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The United States Of Beer?

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This is a weird one. The Houston Press’ Brew Blog did a map showing soft drinks from each state in a post last week called the United States of Soft Drinks. Due to popular demand, they did a new one this week, tackling beer in another post entitled the United States of Beer. After a decidedly unfunny “alcoholics” joke, they apparently “hunkered down all weekend, doing the kind of brutal and difficult work that it takes to determine a fitting beer for every last one of our 50 states.” They’re not all bad choices. I might have chosen Anchor (for its history) or Sierra Nevada (for its size) in California, but Stone Brewing isn’t a bad pick. I imagine many could quibble with the choices of at least some of the other states, too.

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But a few others are just embarrassing. Four Loko for Nevada? First of all, it’s not much of a beer, though technically a malt-based beverage and taxed as a beer, certainly it’s not marketed as a beer, and it was recently banned anyway. At any rate, Four Loko was made by Phusion Projects of Chicago, Illinois d.b.a. Drink Four Brewing Company. Then there’s the Epic Pale Ale they show for Utah. That Epic is a beer from … New Zealand. There is an Epic Brewing from Salt Lake City, but their Pale Ale is called Capt’n Crompton’s Pale Ale.

While Budweiser is certainly appropriate for Missouri, there’s an Anheuser-Busch family beer for Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia. And while ABI does operate a dozen breweries around the country, none are in those three states. Similarly Miller makes sense in Wisconsin, but there are also MillerCoors beers for Alabama, Florida and North Dakota. And again, MillerCoors does have ten breweries in as many states, but none are located in the three states listed on the map. Pabst Blue Ribbon is listed for Virginia. Pabst, of course, owns no breweries and, as far as I know, doesn’t brew their beer in Virginia. Their headquarters are in Illinois, although the Pabst website lists their home at the bottom of the page as Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the contact page takes you to San Antonio, Texas.

The post details some of what they refer to as the “logic” employed for some of their choices, but I’m not entirely certain logic was in fact used. What do you think of their choices?

You can see the map full size here, and it’s easier to read the key on the bigger map.

Giants vs. Rangers: San Francisco Brewery & Fort Worth Brewery Make Friendly Wager

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Craft brewers tend to not be as cutthroat competing with one another as a lot of other businesses. Most believe that the sale of one craft beer helps the sales of all other good beer, too. But that ethos doesn’t necessarily extend to sports. Case in point, the 2010 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers.

Shaun O’Sullivan, from the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco — in fact just a stone’s throw from the ballpark where the World Series will be played — got a call today from his friend and colleague Fritz Rahr, who owns Rahr & Sons Brewing in Fort Worth, Texas, proposing a friendly wager on this year’s World Series.

So here’s the bet, as told by Shaun O’Sullivan on the 21st Amendment website in a post entitled It’s On Like Donkey Kong:

If the Texas Rangers win the World Series (highly unlikely in my opinion, but I digress), I will wear a Texas Ranger’s shirt, drinking a Rahr and Sons delicious beer outside of San Francisco’s AT&T Park. And when the San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers (they will), Fritz will be wearing a Giants shirt and drinking a 21st Amendment delicious canned craft beer outside of Arlington Field.

I can’t wait to see those photos. Just one more reason to cheer on the Giants. Though I confess that Rahr makes some outstanding beers and it would be nice to taste a few of them during the series, I think for now I’ll stick to Bay Area beers to root for San Francisco beginning this Wednesday. What will you be drinking during the ball games?

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Texas Considering Lowering Drunk Driving Standard To One Beer

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According to Fox TV Channel 14 in El Paso, Texas is reporting that the Texas state legislature is considering a law which could make it legal to arrest people who’ve had as little as one beer or a glass of wine.

According to Fox News:

The proposed law doesn’t saying people are drunk at that level, but it does say that drivers are “buzzed” at that point. The law targets drivers with a blood alcohol level between .05 and .07. It’s called the DWAI law, or driving while ability impaired.

I know I’ll take heat for saying this, but it seems to presuppose that any person whose BAC is below .08% is “impaired” to the extent that they’re a danger to themselves or others by driving. But that’s exactly the presumption we already made when we lowered the BAC standard from .1% to .08%. Even though it’s suggested that the penalties for driving “impaired” will be less than driving “drunk,” it will still have a chilling effect on businesses that serve alcohol and even further criminalizes legal behavior.

I’m not in favor of people driving drunk, but continually lowering the standard by which we measure that does nothing to actually stop the real problem drunk drivers. It’s not the solution, but it appears to be the extent of lawmakers and neo-prohibitionists’ creativity.

Fox News concludes with the time table for the new law. “The Texas Senate will discuss the proposed law and possibly pass it in January.”

