Brookston Beer Bulletin

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The Perfect Season To Be Filled With Christmas Cheer

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christmas
I found this cheery Christmas verse and art at, of all things, an online craft forum, SallyB’s @ SB Crafts. There are a total eight different Xmas verses with their own graphics, so I’m not exactly sure what they’re supposed to be used for, but I love the idea of Santa and his elves and reindeer throwing a massive party after all the hard work of preparing for and delivering all the Christmas presents last night. That’s what I would do, wouldn’t you?

Xmas Cheers

Santa really knows how to party, when all his work is done
His whole team can then relax and start to have some fun
This is the perfect season to be filled with Christmas cheer
So enjoy the Christmas Spirit…. Christmas wine and Christmas beer!

xmas-cheers

A Blue Christmas Beer

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I’d heard of this Christmas beer, but I don’t think I realized the packaging was in blue, but then I don’t live in Denmark. Tuborg Brewery, owned by the Carlsberg Group, releases their holiday beer, known as Tuborg Julebryg, on J-Day, the first Friday in November (though this year it was the last Friday in October).

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I read somewhere that red glass is actually the best color for keeping out UV light, but that it was too expensive to be done commercially on a large scale. I have seen at least one red beer bottle (it’s in my ‘frig, a souvenir I picked up in Salzburg, Austria) but the only blue I can recall was the Apollo beer line from the 1990s.

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The idea for it being blue came from a successful ad campaign. From the Carlsbeg Group’s website:

Most Danes know the blue and white advertisement for Tuborg Julebryg (Tuborg Christmas Brew). But probably not many know that the famous animated commercial, which features Santa Claus in blue clothing, is actually older than the beer itself. The commercial was originally launched in 1980 as a special holiday commercial for ordinary Tuborg pilsner, but it became so popular that for Christmas 1981 we created the special Tuborg Julebryg.

Although Tuborg Julebryg is a seasonal beer and is only on the market for six weeks every year, it is still Denmark’s fourth best selling beer. It’s only beaten by Green Tuborg, Carlsberg Pilsner and Tuborg Classic, which are available all year round. Its launch, known as “J-day”, always takes place on the first Friday of every November and is an annual day of celebration across Denmark. Carlsberg employees drive around the bars and cafes, handing out free beer to really get the festive season started.

Tuborg Julebryg is a bottom-fermented, wiener beer brewed on lager, münchener and caramel malt with English liquorice. The beer is dark-golden with a fresh aroma of caramel, grain, liquorice and blackcurrant. It’s excellent with traditional Christmas recipes, smoked fish, grilled/fried herring, smoked ham with curly kale, roast pork and duck.

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Apparently they change the design from year to year, as here’s last year’s bottle.

1,000-Bottle Xmas Tree

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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.

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Beer In Ads #11: Schlitz Just Couldn’t Wait

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Today’s ad was chosen with Christmas is mind. It’s a Schlitz ad from 1950 and it was created by famed illustrator Albert Dorne.

I love the story unfolding in the ad. The guy is pouring the beer while peering mischievously up at the clock, which reads just a few minutes to midnight. Presumably that means they’re putting up their tree Christmas Eve at the very end of the day. Talk about procrastinators! But then there’s the look on the woman — doing all the work, as usual, right ladies? — who looks aghast at the effrontery. Or is that bemusement? Surprise? Hard to say. But it’s pretty funny, I’d say.

Anyway, drink up. Happy Xmas Eve.

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If you can’t read the text, either click on the ad for a larger view or read the transcription below.

Just Couldn’t Wait

When a man’s Christmas present is a case of Schlitz, who can blame him if he opens it a little early?

This great beer has a matchless flavor all its own. We think you’ll like Schlitz best, too. And if you’re looking for a present for someone hard to please, remember…Schlitz tastes so good to so many people, it’s

The Largest-Selling Beer in America

Puttin’ Up The Brookston Xmas Tree

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christmas
My favorite parts of celebrating the holiday season all involve the originally pagan rites like the mistletoe, the yule log, exchanging gifts and, of course, the Christmas tree. We got our tree last night and decorated it this morning. My mother was somewhat obsessed with Christmas, and did a completely different tree theme every year, often making all the ornaments herself. She’d also buy a few ornaments every year and add them to a box for me and, when she passed away in 1981, I inherited all of the ornaments. I’ve continued the tradition of buying new ornaments every year, though I don’t have a whole new tree each year. Instead, the family looks through the boxes and boxes of ornaments and we choose the ones that catch our fancy each year to create our decorated tree. Many of the ornaments reflect our passions, so Porter has train ornaments and Alice has princesses. Over the years I’ve amassed ornaments of some of my peculiar fetishes, such as globes, clothespins, snowmen, birds, potatoes, bowling pins, the Packers and, of course, beer. So this morning I took a photo of each of my beer ornaments, which are presented below in he slideshow. Hoppy Christmas.

Beer: A 6-Pack

Below is a slideshow of my beer-themed Christmas ornaments. 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.

Toy Beer Trains

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Today, of course, is the busiest shopping day of the year. I’m staying home and drinking, as usual, but yesterday at my in-laws, my mother-in-law put up on the wall a giant poster where the grandkids could list all the toys they were hoping Santa might bring them this year. My son Porter filled out his entire section with requests for trains, particularly Lionel trains. He’s been obsessed with trains as long as I can remember. First it was Thomas the Tank Engine, then the I Love Toy Trains series, followed by Geo Trax. For a while now, though, he’s been fully engrossed in the expensive model trains, especially HO and G gauge, which seem to be his favorites. It what almost appears savant-like, he knows more about trains than anyone I know. To me, the old black steam trains all look alike but he sees them and cries “that’s the Big Boy” or the “GG-1” or some other unfamiliar name with complete certainty. I’d think he’s just making it up but recently at the barber shop, another man waiting his turn happened to run a local train museum and the two of them talked about trains like equals. The man confided in me later that my son had truly impressed him with his train knowledge, confirming what I’d always believed, that Porter really is as obsessed as I can be, just about different things. The apple really doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

One thing that’s surprised me is that I see toy trains with breweries on them all the time. But what I’ve learned about model trains is that despite the word “toy” often being associated with them, there are far more adults collecting them than kids. For one thing they’re very, very expensive. So I suspect that’s why they can get away with so many beer-themed boxcars and the like. When we got home last night from or holiday feast, I decided to do a quick Google search for toy trains for breweries. Lots of lots of them, big surprise. There’s even a guy out there who collects toy beer trains, and he’s cataloged 780 of them with 658 photos. Check out The H.O. Beer Car Collectors Website and be amazed.

The most I’ve ever seen in one place is in Germany, at Weyermann Specialty Malt in Bamberg.
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In Weyermann’s meeting room, the wall is completely filled with brewery signs and every available shelf, mantle and ledge has toy trains on them.

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Mostly European brands, but there are a surprising number of American brewery trains, too.

Below is a slideshow of just a sampling of all the toy beer trains I found online. Most are from the The H.O. Beer Car Collectors, which is hands down the best resource I came across. The 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.