On Saturday, the 6th annual West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Fest took place at the Bistro in Hayward. 67 different barrel-aged beers were served to a packed house on a beautiful fall day. Festival goers voting for their favorites chose the following three for the People’s Choice Awards:
Congratulations to all the winners.
Monday’s ad is an another interesting ad by famed Swiss illustrator Herbert Leupin. Like the last one, I’m not sure what beer this ad is for or when it was created, though he worked mainly beginning in the late 1930s and then took up painting around 1970. So we can safely say it was between those dates. The ad, of course, is for kühles bier — cold beer — though showing a “hot” blonde in a swimsuit frolicking in the ocean doesn’t really seem consistent with that. Still, it’s a cool ad all the same.
Our 58th Session should be a fun one. Our host, Phil Hardy from Beersay, is apparently hoping for an old-fashioned Christmas this year, and at the top of his list is Charles Dickens’ immortal classic A Christmas Carol. Hardy is attempting to merge the two, which, as Dickens himself said of the goal of his novella in the preface. “I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.” We should all aspire to such heights. The basic idea, which by now you must have guessed, is to write about the beers of Christmas past, present and future, or as Hardy tells it in his announcement post, A Dickens of a Topic for December 2011:
A Christmas Carol
The idea for me was based loosely around the visits of three ghosts to Ebenezer Scrooge, but relayed in a post about the beers of Christmas past, present and future.
What did you drink during Christmas holidays of old, have you plans for anything exciting this year and is there something you’d really like to do one day, perhaps when the kids have flown the nest?
Do you have your own interpretation, was Scrooge perhaps a beer geek?
Or maybe it’s all one day. What will you drink Christmas morning, Christmas afternoon and what will you top off the holiday with that evening?
Just a few examples there, but the idea was to keep the topic as open as possible to allow you free rein to write about a subject with a seasonal twist in whatever way the title grabs you.
My own favorite interpretation of A Christmas Carol is the Bill Murray film Scrooged, which I watch each year without fail, tearing up at the end … every … single … time. There, now you now; I’m a sentimental old fool.
Acid rain. Drug addiction. International terrorism. Freeway killers. Now more than ever, it is important to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Don’t miss Charles Dickens immortal classic; Scrooge. Your life might just depend on it…
Or maybe not, but just to be sure, why not write your Dickensian blog post anyway, and post it up on Friday, December 2.
This week’s works of art are by the Swedish artist Anders Zorn. The first one was painted in 1890. The title of it is “In the Brewery,” or sometimes “The Great Brewery,” and “in this genre scene depicting the interior of a Stockholm brewery, he shows a group of workers putting labels on beer bottles. The composition is strikingly unexpected and brutal, the row of figures on the right facing an empty space on the left. The play on light and the rapid, confident treatment accentuate this particular effect.” However, other accounts indicate that the brewery in the painting was in Hamburg, Germany.
Although he was estranged from him, Zorn’s father — Leonard Zorn — was a German brewer who moved to Sweden for work. The second painting, also created in 1890, is “The Little Brewery” and is in Sweden’s Nationalmuseum.
You can read Zorn’s biography at Wikipedia, at the 4 2day Artchive and a longer account at Arts Graphica. You can also see more of his works at AndersZorn.com and at Alsing, with links to other galleries at ArtCyclopedia.
Our 93rd Guinness ad shows a very prolific fisherman who’s clearly waaay over the catch limit for the day. But I guess he had to fill the boat with fish before he felt entitled to a Guinness. I confess I work that way, too. I’ll deny myself a beer until I finish an article or even a post to motivate myself to get it done. Somehow it tastes sweeter — or hoppier — that way.
