The following video was sent to me by a Bulletin reader and fellow blogger (thanks Dave). He writes at Deadpan, Inc., where he creates and produces lots of videos like this one on a variety of topics. It’s pretty funny, I imagine especially so for brewers Will and Greg at Goose Island Brewing.
 

 
I spoke to a friend I know on the inside at A-B who told me it’s actually only weekly that these tastings are done. It’s known as the “Corporate Taste Panel” and is apparently a huge deal for the individual breweries who are essentially pitted against one another. How well a specific location’s beer does effects employee promotions and raises. He told me it can’t be overstated how important these tastings are. Each quarter one brewery is awarded the “Brewmaster’s Cup” based primarily on how well their Bud and Bud Light did in these taste panels. The scores are tabulated using only the group known as the “Key Tasters,” which consists of the VP of Brewing and roughly another half dozen members of the Brewing Senior Management Group. Brands other than the two flagships are tasted by a different group on “Junior Panels.” It is so important that after the “weekly standard package” tasting, brewery employees usually stay well past quitting time to learn the results of the tastings.

That’s an interesting peek into the corporate culture at Anheuser-Busch. Given that their goal is to produce products that taste the same regardless of where they’re made, it certainly seems like this would be an effective way to do that. Still, that video made me laugh out loud.

I heard from the folks at Free the Hops earlier today (thanks Casey) that their efforts have almost paid off. The Alabama State Senate today passed HB373, which would allow beer that’s above 6% a.b.v. to be sold in Alabama. That’s terrific news for the beer lovers of the state. There’s now only one remaining step for the bill to become law, and that’s for the Governor to sign it.

If you live in the state of Alabama, you can help “encourage the Governor to sign [the] bill.” From the Free the Hops blog:

That’s why we’re asking everyone in the state who values personal freedom and who thinks the Alabama government should stop telling us which beers are ok to drink and which ones we can’t handle to contact Governor Riley immediately. By phone, fax, or email, whatever works best for you.

If you can help, see how at the Free the Hops blog, where there are specific instructions on how to reach the Governor’s office by phone, fax or e-mail.

 
If you want to know what they were up against, here’s a representative example by Democrat Alvin Holmes who is in the state house, representing the 78th District, which is Montgomery (the state capital).

After the day brewing Publication, a beer dinner was held Monday night right in Russian River’s barrel room for the Publican National Committee, whose members include Brouwer’s, The Falling Rock, The Horse Brass, Monk’s Cafe, and the Toronado. Sean “Zane” Paxton cooked another of his fabulous 12-course monstrosities for about 24 people. The beer dinner began about 7:00 p.m. and finished up roughly six-and-a-half hours later at 1:30 a.m. In between there was much merriment, many beers, barrel tasting and delectable food. You can see the entire beer dinner unfold, in three parts, including video, by starting at Part 1 in the photo gallery.

The PNC Beer Dinner in the Russian River Barrel Room.

For many more photos from the 12-course beer dinner held in the barrel room of Russian River Brewery, start with Part 1 (of 3) at the photo gallery.
 

Well, not me personally, obviously, I’m just a writer and supporter of craft beer. But that’s the name of the very cool video created by Greg Koch, co-founder of Stone Brewing, which he used for the Keynote Speech at the Craft Brewers Conference yesterday morning. This shows the best in craft beer and why I love and support it so readily. Enjoy.

Here’s how Greg himself describes the effort:

“I Am A Craft Brewer” is a collaborative video representing the camaraderie, character and integrity of the American Craft Brewing movement. Created by Greg Koch, CEO of the Stone Brewing Co. and Chris & Jared of Redtail Media…and more than 35 amazing craft brewers from all over the country. The video was shown to a packed audience of 1700 craft brewers and industry members at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference as an introduction to Greg’s Keynote Speech entitled “Be Remarkable: Collaboration Ethics Camaraderie Passion.” As is tradition for the CBC Keynote, a toast to the audience was offered. This time, the beers offered for the toast were all collaboratively brewed craft beers including Isabella Proximus, Collaboration Not Litigation, AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple, Jolly Pumpkin/Nøgne-Ø/Stone Special Holiday Ale, and 2009 Symposium Ale “Audacity of Hops.”

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Reuters has an interesting two-minute video report called Beer Still Recession Proof?.

The upshot, according to the report, is that “the next hot area of growth is not in established light beers, they say, but in specialty craft beers that can command premium pricing, even in a recession.” The “next” hot area? Aren’t we already there, and haven’t we been there for awhile now? Craft beer’s been growing at double-digit rates for a few years now while macro brand growth has slowed considerably and in some cases has dipped into negatives. What about that is future tense?

 
One curious head-scratcher. Do people really not choose spirits because they’re too lazy to make a mixed drink themselves? That just sounds preposterous, but who knows?
 

I’ve been trying to research the United States Brewers Foundation for something I’ve been working on, but haven’t been able to find out very much. I believe they were formed on October 14, 1944 through a merger between the original United States Brewers Association (USBA), which was formed in 1862 (sort of, that’s was when the first meeting took place, at least), and the upstart United Brewers Industrial Foundation (UBIF), then only seven years old. The newly combined trade group was called the United States Brewers Foundation (USBF). What happened to them after that I can’t say. I’m sure somebody knows. The Encyclopedia of Beer (Rhodes, Christine, ed. The Encyclopedia of Beer. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1995) claims the USBA is “now defunct” but also details how getting some legislation passed in October 1976 was its “crowning achievement.” By that I infer that they believe they were still a going concern at least as late as 1976, but that after that they “unofficially” merged with the Brewers Association of America (BAA), which was formed in 1941.

Even the Wikipedia entry for the USBA is contradictory. The first sentence claims the USBA existed from 1862 to 1986. But in the last paragraph, the 1944 merger is also recounted. I know the BAA “officially” merged with the Association of Brewers to create the present-day Brewers Association around four years ago. But if the USBA merged with the UBIF in 1944 to create the USBF, how was it possible they were still around in 1976 or 1986? Something is wrong there, I just don’t know which account is right.

Anyway, that’s almost pointless — except in the hopes that someone can set the record straight and has some authority to back it up — what’s important here is that I also stumbled on a great little propaganda film promoting the brewing industry produced by the USBF in the 1950s. It’s called As We Like It, and runs just over ten minutes. Parts of it are unintentionally funny, in the way all documentary films were during this time period. But perhaps more interesting is that some of the arguments they make about the positive aspects of the brewing industry are ones we’re still having to make today, which is a little sad. But since the New Drys keep ignoring them, we have to keep reminding them. That’s the nature of their propaganda, to simply not address uncomfortable or inconvenient truths. Here is, or rather was, ours. Enjoy!

For extra credit, guess how many times the words “clean” and “friendly” are used, including variants. Those seem to be the big selling points, that the beer industry is “clean” and “friendly.”