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Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Occupy Pubs: A Glass Roots Movement

December 16, 2011 By Jay Brooks

beer-mug
My good friend and colleague, Lisa Morrison — a.k.a. The Beer Goddess — just let me know about her latest project, and just in time for Christmas. She’s created a line of t-shirts, hats, stickers, iPhone cases, and so much more with a humorous nod to the Occupy Wall Street movement to show support for our favorite cause: the good beer movement. In this case, she’s calling it “Occupy Pubs: A Glass Roots Movement.”
occupy-pubs

You can order all manner of things with the Occupy Pubs logo at her Cafe Press page. The basic t-shirt shown below will run you $19.19, with fancier ones a little more. There are also styles for women, children and infants.

occupy-pubs-t
“We are the 5%!”

Filed Under: Beers, Just For Fun, Politics & Law, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Gift Ideas, Humor, Portland

The Artist Behind 21st Amendment’s New Cans

December 16, 2011 By Jay Brooks

21-btter-amer-can
UK-based illustrator Joe Wilson, whose clients include such high-powered companies as Adidas, British Airways, De Beers, GQ, Random House and Wired, designed the new artwork adorning the new 21st Amendment Brewery beer cans. So given his work for Wired, I suppose it’s no surprise that they featured his art on their Underwire Blog in a post entitled Chimp Astronaut Spaces Out in 21st Amendment Brewery’s ‘American Icon’ Artwork.

In an e-mail interview for the post, Wilson talked about the project. Regarding Bitter American. “That was a nice idea to center it around Ham the Astrochimp, who was undoubtedly a bitter American.”

The brewery’s marketing firm, TBD Agency, hired Smith on the strength of a Statue of Liberty illustration he did for Public Finance magazine. “They asked me to create a series of images based around the loose theme ‘American icons,'” Wilson said. “They already had the names of the beers, so this was a case of coming up with American subject matter and giving it a twist.”

21st Amendment wanted to establish a cheeky alternative to its mainstream competitors and that’s precisely what Wilson delivered with his drawings of the space chimp and other American icons. For the history-on-a-can theme, Wilson drew Paul Revere (for a black IPA called Back in Black), Abe Lincoln and his Mount Rushmore companions (Brew Free or Die IPA), the Statue of Liberty (Hell or High Watermelon wheat beer) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Fireside Chat winter spiced ale).

Below are Wilson’s original sketches followed by the finished can label for each beer.

Brew Free or Die IPA

21a-bfod-sk

HoHW_Revise_022211

Hell or High Watermelon

21a-hohw-sk

HoHW_Revise_022211

Bitter American

21a-bitter-american-sk2

21a-bitter-american-sk1

HoHW_Revise_022211

Back in Black

21a-back-in-black-sk

21a-back-in-black

Fireside Chat

21a-fireside-chat-sk

HoHW_Revise_022211

It’s cool to see the changes — look carefully — from rough sketch to finished artwork. You can see more of Joe Wilson’s artwork at his website and at debut art.

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: California, Cans, San Francisco

Mills River, North Carolina On The Short List For New Sierra Nevada Brewery

December 16, 2011 By Jay Brooks

sierra-nevada
After Sierra Nevada Brewing‘s plans to build a brewery in Black Mountain, North Carolina fell through, they set their sites on the nearby town of Mills River as one possible location they’re considering. According to Blue Ridge Now, the Mills River location “is now among a ‘handful’ of possible locations for California-based Sierra Nevada to build a second facility.” (And thanks to Win Bassett for the tip.) Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman was in North Carolina Thursday and was reportedly pleased by the “welcome reception” he received. He told Blue Ridge Now in a telephone interview:

“We like the community; we like the culture in the area and the focus on craft beer, and a vibrant craft (beer) community is certainly an appealing draw,” Grossman said. “The water is good; we’ve been well-received in the area — certainly a welcome reception helps, not that we haven’t been welcomed everywhere we’ve looked.”

