Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Sweden Forbids Lust

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sweden
I tend to think that the U.S. has a lock on the provincial, puritanical thinking that forbids so many odd features of everyday life, often anything to do with sex, while at the same time allowing violence with nary a sideways glance. I’ve never understood that, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, apparently Sweden is similarly off the deep end on sex, something I would never have expected. A Danish brewer, Amager Bryghus, created a series of seven beers based on the seven deadly sins, with a different beer, and label, for each. They call them the Sinners Series.

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Take a look at the seven labels below and see if you can guess which one Sweden decided had to be censored?

If you answered Lust, you’re correct. Here’s what the label looks like outside of Sweden.

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And here’s what it looks like inside Sweden.

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According to The Local, an English-language news website covering Sweden, the problem was that “Danish beer bottles ‘too sexy’ for Sweden.” Like some U.S. states and Canadian provinces, Sweden has government-run liquor stores, and they make the decisions as to what’s acceptable.

Sweden’s state-run liquor retailer has decided that the picture on the Lust bottle, which contains a sweet Belgian ale with a 9.2 percent alcohol content, doesn’t abide by Sweden’s alcohol etiquette.

“We can’t accept the label, it’s against Sweden’s alcohol laws,” Systembolaget spokesman Lennart Agén told The Local.

“It’s quite a sexual label.”

As a result, Systembolaget has told the brewers to remove or edit the picture if the beer is to be sold in Sweden. The brewers responded by simply blacking out the entire label so neither the woman nor the bath is visible at all.

But it wasn’t an easy process, according to the brewers.

“We had to go through ten attempts before they’d accept it,” Henrik Papsø, head of communications at the brewery, told The Local.

Still, it seems awfully weird that a cartoon woman that’s only suggestive at best tripped up the censors. And I though we were prudes.

Amager-lust

Beer Style Chart: Beer Styles Compared

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Today’s infographic is an amazing chart of beer styles, but not a static one. The view below is simply the starting point of the Beer Style Chart, from there you can manipulate it and compare styles in a myriad of different ways. This great resource was created by the folks from Strange Brew, a Canadian software company that makes a homebrewing program. There’s also a generated chart that shows difference in the styles.

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Click here to go to the interactive page.

Beer In Ads #866: Satisfying Good Taste

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Tuesday’s ad is for Blatz beer, from 1944. Trying to stay classy, the show their rather plain-looking beer bottle on a silver tray with a bouquet of flowers behind it. I”m not sure it works. According to the ad copy, Blatz is “Never sharp … never bitter … always mellow.”

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Olympia Beer Offers Million Dollar Prize For Finding Bigfoot

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In what has to be one of the most unusual marketing efforts by a large brewer, Olympia Beer has offered to pay $1 million dollars — in increments of $25,000 a year for the next four decades — to anyone who can find conclusive evidence of a live Bigfoot. The contest is the brainchild of Evan and Daren Metropoulos, who recently bought Pabst Brewing Co., which also owns the Olympia brand.

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Full details and rules can be found at OlympiaBigfoot.com, but here’s their “Mission Statement” for finding Bigfoot:

Olympia Beer and Bigfoot have been leaving footprints together in the Pacific Northwest since 1896.

We have been sharing the same backyard for over a century and we believe it’s time to do what has never been done, and that is to offer a one million dollar reward to anyone who can ensure the safe capture of Bigfoot. When we say safe capture that means Bigfoot has to be alive and breathing folks, with no wounds. That’s right you can’t use any act of violence, no guns/knives/boxing gloves/nets/etc, only sugar or sweets to lure him in.

You must register to participate in the search. To report your discovery of irrefutable evidence of the existence of Bigfoot, click on the “Submit Capture Report” link on the left and follow the instructions to report your evidence. You participation in the search is subject to the complete Official Rules.

To aid us in this adventure, Olympia Beer is partnering with The Falcon Project

The Falcon Project has been identified as “the most penetrative search for Bigfoot ever conducted in the United States.” They will conduct an aerial search for Sasquatch employing an unmanned airship with high definition thermal imaging camera equipment.

Sure, it’s a publicity stunt, but it’s a funny one. And what if someone actually does it? Apparently 14% of all Americans believe Sasquatch to be real, while another 14% say they’re not sure.

