Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Sri Lanka Beer

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sri_lanka
Today in 1948, Sri Lanka gained their Independence from the United Kingdom.

Sri Lanka
sri-lanka-color

Sri Lanka Breweries

Sri Lanka Brewery Guides

Other Guides

Guild: None Known

National Regulatory Agency: None

Beverage Alcohol Labeling Requirements: Not Known

Drunk Driving Laws: BAC 0.06% — Breathalyzer testing is not used routinely. If suspected by police the driver is produced before the closest government medical officer who examines and determines whether the driver is under influence. If the driver refuses examination by the medical officer he is considered to have been under influence by default. [Note: WHO lists BAC at 0.08%]

sri_lanka

  • Full Name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (f.k.a. Ceylon)
  • Location: Southern Asia, island in the Indian Ocean, south of India
  • Government Type: Republic
  • Language: Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%; English spoken by 10%
  • Religion(s): Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10%
  • Capital: Colombo
  • Population: 21,283,913; 57th
  • Area: 65,610 sq km, 122nd
  • Comparative Area: Slightly larger than West Virginia
  • National Food: Rice and Curry
  • National Symbol: Blue Lily, Jungle Fowl, Mesua Ferrea tree, Lion & Sword
  • Nickname: Teardrop of India, Island of Dharma, Pearl of the Orient, Pearl of the Indian Ocean
  • Affiliations: UN, Commonwealth of Nations
  • Independence: From the UK, February 4, 1948

Sri_Lanka_Coat_of_Arms

  • Alcohol Legal: Yes
  • Minimum Drinking Age: 21
  • BAC: 0.06% or 0.08% (sources differ)
  • Label Requirements: N/A
  • Number of Breweries: 4

SriLankaP117a-50Rupees-2001

  • How to Say “Beer”: Bire (Sinhala); Madhubaanam or Oru vakai cārāyam (Tamil)
  • How to Say “Cheers”: Seiradewa (Sinhala)
  • Toasting Etiquette: N/A

sri-lanka-map

Alcohol Consumption By Type:

  • Beer: 6%
  • Wine: <1%
  • Spirits: 94%

Alcohol Consumption Per Capita (in litres):

  • Recorded: 0.35
  • Unrecorded: 0.44
  • Total: 0.79
  • Beer: 0.02

WHO Alcohol Data:

  • Per Capita Consumption: 0.4 litres
  • Alcohol Consumption Trend: Stable
  • Excise Taxes: Yes
  • Minimum Age: 21
  • Sales Restrictions: Time, location, specific events, petrol stations
  • Advertising Restrictions: Yes
  • Sponsorship/Promotional Restrictions: Yes

Patterns of Drinking Score: 3

Prohibition: None.

sri-lanka-long

Asia Overtakes Europe In Beer Consumption

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asia
For a long while Europe has led the world in beer consumption by continent and also by nation since the EU has increased in economic prominence as a single entity. According to new data by Credit Suisse, China now leads the world in terms of beer consumption, growing at a pace of about 10% per year. The Economist has more details in All Pints East.

beer-consumption-map-2010

Japanese Paper Beer

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Most people have probably heard of origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. But the Japanese propensity of coming up with unusual hobbies knows no boundaries. One of the tamer examples is the related art of making 3D paper models. Using vector software like Pepakura, 3D models are created in 2D and then sheets are created to cut out and build the paper models. I stumbled on one of these while searching for another image. It’s of a waitress serving beer to a bar patron. The title of it is Bunny Beer Maiden because the waitress is dressed in a bunny costume, a popular Japanese fetish theme. Instructions and more photos are also at Papercraft and also at Paperworks’ And Wind Until, which has even more views of the component parts of the paper models.

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First a vector drawing is created on a computer, and then individual pieces like a dress pattern are created that must be carefully cut out for assembly.

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After being put together, the server in bunny costume looks like this. See many other angles here.

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Here’s a close-up of the glasses of beer.

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And the customer with his beer. See many other angles here.

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And here’s the entire scene with the server, the customer and tables and chairs, all of which are made out of paper.

International Brewers Buying Breweries In China

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The English version of the Chinese newspaper, The People’s Daily, had an interesting article about international breweries investing heavily in the world’s biggest beer market: China. Entitled, Big Brewers Fermenting Deals in Southwest, it details, for example, how MolsonCoors has “recently spent $40 million to buy a 51 percent stake in a new joint venture with the Hebei Si’hai Beer Company.” Coors Light “now accounts for 10 percent of China’s premium beer market.” Carlsberg is making similar investments, and Anheuser-Busch InBev “started work on a new brewery in Ziyang, Sichuan province, this year.” And that’s just in the southern part of China. It’s a big market.