“Logistically, it fits,” he said. “We began discussing the project five years ago but put it on the back burner a couple of times as we agonized over the concept of starting from scratch and building a second plant. But it really makes sense for us from an economic standpoint and a carbon footprint standpoint as far as shipping, as our Eastern markets have continued to see double-digit growth for a number of years.”

Apparently Brian Grossman, Ken’s son, would be relocating to run the Eastern Sierra Nevada operations, wherever it turns out to be.

UPDATE: Miles J. sent me a link to a similar story about Sierra nevada’s search foran East Coast location for a brewery that ran in today’s ChicoER.

Filed Under: Breweries, News Tagged With: Business, California, North Carolina

Beer In Ads #499: Caroling Alone With Rheingold

December 15, 2011 By Jay Brooks


Thursday’s holiday ad is another one for Rheingold Extra Dry Lager Beer, from 1952. This time, Miss Rheingold 1952, Anne Hogan, is out singing Christmas carols by herself, which means she has to hold both the lamp and the songbook.

Rheingold-1952-lamp

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, Christmas, History, Holidays

Percy Street’s Beer Can Christmas Tree

December 15, 2011 By Jay Brooks

christmas
Here’s a fun one. These are the kinds of press releases that help me get into the spirit of the holidays. The Percy Street Barbecue, a Philadelphia restaurant specializing in barbecue, also carries “over 60 varieties of canned beer” that they serve in custom galvanized steel buckets. Order 5 cans, and the 6th one is free.

can_tree1

For Christmas this year, they created an 8-foot tree made entirely of beer cans, over 400 in all. It “took General Manager Aric Ferrell and Desiree Howie, a staff member and local artist, over 12 hours to assemble.”

can_tree5

Now that’s the spirit. Who’s thirsty now.
(photos by Drea Rane.)

Filed Under: Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Cans, Christmas, Holidays, Philadelphia

Make Lew Bryson’s Christmas A Happy One!

December 15, 2011 By Jay Brooks

lew-bryson
Okay people, time to step up to the bar. A month ago, a new project was announced on Kickstarter starring my friend and colleague Lew Bryson. The project is being produced by Rudy Vegliante of Green Leaf Productions and the idea is to create a series of six half-hour television shows starring Lew. With 30 days to go, only 6% of the needed funds to make the show a reality have been raised. A mere 65 people have pledged $3,716 of the $60K needed. Frankly, that’s pathetic.

C’mon, beer people. I’ve pledged $300, and would have gone higher if I wasn’t trying to make a rather large purchase at the moment. Surely, there are more than 65 people who have benefitted from Lew Bryson’s reviews, laughter, rantings, writings, speaking engagements, etc. Just his being in the beer community makes it a better place. We’ve all seen what happens when non-beer people try to make a TV show about beer. At best it comes off half-baked, full of misinformation, half-truths and propaganda. At worst, it’s a disaster. I’ve personally been involved in trying to get several such projects off the ground. None have gotten very far. It’s tough. Most people outside our rarified community don’t quite get why we’re so passionate about it, and that shows in the finished products that have been made so far.

So here’s a chance for one of our own to be the voice of craft beer, celebrating it in a way we can probably all agree with. And with guaranteed laughter, guffaws and unbridled chuckles thrown in for good measure. Lew is the right big galoot for this job.

Lew has just over 2,500 twitter followers, I have a little over 4,000. Even assuming for some overlap, that’s got to be around 6,000. If each one of you pledged just $10, Lew would be home for Christmas, with all the funding he needs. It’s the price of about two pints, give or take. Surely that’s not too much to create a one-of-kind television show about craft beer, by craft beer, for craft beer. Think of it as giving back to the beer community that has enriched your life, in the spirit of the holidays. Give Lew Bryson a Malty Christmas and a Hoppy New Year.

You can get all the details from my previous post or, better still, directly from the Kickstarter project page for American Beer Blogger.

