Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Brewhog Determines An Early Spring Bock For 2013

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Over in Gobbler’s Knob, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Phil the Groundhog — a.k.a. the Brewhog — raised up his head this morning and looked around, and this year did not see his shadow. You know what that means? It means an early spring, and earlier spring bock for us. You can see a video of Punxsutawney Phil here. And there’s more information about Groundhog Day from the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

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A Little Love From Philly Beer Week

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A native of Pennsylvania, Philly Beer Week is my second favorite beer week (after our own SF Beer Week, of course). Since attending the very first PBW, I’ve tried to come back every other year, which should have been this year. Alas, I have a book due at the end of next month, and I didn’t feel I could spare the time to frolic (ahem, I mean work) in the City of Brotherly Love.

The Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton, is out there right now doing a beer dinner, and my good friend, fellow beer blogger Bryan Kolesar — who writes the Brew Lounge, sent me the photo below (taken by the incomparable Jennie Hatton) of Sean, Bryan and the Hammer of Glory. Thanks to Bryan’s keen fashion sense, at least I can be there in spirit. Thanks guys, I sure wish I could be there with you.

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Beer Birthday Again: Jay Brooks

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Today was my 53rd birthday, and I’ve once again been overwhelmed by an embarrassment of riches from well-wishers sending me notes via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. My sincere thanks to one and all. As it’s usually me posting embarrassing photos of my friends and colleagues, for the fourth year in a row, here’s some howlers of me from over the years.

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An indian birthday at my grandmother’s house. No idea what year this was. It couldn’t be later than the mid-1960s.

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I can’t even believe this is me, it’s so posed. And what’s with the black baseball? Why is that the prop they chose?

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At my mom’s second wedding to my stepfather in 1964, before he became a psychotic alcoholic.

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Sitting on a cannon at the battlefield in Gettysburg.

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An elementary school photo, where they wet my hair and combed it in a way that I never, ever did, except in this photo. It almost looks like I’m bald and it’s a comb-over.

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It’s hard to tell in this early 1970s photo, but that outfit was green and purple; green jacket and tie with a purple shirt. Sheesh.

There’s many more where these came from, for a good laugh just check out the photos from the last three years at Beer Birthday: Jay Brooks, Beer Birthday: J (Yes, Embarrasing Myself This Time) and Beer Birthday Overkill, from 2009, when I posted a bunch encompassing my first 50 years on planet beer. Oh, and thanks once again to everybody for the generous birthday wishes.

Brewhog Determines Winter Beers For 6 More Weeks

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groundhog-day
Over in Gobbler’s Knob, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Phil the Groundhog — a.k.a. Brewhog — raised up his head this morning and looked around, and this year saw his shadow everywhere. You know what that means. It’s six more weeks of drinking winter beers this year. Or something about a late spring, I can’t keep it straight. You can see a video of Punxsutawney Phil here. And there’s more information about Groundhog Day at the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

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The Philadelphia History of Beer

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This was created back in May, but it escaped my notice. April Kuhn created a cool poster for Drink Philly entitled The Philadelphia History of Beer. According to the website, “[w]hile it doesn’t cover everything that’s occurred in Philadelphia since its founding, it does cover a lot — and it shows why this truly is one of the world’s greatest spots for beer.” If you’d like one of the poster for your very own, they’re on sale online for $10 right now.

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Beer In Art #153: John Lewis Krimmel’s Village Tavern

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This week’s work of art is by John Lewis Krimmel. He was born in Germany, but emigrated to the U.S. in 1809 to join his brother in Philadelphia. Instead of joining the family business, he took up painting and became well-known for his genre paintings depicting everyday life in the city of brotherly love. One of his most well-known paintings was “The Village Tavern,” painted between 1813-14.

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The painting is also sometimes called “In An American Inn,” and just from searching around, it appears their may be more than one of them, as there seem to be various references to both that are very, very similar, but not quite exactly the same, with slightly different colors and with the size of what’s depicted more or less, as if Krimmel painted the exact same scene more than once.

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Perhaps most curiously, apparently the painting was used by prohibitionists as propaganda. “The depiction of a mother and daughter trying to persuade the drunken father to come home has caused historians of the temperance movement to praise In an American Inn as the first work of an American artist to illustrate this issue.” But that interpretation does not seem obvious to me. Nothing in the woman or the child’s demeanor suggests to me that they’re trying to persuade the man of anything. And the man is raising his glass to her with a smile on his face. And nobody else around them seems particularly alarmed by them being there. In fact, many people in the tavern don’t seem to be paying them any mind whatsoever, as if their presence is not so unusual. It just looks an old-fashioned scene from the TV show Cheers, with several groups in the inn.

The Woodmere Art Museum has in its collection the “Study for ‘Village Tavern,'” oil on wood panel, also done in 1814.

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And the Winterthur Library has two early drawings that would eventually become the painting, done in ink and ink wash over pencil.

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They contain all the elements of the finished work, but you can see the artist trying out different placements for the characters in the painting.

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You can read Krimmel’s biography at Wikipedia or at Terra. There are links to more Krimmel resources at the ArtCyclopedia. You can also see more of his work at the Art Renewal Center, Scholar’s Resource, the Philadelphia Academy and the American Gallery.

