Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Craft Beer Defined as “Unusually Flavored”

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In ABC News’ online Money section, business writer Eric Noe has a piece entitled For Dessert, How About a Beer?. In the middle of the article, Noe makes the following revelation:

Sales of craft beers, the industry term given to unusually flavored or seasonal beers, grew at 11 percent during the first half of the year.

Let that sink in. ABC defines craft beer as either “unusually flavored” or “seasonal beers.” Perhaps if you listen very carefully you can hear a faint thumping sound. That’s me banging my head repeatedly against my keyboard. The only thing keeping my head from spinning completely around are the laws of physics.

Remind me not to go drinking with Eric Noe. “Here, Eric, try this Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. How about those unusual flavors? We call them hops.” I can only assume by “unusually flavored” he means that they actually have flavor, which is the reason sales of industrial light lagers are down — they don’t have much in the way of flavor at all.

The rest of the article is banal stuff — and old hat — about Miller’s new chocolate beer (Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager), Anhesuer-Busch’s chocolate beer, etc., something the craft beer segment has been doing for years. But, of course, to ABC it’s only news once the big players (you know, the ones who advertise on ABC) begin to make beer with chocolate or chocolate-like flavors. The article also touches on the recent spate of infused beers, beers with added vitamins, caffeine, etc. and manages to confuse those beers with ones having different flavors, too. Last time I checked vitamins don’t have a particular flavor, do they?

As far as I can tell, the author isn’t really sure what flavor is, I mean he seems confused about its very definition. For example, he reports that “Anheuser-Busch has gotten in on the act, too, introducing flavored beers like Michelob Honey Lager and Michelob Amber Bock.” The honey lager may have “a touch of honey,” as A-B claims, but does that really make it a “flavored beer?” More to the point, what flavors have been added to the Amber Bock? Malt?

Eric Shepard, executive editor of the industry trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights remarks in the article that “[p]eople are saying they want something more flavorful than just malt, yeast, hops and water.” No offense, Eric, but I don’t think that is what people are saying. Malt, yeast, hops and water are more than sufficient to make a bewildering array of rich, flavorful beers. This year’s Great American Beer Festival judged 69 distinct and different beer styles, only a handful of which used anything more than the classic four ingedients. This is exactly what craft brewers have been doing for twenty-five years. People do want those ingredients used to produce something that tastes like … well, something. They want it to taste like beer, for example. That would be a good start.

Noe concludes:

For the major breweries, creating specialty brands isn’t the problem.

But while microbreweries, which have lower operating expenses, can turn a profit by selling relatively small amounts of specialty beers, the bigger operations like Miller and Anheuser-Busch probably won’t see immediate profits from these newer products.

For now, the goal of offering craft beers may be to lure customers back to the major brands.

“So far, the big breweries haven’t proved particularly adept at selling craft beers,” Shepard said. “But it makes a whole lot of sense — this is where the market is going.”

I love the honesty of his remark, “the goal of offering craft beers may be to lure [my emphasis] customers back to the major brands.” People must be “lured” to drink the major brands. That says it all, don’t you think?

Bob Lachky: “Here’s to Advertising”

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Bob Lachky, the man responsible for Anheuser-Busch‘s Here’s to Beer public relations campaign, has a new job. According to a report in today’s AdAge Lachky has been named Anheuser-Busch’s chief creative officer by Augie IV, who has worked closely with him for twenty years. This means he will be responsible for “all the brewer’s agency relationships and creative output” and, as one insider put it, “Bob is going to be an integral part of the new regime.”

It will be interesting to see what will happen to the Here’s to Beer campaign, since much of it was closely associated with Lachky personally.

Bob Lachky

James Bond’s Beer

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I’ve been a huge fan of James Bond since I was a kid. I read all of Ian Fleming’s novels and even the later ones when John Gardner took over the series, among others. And, of course, I’ve seen all of the films many times. Not only am I aware that Sean Connery was not the first James Bond — it was an American, Barry Nelson — I’ve had a videotape of the show for decades. It was originally aired as a teleplay on live television in 1954 (eight years before Sean Connery debuted as James Bond in 1962’s Dr. No) on the show “Climax!.” It was based on Fleming’s novel Casino Royale and Peter Lorre played the villain, Le Chiffre. Suffice it to say I’m a big fan.

