Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #484: America’s Earliest Thanksgiving … Was For Corn

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Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day ad is for Budweiser. I’m not sure when the ad originally ran, but clearly it’s from a time when sensitivities toward Native Americans weren’t particularly keen. That’s based on the ad copy, which after the headline — “America’s Earliest Thanksgiving … Was For Corn” — is the following:

With joyous chants and throbbing tom-toms, the Indians celebrated each bountiful harvest of maize. How the red man would marvel to see the part his native grain plays in the nutrition and individual prosperity of modern America!

Later in the ad, the copy connects corn to “its neighbor, barley,” adding. “For, from America’s costliest barley comes Budweiser to adds its distinctive, delicious taste to the fine flavors that make such a world of difference between merely eating and really dining.” Curiously, no mention of rice, though.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

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Beer In Ads #482: Biere de Chartres

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Tuesday’s ad is another 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 third of his I’ve featured, and it’s for a presumably French beer brand, Biere de Chartres.

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Beer In Ads #481: I Was Curious About TV

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Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1950. It’s yet another of the “I was curious” series. In this installment, a couple gets dressed up to go to another well-dressed couple’s house to watch that new-fangled tee-vee that everyone was talking about. I love how the man holding the six-pack of beer is using just his fingertips.

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North Carolina Beer

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Today in 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state.

North Carolina
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North Carolina Breweries

North Carolina Brewery Guides

Guild: North Carolina Brewers Guild

State Agency: North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission

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  • Capital: Raleigh
  • Largest Cities: Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem
  • Population: 8,049,313; 11th
  • Area: 53821 sq.mi., 28th
  • Nickname: Tar Heel State
  • Statehood: 12th, November 21, 1789

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  • Alcohol Legalized: April 28, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 46
  • Rank: 12th
  • Beer Production: 6,183,748
  • Production Rank: 9th
  • Beer Per Capita: 20.8 Gallons

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Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 38.9%
  • Cans: 55.2%
  • Kegs: 5.8%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.62
  • Per Case: $1.39
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $19.13
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $19.13

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $3,809,238,894
  • Direct Impact: $9,224,009,106
  • Supplier Impact: $10,726,058,038
  • Induced Economic Impact: $13,291,784,223
  • Total Impact: $33,241,851,367

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: No sales between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday or between 2 a.m. and noon on Sunday
    Off Premises:
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: 15% ABV cap on beer, No sale of alcoholic beverages between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 2 a.m. until noon on Sundays, State stores closed on Sundays. Bottled liquor must be sold in ABC Packages stores, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Effective December 1, 2010, the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Commission, no longer carries any product stronger than 151 proof, citing concerns from a single county that the majority of the 190 proof grain alcohol product was being purchased in package stores near college campuses.

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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.

Muppets’ Beer-Drinking Habits

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I got a nice tweet from Gerard Walen of Road Trips For Beer, who’s obviously been paying attention enough to know how much of a Muppets fan I am. He had a chance to see an advance screening of the new Muppet film that opens Thanksgiving and he assures me that Porter and I “will love the movie.” Of that, I have little doubt. I’ve turned my whole family into Muppet fans by showing them all of the television shows and movies since they were little. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, and have never really stopped loving their bad pun, groaner brand of humor ever since. But after seeing the film, Walen took it a step farther in a post: ‘The Muppets’ Movie Makes Me Wonder: What Beer Would They Drink? He’s come up with some pretty funny, inspired choices for the main characters. Makes me even more thirsty to see the movie later this week.

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Updates On The Vodka & Tampon Hoax

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You may recall my skeptical take on the Vodka and Tampon story two weeks ago. Since then, I got an e-mail from a friend with a link to a Tiny Cat Pants post In Which I Debunk the Vodka-Soaked Tampon Myth. Today, I learned from the Missus that Danielle Crittenden, Managing Editor, Blogs, for the Huffington Post Canada was as skeptical as I was. Crittenden’s also the wife of famed conservative David Frum and an author in her own right. She posted her own efforts at reproducing the vodka tampon on the Huffington Post, in an article entitled Bartender, a Dirty Martini With a Tampon!. Like Tiny Cat Pants, it didn’t go well … at all. And it’s part of mounting evidence that the people spreading this story are, for lack of a better term, full of shit. As I suspected, this sounded more like an urban legend, a hoax, a way for media outlets to scare parents. But read Crittenden’s account, it’s pretty funny, and scary, but in a whole different way.

Beer In Art #149: Jan Luyken’s The Cooper

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This week’s work of art is by the Dutch illustrator and engraver Jan Luyken. His watercolor painting, The Cooper, was originally done as a study for an engraving he was working on for a larger project, a book entitled “Het Menselyk Bedryf,” or “Book Of Trades.”

Luyken-cooper

Both the watercolor and the subsequent engraving, which is below, was completed in 1694.

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The final engraving was included in The Book of Trades, and looked like this in one edition.

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On critic, writing about Luyken’s Cooper, has the following to say:

Luyken’s rapid treatment of the work is accentuated by the use of quick brush strokes in the watercolour highlights. The cooper, who is outside his workshop, is attaching the barrel staves which he has shaped and positioned in the background, his colleague is coating the inside of a barrel with wax.

You can read Luyken’s biography at Wikipedia or at Scroll Publishing. You can also see the rest of the engravings from The Book of Trades and you can see other works at WikiGallery. Also, his biblical set, Martyrs Mirror, from 1685, can be seen at Bethel College’s website.