Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Danny Williams R.I.P. 1959-2012

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goldmine
It was with a heavy heart that I received the news this morning that Danny Williams lost his battle with cancer last night, and passed away peacefully in his sleep. Ben Spencer sent me the word, and had this to say about his friend. “Danny was a great man. He was loved by many. This is a sad day for his family and friends. He will be missed.”

Ben added that “all Danny wanted out of his friends and family in his remembrance was no teary ceremonies, just ‘good people drinking good beers and smiling.'” There will be some sort of gathering of people to remember Danny, though the details, of course, are still being worked out. There was already a fundraiser scheduled for February 11 at Back Country Pizza in Boulder, and that will go forward as planned.

Danny’s family and friends want to thank everyone who donated generously to help make his remaining time more comfortable. Great progress was made toward saving the mine and keeping Danny’s home in the family, but additional donations are necessary to complete that work. If you haven’t already done so, please consider helping out Danny’s family as they struggle through this difficult time. As before, PayPal makes it easy to make a donation, and for larger amounts, there is a fund set up at First Bank in Boulder, Colorado under the name the “Danny Williams Fund,” where anyone can make a deposit. Their phone number is 450-120-3112.

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Danny Williams: March 1, 1959-January 23, 2012

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Danny was rare person, passionate and giving, especially when it came to beer. Dip into your own beer cellar tonight and pull out a rare beer to toast the memory of Danny Williams.

Anchor Zymaster #1 To Be A California Lager

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anchor-new
Yesterday Anchor Brewing announced their new line of beers under the “Zymaster Series,” with the first to debut during SF Beer Week in February.

This morning I spoke to the Zymaster himself — Mark Carpenter — who told me a bit more about the beer. It sounds like it will be a pretty interesting beer, and one I’m definitely looking forward to trying.

Carpenter told me they wanted to do something distinctly Californian, and they searched brewing logs and records that they could find from early California brewers. Reasoning that as soon as brewers had the technological ability to brew lagers, that’s what they did, so they turned their attention to lagers. In California, Boca Brewing is believed to have made the first lager in the state, around 1875 (according to American Breweries II). The town of Boca was located in northeast California, roughy 6.5 miles from Truckee. In 1880 it had a population of around 200 people, though today it’s literally a ghost town. The brewery was founded in 1875 and closed in 1892, four years before the Anchor Brewery opened.

So Anchor set about to recreate the first lager brewed in California. They used California-grown malt and California cluster hops. Clusters were the first hop variety grown in the United States. Though their origin is unknown, it has been “suggested that they arose from hybridization of varieties, imported by Dutch and English settlers and indigenous male hops.” They weren’t able to find enough cluster hops actually grown commercially in the state, but they did find cluster hops growing in Washington using the same bines that used to grow in California, before the hop-growing family took their rhizomes with them when they moved north from California to Washington.

So the first Zymaster Series beer from Anchor is also the first true lager they’ve made (with Steam beer being essentially a hybrid) and was brewed to try as best they could to replicate the first lagers brewed in California. It’s 5% a.b.v. and is a single-hop beer, using only Cluster hops. Because of quality issues in the late 19th century, lagers here tended to be more highly hopped then they are today, and Anchor’s new beer will also reflect that, though they have not yet calculated the IBUs, so no one can yet how hoppy the lager will be. Only one thing is certain, I can’t wait to see what it tastes like.

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Beer In Ads #526: That Bud … That’s Beer

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Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1964. The ad features a fisherman holding a flat-top can, with his rod over his shoulder and flies stuck into his cap. But it’s really the copy that stands out in this ad, staring with the tagline “that Bud… that’s beer!” But look to the left, here’s a gem. “Is there any real difference in the way beers are brewed? Sure, and one is brewed to be the King of Beers.” Sure? Well, that sure tells us a lot about how Bud was brewed differently from every other similar-tasting American lager in 1964. Nice.

