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Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Urban Chestnut Brewery To Open In St. Louis By Former A-B Brewer

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This is excellent news. I just got an e-mail from Florian Kuplent, one of my favorite brewers at A-B (including Mitch Steele, of course). His Bavarian Wheat beer is/was divine. Last week he left A-B and along with fellow ex-A-B employee David Wolfe to open a new craft brewery in St. Louis. The new brewery, Urban Chestnut Brewing, will be located at 3229 Washington Avenue, “in an old 1920’s garage that has been outfitted to accommodate our ‘new world meets old world’ brewery’ in a district of St. Louis known as Midtown Alley.”
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From the press release:

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (UCBC), an unconventional-minded yet tradition-oriented brewer of craft beer, is excited to announce its plans to open a micro-brewery in the Midtown Alley district of St. Louis, MO. UCBC plans to brew and distribute its draught and bottled beers to local restaurants, bars, grocery and liquor stores and other retail establishments in the St. Louis area.

Scheduled to launch in late 2010, UCBC is operated by two former Anheuser-Busch employees: Florian Kuplent, UCBC’s brewmaster, and David Wolfe, UCBC’s marketing and sales principal.

Co-founders Kuplent and Wolfe believe their passion for craft beer coupled with their unique expertise in creating, brewing and marketing beer will bring a fresh approach to the local craft beer market in St. Louis. The pair also shares a passion for local community development. By using local ingredients in their beer and food offerings whenever possible, and by partnering with local businesses and non-profit organizations, UCBC hopes to contribute to St Louis’ progression as a strong and vibrant local craft beer community and community as a whole.

  • UCBC will look to distinguish itself from other craft breweries through its unique brewing philosophy, Beer Divergencya ‘new world meets old world’ brewing approach wherein UCBC contributes to the ‘revolution’ of craft beer through artisanal creations of modern American beers, and pays ‘reverence’ to the heritage of beer with classically-crafted offerings of timeless, European beer styles.
  • Their philosophy is shaped around co-founder Florian’s lifelong passion for the culture and tradition of brewing and his dedication to the art and science of brewing. A German-born and educated brewmaster, Florian brings two decades of brewing expertise to UCBC. His career in brewing has spanned small and large brewers in the U.S, Germany, Belgium and England and his beers have won awards at the Great American Beer Festival, the North American Beer Awards and SIBA Wheat Beer Challenge. Florian is active in the brewing community serving as a judge at national and international beer festivals, as a contributor to brewing publications and as a member of various brewing clubs. It is his passion for creating new, artisanal beers coupled with his background rooted in the heritage and culture of beer that has helped to form UCBC’s brewing philosophy Beer Divergency. “In launching UCBC, my vision is to delve into both th3 exploration of modern, American craft beer and the traditions of old world brewing, simultaneously. It is the fusion of these two brewing cultures, new and old, that has shaped our brewing philosophy of ‘Beer Divergency’— embracing the revolution of American craft beer, while simultaneously appreciating the heritage of European beer,” Florian shares.
  • UCBC will work to contribute to St. Louis’ evolution in local craft beer by adding to the number of small, local brewers who distribute their beer in bottles. The co-founders believe St. Louis is a burgeoning local craft beer community that unquestionably boasts a significant community of knowledgeable craft beer drinkers and has a proud and active base of small brewers. UCBC sees an opportunity to add to the overall growth of and appreciation for local craft beer, by bottling and selling their beer at establishments all over town. Wolfe, who grew up in St. Louis, comments, “As UCBC prepares to join the community of small, St. Louis area brewers who are already contributing to the culture of local craft beer, we are excited to begin packaging our beer in both bottles and kegs, and we look forward to collaborating with as many local merchants as possible to reach as many beer drinkers as we can.”

Beyond distributing their beer, UCBC will have a taste room and outdoor biergarten where guests can enjoy UCBC beers and other locally brewed craft beers accompanied by small food pairings. Wolfe remarks, “Our taste room & biergarten won’t quite be the traditional brewpub. I like to tell people, ‘think wine bar for beer’; a casual place to hangout and experience a selection of local craft beers accompanied by small plates of cheeses, meats, and other little eats that pair well with beer.” Kuplent adds, “It is my goal to bring a little bit of Bavaria to UCBC. While our taste room will have a touch of old-world feel, our biergarten is where we’re trying to create an authentic, German beer-drinking experience by importing biergarten tables from Europe and planting shade-giving chestnut trees.”

