Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Vinnie’s 40th Birthday Party

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blind-pig-cupcake
This Sunday, Vinnie Cilurzo, founder and brewmaster at Russian River Brewing, turned forty. His wife Natalie pulled out all the stops and made it a two-day celebration, beginning with a barbecue at the production brewery.

Vinnie & Terrence Sullivan, from Sierra Nevada, filling barrels
We arrived a little early, and Vinnie and Terrence Sullivan, assistant brewer at Sierra Nevada Brewing was there with kegs of a beer that Vinnie brewed in Chico, and they were now filling into wine barrels to store in the barrel room for aging. The beer is for a special project for next year, and I can’t say more than that at this point.

My son Porter & Terrence's son Riley in Russian River's barrel room
We brought our kids along and happily so did Terrence and his wife. Their son Riley and Porter got along immediately and were thick as thieves playing in the barrel room and the rest of the brewery.

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We dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, put them to bed, and rejoined the party, which had moved to the brewpub, where we caught up again with Natalie and Vinnie.

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Natalie had a bunch of great cupcakes made, including several custom ones with a few logos you may recognize.

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The band playing was one of Vinnie’s favorites, The Famous, a San Francisco band. They even did a special song for the occasion, Pliny the Elder.

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Vinnie and me toward the end of the evening. The next day, we had brunch at Willie BIrds, near the brewery. After that, the party resumed back at the brewpub, but sadly without us. It was time to get the kids home.

Below is a slideshow of Vinnie’s 40t birthday party. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Lovin’ The Ladies: Beer Ads

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My wife pointed this one out to me, and it’s pretty funny despite highlighting some fairly ugly trends in beer advertising by the big breweries and imports towards women. From the Current TV show InfoMania, the clip is introduced as follows:

Everybody loves beer — men, women, children with fake IDs. But beer companies don’t want one of these groups to enjoy their beer: women. Modern Lady Erin Gibson is on the case of how beer companies like Miller, Budweiser, and Heineken have gone from depicting women in commercials as eye candy hanging out with Spuds MacKenzie to the target of aggression and humiliation.

Beer In Ads #152: Phoebe Cates For Asahi

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Friday’s ad ends Bud week early and is a bit of a departure for what’s usually featured here. I try not to use overtly male-oriented ads but today is an exception. We all have celebrities, male and female, that we’re more attracted to than others. For me, one of my most enduring starstruck crushes has been on Phoebe Cates, most famous for Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins. But many actors also did ads in Japan, which during the 1980s was quite lucrative so many who wouldn’t do ads in the U.S. just couldn’t turn down doing them in Japan, and Phoebe Cates was no exception. She did a series of ads, usually in a bikini, for Asahi Breweries sometime during the 80s. Also, I should point out that the reason for all this is today is Phoebe Cates’ 47th birthday.

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The campaign also included television spots, like this one on YouTube. Since it was for their Asahi Draft Beer, they used the slogan “Live Beer” in the TV spots and on branded beer glasses in the print ads, such as the ones below.

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Sometimes in a big floppy hat, sometimes not.

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Most of the ads I’ve seen have been cropped and don’t show the full ad, sad to say.

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Older Bud No Weiser

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dogfish-head-green flying-fish iron-hill stone victory-hand yards-philly
The last event I attended during Philly Beer Week was the Older Bud No Wiser panel discussion at the World Cafe Live. Here’s how the event was promoted:

1996 was an historic year for Craft Brewing. It was in this year that Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head, Bill Covaleski from Victory, Mark Edelson of Iron Hill, Tom Kehoe of Yards, and Gene Muller of Flying Fish all took that epic leap of faith and started their own take on a craft brewery. Fourteen years later they’re all still in business and doing better then ever. Can you imagine what it would be like if they hadn’t? What a world it would be . . .

Host Greg Koch of Stone [which was also founded in 1996] will be your master of ceremonies as we turn back the clock to see what these monsters of craft brewing were doing and where their lives would have ended up, if not for hops.

Victory’s Blog also has a write-up on the event and you can watch the trailer below to see what was planned for the event.

Below is a video trailer for Older Bud No Weiser.

And it was also promoted with this hilarious fake class of ’96 yearbook, showing all of the brewery founders’ high school photos.

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I arrived from the Kite and Key event, where we met the rest of the brewers assembled there. We got beers at the back of the theater as people streamed in and founds seats.

Toasting the Class of '96: Greg Koch, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski, Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller & Sam Calagione
Toasting the Class of ’96: Greg Koch, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski, Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller & Sam Calagione.

Once the theater filled up and everyone was in their seat, the first beer was served and the five brewer/brewery founders took to the stage.

Greg Koch MC'd the Panel of 5 Philly Area Brewers

Greg Koch served as emcee for the evening (although I took over for a short time twice throughout the long night) and after a short introduction about what a bad year 1996 was for the craft brewing industry, he introduced each of the five and they told their own story about starting their individual breweries that same year.

