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Brewing Up A Civilization

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history
There’s a wonderful article today in Germany’s Der Speigel showcasing University of Pennsylvania Archaeologist Patrick McGovern’s theory that alcohol is responsible for nothing short of civilization itself. Titled Alcohol’s Neolithic Origins: Brewing Up a Civilization, the story begins:

Did our Neolithic ancestors turn to agriculture so that they could be sure of a tipple? US Archaeologist Patrick McGovern thinks so. The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops.

It turns out the fall of man probably didn’t begin with an apple. More likely, it was a handful of mushy figs that first led humankind astray.

Here is how the story likely began — a prehistoric human picked up some dropped fruit from the ground and popped it unsuspectingly into his or her mouth. The first effect was nothing more than an agreeably bittersweet flavor spreading across the palate. But as alcohol entered the bloodstream, the brain started sending out a new message — whatever that was, I want more of it!

This is nothing new if you’ve been following McGovern and other scientists coming to similar conclusions as new evidence is continually being found to support the idea that it was the desire to brew beer that caused man to settle down and grow crops, leading to civilization’s genesis. But it’s quite nice to see it gaining traction in mainstream media.

McGovern’s latest book, Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages, is a fascinating read and I highly recommend it. McGovern is also the scientist that worked with Dogfish Head Brewery to create Midas Touch, Chateau Jiahu, along with their other historically based beers.

egyptian-brewery
An Egyptian wooden funerary model of a beer brewery in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Beer In Art #57: Kelly Murphy’s Wassailing

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art-beer
After a few more mature works recently, today’s work of art is more playful and child-like. It’s by Kelly Murphy, who primarily write and illustrates children’s books, along with freelance work in similar fields, like toys and film. In 2007, on her blog, Murphy shared her work, Wassailing.

Kelly_Murphy-wassail

Wassailing is, of course, a traditional English and European custom that took place around the holidays, sometime around Christmas and in other traditions into mid-January. To read more about it, there are interesting accounts at the Hymns and Carols of Christmas, About.com, Time Travel Britain and White Dragon.

There also the drink Wassail, which I wrote about a couple of years ago after the release of Full Sail’s Wassail at Here We Go a-WASSAIL-ing

As for Kelly Murphy, here’s some more info from her biography.

Kelly Murphy is an award-winning illustrator and animator working predominantly with traditional and mixed media. Born and raised in southeastern Massachusetts, USA, she studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. Since earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999, Kelly has been actively freelancing across the various fields of editorial illustration, picture books and poster illustration as well as character design for both the film and toy industry. An accomplished children’s book author and illustrator, Kelly’s books have been published by America’s leading publishing houses and her tenth children book is already due to be available in the Fall of 2009.

And there’s a good overview of her other illustration, art and books at her website and her blog, Who the Sh*t Drank My Beer.

Beer In Ads #7: National Premium & Turkey

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ad-billboard
Today’s ad is more modern, because it’s Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to use one that was done for the holiday. This juicy turkey ad was for National Premium Beer, subtitled a “Pale Dry Beer,” and brewed by National Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland from 1936-1995. While accounts of the brewery’s origin vary from around 1850, 1855 or 1872 (and under several different names), after Prohibition ended, it returned as National Brewing with its most famous beer being National Bohemian, or “Natty Boh,” which today is owned by Pabst and brewed by Miller. This ad is for their premium beer, and is from the 1950s. Hoppy Thanksgiving.

national-turkey

Iron City Auctioning Off Brewery Equipment

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iron-city
Originally, Iron City Brewing (f.k.a. Pittsburgh Brewing) claimed they were only closing the canning line, but it appears the whole kit and kaboodle is leaving Pittsburgh for the greener pastures of Latrobe. That’s another big loss of a historic brewery, one that’s been around since 1861. The Pittsburgh City Paper has a long, interesting article on what’s going on, entitled Bitter Beer: The Loss of Iron City Has Left A Bad Aftertaste. Needless to say, it doesn’t look good.

Beer In Ads #6: Biere d’Alsace

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ad-billboard
The artist for today’s ad was born in the Alsace, in 1873, in what is today part of France. But two years before he was born, it belonged to the German Empire, who had annexed it after the Franco-Prussian War that began in 1870. Why is that relevant? Because Jean-Jacques Waltz, better known as “Hansi,” grew up hating the Germans and early in his career drew editorial cartoons poking fun at them. This won him few friends in Germany and in fact he even spent time in jail, “imprisoned several times by German authorities for making fun of the German military and professors.” In addition to putting down his captors, he wrote and drew scenes extolling Alsace’s virtues. One of his most famous works was a history of Alsace for kids by “Uncle Hansi,” L’Historie d’Alssace. The ad today features a girl in the traditional costume of the Alsace, and in fact it shows up in a number of Hansi’s works. I’m not sure if the illustration is advertising for a specific brewery of just beer from the Alsace generally. There is a brewery in Luttenbach (near the border between France in Germany in the Alsace) today known as Les Caves de la Brasserie. The date in the star, 1648, seems to suggest an older brewery, one that perhaps is no longer with us.