The Texas Craft Beer Boom

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The Houston Chronicle has a great article on the growing craft beer scene in Texas, Swimming in Beer, The state is seeing a boom in craft brews as more players jump into an unquenched market. Like the country as a whole, a lot of new breweries are being planned and are opening, despite a poor economy in many other sectors.

Beer In Art #95: Wesley Alan Harris’ Bottlecap Art

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Today’s featured artwork is by an RN from Plano, Texas, who in in his spare time makes incredible works of art using crowns, or bottlecaps, as his medium. The one that I first saw was a bottle cap version of the famous work by Henri Matisse, Icarus. The framed bottlecap Icarus is 2.5 by 4 feet.

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And here’s one of his Warhol-inspired portraits of Marilyn Monroe.

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Here’s how he got into making bottlecap art, from his blog:

My work with bottle caps all started as a joke in college, but eventually became a hobby, and moreover a form of art that is quite interesting, stimulating, and rare. It is also keeping in theme with today’s mindset of reusing and recycling trash to make genuine treasures. I have many friends, relatives, coworkers, and favorite drinking/dining establishments who save bottle caps for me.

A friend of mine opened a bar in 2008, and I offered my first piece as decoration in the bare-walled establishment. After receiving copious and favorable feedback about my first piece, I decided to undertake bottle capping more seriously in 2009. I have completed several ‘spec’ pieces, in addition to selling my first piece in August 2009. In March 2010 I had a showing of all of my bottle cap artwork.

Here’s that first one he did, which was started n 2002 but not finished until 2006.

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I think this is my favorite of his originals, a mostly blue field with the sun in the corner.

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And finally, here’s another Matisse inspired piece, his recreations of Blue Nude, Souvenir of Biskra.

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You can see the rest of Harris’ bottlecap works at his portfolio, many of which are for sale.

Deep-Fried Beer!?!

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I’ve often used the proverb “frying makes every thing taste better,” and people who’ve eaten with me know I take that seriously. I live for French fries and potato chips, and my favorite sandwich is the Monte Cristo, essentially a deep-friend sandwich. I’ll fry pretty much anything, and indeed have tried frying many an unusual foodstuff. There’s certainly a rich tradition of using beer in batters and other sauces that food is cooked in, but I confess I’ve never considered frying the liquid itself, for what I thought were obvious reasons. But then I don’t have Mark Zable’s experience and wherewithal. His father Norman has had a Belgian Waffle concession stand at the Texas State Fair for 47 years, and several years ago his son Mark began tinkering with a number of new food ideas, such as Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffle Balls and Sweet Jalapeno Corn Dog Shrimp.

But it’s his latest creation that made me sit up and take notice: Fried Beer, which they’ve trademarked and the process they use is also being patented.

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To me they look a bit like ravioli with beer inside. Three years in the making, the Dallas Morning News has the story:

For three years, Zable has been on a mission to concoct Fried Beer. He remembers staring at a bar menu in a restaurant. Calamari. Nachos. Fried cheese.

Bor-ing.

“Someone needs to figure out a way to fry beer,” he thought.

Zable started experimenting. But the beer-and-dough concoction kept exploding once it hit the fryer. He kept getting burned.

So he consulted with a food scientist — still, no luck.

Then, earlier this year, he finally found the recipe for success. Now Zable keeps the process shrouded in secrecy and has applied for a Fried Beer patent and trademark.

Mark Zable figured out how to fry beer by sealing it in dough. He had to persist because early efforts blew up.

I’m certainly willing to give it a try. Apparently when you bite into it, the beer squirts out into your mouth to mix its flavor with the dough. How bad could that be? It will debut at the Texas Fair and is also one of eight finalists in the Sixth Annual Big Tex Choice Awards.

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Mark Zable with his fried beer. [photo by Vernon Bryant, Dallas Morning News.]

And here’s Zable talking about what he went through to come up with it:

They’ve also set up a website, where they further describe Fried Beer:

People said it could not be done; impossible is what we were told! When you put beer into a fryer, it will cause a violent reaction with the oil…

We took that challenge and did everything we could to prove naysayers wrong! As a result of three years of research and development, we are now excited to present Fried Beer™ to the world! In such a revolutionary way, we are able to put beer inside dough that is shaped like a ravioli and deep fry it. The process is so unique, we have a patent pending on the manufacturing process!

By using our patent pending process, we are able to place beer inside a salty pretzel like dough, and deep fry it. When you take a bite, beer pours out of the inside pocket of dough. We even had to get the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to rule on our new product. The verdict… You have to be over the age of 21 to purchase Fried Beer™.

