Dave Burkhart, Anchor Brewing‘s resdient historian, put together a great little video all about the connection between beer and baseball in San Francisco, along with its rich history, of course. The video brings to mind this great quote, by Peter Richmond. “Beer needs baseball, and baseball needs beer — it has always been thus.”
Martial Artists For Kirin
Here’s an interesting, if long, commercial for Kirin beer that features some famous martial artists. I have no idea what’s going on for most of the three-minute video, or why they count to 39 throughout the story. Luckily, you don’t have to understand it to enjoy it.
Craft Beer: A Hopumentary
Here’s an interesting video on craft beer by a Jeremy Williams entitled Craft Beer — A Hopumentary. What’s cool about it is that it features Ron Lindenbusch from Lagunitas, Craig and Beth from City Beer Store, Andy French from Southern Pacific Brewing, Zeitgeist, and homebrewer Nathan Oyler. My favorite factoid: craft beer represents 7% of the market, but employs 50% of the employees in the industry.
Sh!t Beer Geeks Say
Here’s a hilarious video from Down Under. Sh!t Beer Geeks Say is a video produced by the folks putting on Good Beer Week, an Australian beer week centered around Melbourne and Victoria, and also the Bridge Road Brewers. I especially love that Vinnie’s “Lupulin Threshold Shift” made it into the list of phrases used in the video.
Friday Fun: Duff Can Animation
This morning I stumbled on this simple video, which looks like it was an exercise in computer animation, showing a can of Duff beer dropping to the ground and rolling. Enjoy.
Kim Jordan’s Keynote Address 2013
At this year’s Craft Brewers Conference, the keynote address was given by Kim Jordan from New Belgium Brewing. The context of Jordan being asked this year to speak is because ten years ago, when CBC was in New Orleans, she gave an optimistic keynote speech then predicting that craft beer would break the 10% barrier. While we’re not quite there yet — the current estimate is 6.5% of volume — great progress has been made and the future certainly looks rosier than it did in 2003. As someone who was sitting in the audience in New Orleans during that keynote, I was keen to hear what Kim would have to say a decade later. Below is a photo I took of Jordan giving that speech in 2003.
Below is my video of Kim Jordan’s keynote address. Technical difficulties (okay, I was slow on the draw) delayed the start and I missed the first few seconds, probably no more than 30 seconds worth. Also, due to YouTube’s size limitations, I had to break it into two parts in order to upload it. Enjoy.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Death Of A Contract Brewer: Shmaltz Builds A Brewery
Wow, this is big news. My old friend Jeremy Cowan sent me a note this morning about this. His company, Shmaltz Brewing, makers of He’Brew and the Coney Island Craft Lagers of beers, will very shortly no longer be a contract brewer. He’s building a 20,000-square foot, 50-barrel brewery in Upstate, New York — Clifton Park (about 10 minutes north of Albany) — which will have an annual capacity of 20,000 barrels. Production is expected to begin in April or May, with a grand opened currently scheduled for July 7, 2013. He’s been working on the plans for this for a year and was finally ready to announce it to the world. Also, great news, is that his brewer, at least initially, will be Paul McErlean (who I’ve judged at GABF with). Paul oversaw all Shmaltz’s contract brewing before and “created every recipe in Shmaltz’s award winning family of beers.”
Here’s more information from the press release:
After 16 years as one of contract brewing’s loudest cheerleaders, Shmaltz Brewing Company, handcrafters of HE’BREW – The Chosen Beer® and Coney Island Craft Lagers®, is breaking with tradition and opening its own New York State production brewery. Located in Clifton Park, NY, 10 minutes north of Albany’s capital district, Shmaltz’s new home boasts a 50-barrel brewhouse with 20,000 barrels of annual capacity. With a $3.25 million dollar budget and countless hours of planning and preparation, what began as an improbable fantasy only one year ago, has blossomed into a nearly 20,000 square foot brewing reality.
The first stainless kettles were delivered this week and the inaugural brew date is targeted for late-April. Packaging should commence in May and June, and Shmaltz projects bringing 100% of its production in-house by mid-to-late summer. The heart of Shmaltz’s new operation features a custom-made, 5-vessel manual workhorse brewhouse as well as 8 fermentation and 2 bright beer tanks manufactured in the US from Oregon’s JV Northwest. The 120-bottle-per minute packaging line comes from the well respected Italian experts at SBC/BC International. The new Shmaltz brewery will package 12 and 22 ounce bottles and kegs of their diverse core and seasonal favorites. Several new releases and collaborations are on tap for 2013, and Shmaltz will continue their acclaimed exploration of barrel-aging with a current inventory of more than 300 bourbon, rye whiskey, and tequila barrels. The brewery projects hiring upwards of 10 full time staff for the new operation in addition to the dozen staffers currently handling sales, marketing and contract brewing operations. The space also touts a 1,700 square foot tasting room, and roughly 800 square feet of office space.