The Urban Chestnut name is also derived from its philosophy of “Beer Divergency”; Urban—a nod to the locales of the modern craft beer revolution and Chestnut—a symbol of the heritage and tradition of beer; the chestnut tree has been utilized by Bavarian brewers for centuries to give shade to their biergartens and bierkellers.

According to the website, they’ll be doing two series of beers:

Revolution Series: Our contribution to the renaissance of craft beer—brewing artisanal, modern American beers.

Reverence Series: Our celebration of beer’s heritage—brewing classically-crafted, timeless European beer styles.

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MADD Charity Rating Downgraded To “D”

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The American Beverage Institute (ABI), a trade organization representing restaurants and specifically on-premise alcohol issues, is one of the few groups to confront MADD’s deceptive practices and neo-prohibitionist tendencies head on. Yesterday they released the following press release:

The American Institute of Philanthropy’s (AIP) Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report has downgraded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to a “D” rating on a A-F scale in its August 2010 report.

“Under the leadership of CEO Chuck Hurley, MADD further diminished its focus on victim services and educating Americans about the dangers of drunk driving, instead pushing anti-drinking, anti-alcohol public policies,” said American Beverage Institute (ABI) Managing Director Sarah Longwell. “The public needs to realize that MADD isn’t the same group it was 20 years ago.”

MADD has consistently received low ratings from the Charity Rating Guide due to its poor fundraising and spending practices.

According to the AIP, it should cost most charities $35 or less to raise $100. In some years, MADD has spent nearly double that amount. The AIP also says most highly efficient charities are able to spend 75 percent or more of total expenses on charitable programs. In some years, MADD has spent as little as 57 percent on programs. In 2008, MADD spent almost $30 million on salaries and fundraising, leaving just 1/3 of its budget available for charitable work and victim services.

Another charitable giving guide, Charity Navigator, gives MADD an overall rating of 1 out of 4 stars. Charity Navigator reserves this embarrassing basement-level for a charity that “fails to meet industry standards.”

During Hurley’s tenure at MADD, the organization’s revenue declined while Hurley and other officers and directors saw their salaries increase — a whopping 56 percent. In contrast, MADD’s revenue declined nearly one-quarter over the same period. And MADD’s spending on community programs—what a charity should be about—dropped by 17 percent. In 2009, MADD had to lay off 50 employees nationwide—15 percent of its workforce—a move that cut much of the organization’s victim advocacy work.

These financial changes reveal a shift in MADD’s mission. In the words of its own founder Candy Lightner: MADD “has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”

Longwell continued: “MADD’s anti-alcohol agenda includes advocating for alcohol detectors in all cars, sobriety checkpoints and sky-high alcohol taxes. By spending on these new priorities, MADD has diverted money from programs created to help the victims of drunk driving and get dangerous drunk drivers off the roads.”

Hilarious, it’s great to see someone else holding their feet to the fire. You may recall back in August of last year, after the ABI had the temerity to criticize MADD, that MADD called the ABI “The Angry Arm of Alcohol.” At that time, I observed that we should be angry, and suggested someone make up “Angry Arm of Alcohol” T-shirts. So far, no one’s taken me up on it.

Dogfish Head Bitches Brew Honors Miles Davis

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Dogfish Head Craft Brewery today announced the release of Bitches Brew to commemorate the original release of the milestone jazz album, Bitches Brew, by jazz legend Miles Davis.

The new beer by Dogfish Head is described as “a bold, dark beer that’s a fusion of three threads imperial stout and one thread honey beer with gesho root, a gustatory analog to Miles’ masterpiece.” It also features the “the album’s iconic artwork, created by the late Mati Klarwein, on its label, Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew will be unveiled at Savor, An American Craft Beer & Food Experience tonight at the National Building Museum, Washington DC. The beer will be bottled in 750ml bottles and released through Dogfish’s distribution network in late August.

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From the press release:

The newly created ale is designed, according to Dogfish founder and president Sam Calagione, “as the ultimate partner for chili or spicy curry chicken” and best enjoyed “sipped cool, not cold, from a snifter or red wine glass while listening to the Bitches Brew album.”

