Tuesday’s ad is for Bunker Hill Lager, from 1899. In Massachusetts, today is Bunker Hill Day, commemorating the Battle of Breed’s Hill, commonly known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, which took place today in 1775. The beer, Bunker Hill Lager, was brewed by Bunker Hill Breweries in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
While it’s been a rumor for a number of years — I first learned about it at least four years back, but like a monk was sworn to silence — finally it’s out in the public. America is getting its first officially sanctioned Trappist brewery. St. Joseph’s Abbey of Spencer, Massachusetts will be adding brewing to its daily routine, and selling under the name Spencer Brewing Co.
The abbey was established in upstate New York in 1950, and is part of the Catholic Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (O.C.S.O.), better known as “Trappists.” Many reports have indicated there’s 180 of them worldwide, but I count 175 at the list on the order’s official website.
The abbey already sells preserves, and has done so for a long time, since around 1954. They also sell “liturgical vestments, and run a farm” to fund the abbey. Apparently the Scourmont Abbey, which makes Chimay, is helping the monks of St. Joseph’s in some capacity, whether through education, logistical support or just consultation I’m not sure. I also know that Dann Paquette from Pretty Things had been helping out, at least in the early stages, as he’d befriended a couple of the monks there as they gathered information and were considering the project of opening a brewery. Records indicate the building for brewing will be 50,000 square feet and their goal to brew 10,000 bbl per year. The first beer will be a Pater, a type of beer made by several Belgian breweries. Here’s how the back label describes the beer:
“Inspired by traditional refectory ales brewed by monks for the monks’ table, Spencer is a full-bodied, golden-hued Trappist ale with fruity accents, a dry finish and light hop bitterness.”
The brewery website is still empty, with just a Go Daddy holding page, and there’s no word on when the beer might be available. With the now Belgian-owned Anheuser-Busch InBev, Sierra Nevada working with Ovila, Moortgat buying Boulevard Brewing, and now this, there’s going to be a lot more Belgian-inspired, and Belgian-made, beer in the U.S. in coming years. But it’s hard not to be excited about this development.
And the hexagonal Trappist logo is on the back label.
Friday’s ad is for Hampden Mild Ale, from the 1950s. Hamden Brewery was located in Massachusetts. I’m not sure that troubadour singing “Enjoy Yourself, Enjoy Yourself” from atop a beer barrel would make anyone want to drink their beer, but who knows. The tagline at the bottom is pretty interesting. “The First Truly Mild Ale in America.” I wonder who true that was?
Today is the birthday of William Bradford, who was born March 19, 1590 and was aboard the Mayflower on its journey to found Plymouth Colony in today what is part of Massachusetts. Although not initially a leader, he became governor of the colony, a post he held for thirty years, and is generally credited with creating the first Thanksgiving.
Bradford kept a journal covering the years 1620 to 1647, which was later published in a variety of forms, including in Of Plymouth Plantation and Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Within the world of beer, Bradford is best known for his diary entry suggesting that the colonists dropped anchor in Plymouth Bay because they’d run out of beer, though he put it quite a bit more elegantly; “we could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.”
In context, of course, the meaning is changed somewhat:
That night we returned againe a ship board with resolution the next morning to settle on some of those places. So in the morning, after we had called on God for direction, we came to this resolution, to go presently ashore again, and to take a better view of two places which we thought most fitting for us; for we could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our Beere, and it being now the 19. [new style 29th] of December. After our landing and viewing of the place, so well as we could, we came to a conclusion, by most voyces, to set on the maine Land, on the first place, on an high ground where there is a great deale of Land cleared, and hath beene planted with Corne three or four yeares agoe, and there is a very sweet brooke runnes under the hill side, and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunke, and where we may harbour our Shallops and Boates exceeding well, and in this brooke much good fish in their season: on the further side of the river also much Corne ground cleared: in one field is a great hill, on which wee poynt to make a platiforme, and plant our Ordnance, which will command all round about; from thence we may see into the Bay, and farre into the Sea, and we may see thence Cape Cod.
Author and beer historian Bob Skilnik has pointed out that the myth of beer being the sole catalyst for the Pilgrims has been well documented, though still it persists. (BTW, anyone heard from Bob lately?) I’ve written about this before (but the link to the newspaper article is down) and also Don Russell wrote one of his columns about it, Don’t believe the Pilgrims’ beer myth, a few years ago, saying “it’s absurd to believe the Pilgrims anchored simply because they had run out of beer. Aside from making them sound like drunken frat boys on a transatlantic beer cruise, historical documents indicate they had other priorities. ‘In actuality, there was plenty of beer still on board for crew members who had to make the return passage to England,’ said Skilnik, author of “Beer & Food: An American History.'” As Skilnik discovered.
