, closing in 1879, falling prey to a post-civil war depression “caused by the railroad credit crisis.” Interestingly, it was “was founded by David G. Yuengling Jr., son of the founder of the D.G. Yuengling and Son Brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.” Earlier this month, the site of the James River Steam Brewery was added to the register of historic places, meaning at some point it may be open to visit or perhaps a museum will be built around it. Drinks Business has more on the story.
Perhaps more interesting is that the British publication Brewery History devoted an entire issue to American brewery architecture. It’s the current issue and you can order a copy from the website. Issue 155 contains five articles spanning lagering caves, preeminent architects and the redevelopment of redundant breweries. To get a flavor for the issue, you can download a pdf of the Introduction by guest editor Susan K. Appel. The other articles include “Stahlmann’s Cellars: a large American lagering cave from the 19th-century,” and “An examination of the Lemp Brewery Cave.” See the Table of Contents for a full list of the articles.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1958. It’s seedy, steamy setting of seduction. A sultry, well-made up, siren lies on a shag carpet, cigarette in hand, its smoke wafting into the air. Using an LP (remember those, kiddies?) for a pillow, she glances up to see a bottle of beer being poured into a glass for her. She’s apparently hallucinating, too, as a jazz band can be seen floating in the air just above the radio/stereo system behind her head. Does that mean she’s had quite enough to drink already, despite being poured another? Frankly, I think she looks a bit too much like Agnes Moorehead from her later years, circa “Endora” from Bewitched.
Today’s beer video is a nice overview of the malting process by which raw barley is turned into brewing malt to make beer. Malting Barley — Malting Process walks you through the malting steps. It was created by the Malt Academy, which is part of the “Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre, a non-profit, independent organization that was set up to provide technical assistance to the malting barley and brewing industries.” If you want to see more or go father in depth, they have even more videos on YouTube.
Here’s an interesting list from Mental Floss concerning something most of us rarely think about. What did the few American breweries that managed to keep the doors open during prohibition do? Some of the products they continued to make included.
But check out Mental Floss’ How Breweries Kept Busy During Prohibition for a fuller explanation.
This looks like a fun project. Photographer Nick Gingold is creating a portrait of California brewers, a coffee table book, that’s entitled California BrewMasters. He’s photographed at least 45 California brewers and each profile will include an interview.
The book is expected to be published in June of this year, and the brewers featured are a veritable who’s who of California’s beer scene.
I first met Nick at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival last summer, when he was showing off some of the great photographs that will be in the finished book. He’s been working on the book for over two years. To complete the book, he’s turned to Kickstarter to raise the remaining funds to get it printed. Pre-order it through Kickstarter, and you’ll both get it for less than retail plus be one of the first to have it shipped directly to your home. There’s also additional levels at Kickstarter, with more schwag including bottle openers, growlers, t-shirts, a poster and even signed copies of the book.
Here’s how the book is described at the Kickstarter page:
California BrewMasters is a collection of interviews and photographic portraits of some of California’s best brewers. I’ve traveled to over 45 breweries around every corner of the state talking to the men and women responsible for the golden state’s most delicious brews. I’m launching this Kickstarter to create a beautiful, 200 page, 10″x10″ hard cover coffee table book to share this project with the world. We plan to have it ready for distribution by June.
As a photographer and craft beer fan, I wanted to create a project that hadn’t been done before. I noticed that while a lot of books were written about the beer itself, or as a guide book to which breweries to visit, no one had really been paying attention to the men and women responsible for all this delicious beer we have. What’s going on in the mind of Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman’s? How does Mitch Steele from Stone brew such delicious IPAs? Why not talk to them and find out, and better yet bring their faces out of the brewery and onto the page in, so you can really get a connection to the guy spending countless hours bringing you a fresh, delicious, well crafted product to sip on?
So a little over two years ago I set out to do just that, and today we have the project you see before you. I photographed these brewers in their natural environments, in the brewery and in the communities in which they work and live. We would then interviewed them, having an open conversation about their history, their philosophy to brewing, what they look for in a good beer, their thoughts on the current state of the craft beer industry, you name it – we tried to ask it. These interviews will be transcribed and edited to go hand in hand with each portrait.
And finally, here’s a few examples from the book, to give you a flavor of the portraits:
Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing.
Ben Cook of Hangar 24 Brewing
Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing
Ignacio “Nacho” Cervantes from Pizza Port Carlsbad
The 2014 semifinalist nominations for the James Beard Awards were announced yesterday, and the good news is there are quite a few beer professionals among the nominees for “Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional.” If you’re not familiar with the prestigious food awards, here’s how the James Beard Foundation describe their annual awards. “Covering all aspects of the industry — from chefs and restaurateurs to cookbook authors and food journalists to restaurant designers and architects and more — the Beard Awards are the highest honor for food and beverage professionals working in North America.” Until very recently, the awards were almost exclusively food and wine-centric, but more recently “beverage professionals” has slowly been expanding to include craft beer and spirits, too. It’s been nice to see the prejudice against beer in the food, cooking and restaurant world finally beginning to slide away. Too slowly, perhaps, but still … it’s about time and nice to see.
The list released yesterday is the semifinalists. On March 19, a smaller list of finalists will be announced from among the semifinalists and the award winners will be announced over two days in early May. In the category “Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional,” seven of the twenty semifinalists work in the beer world. Hopefully, they’ll all make the cut next month.
Congratulations to all the semifinalists. It’s a great list, all deserving, though I’m especially pleased to see Tom Peters, who I just traveled to Belgium with last week, along with Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield, who I had dinner with in Ghent last week, make the list.
Wednesday’s ad is another one for Rheingold Beer, again from 1958, featuring Miss Rheingold from that year, Madelyn Darrow. In this one she decked out in a Western outfit, just arriving somewhere after a long journey by stagecoach. At least there are a couple of cases of beer on the roof, though they’ll probably need to be cooled down for a while after a long ride through the west.
Today’s beer video is a fun little PSA created by Dogfish Head. It’s called Now that’s a lot of hops! and stars Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione and actor Ken Marino showing why you shouldn’t drink and drive.