So when I read that in the new adaptation of Casino Royale (due in theaters November 17) Bond will drink a Heineken in a six-figure cross-promotion, I must say my first reaction was suspicion. Suspicion because every single time this story was reported it contained a justification for this move, saying that in Fleming’s novel his character James Bond does drink beer for the first and only time. If they want to have Heineken be a sponsor for the film and have the character drink one, that’s their decision even though I really hate these type of deals where products are featured prominently in films for big bucks. To me the insertion of the products into the action is way too obvious so that it distracts you from what makes movies so enjoyable, which is allowing you to escape into the story. It’s hard to feel swept away into a story when a giant bus drives by behind the action with a billboard reading “Drink Coke” every time the characters are walking outdoors. And in Pierce Brosnan’s second film as James Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies, during a “rooftop motorcycle chase in Saigon, Bond returns the bike to street level by using a parked truck which carries cases of Heineken beer as a ramp. Cans fly in every direction. Several kegs of Heineken are seen when the motorcycle briefly skids.” The Amsterdam brewer’s relationship with the Bond films has thus been going on for some time now, so it’s really no surprise that they’d want to crank it up a notch for the new movie.

But trying to justify such a greedy, commercial intrusion by saying it will make the film more accurate since the news stories all claim Bond did drink a beer in the novel seems to me avarice run amuck. A common element all of these news stories shared was that while they all claimed that Bond drank beer in Fleming’s Casino Royale novel, not one of them gave any specifics. For example, in Dowd on Drinks, by William M. Dowd, he writes the following:

In the first Bond novel, “Casino Royale,” the character who became known for his knowledge and enjoyment of wines and spirits actually drank beer. (Pause here for startled gasps by those reading this sacrilege for the first time.)

How opprobrious. “Startled gasps? Sacrilege?” Now why someone who knows and enjoys wine and spirits also drinking beer would be a sacrilege is never explained, perhaps Dowd thinks it self-evident. But it’s highly insulting and it displays that media prejudice I’m always going on about. Here’s another drinks writer who apparently thinks all beer is bad and all wine (and spirits) are good. Must be nice to live in such a black and white world in which reality has no place in your version of things.

Another account, this one from the Hearst Group, said “[i]n the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, the super spy who became known for his knowledge and enjoyment of wines and spirits actually (my emphasis) drank beer.” Oh, he actually drank beer, he didn’t pretend to drink it, or he didn’t just order but actually choked it down, too. What on earth is wrong with these people? Can they not see how ignorant they appear?

The reason, of course, they’re falling all over themselves to justify this move is obvious. The vodka martini, shaken not stirred, is part of the Bond ethos, a big part of his coolness, his personality and his popularity. So tampering with that is obviously risky but since there’s a lot of money at stake, they will do anything to keep the money without losing the fans. So by saying Bond actually did have a beer in the book makes it much easier to sell, as many of the reports have offered. For example, here’s how one wire service put it.

James Bond purists will be grateful to know that the beer plot is not just a money grab by the movie’s makers. Casino Royale was the first Bond book written by Ian Fleming and the only one in which Bond drinks beer.

So then the real question is, is it true? Did Bond drink a beer in the novel Casino Royale? I grabbed my dog-eared copy of Casino Royale from the attic in search of the answer and read it again, because it had been years since I’d cracked it open although I certainly couldn’t remember any reference to beer. I still have my old “complete and unabridged” Signet paperback that was in my parents house growing up. It’s a sixth printing from October 1962. Here’s what I found.

  1. In Chapter 5, on page 30, Bond orders his first drink in the book, an Americano. An Americano is a cocktail made with bitters, sweet vermouth, and soda water.
  2. In Chapter 7, on page 40, Bond orders C.I.A. man Felix Leiter a “Haig-and-Haig” (which is scotch whisky) and himself a “A dry martini” … “One. In a deep champagne goblet.” Then he gives the bartender more detailed instructions on how to make it. “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel.” Have I stumbled upon the origin of Bond’s famous “shaken not stirred” predilection? Bond tells Leiter that the drink is his “own invention” and that he plans “to patent it when [he] can think of a good name” demonstrating there are some subjects on which Bond is quite ignorant, patent law for example.
  3. In Chapter 8, on page 46, Bond shared a “cold carafe of vodka, very cold” with fellow agent and Bond girl “Vesper Lynd.”
  4. Later in the same chapter, on pages 47-48, Bond orders a bottle of champagne, a “Taittinger 45” but the waiter persuades him that the “Brut Blanc de Blanc 1943” would be better and Bond agrees.
  5. After long expositions about playing baccarat, Bond returns to drinking finally in Chapter 13, on page 75, when he ordered a bottle of champagne for himself and Felix Leiter to celebrate his victory at cards.
  6. Then in Chapter 14, at page 78, Bond orders another bottle of champagne, this time Veuve Cliquot, to have with his scrambled eggs and bacon, which he shared with Vesper.
  7. Shortly after that, Vesper is abducted and Bond gives chase, getting captured and tortured in the process. For many pages nothing is drunk, as Bond can’t even get a drink of water from his torturers. Eventually he gets away and after recovering in the hospital, goes on a holiday on the French coast with Vesper. In Chapter 24, on page 129, she and Bond share yet another bottle of champagne which he chased a page later with some brandy.
  8. Finally, in the second last chapter, number 26 on page 138, they share a final bottle of champagne before the story concludes unexpectedly (and I won’t give away the ending).

So unless I missed it somehow, there’s not one mention of beer in the novel I can find, much less a scene in which Bond actually drinks one. I skimmed through the book many times before resorting to re-reading the whole thing cover to cover trying to be thorough and not miss finding a bottle in a haystack. It was an awful lot of trouble just to prove a point. (The wonderful website Make mine a 007 also details the drinks Bond has in Casino Royale and reaches the same conclusion). So the propaganda spin machine is in high gear and not one news organization bothered to check the facts or even ask where in the novel Bond drinks this seminal beer that apparently makes crass commercialism justifiable. They all just reported what the press release said and didn’t question a thing, even though a moment’s pause should have been enough to suggest it might be too convenient. What are the odds that the story they were re-making just happened to be the only James Bond novel in which the main character drinks a beer as Heineken was paying them an undisclosed six-figure amount to depict him doing just that. Not one reporter considered exploring that angle? It’s good to know our nation’s media is the hands of such a capable, inquisitive bunch.

But let’s look at the story’s other claim, that Casino Royale is the one and only novel in which Bond chooses beer.

  • In Diamonds Are Forever, Fleming’s fourth Bond novel, 007 takes Bill Tanner to lunch at Scotts where he orders a Black Velvet, which is a mixed pint of champagne and Guinness.
  • Later in the same novel, while driving to Saratoga with C.I.A. compatriot Felix Leiter, they stop at roadside greasy spoon called “Chicken in a Basket” where Leiter and Bond have Miller High Life with their lunch.
  • In Goldfinger, the seventh novel, while chasing the villian through Europe, Bond washed down his lunch at Geneva’s Bavaria brasserie with Löwenbräu beer.
  • In The Hildebrand Rarity, one of the short stories in the collection published under the title For Your Eyes Only, after circling an island in a boat Bond stops for a chicken salad sandwich and a “cold beer” from a cooler. This story first appeared in Playboy magazine in 1960.
  • In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the 11th novel (excluding the short stories), Bond has four steins of Franziskaner at the Franziskaner Keller with his taxi driver to celebrate his engagement to Tracy. It is in effect his bachelor party and when he’s reunited with his fiancee, she accuses him of smelling “like a pig of beer and sausages.”
  • In The Man With the Golden Gun, Fleming’s 13th novel, while searching for Scaramanga, Bond orders a Red Stripe in the Dreamland Cafe and has two more before he leaves.
  • In The Living Daylights, part of a second short story collection, this one published under the title Octopussy and the Living Daylights, Bond has a lunch of salted herring and two draft Löwenbräus.

That’s a total of seven instances where James Bond has a beer in six different Fleming stories (four novels and two short stories). So not only does Bond not have a beer in Casino Royale, it was also not the only instance of his doing so as virtually all of the recent news stories have claimed. And lest you think they can weasel their way out of this lie by claiming they meant the Bond films, Bond has also had beer on screen before, too. In the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, after escaping from Piz Gloria, Bond orders and drinks a beer from an outdoor stand while trying to blend into the crowd. So at every level, the moneyed interests of the film production company and the beer sponsor, with the media’s complicity, is simply rewriting history to fit their short term goals of having Bond drink a Heineken for money in the latest film.

Propaganda aside, I’m certainly in favor of James Bond drinking beer. If they’re trying to re-invent (or reboot) James Bond — which is my understanding of what the new film represents — it makes sense that a modern Bond would have embraced good beer along with the other pleasures of life today. That would be in keeping with the character’s philosophy. Undoubtedly one of the reasons that Bond was not a beer drinker in 1953 and beyond, when Fleming began writing the Bond novels, was that there were not many good beers widely available worldwide and what was available was not often written about. Remember Michael Jackson’s first beer book wasn’t published until 1977. And American wines were held in no better regard during that time period, either. So keeping Bond’s tastes and preferences rooted in a time fifty years ago, when the diversity and quality of alcohol beverages was vastly different than it is today, doesn’t make sense anymore, if indeed it ever did.

But Heineken? Not Heineken. Bond’s character would never drink such swill. He wouldn’t be a snob about wine, food, clothes, cars and practically everything else and then drink such a pedestrian beer. In fact, in the novel Casino Royale, in Chapter 8, just after ordering champagne, Bond makes the following pronouncement:

“You must forgive me,” he said. “I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.”