The Panel: Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski & Sam Covaleski
The Panel: Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski & Sam Covaleski

The evening went by quickly with all participants taking questions from the crowd, as the beer flowed freely. For each question asked, each brewer brought along several bottles of their own beer to give to participants who asked question, which — not surprisingly — led to even more questions. Bill at Victory tells me that they filmed the entire show and that they’re editing it down to a more manageable size. It should be an interesting record. One hilarious part of the evening that deserves a wide audience is the video below, which is a spoof of what might have become of the five brewery founders if they had not been successful with their respective brewers entitled “Craft Beer Class of ’96: Where are they now?”

Below is a slideshow of the World Cafe Live event. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

GQ Top 50 Beer Trainwreck On CBS

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GQ
While I realize that I’m Mr. Negative and always see the pint glass as half empty almost every time craft beer is featured on mainstream television, I just can’t jump for joy when there’s so little respect paid to beer by the media and so much misinformation. If I have to be the lone voice in the wilderness, so be it. The GQ Top 50 Beer List that the recently released — and which I initially applauded for the most part — has morphed into something else entirely for television. In print, it was merely 50 Beers To Try Right Now but on CBS it has transformed into 50 Beers to Try Before You Die, a very different list indeed. I liked the idea of just suggesting some great beer to try, but making it a “bucket list” gives it too much gravity, too much pressure for the choices to be just right. Plus there’s the whole copyright issue. I recently contributed to a book, 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, and this seems like a pretty blatant ripoff by CBS. It’s not really copyright infringement, I realize, it just seems like a bad idea given how good the original framing of the list had been. But give the video with host Harry Smith and GQ’s style editor Adam Rapoport a look.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Okay, it started out with the copyright infringing re-named list, which is just plain odd since the actual list they’re talking about is not beer to try before you die. Then, they can’t help but mention that it’s too early to drink and snigger about it like school children. What happened to being professional? Then there’s the horror of seeing an Allagash White with a lemon and orange wedge in the glass, which GQ’s Rapoport characterizes as a wheat or weiss beer, even though it’s a wit beer. With the second beer, Ommegang, the host remarks, surprised or incredulous. “Look at this, it even has a cork!” OMG, a cork. Alert the media. Oh, wait, he is the media. You’d think Harry Smith had never seen a beer with a cork before the way he overreacts. Then there’s his reaction to the glass. “Wow, look at the beer glass!” Rapoport: “It’s like a wine glass.” Harry Smith: “Almost.” Then he references tasting with Michael Jackson several years before and talks about how he tasted, calling it “like drinking wine, you do the nose….” Geez, I’m so tired of this analogy, as if wine holds the patent on how to taste liquids. You don’t think that absolutely every drink that’s tasted critically — be it wine, beer, whisky, cocktails, coffee, tea, whatever — is tasted by smelling it and tasting it in virtually the exact same way. Are their nuanced differences? Probably, but not enough to matter and the point is anytime someone tries to drink a beer by some other method than swilling it at a tailgate party, it’s compared to how wine is tasted because apparently the mainstream media seriously lacks any imagination.

Moving on to Dale’s Pale Ale, Rapoport tells us that hops cause bitterness … and sourness? But apart from beers made sour on purpose from the specific yeast used, sour or acedic flavors are almost always a defect, usually a bacterial infection. Can there be a sour undertone from certain varieties of hops? Maybe, but it’s usually in combination with other factors and it’s certainly not the second thing you think of when listing hops’ effects on beer. Next up is Rodenbach Grand Cru, in the “fancy bottle” and then Anchor Steam Beer. Rapoport at this point claims he loves Budweiser, but says there’s “a role beyond Budweiser,” also stating that Anchor Steam is a lager. And while California Commons do use a lager yeast, nothing else about brewing one is like a typical lager, or anywhere close to a Budweiser or any other adjunct macro lager. Most people, if designating them at all, would place them in a hybrid category. They continue to laugh and joke their way through Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. Now the last time I ranted about one of these shows, somebody commented that he wanted them to have fun and not be too serious. Fun, yes, I’m all for that, but laughing at the beer they’re tasting and acting immature is just not that fun to me. Couple that with the misinformation, and I’m not entirely convinced these shows do more good than harm for craft beer. Yes, the exposure is good, but it always seems to be at a steep price.

Today Show Today: Good Beers, Bad Ideas

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The Today Show today aired another segment on craft beer, which they still insist on calling microbrews, though I guess it’s better than boutique beers, which they used way too much in a previous segment. Overall the segment was comme ci, comme ça, with some good points made, some great beers, but also some of the same nonsense that always bothers me when mainstream media covers beer.

The guest was the Today Show’s Food Editor Phil Lempert, who also bills himself as the Supermarket Guru. While the beers he chose were all pretty good (all GABF winners, he said), the mix and the way he presented them showed he doesn’t know as much about beer as he thinks he does. The beers they tasted were, in this order:

  • Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA
  • Arcadia Cereal Killer Barley Wine
  • Hopworks Urban Brewery Ace of Spades (Organic)
  • New Glarus Totally Naked
  • Lost Abbey Carnevale
  • Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
  • Hopworks Urban Brewery IPA

All great beers, but it’s the order in which they tasted them that was awful: IPA, Barley Wine, Imperial IPA, pale lager, saison, brown ale and another IPA. Does that seem like the right order to anyone?

