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7 Things

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brookston
David Turley at Musings Over A Pint punked me last week — in a good way, and on my birthday no less — by pulling me into 7 Things, an internet version of a chain letter. I’m sure it’s a coincidence, but 7 Things is also the name of a song by Miley Cyrus (a.k.a. Hannah Montana). Before you think I knew that little factoid off the top of my head, I did a Google search for “7 Things” to see what I could find out about it. The idea is “I’m supposed to write seven things that people might not know about me” and then bestow the same “honor” on 15 more unsuspecting bloggers. David also nominated fellow beer bloggers Tom, Lew, Eric, Jeremy, Brad, Julie, Thomas, Joel, and Edmond, though so far none of them have stepped up. So I guess it’s up to me to get the ball rolling. I’ve never been too shy about sharing personal details and I’m just superstitious enough to think I better do it … or else.

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7 Things You May Not Know About Me

  1. I’m obsessed with wooden clothespins. I even used to wear one every day on my collar.
  2. I write and throw with my right hand, but bat and play golf left-handed. I believe I may be partially ambidextrous. I can beat you at ping pong with either hand.
  3. Whenever I travel, I pick up small rocks to bring home as souvenirs. I try to find the most interesting and diverse rocks I can. I now have jars and bowls in the house filled with stones from around the world.
  4. I was active in the Boy Scouts when I was a kid, and even worked at the Scout Camp during the summer when I was in high school. I still have some of the council and OA patches I collected. I even have my bright red scouting jacket with the giant wolf on the back indicating my membership in the “Order of the Arrow” for the Minsi (now Kittatinny) Lodge 5. Once a geek, always a geek.
  5. Something like ten to fifteen years ago when I was struggling with whether or not to pursue writing more seriously, I wrote to one of my favorite authors, John Updike. Updike was born in the same small Pennsylvania town as I was: Shillington. Many of his earlier works were set in towns like Shillington, especially the Olinger Stories. He sent me back a hand-typed postcard that was very encouraging, which he signed and also wrote a note in the margin. I keep it framed in my office as inspiration.
  6. I have a half-brother and a half-sister but didn’t grow up with them. My father had a child with each of his subsequent two wives after he and my mother divorced when I was a year old. I used to keep in touch with my brother but lost track of him over ten years ago. I’ve met my sister two, maybe three times.
  7. I also have an e-wife. I was married in the early 1980s for just under four years. A somewhat funny side story is that the last I heard, she thinks I’m dead. About ten years ago I called a mutual friend of ours, who answered the phone by saying “hey, you’re not dead.” I thought he was joking because we hadn’t talked for a number of years, but it turned out he’d heard from my ex and she’d told him she thought I was dead.

So now you know.

Here are my nominations for 15 bloggers to follow in my footsteps:

If any of you actually post your own 7 Things, please be so kind as to post a comment here with a link to yours. Thanks. Oh, and by the way, if you don’t … something might happen. Or it might not. Just sayin’.

Craft Beer Bridging Senate Partisan Divide

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I think I’ve mentioned before that my wife is a political news junkie. She just sent me this link from one of the most popular political websites, Politico, entitled Craft beer bridges partisan divide in Senate. It’s nice to see beer getting some mainstream attention.

The Politico article is all about the introduction Wednesday of BEER, “Brewer’s Employment and Excise Relief Act,” which would cut taxes for microbreweries and on the production of smaller quantities of beer barrels, among other things. It was introduced in the Senate by Republican Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Democratic Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts).

Although Senator Kerry misstates that the “craft beer revolution started right here in Massachusetts,” I think we can forgive him for that one, having obviously been talking with Jim Koch for many months about this bill.

Here’s Crapo’s Press Release about the introduction of the BEER Act:

Small Brewery Tax Bill Would Create Jobs, Open Markets

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Washington, D.C. — Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) today introduced legislation to reduce the beer excise tax for America’s small brewers. The Brewer’s Employment and Excise Relief (BEER) Act will help create jobs at more than 1,600 small breweries nationwide, which collectively employ nearly 100,000 people. Idaho and Massachusetts are home to dozens of small breweries.

“Like any private business, craft brewing is all about supply and demand,” said Crapo. “In touring Idaho last year, I met with many craft brewers who are seeking to expand their business because they are seeing increased demand for their product. In addition, this legislation will expand the ready markets for our barley, wheat and hops producers in Idaho. I remain optimistic this bill will pass this year to create new jobs and new markets.”

“The craft beer revolution started right here in Massachusetts and they’ve been going toe to toe with multi-national beer companies ever since,” said Kerry. “This bill will help ensure that these small businesses keep people on the payroll and create jobs even during tight economic times.”

Because of differences in economies of scale, small brewers have higher costs for production, raw materials, packaging and market entry than larger, well-established multi-national competitors. The BEER Act also helps states that produce barley, hops and other ingredients used by these small brewers. In addition to Senators Crapo and Kerry, the legislation is co-sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of 16 additional Senators.