Okay, I’m climbing back down off my soapbox. Resume holiday merriment.

lew-me
Me and Lew at Berkeley’s Triple Rock last year.

Filed Under: Editorial, Just For Fun, News, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Blogging, Charity, Pennsylvania, Video

Beer In Ads #498: Caroling With Rheingold

December 14, 2011 By Jay Brooks


Wednesday’s holiday ad is for Rheingold Extra Dry Lager Beer, from 1955. The ad features Miss Rheingold from that year, Nancy Woodruff, out singing Christmas carols with a “friend.”

Rheingold-1955-seasons-greetings

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History

Celebrator Beer News Goes Digital

December 14, 2011 By Jay Brooks

celebrator-long
The magazine that I used to run, as the GM, along with publisher Tom Dalldorf — the Celebrator Beer News — has gone digital. Beginning with the current December 2011/January 2012 issue you’ll be able to read it online or download a pdf to put on your iPad ofr other tablet/smartphone. The online digital version includes every page, along with the ability to bookmark your place and zoom in to get a closer look. You can find a link to it on the Celebrator’s website and from the digital page you’ll see the pdf link to download it. Tom tells me that going forward, each issue will be available both as a print version (found in your favorite watering hole) and a digital version (when your bar has run out). He also plans to start converting back issues to digital editions over the next few months.

CBN-Dec-2011

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries, Just For Fun, News, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Websites

Snacking Between Meals Leads to Alcoholism & Death

December 14, 2011 By Jay Brooks

target-alcohol
Before Prohibition became a reality, the prohibitionists used shameless propaganda to advance their cause, and it became increasingly absurd as time went on. When the temperance movement began in the 1830s, it was primarily against hard liquor, and beer was thought of as a drink of moderation, which by comparison it was. But over time, the movement became more and more intolerant of not just all alcohol, but many other things, such as coffee, pickles, pie, sugar, tea, and even meat. Abstinence itself became a goal. It became entirely fanatical, and in many cases was backed by religious factions and led by preachers. This transition is chronicled nicely in Jessica Warner’s “All or Nothing: A Short History of Abstinence in America.”

So by 1915, when this piece of propaganda was published, the prohibitionists were in the full flower of absurdity. It’s from a temperance program by evangelist Thomas F. Hubbard, published by the Wagoner Printing Company of Galesburg, Illinois. It’s showing how you could destroy the life of your son by being an “indulgent mother,” leading them down the path (or stairs) to “a drunkard’s grave.” So remember; never, ever be nice to your children. Just look what might happen.

gateway

See if you can follow the logic. If you allow your son to have a little food between meals, a.k.a. “a snack,” it will undoubtedly make him ill, causing you to ease his pain by giving him — gasp — medicine and “soothing syrups.” That, in turn, will undoubtedly lead you to let him eat too many pickles and pork (it’s always bacon’s fault) and “Mexicanized Dishes and pepper sauces,” you know … spices! But once he’s got a taste for flavor, he won’t be so easily satisfied anymore. Hot foods and the “other white meat” will, of course, lead your son to an indulgent life of rich pastry and candy, damn the luck. He’ll want to wash down all those sweet confectionaries with “tea, coffee and coca” (sic). And you know that can’t be good. It’s a slippery slope from there. He’ll then want to drink “sodas, pop and ginger ale.” After that, your son will need to relax with a cigarette or other tobacco. What else could he possibly want? He had no choice, really. You can’t really blame him. After soda pop, everyone needs to light up. It’s only natural. And once you begin smoking, you can’t really help but start gambling. It’s inevitable. Once you light up that ciggie, playing cards, throwing dice and picking up a pool cue can’t be far behind. It just can’t be helped. And you know what every gambler on the face of the Earth does, right? You got it: drink “liquor and strong drink.” And he can’t just drink it on occasion, but he keeps on drinking it, never stopping until he reaches “a drunkard’s grave.” And all because you gave him some Goldfish or Cheez-Its between meals. It’s so obvious. One unbroken chain from snacking to death, with no possible way to break the cycle. It’s like walking down the stairs. Gravity takes over and you can’t help but keep taking each successive step until you have one foot in the grave.

