Tuesday’s ad is another one for Rheingold Beer, this one from 1957, featuring Miss Rheingold for that year, Margie McNally. In this ad, she’s riding a horse out west on what looks like a cattle drive perhaps. But at least she’s got her spare horse carrying a couple cases of beer. Sure, they’re going to be warm, but maybe she can find an ice machine or cool cave.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1945. It’s a surreal ad, with a little magic role reversal. Instead of the magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat, a giant bunny, wearing a tuxedo, has pulled the magician out of his top hat, though at least he has a bottle of Schlitz in his hand, too. I imagine the magician is thinking he’s probably had quite enough to drink if he’s seeing scary giant rabbits.
I got an e-mail today from someone at Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper, letting me know about a quiz created by their beer columnist Marc Bona. It’s a fun one, asking you to identify 31 labels from budget, or cheap, beer brands. It shows each label or can, with the name removed, and then you have to choose from a long list of possible answers. I got 94% right (which I believe translates to 2 wrong) and, be warned, there are some regional brands that may not be as recognizable to a national audience. You can take the Budget (OK, Cheap) Beer Label Quiz and it will tell you the percentage you got right, but you’ll have to wait until August 1 to find out all the answers. How many did you get right?
Here’s some terrific news that I can finally talk about. I was there when discussions began during last year’s Great American Beer Festival. At the annual Samuel Adams media brunch — where the Longshot winners are announced — Jim Koch started talking with Jack McAuliffe, founder of the New Albion Brewery in 1977, America’s first modern microbrewery. A idea was hatched, and I was sworn to secrecy. But thanks to my friend John Holl, the cat is out of the bag. He’s got the full story at All About Beer, entitled The Return of New Albion: America’s First Craft Brewery Gets a Revival.
After talking and negotiating since last year, on July 3, Jack McAuliffe and Jim Koch mashed in the first New Albion beer Jack has made in many years. They’re making his pale ale, or at least as best Jack can recall it.
First, he had to hash out details with Koch and brewer Dean Gianocostas. The memories came mostly easy to McAuliffe who recalled temperatures, ingredients, and processes. While the brewers had sketched out a plan in advanced, but much was changed.
“We should do it Jack’s way,” said Koch with wide eyes as he listened to McAuliffe recall the recipe.What they settled on was New Albion Ale, a pale ale “as faithfully” as McAuliffe could recall. Malt variations that replaced strains used in the 1970s were substituted, for example.
Jack McAuliffe and Jim Koch at the Boston brewery in Jamaica Plain.
The beer itself will debut at this year’s GABF. “Then, additional batches of New Albion Ale will be brewed at” one of the Sam Adams breweries and “distributed nationwide in 12-ounce 6-packs starting in January 2013. This is designed to be a one-shot deal so when it’s gone, it’s gone.” That will definitely be one to pick up.
It appears the new label will be very similar to the original.
Today in 1980, Vanuatu gained their Independence from France and the United Kingdom.
Vanuatu
Vanuatu Breweries
Vanuatu Brewery Guides
Other Guides
Guild: None Known
National Regulatory Agency: None
Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known
Drunk Driving Laws: BAC % Not KNown
Alcohol Consumption By Type:
Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):
WHO Alcohol Data:
Patterns of Drinking Score: N/A
Prohibition: None
Okay, these things are pretty easy to pick apart because no one will ever agree on where the “best” or “top” destinations are for anything, beer or otherwise. I understand that top x lists are very popular. Hell, I enjoy making them myself. They can be fun. But take a look at what the Travel Channel, written by NYC-based travel writer Jimmy Im, has chosen as the Top 7 Beer Destinations.
So while I’m sure none of the places he’s listed are bad beer destinations, and certainly a few of them deserve to be on this list, I have a hard time accepting these as the very top destinations. The list strikes me as being from someone who’s not really connected to the beer community in any meaningful way. If they had only resisted calling them the top beer destinations and called them instead something like “seven beer destinations worth visiting” that might have worked, but they didn’t. Im specifically states that “these destinations that are fast becoming beer scene kings that offer some of the best suds in town.”
So while I have no problem with Asheville being here, ignoring Philly, Portland (both Oregon and Maine), San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Boston, Chicago and several others makes this list more infamous for what it’s left out than what was chosen. Certainly L.A. is an up and coming beer city, and has made great strides over the last few years, but I’m not sure I’d put it as the second-best beer destination, especially over so many others left out. And he singles out the Strand Brewing Co. and El Segundo Brewing Company as “two of the more popular breweries.” No disrespect to those two breweries — I haven’t been to either of them but I’m sure they’re fine places — but those are not the L.A breweries that are making a splash lately.
