Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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World’s First Beer Bath Spa

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The Chodovar Brewery is located in the small town of Chdova Plana in the Czech Republic’s west Bohemia area. This region is known for its health spas with natural mineral waters, especially the Czech Republic’s biggest spa, Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad). The Chodovar Brewery already operated a pub and a hotel when they decided they could offer a whole new package vacation by incorporating a nearby mineral spring and creating a wholly original spa treatment in the ancient cellars of the brewery, which has been operating since 1573. Guests pay around $140 for weekend packages with several health treatments available including beer wraps, beer massages, beer cosmetics and the pièce de résistance, the beer bath. A nurse greets clients behind a bar and dispenses the free beer that comes with your spa treatment.

The brewery spa website describes the beer bath as:

An original curative spa therapy connecting a soothing hot bath, the spring of healing mineral water IL-SANO, the unique dark Bathing Beer and rejuvenating effects of beer yeast with a mixture of hops and dehydrated curative herbs.

There is a bathside bar so you can enjoy a glass of beer while you’re relaxing in your beer. The full description at their website is very detailed.

Of course, if you don’t have an entire weekend, a single beer bath session, including the free beer, will set you back about twenty dollars. Too bad it’s not closer. But if I ever get to west Bohemia, this is definitely on my to do list.

(AP Photo/CTK, Petr Eret)

Jana Tymlova, left, enjoys a soak in the Real Beer Baths launched by the family brewery Chodovar in Chodova Plana, Czech Republic, Thursday, March 23, 2006.

The bath consists of water and mineral water IL-SANO, but the major bath ingredient is dark beer which is produced in a traditional way based on the copyright original method and made by the main brewer of the family brewery only.

Miller Beer: Follow the Leader

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Miller Brewing Co., now officially SABMiller since being acquired by South African Breweries, is used to living in the shadows. They’ve been the number two brewery in the U.S. for as long as most of us can remember. Today a Business Day story reports they’ve acquired their second overseas brewery in recent weeks. Slovakian brewery Topvar is the latest one. The other was Peruvian brewery Backus, most famous for Cristal Beer. Including the Miller beers, SABMiller currently owns approximately 150 beer brands worldwide. These include Carling Black Label, Castle Lager, Henry Weinhard, Leinenkugel, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell though most are line extensions or very small breweries.

But as is typical for the Avis of the brewing world, they’re taking the same steps as Anheuser-Busch and shoring up their import portfolio. Though with the notable exception of Pilsner Urquell, their brands are somewhat second-rate. I don’t wish to denegrate the quality of some of the beers in their portfolio, although that could be done easily in a few cases, but rather to suggest a lack of market leaders or brands that not are well-known, especially to Americans.

It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if we hear Molson Coors has gobbled up another imported beer shortly. They big three seem to act with one brain much of the time, especially when it comes to business decisions. You get the sense they all look to A-B to see what they’re doing and then react accordingly: either by doing the same or, every once in a blue moon, choosing a different path. It seems strange, but you watch this long enough and you get the sense it’s one elaborate game of follow the leader. Unfortunately, the game also appears rigged.

Bay Area Brewer in Belgium

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Last night on his Lufthansa flight back from belgium, 21st Amendment brewer Shaun O’Sullivan e-mailed me some of his photos from his trip to Belgium, so I thought I’d share them with everybody.

With the bartenders at the Koln Karnival at the local Pfaffen Brewery in downtown Koln.

Shaun with Jen Garris of Magnolia Brewpub and a local clown.

Shaun with another local at the Koln bar.

Touring Chimay with Pierre, a civilian that works in the brewery.

Outside of Rochefort brewery.

According to Shaun, the gate was open at Rochefort, so they just walked in and took pictures. Nobody said anything to them because of the vow of silence.

Carlsberg’s Historical Copenhagen Brewery to Close

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Carlsbery Brewery of Denmark announced today that it will be closing it historical Valby Plant at the end of 2008. Brewery operations will be moving 125 miles away to their Fredericia facility in western Denmark, which will be getting a new brewhouse to increase capacity. They will continue to brew speciality beers at the Jacobsen brewhouse in Valby, but everything else will be moving. Bloomberg News reported on the business aspects of the decision.

Happily, the historical brewery, which has brewing there since 1847, will be developed by Carlsberg though exact plans have not yet been decided. But at least, as reported by Food Ingedients First, “the famous brewery horses and the historical buildings such as the Elephant Gate, the brewery, the museum, Carl’s Villa, the Carlsberg Academy and approximately 20 other buildings that Danes consider to be of major culturo-historical merit, will not be affected by the plans to close production in Valby.”
 
 

The famous Elephant Gate.
 