Expeditionary crews sent from the anchored ship had been checking the lay of the land for weeks, looking for a suitable place to build homes. Yes, food and supplies had run low. But more importantly, Skilnik noted, the cold was brutal, passengers were dying and the ship’s crew wanted to return to Europe. Meanwhile, there was fowl and fresh water waiting on shore. It wasn’t the shortage of beer that finally prompted the Pilgrims to give up the ship, Skilnik said. It was plain common sense.
The fault, Skilnik contends, begins with a full page ad in the Washington Post from January 8, 1908 taken out by Anheuser-Busch for Budweiser. This was just as the forces for prohibition were intensifying their efforts, and the breweries were finally starting to recognize the threat. Damage control was initiated, but most historians see it it now as “too little, too late,” and this ad was most likely a part of that effort to show beer in a better light. The fake newspaper page contains stories about beer through history, including the pilgrim’s tale.
The pilgrims appear in the story in the second column from the left, at the top.
That was the beginning. Before, and after Prohibition, advertising continued to make the connection, in fact tried to make it even stronger. As Russell continues, “After Prohibition, the message grew even slicker, with an annual Thanksgiving publicity campaign from the U.S. Brewers Association. Each Thanksgiving throughout the 1930s and ’40s, newspaper readers were treated to features with headlines like, ‘Beer, Not Turkey, Lured Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock.'”
Bradford may have written it, but hundreds of years later, it’s not quite the smoking gun we’ve been let to believe.
Statue of William Bradford in Plymouth Rock State Park, Massachusetts.
But Bradford’s journals also contain additional references to beer. Here’s a few more Bradford quotes with beer in them.
November 15:
In the morning so soon as we could see the trace, we proceeded on our journey, and had the track until we had compassed the head of a long creek, and there they took into another wood, and we after them, supposing to find some of their dwellings, but we marched through boughs and bushes, and under hills and valleys, which tore our very armor in pieces, and yet could meet with none of them, nor their houses, nor find any fresh water, which we greatly desired, and stood in need of, for we brought neither beer nor water with us, and our victuals was only biscuit and Holland cheese, and a little bottle of aquavitae, so as we were sore athirst.
Mid-November:
Again, we had yet some beer, butter, flesh, and other such victuals left, which would quickly be all gone, and then we should have nothing to comfort us in the great labor and toil we were like to undergo at the first. It was also conceived, whilst we had competent victuals, that the ship would stay with us, but when that grew low, they would be gone and let us shift as we could.
Christmas Day:
Monday, the 25th day, we went on shore, some to fell drink water aboard, but at night the master caused us to have some beer, and so on board we had divers times now and then some beer, but on shore none at all.
The Boston Herald is reporting that investment firm Fireman Capital Partners is making a “major investment” in the Salt Lake City brewer Utah Beers, which owns both Wasatch and Squatter’s Pub. According to the story, the investment will be used to “support the expansion of the Squatters and Wasatch brewer’s distribution, marketing and brew pub business.”
Currently, “Squatters and Wasatch beer is sold in 12 states and the company operates five brew pubs and restaurants in Salt Lake and Park City, Utah.” Squatters co-founder Peter Cole was also quoted in the piece. “This investment opens the door to the next level for Squatters and Wasatch, and provides the financial firepower and expertise we need to meet rapidly growing demand for our beer and to reach new markets.”
It seems we’re not the only mammals with a taste for beer. In the small Massachusetts town of Boxford a few days ago, six young cows escaped from their pen and set out on a night of partying. Lured by the music of a college graduation party down the road, they crashed the party and immediately went for the beer.
According to the Boxford Police, via Gawker:
Being uninvited didn’t seem to bother the kine, which helped itself to a few cold ones. “They went right for the beer,” said Lt. James Riter. “And then when one was done, they’d knock another one over and take care of that beer.”
And the local newspaper, the Eagle-Tribune, reported that the cows seemed to prefer Bud Light over Miller Lite.
Watch the full story below.
Ever since the FDA absurdly went after drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine, the future of New Century Brewing’s Moonshot Beer was uncertain. Founded by Rhonda Kallman in 2001, after she left the Boston Beer Co., New Century Brewing created a craft light beer, Edison Light, along with the caffeinated Moonshot, which debuted in 2004. Kallman was at Samuel Adams at the very beginning and helped to get their business off the ground and saw it through its first 16+ years before turning to something more personal.