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Big Changes At A-B InBev

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Wow, there’s a lot going over at Anheuser-Busch InBev, and besides the slip in sales of their core brands. Last week, rumors abounded that ABI was planning to roll out some version of 100% Share of Mind, which had been the “unofficial” policy until a few years ago, when it became unworkable. I wrote about it four years ago as it started to wane in Losing Their Share of Mind, and you can get the history and background of the policy there, assuming you’re unfamiliar with it. In a nutshell, A-B insisted that their distributors focus ONLY on A-B and A-B-related brands, and there were ways they had for dealing with those distributors that didn’t toe the line. And it worked well enough while A-B brands were selling well, but when they began to slip, it became harder to enforce and harder for distributors to remain profitable without taking on non-A-B brands, especially craft brands.

According to Beer Business Daily, ABI “is again turning up the leverage with Sales Opportunity Teams starting next week.” Apparently “Sales Opportunity Teams” (SOT) is the new buzzword for it this time around. They continued:

The SOTs, which A-B chief Dave Peacock has repeatedly said are not punitive in nature, will certainly be uncomfortable for distributors with growing competing brands in the house, as they try to explain this or that competing display or tap handle on the floor.

It’s got to be even harder this time, with craft beer riding a wave, with great growth, higher rings and consequently more profits. Sell less, make more. Hard to walk away from that, but of course having the best-selling brands is also pretty attractive, too. So what’s a distributor to do?

Today, the other shoe dropped, as Anheuser-Busch President Dave Peacock — and the last of the pre-InBev top executives — resigned effective today. According to ProBrewer

Peacock was one of the few remaining high-level holdovers who had stayed with the company after it was acquired in 2008 by InBev. He was only one of two non-Busch family members to hold the title of CEO.

Peacock is well liked by wholesalers and is known as reasonable, fair and an advocate for the second tier. The latest pressure on wholesalers by InBevAB may certainly have prompted Peacocks departure.

Peacock began his career at A-B in 1992 and was promoted to president in 2008 in the wake of the acquisition after serving as VP-marketing since late 2007. Many U.S. executives departed after the InBev takeover, but Peacock was handpicked by the new owners to lead the U.S. operation.

Harry Schuhmacher, in his Beer Business Daily, broke the news this morning, calling it “a watershed moment in the history of A-B since its acquisition by InBev.”

Coincidence? Hard to imagine the two developments are completely unrelated, especially since Beer Business Daily, presumably working from a press release, states he’s leaving “to spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests.” I’m always more than a little suspicious when that’s the official reason for leaving, as it so often is in circumstances like this one.

Peacock is succeeded by Luiz Fernando Edmond, who until today was the Zone President of North America. Oh, and Bud Light Platinum is coming soon, in the cobalt blue bottle, and should be on store shelves as early as this week. They’re calling it a “game changer,” but I tend to think these other two developments will change the beer landscape far more than a Bud Light line extension.

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Anchor Announces New Zymaster Series

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As promised on Friday, Anchor Brewing announced today a new series of beers they’ll be debuting during SF Beer Week. The new beers will be under the series designation “Zymaster,” which Anchor describes like this:

Zymaster n [Gk zyme leaven + master – more at ZYMURGY]
1: a new word coined by Anchor Brewing to describe a brewmaster with hands-on experience throughout the a-to-z process of creating a new beer, from the research and selection of the raw materials and development of a recipe to brewing, fermentation, cellaring, and finishing
2: a unique series of beers from Anchor Brewing, rooted in its exceptional respect for the ancient art and noble traditions of brewing and featuring extraordinary ingredients, innovative techniques, and unusual flavors

anchor-zymaster

The first Zymaster Series beer will be released at select events during SF Beer Week, which this year is February 10-19. The initial offering will be “available on draught only in 13.2 gallon and 5.16 gallon kegs,” and “[i]nitial distribution will be focused in California.”

No word yet on what the first beer will taste like, whether it will hew closely to any recognizable style, what ingredients were used to brew it, or how often we can expect subsequent offerings in the Zymaster series. Updates as they emerge.

