From the Department of Bad Beer
Mediocre. Asia’s emergence as the number-one market for beer moved Don Russell, a/k/a “Joe Sixpack,” to assess the state of Asian beer. His verdict: not much to write home about.
Bad. Luke McKinney, writing at Zug.com, tried five awful beers for breakfast, then wrote scathing reviews of all five. (Hat tip: Bryce Eddings of About.com.)
Very Bad. You might not recognize his name, but if you live in New England, you might have drunk August Haffenreffer’s infamous Private Stock Malt Liquor. Sold in 40-ounce bottles, it was called “Green Death” and “Haffenwrecker.” Wilt Chamberlain hawked the stuff in the 1970s and, more recently, the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. sang about it.
Really, Really Bad. In his novel Roy and Lillie, Loren Estleman describes the beer brewed by the legendary Judge Roy Bean: “[H]e was impatient with the process of fermentation and insisted on serving the beer green, with hops and the odd drunken spider floating on top and a taste bitter enough to cause lockjaw.”
The Friday Mash (Micro Republic Edition)
On this day in 301 A.D., a stonecutter with the wonderful name of Marinus of Rab founded what is now The Most Serene Republic of San Marino. This “micro republic” has a flag, a constitution, a parliament, and even a coat of arms. Unfortunately, it’s never had an event listed on the Beer Festival Calendar.
And now…The Mash!
We start with the discovery of two-centuries-old bottles of beer at a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. So far, the divers who found the beer haven’t reviewed it on RateBeer.com.
It’s chile harvest time in Hatch, New Mexico, and Jesse Hughey of the Dallas Observer hunts up beers that pair with chile dishes.
Overshadowed by its beery neighbor to the south, Washington State is on the verge of a microbrewery explosion, with as many as 20 new establishments about to open their doors.
Stan Hireronymus reviews Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Dan Okrent. Factoid: James Madison, who stood only 5′4″, drank a pint a day. Whiskey, not beer.
Alan McLeod (A Good Beer Blog) argues that macrobrewers still don’t get it: they rely on T-shirts and $5 coupons, not better beer, to attract customers.
Seth Levy of BeerConnoisseur.com caught up with Jennifer Tally, the brewmaster at Squatter’s Pubs & Beer. He also found out how good-tasting a beer can be despite an ABV of less than 4 percent.
Finally, scientists have found that the ancient Nubians drank beer containing the antibiotic tetracycline. To your health, indeed!
Cincinnati’s Aspiring Beer Baron
Meet Greg Hardman, aspiring beer baron. In recent years, Hardman has acquired the rights to such iconic Cincinnati brands as Christian Moerlein, Hudepohl, Burger, and Little Kings, not to mention dozens of others.
Scooping up these brands is part of Hardman’s multi-pronged effort to build his business, the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company. Early next year, he’ll start brewing Christian Moerlein and Hudepohl in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, where dozens of breweries operated a century ago.
Sometime next fall, Hardman will open the Moerlein Lager House, a pub and microbrewery with an enviable location: next door to Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds. He also has plans for a Beer Barons Hall of Fame, whose first inductees are likely to be Christian Moerlein and Ludwig Hudepohl.
Hardman’s ultimate goal is to capture one percent of the nation’s beer market, which would put him in a class with Boston Beer Company and the Yuengling Beer Company. And, perhaps, earn him a place in the Beer Barons Hall of Fame.
Jim Koch on Craft Beer
Normally, Beer Business Daily is hidden behind a subscription wall, but “jesskidden,” a contributor to BeerAdvocate.com’s discussion forums, ran across a rare no-subscription article. It’s an interview with Jim Koch, who needs no introduction here. His Boston Beer Company has had a great year, with sales up 13 percent over last year despite the flat economy.
Koch is always good for a few soundbites, and he didn’t disappoint. On his brand’s appeal to young adults, he said:
I think that 20-somethings are much more into indie culture. They seem to be less susceptible to mass marketed and mass produced products, unless the product has some visible heart and soul, like Apple does.
He also thinks craft beer can go head-to-head (sorry about the pun) with wine and spirits:
So a consumer can trade out of a $9 top shelf margarita or a $7 glass of wine down to a $5 pint of Sam Adams, and they can still feel like they’re getting something special and well-made. The rise of craft beer has given the beer industry a winning weapon to combat the image of wine and spirits.