Make Lew Bryson’s Christmas A Happy One!

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Okay people, time to step up to the bar. A month ago, a new project was announced on Kickstarter starring my friend and colleague Lew Bryson. The project is being produced by Rudy Vegliante of Green Leaf Productions and the idea is to create a series of six half-hour television shows starring Lew. With 30 days to go, only 6% of the needed funds to make the show a reality have been raised. A mere 65 people have pledged $3,716 of the $60K needed. Frankly, that’s pathetic.

C’mon, beer people. I’ve pledged $300, and would have gone higher if I wasn’t trying to make a rather large purchase at the moment. Surely, there are more than 65 people who have benefitted from Lew Bryson’s reviews, laughter, rantings, writings, speaking engagements, etc. Just his being in the beer community makes it a better place. We’ve all seen what happens when non-beer people try to make a TV show about beer. At best it comes off half-baked, full of misinformation, half-truths and propaganda. At worst, it’s a disaster. I’ve personally been involved in trying to get several such projects off the ground. None have gotten very far. It’s tough. Most people outside our rarified community don’t quite get why we’re so passionate about it, and that shows in the finished products that have been made so far.

So here’s a chance for one of our own to be the voice of craft beer, celebrating it in a way we can probably all agree with. And with guaranteed laughter, guffaws and unbridled chuckles thrown in for good measure. Lew is the right big galoot for this job.

Lew has just over 2,500 twitter followers, I have a little over 4,000. Even assuming for some overlap, that’s got to be around 6,000. If each one of you pledged just $10, Lew would be home for Christmas, with all the funding he needs. It’s the price of about two pints, give or take. Surely that’s not too much to create a one-of-kind television show about craft beer, by craft beer, for craft beer. Think of it as giving back to the beer community that has enriched your life, in the spirit of the holidays. Give Lew Bryson a Malty Christmas and a Hoppy New Year.

You can get all the details from my previous post or, better still, directly from the Kickstarter project page for American Beer Blogger.

Okay, I’m climbing back down off my soapbox. Resume holiday merriment.

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Me and Lew at Berkeley’s Triple Rock last year.

Pennsylvania Beer

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Today in 1787, Pennsylvania became the 2nd state.

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Pennsylvania Breweries

Pennsylvania Brewery Guides

Guild: Brewers of Pennsylvania

State Agency: Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

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  • Capital: Harrisburg
  • Largest Cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Upper Darby Twp, Reading
  • Population: 12,281,054; 6th
  • Area: 46058 sq. mi., 33rd
  • Nickname: Keystone State
  • Statehood: 2nd, December 12, 1787

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  • Alcohol Legalized: May 5, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 88
  • Rank: 7th
  • Beer Production: 8,963,292
  • Production Rank: 6th
  • Beer Per Capita: 22.3 Gallons

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Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 37.7%
  • Cans: 44.6%
  • Kegs: 17.3%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.11
  • Per Case: $0.24
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $3.31
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $2.48

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $532,012,580
  • Direct Impact: $2,947,491,286
  • Supplier Impact: $1,542,608,438
  • Induced Economic Impact: $2,449,763,837
  • Total Impact: $6,939,863,561

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: Sunday sales at hotels and restaurants are permitted from 11:00 a.m. ET until 2:00 a.m. ET Monday only with a special annual permit and whose sales of food and non-alcoholic beverages are at least 30% of total sales. Private clubs can serve alcohol from 7:00 a.m. till 3:00 a.m. Sales of alcohol have to stop at 3:00 a.m.
    Off Premises: State stores hours vary from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Mon–Sat and always noon until 5:00 p.m. Sunday
  • Grocery Store Sales: No
  • Notes: Wine and spirits can only be sold at State-operated stores. All persons must be at least 21 years of age to enter a state-operated liquor store alone. Beer is not sold at state-operated liquor stores.

    Beer can be purchased at beverage outlets (cases only), or restaurants (6-packs/restricted quantities) with Liquor Control Board–issued licenses, but not supermarkets. Non-alcoholic beer is an exception, and may be sold in supermarkets, but persons buying it still must be at least 21 years of age.

    Sunday sales were prohibited in LCB stores until 2003 (selected locations) and beverage outlets (owner’s option) until 2005.

    There are currently seven state liquor stores located within supermarkets. In 2010, a trial was initiated to test selling wine in grocery stores using vending machines. The buyer must present identification, look into a camera to allow an offsite PLCB employee to verify the identification, and blow into a breathalyzer to authorize the sale. (See US Wine Vending Machines) This practice was ended in September 2011.

    As of 2007, some convenience stores and grocery stores were trying to fight Pennsylvania’s strict laws on the sale of alcohol, for example Sheetz Weis Markets and Wegman’s. Since 2009, beer sales have been approved in multiple Western Pennsylvania locations of the grocery chain Giant Eagle. In addition, wine kiosks have also recently become available at multiple Giant Eagle locations in the Pittsburgh area.

    Special permits may be purchased for certain organizations for fundraisers once per calendar year, and are valid for a total of six days under the same rules governing restaurants.

    Grain alcohol prohibited as a beverage.

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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.