Beer In Art #158: Marcel Gromaire’s The Beer Drinkers

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Today’s work of art is by the social realist French artist Marcel Gromaire, and the majority of his ouvre depicted characters in social settings. Our featured painting is no exception, and it shows a pair of men enjoying some pints of beer in a pub, inn or cafe. The title of the work is The Beer Drinkers, which Gromaire painted in 1924. Today it hangs in the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Gromaire-beer-drinkers

Here’s one analysis of the painting:

Marcel Gromaire was decidedly northern in his style, and after 1918, became one of the foremost practitioners of what could be called Expressionist Cubism. In this genre scene, he depicts beer drinkers smoking pipes in a rundown cafe. The simplified forms, the exaggerated features, the geometric construction and the restrained colours are all characteristic of this expressive painting.

To learn more about Marcel Gromaire, you can start with Wikipedia and there are a few more of his works on ArtNet and Scholars Resource. ArtCyclopedia has many more links, as well.

Ukraine Beer

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ukraine
Today in 1918, the Ukraine declared their Independence from Soviet Russia and unified the same day, a year later in 1919.

Ukraine
ukaine-color

Ukraine Breweries

Ukraine Brewery Guides

Other Guides

Guild: None Known

National Regulatory Agency: None

Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known

Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.00%

Ukraine

  • Full Name: Ukraine
  • Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Romania, and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east
  • Government Type: Republic
  • Language: Ukrainian (official) 67%, Russian 24%, other (includes small Romanian-, Polish-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities) 9%
  • Religion(s): Ukrainian Orthodox — Kyiv Patriarchate 50.4%, Ukrainian Orthodox — Moscow Patriarchate 26.1%, Ukrainian Greek Catholic 8%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 7.2%, Roman Catholic 2.2%, Protestant 2.2%, Jewish 0.6%, other 3.2%
  • Capital: Kiev
  • Population: 45,134,707; 28th
  • Area: 603,550 sq km, 46th
  • Comparative Area: Slightly smaller than Texas
  • National Food: Borscht
  • National Symbols: Guelder Rose, Willow, Pine, Tryzub (trident)
  • Nickname: The Breadbasket of Europe
  • Affiliations: UN, Commonwealth of Independent States
  • Independence: On January 22, 1918, the Ukraine declared their Independence from Soviet Russia and unified the same day, a year later in 1919. They then declared independence again from the USSR on August 24, 1991.

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  • Alcohol Legal: Yes
  • Minimum Drinking Age: 18
  • BAC: 0.00%
  • Label Requirements: N/A
  • Number of Breweries: 13

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  • How to Say “Beer”: пиво or слабкий алкогольний напій
  • How to Order a Beer: N/A
  • How to Say “Cheers”: Budmo! (Shall we live forever!) / Boovatje zdorovi / Budem (Let’s stay healthy)
  • Toasting Etiquette: N/A

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Alcohol Consumption By Type:

  • Beer: 32%
  • Wine: 7%
  • Spirits: 61%
  • Other: <1%

Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):

  • Recorded: 8.10
  • Unrecorded: 7.50
  • Total: 15.60
  • Beer: 2.69

WHO Alcohol Data:

  • Per Capita Consumption: 8.1 litres
  • Alcohol Consumption Trend: Stable
  • Excise Taxes: N/A
  • Minimum Age: 18
  • Sales Restrictions: Location, specific events
  • Advertising Restrictions: Yes
  • Sponsorship/Promotional Restrictions: Sponsorship

Patterns of Drinking Score: 5

Prohibition: None

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Alaska Barleywine Festival 2012 Winners

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Here are the winners from this weekend’s Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival in Anchorage, Alaska.

  1. Black Raven Brewing, Redmond, Washington
  2. Firestone Walker Brewing, Paso Robles, California
  3. Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling, Fairbanks, Alaska

And the Best Winter Beer:

  • Kodiak Island Brewing, Kodiak, Alaska

Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks to Tom Dalldorf from the Celebrator Beer News, for sending me the winners.

Guinness Ad #103: At The Edinburgh Zoo

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guinness-toucan
Our 103rd Guinness ad is obviously a tie-in Guinness did with the Edinburgh Zoo, which makes sense since so many of the animals featured in their early advertising were zoo animals, and even often included a zookeeper, too. The animals in the first ad look more like they did in the iconic ads.

guinness-edinburgh-zoo

In the second, a different artist, named Price it appears, took a more cartoony approach, and while they’re the same aniumals, they don’t have the same look to them.
Guinness-zoo-Price