So there is absolutely no way someone who would say that would turn around and order a skunked green-bottle of Heineken. Maybe a Thomas Hardy 1968, a Samuel Adams Utopias, a Deus, or a Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus. He’d more likely order something showy, expensive and impressive; something that showed he had good taste. And that would never be a Heineken. Often Bond orders local specialties in the novels and films, and Casino Royale takes place in northern France. The fictional resort town where most of the novel takes place is supposedly near the mouth of the Somme River in the Picardie region, which is only about two hours from Belgium. So while France is not known for its beers, a good selection of Belgian beers would likely be available at the casino and area restaurants. That’s what a beer savvy Bond would order.

The way I see it, this is simply a money grab despite — or perhaps because of — all of the protestations that it’s not. As entertainment news goes, this seems to be important to a lot of fans, which is no doubt why the spin was necessary in the first place. The story was certainly picked up by a lot of news outlets, both in print and online. That not one I could find got the story right but did the spin doctor’s bidding so completely says quite a lot about the state of our media, I think. Sure, in the end, who cares if a film and the media hoodwinked people into thinking one thing while another was true? It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of life. It is, after all, just a movie. And while that all may be true, I can’t help but think that in a media culture where the truth seems to have no bearing in editorial decisions that lying to the public about something that really does matter is getting easier and easier to do. Because if the media can lie to the public so unabashedly here, what else are we being lied to about? What else are we not being told? What else is the media not bothering to check or follow up on? And most importantly, when will they start taking beer seriously?

For trivia’s sake, there was also a Bond beer once upon a time. In 1968, there was “James Bond’s 007 Special Blend,” brewed by National Brewing Co. of Baltimore, Maryland. They’re highly collectible because they were produced for only a short time, which was due to having never been officially licensed.

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“A subtle blend of premium beer and malt liquor.” Umm, what will they think of next?

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Miller Expands Import Selection in U.S.

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SABMiller announced yesterday their intention to bring four of the beer brands they own worldwide into the United States, presumably to bolster sagging sales of their core brands. Beginning next year, “Colombia’s Águila, two Peruvian brands, Cristal and Cusqueña, and Polish brew Tyskie will join SABMiller’s global brand Pilsner Urquell and Peroni on US shelves.”

All four will be sold in the New York market, whereas Tyskie will also be sold in the Chicago area and the three Latin American beers will also be in the Florida market.

According to Just Drinks, “SABMiller’s stable of US beers has struggled domestically. For the three months to the end of June, domestic sales to retailers fell 2.4%. Miller Lite brand volumes were level in the period.”

 

Miller’s press release has the following information about the four brands:

Águila is Colombia’s No. 1 brand with a 56 percent market share. It is a cultural icon, dominating the Colombian social and sports landscape. With nearly 2 million expatriate Colombians living in the US, there is a sizable market to pursue

Brewed since 1922, Cristal is Peru’s No. 1 selling beer with 52 percent share, combining a light-bodied profile with strong Andean imagery. It has been the No. 1 US import from South America for the last seven years, primarily appealing to the approximately one million Peruvian consumers in the US

Cusqueña – or “Gold of the Incas” – is the premium beer of Peru, and originates from Cuzco, the seat of the Inca empire

Tyskie, currently celebrating its 377th anniversary, is the No 1. brand in Poland, Central Europe’s leading beer growth market. The brand is rich in heritage from its origins near the beautiful city of Krakow and has since been elevated to national prominence, appealing to discerning consumers as the finest Polish beer with a full, satisfying taste

Rainier Brewery Area to be Gentrified

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It was announced today that a local Seattle developer, the Sabey Corporation, has bought the historic Rainier Brewery along Interstate 5 and plans to develop the space into a multi-use area for shopping, business offices, living spaces and light industry. For $9.9 million, they got 5.5 acres, which includes “310,000 square feet in four former brewery buildings: the Brew House, the Malt House, the Bottling Plant and the General Office.”

The Rainier Brewery was built in 1903 by the Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. and Georgetown was originally created as a company town, though annexed by Seattle in 1910. Three local breweries, Claussen-Sweeney Brewing, the Bay View Brewery (a.k.a. Kopp & Hemrich) and the Albert Braun Brewing Association merged together in 1892 to form the Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. Rainier celebrated their 100-year anniversary in 1978, though the brand was not created until May of 1893, when the newly merged company needed a new brand name for their beer. Ten years later it would be the sixth largest brewery nationwide and the west coast’s biggest. After prohibition, Fritz and Emil Sick bought first the brewery (in 1933) and then the Rainier Brand (in 1935). A few years later they installed the 12-foot neon “R” that became a Seattle landmark (which it was officially declared in 1993). Initially, it rotated but after Interstate 5 was built it remained stationary for fear it would distract motorists. After being very popular for several decades, the brand was sold to G. Heilmann in 1977 and then it slipped in and out of other hands until 1996, when Stroh’s acquired it.

