Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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The Clydesdales in California

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The iconic Budweiser Clydesdales debuted on April 7, 1933 and have a big promotional part of Anheuser-Busch ever since. Most come from Grant’s Farm in St. Louis. Today there are six teams of Clydesdales. One is headquartered in St. Louis and the other five travel the country. On Saturday, one team — or “hitch” — visited the A-B brewery in Fairfield, which is the smallest of the twelve ABI breweries in the U.S.

Believe it or not, I’d never been to the Fairfield brewery (I have visited at least three others, however). But my six-year old daughter’s love of horses made this weekend the perfect time to finally correct that oversight. So I responded to the press release I got, and arranged to come a little early so I could still make the Brewing Network’s Winter Brews Festival in Berkeley the same day.

But back to the horses. Clydesdales are Scottish in origin. They’re large draft horses, often six-feet high (18 hands) at the shoulder, weighing as much as 2,000 or more pounds, and are thought to be at least 300 years old. After a quick tour of the facilities, Alice and I arrived in the parking lot just in time to watch the horses being taken off their tractor trailers and hitched up to the wagon.

Two at a time they are off-loaded

Each hitch consists of ten Clydesdales that travel in three tractor trailers, along with the ceremonial beer wagon. Horse-drawn wagons were quite common for beer deliveries before the invention of the automobile, and continue to be used for ceremonial purposes throughout the world. The Radeberger brewery near Dresden, Germany still makes local beer deliveries on a horse-drawn wagon. It was a cool sight when I visited the brewery several years ago.

My daughter Alice in front of the wagon
My daughter Alice, with her stuffed Clydesdale, in front of the Budweiser beer wagon.

The first two hitched to the wagon
The first two hitched to the wagon.

Eventually, eight Budweiser Clydesdales were hitched to the wagon. Then, for about an hour, they paraded around the parking lot to the delight of a few hundred people, who showed up even in the drizzling rain. And especially my daughter, who was thrilled to see the horses up close. You can see a short video of the parade’s start below.

Below is a slideshow of the Clydesdales’ visit. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Don Younger In Hospital

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Don Younger, owner of the Horse Brass in Portland, has been the subject of numerous rumors today throughout the Twitterverse. I wanted to find out what’s really going on so I called a friend in Portland who’s close to the situation, and here’s what I’ve learned.

Don fell last week and broke his shoulder, and was taken to the hospital. Because of numerous medications he’d been on and the health of his lungs, doctors have him on a respirator and are keeping him for observation. The prognosis does not appear favorable and there apparently isn’t much that the doctors can do except watch, and wait, at least for now. Don’s a tough customer, and has as strong a will as anyone I’ve known, so I’m hoping that will see him through this. It looks like we should know more in the next few hours or days.

Please join me in sending your prayers and positive thoughts Don’s way. Drink a toast to Don’s health. I’ll update this as new information becomes available.

UPDATE: John Foyston has more information up at the Oregonian.

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Don with my son Porter when he was a toddler at the Rogue Alehouse in San Francisco.

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Don sharing a beer with me and Tom Dalldorf at the Celebrator offices a number of years ago.

Grilling With Beer: Fanning The Flames Of A New Edition

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The beer cook, Lucy Saunders, published a great book five years ago called Grilling with Beer. I must confess I’m a little biased, because I contributed a short chapter to it on Oyster BBQ. The book is now out of print, though there’s still great demand for it. So Lucy’s planning on “putting together new chapters and recipes for [her] cookbook, GRILLING WITH BEER: bastes, barbecue sauces, mops, marinades and more made with craft beer.”

She’s using Kickstarter to raise the $28,000 she needs “to pay for the printing for the 224-page color cookbook (using recycled paper and eco-inks). Everyone who funds will be acknowledged on the grillingwithbeer.com website — and larger funders can get even more cookbooks, plus assorted goodies such as tastings and cooking demonstrations. Eventually, the cookbook will be sold (suggested price will be $21.95) where craft beer is sold!”

While you can pledge any amount on Kickstarter, pledge just $25 and get a copy of the book autographed by Lucy, a t-shirt and 5 recipe postcards. Such a deal! Whether you have a copy of the original book or not, here’s a great opportunity to get the new version and help out a very worthwhile project to get Lucy’s book back in print.

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Kansas Beer

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Today in 1861, Kansas became the 34th state.

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Kansas Breweries

Kansas Brewery Guides

Guild: Kansas Craft Brewers Guild [no website]

State Agency: Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control

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  • Capital: Topeka
  • Largest Cities: Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Topeka, Olathe
  • Population: 2,688,418; 32nd
  • Area: 82,282 sq.mi., 15th
  • Nickname: Sunflower State
  • Statehood: 34th, January 29, 1861

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  • Alcohol Legalized: Unknown
  • Number of Breweries: 15
  • Rank: 34th
  • Beer Production: 1,967,234
  • Production Rank: 33rd
  • Beer Per Capita: 21.8 Gallons

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Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 32.3%
  • Cans: 57.9%
  • Kegs: 9.6%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.18
  • Per Case: $0.41
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $5.58
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $5.58

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $67,218,011
  • Direct Impact: $556,080,045
  • Supplier Impact: $390,326,463
  • Induced Economic Impact: $317,903,610
  • Total Impact: $1,264,310,118

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: 9 a.m. – 2 a.m. (in counties which allow on-premises sales)
    Off Premises: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. (Mon–Sat) (in counties which allow off-premises sales)
    noon – 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. (Sun) (in communities which allow Sunday off-premises sales)
  • Grocery Store Sales: 3.2 only
  • Notes: Kansas’s alcohol laws are among the strictest in the United States. Kansas prohibited all alcohol from 1881 to 1948, and continued to prohibit on-premises sales of alcohol from 1949 to 1987. Sunday sales only have been allowed since 2005. Today, 29 counties still do not permit the on-premises sale of alcohol. 59 counties require a business to receive at least 30% of revenue from food sales to allow on-premises sale of alcohol. Only 17 counties allow general on-premises sales. Not all communities which allow off-premises sales allow sales on Sunday. Sales are prohibited on Christmas and Easter. The only alcoholic beverage which grocery stores and gas stations may only sell is beer with no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight. Other liquor sales only are allowed at state-licensed retail liquor stores. Kansas has comprehensive open container laws for public places and vehicles, public intoxication laws, and requirements for prospective on-premises or off-premises licensees.

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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.

“Brew Your Cask Off” Contest

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All About Beer magazine, one of the publications I regularly write for, has launched a cool contest, where you could win a trip to the “Brew Your Cask Off” beer festival hosted by Georgia’s SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, Georgia on March 5, 2011. The festival will include around 80 special one-of-a-kind cask ales created by brewers from around the country, each competing to win the “Best Cask Ale” or be declared the “Biggest Loser.”

You can win a trip for two to the event, courtesy of All About Beer, by telling them — in 300 words or less — what type of cask beer you’d brew. That’s roughly the equivalent of two tweets. Impress them with your beer description and you could win big.

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All the details, along with the form to enter, can be found at the All About Beer’s website. In a nutshell:

Tell us what type of cask you would brew in 300 words or less and you could win a free trip for two (two nights of lodging included) to the Brew Your Cask Off festival. In addition, you and your guest will be celebrity judges helping decide who made the best, and who made the worst cask ale.

Entries will be judged on entertainment value, imagination, artistic abilities, historical accuracies, whatever criteria strikes us at the office when we all sit down to decide the lucky winner of a trip for two to Brew Your Cask Off. You need not be a professional or even an amateur brewer — just someone with a palate for what makes a good cask ale.

Start thinking about your beer, but don’t ponder it too long. All entries must be received by Valentine’s Day, February 14th, and the winner will be announced on February 18.

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Beer In Ads #298: Their Hero Arrives On The Next Bus

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Thursday’s ad is from 1940 and is for Budweiser. The ad’s tagline is “Their Hero Arrives on the Next Bus,” and shows two young children standing by a fence eagerly awaiting the arrival of their “daddy” home from work. Read the ad copy on this one, it’s pretty hilarious. And check out at the bottom their “Make This Test” in the center box. “Drink Budweiser for five days. On the sixth day, try to drink a sweet beer. You will want Budweiser’s flavor thereafter.” Or maybe not.

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Walgreens Debuts Private Label Beer

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the drug store chain Walgreens has rolled out their own private label beer in cans, called Big Flats 1901. Walgreens is carrying the new beers in 60% of its nearly 8,000 locations and the average price is about $2.99 per six-pack or 50 cents a can. Around 15 years ago, Walgreens stopped selling alcohol in all (most?) of its stores, but recently starting stocking it again in less than half of the locations.

It would appear that Genesee Brewing in New York, part of North American Breweries, is the contract brewer making the lager beer. The label refers to the it as “Premium Brew” and includes a generic “Genuine Brew” logo and the tagline “It’s the water that makes it.” Supposedly the name comes from the “flat boats that traveled the” rivers in upstate New York “delivering goods to early settlers.” Curiously, the trademark for the name “Big Flats 1901” is owned by the Winery Exchange, which styles itself as a “full-service, value-added, corporate brand beverage alcohol company that sources beer, wine and spirits from the finest regions worldwide.” They’re also located in the same small Marin County town where I live, Novato, California.

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Beer In Ads #297: From Chesapeake Bay Land Of Pleasant Living …

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Wedneday’s ad is for Baltimore’s National Bohemian Light Beer. It ran in Life magazine in 1959. The tagline is a mouthfull: “From Chesapeake Bay land of pleasant we bring you this quality beer.” And from the insets at the bottom, the Chesapeake Bay area was also the “land of fun,” the “land of history,” and the “land of good food.”

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