Just in time for the World Beer Cup this May, the Brewers Association today released their annual style guidelines for judging. According to the press release, this year’s guidelines include 140 separate categories, including one new one: “Indigenous Beer Category.” Curiously, the World Beer Cup website lists 95 on their 2012 Beer Styles Menu and the descriptions, too. You can download a pdf of the guidelines here.
New Sour Beer Brewery In Bay Area Announced
Yesterday I received the word that there’s a new brewery opening soon in the Bay Area. It’s called The Rare Barrel and they’ll be a gypsy brewery specializing in sour beers. By gypsy, they mean to brew at area breweries and then ferment, age, package and serve their beers at their own facility, with that location still to be determined. One of the founders, Jay Goodwin, used to be the Head of Barrel Aging at The Bruery, so he knows his way around a barrel room.
From the press release:
Northern California is rich in brewing tradition and is home to some of the best breweries in the world. Hoping to add to this proud history, we are pleased to announce that we will be launching an all-sour, all-barrel aged “gypsy” brewery in the San Francisco Bay Area named The Rare Barrel.
What do we mean by “gypsy” brewery? We plan to partner with the great breweries of the Bay Area for our brewing needs, and we will be building our own barrel warehouse for fermentation, packaging and serving our beers to the public.
Our team is made up of people committed to producing the highest quality sour beer. Co-founders Jay Goodwin, former Brewer and Head of Barrel Aging at The Bruery in Orange County, Alex Wallash, homebrewer and Sales Representative in biotechnology, and Brad Goodwin, entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry, make up our crew of passionate craft beer lovers.
We hope to release more details of our plan over the next few months. We look forward to producing beer with experimental methods, a singular focus on quality sours, and a commitment to the craft beer community.
No word yet on when we’ll see, or more importantly taste, the first beers, but you can follow their progress on The Rare Barrel Blog or on the website.
In the meantime, here’s how the describe the idea for The Rare Barrel:
As Head of Barrel Aging at The Bruery, Jay started focusing on inoculation and management of the sour barrels. The brewers would send him wort and he had a whole warehouse full of barrels to play with. The idea was born there. Why not team up with breweries here at home in the Bay Area and start entire sour-only barrel warehouse to Northern California?
Since sour beers will take over 1 year to mature (a long time!), they are brewed less frequently due to limited fermentation space. Jay quickly realized that if they built their own brew house, it would collect probably a good amount of dust. Therefore, they decided to partner with host breweries in the Bay Area to produce our wort. While a host brewery will produce their wort, The Rare Barrel will manage fermentation, blending, packaging, and distribution. This model ultimately allows The Rare Barrel to maximize barrel aging capacity while supporting local craft breweries. It’s a win-win situation!
Beer In Ads #537: Bud’s Label Conscious
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from not too long ago: 1987. And while I don’t normally feature the overtly sexist ads, this one is too classic to ignore. This, and variations on it, were nearly ubiquitous in the late 1980s. I recall seeing them everywhere. I still think it’s a fairly clever ad, even with the titillation. One thing that sticks out now, just 25 years later, is what they’re listenging to and reading. If the ad was done today, they’d be using an iPod and reading on a Kindle or iPad.
Grenada Beer
Today in 1974, Grenada gained their Independence from the United Kingdom.
Grenada
Grenada Breweries
- Carib Brewery
- Grenada Breweries Ltd. [parent company]
Grenada Brewery Guides
Other Guides
- CIA World Factbook
- Official Website
- U.S. Embassy
- Wikipedia
Guild: None Known
National Regulatory Agency: None
Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known
Drunk Driving Laws: BAC N/A
- Full Name: Grenada
- Location: Caribbean
- Government Type: Parliamentary democracy and a Commonwealth realm
- Currency: East Caribbean Dollars
- Language: English (official), French patois
- Religion(s): Roman Catholic 53%, Anglican 13.8%, other Protestant 33.2%
- Capital: Saint George’s
- Population: 108,419; 189th
- Area: 344 sq km, 206th
- Comparative Area: Twice the size of Washington, DC
- National Food: Oil Down
- National Symbol: Nutmeg
- Nickname: The Spice Isle or The Isle of Spice
- Affiliations: UN, Commonwealth, OAS
- Independence: From the UK, February 7, 1974
- Alcohol Legal: Yes
- Minimum Drinking Age: 18
- BAC: N/A
- Label Requirements: N/A
- Number of Breweries: 1
- How to Say “Beer”: bière
- How to Order a Beer: N/A
- How to Say “Cheers”: N/A
- Toasting Etiquette: N/A
Alcohol Consumption By Type:
- Beer: 29%
- Wine: 4%
- Spirits: 66%
- Other: <1%
Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):
- Recorded: 9.85
- Unrecorded: 0.50
- Total: 10.35
- Beer: 3.16
WHO Alcohol Data:
- Per Capita Consumption: 9.9 litres
- Alcohol Consumption Trend: Stable
- Excise Taxes: N/A
- Minimum Age: 18
- Sales Restrictions: N/A
- Advertising Restrictions: N/A
- Sponsorship/Promotional Restrictions: N/A
Patterns of Drinking Score: 3
Prohibition: None.
