The "Beer Me" Blog

Backlog

2012-01-22T20:28:00.002-06:00

If this site would make some money, I'd hire a data-entry staff...

Maybe I'll get caught up someday.

Schwag!

2012-01-11T18:08:00.001-06:00

Beer Me! 20th anniversary commemorative t-shirts are now available at beerme.spreadshirt.com.

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of beerme.com and the first-ever Omaha Beer Week at the same time.

Fifteen Million

2012-01-08T14:51:00.002-06:00

Visitor number 15,000,000 stopped by Beer Me just now!

At 2:47:28 PM CST, someone hit the site through the Amazon EC2 portal. I don't know who it was or what they were looking for, but I appreciate the support.

And thanks to the other 14,999,999 of you, too!

Twenty years

2012-01-04T15:38:00.000-06:00

(I thought it was today, but it turns out it was yesterday.)

Twenty years ago, January 3, 1992, I started keeping notes on the beers I've tasted.

The first beer: Blitzen Barleywine, from the defunct La Jolla Brewing Company in California.

The notes in their entirety: "Light barleywine — good." OK, not the pinnacle of eloquence, but it was a start.

I remember this trip well; there was an annular solar eclipse at sunset on January 4, and I drove from San Leandro down to San Diego to see it.

(Click the picture to see the whole spectacular scene. Photo credit: biggestoffreds.)

I managed to visit a few more breweries along the way:

Twenty years. I think this calls for a beer.

No more "Beer in TX"!

2011-12-21T16:06:00.000-06:00

This is great news for Texas brewers and beer lovers!

As of result of yesterday’s ruling, beer in Texas may now be labeled as “beer” and ale may now be labeled as “ale”, regardless of alcohol content. Breweries and distributors are also no longer prohibited from independently telling consumers where their products may be purchased, or from communicating truthful and accurate information about their alcohol content.

Congratulations to Jester King and their co-plaintiffs for standing up to TABC.

An excerpt from the ruling:

TABC’s argument, combined with artful legislative drafting, could be used to justify any restrictions on commercial speech. For instance, Texas would likely face no (legal) obstacle if it wished to pass a law defining the word ‘milk’ to mean ‘a nocturnal flying mammal that eats insects and employs echolocation.’ Under TABC’s logic, Texas would then be authorized to prohibit use of the word ‘milk’ by producers of a certain liquid dairy product, but also to require Austin promoters to advertise the famous annual ‘Milk Festival’ on the Congress Avenue Bridge.

Great stuff. Read the whole article at Jester King's site.

Bud Light Platinum -- and I thought Miller Clear was dopey

2011-11-10T14:23:00.001-06:00

Bud Light Platinum, a 6%-abv-137-calorie monstrosity, is one of the dumbest, most insulting things to come out of any marketing department anywhere.

Lew Bryson rants about this stupidity at Seen Through a Glass. Read it, and despair for the mainstream beer drinker.

Labeley: Beer Label Design App

2011-10-17T21:15:00.002-05:00

This looks kinda cool:

Hi there,
I got interesting news for all the beer brewers and lovers, and off course, the beerme.com. We have just released free web app for designing beer labels online. Check it out at labeley.com, and feel free to contact me for the more info.
Kindest regards,
Roger Brady

Give it a try at Labeley.com.

5 Biggest Home-Brew Blunders

2011-10-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

Stone Brewing Company co-founder Steve Wagner talks about the five biggest mistakes homebrewers can make. He should know — one of his mistakes evolved into the beer we know as Arrogant Bastard.

Forget to take notes.
Try all your ideas at once.
Underestimate the importance of yeast.
Pull the plug on mistakes.
Add too much sugar and blow up your beer.

I agree with all of these.

Read the details at Food & Wine.

SaveOnBrew

2011-10-13T12:58:00.002-05:00

Just ran across a handy site: SaveOnBrew. They describe it succinctly thus:

We run SaveOnBrew -- like Google, for beer. Put in your zip, find the all the advertised beer sales within a X miles radius. Easy!

Check it out and find the beer deals in your area.

Raise Your Glass to the Five Best Beer Cities in the World

2011-10-11T18:14:00.002-05:00

MyCityWay sends us their opinion on the world's five best beer cities:

Amsterdam
Dublin
Mexico City
Munich
San Francisco

Read their reasoning at MyCityWay. List your favorites in the comments.

2011 Great American Beer Festival® Winners Announced

2011-10-02T16:49:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to this year's winners!

Utah further tightens liquor laws

2011-09-28T08:53:00.001-05:00

Zealotry is alive and well in 21st-Century Utah:

Among the proof of the growing restriction on liquor sale and consumption in the state, which is home to Mormons, are:

A ban on mini beer kegs beginning Oct. 1,

Requirement by 2012 that taps and bartenders must be out of customers’ sight

A freeze for 12 months on the issuance of new types of alcohol licenses for dining establishments that serve liquor, wine and full-strength beer in full view of customer.