They got out of the beer business three years later and brewing of “the Green Death” was moved down the road to Olympia Brewery in Tumwater after Pabst bought the brand name. The Tumwater plant closed in 2003 but Pabst continues to own and produce the Rainier label and last year even started an ad campaign playing upon the nostalgia for “Vitamin R” called Remember Rainier. It was finally removed on July 3, 2000 and replaced with a green “T” about the same size for Tully’s Coffee, who had moved their headquarters to the building. Many saw the switch as a change in Seattle’s beverage priorities. The “R” was donated to Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry, where it remains today.

Under the new development plan, many of the current tenants will be invited to stay, including Georgetown Brewing Co., a small craft brewery that has been in the old building since September 2002. Sabey believes that the neighborhood of Georgetown is ripe for a renaissance and their acquisition of the property may also facilitate growth in the area. Renovations are not likely to begin for at least eighteen months and won’t be finished until at least 2012.

Sabey also owns the Post-Intelligencer building along with several other prominent historic Seattle properties. Some of Sabey’s previous projects have included “converting a chicken-processing plant into the Elliott Park North biotech building and converting the 1910 Sisters of Providence Hospital into the James Tower life-sciences center.” They also own a piece of the Seattle Supersonics basketball team.

My initial sense that while I’m glad that they will preserve the Rainier brewery in some fashion, the look of the planned renovations seem a little too clean to me, a little too thought out. Sometimes too much planning results in an area that’s not organic since it isn’t allowed to be created naturally.

I’m thinking of areas like LoDo in Denver or the Warehouse District in Cleveland where in each case one prominent building was renovated, which led to another and then another until after a period of time the entire neighborhood had been transformed. This looks like the whole area will be done in one fell swoop which may or may not work, depending on how people perceive it. Seattle will either accept it or avoid it for being too Disneyfied, meaning it could seem too plastic, too forced and inauthentic. At least that’s how the drawing of the proposed changes strike me on first blush. Only time will tell. If only they’d bring back the giant neon “R.”

An artist’s rendering of planned development at the original Rainier Brewery site.

(Studio Meng Strazzara, October 10, 2006: Jim Bryant/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Anheuser-Busch Investing in india

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Anheuser-Busch is reportedly planning to spend about a billion Rupees ($12.4 million) to buy a 50% ownership interest in Crown Breweries, centrally located near Hyderabad, India. By early 2007, Budweiser and perhaps another local high gravity beer should be flowing from the new venture, which has yet to be finalized. This will be A-B’s first foray directly into the Indian market, which is only beginning to see growth, at a rate of only 7-10% per annum.

United Breweries, which also owns Mendocino Brewing in Ukiah, California, owns about half of the Indian market with its Kingfisher beer. SABMiller controls another third of the market with several brands it controls.

Pairing Beer and … Jerky?

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I’m always looking for examples and ideas that promote food with better beer, so when I saw the headline to a press release entitled “Say Goodbye to Wine and Cheese Parties” I was understandably intrigued. Then there was the first paragraph, which included the sentence: “it’s time to say goodbye to the ubiquitous, tired, wine and cheese party.” Amen. I couldn’t agree more. Wine doesn’t work well with cheese, as most honest sommeliers will admit, but the pairing has certainly helped wine’s image along nicely. Too bad it simply isn’t true that they go together. Beer, on the other hand, has been shown to pair up extremely well with cheese. The Trappist monks of Scourmont Abbey, who brew Chimay, also make cheeses that are perfect with their beers.

But this press release isn’t about anything quite so high-minded. It’s about beef jerky, of all things. Now I’m not opposed to jerky per se, but it’s not exactly the gourmet food to lift beer out of the tailgating food doldrums. Plus, the ad campaign surrounding this press release involves Sasquatch (a.k.a. Bigfoot) and his love of all things jerky. Not surprisingly, it has all the subtlety of a beer commercial on television. The company is Jack Links and they’ve even set up a MySpace page for their Sasquatch.

From the press release:

Move over wine and cheese, now there’s beer and jerky. A fun feast can be on the table in just five minutes using delicious, high-protein snacks from Jack Link’s® Beef Jerky. Made from the finest cuts of meat, in a variety of flavors and textures to satisfy even the most discerning palate, today’s jerky is packaged in shelf-stable, stay-fresh, re-sealable packages so they are always at the ready should unexpected guests arrive. Keep several types of chilled beers, lagers, micro-brews and ales on hand and you’re prepared for any spur-of-the-moment party.

“Along with America’s growing appreciation for the flavor and body of today’s micro-brews, ales and lagers, is the quest for the best foods to go with them,” says Damian McConn, certified brewing chemist. “We’ve paired varieties of beer with the savory flavors of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. The orchestration of balance between the hop bitterness and malt sweetness is carefully matched with the unique flavor profiles of jerky for the perfect party taste combinations.”

