Just saw this salacious little video while visiting Brewpublic and thought it was worth sharing. The video Beer Porn was apparently created by Michael O’Connor from Bailey’s Taproom in Portland, Oregon. It was filmed for the NW Film Center last fall. You can also read O’Connor’s hilarious description of his film on Brewpublic. Enjoy.
Damaged Lagunitas Equipment In Petaluma
When last we looked, the damaged Lagunitas brewing equipment was at the dock, at the Port of Stockton. Earlier today I stopped by the Lagunitas Brewery to pick up some samples for a tasting tomorrow for the Celebrator Beer News and, not surprisingly, the broken lauter tun was around the back of the brewery. Having traveled so far — the equipment, not me — I wanted to see it close up and snapped some photos, too.
At the Lagunitas Brewery.
The damaged brewhouse in Petaluma.
Some of the damage, up close and personal.
Close-up mayhem.
Damaged Lagunitas Brewing Equipment At The Dock
You may recall that earlier this month, the Lagunitas Brewhouse [Was] Destroyed At Sea. Lagunitas owner Tony Magee, through his Twitter Feed, just posted a number of new photos of the equipment as it arrived at the Port of Stockton this weekend. I’d say my usual “enjoy,” but it’s a little on the painful-to-see side.
The Lauter Tun at the Port of Stockton.
The most-damaged side.
A close-up of the damage.
And this is a shot of “the crane what done it,” that is smooshed the brewhouse lauter tun.
And yet another damaged piece of equipment.
Lagunitas Brewhouse Destroyed At Sea
Ouch. As many of you probably know, Lagunitas Brewing is in the process of installing a new 250-barrel brewhouse, but there may be a bit of a delay. Apparently the brewhouse was on its way to California, tied down on the top of the deck in the Caribbean, when a storm hit the cargo ship. As it “rolled back and forth by more than 40 degrees a crane came loose from its chains and crushed the brewhouse. The 30′ diameter lauter tun caught the blunt of the attack, and appears to be a total loss.”
“For Good Living” Brown Derby Promotional Film
If you say my last post, Beer In Ads #314: Brown Derby’s For Good Living, now you know why I chose a Brown Derby ad. I also came across this promotional film from the same year as the ad, 1937, which was called “For Good Living,” and sponsored at the time by Safeway Stores. It’s a silent promotional film, but after some cheesy introductions shows the brewery where Brown Derby is made. Really, there’s a lot of early brewery porn. Obviously the basic process of making and packaging beer hasn’t changed all that much in the 70+ years since this video was made, but the machinery sure has. At just under twenty minutes, it’s a pretty thorough virtual tour, and includes both bottles and cans being produced. After the tour, the final minutes show the planned “For Good Living” advertising campaign. It’s quite a time capsule. I think every brewer should watch it. I’d love to hear some of their thoughts on then vs. now.
Daily Brewery Porn Returns
A while back I had a photoblog up that featured my favorite beer-related pictures that I’ve taken over the years, Brookston Beer Pix. It got lost in the internet migration last year but it’s now been rechristened as a Tumblr blog. Each day I’ll post a new fave picture from my photo archives, of which I have literally thousands. Quite a few of them are brewery porn, which is what I call photos of brewing equipment in all their naked glory. I also have a thing for photographing hoses in the brewery, so you may see a few of those along with many more of my visual obsessions.
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll automatically be notified when a new photo is posted. Or you can, of course, follow along on Tumblr, which is especially easy if you already have an account there.
Beer In Ads #108: Coors’ Golden Brewery
Thursday’s ad is for Coors. It’s an old advertising lithograph from around the 1890s. I love these kind of old ads that are merely showing off the industrial beauty of old breweries. This is, in a sense, vintage brewery porn. I attended a Coors event earlier tonight (more about that later) and so this seemed an appropriate ad to showcase today.
Moonlight Goes Wild
Brian Hunt, from Moonlight Brewing, sent me the photo below showing the two used French champagne foeders (oak barrels) he bought for the brewery. Each one will hold 34 barrels (1,054 gallons). He’ll be making spontaneously fermented beers with them, but don’t expect to see any beer for at least 18 months, because they’ll be aging for at least that length of time, possibly longer. This is going to fun. I can’t wait to try whatever he makes with these. What will they be called? Perhaps Sonambic (Sonoma + lambic), which as I understand it is a term Brian coined, and Vinnie also uses at Russian River, and both breweries are in Sonoma County.
Brian Hunt and his assistant brewer, Jeff Barkley, in front of Moonlight Brewery’s new foeders.
A Visit To Three Floyds
Today, of course, is the annual Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana. Since many people will not have a golden ticket and be waiting in line to buy this year’s Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, here’s a little tour of the brewery I took the Sunday after CBC a couple of weeks ago. Three Floyds’ sales manager Lincoln Anderson was kind enough to drive Sean Paxton and me from our hotel in Chicago (and then dropped us off at the airport, thanks Lincoln) after we spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours n Munster drinking and eating. I knew the beer would be good, I’d had plenty of it before, but I was blown away with how good the food was. Even the frites were top notch (look for a frites review soon) but everything else on the diverse menu we tried was spectacular. The walls were decorated with beer labels and cool original graffiti art. For a lazy Sunday afternoon, the brewpub filled up quickly with tourists, young couples and even families obviously just come from church.
We also had a chance to walk around in the brewery. It was fun to see the Lagunitas fermenters again that Tthree Floyds had bought from them, especially Kaboom. I also shot a short video tour of the brewery, which is below. Happy Dark Lord Day.
While we were there, preparations for Dark Lord Day were well under way, and Lincoln explained to us what else would be added, just for the day’s activities. One hiccup was that during a CBC tour it appears someone stole a bottle of Dark Lord 2010 and had put it up on eBay. Rawmar2 from Spring Grove, Illinois sold it for $12,800, though I suspect that was a false bid so no one could buy it. Even though an eBay win is a contract, it couldn’t be enforced if the goods being sold were stolen.
At the entrance to the brewery.
A Dark Lord Banner from 2009 hangs in the brewery.
Below is a slideshow of the Three Floyds Brewery. 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.
A here’s a short video of me walking through the brewery.
Fullsteam’s Brewery Porn From Space
Regular Bulletin readers already know I have an unnatural, some might say unhealthy, love of brewing equipment — a.k.a. brewery porn — so I was thrilled to see Fullsteam Brewery’s new brewhouse from space. I especially love the artists rendering of where his brewhouse might have ended up had it not been for the hand of fate stepping in and cutting NASA’s budget.
Recently, the reworked-for-full-gravity brewhouse was “docked” at the Fullsteam space in Durham, North Carolina.
To see more of it, check out the original post or the Flickr gallery.