And if Sam Adams doesn’t get him there, maybe this will:
Together we [Boston Beer Company and Weihenstephan] developed the first new style of beer in Germany in a hundred years. It’s the Opus One of beer….
It’s unique in the same way that Sam Adams Utopias is unique. Infinium combines elements of Dom Perignon, Noble Pilsener, Chateau d’Yquem and Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen.
Some beer geeks might roll their eyes at the the prospect, but…
There will probably come a day when Sam Adams will be in cans. Can makers have continued to improve the quality of the package….I’ve been watching it since the late 1980s and the quality of the liners keeps better. So there will come a time, I think, when we can put Sam Adams in a can without compromising our standards for the quality of the beer.
And finally, Koch offers this bold prediction:
I think it’s realistic that Better Beer can get to a third of the beer market, imports and crafts and domestic specialties….Craft can be a third of that third, which is 11%, up from about 5% today. So if we hold our share of craft beer we’ll more than double.
We wouldn’t bet against him. Twenty-five years ago, the odds against his company becoming the number-one American-owned brewer were astronomical.
Women and Craft Beer
In the provocatively-titled article “Women, Craft Beer and Centerfolds,” Julia Herz gives us facts and figures about the progress women have made in the craft brewing movement. Herz names prominent women in brewing, provides statistics (did you know that 37% of weekly craft beer drinkers are women?); and lists female beer-tasting clubs.
Really, Really Retro Ale
A while back, we ran across an interesting article about colonial-style ale, which is occasionally brewed at Colonial Williamsburg. The brewer is Frank Clark, the head of the Department of Historic Foodways at the historic site.
Clark runs the Art and Mysteries of Brewing program four days each spring and fall in a scullery near the Governor’s Palace where, back in the day, one royal governor kept hundreds of bottles of high-quality beer in the basement.
On this fall’s brewing schedule are Bristol beer, a strong, dark, highly hopped beer, September 12; an 1820s-style porter, October 9; mum, a North German medicinal beer that became a popular English brew rich in herbs and oats, October 24; and strong ale, November 20.
Update (8/23): Matt Gottlieb of BeerConnoisseur.com reminds us that Thomas Jefferson was a homebrewer, and that his favorite style was pale ale. Matt had the good fortune to taste Clark’s interpretation of Jefferson’s recipe.
One for the Record Books
What do you do to stave off late-summer boredom? If you’re Don Russell, who writes the weekly “Joe Sixpack” column at the Philadelphia Daily News, you write about oddball records involving beer.
At one end of the scale–pun intended–you’ll find epic feats of gluttony, topped off by Andre Rene Roussimoff, a/k/a pro wrestler Andre the Giant, downing 119 bottles of beer in six hours. That record is likely to stand for all time because the Guinness Book of Records no longer accepts beer-consumption records.
At the other end are feats of skill, including John Evans of the UK, who balanced 237 pints on his head (Ludwig thinks he might also own the record for largest hat size); and a group of Dutchmen who built the largest-ever beer pyramid: 63,365 cases.
Russell even offers a lesson in physics. He found out why women are able to carry more beer steins than men. You’ll have to read the explanation for yourself.
Time Out for Sports
A few items that found their way onto the Luwdig Roars sports desk:
Beer is part of the diet for thoroughbreds racing at Saratoga Race Course.
It’s also part of the diet for Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, who endorsed Kirin Ichiban Shibori on a Japanese TV commercial. Evidently Japan doesn’t ban active ballplayers from plugging adult beverages.
And it’s a great time to be a fan of the Texas Rangers. Not only is the team in first place and playing good ball, but the new owners have promised to cut the price of beer.
Quebec Micros in the Spotlight
Over the years, Maryanne and Paul have made several trips to Montreal. Each time they returned, they found a big improvement in the quality–and variety–of Quebec beer.
Now the rest of the world has started to take notice. Last week, a beer called 17, from Chambly-based Unibroue, won top honors at TastingBeers.com’s World Beer Awards. Four other awards in that competition went to Quebec-based breweries.
Jeff Heinrich of the Montreal Gazette profiles 17’s creator, Jerry Vietz, as well as Quebec’s fast-growing craft brew sector.
Lights! Camera! Craft Beer!
CraftBeer.com, which went live last November, has more than 20 videos (and that number is growing) about craft brewing.
One of our favorites is about the Craft Beer Class of 1996:
The videos are free, but you’ll have to buy your own beer and pop your own popcorn.