Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Last Day To Sign Up For Brookston Baseball

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baseball
There are six spots left in Brookston League Baseball, a rotisserie fantasy league for the 2011 season. But hurry up, the league will draft tomorrow, so sign up today if you want to play along.

In order to join the league, go to game front page, click the “Sign Up Now” or “Get Another Team” button and follow the links to “Join a Custom League”. When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below. If it won’t let you join, it’s probably because we’ve reached the limit for the number of teams allowed in the league.

League ID#: 119845
Password: beer

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Jean Van Roy Talks Cantillon

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cantillon
One of the most fun seminars at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference last week was the Barrel-Aged Sour Beers from Two Belgian’s Perspectives on Friday. It was moderated by Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing and featured two lambic brewers, Yvan de Baets, owner of Brasserie de la Senne, and Jean Van Roy, owner of Brasserie Cantillon. I missed part of Yvan’s talk, but caught all of Jean’s. I first met Jean Van Roy at Cantillon several years ago, shortly before he took over the brewery from his father, Jean Pierre, and when Yvan was still working there, too. Jean gives a great overview of Cantillon’s brewing process. Enjoy.

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Yvan de Baets, Vinnie Cilurzo and Jean Van Roy.

Cantillon by Brookston

Guinness Ad #61: How Grand To Be A Toucan

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guinness-toucan
Our 61st Guinness ad shows the iconic toucan with two pints of Guinness and the following poetry:

If he can say as you can
Guinness is good for you
How grand to be a Toucan
Just think what Toucan do

They used that punny language to good effect for many years, and in fact that was why the toucan became one of the most used animals in their advertising.

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Gordon Biersch Creates World’s Rarest Beer: Hoppotamus Maximus

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I ran into Dan Gordon, from Gordon Biersch, at CBC yesterday and he told me about a new beer they’ve created, Hoppotamus Maximus, a hoppy and oh-so-rare beer that few people — unfortunately — will ever get a chance to sample. He’s teamed with Justin Crossly of The Brewing Network to tell the story of how he created the beer. It’s a pretty funny spoof of the hype surrounding hard-to-find beers, and the humor is as dry as I expect the beer would be.

Fritz Maytag & Ken Grossman Give Keynote At CBC 2011

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anchor-steam sierra-nevada
Earlier today the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference began with the morning program, which ended with a keynote address by Fritz Maytag and Ken Grossman. It was more of a casual talk or reminiscence, with Maytag and Grossman talking about their early days, with both the challenges and joys of those times when their were trying to get their respective breweries off the ground. They sat opposite one another on comfy chairs and talked for just over 30 minutes finishing with a toast using the collaboration imperial stout they did together last year, Fritz & Ken’s Ale.

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It was a highly entertaining talk and even quite funny in places. I’d forgotten my Flip camera, but I did manage to record the audio of the talk. The keynote is introduced by Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Small Brewers Association, and then it’s Ken and Fritz for thirty plus minutes. Enjoy.

Archie Comics Tapped To Teach Kids About Underage Drinking

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archie
The neo-prohibitionist organization MADD today sent out a press release announcing that they’ve partnered with Archie Comics “to raise awareness about underage drinking.” The new issue of Double Digest #217 hits the comic book stores tomorrow, and features an 8-page story entitled The Madd Cowboy of Riverdale High. Below are a few sample pages.

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The “Cowboy” part of the title is for Dallas Cowboy tight end Jason Witten, who appears as himself to speak to Archie and his classmates in an assembly. He’s specifically promoting MADD and their Power 21, which will take place April 21 and is touted as a “national event that seeks to have parents talking to their children about underage drinking.”
Archie-217_10
Believe it or not, I’m not entirely against this latest effort by MADD, although I don’t believe the goal should be to completely eliminate underage drinking — an impossibility, in my experience — but should instead focus on figuring out an effective way to allow parents to educate their kids about drinking alcohol as they grow from teens to young adults. In my opinion, that would go a long way toward encouraging responsible behavior and reducing drunk driving and binge drinking. Though to be honest, by the time that message might have been relevant to me as a child, I was done reading Archie Comics. I’m not sure what their main demographic is, but my guess would be pre-teens, around 8-11 or 12.

