Recycle Now, the organization putting on Recycle Week, which begins today, also has a very cool little animated video showing the process that beer cans go through during the recycling process.
Cans – how they are recycled from RecycleNow on Vimeo.
U.S. Senate Establishes Small Brewers Caucus
The Brewers Association (BA) announced today that the United States Senate established a Senate Small Brewers Caucus. The new Caucus was founded by Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
From the press release:
In a Dear Colleague letter, Senators Baucus and Crapo noted, “In recent years, the more than 1,700 craft brewers all across America have met growing consumer demand for their products by brewing flavorful and innovative beers which they encourage Americans to enjoy in a responsible manner. These small and independent brewers…generate more than $3 billion in wages and benefits, and pay more than $2.3 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes.”
Mirroring the House Small Brewers Caucus, formed in 2007, the Senate Small Brewers Caucus provides a forum for members of the Senate and their staffs to discuss the issues important to small brewers while exploring what lawmakers can do to strengthen the growth and role of these small businesses in local economies across the country.
The caucus will also provide opportunities for Senators and staff to learn about the science and art of brewing beer, and the unique cultural and economic contributions made by small brewers to their communities.
Currently, the 1,700+ small American breweries account for about five percent of all the beer enjoyed in the United States and 50 percent of brewery jobs—-totaling some 100,000 good-paying part- and full-time positions across the country.
According to Senator Crapo, “[t]his caucus will provide Senators with a better understanding of all aspects of small brewing and the positive impact it has on their communities.”
Recycling Beer Bottles
Recycle Now, the organization putting on Recycle Week, which begins today, has a very cool little animated video showing the process that beer bottles go through during the recycling process.
Glass Bottles – how they are recycled from RecycleNow on Vimeo.
West Virginia Beer
Today in 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state.
West Virginia
West Virginia Breweries
- Blackwater Brewing
- Bridge Brew Works
- Lost River Brewing
- Morgantown Brewing Company
- Mountaineer Brewing
- Mountain State Brewing
- North End Tavern & Brewery
West Virginia Brewery Guides
Guild: No Known Guild
State Agency: West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration
- Capital: Charleston
- Largest Cities: Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling,Morgantown
- Population: 1,808,344; 37th
- Area: 24231 sq.mi., 41st
- Nickname: Mountain State
- Statehood: 35th, June 20, 1863
- Alcohol Legalized: December 5, 1933
- Number of Breweries: 6
- Rank: 43rd
- Beer Production: 1,426,074
- Production Rank: 37th
- Beer Per Capita: 24.4 Gallons
Package Mix:
- Bottles: 37.5%
- Cans: 56.7%
- Kegs: 5.7%
Beer Taxes:
- Per Gallon: $0.18
- Per Case: $0.40
- Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $5.50
- Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $5.50
Economic Impact (2010):
- From Brewing: $1,666,818
- Direct Impact: $323,295,324
- Supplier Impact: $72,297,062
- Induced Economic Impact: $142,426,073
- Total Impact: $538,018,459
Legal Restrictions:
- Control State: No
- Sale Hours: On Premises: Beer/Wine: Mon-Sat: 7 am-2 am, Sun: 1 pm-2 am — Liquor: Mon-Sun:8 am-Midnight, Sun/Elections: Prohibited
Off Premises: Mon-Fri: 7 am-3:30 am, Sat: 7 am-3 am, Sun: 1 pm-3 am - Grocery Store Sales: Yes
- Notes: 12% ABV Cap on Beer. 75% ABV spirits Permitted. Liquor, wine and beer products that are not already in closed packaging must be bagged before exiting retail locations. State does not operate retail stores; retains monopoly over wholesaling of distilled spirits only; stores themselves are privately owned.
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.
Beer In Art #132: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance At Bougival
This week’s work of art is by the famous French artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who painted Dance at Bougival, in 1883. Today it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and remains one of his most famous works of art.
The website for Boston’s MFA includes a typical description of the painting:
The open-air cafés of suburban Bougival, on the Seine outside Paris, were popular recreation spots for city dwellers, including the Impressionist painters. Renoir, who was primarily a figure painter, uses intense color and lush brushwork to heighten the sense of pleasure conveyed by the whirling couple who dominate the composition. The woman’s face, framed by her red bonnet, is the focus of attention, both ours and her companion’s.