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Winners must provide “irrefutable evidence” of Bigfoot’s existence and, according to the rules, may include “DNA Evidence.” From the rules:

“Bigfoot” refers to a previously undiscovered species of upright, bipedal hominid, native to North America existing contemporaneously with the Contest Period or the twenty-five (25) year period immediately prior to the Contest Period. There is no set type or amount of evidence required to establish proof for purposes of this Contest other than that all evidence presented must satisfy the Judging Panel. Evidence may include, but is not limited to DNA Evidence. DNA Evidence may include hair, blood, tissue or saliva that proves the DNA sequence of the donor shows that said donor resides in the primate evolutionary family tree, among other apes or hominids, but does not have the same genetic markers and DNA sequence as any known species. Evidence may also include “Visual Proof” of a live physical body. Physical remains may be considered as evidence provided that it can be conclusively demonstrated that the date of death pre-dated the Contest Period. Visual Proof shall not include footprints, bone fragments, inconclusive skeletal remains, or any other non-definitive evidence of the existence of Bigfoot. Any photo or video taken with photographic or video equipment is not sufficient to qualify as evidence in and of itself for consideration in the Contest, but may be considered as supporting evidence.
NO HARM SHOULD BE DONE TO BIGFOOT OR ANY LIVING CREATURE AS A RESULT OF PARTICIPATION IN THIS CONTEST. ANY EVIDENCE OF SUCH ACTIVITY SHALL LEAD TO DISQUALIFICATION FROM THE CONTEST AND NOTIFICATION TO THE PROPER LEGAL AUTHORITIES.

Why Success Is Killing the Craft Brew Industry

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This ran in The Street a couple of weeks ago, and I meant to post it before but it kept getting pushed down in the queue. Portland writer Jason Notte does an interesting job dissecting the industry and the recent kerfuffles over taxes in Why Success Is Killing the Craft Brew Industry. If you follow the business side of the beer industry, it’s worth a read.

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Beer In Ads #865: Traditionally The Finest

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Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from either the late 1950s or early sixties. It’s during the phase when all of Miller’s ads showed this Spartan, minimalist decor, like sets built by kids using Dad’s barn. Despite the weird looking South Pacific artwork, apparently it actually came from Carlebach Gallery in New York. But my favorite part of the ad is their characterization of California. “In colorful California … a land noted for its charm and gracious hospitality….” This is also one of the few ads I can remember seeing a half empty beer bottle; almost always it’s either full or empty.

Miller-kabobs

Pete’s Beer Style Spectrum

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Today’s infographic is the third of three similar charts that Pete Slosberg created for Pete’s Wicked Ales. It shows popular beer styles (remember this was the late 80s) and where they fell on an x/y axis spectrum. It was one of the first great educational tools for explaining the variation in different beers, something that most people didn’t know anything about back then. This one I recall being on a pad, so you could just tear off copies of it.

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Click here to see the chart full size.

Getting Down To Business For The Next Session

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For our 75th Session, our host is Chuck Lenatti, who writes Allbrews. His topic is about the business of beer, how to get a new brewery up and running or keep one going. It’s the part of the process that many would-be brewers aren’t experts at, and often trip themselves up at various points along the way from concept to being a going concern. So here’s his invitation to The Session for May 2013 and his topic, The Business of Brewing:

Like sandlot baseball players or schoolyard basketball junkies, many amateur brewers, including some beer-brewing bloggers, harbor a secret dream: They aspire to some day “go pro.” They compare their beer with commercial brews poured in their local pubs and convince themselves that they’ve got the brewing chops it takes to play in the Bigs. Some of them even make it, fueling the dream that flutters in the hearts of many other home brewers yearning to see their beer bottles on the shelves at City Beer or their kegs poured from the taps at Toronado.

Creating a commercial brewery consists of much more than making great beer, of course. It requires meticulous planning, careful study and a whole different set of skills from brewing beer. And even then, the best plan can still be torpedoed by unexpected obstacles. Making beer is the easy part, building a successful business is hard.

In this Session, I’d like to invite comments and observations from bloggers and others who have first-hand knowledge of the complexities and pitfalls of starting a commercial brewery. What were the prescient decisions that saved the day or the errors of omission or commission that caused an otherwise promising enterprise to careen tragically off the rails?

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So on Friday, May 3, think about all of the breweries you’ve witnessed open, the ones that have succeeded and the ones that have come and gone. What was the difference? Which ones made it, and why do you think that is? What exactly makes a brewery successful, apart, of course, from making good beer.

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Some beer businesses have worked out better than others.
(Time magazine, July 11, 1955)