Craft Beer Grows 11% In Volume

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ba
The Brewers Association just announced the statistics of craft beer sales in 2010, and the news is great. Craft beer saw volume growth of 11% over 2009, and in terms of dollars the increase was 12%, equating to roughly an additional one million barrels, or 14 million cases.

From the press release:

“Beer lovers increased their appreciation for American craft brewers and their beers in 2010,” said Paul Gatza, director, Brewers Association. “Craft brewers’ stories resonate with Americans who are choosing small, independent companies making delicious beers in more than 100 different styles.”

The Association also reported a growth in the number of U.S. breweries, with eight percent more breweries than the previous year. In 2010, there were 1,759 operating breweries. Craft brewers produced 9,951,956 barrels, up from an adjusted3 8,934,446 barrels in 2009.

“Prohibition caused a dramatic decline in the number of breweries in the United States, but the number of breweries is now at an all-time high,” added Gatza. “With well over 100 new brewery openings in 2010, plus 618 breweries in planning stages, all signs point to continued growth for the industry.”

Total Breweries

In 2010, craft brewers represented 4.9 percent of volume and 7.6 percent of retail dollars of the total U.S. beer category. The Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2010 was $7.6 billion, up from $7 billion in 2009.

Overall, the U.S. beer industry represented an estimated retail dollar value of $101 billion. U.S. beer sales were down approximately one percent, or 2 million barrels, in 2010 compared to being down 2.2 percent in 2009. Total beer industry barrels dropped to 203.6 million, down from 205.7 million barrels in 2009. Imports were up five percent in 2010, compared to being down 9.8 percent in 2009. (Note: the Brewers Association does not count flavored malt beverages as beer.)

Gatza added, “We also found that three percent of craft brewer barrels, by volume, are distributed in cans, confirming a growing trend.”

It’s always great to have confirmed what we see in the street, that most, if not all, craft brewers are doing well. Another great year of craft beer growth. Congratulations to everybody.

Beer In Art #119: Pablo Picasso’s Glass and Bottle of Bass

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art-beer
This week’s work of art is by Pablo Picsasso, created using pasted paper and charcoal on cardboard in the Spring of 1914. It’s title is Glass and Bottle of Bass. Though it certainly doesn’t look like any bottle of Bass Ale I’ve ever seen.

Picasso-gls_bass

There’s a biography of Picasso at Wikipedia and also Biography.com. You can also see more of Picasso’s art at Olga’s Gallery, ArtArchive and the ArtCyclopedia. Then there’s Picasso.com and his “official” website.

Beer Making Is Marvel Of Industrial Chemistry

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copper-kettle
In June of 1933, just as Prohibition was in its death throes, that month’s issue of Popular Science magazine ran a two-page spread entitled Beer Making Is Marvel Of Industrial Chemistry, illustrated by Benjamin Goodwin Seielstad. It’s great fun to see it all laid out the way it’s done here. It seems like they were laying the groundwork for the return of brewing in America.

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There’s not a great deal of text accompanying the chart, but here it is in its entirety, from page two of the beer making chart:

With the removal of national restrictions against the manufacture and sale of beer, American brewers are again in action. Their operations represent one of the most extensive applications of modern industrial chemistry. More than 2,000,000,000 pounds of malt, 650,000,000 pounds of corn and corn products, and 41,000,000 pounds of hops are a part of the vast consignment of raw materials that experts will turn each year into beer. On these pages, our artist shows how the transformation is accomplished in one big, and now active, American brewery.

Beer is the fermented product of malted or sprouted grain, usually barley. Its manufacture requires the conversion of the grain’s starch into fermentable sugar, and the transformation of this sugar, by fermentation, into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. During the process, the beer is given its characteristic bitter flavor by the addition of hops, the yellowish-green cones or catkins of the hop vine.

Malt, the principal raw material, has previously been produced by steeping, sprouting, and drying barley. Germination develops an important enzyme or digestive fluid called diastase, capable of turning the malt’s starch into sugar. Since this task does not exhaust the enzyme’s power, additional starch in the form of corn or rice is often added at the start of the brewing operation. Subsequent steps from the mash to the final product are explained in the drawings. The color of the finished beer depends upon the raw materials; natural malt yields a pale beer, while caramelized, or heat-treated, malt gives a dark beer.

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