Friday’s holiday ad is for Rheingold, featuring Miss Rheingold for 1953, Mary Austin. With the house and her outfit, it’s a white Christmas contrasted nicely by the green wreath. Simple, with no overtly beery or selling elements whatsoever. It’s actually tasteful. Seasons Greetings indeed.
Last night was the annual Anchor Christmas Party, one of my favorite events of the beer year. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the holidays with the local beer community and have a bit of fun before all the family obligations kick in. And it’s always a great party. Anchor pulls out all the stops, putting out a terrific spread and opening the brewery up for one night.
The Anchor party is one of the few events that my wife Sarah attends with me each year, making it that much more special. We always make a point of having holiday photo taken at the brewery.
The Celebrator Beer News crew at the party.
Brewer Mike Lee and Bob Brewer.
During the course of the evening, I was happy to get a look at Anchor’s new bottling line, which is doubling their filling speed and offering better O-levels and fill level consistency. Plus it’s a beautiful piece of machinery.
Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator Beer News, my wife Sarah, and Keith Greggor, co-owner of Anchor Brewers & Distillers toward the end of the night.
Thursday’s ad is holiday ad for Michelob, from 1963. Their suggestion, “This year buy him a beer” seems like a good one, though in truth Michelob probably wouldn’t be the one I”d want, but maybe that’s just me. I love how they spin it in the ad copy. They refer to giving Michelob as an “unhackneyed” gift, “whether beer lover or bottle fancier.”
Wednesday’s ad is another holiday one for Schlitz, this one from 1960. She certainly looks ready to party, handing our glasses of beer. I want to be at her Christmas party.
And here’s a better scan of the ad, but smaller.
Today in 1787, Delaware became the 1st state.
Delaware
Delaware Breweries
Delaware Brewery Guides
Guild: Delaware Craft Brewers Guild
State Agency: Delaware Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement
Package Mix:
Beer Taxes:
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:
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.
Tuesday’s ad begins the holiday season for beer ads, and our first this year is for Schlitz, most likely from the 1950s. With the slogan “light refreshment for your holidays,” the ad shows a couple having a few beers by the tree. The woman lounges on a sofa, as the man presumably just gave her a present to open. She certainly looks happy; is it the warm glow of Schlitz or the anticipation of opening a decidedly jewelry box sized gift?
If you’ve ever looked at the science behind hangovers or endured enough of them, you probably already know that time is really the only cure for one. But when you’re feeling that bad, hope tends to spring eternal; and so hangover cures represent a pretty healthy business, bringing in untold millions of dollars. A hungover fool and his money are soon parted.
We all have our own preferred remedy. Mine is entirely preventative. Before going to bed, I take three Advils and a B-vitamin. More often than not, I wake up feeling fine. I also drink a lot of water, both during a drinking session and before retiring. I don’t think of it as a cure — indeed, I don’t believe there can actually be a cure — but for me it tends to head off the symtoms before they manifest themselves as discomfort or downright pain.
But companies keep taking P.T. Barnum’s prophetic words and proving them true, playing on our desire to do just about anything to speed up the recovery from a bad hangover. And in fact, two new ones are in the news today.
Several news outlets, such as the NY Daily News, have the story that Blowfish tablets, recently approved by the FDA, is on the market, available for sale over-the-counter. The effervescent tablets “combine 1,000 milligrams of aspirin, 120 milligrams of caffeine and a stomach-soothing agent” which you dissolve in water the morning after. “Once dissolved in water, the remedy claims to knock out multiple hangover symptoms in just 15 to 30 minutes.” So far, it’s only for sale in New York City or at ForHangovers.com, and sells for $2.99 for a single dose, or $11.99 for a six-pack. Hmm.
The Daily has a story today regarding a patch that you wear on your arm — like a nicotine patch — that time releases B vitamins. “Bytox Inc., has created a hangover patch that slowly releases a complex of B vitamins over eight hours — from the hour before you start drinking to the morning after. The idea, said Dr. Leonard Grossman, is that nutrients are immediately delivered into the bloodstream and stay there instead of being depleted.”
Maybe, but that still seems like a lot of work when taking one pill before bedtime is so simple. Plus, you’d still need to keep drinking a lot of water, too. I continue to think that moderation is the best method, and when that fails, as it inevitably will on occasion, time is your only friend.
Monday’s ad is a somewhat creepy one from 1943 for Pabst Blue Ribbon. I’m sorry, but those blue ribbon people I find just way too freaky. And how about that copy? “This is the Banker of Blue Ribbon Town who formerly wore a Peppermint Frown.” WTF?!
San Diego Beer Blog had the news today that Jeff Bagby is leaving his position as head brewer at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. Nacho will taking his place for now, though Jeff will be staying on in a consultant role while he firms up plans to open his own brewery. That’s awesome news for Jeff and I’m sure that whatever he does will be amazing.
Jeff and his fiance Dande at GABF a few years ago.
The December 2011 standings may have been updated for December, though since there’s no North American presence or website, it’s hard to be sure. For those of you who still have a widget on your blog’s homepage, you may have noticed that the name has changed from Wikio to eBuzzing. As the so-called “consultant,” they told me that would coming back in September. My contact at Wikio also told me his employment contract was ending and he was unsure as to whether it would be renewed. In case it wasn’t, he also copied me on another person there who would be my contact in the event his contract wasn’t renewed. I’ve written e-mails to both of them since September and thus far have received no replies from anyone at eBuzzing.
If you have a widget and clicked on the link, you may also have noticed that it goes nowhere, to a “404 Error Not Found” page. Several people have written me, wondering what’s going on, and sadly, I’ve been unable to shed any light on the situation. They’re not exactly showing that the North American market is very important to them or their business. Gerard Walen, from RoadTrips4Beer, posted on their UK blog and got the following reply:
For the moment US rankings have not been incorporated into the site. We will notify you once the US rankings are once more included at the same high quality as our European rankings.
And to his follow-up, half-joking, question, they said:
For the moment we are focusing on European countries, but will be looking to include more filters for more countries in the future.
So apparently there are no North American rankings or website for now, and they thought it fairly unimportant to let anybody know, or even post that information on the new eBuzzing website. They don’t necessarily owe us an explanation, but it sure would have been nice if they’d let someone know or at least let that information be readily available for anyone who might have been interested in finding out what happened instead of just shutting down their North American operations.
Though curiously, the widgets that are still out there have changed, as if they’ve been updated for December. Every one of them except Jeff from Beervana has plummeted, dropping quite a bit, though a few that weren’t in the Top 20 last month now are. I only know this through the completely unscientific method of having visited every blog on the Top 20 list for the last six months to see if they have a widget and, if so, what their ranking is now, and comparing that to November.
UPDATE: Thanks to Bill Night from It’s Pub Night who figured out how to check any URL using the code from the widget. (Thanks Bill.) Based on that, I was able to sort out the Top 16, and several more using all the beer blogs that made the list over the last six months. Obviously, numbers 17-20 include some blogs that hadn’t made the list before. There are also others below 20 that haven’t been on the list lately, but I can’t really go through the complete list of beer blogs to fill in the missing ones. (Note: If you know your December ranking and it isn’t listed here, please drop me a note and I’ll add you.)
This, of course, may be the last month for these rankings. I always stressed that this was just a bit of fun and that we shouldn’t take it too seriously. But I have to say that the way they’ve handled the transition from Wikio to eBuzzing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I certainly understand that changes have to be made when companies merge, but keeping the people who might want to know in the dark is never the right way to go about it, at least in my opinion. Especially when you consider that the merger was first announced two years ago, in December 2009. C’est la vie. It was fun while it lasted.