Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer Brands Infographic

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Today’s infographic is an interesting one, created by Olivia Vander Tuig at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, during the Spring of this year, in collaboration with Annie-Locke Scherer and Madelyn Willey. The infographic compares the beer brands Pabst Blue Ribbon, Guinness, Miller High Life, and Heineken, and was made as a companion for a travel studio about branding and factory experience called Behind the Brand.

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Click here to see the infographic full size. You can also download a much larger version from dropbox.

Weigh In On The Craft Beer Bubble

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For our 80th Session, our host is Derek Harrison, who writes online at It’s Not Just the Alcohol Talking. His topic for this session asks bloggers to weigh in on the question that pundits and business analysts have been asking and answering frequently in recent months, Is Craft Beer a Bubble?

It’s a good time to be in the craft beer industry. The big brewers are watching their market share get chipped away by the purveyors of well-made lagers and ales. Craft breweries are popping up like weeds.

This growth begs the question: is craft beer a bubble? Many in the industry are starting to wonder when, and more importantly how, the growth is going to stop. Is craft beer going to reach equilibrium and stabilize, or is the bubble just going to keep growing until it bursts?

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So on Friday, October 4, let us know where you stand on the bursting bubble hypothesis. Is the bubble precarious and ready to pop any second or as solid as a glass ball?

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Private-Label, Craft Beers See Sales Growth

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Today’s infographic is a mouthful: Private-Label, Craft Beers See Sales Growth. You probably already know this, by private label beers are beers produced under a generic or unique brand name by a brewery to be sold exclusively at a particular store, or more often chain of stores. The infographic was created by Supermarket News.

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CLick here to see the infographic full size.

Beer In Ads #976: Goodbye 200!

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Friday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from April 1942. It’s a bowling themed ad, a popular sport in beer ads, at least up until the 1960s or 70s. The man bowling didn’t convert a split, sailing the ball between two pins, placing his 200 game in jeopardy, apparently. Luckily using some pretty tortured 33 to 1 logic, he managed to make his 200 game and beat the competition by 20 points.

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21st Amendment’s Rickshaw Run For Reading

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This is a fun one. I just heard from Shaun O’Sullivan at 21st Amendment Brewery that they’re sponsoring a team in the Rickshaw Run, which is a two-week, 2,000 mile journey across Northern India in what can best be described as a glorified lawnmower. O’Sullivan believes that “the sponsorship seed was planted last summer at Boneyard Beer in Bend, Oregon,” when this photo of him was taken.

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21-A co-owner Shaun O’Sullivan encouraging you to finish your beer … for India.

Several months back, a friend of the 21-A (and beer PR consultant) Renée, told Shaun that she was driving a motorized rickshaw across India, and he tells me “I couldn’t stop thinking how cool it would be to have the 21A logo on an Indian rickshaw.” So they decided to sponsor her team in the Rickshaw Run, which they affectionately refer to as the “Gangetic Blunder.” All the money they’re raising — as in 100% of it — goes directly to Room to Read, a San Francisco-based charity that promotes children’s literacy in India. Their team, the Reading Rickshaw, consists of four team members and you can follow their progress on a map, and also on the adventurists, which also has a live map along with a list of all the teams, including Reading Rickshaw (2) — which is Renée and Gabriel — and also Reading Rickshaw (1) — which is Thuy and Vatsal.

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The four intrepid members of team Reading Rickshaw, with 21st Amendment logo.

21st Amendment will be sharing the Reading Rickshaws’ travel updates on twitter and the 21A blog, as these Bay Area adventurers make their way, slowly, through the land of Kingfisher beer. You can follow along using the links above, or better still, donate to the Room to Read.

Beer In Ads #974: There’s Only One Favorite

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Wednesday’s ad is yet another one for Miller High Life, this one from May of 1950. Showing cartoons of American leisure, and the many occasions when a beer might be in order, it’s a stylish, if a little chaotic, ad. I don’t recall High Life labels having “Old Original” on them, just below the word “Beer?” Anybody remember that?

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