Unfortunately, last year the FDA bowed to the pressure of neo-prohibitionist groups, who persuaded several state attorneys general to petition the FDA to make alcoholic beverages that include caffeine illegal based almost entirely on anecdotal evidence and despite the fact that people have been combining the two on their own for decades, if not centuries. While Moonshot was essentially not one of the products that anti-alcohol groups most objected to, the way in which it was produced pulled her into the list of brands made illegal by the FDA’s misguided ruling.
Thanks to the FDA, at least in part, the Patriot Ledger in Massachusetts is reporting that “Kallman is shutting down New Century Brewing for good this month.” Kallman was also recently featured in Anat Baron’s documentary film Beer Wars to much controversy. Many craft beer purists felt she should not have been part of the film because of the novelty nature of Moonshot, so I suspect many will not mourn the passing of her company or Moonshot itself. And that’s a shame to my mind, in a world in which beer is under near constant attack, I always felt we should have been more charitable to one of our own, even if we didn’t always agree with the choices Kallman made or even like the beer itself. I’ve always been of the opinion there’s plenty of good beers to talk about without running down those we don’t care for, and that the market will ultimately decide which beers succeed and which ones fail. We certainly should have opposed the FDA more strongly than we did as an industry, at least in my opinion. But c’est la vie, it’s water under the dam at this point. So I’ll just wish Rhonda a fond farewell and the best of luck on her next endeavor.
Rhonda Kallman with Todd Alström at the Blue Palms Brewhouse in L.A., the evening of the premiere of Beer Wars.
Tip of the hat to Todd Alstrom from Beer Advocate , who noticed that Cambridge Brewing Co.‘s Will Meyers tweeted out a link to a short survey asking his customers a few questions about buying beer in bottles, suggesting the brewpub is considering bottling some of the their beer. Here’s the introduction to the survey.
Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey. Your answers will help determine the future of a Cambridge Brewing Company bottling program, and provide you with the beers you want in your local store. At this time, we are only in the beginning stages of planning our roll-out, but our success depends on you. So please let us know what you think, and what you want to drink.
Will later confirmed CBC’s plan to bottle, tweeting “Yup! Damn PSYCHED!” And to another, tweeted back that they’re “Considering it, but most interested in making our funkier beers. Lots of great ambers/pales out there already!” So that suggests they’re considering bottling the more interesting one-off and barrel-aged beers that Will has marinating in the basement … er, cellar. And that, I think, is most excellent news.
Today in 1788, Massachusetts became the 6th state.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Breweries
Masschusetts Brewery Guides
Guild: Massachusetts Brewers Guild
State Agency: Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission
Package Mix:
Beer Taxes:
Economic Impact (2010):
Legal Restrictions:
On-premises regulations: No discounts at specific times (i.e. no “Happy Hour” discounts) or for specific individuals, no fixed-price open bar or all-you-can-drink (except at private functions), no more than two drinks per individual at any one time, no pitchers for fewer than two people, no drinking contests, no drinks as prizes, no free drinks.
Off-premises sale of alcohol is prohibited on the last Monday in May (Memorial Day), Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas if Christmas falls on a Sunday.[6]
Sale of alcohol is prohibited during polling hours on election days (subject to local exceptions).[6]
“Malt beverages” defined as having not more than 12% alcohol by weight.
Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.
For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.
Buzzards Bay Brewing in Westport, Massachusetts, may have abandoned their flagship lager, but their creativity is still alive and brewing. Their latest idea is all over the labels of their new India Pale Ale, it’s a serialized mystery story told over twelve different labels, with each one containing a portion of the story. Here’s how they tell it at their new website, Just Beer:
Just beer is proud to reveal a unique collaboration between brewer and author.
“The Case of the IPA” is a hard-boiled detective farce printed chapter by chapter on 12 bottles of a newly released India Pale Ale. Each 22 ounce bottle not only has 22 ounces of brilliantly deduced IPA, but also 1 of the 12 chapters of the story. Each case has 12 bottles, which makes for the entire tale told in a case. And so, the Case of the IPA is indeed a case of the IPA.
Brewer Harry Smith proposed the idea to author Paul Goodchild and they quickly agreed on a format: a noir-ish detective serial. Smith brewed up a batch of hoppy craft brew whilst Goodchild penned the story. It’s a mystery of zany brewers and their intrigues; sure to tickle the ribs and please the belly of any fan of craft beer.
As this is a bottle by bottle mystery, Just Beer reminds all to “please read responsibly.”
You can also read all about it at the Cape Cod Times. And here’s Chapter 1 to whet your appetite and your thirst for more:
