Sunday “See the USA” Travel Supplement
See the USA. Even if you don’t drive a Chevrolet.
Let’s begin in Cincinnati, where you can toast the Reds, drink to forget the Bengals, or both. And if the weather is nice, you can do so in one of the city’s beer gardens.
The New York Times uncovered this gem: Brew York, New York, which keeps New Yorkers abreast of beer happenings in the city’s 8,000 or so licensed establishments.
If your travel plans include Colorado, think about buying a copy of The Beer Drinker’s Guide To Colorado by Mike Laur. Breweries are springing up so fast in the state (there are now well over a hundred) that Laur just released the fourth edition of his book.
Speaking of Colorado, if you’re going to the Great American Beer Festival, P.J. Hoberman of The Hop Press profiles 15 establishments within a three-mile radius of the festival venue.
Finally, is I-84 in Oregon the ultimate Ale Trail? Jeff Alworth of Beervana.com counted seven breweries on the route (plus two more across the Columbia River in Washington State) in towns whose combined population is well under 100,000.
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.
The Case (Pun Intended) for Craft Beer in Cans
Another precinct heard from in the debate over canning craft beer. Joel Johnson, writing at Gizmodo.com, makes the case for cans. In a nutshell:
Bottles are fragile, heavy (620 grams compared to 366 grams on average for a standard 12-ounce bottle), let in light that can skunk your beer, and are harder to pack in and out on float trips and hikes. Bottles don’t stack in the refrigerator. Plus if you drop a can it doesn’t shatter into a hundred tendon-lacerating shards. Half the time you can pick it back up and finish your drink!
Maryanne and Paul heard several of those arguments five years ago, when they were at Keweenaw Brewing Company in Houghton, Michigan. They also got to see one of the new-fangled canning lines made by Cask Brewing Systems, a small Canadian firm that developed the system because amateur “brew on site” brewers were having problems with bottles. The guys at Keweenaw were ahead of the curve; since then, so many brewers want Cask’s systems that they’re back-ordered until December.
One question Maryanne and Paul have discussed over a pint is when one of the bigger craft brewers will start canning. Jim Koch, the Boston Beer Company CEO, told an interviewer that he was open to the idea of canning his beer, but he’d like to see better lining technology before he commits to cans. Johnson has some good news for Koch:
Ball [Corporation]….the company that makes the cans used by the majority of craft brewers, announced plans to make a BPA-free epoxy lining within the next couple of years at a recent packaging conference, according to an attendee.
So chances are good that the craft brewing industry’s “can-do” spirit will include more and more actual cans.
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.
The Friday Mash (Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis Edition)
On this day in 1909, Emil Christian Hansen passed away. Hansen, who worked at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, isolated a pure cell of yeast that was given the name Saccharomyces carlsbergensis and used to make lager beer. Reason enough to have a beer today.
And now…The Mash!
In Portland, Oregon, the “dog’s life” is quite enviable. Frank James at Brewpublic.com and his Weimaraner go to the city’s dog-friendliest pubs.
The Golden Tap Awards, which honor Ontario’s top achievements in brewing, were handed out last weekend. Here’s a list of the winners.
Writing in TheHopPress.com, Josh Oakes looks at the state of craft brewing in Asia. He offers this bit of advice: don’t expect to find a good IPA in India.
The recently-opened National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, England, will host the 2011 Brewing Industry International Awards, along with a festival featuring many of the participating beers.
Fried beer? Not exactly, but one of the entries in the Big Tex Awards competition at the State Fair of Texas is a beer-filled pretzel pocket, deep-fried to a golden brown. One bite and the escaping beer serves as a dipping sauce.
Does the British pub belong on the endangered species list? In a podcast on The Guardian’s website, brewers, publicans, landlords, and drinkers talk about what people want from pubs and what the future might hold.
Finally, we’re impressed by the beer list that Stone Brewing Company has assembled for tomorrow’s anniversary celebration.
September’s “Session” Announced
Session #43 has been announced. It’s titled Welcoming the New Kids, and will be hosted by The Beer Babe. She explains that the “kids” are “new craft breweries joining an established beer community, or even tougher, breaking into a non-craft beer town.”
Posts to the Session are due September 3, and newcomers are invited to join the discussion.
The Friday Mash (NFL Pre-Season Edition)
Ninety years ago today, representatives of several professional football leagues and independent teams founded the American Professional Football Conference, which later became the National Football League. Which, eventually, led to the invention of the sports bar.
And now…The Mash!
The opening kickoff is taken by Logan at Blog About Beer, who’s picked out ten Oregon beers you need to try.
It’s August, much of the country is still sweltering, and Oktoberfest beers are already on the shelves. MusicMook at Blogcritics.org thinks we’re rushing things a bit.
This isn’t exactly the publicity MillerCoors craves, but Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater swiped a Blue Moon from the plane before sliding down the chute and into infamy.
James Fallows of The Atlantic assesses President Jimmy Carter’s role in bringing about this country’s craft beer revolution.
Baltimoreans of a certain age remember National Bohemian. Well, “Natty Boh” is back, and their children and grandchildren are discovering the beer “From the Land of Pleasant Living.”
German craftsmanship at its best: a group of architecture students at the University of Applied Sciences in Detmold have built an experimental pavilion out of more than 2,000 beer crates.
Before the final gun sounds, here’s one more item:
Jay Brooks tries to make sense out of a Gizmodo.com post that links the discovery of brewing to monogamy and a whole crazy train of consequences that inevitably lead to war. Ludwig recommends having a pint of imperial something before reading it.
Three Cheers for American Beer
This past week alone, we ran across three stories about how American craft beer is attracting fans in other countries:
At the Great British Beer Festival, the 80 American-made beers sold out midway through the third day of the five-day event and got good reviews from festival-goers.
Jason Rehel of the National Post might be risking a treason charge in Canada. He not only says that American beer doesn’t suck, but thinks his country could learn from their neighbors to the south.
Finally, the Brewers Association announced that brewers participating in its Export Development Program subscribers won 15 medals in 10 different categories at Beerfest Asia 2010 in Singapore.
Hot Off Ludwig’s Business Wire
Is this progress? You be the judge.
The acquisition of Anchor Brewing Company has been finalized. The brewery is now part of a larger family with a longer name: Anchor Brewers & Distillers LLC.
Rochester, New York-based North American Breweries acquired the parent company of the Pyramid and Magic Hat breweries. “Beersage” at BeerNews.com examines the ramifications of that deal.
MillerCoors, LLC, has created a craft and import beer company called the Tenth and Blake Beer Company. It’s named for the streets on which Leinenkugel is brewed in Milwaukee and Blue Moon is brewed in Denver. The new company will be an independent entity with its own sales and marketing operation, and will serve as an incubator of ideas and future beers–and hopefully, no second coming of Zima.