Calagione was drawn to the alchemical spirits in Bitches Brew right out of college, acquiring a copy of the album “within months of the first time I brewed a batch of homebrew in my apartment in New York City.  I listened to it when I was writing my Dogfish business plan.  I wanted Dogfish Head to be a maniacally inventive and creative brewery, analog beer for the digital age.  You could say that my dream was to have Dogfish Head, in some small way, stand for the same thing in the beer world that Bitches Brew stands for in the jazz world.  You can imagine how excited we are to be doing this project 17 years after I wrote that business plan.”

“There’s a spirit of innovation, of creativity and individuality, that’s at the core of Miles’ music,” said Adam Block, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Legacy Recordings.  “Sam and Dogfish Head approach their art from the same place and consequently the marriage is an easy and cool one.”

Later this year, on August 31, an anniversary edition of the recording — two, actually: a Legacy Edition and a deluxe Collector’s Edition — will be released on CD.

New Hopyard Planted In Wisconsin

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Matt Sweeny, from Fatty Matty Brewing, a homebrewing and craft beer website, announced yesterday that he’s started a small hop farm in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, named Simple Earth Hops.

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From the press release:

Simple Earth Hops is a new 1/4 acre hopyard located at Greenspirit Farm CSA in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. The hopyard was founded with the idea of providing a much needed agricultural product for local craft brewers. Simple Earth Hops was established to demonstrate that local farmers can produce a consistent, sustainable supply of ultra high quality hops by working directly with local craft brewers while still maintaining a focus on ecology, the land and the people involved.

“Craft beer producers have made it clear that they desire a local source of hops. Simple Earth Hops will address this need for a local sustainable supply of hops by small locally owned craft beer producers.”

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Raising the trellises.

Look for Simple Earth Hops to elaborate more on the details of a Grand Opening hopyard tour/beer tasting event in late July, 2010 and for the hopyard harvest tour & beer tasting in early Fall, 2011.

Funding for Simple Earth Hops is provided in part by a 2009 NCR-SARE (USDA) grant. This small-scale commercial hopyard has been established by the Sweeny family of Dodgeville, Wisconsin who slowly grow earth friendly hops for local brewers with similar locavore ethics.

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The hop trellises on Greenspirit Farms.

Brewing Achievement Awards 2010

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Yesterday at the opening session of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago, the awards were given to “three successful members of the brewing community … for their dedication and service to the industry.” The three awards were as follows.

  • The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Larry Bell, Founder and Owner of Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
  • The Brewers Association presented the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing to Ken Grossman, CEO/President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
  • The Brewers Association presented the F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award to Steve Hindy, Chairman and President of The Brooklyn Brewery.

Dick Cantwell, from Elysian Brewery in Seattle presented the awards.

Dick Cantwell

The first award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Larry Bell, Founder and Owner of Bell’s Brewery, Inc. Bell started the Kalamazoo Brewing Company and Bell’s Brewery, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1985, the earliest craft brewery in the eastern half of the United States. Larry’s dedication to the industry includes serving as a former chair of the Brewers Association’s predecessor organization and acting as a driving force with current Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper for the creation of American Beer Month (which evolved into American Craft Beer Week).

Larry Bell

“Larry is a leader in our industry known for his innovative beers and the passion he brings to craft brewing,” said Brewers Association Board of Directors Chair Nick Matt, CEO of Matt Brewing Company. Mountain West Brewery Supply’s David Edgar noted in documents supporting Bell’s nomination that “Larry is continually pushing the envelope with experimenting with different grains, different yeast strains and plenty of hops.”

The second award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association presented the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing to Ken Grossman, CEO/President of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Grossman received this year’s award for his leadership in technical brewing science for craft brewers. He is still deeply involved in technical brewing projects at Sierra Nevada and has led numerous initiatives in the area of sustainability and beer quality.

“Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Company 30 years ago based on one principle, to make the highest quality beer in America,” said Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Co. in a nominating document. “I think Ken’s never-ending quest in life is to make Sierra Nevada’s beers even better than they already are.”

Ken Grossman

The Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing was first given in 1997 to honor Russell Schehrer, who died in 1996 at 38 years old, for his contributions to the brewing industry. Schehrer was a founding partner and original head brewer at Colorado’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Co. He was also one of the first brewers to produce mead, doppel alt, cream stout and chili beer.

The third award, from the press release:

The Brewers Association presented the F.X. Matt Defense of the Industry Award to Steve Hindy, Chairman and President of The Brooklyn Brewery. Hindy recently testified in a Congressional hearing to communicate how state franchise laws can hinder the ability for small brewers to grow their businesses and how self-distribution is important to many small brewers to develop their access to market.