Even with this new beginning, Shmaltz will be piloted under the watchful and experienced eyes of the same dynamic team that’s brought the craft beer world many years of delicious beer and delicious shtick, including Jeremy Cowan (Proprietor), Bob Craven (General Manager), Matt Polacheck (Art Director), Zak Davis (National Sales Manager), Jesse P. Cutler (PR Director), and Paul McErlean (Consulting Brewmaster who created every recipe in Shmaltz’s award winning family of beers).
A press event and ribbon cutting ceremony will be announced shortly for late April or early May. The official, public grand opening bash will take place on Sunday, July 7, 2013. Specific details will be announced soon. Following the opening, craft beer enthusiasts will be able to enjoy the nectar of the new brewery gods at Shmaltz’s tasting room throughout the year. Brewery tours will be available to the public — times will be announced this summer.
Congratulations to Jeremy and the whole Shmaltz tean. L’chaim.
Beer Me Up, Scotty
For a little Friday frivolity, here’s a commercial for the Argentina beer Cerveza Andes, showing the Teletransporter devices they’ve installed in bars throughout South America. Try to ignore the misogynist overtones, and remember it’s meant to be a joke that plays on unfair stereotypes, which doesn’t mean you can’t find it funny. The idea is that Andes built transporters, like from Star Trek — sort of — to help men sneak out for a beer, without getting caught.
Here’s the description, from the ad agency that created the ads:
Many beer brands speak to men in a shared tone showing to them that they really understand their needs. Yet, up to now, all intentions were expressed by a message without and action plan. Andes, the leader beer in the Andina Region of Argentina, presents: Andes Beer: Teletransporter — a revolutionary invention capable of doing something almost impossible: men can now go to a bar and share an Andes beer with friends without having any problems with their girlfriends. Andes Teletransporter Booths have been installed at the main bars of Mendoza, Argentina. Einstein mentioned that teletransportation was impossible since objects could not conduct faster than light. Einstein was wrong!
But just watch the subtitled ad below.
While currently impossible, apparently we may actually be getting closer to teleportation, believe it or not. According to zdiaz.com :
In December of 1997, Scientists in an Austrian laboratory destroyed bits of light in one place and made perfect replicas appear about 3 feet away. In 2004 Physicists carried out a successful teleportation with particles of light over a distance of 600 meters across the River Danube in Austria. And in 2006 Physicists demonstrate the first successful entanglement of the quantum states of photons (in a laser beam) with the quantum states of physical matter. Sure this is a long way from having breakfast in Paris, lunch in New York and Dinner in Beijing, but we are almost getting there.
It was reported by the BBC in Teleportation goes long distance and in Teleportation breakthrough made and it was also done successfully in Japan, as reported in Quantum leap: bits of light successfully teleported. And then last year, they broke a new distance record when Physicists Quantum Teleport Photons Over 88 Miles. It may be a very long way off, but who knows. Maybe someday we really can say, “beer me up, Scotty.” Here’s an interesting overview of the science behind teleportation, if you’re interested in learning more about it. And here’s another one by Gary Garrison and also one from How Stuff Works?
Limited Release Beer’s Pliny the Younger Video
During this year’s Pliny the Younger release day at Russian River Brewing last month, I met Ron and Rob, who have embarked on creating a video series of rare beer releases under the banner of Limited Release Beer. The idea is to go around the country documenting the brouhaha surrounding each rare beer’s release. So far they’ve done videos for Portsmouth’s Kate the Great, Three Floyd’s Dark Lord, Surly’s Darkness, and the Bruery’s Black Tuesday. The latest video, of course, was just released, and it was this year’s Pliny the Younger.
The video runs about 17 minutes, and includes some background history and information, the day itself, a nice interview with Vinnie Cilurzo talking about Pliny, a Mission Impossible-style animation of stealing some Pliny to take back to their “expert taster,” which turned out to be a trick. I assume that must be part of each episode, and they included it only because it’s in the other episodes, too. Then they finish up with their take on the event and some tips to help you survive the next one. All in all, a fun effort.
Limited Release – Episode 5, Pliny the Younger from Limited Release Beer on Vimeo.
The Chemistry Of Alcohol & Hangovers
Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday, the American Chemical Society released a video today as part of their Byte Size Science program all about The Chemistry of Alcohol and Hangovers.
For those celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with green beer, moderation is key. Alcohol has several negative effects on your body — many of which can amount to a miserable morning after. Find out the science behind those brutal hangovers and alcohol’s other effects on the body in our latest video, and maybe we can inspire some caution in your celebration this year.
Doubtful, but it’s certainly worth a try. The video below was created by the ACS Office of Public Affairs, explaining “the science behind these unpleasant after-effects that excessive drinking can have on the body.” DOn’t say you haven’t been warned.