All new restaurants are also mandated to place a 4-foot high barrier nicknamed the "Zion Curtain" so Mormons will not see liquor being served to and consumed by non-Mormons.

Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups, a Mormon, said the return to strictness was to discourage young residents from drinking because they could be encouraged by the sound of the mixing of alcoholic beverages and the sight of attractive drinks.

Read the whole story at All Headline News.

SABMiller to buy Foster’s for $10.2 billion

2011-09-21T12:39:00.000-05:00

The consoiidations continue:

Foster’s announced today that it would accept SABMiller’s bid of $10.2 billion. SABMiller had been courting the company for quite some time.

Foster's had rejected a £7.3 billion offer from SABMiller in June. That offer amounted to A$4.90 per share; the new offer is 13% higher, at A$5.5325 per share.

Read the whole story, with a link to Foster's press release, at Beernews.org.

Beer hopping rates: 1911-2011

2011-09-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer: Beer From a Good Home shares some interesting data from the Barth Haas Group on the use of hops in beer brewed around the world during the past 100 years. His article is short and to the point, so go read it.

The very very short version: the bitterness* of the average beer has declined from 38 IBU in 1911 to 12 IBU in 2011. This is no surprise, but it does call into question claims by some breweries that their beer is still brewed to the same recipe as in days gone by.

*Assuming a 30% extraction efficiency.

The Local's guide to Oktoberfest

2011-09-14T13:03:00.000-05:00

This year's guide from The Local - Germany's news in English:

Welcome to Oktoberfest!

But be warned this isn’t just a bunch of party tents with lots of decent beer. No, by deciding to travel to this famous Volksfest, you’ve agreed to have the entire concept called Germany crunched into your skull by a sadomasochistic Bavarian mistress. She’s a pagan goddess with a lion at her heel, and in your hazy drunkenness she’ll indoctrinate you with all the wrong stereotypes about this country.

She’ll strap you down, peel back your eyelids and show you a heady mix of beer, breasts, leather, meat, and Bavarian bourgeois superiority. If you’re lucky, maybe she’ll even slap a dark green felt hat on you and take you on a whirlwind tour of the region’s prized “laptops and Lederhosen” economy as you belt down another Maß. And then she will release you to stagger home, hung-over, sweaty, full of misinformation, but most likely happy and content.

Read the rest at The Local.

Prost!

8 beers Americans no longer drink

2011-09-13T12:47:00.002-05:00

OK, "no longer drink" is an exaggeration. But it's surprising how much these eight brands have declined in five short years:

Budweiser, down 30% to 18,000,000 barrels

Milwaukee's Best Light, down 34% to 1,300,000 barrels

Miller Genuine Draft, down 51% to 1,800,000 barrels

Old Milwaukee, down 52% to 525,000 barrels

Milwakee's Best, down 53% to 925,000 barrels

Bud Select, down 60% to 925,000 barrels

Michelob Light, down 64% to 525,000 barrels

Michelob, down 72% to 175,000 barrels

Budweiser was the best-selling brand in America for some 30 years, until Bud Light supplanted it in 2001. Milwaukee's Best Light, believe it or not, sold 2,100,000 barrels about 12 years ago. Twenty years ago, more than 7,000,000 barrels of MGD was sold, along with 6,000,000 barrels of Old Milwaukee, and 7,000,000 barrels of Milwaukee's Best.

Americans are slowly but increasingly turning to local brews and imports over the old brands. Unfortunately, they're upping their intake of light beers at the same time.

Read the whole article at MSN.

'Missing' Lager Brewing Yeast Discovered in Patagonia

2011-08-22T19:07:00.003-05:00

Hail Saccharomyces eubayanus!

A fruit fly's journey from Patagonia to Bavaria could be the reason we enjoy nice, cold-brewed lager beers today. The missing parent of the hybrid yeast used for brewing lagers has just been discovered in Patagonia.

Until now, scientists had known lager beers were made from a hybrid yeast, with half of its genes coming from a common ale yeast and the other half coming from an unknown species.

They found the missing yeast growing on southern beech trees in Patagonia. They sequenced the genes and found that this species of yeast was very likely to be a parent of the lager yeast hybrid.

"It’s a 99.5 percent match to the missing half of the lager genome. It's clear that it is this species," Hittinger said.

Read the whole story at LiveScience.

Named for Chicago, but Goose Island's 312 to be brewed in New York

2011-07-31T13:31:00.002-05:00

According to the Chicago Tribune:

Three months after being acquired by Anheuser-Busch, Goose Island Beer Co. said today that its massively popular 312 Urban Wheat Ale will soon be brewed in an AB facility in upstate New York.