Currently, a small brewer that produces less than two million barrels of beer per year is eligible to pay $7.00 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels produced each year. This legislation will reduce this rate to $3.50 per barrel, giving our nation’s smallest brewers approximately $19.9 million per year to expand and generate jobs. This change helps approximately 1,525 breweries nationwide.

Currently, once production exceeds 60,000 barrels, a small brewer must pay the same $18 per barrel excise tax rate that the largest brewer pays while producing more than 100 million barrels. This legislation will lower the tax rate to $16 per barrel on beer production above 60,000 barrels, up to two million barrels, providing small brewers with an additional $27.1 million per year that can be used to support significant long-term investments and create jobs by growing their businesses on a regional or national scale.

The small brewer tax rate was established in 1976 and has never been updated. This legislation would update the ceiling defining small breweries by increasing it from two million barrels to six million barrels. Raising the ceiling to six million barrels more accurately reflects the intent of the original differentiation between large and small brewers in the U.S.

Help Alan Decide On The Next Session Topic

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Alan up at A Good Beer Blog will be hosting our 50th Session, which will be held — no joke — on April Fool’s Day.

But Alan is struggling to find just the right topic for “such a monumental moment in beer blogging history” and doesn’t “want to make it a case of Five-Uh-Oh.” He needs your help. He’s got a few ideas of his own but could undoubtedly use a few more. Got a great idea for a Session topic? One you’ve been hoping someone would tackle? Send it Alan’s way.

Personally, I’d hate to see the Session pass without having something to do with April Fool’s Day, but then I’m a devout Holideist.

Marzen Madness Reminder: Sign Up Today To Play

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If you’d like to play along and try to pick the winners for this year’s March Madness, I’ve set up a bracket game through Yahoo which I call “Märzen Madness.” It doesn’t look like there’s a limit to the number of people who can play, so sign up today and you can make your picks when the field is announced on Sunday, March 13. The first games begin on March 17, so that’s a four day window to make your picks. I’ll post and update standings each day there’s games played until a winner emerges.

To join Märzen Madness and play the Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick’em game, just follow this link. You’ll also need a Yahoo ID (which is free if you don’t already have one), And you may, or may not, need the following information about the group information.

Group ID#: 20210
Password: beer

Should be fun. Good luck everybody.

Beer In Ads #327: George Sanders For Blatz

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Wednesday’s ad is for Blatz Beer, and features Hollywood leading man George Sanders, whose most famous role was probably in All About Eve in 1950, though I know him for playing Simon Templar in the Saint series in the 1940s (I’m a huge fan of Leslie Charteris’ “The Saint” books, movies and TV shows). The funniest part of this ad is the headline: “I’ve been to Milwaukee, I ought to know … Blatz is Milwaukee’s Finest Beer!. Yeah, ’cause to visit a place is to know everything about it. I’m not exactly sure when the ads is from, though there’s a small “100” in the lower right-hand corner suggesting 1951, which would have been the Blatz Brewery‘s 100th anniversary, having been founded in 1851.

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Socialcohol Media Influencers

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Here’s some more interesting statistical data on alcohol bloggers — beer, wine and liquor — from a software company in Silicon Valley by the name of eCairn, or eCairn Conversation. Watch this short video to get a feel for what the company is selling, essentially tools to help companies reach their core customers and “influencers.”

This is especially interesting given the recent monthly Wikio rankings, as these represent yet another metric to rate a beer blog’s influence. At eCairn’s blog, they’ve been analyzing different aspects of social media, presumably to give potential customers real world examples of how they might use their software. For example, they looked at an Analysis of 4 Networks of Community of Influencers that included mommy, beauty, fashion, deco, food, daddy, celebrity, baking, craft and fitness blogs. Then a few days ago they examined beer, wine and liquor blogs which they referred to as “Socialcohol Media,” which is a great looking term, if only I could figure out how it should be pronounced (go ahead, try to say it). Here’s their introduction:

Tagging along with previous analysis of social media Tribes and Influencers, we looked this time at the socialcohol ecosystem 😉 .

Even if the wine & alcohol industry is highly restricted and social media has its set of challenges, matters like beer, wine and liquor generate quite a bit of conversations from the virtual streets.

Here, we pulled 200 influencers from our existing communities of English speaking influencers (~1500 for wine, ~1000 for beers and ~500 for liquor) to create our own cocktail of the tops.

From those 4,000 blogs, they whittled them down to 200 and then ranked those. In the Top 20, half unsurprisingly are wine blogs. But what’s more surprising is that five were beer blogs and five were liquor blogs, and all five of the beer blogs were in the top ten, along with two liquor blogs. That means that in the top ten alcohol blogs, the majority are beer blogs. That’s huge, because up until now, as far as I knew, wine blogs were kicking our butt. Certainly there are far more of them, and still are, but what this suggests is that beer online is gaining in popularity. During last fall’s Beer Blogger’s Conference, the number of beer blogs was reckoned to be about 500, and another source I saw said about 700, the difference being the former was independent beer blogs and the latter included company beer blogs, too. So either we’ve added another 300 beer blogs in the intervening months or they arrived at their number using more generous definitions. Either way, 1,000 sure sounds more impressive.