It is, of course, completely absurd, but one has to assume prohibitionists really believed it, just as some people today actually believe that one drink makes someone an alcoholic. And while I can’t imagine today’s anti-alcohol groups rising to this level of evangelical disinformation, they are, sad to say, moving in that direction. Alcohol Justice, for example (who insist they’re not neo-prohibitionists), has hardened their position of late and now takes the position that there are no safe levels of moderate drinking. They no longer take issue with whether one drink, or two drinks or however many drinks is appropriate for moderate consumption. They’re now proselytizing that zero is the only number of drinks that will keep you from falling into a life of ruin and becoming a burden on society, costing the teetotalers many millions of dollars. Total abstinence is now the only way to save yourself. That sure sounds like history repeating itself to me. With MADD, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and many others turning toward this position and using increasingly absurdist propaganda, often in the form of “pseudo-scientific studies,” to further their agenda how long can it be before we see this sort of thing in the present. So remember mothers, keep beating your children and never indulge them anything, no matter how much pain they’re in or how much pleasure it might give them. Compassion and love are for sissies. If you want to keep your son out of the drunkard’s grave, you’ll need to crack the whip. After all, it’s for their own good. I’m sure the neo-prohibitionists would approve.

beer-syringe-white
Modern anti-alcohol propaganda: beer leads directly to heroin, or beer is the same as heroin.

Filed Under: Editorial, Politics & Law Tagged With: History, Prohibition, Prohibitionists, Propaganda

Alabama Beer

December 14, 2011 By Jay Brooks

alabama
Today in 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state.

Alabama
State_Alabama

Alabama Breweries

  • Avondale Brewing
  • Back Forty Beer Co.
  • Chattahoochee Brewing
  • Crazy Dane Brewing
  • Blue Pants Brewery
  • Emerald Coast Beer Company
  • Folklore Brewing and Meadery
  • Good People Brewing
  • Old Black Bear Brewing
  • Olde Auburn Ale House
  • Southern Farmhouse Ales
  • Straight to Ale
  • Yellowhammer Brewery

Alabama Brewery Guides

  • Beer Advocate
  • Beer Me
  • Rate Beer

Guild: Alabama Brewers Guild

State Agency: Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

maps-al

  • Capital: Montgomery
  • Largest Cities: Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa
  • Population: 4,447,100; 23rd
  • Area: 52,423 sq.mi., 30th
  • Nickname: Yellowhammer State
  • Statehood: 22nd, December 14, 1819

m-alabama

  • Alcohol Legalized: March 22, 1937
  • Number of Breweries: 6
  • Rank: 43rd
  • Beer Production: 3,459,772
  • Production Rank: 23rd
  • Beer Per Capita: 23 Gallons

alabama

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 35.2%
  • Cans: 61.61%
  • Kegs: 3.6%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $1.05
  • Per Case: $2.37
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $32.65
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $32.65

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $4,057,400
  • Direct Impact: $685,281,037
  • Supplier Impact: $239,545,560
  • Induced Economic Impact: $417,394,346
  • Total Impact: $1,342,220,943

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: No later than 2 a.m. on Sundays in some counties.
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: 13.9% ABV cap on beer

    Beer containers may not exceed 16 ounces (0.47 l)

    ABV > 14.9% wine sold in state stores

    Alcohol may be served 24 hours unless restricted by local ordinances. Twenty-six of Alabama’s 67 counties do not allow the sale of alcohol. However, possession and consumption remains legal within those twenty-six counties. Cities with populations greater than 1000 within dry counties can “go wet” if passed by 50% of voters.

alabama-map

Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries Tagged With: Alabama

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