Brewmaster Mark Carpenter Celebrates 40 Years at Anchor
Last year, Brewmaster Mark Carpenter celebrated his 40th anniversary with Anchor Brewery. According to my notes, he started on September 30, 1971. During GABF, a film crew interviewed a number of us during some side events, and they put together this video that includes some luminaries from the craft beer industry. Congratulations Mark.
Beer In Ads #536: Grande Brasserie D’Arcueil
Monday’s ad is still one more by Eugene Oge, a French illustrator who did a number of great beer adverts during his lifetime from 1861-1936. He was a major figure in the Belle Epoque and did many outstanding ads for resorts, food, and all sorts of beverages and brands. This is the fifth of his I’ve featured, and it’s for a presumably French beer brand, Grande Brasserie D’Arcueil. On a particularly hot day, the server appears to be licking the beer foam on the side of the glass as he delivers a giant mug of beer.
MillerCoors’ Tenth & Blake Buys Crispin Cider
Amid recent rumors, the Tenth and Blake Beer Company, the craft-and-import division MillerCoors created last year, announced today that they’re purchasing Crispin Cider, which includes both the Crispin and Fox Barrel hard cider brands.
From the press release:
Minneapolis-based Crispin sold its first cases on St. Crispin’s Day, October 25, 2008. The company grew approximately 200 percent in 2011, outpacing the overall cider category’s 26 percent growth during the same period, and is already the No. 3 producer of cider in the U.S.
“Our vision is to accelerate our portfolio expansion within the world’s most exciting beer market. With cider’s explosion in the U.S., we were looking at the best way to participate in that growth,” said Tenth and Blake President and CEO Tom Cardella. “As we explored the category, Crispin stood out, not only because they were the most progressive and innovative producer, but also because we shared great personal chemistry. In addition to the best cider portfolio in the business, we love their energy, creativity and unsurpassed innovation capability. They make us an even better company right away.”
The deal includes Crispin’s affiliate, Fox Barrel Cider Company.
“We’re thrilled to be part of the Tenth and Blake family,” said Joe Heron, Crispin’s CEO. “We’ve always had very ambitious plans, and we’re proud of what we’re achieving with great products and an unrivaled creativity that mirrors the inspirational American craft-beer ethos. Tenth and Blake provides us the capability to scale up at the same pace as our increasingly accelerating demand in the U.S. and beyond.”
Crispin Cider Company produces European-style natural hard apple ciders using fermented unpasteurized fresh-pressed apple juice in Original, Light and Brut varietals, as well as additional unfiltered Artisanal Reserves — Honey Crisp, Lansdowne, The Saint and Cho-tokkyu, and also imports a classic English Dry Cider, Crispin Browns Lane.
Crispin affiliate, Fox Barrel Cider Company, is dedicated to the production of superior pure pear ciders, using fermented unpasteurized fresh-pressed pear juice. Available in Pacific Pear, Blackberry Pear and Apricot Pear varietals and additional unfiltered Cidery Reserves — Ginger & Blackcurrant and Rhubarb & Elderberry.
Crispin will be run as an independent division of Tenth and Blake.
In addition to these two cider brands, Tenth and Blake also controls the following brands: “Blue Moon Brewing Co. at the Sandlot in Denver, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. in Chippewa Falls, Wis., 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee, AC Golden in Golden, Colorado, Birra Peroni in Rome and Plzeňský Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell) in Pilsen, Czech Republic. Tenth and Blake beers include Blue Moon Belgian White, Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss, George Killian’s Irish Red, Batch 19, Henry Weinhard’s IPA, Colorado Native, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Grolsch.”
Football Beer Caddy
I found this odd little gadget while searching for an image this morning. It’s a Football Beer Caddy, apparently “handcrafted from recycled steel.” The 12-inch tall steel sculture is meant to hold your beer, though I can’t for the life of me understand why you’d do that. After pouring your bottle into a glass — you are doing that, right? — why would you need a caddy for the empty bottle?
According to the website, they’re “handcrafted by American and European artisans using recycled steel and copper that is bent, cut, welded and brushed resulting in original works of art for the perfect unique football gift idea or unusual home accent piece. The moment you hold an H & K metal sculpture, you will appreciate its craftsmanship, quality and value.” Maybe, but if you want your own, $81.99 is what you’ll need to plunk down to get one of these football beer caddies for your very own. Crazy.
Beer In Art #160: LeBrie Rich’s TV/Dinner
Today’s work of art is a thoroughly original, unique work of contemporary art. The medium is not paint, but “stitched commercial wool felt combined with needle and traditional wet felting.” The Portland, Oregon artist, LeBrie Rich, originally created it as a window display for the local knitting shop Knit-Purl. Hard as it is to believe, everything except the aluminum tv dinner tray and the plastic fork is made of felt.
Appropriate for today, the work also includes a football game on the felt television.
And, of course, there’s a beer. In this case, the TV dinner is paired with a can of Hamm’s.
And finally, here’s the TV dinner itself. Hungry? Probably a lot of fiber.
To learn more about LeBrie Rich, check out the biography and resume on her own website. And there’s a short profile on Craft Corps. She also has some of her other items for sale on Etsy, and his online store Penfelt.
Guinness Ad #105: On The Aircraft Carrier
Our 105th Guinness ad is from the Illustrated London News, from early 1945, during World War II. It shows two navy men painting, or possibly just cleaning, an impossibly huge aircraft carrier. One turns to the other and says. “I feel like a Guinness,” to which the other replies. “I wish you were!”