The gate from a distance with the modern Carlsberg highrise in the background.

The brewery in Copenhagen.

The Dipylongate at night.

Budvar: Delicious and Funny

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České Budějovice, who makes Budvar Budweiser, the original Budweiser beer from the Czech Republic, has had to fight tooth and nail in virtually every country throughout the world to assert its rights to the name Budweiser. Here in the U.S., of course, they lost that fight, which is why in this country the beer was re-christened Czechvar. They’ve won in quite a few countries, but lost in some more, as well. Throughout the world, the beer is known as Budweiser, Budvar, Budweiser Budvar, Bud, Budějovický Budvar, and Czechvar. The beer is brewed at the Budějovický Budvar brewery, which began in the 13th Century. The brewery is located in the city of České Budějovice, formerly also known as Budiwoyz and Budweis. Admittedly, this is all very complicated and confusing, so perhaps this historical summary from the brewery website may help:

The term Budweiser is derived from the town of Budějovice, known as Budweis or Budějovice since the 14th century – 200 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America. Budweis – the official name of the town – was not “Czechified” as Česke Budějovice until 1918 (with the exception of 1939-1945, i.e. the Second World War and the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, when the name of the town reverted briefly to its German form. In some languages Budweis is still the preferred name. České Budějovice has been renowned for brewing from time immemorial (see the chapter entitled History of Beer in České Budějovice). To differentiate the town’s beer from the output of breweries in other areas, the beer was called the Budweiser Bier (i.e. “Beer from Budějovice”). Logically, the company Český akciový pivovar (Böhmisches Action-Bräuhaus in Budweis in German) decided to brand its beer by its place of origin, as it followed up on the tradition of brewing Budějovice beer in České Budějovice. The beer from Budějovice was so well known that Budweiser Bier became a synonym of quality. Ever since it started operations, the brewery used various names using the Budweiser word on its products, and it gradually started registering the brands as trademarks. After the signature of the Lisbon International Treaty (1958), it acquired the national and international registration of the terms Budějovice Beer (Budweiser Bier) and Budějovický Budvar (Budweiser Budvar) in the states who were parties to the Lisbon Treaty.

And of course, their legal trouble are legendary. Again, from the brewery website:

The history of disputes over Budějovický Budvar’s trademarks dates back to the beginning of the last century. For decades, one of the major US breweries had tried to buy the rights to its trademarks from Budějovický Budvar, initially only for the territory of the US. Just before the Second World War, this brewery in fact was successful in its attempts. This US brewery has continued its efforts to obtain Budějovický Budvar’s trademarks until today.

Budějovický Budvar is therefore currently defending its historical rights to its trademarks against Anheuser-Busch, which is attacking Budějovický Budvar through over 40 lawsuits and more than 40 administrative proceedings before patent authorities all over the world. A large majority of the courts’ decisions uphold Budějovický Budvar’s rights to its trademarks. Budějovický Budvar has recently won trademark disputes e.g. in the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and New Zealand.

But believe it or not, my reasons for starting this post had nothing to do with history, I just got a little carried away by it all. What led me to Budvar today was a number of very funny television commercials that are available from a related website.

The are 26 ads in different themes, such as hockey, soccer fans, some sweaty fat guys, and the running of the bulls at Pamplona. Despite the language barrier, they’re all pretty funny.

Oh, and did I mention the beer is very tasty? It is. It’s a very flavorful, clean Czech pilsner.

Grolsch to Be Distributed Nationally by Anheuser-Busch

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Anheuser-Busch announced today that beginning in 2007 they would begin exclusively distributing Grolsch in the United States. The Netherlands beer is most famous for its unique green bottle and ceramic flip-top crown. The AP Story by Christopher Leonard ran in today’s LA Times, as well as other papers throughout the country and abroad. From the press release:

Anheuser-Busch will become the U.S. importer of the upscale Grolsch traditional European beer brands, giving the American brewer a well-established and popular entry in the growing U.S. import category, the two brewers jointly announced today.

The agreement gives the Dutch brands access to the Anheuser-Busch broad marketing and sales expertise and to its wide reaching U.S. distribution network. The deal is part of an aggressive push by Anheuser-Busch into high-end beer categories.

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The agreement will be effective January 2007. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The imported Grolsch beer will continue to be brewed at the Grolsch brewery in Enschede, Netherlands, for export to the United States.

Grolsch is currently distributed by United States Beverage (USB) of Stamford, Connecticut. Calls to USB for comment were not immediately returned. I will update this story once they have responded. USB was founded by Joseph J. Fisch, Jr., formerly of Seagram’s. Grolsch was arguably the most popular beer in their portfolio. Once rumored to be in line to pick up Bass Ale, they currently also distribute SLO Brewing and Mariner of Holland, along with several alcopops and coolers.

