Sunday’s ad is for Falstaff, and it’s a simple ad, from I know not when. It says only “It’s your birthday!” and shows a bottle of Falstaff being poured into a mug. It looks 1940ish or 50ish, but that’s just a guess. But since it’s my birthday, it felt like the right ad for today.
Friday’s ad is for Blatz Pilsener Beer, probably from the 1940s. I’m guessing that because in the bottom righthand corner of the ad, it says “Brewing Better Beer for the 97th Year.” And depending on what year they’re using for when Blatz started — it could be 1850 or 1851 or even 1846 — that would put it at 1943, 1947 or 1948. I’m not entirely sure why there’s a bucket of bottles and a spilling bucket of blackberries, except that’s probably the freshness angle, for hat great tagline: “At the Peak of Flavor.” It must be working, because I’m certainly thirty just looking at the ad. Although there’s a part of me that will certainly be disappointed when the beer does not have a hint of blackberries in the flavor when I taste it.
Thursday’s ad is French, another Bieres de La Meuse poster, promoting beers from the Meuse region of northern France. Mucha did a more famous one, but I like this one, too. Very elegant presentation.
Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1957. Showing a dinner party, or really a soup party, paired with buckets of Ballantine Ale. In a rarity for beer advertising, they’re touting the hops used to brew the beer, a British hop known as “Brewer’s Gold.” According to HopUnion’s hop varieties booklet, Brewer’s Gold was developed in Great Britain as primarily a bittering hop by a Professor Salmon in 1934. Ballantine refers to it as a “rare, choice hop.” And hop about this great tagline at the end? “Enjoy the genuine — it’s the trend, friend!”
Tuesday’s ad is another one for Schlitz, from 1956. Showing another backyard barbecue, or “cookout,” it’s another group of well-dressed hipsters, enjoying some brewskis with grilled meat. The barbecue man is even wearing a chef’s hat and white apron. And according to the ad, Schlitz is not only the “World’s Largest-Selling Beer” but is also as “refreshing as all outdoors!”
Today’s infographic is Brew Local — A Philadelphia Infographic, created for Philly Beer Week last year. It was designed by Mark Adams for Maskar Design.
Click here to see the poster full size.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1954. Showing a backyard barbecue, or what was then called a “cookout,” the man working the grill is holding up his glass of beer while still sing his spatula on the burgers. I mentioned this in an earlier bbq ad, but again look at how dressed up they are for a cookout, the women in dresses and the men in what today we’d call business casual, though the guy in the pink shirt is sporting a tie. There’s lots of little details, like the odd facial expressions on the salt and pepper shakers next to the Schlitz sign in the lower left. The main man, the grillmaster, has shown up in a number of modern mash-ups, but this is the original ad he was taken from.
Today’s infographic is an oldie but goodie, a poster of beer bottles from 1976. It gives you a good idea of how bad the beer scene was back then. The poster is one of the hidden gems from Jess Kidden‘s breweriana treasure trove.
Click here to see the poster full size.
Friday’s ad is still another one for Schlitz, this one also from 1949. It, too, is part of their “I was curious” series that always features three panels. This one features a group of people on a fishing trip, with all of the men in flannel and two in hats — one a cap but the other is a fedora?!? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone wearing a fedora camping before. There are five beer bottles on the tray, but only four people. Who’s that fifth bottle for?
Today is the day we celebrate the birthday of George Washington, though he probably celebrated it on the 11th, because that’s what day the calendar read when he was born. That’s because when Washington was born in 1731, the British government still used the Julian calendar, but the British Calendar (New Style) Act of 1750, implemented the Gregorian calendar in 1752, and that’s the calendar system we still use today in the U.S. When it was adjusted, eleven days were added, and George went from having a birthday of February 11, 1731 to February 22, 1732, which is the one we use today.
I did a column several years ago for the San Francisco Chronicle, before I started working for rival Bay Area Newsgroup, about Washington’s love of Porter and his efforts making small beer. Washington’s handwritten recipe has famously survived and can be seen at the New York Public Library. It was in his “Notebook as a Virginia Colonel,” from 1757. And below it what it looks like.
Luckily, his penmanship has been translated:
To make Small Beer
Take a large Sifter full of Bran Hops to your Taste. “” Boil these 3 hours. Then strain out 30 Gallons into a Cooler, put in 3 Gallons Molasses while the Beer is scalding hot or rather drain the molasses into the Cooler & strain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. Let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm. Then put in a quart of Yeast if the weather is very cold, cover it over with a Blanket & let it work in the Cooler 24 hours. Then put it into the Cask “” leave the Bung[hole] open till it is almost done working “” Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.
Most people agree it probably wasn’t the best tasting beer, and I believe that there were efforts a few years ago to recreate it faithfully, but I don’t recall hearing those experiments turned out. Still, it’s nice to remember that our founding fathers were beer drinkers and, in some cases, brewers, as well.
I love this illustration of Washington throwing back a cold one, by Canadian artist Scott McKowen, which he did for a Wired article about Tom Kehoe, at Yards Brewing in Philadelphia, recreating some colonial beer recipes.