Hmm. Maybe, but surely there are better meat and beer combinations. I must confess I did have some salmon jerky the last night of GABF that Geoff Larsen, who owns Alaskan Brewing, brought down with him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of his terrific Smoked Porter to wash it down. So while I can’t really disagree that jerky probably does work with beer, it’s hard to swallow the way the press release is talking about jerky as if it were filet mignon. But okay, I’ll play along. Here are their recommendations. What do you think?
 

Beer and Jack Link’s Jerky: Six Quick Party Pairings

Barbecue Bliss: Barbeque beef jerky and full-flavored, dry stout. For a big, full-bodied blast of flavor, nothing beats the combination of beer n’ barbecue — forget the grill — just tear open a few bags of ready-to-eat, authentic jerky. Whether it’s the naturally smoked, slow-cooked goodness of Jack Link’s KC Masterpiece® Beef Jerky, KC Masterpiece Pork Tender Cuts or Hickory Smoked Beef Jerky, the grill has met its match. “This is a strongly flavored jerky with multiple dimensions, so I recommend a fairly complex, rich beer with some of the characteristics of the barbecue,” says McConn. “A full- flavored dry stout with a good body works best. The burnt, roasted notes of the stout provide the flavor to accompany the barbecue taste.”

Taste of the South: Spicy beef jerky and U.S. India Pale Ale. When you’ve got a hankerin’ for hot, sultry flavors, bring out the taste of the South with spicy meat snacks and thirst-quenching lagers and ales. Set your friends’ taste buds aflame with bowls of Jack Link’s Louisiana Hot Sauce Beef Jerky or Jalapeno Carne Seca Beef Jerky, both seasoned with flavor-filled spices, gently mesquite smoked and slow-cooked for the savory goodness you expect from authentic jerky. Spice up the party with a sample of flavorful Chicken Fajita Tender Cuts or Jack Link’s Sweet & Hot Beef Jerky. “Spicy jerky pairs well with a very hoppy U.S. India Pale Ale,” says McConn. “The hops, along with the higher alcohol, tame the heat, while the big malt profile of the beer matches the flavor of the beef. Hot, spicy flavors require big, hoppy beers.”

Taste of the Orient: Teriyaki jerky and German Kolsch or U.S. Golden Ale. If the tempting taste of teriyaki beckons you to the table, enhance the experience with a traditional German Kolsch-style beer or American Golden Ale. “The low hopping of these style beers allows the aroma of the teriyaki to remain present, while the fuller body complements the flavor of the beer,” says McConn. “Avoid overly hoppy or malty beers with this flavor of jerky.”

Steak House Supreme: Steak jerky and ESB (Extra Special Bitter) beer. Steak and beer: it’s the supreme combination. Now, you can create an authentic steakhouse experience on a moment’s notice with Jack Link’s A.1.® Steak Sauce Beef Jerky, A.1. Steak Sauce Beef Steak Nuggets or Jack Link’s® Prime Rib Tender Cuts paired with bold-flavored beers and ales. “I recommend an ESB style of beer. With the bitterness of the beer, you will encounter fruity, hoppy notes that complement the savory nature of the jerky,” says McConn. “A German-style ale works well with this flavor pairing also.”

Taste of Home: Ham or turkey jerky & doppel bock or medium-bodied lager. Who can resist the down-home flavor of tender roasted turkey or perhaps baked ham glazed with maple and brown sugar? You can evoke memories of these popular home-cooked meals in five minutes using Jack Link’s Turkey Jerky, Jack Link’s Maple & Brown Sugar Ham Jerky or Maple & Brown Sugar Pork Tender Cuts. “These pair wonderfully with the rich, full-bodied traits of a doppel bock,” says McConn. “The slight caramel notes of the bock pair well with the sweetness of the jerky, while the maltier, sweeter notes of the beer contrast the savory nature of the ham. I recommend a medium-bodied lager such as an Oktoberfest or marzen-style beer; these beers are brewed with spicier German hops that work well with pork and ham dishes.”

Pick a Pepper Party: Peppered jerky & English ale or English India pale ale. Pick a package of peppered jerky to perk up your next party. Let your guests pick their favorite from meat snack varieties such as Jack Link’s Peppered Beef Jerky or Peppered Steak Nuggets, both naturally smoked with mesquite and seasoned with a unique blend of peppercorns and robust spices. Or, think outside the pepper shaker and try Jack Link’s Pepperoni Jerky, a zesty treat loaded with all the flavor of authentic Italian sausage and the genuine goodness of beef jerky. “This jerky pairs well with English-style ale or English India pale ale,” says McConn. “The assertive presence of the hops helps balance the spiciness of the pepper, especially at the finish. These are both full-bodied beers that hold up well to the flavor of the beef while the fruity, spicy hops complement the peppery overtones.”