That, coupled with calling them microbrews, bothered me, though I know the rallying cry will be at least they’re covering craft beer. And while I agree that’s a good thing, I’d still be happier if they didn’t cover it quite so badly. This is especially true because Lempert characterizes himself as an “expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape.” For someone whose job description is predicting trends and being on top of what’s going on, you’d think he’s realize that no one’s been calling them microbrews for at least a decade, probably longer. I know it’s a small point, but it’s indicative of a larger problem with food “experts” who read a few websites, maybe glance at a book or two, and think they’re beer experts, too. I just think there should be beer experts on TV, too, not just food and wine pretenders.

Then there’s the subtle snarkiness, the ubiquitous jokes about drinking in the morning that never seem to accompany wine tastings on morning shows. Why can’t they treat beer with the same seriousness? Why must is always accompany casual jokes and no respect. When Jillian Michaels, the trainer on “The Biggest Loser,” joined the tasting, she remarked about Dogfish Head’s brown ale by smacking her lips and saying “it’s very masculine,” whatever that means. She then admits, seemingly grudgingly, that beer has health benefits but frames it that “dark beer has some health benefits,” which Lempert agrees with by saying dark beers are healthier. WTF is that? All beer has health benefits. Since when are all the health benefits in roasted malt? And that’s what I mean about them being pretenders. Yes, it’s good to see beer on TV, but the price is misinformation almost every time.

A Visit To Three Floyds

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Today, of course, is the annual Dark Lord Day at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana. Since many people will not have a golden ticket and be waiting in line to buy this year’s Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, here’s a little tour of the brewery I took the Sunday after CBC a couple of weeks ago. Three Floyds’ sales manager Lincoln Anderson was kind enough to drive Sean Paxton and me from our hotel in Chicago (and then dropped us off at the airport, thanks Lincoln) after we spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours n Munster drinking and eating. I knew the beer would be good, I’d had plenty of it before, but I was blown away with how good the food was. Even the frites were top notch (look for a frites review soon) but everything else on the diverse menu we tried was spectacular. The walls were decorated with beer labels and cool original graffiti art. For a lazy Sunday afternoon, the brewpub filled up quickly with tourists, young couples and even families obviously just come from church.

We also had a chance to walk around in the brewery. It was fun to see the Lagunitas fermenters again that Tthree Floyds had bought from them, especially Kaboom. I also shot a short video tour of the brewery, which is below. Happy Dark Lord Day.

While we were there, preparations for Dark Lord Day were well under way, and Lincoln explained to us what else would be added, just for the day’s activities. One hiccup was that during a CBC tour it appears someone stole a bottle of Dark Lord 2010 and had put it up on eBay. Rawmar2 from Spring Grove, Illinois sold it for $12,800, though I suspect that was a false bid so no one could buy it. Even though an eBay win is a contract, it couldn’t be enforced if the goods being sold were stolen.

Three Floyds Entrance
At the entrance to the brewery.

Dark Lord Day banner from 2009
A Dark Lord Banner from 2009 hangs in the brewery.

Below is a slideshow of the Three Floyds Brewery. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

A here’s a short video of me walking through the brewery.

The World’s Biggest Beer Dinner

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Saturday night, the last night of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago — it being a World Beer Cup year — there was an awards banquet where the medals are handed out to a packed crowd of brewers and beer industry people. This year’s banquet, with 2,000 people, is believed to be the biggest beer dinner ever done — somebody call Guinness. At five courses, that’s 10,000 plates. The amount of food used reads like those lists you see for Oktoberfest. The dinner used 600 gallons of beer to pair with the courses, 200 gallons of beer to cook with, 400 pounds of butter, 300 loaves of bread, 500 pounds of onions, 600 pounds of pork belly, 160 pounds of mushrooms, 275 dozen eggs, 160 pounds of malt and 6 gallons of honey. The meal was created by Sean Paxton and Randy Mosher, with the recipes and cooking by Sean Paxton, a.k.a. the Homebrew Chef. It was impossible to capture the whole banquet space with a photo, so below is a short video of the beer dinner’s setting, shot shortly before it began.

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Randy Mosher and Sean Paxton.

Here, Sean and Randy explain the beer dinner we’re about to enjoy.

The five courses are detailed below in the slideshow. Despite the size of the dinner, the service was surprisingly swift and before we knew it, it was time for the World Beer Cup award ceremony to begin.

After the dinner; Matt Brynildson, Nancy Johnson and Sean Paxton
After the dinner; Matt Brynildson, Nancy Johnson and Sean Paxton.

Below is a slideshow of the World Beer Cup dinner. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

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.