Steve Hindy

“Steve’s work on behalf of the industry is almost too great to list,” says Brewers Association Past Chair Richard Doyle of Harpoon Brewery. “His involvement on the Beer Institute board established credibility for craft brewers there and reaffirmed our place at the table.”

The F.X. Matt Award is given in honor of a champion of small brewers, F.X. Matt (1933-2001), president of the F.X. Matt Brewing Co. in Utica, New York from 1980-1989 and chairman from 1989-2001.

Craft Beer Numbers Up Again For 2009

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The Brewers Association released the 2009 numbers for craft beer today, and I’m happy to report it’s good news again. While mainstream beer recently reported their largest negative sales period since the 1950s, craft beer in 2009 was up 7.2% by volume and 10.3% by dollars over the previous year. According to the press release, that represents “a growth of 613,992 barrels equal to roughly 8.5 million cases. Overall, U.S. beer sales were down approximately 5 million barrels (31 gallons per U.S. barrel) in 2009.”

From the press release:

In 2009, craft brewers represented 4.3 percent of volume and 6.9 percent of retail dollars for the total U.S. beer category. With the total U.S. beer industry representing an estimated retail dollar value of $101 billion, the Brewers Association estimates the actual dollar sales figure from craft brewers in 2009 was $7 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2008.

The total number of U.S. craft brewers grew from 1,485 to 1,542 in 2009, and they produced 9,115,635 barrels, up from 8,501,713 barrels in 2008. Overall U.S. beer sales fell from approximately 210.4 million barrels to 205.8 million barrels.

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And here’s the BA’s updated fact sheet:

  • Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2009 was 7.2% by volume and 10.3% by dollars compared to growth in 2008 of 5.9% by volume and 10.1% by dollars.
  • Craft brewers sold an estimated 9,115,635 barrels of beer in 2009, up from 8,501,713 in 2008.
  • Overall, US beer sales were down 2.2% in 2009.
  • Imported beer sales were down 9.8% in 2009, equating to a loss of 2.8 million barrels.
  • The craft brewing sales share in 2009 was 4.3% by volume and 6.9% by dollars.
  • Craft brewer retail dollar value in 2009 was an estimated $6.86 billion, up from $6.32 billion in 2008.
  • 1,585 breweries operated for some or all of 2009, the highest total since before Prohibition.

Two American & Two Italian Brewers To Open Brewpub In NYC

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Well, this is certainly big news in the craft beer community, news Russian River’s Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo have been playing close to the vest. They’re teaming up with Dogfish Head and two Italian craft breweries to open a rooftop brewpub in New York City. Dogfish Head issued a press release this morning with the details. From the press release:

Four well-know brewers are joining forces with Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and Italian food emporium Eataly to open a brewery-pub on a New York City rooftop with breathtaking views of the Flatiron and Empire State Buildings.

The four breweries collaborating on this project include two Italian craft brewers — Teo Musso, Brewmaster of Birrificio Le Baladin and Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Birra del Borgo, and two Italian-American craft brewers — Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Vinnie Cilurzo of the Russian River Brewing Company.

The first floor of the building at 200 5th Avenue will house Eataly, an epic Italian specialty foods market and multiple restaurants which pair gourmet foods with artisanal beers and wines. Additionally, there will be an 8,000 square foot rooftop brewery and restaurant operated by B&B Hospitalitys Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich.

The rooftop bar and restaurant will house a copper-clad brewing system. The idea is to create an artisanal, old world Italian craft brewery that just happens to be located on a rooftop in Manhattan, says Dogfish Heads Sam Calagione. The four brewers are working together on recipes for Eatalys house beers. Those beers will feature Italian and American ingredients. The beers will be unpasteurized, unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and hand-pulled through traditional beer engines for the most authentic and pure presentation. The four individual brewers will also occasionally brew beers under their own names on site. The rooftop restaurant project will pair artisanal rustic, homemade beers with the artisanal, rustic cooking of Chef Mario Batali. Additional Italian and American regional craft beers will be served both at the rooftop bar and within the downstairs restaurants.

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Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Leonardo Di Vincenzo (Birra del Borgo), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Teo Musso (Birrificio Le Baladin). [Photo by Ryan Collerd.]

The four consulting brewers met in Boston this week to brew the first test batch of Eataly beer, an English Mild fermented with Italian chestnut powder (photos above). Plans call for Eataly New York to open late summer 2010.