Brewing a beer named for Chicago in Baldwinsville, N.Y. -- 700 miles from where it was created -- might raise eyebrows among those who criticized AB's $38.8 million takeover of Goose this spring, but Goose founder and Chief Executive Officer John Hall said the move will be a boon for fans of the brewery's higher end beers, like Matilda and Bourbon County Stout.

Accounting for almost half the brewery's sales, 312 has required significant resources at Goose's Fulton Street plant. With the beer's production heading east -- partially at first and likely entirely at some point -- that space can be used for other projects, Hall said.

And here's something I didn't know:

312 is the third Goose beer to leave its hometown; all of the brewery's India pale ale and most of its Honker's Ale are brewed at a Redhook brewing facility in Portsmouth, N.H.

Read the whole story at the Chicago Tribune.

Giving beer a home in the Rhineland

2011-07-28T12:04:00.002-05:00

The Local takes on the Düsseldorf-Köln beer rivalry:

Whereas Cologne is all about drinking golden Kölsch in dainty glasses, Düsseldorf prefers the more ale-like favour of darker Alt.

To avoid ridicule while touring the Rhineland, caution is advised. A customer trying to order a glass of Alt beer in a Cologne pub will earn scorn and mockery from waiters and patrons alike. Conversely, asking for some Kölsch in a Düsseldorf locale is a sure-fire way of becoming the butt of many jokes for the rest of the night.

“It's a kind of love-hate relationship,” says Dirk Rouenhoff, master brewer at Schlüssel, a traditional brewery in Düsseldorf's historic centre. “Ultimately, it's something amusing that provides plenty of conversational fodder as well as funny anecdotes. And it can be a useful gimmick in advertising campaigns.”

The best example is a now-infamous billboard that adorned the streets of Düsseldorf last year. Früh, Cologne's third-largest beer brand by sales volume, depicted an empty Kölsch glass alongside the caption, “Before it gets old” – a stinging pun on “alt,” the German word for “old” as well as the beer. Another ad agency quickly pushed back in the name of Düsseldorf's brewers with a campaign claiming “Alt knallt,” which translates loosely as “Alt is the bomb.”

Read the whole story at The Local.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!

2011-07-11T19:12:00.003-05:00

There are a couple hundred site updates in the queue, just as there have been for about three weeks. As soon as I make some headway, dozens of new ones come in, and I'm not making much progress just now.

But I'm working on catching up as I find time, so keep sending those updates! And thanks for all your help.

Two Madison brewpubs stop selling MillerCoors beers in protest of budget provision

2011-06-23T12:22:00.002-05:00

Good for them! I hope more brewpubs follow their lead.

Though brewpubs apparently won't be affected by the legislation, Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co. and Vintage Brewing Co. confirmed this week they had ended sales of MillerCoors brands such as Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite, Leinenkugel's, Blue Moon and Molson.

Eliot Butler, Great Dane president, said the Dane's four locations have dropped MillerCoors indefinitely "in solidarity with the (Wisconsin) Brewers Guild and with the craft brewers of Wisconsin."

Read the whole (short) article at the Wisconsin State Journal.

Craft Beer & The Restaurant Hypocrisy: An Airing of Grievances

2011-06-20T14:39:00.002-05:00

The Beer Wench says what many craft beer drinkers have been thinking: most restaurants and bars don't give a damn about beer. Her major points:

The beer lists are uninspired, unoriginal, underwhelming and extremely disappointing.

Sales & Marketing 101: If you want to sell a product, you have to know your product.

Improper Glassware & Serving Temperature

Improper Pouring and Poor Presentation of Craft Beer

Read the whole truth-filled diatribe at Drink With The Wench.

Oktoberfest beer prices to crack EUR 9-mark

2011-06-07T11:17:00.003-05:00

It's time for the annual "more expensive beer at Oktoberfest" article!

A litre of beer will for the first time top €9 (US$13.20) at this year’s Oktoberfest, continuing a steady march upward in prices at the legendary Munich festival, the city announced on Tuesday.

A Maß of beer will cost up to €9.20 (US$13.50) this year, according to Munich officials. The average price will be €8.97 (US$13.16).

Read the whole story at The Local.

Currency conversion via XE on June 7, 2011 at 11:20am CDT.

Legislation through the budget process burn WI Craft Brewers...AGAIN! Need everyone's help to Rescind!

2011-06-06T17:25:00.004-05:00

Here's more on Wisconsin's craft brew distribution battle, from Bo Bélanger of South Shore Brewery.

This is all about Motion #414 as presented to the Joint Committee on Finance at their 5/31/2011 meeting for the 2011-2013 State of Wisconsin budget.

