Announced today, the 2006 California Brewers Festival will be held September 16 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. at Discovery Park in Sacramento, California.
9.16
California Brewers Festival (12th annual)
Discovery Park, Sacramento, California
916.368.BREW [ website ] [ map ]
According to an article in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune, a movie theater in Oceanside has filed for a license to serve beer at screenings. The ABC is quoted as saying there are currently three other such theaters in the state, two in L.A. and one in Oakland. I’ve been to the one in Oakland, the Parkway Theater, several times when I used to live there a few years back, and it was great fun. They also have pizza and subs to eat and bring your food directly to your seat. You can buy pints or pitchers of about half a dozen craft beers. They also serve a number of wines, too. The theatre itself has sofas, comfy chairs and tables scattered about the hall. If you want a good spot, like a sofa, you have to get there early because it’s very popular. They also have a baby brigade night where infants are welcome and we took Porter there when he was very little. It’s very family oriented that night but otherwise is over-21 only. I really like the place and was unaware of any problems with such a place.
So I was surprised by two things in the piece about the San Diego theatre trying a similar idea. First, supposedly they’ve gotten a lot of protests about it. Apparently the way the place is laid out, it will be fairly easy to make a section of the multiplex adults-only and that’s the only place alcohol will be served. Naturally, that’s still not good enough for the neo-prohibitionists who are coming out in droves to complain. These people will not be satisfied until alcohol is once again made illegal, despite what a disaster it was the last time we tried it. They’re still worried young people might be able to get their hands on it. Gasp. I am so sick to death of these people. If you don’t want to drink, don’t. Stop pretending this is about protecting the children and admit it’s just about wanting to push your beliefs on the rest of us. For a country that was supposedly founded on the idea of freedom, it constantly amazes me how so many people see nothing wrong with trying to restrict their fellow citizens from doing whatever they find personally distasteful. Please, live your own life however you want and leave the rest of us alone.
The second thing I found disturbing was even more troubling. A spokesperson for the local police is quoted as saying the “Oceanside Police Department routinely objects to any new liquor license.” (my emphasis.) What!?! Why would they do that? Is that their job? That would be an emphatic no. It’s the job of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department to approve or deny applications. The police’s job is to enforce the law, not determine policy or meddle with how a state agency does their job. But to say they object to “any” is the same as saying they object to every single application. And that is overstepping their authority by leaps and bounds, in my opinion. Not only that, “[b]ut in this case, [the police spokesperson] said yesterday, both the police chief and the city manager have asked that the protest be more vigorous.” Huh!?! Are we told why in their opinion a more vigorous protest would be appropriate? Nope, not one whiff of evidence is offered for the police taking such a position. The author of this story seems to just take it for granted that her readers will accept such a position without evidence. She probably knows her audience better than I do, but I’m more than a little frightened that there are places where such a statement can be made and accepted without comment.
So if you live in San Diego and this beer and wine license is approved, please patronize this theater. Not only do we have to be vigilant against the big brewery attacks on craft beer, but also the neo-prohibitionist attacks on all alcoholic beverages. These people are scary, especially when they get an imprimatur from local government and law enforcement. We have to remind these people that beer is legal and that we have the right to openly enjoy it. And that’s a right that needs to be protected.
Back in the last week of April, I visited the Ball Can Factory in Fairfield, California to watch the first beer cans for 21st Amendment Restaurant & Brewery being manufactured. Last week, I followed up on that story to watch the next part of the can’s journey to your hand. So I joined owner/brewer Shaun O’Sullivan and his assistant brewer, Mike D., early Thursday morning at the brewpub to watch as they went through the process of taking empty cans and turning them into a full six-pack of beer. I even had a chance to pitch in briefly, which was great fun. All of the equipment used for the canning came from Cask Brewing Systems of Calgary, Canada. So I’ll step you through the process in detail:
First, Shaun O’Sullivan pulls out empty cans ready to be filled. At this point they have no end on one side and are open on top.
The cans are then rinsed and sterilized.
The next step is to fill the cans using the filler pictured here being tested prior to being used.
The empty cans are then placed under the two nozzles to be filled.
Where the beer fills the can rather quickly, in no more than a few seconds.
They are slightly overfilled to insure the proper amount as the end is readied to be placed on the top of the can.
A tray full of metal ends sits in between the two machines.
The trick is to place an end on one side of the opening and then seat the end on the entire can.
The next machine in the process is the seamer.
Which rotates very fast and double seams the end to the can top.
The can is carefully placed in between the gap, which is relatively small (I knocked a couple of the ends off doing this which meant having to discard those cans).
Then a lever is pulled forward and down which closes the gap and begins rotating the can.
Which double seals the end to the can, making it airtight.
The last machine attaches the six-pack ring to create a six-pack of cans.
Red cones are set on top of six cans and a lever releases the cones, creating a gap so a plastic ring may be placed on top of the cones.
Then the lever pushes the rings over the cans and seals them in place.
Voilà, Mike D. shows off a finished six-pack!
Here’s a movie of the entire canning process that follows it from empty can to finished six-pack. But be warned, it’s a very large file (over 87 MB). You can either download the movie to your desktop or just click on the link to play it in your web browser (assuming your web browser has the quicktime plug-in installed).
The 21st Amendment canned beer that I’ve been following are now officially for sale, according to a press release I received this morning from the brewpub.
From the press release:
Today, Monday May 8th at 11:30AM, the 21st Amendment is proud to announce the release of it’s infamous Watermelon Wheat and 21A-IPA. in cans. That’s right Cans! A better package than glass bottles, lighter and more convenient.