Beer In Ads #22: Sapporo’s At The Dance

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Thursday’s ad is from Japan, and is for Sapporo beer. The ad is from 1934 and pictures a woman sitting and enjoying a beer, presumably at a dance watching the other couples cut a rug. One oddity; is it just me or does that glass in her hand look pretty small? Or is she perhaps a giant? Either way, it seems a little out of proportion. It’s also interesting that apart from the kanji writing and the woman’s obvious ethnicity, it could be any western ad for beer.

SapporoBeer-1934

Beer In Art #59: Kitti Narod’s Rivers of Amber

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Today’s works of art is by a young Thai artist named Kitti Narod. He was commissioned by Chang Beer, the best-selling beer in Thailand, to paint an “interpretation” of their label. He came up with Rivers of Amber.

kitti-narod_rivers-of-amber

Here’s a description of the work:

In Bangkok artist Kitti Narod’s commissioned interpretation of the Thai favourite Chang Beer bottle and logo, an exuberant fountain of golden beer escapes the confines of its glass bottle and Narod’s painted encircling frame to flood the canvas with waves of vital refreshment. Four mystically illuminated corner elephants echo the prized white Thai elephants of the brand logo. Within the painted sphere, the forest, river, rainbow and starry sky exude energy to match the eddies of the amber torrent.

I love the look of this piece, especially having just watched the color-saturated Sita Sings the Blues. A lot of art from this region of the world uses dense, colorful designs where every square inch of the canvas is used.

Narod is appranetly a self-taught artist who “creates unique paintings of wildlife with brilliant dots of color.” According to a biography on Absolute Arts:

Kitti Narod’s acrylic dot paintings are inspired by Australian Aboriginal techniques. As a graduate artist working on collage paintings, Kitti came upon the dots on dots Australian Aboriginal art and found that this spoke to him personally as an artist. In Narod’s work, themes from nature, flowers, fruits, leaves, waves, trees, the sea and sea creatures are interwoven in colour schemes drawn from the blue of the sky and the warm palette inspired by Kitti’s tropical sun. This exceptionally versatile artist also produces dynamic Urban Abstracts, collages on a Chinese theme and, in collaboration with his “mom”, cutting edge textile compositions.

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The Chang beer label, owned by ThaiBev. In Thai, the word “Chang” means elephant. Chang also has an interesting looking Thai Good Food Guide online.

You can see much more of her colorful artwork at Easy Art, the Magic Art Gallery and Thai Fine Art Online. You can purchase prints of his work at several online shops, including the X-Ray Mag Store or Easy Art.

1,000-Bottle Xmas Tree

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christmas
I’m pretty sure Heineken has done this in year’s past, too, but this year the bottle tree they built in Shanghai, China is more massive, using 1,000 bottles to create the glass Christmas tree.

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On Nanjing Road, the giant tree was built with full bottles of Heineken, which frankly is probably the best thing they could have done with them. That way no one will have to actually drink them. But they sure look cool.

heineken-tree-09-2

The Next “Session” Heads East

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Girl Likes Beer, who is hosting our next Session, has a personal goal to sample a beer from every country with their own brewery. She’s had quite a few west of her native Poland, but the east is still largely unexplored. So she’s invited us to go east with her. She explains:

I would like you to pick your favorite beer made east from your hometown but east enough that it is already in a different country. It can be from the closest country or from the furthest. Explain why do you like this beer. What is the coolest stereotype associated with the country the beer comes from (of course, according to you)? And one more thing. If you do a video or picture of the beer (not obligatory of course) try to include the flag of the country.

Well, this could be fun. Get out your maps, compasses and orienteering gear. And head east in search of beer.

U.S. Select Beer Taste

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us-outline
I stumbled on the photo of a peculiar beer below while looking for another image. It was on Holy Taco, a humor website as far as I can tell.

us-s-beer-taste

Best I could find out is that it’s a Japanese beer made by what appears to be a fairly large global food and drinks company called SC Foods Co., Ltd. The beer is called U.S. Select Beer Taste and is fairly resplendent with patriotic imagery from using a red, white and blue palette to the U.S. flag, an outline of the lower 48 and even part of the Statue of Liberty.

uss-beer-taste

It’s certainly an odd duck. But what fascinates me most is wondering what it tastes like. I mean that in an abstract sense. I know in reality it’s likely a clone of a tasteless American-style macro lager or similar low-calorie light beer. Or is it? What is the perception of the “select beer taste of the U.S.?” Is is still the former big three, or has craft beer managed to upstage that as an antiquated image of American beer?

I also can’t help but wonder, if it is an American light lager, why? The three major brands in Japan — Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo — aren’t substantially different from Bud, Miller or Coors. So if you’re going to label it U.S. Select Beer Taste, then it has to mean something to the intended consumer, which appears to be the Japanese. They have to perceive it as being something different than their own beer, don’t they? And if so, then doesn’t it follow that U.S. Select Beer Taste might be more craft-oriented in taste? It wouldn’t taste like a German, Belgian, Czech or English import. Sadly, I couldn’t find any ratings for the beer on either Beer Advocate of Rate Beer, so I don’t really know if it’s more Dale’s Pale Ale than Bud Light.