While I don’t see any information specifically about what formula they used to arrive at their rankings, shockingly I’m No. 1, even above Eric Asimov in the New York Times and the Wine Spectator. Honestly, as flattered as I am by that, it doesn’t feel right. Their traffic alone must be exponentially higher than mine, though perhaps traffic isn’t that important to the way they figure things out. Still, the best news would seem to be that beer blogs more generally are catching up to wine in terms of popularity online. That alone is worth cheering.

Top 20 Alcohol Blogs

  1. Brookston Beer Bulletin (Beer)
  2. Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto (Wine)
  3. Alcademics.com (Liquor)
  4. Eric Asimov’s The Pour: NY Times (Wine)
  5. Seen Through a Glass (Beer)
  6. Pencil and Spoon (Beer)
  7. The Beer Nut (Beer)
  8. Catavino (Wine)
  9. Art of Drink (Liquor)
  10. Drink With The Wench (Beer)
  11. Wine Spectator (Wine)
  12. Mutineer Magazine (Wine*) [Listed as a wine blog, but Mutineer also covers beer and spirits.]
  13. Trader Tiki’s Exotic Syrups, Bitters and Spirits (Liquor)
  14. RumDood (Liquor)
  15. AlaWine (Wine)
  16. Good Wine Under $20 (Wine)
  17. Wannabe Wino Wine Blog (Wine)
  18. The Pegu Blog (Liquor)
  19. Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine™ (Wine)
  20. Palate Press (Wine)

They also note that Beer, Wine and Liquor blogging communities are fairly separate but that Whisky blogs tend to act as a bridge between them all.
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The density of the American beer blogs has “higher density in the mid-west/colorado compared to wine and liquor.”
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Amish Beer For Rumspringa

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I love contradictions, especially when they have to do with the Amish. I grew up right around the Pennsylvania Amish, and in fact on my mother’s side, I am partly Amish, so to speak. From my grandfather’s generation and before, my family was Mennonite and operated a farm, having come to America from Bern, Switzerland in 1745 as Anabaptists. The Amish and the Mennonites both share an Anabaptist heritage. The Amish are the more well-known of the two, and eschew many modern conveniences such as electricity and cars. Mennonites on the other hand, at least the ones I observed growing up, drove cars but painted all the chrome black so as to avoid anything flashy or showy. Whenever you visit Amish tourist areas, the ones operating the gift shops and tourist attractions who look Amish, are more likely to be Mennonites.

As a result of that childhood, I love all things Amish and we even have a large hex sign on our house in California, if for no better reason than to confuse people — plus, I just think they’re cool. When I play fantasy sports, I often use as a team name: the “Fightin’ Amish,” again because I love the contradiction. The Amish are conscientious objectors and don’t fight, and even have an exemption for military service. Likewise, there’s a great band I like called The Electric Amish that nicely plays on the contradictions between the Amish and modern life. I bring this up because Lancaster Brewing, in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country, has announced their latest seasonal beer, in a can, to be called Rumspringa Golden Bock.
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Rumspringa is essentially adolescence, from around age 16 until 18, when an Amish teen has to decide to be baptized and join the church or be “shunned” (ostracized by their community for the rest of the lives — no pressure there). Not surprisingly, most join the church. During the Rumspringa, teens have more freedom then before or after, and though it varies by sect, it’s often thought of as the time when they can “sow their wild oats,” find a spouse, get a little crazy. While I’ve seen documentaries where drinking and other taboos do take place, for most it’s simply a time to decide what to do with their lives, at least as I understand it. The Amish, of course, don’t drink alcohol so I love the apparent contradiction of naming a beer for this time in the Amish life cycle. Plus it’s just a good name for a spring beer. And I’m doubly glad they’re canning it so I may even have a shot at trying some.

A Puzzling Beer Mug

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This morning I was perusing the new X-Treme Geek catalog — yes, I’m that kind of geek, too — that arrived in the mail a few days ago, when I happened upon this kinda cool puzzle.

beer-mug-puzzle-1

When you manage to get all the pieces of the puzzle together — voilà — it’s a beer mug. Remember when lots of comfy bars used to have puzzles and games on the bar for patrons? This one seems like a natural for any of those kinds of bars.

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If you’re iPhone user, old or new, they also have a bottle opener built into an iPhone case. That certainly seems geeky, but also potentially useful, as well.

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Beer In Ads #326: Budweiser, Say When

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Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1960, and it’s one of their “where’s there’s life … there’s Bud” series. This one shows a couple enjoying an evening on the floor. Cigarette hanging from his mouth, the man is pouring a bottle of Budweiser while his lady friend watches expectantly. Holding her hands on either side of the filling beer glass, her expression seems to be waiting to say “when.”

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