Third is the entire state of Virginia, and Im seems to have chosen the Old Dominion State because it’s “so obsessed with its beer culture, it is officially naming the month of August ‘Virginia Craft Brew Month'” and now has 40 breweries. Well July is Oregon Beer Month and February is California Beer Month. Oregon has over 160 breweries and California around 325. So while Virginia is a terrific state and undoubtedly has some fine breweries, if obsession, state beer months and the number of breweries is his criteria, then I’m just not sure Virginia is the right one to choose.
The remaning four, Toronto, the New York Finger Lakes, Atlanta and Traverse City, Michigan, again I’m sure are all fine beer places, but do they deserve to be among the “top 7?” By choosing Toronto, he’s also opened the door to other international beer destinations, of which there are numerous examples, many of which most people would choose over some of the destinations on the Travel Channel’s list. With the last one, Traverse City, Im seems even to have forgotten his own mandate, when he refers to the Michigan town as an “emerging beer town.” It may well be, but shouldn’t we wait until it’s emerged before putting it on the list of the top spots?
So while these things are, as I alluded to, very subjective and depend greatly on how you define the criteria used to rank them, these choices wouldn’t pass muster for even a casual beer lover. It could have been a fun list if they’d only resisted the temptation to declare them the “Top 7 Beer Destinations.” They’re just not.
Today in 1821, Peru gained their Independence from Spain.
Peru
Peru Breweries
Peru Brewery Guides
Other Guides
Guilds: Cerveceros Latinoamericanos; Asociacion Latinoamericana
National Regulatory Agency: General Environmental Health Bureau (DIGESA)
Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Labels must include the following information: Name of the product; Name and address of manufacturer; Importer’s name, address, and phone number, if applicable; Sanitary registration information or number; Net weight or volume of the content; Date marking of viable duration; Special instructions for use or storage, if any; Country of origin
Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.05% Note: Drivers below a 0.05% BAC will be given a warning. At a 0.05% and over, the driver will be given a fine and a license suspension of no less than 6 months and no more than 2 years. If the driver is involved in an accident without causing death or severe injury to another individual, he or she may possibly face jail time. If the driver’s causes an accident with a BAC over 1.01%, involving death or severe injury to another party, he or she will receive a mandatory prison sentence of 3 to 5 years. The driver’s license will also be permanently revoked.
Alcohol Consumption By Type:
Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):
WHO Alcohol Data:
Patterns of Drinking Score: 3
Prohibition: None
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1946. It’s a beautiful illustration showing a colorful sunset as a young boy — looking every bit like Huck Finn — is returning from a day of fishing, with a large fish in one hand and a rudimentary handmade fishing pole in the other. Behind him, two adults sporting more sophisticated fishing equipment look on bewildered, presumably because their fishing hasn’t been as successful. The text begins. “You fish in vain for words to describe your first big catch.” Okay. It seems an odd way to sell beer, but okay. But I love the tagline at the bottom. “Every sip tells you what words can’t — why Budweiser is something more than beer … a tradition.” Essentially, they’re saying tradition is more than beer. That’s another tortured slogan that doesn’t really seem to make a lot of sense.
Thursday’s ad is another one for Rheingold Beer, this one from 1948, featuring Miss Rheingold for that year, Pat Quinlan. In this ad, she’s in a firehouse, posing by a fire truck with a dalmatian standing on it. She’s wearing a tan (or is that yellow?) outfit trimmed with a cheetah pattern, and also has a cheetah muffler and hat. Were they trying to tie the spots of the dog and the outfit together? Or is she a modern day Cruella DeVille?
Today in 1965, the Maldives gained their Independence from the United Kingdom.
Maldives
Maldives Breweries
Maldives Brewery Guides
Other Guides
Guild: None Known
National Regulatory Agency: None
Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known
Drunk Driving Laws: Total Ban
Alcohol Consumption By Type:
Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):
WHO Alcohol Data:
Patterns of Drinking Score: N/A
Prohibition: The Maldives ban the import of alcohol, x-raying all baggage on arrival. Alcoholic beverages are available only to foreign tourists on resort islands and may not be taken off the resort.