Zlaty Bazant to be Brewed in Russia

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Zlaty Bazant, or Golden Pheasant in English, is one of the best-selling beers in its native Slovakia, as well as other parts of Europe. One of several breweries bought recently by Heineken, it was anounced today that it would be brewed in Russia, where it’s also very popular. In the past twelve months, Heineken has purchased five breweries in Russia.

From the Russian News Service:

Heineken starts the production of Zlaty Bazant beer in Russia. The beer will be bottled at Heineken’s subsidiary – OOO Heineken Brewery in Saint Petersburg.

Zlaty Bazant is one of the most famous brands of foreign beer on the Russian market which is marketed on the RF territory over 35 years.

Over the year Heineken Group has purchased five breweries in Russia: “Volga” (Nixhny Novgord), “Shikhan” (Sterlitamak), “Sobol” (Novosibirsk), “Patra” (Ekaterinburg) and “Stapan Razin” (Saint Petersburg) as well has signed an agreement on the acquisition of Baikal Brewery Company from Renova and Ivan Taranov Breweries.

Heineken Light? Do We Really Need Another Light Beer?

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heineken-white
Heineken announced today that it is set to launch its Heineken Premium Light brand nationwide after a “successful” test launch in four states last year. For years they resisted this and in fact that was the reason Amstel Light was created. For the big beer business, light beer is only the category that has shown much growth in recent years. Since our economy is built on naked growth without regard to consequences, the last few years have seen the introduction of such useless products as Corona Light, Rolling Rock Light, Sam Adams Light and Edison Light.

What nobody ever talks about, especially not in the media, is the fact that the caloric difference between a regular beer and a light beer is virtually insignificant. Not to pick on them — the numbers are about the same for all brands — but a 12 ounce bottle of Budweiser is 145 calories while Bud Light is 110 calories. That’s a difference of 35 calories, which is the caloric content of an average size orange. Big freaking deal. The way light beers are advertised you’d think light beer had almost no calories. Even if you had an entire six-pack you’d only “save” 210 calories, or a little less than a cheese omlette. An entire category of goods — light beer — has been built on nothing. The dietary benefits are all but illusory but the propaganda machine called advertising pounded home the opposite message for years and years. And the viewing audience, with a gullibility that knows no limits, swallowed it without question. So ask most people if light beer is healthier or better for you and they’ll reply with a confident “yes.” But that’s just a magnificent success by advertising of convincing people of something that’s simply not true or at best, is greatly exaggerated. Every time I see someone drinking a light beer I can’t help thinking “another duped fool.” Of course, most people who drink light beer probably don’t care about how bad it tastes because it’s unlikely they can taste the difference.

Ironically, the man who invented light beer, Joe Owades, passed away last month in Sonoma County. He created light beer for Rheingold Breweries in the 1960s and they marketed it as a diet beer. It failed. He then took the recipe to his next job with the Meister Brau brewery where they did reasonably well with it. In 1972, Miller Brewing bought Meister Brau and released Miller Lite, which neither tasted great nor was less filling. But as they say, the rest is history. I’d met Joe a couple of times. He was a nice man, and I’m certainly sorry about his death, but the hard truth is he was no friend of the craft beer industry. He believed that ale yeast was defective. Of course, the majority of craft beer is ale. So according to Joe, most craft beer is defective. Now to my knowledge he never explained how a naturally occurring living organism like yeast could be defective but such was his disdain for beer not mass produced.

But Joe’s legacy is one, I believe, that has helped to ruin people’s taste for flavorful beers. By selling people a more watered down product, the popularity of light beer fools people into believing that it is a healthy product that is good for them. But like most, if not all, mass-produced beers it is loaded with chemicals. As Garret Oliver put it, mass produced beers are “highly engineered food product[s], the equivalent of Wonder Bread, Twinkies, and Kraft slices.” So the end result is that people’s perception is that light beer, virtually unflavored, is the taste of health, diet and trendiness. So actual real craft beer that has few, if any, added chemicals and is loaded with flavors is perceived as unhealthy, fat-creating and by extension uncool. This certainly won’t give craft beer’s paltry 3.5% market share much of a chance to rise.

So while I think regular Heineken is undrinkable swill, a Heineken Light will almost certainly be even worse, which is frankly quite hard to believe. That Heineken is perceived as a “premium” beer is yet another amazing coup for the propagandists. The millions they’ll spend to convince clueless America that Heineken Light is a really good idea will no doubt succeed in further damaging the quest to increase the demand for better beer.