So what exactly is American Beer’s Taste perception in Japan and around the world? Among brewers and the über beer geeks certainly our reputation for quality is unsurpassed and the craft industry has staged a remarkable comeback for American beer since the low point of the 1970s. But that’s among the small, niche customer for whom beer matters. To the general consumer, I’m not so sure. Budweiser and Coors both sell surprisingly well in Great Britain and Bud is even making modest progress in Germany. What do you think U.S. Select Beer Taste is?

Beer In Art #35: Heartland Art

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art-beer
Today’s works of art are by a variety of artists. The common element is that all of them were created for a concept bar in Japan called Beer Hall Heartland, a part of Kirin and a separate brand of beer they make.

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The beer was first brewed exclusively for the bar in 1986. It has a proprietary green bottle.

Every other year, beginning in 2003, they’ve sponsored an art contest through the Wakita Museum of Art. Known as the Heartland Karuizawa Drawing Biennale.

The painting below is the first one I discovered, the one that led me to the rest of them. It’s called Aneuheart and is a watercolor pencil by Kazuhiro Kikuchi. It’s one of the 2007 winners.

heartland_kikuchi

Here’s what the artist had to say about it:

The subject was Heartland Beer, so I drew it with this thought in my mind: “Let’s create a new, cool 2007-version heart symbol.” However, this was very difficult, and it was hard to get away from the traditional kind of heart symbol. I went through some trial and error before eventually settling on a design that uses the traditional shape. I think the overall picture represents the concept of Heartland Beer, which is “the original values of things that are not at the mercy of fashion or popular opinion.” This picture is also a personal favorite. The title should be read as “a new heart,” meaning new or fresh heart. My commitment when I drew this picture was to create something for which I could congratulate myself, like: “I love this picture” or “this one is so cool,” after completing the work-and that is what I always have in my mind.

It reminds me a bit of Keith Haring, but with more pastel colors.

Another one from 2007, entitled “Carbonated Bubbles of Heartland Beer” by Ryosuke Matsuya. It’s also done in watercolor pencil.

heartland_matsuzono

Matsuya explains it:

I named this picture “Carbonated Bubbles of Heartland Beer” because I sensed some pathos in these carbonated bubbles. First they fizz and burst out refreshingly, but when it comes to an end, bubbles disappear and even the taste changes. I thought “this resembles a person’s life,” holding a Kaki-pea snack and a beer in my hands. I like this picture very much.

And here’s yest another one from the 2007 winners. This one is called simply “Beer,” a watercolor pencil by Ken Tajima.

heartland_tajima

Here’s Tajima’s description:

In times of celebrations and delightful events, people loudly open a liquor bottle. For us, opening the seal on a drink has a special meaning.This time I drew exactly that moment of Heartland Beer. I tried not to make it too dramatic because life is not totally filled with delightful events. Even when you are feeling bitter about something, the crown caps on beer bottles will pop. However, in either case, each of those moments is a happy moment to a greater or lesser extent. It would be a great pleasure for me if those who look at this picture can feel and taste these moments.

All of the 2007 winners can be seen at Heartland’s website or at the Wakita Museum.

Here’s my favorite from the 2005 contest. It’s called “Bomb” and was created by Kentaro Izumi in acrylic paint, spray paint, and oil-based ink.

heartland_izumiweb

This is Izumi’s take:

By drawing beer bottles spreading out into all directions, I rendered the great taste that spreads throughout the mouth at the moment of drinking beer. I think the situation when people drink, differs according to each person, but basically, I used beautiful colors to describe a type of beer that can be drunk pleasantly and delectably.

All of the 2005 winners can be seen at Heartland’s website or at the Wakita Museum.

From 2003, the watercolor pencil work below is called “837 Heartland Bottles (a year’s worth)” and is by Jun Mochizuki.

heartland-1

This is Mochizuki’s biography:

Born in Tokyo in 1955. Wins the Gold Prize at the JACA Japan Illustration Exhibition in 1984. Started work on as an illustrator. He has held personal exhibitions at venues including Space Yui, Ikebukuro Seibu Atelier Nouveau, Yurakucho Seibu Creators’ Space, and Shinjuku Gallery Genkai. From around 1990, he has been engaged in developing computer software, and currently he mainly creates web content, and also likes playing with his dog on the beach at Minami-Boso.

The remaining works of art are also from 2003 but I don’t know the artists either because they aren’t given or because I can’t read Japanese.

heartland_zyuumonzi

The one below is called Dream Time.

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And this last one is “Untitled.”

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All of the 2003 winners can be seen at Heartland’s website or at the Wakita Museum.