Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Top 50 Craft Breweries For 2012

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ba
The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2012, which is listed below here. For the sixth year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. Here is the new craft brewery list:

  1. Boston Beer Co.; Boston MA
  2. Sierra Nevada Brewing; Chico CA
  3. New Belgium Brewing; Fort Collins CO
  4. Gambrinus Company; San Antonio TX
  5. Deschutes Brewery; Bend OR
  6. Lagunitas Brewing; Petaluma CA
  7. Bell’s Brewery; Galesburg MI
  8. Matt Brewing; Utica NY
  9. Harpoon Brewery; Boston, MA
  10. Stone Brewing; Escondido CA
  11. Brooklyn Brewery; Brooklyn NY
  12. Boulevard Brewing; Kansas City MO
  13. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery; Milton DE
  14. Abita Brewing; New Orleans LA
  15. Shipyard Brewing; Portland ME
  16. Alaskan Brewing; Juneau AK
  17. New Glarus Brewing; New Glarus WI
  18. Long Trail Brewing; Bridgewater Corners VT
  19. Great Lakes Brewing; Cleveland OH
  20. Firestone Walker Brewing; Paso Robles CA
  21. Anchor Brewing; San Francisco CA
  22. Rogue Ales/Oregon Brewing; Newport OR
  23. Summit Brewing; Saint Paul MN
  24. Full Sail Brewing; Hood River OR
  25. Sweetwater Brewing; Atlanta GA
  26. Victory Brewing; Downingtown PA
  27. Oskar Blues Brewery; Longmont CO
  28. Cold Spring Brewing/Third Street Brewhouse; Cold Spring MN
  29. Flying Dog Brewery; Frederick MD
  30. Founders Brewing; Grand Rapids MI
  31. Ninkasi Brewing; Eugene, OR
  32. CraftWorks Breweries & Restaurants (Gordon Biersch/Rock Bottom); Chattanooga TN/Louisville KY
  33. Odell Brewing; Fort Collins CO
  34. Bear Republic Brewing; Cloverdale CA
  35. Stevens Point Brewing; Stevens Point WI
  36. Blue Point Brewing; Patchogue NY
  37. Southern Tier Brewing; Lakewood NY
  38. Lost Coast Brewery; Eureka CA
  39. Karl Strauss Breweries; San Diego CA
  40. BJs Chicago Pizza & Brewery; Huntington Beach CA
  41. Breckenridge Brewery; Denver CO
  42. North Coast Brewing; Fort Bragg CA
  43. Left Hand Brewing; Longmont CO
  44. St. Louis Brewery, Inc./Schlafly Beers; St Louis MO
  45. Saint Arnold Brewing; Houston TX
  46. Ballast Point Brewing; San Diego CA
  47. Big Sky Brewing; Missoula MT
  48. Allagash Brewing; Portland ME
  49. Uinta; Salt Lake City UT
  50. Tröegs Brewing; Hershey PA

Five breweries are new to this year’s Top 50 Craft Breweries list; Cold Spring Brewing/Third Street Brewhouse, Southern Tier Brewing, Ballast Point Brewing, Allagash and Tröegs Brewing. Here is this year’s press release.

I’ll have my annual annotated list shortly.

Beer In Ads #841: What Made Milwaukee Change To Blatz?

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Tuesday’s ad is for Blatz, from 1953. Apparently Milwaukee in olden days had Sousaphone players wearing Lederhosen serenading restaurant diners but nowadays, thanks to Blatz, it’s a violinist. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I actually love a good oompah band. I also have to wonder. How did they fill two pilsner glasses with only one bottle of beer?

Blatz-1953

Pete’s Landscape of Beers

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petes
Today’s infographic is the second of three similar charts that Pete Slosberg created for Pete’s Wicked Ales. It also shows popular beer styles (remember this was the late 80s) and where they fell on an x/y axis spectrum, and also includes color along one additional axis. 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.

Petes-beer-landscape
Click here to see the chart full size.

Beer In Ads #840: The Goodness Of Malt

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Monday’s ad is for the Barley and Malt Institute, from 1959. It appears that the now-defunct trade group for barley growers ran these ads for just a couple of years and that was it. Perhaps they decided they weren’t worth it or they didn’t get anything out of them, but they certainly were some great ads, at least in my humble opinion.

goodness-of-malt-1959

The First State Microbe?

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yeast-cell
Nice, the Oregonian is reporting that a bill has been introduced in the state legislature to declare Saccharomyces cerevisiae — a.k.a. brewer’s yeast or ale yeast — the state microbe. If successful, it would be the first time a state has had a state microbe. I sincerely hope it happens. I think that would be pretty fun.

Saccharomyces-cerevisiae
Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Frankly, I think California should declare Brettanomyces to be our state microbe, though we may get some push back from the wineries.

Brett
Brettanomyces.

UPDATE: Oregon may not be first after all, and Delaware may not just be the First State, but also the first one with a state microbe. According to a story from late 2011 in the University of Delaware’s UDaily:

Delaware is the first state to have its own yeast. Gov. Jack Markell signed a proclamation giving a yeast named Kloeckera (apiculata) (strain KA 1) this designation, which is an honorary title because the state legislature is not currently in session to vote on the matter.

Belgian Beer Pantone

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color
Today’s infographic shows the Belgian Beer Pantone, that is the color range of Belgian beers. It was created by Belgique, a small chain of British cafes selling Belgian food and beverages, and they also have an online store selling Belgian beer, among other Belgian products.

Belgian-beer-pantone
Click here to see the poster full size.

Seven Dead In Grupo Modelo Accident

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grupo-modelo
In what is the worst brewery accident I can recall hearing about, seven men died while cleaning out a tank in “a confined area” at the Grupo Modelo brewery in Mexico City. Bloomberg is reporting that the seven men died “due to unspecified toxins.”

modelo-brewery

Pete’s Spectrum Of Beers

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petes
Today’s infographic is one of three similar charts that Pete Slosberg created for Pete’s Wicked Ales. It shows popular beer styles (remember this was the later 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.

PetesSpectrum_web
Click here to see the chart full size.

Pabst’s Blue Ribbon Competition

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blue-ribbon
Mental Floss had an interesting story about how Pabst Brewing Co. got the blue ribbon that graces every bottle and can of their beer. In How Did Pabst Blue Ribbon Win its Blue Ribbon? author Matt Soniak details the events at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago that led to Pabst claiming total victory and justifying that blue ribbon in the years that followed.

pabst

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2013

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bistro
For the third straight year I missed the Bistro IPA Festival, even with them moving it from its usual August date to today. Happily, owner Vic Kralj was again kind enough to send me the list of the winners. Carlsbad Raceway IPA, from Pizza Port in Carlsbad, near San Diego, was chosen best in show at the 16th annual IPA Festival today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full list of winners is below.