Hansi's Biere d'Alsace

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 New Breweries

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top-10
I recently came upon another interesting group of Top 10 lists by Newsweek about the first decade of the 21st century. It’s called The Decade in Rewind 20/10 and one part of their look back at the aughts includes a new Top 10 list every day. The list that caught my eye was an interesting one, Unknown in ’99, Indispensable Now which picked 10 things that we can’t do without in 2009 but didn’t exist ten years ago. Some things take years to catch on, but these caught on like wildfire. I use over half of them all the time, and couldn’t imagine life without them. Here’s that list:

  1. Wikipedia
  2. YouTube
  3. iTunes
  4. Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
  5. Gardasil
  6. Chipotle
  7. TMZ
  8. Red Bull
  9. Free Credit Reports
  10. Online Airline Check-In

So it got me thinking about the breweries that have been around for less than ten years. With Sierra Nevada coming up on their 30th anniversary, a growing number of successful breweries are older than a decade, in some cases two decades. But many new breweries have seen a phenomenal amount of success in a relatively short time. Undoubtedly, the market has changed considerably from where it was pre-millennium and that probably accounts for more favorable conditions for new craft brewers. But alone that’s not enough to account for it all. Some of these new breweries just stepped up and kicked butt. So for my 20th Top 10 list, here are my choices for the ten most important and influential breweries that began within the last ten years. These are the young Turks, the mavericks and the rookies. Some are here because they make great beer while others have made their mark through their influence. I should stress I don’t think I have a complete list of every brewery that’s opened since 1999. Also, I didn’t include new locations opened by an older, existing brewery, or ones that moved. And I certainly haven’t been to all of them at any rate. So undoubtedly I’m going to miss some worthy places, but I can only pick ten. Let me know who you’d put on the list. Here’s List #20:

Top 10 New Breweries

   Ninkasi Brewing (OR; 2006)
   The Bruery (CA; 2008)
   Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project (MA; 2008)
   21st Amendment Brewery (CA; 2000)
   Surly Brewing (MN; 2006)
   Southern Tier (NY; 2003)
   Captain Lawrence (NY; 2006)
   Tie: Laurelwood Public House & Brewery (OR; 2001) /    Hopworks Urban Brewery (OR; 2008)
   Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales (MI; 2004)
   The Lost Abbey (CA; 2006)

It was, as always, really difficult to keep the list to ten, and a great many terrific and deserving breweries were left on the cutting room floor. Here’s a few more that almost made the list:

Alpine Beer Co. (CA; 2006); Bard’s Tale (NY; 2004); City Brewing (WI; 1999); Fifty Fifty Brewing (CA; 2007); Five Seasons Brewing (GA; 2000); Heavyweight Brewing (NJ; 1999); Moon River (GA; 1999); Natty Greene’s (NC; 2004); Nebraska Brewing (NE; 2007); Piece Brewing (IL; 2001); Pisgah Brewing (NC; 2005); Roots Organic Brewery (OR; 2005); Short’s Brewing (MI; 2004); Trumer Brauerei (CA; 2003)

Let me know your favorites, and if there are any that you think should have made the list, please post a comment.

NOTE: It’s a little sad that I have to mention this, but while I encourage a lively debate, that doesn’t mean I enjoy being insulted or attacked. This is meant to be fun and encourage discussion — notice the “Just For Fun” tag? Please stop reminding me it’s “just” opinion. Of course it is. Are you under the impression that I think this list is somehow definitive? Just to clear it up, it’s not. I know it. If you’d read the introduction, which apparently many people did not, you’d know it too. It’s the very definition of subjectivity. But please try to remember, as you type those angry words, that even though you can’t see me, I am a real human being. Honest, I exist. Before you hit send, ask yourself if you’d say the things you’re writing to a person who was standing right in front of you, having a conversation. If not, please take a breath, calm down, and try again. I’ve deleted the worst offenders because, oddly enough, I don’t enjoy being on the receiving end of vituperation any more than you probably do. Let’s try to keep it civil, people. Okay?

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.

Beer In Art #52: Ernst Henseler’s Beer Evening

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art-beer
Today’s work of art is straight out of Germany’s history pages, and in fact I found it at the German History in Documents and Images website. It was by a relatively obscure German artist named Ernst Henseler. About all I could find out about him is that he was born in 1852 and died in 1940. Though I called it “Beer Evening” above, today’s painting is really titled Bismarck in Conversation with Reichstag Deputies at a Parliamentary Soirée and is believed to have been painted in 1894.