25 craft breweries across the country are putting their hand-crafted beer in cans and having great success. Your first beer was probably in a can. Most likely a light domestic that would of not tasted any better in a bottle. Times of changed. The technology surrounding can design and the lining within the can have created a product that surpasses the standard glass bottle. Cans are impenetrable to light, keeping the beer fresher, longer and they do not leak as they have no crown tops. An all around great package.
Whatever your perception was about cans, we challenge you to change. Just as there was a time when you switched from light-insipid domestic beer and tried your first craft beer and were blown away by the flavor, come and crack open a “cold one” of one of the 21st Amendment’s hand-crafted beers and challenge your perception.
Imagine your first sip, out of a can, of our award-winning 21A-IPA, a beer that is 7% alcohol with a huge hop aroma and over-the-top-bitterness or the infamous Watermelon Wheat brewed with fresh watermelon and perfect for hot summer days. You will be very surprised.
I helped very briefly with some of the canning last week and will have another photo report to complete this story up on the beer blog in the next day or so. Also, look for my review of the IPA in a can later this week. The IPA cans are cooling in my refrigerator as we speak but there are deadlines to meet before I can crack them open.
This weekend was the 10th annual Boonville Beer Festival in Boonville, California. I had to leave before the festival ended so I missed the Saturday night festivities, but had a great time — as usual — anyway. Thanks to Ken Allen and all the terrific people at Anderson Valley Brewing for putting on this great event and giving us a great reason to travel to such a beautiful, remote part of the world. I’ve posted a ton of photo from the festival and the links to them are listed below:
Mike Altman from Iron Springs models the best hat of the festival.
Rodger Davis of Drake’s Brewing taps a firkin.
Rod DeWitt also gave me a great private tour of the Anderson Valley brewhouse.
The above title translates roughly as “Boonville Party Trip to talk, laugh and especially drink beer.” The language is Boontling, that peculiar dialect in the remote area of Boonville, the home of Anderson Valley Brewing. This weekend is the 10th annual Boonville Beer Festival and I’ll be leaving for the fest this morning. Posts will likely resume on Sunday.
I stopped by 21st Amendment yesterday to pick up a six-pack of their Watermelon Wheat in cans for a tasting later tonight. I had some on draft first and then had one out of the can. I couldn’t really detect any difference in flavor apart from the cans having more carbonation. It’s possible that’s because they were only filled a few days before and will settle down some but the cans I watched popped open all had a tendency to foam up out of the can. But that’s the only negative thing I can say, and that’s not much. But out of the can the beer was every bit as flavorful as on draft and I could detect no metallic flavors whatsoever. That evening, my wife and I each had a can with dinner — homemade chicken corn chowder that was a little spicy — and it worked quite well with our meal. My wife commented that since she’d been “trained to drink beer out of a glass” she was having a hard time drinking it straight from the can and she also noted the carbonation. Of course, I swelled with pride since I was the one who taught her that from before we even started dating. So just to see the difference, we poured about half of the beer from our cans into a glass. It produced an excellent pillowy white head and smoothed out nicely once the carbonation dissipated. The color was a clear light golden hue. Light and flavorful, it had that signature subtle but omnipresent watermelon character that defines this unique beer and which has led to its popularity. It’s an excellent thirst-quenching beer, a fruit beer for people who don’t think they like fruit beers. And it has a wonderful ability to cut through spicy food.
If people can get over the hurdle of the bias against beer in cans, they have a sure winner on their hands, I think. But since I share that bias against canned beer myself, I can’t see it happening overnight. I think part of the full drinking experience includes seeing the beer, watching it pour into the glass as the head rises up like a volcano threatening to escape the confines of the glass. Seeing the lace stick to the insides as the carbonation races into the air leaving the head to sink back down like a falling cake is almost magical. So I know I’ve romanticized drinking beer but it’s hard to shake such a potent image, even if I created it myself. But I’m also keenly aware that there are plenty of times when good beer in a can would be a godsend and I’d happily quaff one out of the can on those occasions. Hopefully, enough people will be curious enough about the novelty of it to give it a try. And I think if they do, they’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that beer out of a modern can manages to taste quite delicious and all our prejudice is rooted in remembrance of things past rather than on today’s reality. The technology is pretty amazing, that’s for sure. It’s gotten to the point where the only real criteria is how good is the stuff in the can. And in this case, the beer is quite delicious.
I made a quick trip into San Francisco’s 21st Amendment brewpub yesterday to pick up their new canned beer for a tasting this evening at the Celebrator offices. I met brewer/ower Shaun O’Sullivan after the Giants game, during which Barry Bonds hit #712, at the brewpub and we sat with some friends for a quick drink.
21A brewer Shaun, Joe, from Eldo’s Brewery, and Jen, from Magnolia Pub & Brewery.
Brewers Shaun and Joe.
Shaun, Joe and Jen drink a toast to the new cans.
The Watermelon Wheat, now in cans.
Today I took my kids, Porter and Alice, to the Butter & Eggs Day Parade in Petaluma, California. My son has been going through a farm animal phase and we though he would get to see a lot of horses and other animals in the parade. What we didn’t count on seeing was a float from Lagunitas Brewing Co. of Petaluma, though I suppose we should have. They had a flatbed truck with a band playing and all sorts of merriment going on. When the parade ended they kept on driving down the street, not stopping until they reached the Buckhorn Saloon, where I finally caught up with them for a drink.
The Lagunitas Float.
Pat Mace, a salesman for Lagunitas at the Buckhorn Saloon after the parade.