Today’s infographic comes from the homebrewing book Beer Craft: A Simple Guide to Making Great Beer, by William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill. Dwell magazine did a profile of the book, including this page with their Field Guide to Hops.
Click here to see the field guide full size.
The American Homebrewers Association announced this morning that the governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, signed into law a bill effectively legalizing homebrewing within the state. Congratulations to all of beer lovers and homebrewers in Mississippi that worked so hard for so long to make this happen, and especially the hoproots organization Raise Your Pints. Forty-nine down, one to go. Now that Mississippi finally allows homebrewing, only Alabama does not permit its citizens to brew beer at home. Check out the full story at the AHA’s press release.
Monday’s ad is for Lowenbrau, which is 1976 was billed as “The world’s most exclusive and expensive beer.” Given the recent debate over the packages and prices of beer, it’s pretty funny to see so pedestrian a beer as this in a Champagne ice bucket with gold foil covering the neck and crown. If that was truly the most expensive beer in 1976, then it really says something about how awful the beer scene must have been at that time. And for that matter, is it really wise to declare that you’re the “most expensive” anything?
Today’s infographic is a timely one, and was released just this morning. The Brewers Association today released the preliminary numbers for beer sales last year. Not surprisingly, the 2012 numbers look great, and continue the trend in recent years of forward momentum for craft beer. The big news is simple. “In a year when the total U.S. beer market grew by one percent, craft brewers saw a 15 percent rise in volume and a 17 percent increase in dollar growth.”
But here’s a bit more, from the press release:
With production at 13,235,917 barrels in 2012, craft brewers reached 6.5 percent volume of the total U.S. beer market, up from 5.7 percent the previous year. Additionally, craft dollar share of the total U.S. beer market reached 10.2 percent in 2012, as retail dollar value from craft brewers was estimated at $10.2 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2011.
Also, the number of breweries continues to rise at an amazing pace. The surprising thing to notice is that the growth is almost entirely in production breweries, which increased 44%!
In 2012, there was an 18 percent increase in the number of U.S. operating breweries, with the total count reaching 2,403. The count includes 409 new brewery openings and only 43 closings. Small breweries created an estimated 4,857 more jobs during the year, employing 108,440 workers, compared to 103,583 the year prior.
And here’s all of that good news, distilled into a colorful infographic.
Today’s infographic is from NerdWallet, and is part of a story on St. Patrick’s Day trends in how people are celebrating this year. In Study: Consumers Can Save $2.6 Billion By Avoiding Pubs and Sticking to House Parties This St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not sure if I’m convinced, although I’ve avoided going out for St. Patrick’s Day for years. Still, some interesting bits of information.
Today’s infographic is a funny one, and comes from the Huntsville Beer Week, which took place in Alabama last October. The local paper created a fun poster for the event, entitled Funky Brewers, which anthropomorphized various styles of beer, giving them unique personalities that corresponded to the character of their flavors. It was created by the staff of the Huntsville Times and illustrated by Bethany Bickley, and the whole process is explained in Brewing up something special for the weekly entertainment tab in Huntsville, Ala. at the website of the American Copy Editors Society. To fully appreciate the humor, not all of which works, you really need to see it full size.
Click here to see the poster full size.
Friday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1941. It’s a two-color ad, using mostly red, but it really makes the beer bottle and glass pop. It looks this might only be part of the ad, it feels like something must be missing, and the proportions don’t look quite right, either, providing more evidence that this is only a piece of the original ad.
While I’m firmly in the “beer came before bread” camp in the anthropological debate about what sparked civilization, evidence has been mounting for that view since it was first proposed over a half-century ago. In a new opinion piece in the New York Times by Jeffrey P. Kahn, the CEO of WorkPsych Associates, entitled How Beer Gave Us Civilization, he lays out the case for why “we needed beer” and runs through an overview of early civilization’s introduction of alcohol and why it was so necessary to our development. He also brings into the debate a recent study from the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, What Was Brewing in the Natufian? An Archaeological Assessment of Brewing Technology in the Epipaleolithic, which adds new support for what I call the “beer first” theory.
He unfortunately ends with the long-discredited Benjamin Franklin beer quote, but apart from that gaffe, it’s a good read. Just stop short of the final two paragraphs, and it’s even better. He should have just finished with this sage observation. “Beer’s place in the development of civilization deserves at least a raising of the glass.” Hear, hear.
Illustration by Anders Nilsson.
For a little Friday frivolity, here’s a commercial for the Argentina beer Cerveza Andes, showing the Teletransporter devices they’ve installed in bars throughout South America. Try to ignore the misogynist overtones, and remember it’s meant to be a joke that plays on unfair stereotypes, which doesn’t mean you can’t find it funny. The idea is that Andes built transporters, like from Star Trek — sort of — to help men sneak out for a beer, without getting caught.
Here’s the description, from the ad agency that created the ads:
Many beer brands speak to men in a shared tone showing to them that they really understand their needs. Yet, up to now, all intentions were expressed by a message without and action plan. Andes, the leader beer in the Andina Region of Argentina, presents: Andes Beer: Teletransporter — a revolutionary invention capable of doing something almost impossible: men can now go to a bar and share an Andes beer with friends without having any problems with their girlfriends. Andes Teletransporter Booths have been installed at the main bars of Mendoza, Argentina. Einstein mentioned that teletransportation was impossible since objects could not conduct faster than light. Einstein was wrong!
But just watch the subtitled ad below.
While currently impossible, apparently we may actually be getting closer to teleportation, believe it or not. According to zdiaz.com :
In December of 1997, Scientists in an Austrian laboratory destroyed bits of light in one place and made perfect replicas appear about 3 feet away. In 2004 Physicists carried out a successful teleportation with particles of light over a distance of 600 meters across the River Danube in Austria. And in 2006 Physicists demonstrate the first successful entanglement of the quantum states of photons (in a laser beam) with the quantum states of physical matter. Sure this is a long way from having breakfast in Paris, lunch in New York and Dinner in Beijing, but we are almost getting there.
It was reported by the BBC in Teleportation goes long distance and in Teleportation breakthrough made and it was also done successfully in Japan, as reported in Quantum leap: bits of light successfully teleported. And then last year, they broke a new distance record when Physicists Quantum Teleport Photons Over 88 Miles. It may be a very long way off, but who knows. Maybe someday we really can say, “beer me up, Scotty.” Here’s an interesting overview of the science behind teleportation, if you’re interested in learning more about it. And here’s another one by Gary Garrison and also one from How Stuff Works?
Today’s Beers of the World infographic is a Tree of Life design “representing 120 Beers from Around the World.” It’s the work of Aristide Lex , an Architectural designer from Boston. It doesn’t appear to be a universal chart so much as an exercise in organization, and an elegant one at that.
Here’s a description of his Beers of the World:
This poster design combines elements of graphic design and information architecture. A collection of 120 beers is organized in a radial array. Like a tree of life, the information branches outward as it narrows in specificity – continents, countries, cities, and brands. Each beer has an icon identifying coast shape, color, and brew style, and a radial bar graph shows brand longevity. Many trends become evident through the heirarchical display. For example, it’s no suprise that longevity is weighted geographically.
Here’s some close-ups of the chart.
And below is a short 3-second video of how the chart is organized.