More from the press release:

“Eataly is the representation of the earth, its products and an example of real Italian taste. The brewery will surely be a fusion of Italian and Italian/American styles and I am very happy to make this journey with this fantastic group!” Teo Musso, Brewmaster , Birrificio Le Baladin

“In 2006 I went to the Slow Food Salone del Gusto in Italy. Upon meeting many Italian craft brewers, I was not only impressed by the quality of their beer, but, their passion for brewing as well. It was at that time I learned how great Italian craft beer was! To now collaborate with two of the most dynamic Italian craft brewers along with my friend Sam Calagione at Eataly New York will not only be a lot of fun, but, very educational as well.” Vinnie Cilurzo, Brewer/Owner, Russian River Brewing Company

“Eataly Brewery will be a great fusion of the well-known Italian gastronomic culture and our rising beer culture with the taste and the creativity of the American craft beer movement. This may well be the craziest and amazing brewery in the world” Leonardo Di Vincenzo, Brewmaster, Birra del Borgo

“While the Italian craft brewing renaissance started later than ours here in the states , they have quickly made up for lost time with world class artisanal beers. Both Dogfish Head and Russian River have pushed the boundries of beer, particularly those that pair well with food, for many years. We are looking forward to working with our Italian Brewing Brethren, Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and the folks at Eataly to further strengthen the bond between world class beer and world class food in the most beautiful setting for a brewery I have ever seen.” Sam Calagione, President/Founder, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

Big News From Beer Wars

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I confess I knew it was coming, but now that it’s here, I couldn’t be more thrilled for Anat Baron and her film, Beer Wars. Starting tomorrow, February 1, the film’s reach should extend beyond the well-insulated beer community. It will then be available to watch online, on your television or gaming console thanks to a deal Ms. Baron inked with a big-time distributor.

From the press release:

How did this happen? Well this David (me) made a deal with Goliath — Warner Bros. — to distribute the film. You should know that very few independent films, let alone documentaries, ever get this far, especially without a big name like Michael Moore or major festival buzz. I am humbled and elated that this movie will be available to tens of millions of people.

But I still need your help. Just because it’s available doesn’t mean that people know anything about it. Without word-of-mouth it could just sit there without any takers. So please, tell everyone you know by forwarding this email, or posting on Facebook and/or tweeting on Twitter. We even have web banners should you want to display them on your site or blog. You’ll not only be helping this indie filmmaker, but you’ll help convince studios like Warner Bros. to continue supporting these kind of films.

I think this is great news. Whatever you thought of the film, in my experience the people who got the most out of it were the people who knew the least about the beer industry going in. This distribution deal through on-demand and for download will make it available to a wider swath of the population, and many more of the people who I think need to see it. If only a fraction of the mainstream public sees the film and is moved or motivated by it to at least sample craft beer, then it will be a great victory for better beer.

Below is the nuts and bolts of how it can be seen, starting tomorrow. Spread the word to all your non-beer geek pals.

In the U.S., Beer Wars is available to rent on demand through Digital Cable and Satellite providers Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, Insight, Bresnan, Verizon FiOS, AT & T U-Verse, Dish Network and DirecTV. It is also available for download on iTunes, Amazon Video On Demand, Xbox 360 and PS3.

I’m Virgin America, Fly Me & Drink Craft Beer

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Though it’s been available on Virgin America (which since 2017 is owned by Alaskan Airlines) for a little while now, 21st Amendment Brewery formally announced yesterday that their canned IPAwas being served on Virgin flights in the U.S. From the press release:

Great craft beer on planes is finally reaching the blue skies, as the 21st Amendment Brewery is set to launch their Brew Free! or Die IPA in cans aboard Virgin America Airlines. Starting now Virgin America will serve complimentary Brew Free! or Die IPA in First Class and Main Cabin Select and the beer will be available for purchase in the Main Cabin for $7.

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While not the first canned craft beer on an airline, this is terrific news both for 21st Amendment and also beer loving passengers. It certainly makes me want to choose to fly Virgin wherever possible.

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21st Amendment co-owners Shaun O’Sullivan and Nico Freccia

Marin Institute’s Latest Anti-Alcohol Report

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The day after I left on vacation (I just spent 10 days in Asheville, NC) I received a frightening press release with the latest propaganda from my neighbors at the Marin Institute. This is the sort of thing I might expect on April 1 or even possibly Halloween, but they’ve taken things up yet another notch in their fight against alcohol.