CBS also did a video report on Zable’s Fried Beer:The only other food I’ve seen that’s even similar is a Korean dish also called “Deep-Fried Beer” at the Korean Food website ZenKimchi’s Korean Food Journal. ZenKimchi even includes the recipe, though it seems more like a deep-fried batter that includes beer as an ingredient, so I’m not quite sure if it’s misnamed or it is similar at all. Though I may have to give the recipe a try one of these days.

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Korean Deep-Fried Beer

Bill Hicks Movie Coming

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Please indulge me for a moment as I go off topic, beery news will follow. Regular Bulletin readers will know I’m a huge fan of the late stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, who died in 1994. Even though he’s been gone 16 years, his comedy is as fresh and relevant as it was then, a testament to how far ahead of his time he was and how universal his message was. I saw his act live at least a dozen times, probably more, and even had the pleasure of meeting him after a show once and chatting briefly. At every one of those shows, at least one person, and sometimes more, would get offended and leave. That was because Hicks challenged his audiences to not just laugh at his jokes, but to think about ideas and consider inequities in the world. In short, he made some people feel uncomfortable who weren’t ready to confront the world’s hypocrisies and their role in them. He was nothing short of a genius in that regard. Since his death, his popularity has continued to grow in the UK, where people “got” Bill. Over here, sadly, he’s been largely forgotten.

But there’s a new documentary film coming out, American: The Bill Hicks Story, and it’s premiering tonight in the U.S. at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. There’s also a Facebook page for the film. No word yet on when or if it will get a wide theater release, but fingers crossed, you’ll be able to see it soon at a theater near you. As the filmmakers have asked people to help them spread the word about the film, below is the trailer for it. If it comes to your town, go see it. I can’t, of course, vouch for the film-making (though the trailer looks good), I can vouch for the subject matter. Bill Hicks deserves to be more widely known, and especially the ideas he espoused during his lifetime.

Beer In Ads #63: Shiner’s Brewery Workers

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Thursday’s ad is for the Spoetzl Brewery, makers of Shiner Bock. Today is their 101st anniversary. This isn’t too old, but I like the concept of it. It has an old-time look and feel to it and it’s part of a larger series that focuses on the actual brewery workers. If you’ve ever been to the actual brewery, it’s a very cool-looking historical brewery in a small Texas town. This one features Richard Hartmann, who’s in shipping and receiving. But it’s the slogan, possibly being attributed to Hartmann, that really makes it for me. “There’s more to life than brewing beer. There’s also drinking beer, talking about beer ….”

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To same more, similar ads from a campaign in 2009, see the Behance Network.

Beer In Art #64: Sam Yeates’ The Returnable

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Today’s works of art is cleverly called The Returnable, and is by a contemporary Texas poster artist named Sam Yeates.

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This poster was done for Lone Star beer in 1978, when the idea of the Space Shuttle being reusable was still novel concept. So the play on words for returnable bottles and spaceships is pretty clever, I’d say. According to his Past Works/Prints Available page, prints of the The Returnable are available for sale.

Here’s a short biography of Yeates from his website:

Born and raised in the Stephenville, Texas area, Yeates graduated from North Texas State University with a BFA in Drawing and Painting in 1974. After teaching at a private school in Dallas for about a year, Yeates moved to Austin and soon began working at the Armadillo World Headquarters, a music concert hall. Posters promoting shows followed and led to promotional art for Lone Star Beer during the 80’s. Through this medium, Yeates’ art traveled around the world. Through the years, he has continued to paint and show his work in the San Francisco, Dallas, Austin and Taos areas.

You can see more of Yeates’ work at his own website, along with the Cohen Rese Gallery and the Wilder Nightingale Fine Art Gallery.

Beer In Ads #34: Lone Star, Have Fun With Your Thirst

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Given that today is the 70th anniversary of Champion Brewing changing their name to Lone Star, it seemed only appropriate for Monday’s ad to be for Lone Star Beer. And it’s an odd one, in several ways. I’m guessing from the art that it was published in the late 50-early 60s. Are the couple at the beach? At night? It looks like a starry background and possibly ocean waves, but it’s awfully bright. Must be a full moon. There are a couple of humorous taglines. First, they’re “now in GLASS cans!” That’s an interesting way to market Stubbies. I knew that Stubbies were created by glass manufacturers to compete with the popularity of cans, but I hadn’t heard that so nakedly admitted in an ad before. And Lone Star claims to be the first “Certified Quality Beer,” with the footnote reading “Certified ‘As Fine A Beer As Is Brewed In The World,'” whatever that means. But the real crack-up is just how happy they seem to be with their food. The main tagline might be “have FUN with your thirst..,” but they’re looking at that sandwich and especially the hot dog way too longingly.

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