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Anchor To Receive Ralston Award From SF Museum & Historical Society

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Fritz Maytag may have stepped back from his daily duties at Anchor Brewing, the brewery he owned and ran since 1965, but that doesn’t mean he’s slowing down. He’s still running his winery, York Creek Vineyards, and consulting with the new owners of Anchor Brewing & Distilling.

And later this month, on November 18, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society will present their William C. Ralston Corporate Award to Fritz Maytag and Dave Burkhart on behalf of Anchor Brewing.

From the press release:

Receiving the Ralston Award on behalf of Anchor Brewing will be Fritz Maytag and David Burkhart. Maytag, considered the father of modern microbreweries, had been at the helm of Anchor Brewing for 45 years. Maytag helped spark a revival in the craft of making beer by hand and inspired thousands of entrepreneurs to follow him in creating small, artisan breweries. He won the 2008 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. The company was sold this spring but he serves as Chairman Emeritus, Anchor Brewing Company.

Burkhart, a staff member of Anchor Brewing and a California-born historian and honors graduate of Yale, is the author of Earthquake Days: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire in 3D and the editor of Cocktail Boothby’s American Bartender. He is also a professional trumpeter who teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and performs with the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony. His latest book project is called Cocktails & Punches in Mark Twain’s San Francisco.

Congratulations to both, and to Anchor. Tickets to the Awards Luncheon may be purchased online.

Beer In Art #101: Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheat Fields

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Today’s artworks are all by one of the world’s most well-known artists, Vincent Van Gogh. Given last Friday’s Session topic — wheat beers — I thought it would be fun to look at some paintings of what fields. Wheat fields were a favorite subject for Van Gogh and throughout his life he painted at least 40 artworks that included a wheat field.

One of his most famous wheat field paintings was Wheatfield with Crows, painted toward the end of Van Gogh’s life, in 1890, the same year he passed away. It was also the subject of an episode of Simon Schama’s Power of Art, a wonderful documentary series on art that I heartily recommend. In addition, it was used in a surreal sequence of a lesser know film by Akira Kurosawa called Dreams. The original is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

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Here’s what the Van Gogh Museum has to say about the painting:

Wheatfield with Crows is one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings and probably the one most subject to speculation. It was executed in July 1890, in the last weeks of Van Gogh’s life. Many have claimed it was his last work, seeing the dramatic, cloudy sky filled with crows and the cut-off path as obvious portents of his coming end. However, since no letters are known from the period immediately preceding his death, we can only guess what his final work might really have been. Some scholars believe it was the Tree-roots, but we have no proof that this was the case.

Another one painted around the same time was Wheat Field Under Clouded Sky, also painted in 1890.

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Can Gogh also executed a series of paintings called “The Wheat Field” series. All of the paintings “depict the view Van Gogh had from the window of his bedroom on the top floor of the asylum” at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence from June 1889 to May 1890. Here’s one from that series, Wheat Field, Sunrise, painted in 1890.

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And here’s another one, Wheat Field with Rising Sun, from 1889.

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For more about Vincent Van Gogh, Wikipedia is a good place to start, though there’s even more at the Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, which has a complete list of his works. There are also tons of links at the ArtCyclopedia and another biography at the Web Museum.

Guinness Ad #42: The Bale of Hay

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Our 42nd Guinness poster by John Gilroy features carrying the biggest bale of hay, having presumably just finished off a pint of Guinness. The glass in the bottom right is empty, after all. That’s what gave him “Guinness for Strength” to be able to carry such a big load. It also looks a bit like a giant blond afro.

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Beer In Ads #235: Colt 45 On The Playboy Jet

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Wednesday’s ad is for the malt liquor Colt 45 and a contest where someone could win a “completely unique weekend on Playboy’s Jet.” I picked the ad because I’m getting on a plane early tomorrow morning and it is decidedly not the Playboy Jet. Does Playboy even have the jet anymore? My guess is no, and for that reason I have no idea when this ad is from, though it seems like the 1970s is a safe bet. But as the text for the contest begins, which makes me wonder, “do I deserve [a] Colt 45 weekend?” Does anyone?

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Beer In Ads #234: Miss Rheingold On Voting

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Tuesday’s ad is for Rheingold beer, features Miss Rheingold for 1956 — Hillie Merritt — holding a stuffed elephant and donkey for the election that year, which would have been held November 6, 1956. That was the year Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson. Oddly enough there’s no text whatsoever about the election or politics of any kind, and in fact if it weren’t for the plush political symbols it could be a completely generic beer ad. Happily, however, the stuffed animals are there. Look closely at them. Is it just me, or does the donkey look like he’s laughing while the elephant is wearing a somewhat maniacal expression?

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Beer In Ads #232: Schlitz Pumpkin Carving

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With the World Series and baseball ads plus Halloween this weekend, I’m doubling up on ads so I can highlight both baseball and Halloween-themed ones. Today’s Halloween ad is from 1956 and is for Schlitz, depicting some pumpkin carving for Halloween. And to help their creativity along, they’re enjoying a couple of cans of Schlitz, poured into tall pilsner glasses.

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And here’s just the artwork from the ad.
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Beer In Ads #231: Leo Durocher For Rheingold

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With the World Series and baseball ads plus Halloween this weekend, I’m doubling up on ads so I can highlight both baseball and Halloween-themed ones. Today’s baseball ad is from 1942 and features baseball legend Leo Durocher, when he was a manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Durocher is saying that “My beer is Rheingold — the DRY beer!”

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