It starts out with the same nonsense about the recent mergers in the big beer world that resulted in their being two large beer companies accounting for 80% of the American beer market. Ooh, scary. Except that this didn’t just suddenly happen. In 1984, when there were only 44 breweries in the entire country (today there are over 1,500), the top six accounted for 92% of the market. This is a meaningless statistic. That it’s the lead to so many recent stories gives you some idea of how this is being driven by propaganda in an effort to further an anti-alcohol agenda. From Jim Cramer to Joseph A. Califano, Jr. to junk medical “science” and all the way back to the Big Kahuna Looney, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this is the all-out war against alcohol run amuck once more.

You can read the whole nonsensical press release, with their breathless worrying over a “drastic shift in U.S. beer market ownership to this powerful duo of global corporations” and that these “two global corporations sole interest is increasing profits.” Not to mention they’re “troubled that in its rush to approve these mega mergers, the Department of Justice put beer profits above the public interest.” There’s simply nothing new in the press release nor the report itself that hasn’t been addressed before both by these groups and the media at large. This is fake news at its most deadly. It’s almost too ridiculous to merit further comment.

But the most telling comment comes in the summary of the full report at page three, where they make this farcical statement: “Beer remains the cheapest and most widely used drug in America.” Uh, if you want to play that game, It’s fairly likely the hypocrites who wrote that nonsense start their alcohol bashing day with coffee or tea, containing what has to actually be the most widely used drug in the world, including America: caffeine.

The full quote is from page 11, under the heading the “Race to the Bottom.”

Beer is not harmless. Indeed, beer is the most commonly abused drug in the United States, and the most popular drug among youth. Beer should be treated as the drug it is, with stringent guidelines applied when addressing alcohol industry-related issues such as taxation, trade, distribution, production, and corporate structure and industry operations.

In fact that section concerns beer being too cheap and yet these people’s recent fulminations is all about the big beer companies announcing they were going to raise their prices. There’s just no pleasing some people.

The always insightful Harry Schuhmacher, who publishes Beer Business Daily, had a similar reaction.

But here’s where [the report] really comes off the rails and delivers the crazy talk that has everybody heated up. From the report: “Beer is not harmless. Indeed, beer is the most commonly abused drug in the United States, and the most popular drug among youth. Beer should be treated as the drug it is…” Whaa? First of all, the source Marin lists for this claim is a press release by Narconon Arrohead, a drug rehabilitation program affiliated with the Church of Scientology. Second, the dubious source doesn’t claim beer is the most commonly abused “drug”, but rather that “alcohol remains the most commonly abused substance in America.” Whatever, I get it, beer is more popular than wine or liquor. Regardless, by that criteria, we would suggest that the coffee, tea, and energy drink industries are starting to feel left out as the leading vehicles for administering the actual most commonly used “drug” in America: caffeine, used daily by over 90% of N. Americans (source is Wikipedia, which while not infallible, is certainly more credible than Scientology, unless you’re Tom Cruise).

Or were they meaning drug as in “narcotic”? If so, I doubt the average voting soccer dad — or President Obama for that matter (who routinely drinks beer on camera) would appreciate his favorite beverage being styled as a narcotic or himself as a drug user, in my opinion. But that and two bucks will get you a Red Bull. (Watch out, it’s full of taurine).

Even if we accept their absurd line of reasoning, a “drug” isn’t bad in and of itself. Aspirin is a drug. Countless drugs help people manage pain or treat and cure their maladies. You could make a case that even sugar is a drug following the definition, from Dictionary.com, that it’s “a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.” Sugar makes people feel better. Eat too much of it and your health suffers. Ditto overdosing on many drugs. The point is, which I’ve made many times, is that anything can be abused, even things that can be good for you in smaller amounts. The mistake these chuckleheads continually make is saying that something that can be bad if abused is always bad because of the potential is has for there to be negative effects. I doubt they actually believe it but it’s an effective propaganda tool. And let’s not forget what’s behind The Neo-Prohibition Campaign. This report is just the most recent example of their diabolical machinations.
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To download the entire report, Big Beer Duopoly, please visit the marininstitute.org website. It makes for entertaining fiction. Unfortunately, it’s subtitled “A Primer for Policymakers and Regulators” and despite its questionable and bogus claims, it’s likely some legislators will actually treat it as a credible source.