Rolling Rock Sale Finalized

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While I was in Denver for GABF, the proposed sale between City Brewing of LaCrosse, Wisconsin was been finalized between them and InBev for the purchase of the Latrobe Brewery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Over 150 union workers ratified a two-year contract. All that remains is an issue about increasing the amount of water available for the brewery and for dealing with the wastewater so that City Brewery can increase Latrobe’s capacity to two-million barrels annually. But the deal is done, and neither side is revealing the pricetag for the Latrobe Brewery. The brewery should re-open shortly, probably in the next few weeks, assuming the water issues are resolved quickly.

Here’s to American Brew

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I knew Florentine Films, which is the Ken Burns’ documentary film production company, was working on a film on the history of craft beer but I didn’t know exactly who was doing it or what it was precisely. There are four directors at Florentine Film. In addition to Burns, there’s also Larry Hott, Roger Sherman and Buddy Squires. A PA had contacted me looking for old pictures of Bert Grant and some other very early craft brewers. My photos didn’t go back as far as they needed so I put them on to the Celebrator’s photo archive, which does. The depth and breadth of who they were looking for was very impressive and certainly inferred they had done their homework. I was eagerly anticipating a high-profile film about the history of our peculiar industry. Between that and Beer Wars, which was shot last year and is apparently being edited now, it seems like we may be on the brink of some wonderful opportunities for people to find out what craft beer is — perhaps for the first time — and maybe seek it out and drink it in, literally.

Surprisingly, I discovered when a press release via e-mail appeared in my inbox that in fact the film American Brew is being sponsored by “Here’s to Beer,” the A-B sponsored effort to educate people about beer. I have, of course, not been won over by that effort and have said some very harsh words about it. Just look at the post before this one for a flavor of my discontent. But every thing about this film that they’re sponsoring looks great. The people involved seem beyond reproach. Roger Sherman, who is directing the film, is no stranger to film-making and has several awards under his belt to prove it. And many of the people listed on the film’s teaser poster I count as my friends. So unlike, say Beerfest, everything I know about this movie is positive and I’m looking very forward to actually seeing this one.

The one niggling thing about it is that essentially Anheuser-Busch paid for what at least appears to be a film that at first blush doesn’t seem like it will do them any favors. Maybe I’m missing something here, but a film that finally shows the history of innovative, small authentic craft beer would by contast not show the big breweries in a particularly flattering light. I certainly want to believe that A-B’s influence on the project will not extend to the substance and content of the movie, but it’s hard not to speculate. The trailer will be debuting at GABF and it will be interesting to see it. Let’s hope we’ll all be able to say, without reservation, “Here’s to American Brew.”

 

NBWA Gives Bob Lachky Beer’s “Medal of Freedom”

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The National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) gave its Industry Service Award to Anheuser-Busch executive VP Bob Lachky. In their press release, the NBWA stated that the reason they gave the award to Lachky was for “his efforts to promote beer and the important role distributors play in the marketplace”

From the press release:

“August Busch IV created the Global Industry Development group because we firmly believe that everyone in the industry must work to sell and grow the entire category,” Lachky said. “It has been a privilege to work with NBWA and its members and I am thrilled to accept this award on behalf of Here’s To Beer and Anheuser-Busch. Seeing the signs of beer industry improvement this year, we think we are making progress.”

Since late last year, Lachky has spearheaded the “Here’s To Beer” industry initiative. The grassroots campaign to elevate the image of beer focuses on three key areas:

  1. Reminding consumers of the social value of beer — it brings people together in an unpretentious way.
  2. Romancing the product and the art of brewing — reinforcing beer’s refreshment, all natural ingredients and the beauty of its liquid.
  3. Encouraging consumers to view beer differently — giving them new ways to enjoy beer including ideas and recipes for pairing with food.

Well, good for Bob. I’m sure he’s a terrific guy. And as I’ve said before the “idea” of an industry-wide promotion of the positive aspects of beer à la “Got Milk?” is something the industry sorely needs. I hate beating a dead horse, but the wine industry’s efficacy in educating their consumers and raising the standards for wine put us as an industry to shame. Sure they’ve had more money and more built-in appeal (or high-end prejudice), but that’s not all they’ve been fortunate about. Perhaps most importantly, Gallo (and the other large-scale wine producers) haven’t been undermining those efforts for decades the way the big brewery’s advertising has damaged the image of beer. Craft beer’s challenge has been far more Sisyphean in nature. For every positive step craft beer has moved forward, talking frogs, man law, flatulent horses, twins and all manner of other juvenilia has dragged us back down again. As a result, many people remain deliriously ignorant of what good beer even is, never mind how best to enjoy it.