But look closely beyond the dancing couple to the green tale behind them and you’ll see mugs of beer in front of the people seated there.
You can read Renoir’s biography at Wikipedia and also at the Web Museum, which also has a gallery of other works, too. Other galleries include Olga’s, the Artchive and a third claims to contain Renoir’s Complete Works.
Guinness Ad #73: Guinness Golfing
Our 73rd Guinness ad is again from the “Guinness For Strength” series, with a pair of golfers walking the links, but the one with the bottle of Guinness in this bag seems far more able to manage his large bag while his compatriot is struggling with not only a smaller bag but a wheeled cart. Since it looks likely that the U.S. Open will again be won by an Irish golfer, and in fact Northern Ireland, a golf ad seemed appropriate.
Beer In Ads #394: Falstaff, Beer Thirsty
Friday’s ad is from 1956, and is for Falstaff and shows what appear to be the preparations for a cocktail and which, according to the wonderful ad copy, are making the people not just thirsty, but beer-thirsty!, apparently a whole new level of thirsty that only Falstaff can cure.
Moylan’s Wins Big at Australian International Beer Awards
Back in November, the call went out through the BA’s Export Development Program for brewers around the world to enter the Australian International Beer Awards for 2011. When my local brewpub Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant decided to enter some of their beer, they couldn’t have known how well it would turn out for them.
Moylan’s ended up winning two gold medals, for Moylan’s Moylander Double IPA and Hopsickle Imperial Triple IPA, a silver medal for Chelsea Moylan’s Porter and two bronze medals for both Dragoon’s Dry Irish Stout and Ryan Sullivan’s Imperial Stout. Those wins resulted in them being awarded more points than any other brewery and garnered them two additional bigger prizes: the “Cleanevent Trophy for Champion Small Brewery” and the “Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria Trophy for Champion Exhibitor” for the Highest Scoring Exhibitor, which is the biggest prize awarded throughout the entire competition. Congratulations to Denise and everybody at Moylan’s.
Yesterday, Dr. Peter Aldred from the AIBA — who’s at UC Davis for a few months — stopped by Moylan’s in Novato to present the Australian International Beer Awards Trophy to Brewmaster Denise Jones and Owner Brendan Moylan.
The whole gang of brewers from Moylan’s poses with their trophies.
If you want to see the rest of the winners, they’re listed at Australian Brews News.
Beer In Ads #393: Karate Ballantine
Thursday’s ad is from 1968, when Karate had worked its way into public consciousness, and shows a black belt karate master posing beside four blocks of wood resting on a pair of cinder blocks, ready to be karate-chopped. The only thing standing in his way is a glass of Ballantine Ale. The tagline is pretty funny. “Stronger, Bolder, really means business!”
Next Session Seeks Redemption, Beer Redemption
Our 53rd Session takes us down a more spiritual path, the road to redemption … sort of. Our host, John Holl, of his eponymous Beer Briefing, has chosen the topic Beer Redemption, for which he offers the following confession:
One thing about drinking a lot of beer is that occasionally you’re going to have a bad one. Perhaps it was infected or spoiled by light. Perhaps the brewer or brewery was new and still working out the kinks on a particular style. Regardless, you couldn’t finish the beer in your glass and moved onto the next one.
John goes on to tell the tale of a beer that, in his youth, he found all but undrinkable and gave short shrift to ever after, only to discover — years later — that it wasn’t so bad after all. He continues.
In that moment I realized the foolishness of youth and how many earlier chances I passed up to properly taste this beer. These days it is not uncommon to find [his beer] of various styles in my refrigerator. I haven’t actually visited the brewery yet, but they are now high on my list.
So, what has been your beer redemption?
So drink three Bloody Marys (made with beer) and two Old Foghorns and seek forgiveness, my sons and daughters, just so long as you blog about it for the next Session on Friday, July 1. Your beer redemption is at hand. To start you down the righteous path, say the Beer Prayer aloud every night before retiring from the evening’s drinking:
“Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as I am in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
and lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Barmen.”