The NPR program PRI’s The World had an interesting piece yesterday by a Clark Boyd entitled In Belgium, It’s Not Just Beer. It’s ‘Liquid Communication.’ I like that turn of phrase, “Liquid Communication,” though the gist of the article is that the author, understandably, worries that ABI might start capitalizing on the romance of Belgian beer as they attempt to launch their “Belgian Beer Cafe” chain in the U.S. There are already 55 of them worldwide, but now they’re seeking to franchise them in the states, too. The concept appears to be making the Belgian beer cafe as famous as the Irish bar or the English pub that can be found in every big city in the world, and probably just as authentic.
ABI, of course, has several Belgian beers in its portfolio, including Hoegaarden, Leffe, Belle-Vue and the ubiquitous Stella Artois. According to the pitch, the cafes would also carry non-ABI Belgian beers, but you know which ones would get the most attention and focus. They would no doubt appeal to consumers who are not hardcore beer geeks but have heard the news that Belgium makes some world class beers. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s hard not to share the author’s concerns that ABI would fuck it up for everybody. Stella Artois is not exactly the best or most representative Belgian beer, yet it’s now the one most people are aware of. But it’s as far away from what makes Belgian beer great as Bud is from Trumer Pilsner or Radeberger. But I would certainly like to communicate liquidly.
Friday’s ad is another one for the Japanese beer Sapporo, this one from 1935. What a great expression on her face as she looks longingly and lovingly at whoever just poured her the glass of beer.
Today in 1889, Washington became the 42nd state.
Washington
Washington Breweries
Washington Brewery Guides
Guild: Washington Brewers Guild
State Agency: Washington State Liquor Control Board
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.
A mix of thanks and “how could you” to Stephen Beaumont for tweeting this story, because now that I know it, I can’t unknow it. According to Digital Journal, a growing trend among Phoenix, Arizona, area youths — disturbingly both girls and boys — is to get drunk by soaking a tampon in vodka and inserting it … well, you get the idea. According to the report, the practice was first identified in 1999, in the Oxford Journal of Alcohol and Alcoholism, although in that instance they wrote about just three case studies all of whom were adults in their late twenties to their mid-thirties. Also, in April of this year, the same thing was reported to be happening in Germany, too.
The latest story’s origin is a Channel 5 KPHO Phoenix TV report, where a Dr. Quan is the medical source, saying they’ll get a “[q]uicker high, they think it’s going to last longer, it’s more intense.” School Resource Officer (whatever that is) Chris Thomas adds “[w]hat we’re hearing about is teenagers utilizing tampons, soak them in vodka first before using them. It gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream. There’s no barrier, there’s no stomach acid to prevent it.” Dr. Quan agreed. “I would expect it to absorb pretty quickly as well, because it’s a very vascular structure.” Okay, that’s probably enough to give you the idea of what “butt chugging” is. Two things leap to mind.
One, this has got to be a hoax. Kids messing with adults and them falling for it hook, line and sinker. Maybe it’s just me, but when I was a kid, not only would this have never occurred to us, but even if it had, we would never have tried it. Heroin addicts shoot up between their toes to avoid detection. Same deal here, apparently, but there are just too many simpler ways to avoid detection than this. It’s just too much committed effort for most people. Or is that just me? Plus, mainstream media, and television in particular, loves a good scare story, something that puts fear into its viewers. This story is dripping with cautionary words, something else for parents to be “concerned” about. Perhaps some idiots did try it, but a growing trend? I’m just not buying it. You?
Second, if it is true, however doubtful, it shows the futility of having 21 be the minimum legal drinking age and avoiding any real education before that time. People will find a way to do almost anything if properly motivated. And few things motivate a teenager more than being told they can’t do something. I keep hearing that line from Jurassic Park in my head. “Nature will always find a way.” And so it goes.
UPDATE: Thanks to Rick at Pacific Brew News for sending me this Tiny Cat Pants post In Which I Debunk the Vodka-Soaked Tampon Myth.
Thursday’s ad is for the Japanese beer Sapporo, from 1927. I don’t know if the woman really is a geisha, but it made for a snappier title. Plus, it’s a cut above the usual ad in artistry.