Let's put it this way. The legislation was drafted by the Wisconsin Beer Distributors Assn and Miller/Coors. Their intent, as clearly stated, was to prevent Anheuser-Busch ImBev from buying wholesale beer distributors in Wisconsin. However; ABI, whose executive, Dave Peacock, is quoted in a May 24, 2011 interview in Beer Marketer's Insight Express (Vol. 13 No 48) stating, they currently own only 12 wholesales Nationwide and have zero plans to acquire more. So what gives? This protectionist legislation, inserted into the state's budget, is simply a power grab and competition elimination by these two groups.

Hmmm... which begs, why doesn't Miller/Coors counter that with operating a distributorship themselves? Could it be there brands aren't as strong as AB's? Could it be they are not as financially positioned to do that and are calling for protectionist legislation? Why wouldn't we help out Miller Brewing Company, a Wisconsin icon in the brewing industry... ah, let's see no longer headquartered in WI, no longer WI owned, losing market share to their boogieman AB.

So okay, I'll be specific. The last line on page one of motion #414 states bluntly ' a wholesaler's permit may not be issued to a person who holds a brewers permit'. For gosh sakes that's how the South Shore Brewery and the majority of other WI craft breweries were born! We established the value of our brands. We continue to do that in new markets. That license to self distribute is a tangible asset to the value of a brewery. Now that is gone. They just devalued my business in favor of a foreign owned one. Let's put it another way. Breweries need distributors. Good ones. However, since 1994, the number of distributors has dropped from 94 to 41. Just in the past five years consumers in the Milwaukee area now have only two wholesalers. So that same number of folks now is representing nearly 14,000 brands! How would you feel about your chances of being adequately represented in that market would be? Craft brewers are a fraternity of hardworking WI tax payers, whose contribution to our local and state's economy is growing impressively. Too impressively for the WBDA and Miller/Coors people as they look to push the elimination not only of my owning a wholesalers license, but any also the provision that allows a brewery in be invested in a wholesaler. They don't want us hardworking, tax paying, local investing WI craft brewer's getting together and forming our own distributorships! Heck no they say. Here are the brands we offer, and damnit this is what you get. By the way the later provision is page 2, line number 1 of motion #414.

Could there be more? The dirty ooze just keeps coming out of this motion. Any one that knows the South Shore Brewery and how it's been supported by it's founding in the Railyard Pub and how it continues today, coexisting with the Deep Water Grille here in Ashland, WI also understands how that relationship is a pillar of our ability to showcase our beers to new consumers. Gone. No longer could we establish our business the way it started. Page 2, paragraphs 2 & 3 eliminate any chance of that happening by removing any relationships for a class "B" liquor license or retail license. Oh but wait, the motion convieniently has an exception for the wholesalers who now can sell beer to it's employees and have event's where it is consumed on their premises. So the producer can no longer have a theater for that but the wholesaler can? Yet another tangible asset of value my brewery used to have dismissed. I lose more value again!

Should I stop now? Come on one more Bo...please! So all of you thinking of putting a small brewery in your restaurant or tavern, denied! Page 3, 3rd paragraph, 'Specify that no person holding a Class"A" or Class "B" license or permit or a wholesaler's permit may register as a brewer". If the general public isn't aware of how hard it is operating a food & beverage establishment, let me confirm that the challenges are enormous. Finding a unique specialty to drive business is an ongoing enterprise. Well forget about making beer!

Please help the small craft brewers stand against this motion. It is out of committee and hits the legislative bodies where we need to sway several politicians on BOTH sides. The motion can be recinded in this part of the legislative process. One last thing. There are many posts and comments out there trying to ferret out what is the reality. I am the reality. I am a WI beer producer! This legislation has been authored behind closed doors, by groups unrelenting in their efforts to control market access and share. They are anti WI craft beer. They show their collective cowardess by introducing this motion in the budgetary process. Additionally, they finally revealed their plot, literally, five minutes before the motion was to be voted on. I'm pissed off. I'm not here to take political sides. I stand on my assessments of this motion and any politician that can't see it as a severe impedance to our industry isn't worth supporting.

Want to know where to take your concerns? We need every legislator, Democratic, Republican and Independent, the governor to hear the voices of support for WI craft brewers. Please at least send a message to your reps and if you feel the emotion like the rest of us give these folks a piece of your mind as well... http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/jfc.html. This is the list of folks on the Finance Committee.

Take the time to read the comments on Bo's Facebook page.

Beer Me!™ mobile for Android — Version 1.0!

2011-06-06T13:18:00.006-05:00

Well, that took long enough. Beer Me!™ mobile for Android is now for sale on the Android Market! Just $2.99 gets you mobile access to the most complete source of brewery information worldwide.

You can download Beer Me!™ mobile from the Android Market, or if you're using the Market App, search for com.beerme.android.

Thanks to everybody who helped with the testing these past few months. I couldn't have done it without you!