So for the segment of the industry most responsible for the negative associations that beer has today to take up the fight to improve beer’s image seems downright Orwellian to me. Kafka would have a hard time understanding this one. Yet many of my colleagues remain optimistic about this program or have remained silent about it. We all think the industry needs what the stated goals of “Here’s to Beer” are, but given A-B’s transparent agenda, how can anyone take it seriously. Obviously the other brewers saw through A-B’s motives, which is why they all chose not to participate.

And that was my initial — and continuing — problem with Anheuser-Busch’s “Here’s to Beer” campaign. Despite the fact that they continue to spin it as an industry-wide campaign, not a single brewer apart from A-B is involved with the project. Even the trade organization, the Beer Institute, who had initially co-sponsored the effort, withdrew their support right after the first commercial aired during the Super Bowl in Early February of this year. Bob apparently flew all over the country for months trying to convince other brewers to join their bandwagon, but not a single one took the bait. So I have a hard time seeing how this has been a success. Yet the media, even the trade media for the most part, has gone along with it in lockstep calling it a “grassroots campaign,” to take an example from the NBWA’s own press release. Here’s the definition of “grassroots:”

“of, pertaining to, or involving the common people, esp. as contrasted with or separable from an elite.”

So how is this campaign, run solely by the biggest brewer in the country by a wide margin, in any way “grassroots?” Simple. It’s not. You can’t get more elite in terms of resources and influence than A-B. Only a few come close, and not very close at that.

Also in the press release, Lachky makes the following claim. “Seeing the signs of beer industry improvement this year, we think we are making progress.” Wow, he’s taking credit for industry growth this year, how magnanimous of him. But I really can’t see how that’s even remotely true. First of all, the big breweries have made only very modest gains this year. Despite the self-serving rhetoric to the contrary, the big guys aren’t experiencing a period of turnaround and rapid growth. They’re still on the ropes — so to speak — with their core brands. Craft beer, on the other hand, was up 9% last year and looks to be tracking at 11% this year. What growth there is in the industry, that’s where the majority of it resides.

Having not met Bob Lachky personally, it’s hard for me to say he isn’t an enthusiastic supporter of beer. He certainly appears to have worked very hard on this project. And he may be a great guy, who knows? (I will have an opportunity to meet him in Denver next week.) So despite the fact that we’d all like to see the image of beer elevated to its proper place, has the “Here’s to Beer” campaign actually accomplished anything award-worthy? Are there droves of people who’ve been turned around and educated by the information on the website or the marketing materials made available to beer distributors? It sure doesn’t seem that way from where I’m sitting. It takes more than putting up a website and running a few PSAs for a mere eight months to undo the damage to beer’s image that A-B and the other industrial brewers have perpetrated over the last several decades.

So why did the NBWA choose to “honor” Bob Lachky and his “Here’s to Beer” campaign after only eight months and very little obvious or verifiable results? To me that’s the question in all of this. It reminds me a little bit of our President’s recent tendency to give the “Medal of Freedom” to beleaguered underlings as he shows them the door. Screw up, get a medal. Which is not say that Bob Lachky made any mistakes — as far as I know he didn’t — but awards and medals should be for achieving something tangible and measurable. Otherwise they’re meaningless, aren’t they? And while I mean no disrespect, I can’t see that the “Here’s to Beer” campaign has achieved any of its goals or united the industry. We don’t live in a world that, unlike eight months ago, now reveres beer’s social value, romantic allusions and diversity. And while there does seem to be anecdotal signs that the media may be taking beer slightly more seriously lately, I can’t draw a line of causality between that and A-B’s PR efforts, however well-intentioned. And frankly, that could be simply wishful thinking on my part since I’m watching the industry more closely (and a little differently) this year than I have the previous couple of years.

The only way beer will be brought to more people is the only way it’s ever worked, at least in my experience. And that’s one-on-one. The people best positioned to create any sort of “grassroots” movement are the people already doing just that. The servers in brewpubs, the brewers giving tours and pouring beer at festivals, passionate retail clerks and “common people” — like you and me — who simply like good beer and want to share it with their friends. That’s the only grassroots I can see succeeding.

Again, the idea of providing more information to consumers who want to learn more about beer is quite laudable. But it has to come from people who really believe the message they’re preaching, not from the largest beer manufacturer in the country trying to raise it’s share price by any means necessary. And until the “Here’s to Beer” campaign is truly an industry-wide effort with its true goals free from ulterior motives, it’s hard to applaud the effort as shamelessly and unquestioningly as the NBWA did in honoring it. I’ll join the NBWA in praising Bob Lachky for making the effort he has — if for no other reason than to give him the benefit of the doubt — but the results of that effort in the form of the “Here’s to Beer” do not yet deserve such accolades.