Ernest Hensler: Beer Evening
The painting is an illustration for the section of the GHDI entitled “Forging an Empire: Bismarckian Germany (1866-1890)” and under the sub-heading “Parties and Political Mobilization.” This also included the following description of the events in the painting:

This painting by Ernst Henseler (b. 1852) shows a parliamentary “beer evening” in the Imperial chancellery. These soirées provided Bismarck with an opportunity to convince parliamentary friends and foes alike that his policies deserved support. Sometimes consensus-building flowed in the opposite direction. Note that beer was more plentiful than food on such occasions, perhaps to the disappointment of one of Bismarck’s dogs, who was also on the invitation list.

Hindenburg Beer Auctioned For £10,000

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zeppelin
The bottle of Lowenbrau beer that survived the crash of the Hindenburg, that I wrote about on Tuesday, was auctioned earlier today, fetching the sum of £9,400, but “with buyer’s premium, the bottle will cost the purchaser £10,810,” or around $18.034. This Is Wiltshire, like most accounts, is claiming “[t]he world record price for a bottle of beer was smashed in Devizes today when a bottle of Lowebrau lager sold for over £10,000. The previous highest price for a single bottle of beer is thought to be around £2,500 and auctioneer Alan Aldridge started bidding at £3,000.” But I continue to be perplexed by the August 2007 sale of a bottle Allsopp’s Arctic Ale that sold on eBay for $503,300. No one has mentioned it at all, though it was widely reported at the time.

hindenburg-beer
The Lowenbrau bottle that sold today for £10,810.

UPDATE: Whew, finally an answer on the Allsopp eBay sale. It turns out to be a typo, according to New Life Auctions, who looked into the sale. That and a decidedly unfunny joke bid, by a person with “no intention of paying the seller.” And I always thought a winning bid was akin to a “legal contract.” Antique Week has a little more the incident. Thanks to an alert Bulletin reader named Michael for setting the record straight, once and for all.

Hindenbeer To Be Auctioned

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zeppelin
My son Porter, being a somewhat typical 8-year old, loves all things that have to do with destruction. But unlike most kids his age, he has a fascination with historical disasters, especially the Titanic and the Hindenburg. He has at least two dozen books about the Titanic and other sea disasters and three about Zeppelins and the Hindenburg, along with several more general aviation books that include airships. So it was with great joy that I told him today that a bottle of beer that was salvaged from the Hindenburg disaster was going to be auctioned this Saturday.

hindenburg

Apparently, on the morning of May 6, 1937, firefighter Leroy Smith fortuitously came upon six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a silver-plated pitcher. Thinking quickly, he buried them, returning later to dig up his booty. He gave five of the bottles to colleagues and kept one, along with the pitcher, for himself. Most of the rest have been lost, though one ended up in the Spaten museum in Munich (and I saw that one a few years ago when I visited Spaten). In 1966, Smith’s niece inherited the two Hindenburg souvenirs, and will now be auctioned by Henry Aldridge and Son of London. Coincidentally, they also specialize in items from the Titanic.

According to the BBC, the burnt Lowenbrau bottle is expected to fetch around £5,000 (or $8,337). The auction catalog for the bottle has the following information:

Hindenburg memorabilia: An extremely rare bottle of Lowenbrau Beer recovered from the wreck site of the Z129 Hindenburg, May 6th 1937 when it crashed at Lakehurst Naval Air Station. It was recovered by local Fire Chief Leroy Smith of the Matawan Fire Department New Jersey, along with 5 others which he handed out to each of his colleagues. The whereabouts of all of these bottles with the exception of one is unknown. He presented one to the Lowenbrau brewery in 1977 where it remains to the present day. The example being offered for auction is sealed, with some of its original label and shows evidence of heat damage. This lot is sold with a provenance package which include correspondence from the Lowenbrau brewery regarding the bottle of beer donated to their Museum, press cuttings and signed copy of a letter of provenance and an account of how Fire Chief Smith came to acquire the bottle.

hinden-auction
All of the accounts of this story, such as by the BBC, the New York Post and ABC News each claim this will be the highest price paid for a bottle of beer, but in August of 2007, a bottle Allsopp’s Arctic Ale that sold on eBay for $503,300.

hinden-beer
Here’s a better view of the Lowenbrau bottle.

Beer In Ads #2: The Spanish Senorita

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ad-billboard
Today’s beer ad is a beautiful illustration by Achille Mauzan, an Italian artist who created many posters and other illustrations during the Art Deco period from the 1920s-40s and beyond. He was born Luciano Achille Mauzan in the French Riviera but spent most of his life in Italy and Argentina. This ad was created for an unknown Spanish beer, depicting a senorita, “adorned in customary garb, having this brand fixed atop a staff-like scepter.”

Achille Mauzan: The Spanish Senorita