One of my favorite books of the last couple year’s was Daniel Okrent’s Last Call. And that is the jumping off point for the new Ken Burns series with the name of Prohibition.
Premieres October 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2011 at 8 PM on PBS. But check your local PBS station for more information.
The Firkin for September 2011
Above is the third of three new logos designed for me by Charissa Santos. If you like the look of it, check out her site HEREstory on the black market for craft beer.
What caught my attention were the last two paragraphs, “Last September, Russian River released Framboise for a Cure, a raspberry-flavored beer that it sold for $12 per bottle to raise money for a local breast cancer treatment center. The beer sold out in a day, and soon somebody sold a bottle on eBay for $400. Then someone else put one up for sale. “We contacted that person,” Cilurzo says, “and we said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous, because we donated 100 percent of this for charity.’”
The seller didn’t budge. “The guy said, ‘I have to support my habit somehow.’ ” Not heroin or cocaine. He meant craft beer.”
I do not think that I am going out on a limb to say that this guy will not be served good beer in the afterlife and that he forfeited ALL of his good karma as well.
Anyone who thinks that working the e-bay alcohol sale loophole to their benefit need to be stopped. And it shouldn’t fall onto a brewer to scour the listings and devise strategies to get a limited amount of beer to the maximum amount of people. E-Bay needs to forbid the selling of beer unless it is done by the brewery or the brewery’s distributor. Or if they wanted to go all “Leverage” on these sellers, they could allow the sale to go through but divert all but the original cost of the beer to the intended charity. Do that enough and people will stop.
But this wink-wink “collectible” rule would only benefit these sellers if there are people buying. So. Here is my plea to all those in the beer world who are dying to try the “it” beer of the moment. STOP! Get on the internet, befriend people in other parts of the country and trade with them if you cannot live without Pliny the Younger or Black Tuesday.
Yes, those are excellent beers but American in 2011 is filled with great beer everywhere and I will bet that the fresh beer at your local will be BETTER than a PtY of dubious provenance. And if that doesn’t halt your craving then fly out to California or to Indiana or Minnesota and get the beer there. If you are buying overpriced beer, then a plane ticket isn’t that much more expensive.
The upshot of this? I want the brewers brewing. Not playing police.
Sean Suggests for September 2011
September can be too hot for heavy beers and chilly enough to make pilsners too little and nowadays pumpkin beers are hitting the shelves early too.
But I have found three great choices for your next beer shopping excursion….
Sean suggests for September
Click twice and the PDF should appear ready to print out!
Above is the second of three new logos designed for me by Charissa Santos. If you like the look of it, check out her site HERE
Book review – America Walks into a Bar
I am a sucker for beer history so when I saw this book pop up for instant Kindle download. I snapped it up.
I am glad that the author has focused on just America because there is a lot of history to be unearthed. The first few chapters though were a little dry and repetitive but with enough thought provoking historical facts to keep me going. Especially when it details the place that the tavern or saloon had in a community and how it evolved in different points in history.
I must say that I was mentally comparing this book to the wonderful Last Call by Daniel Okrent about Prohibition and in most instances it was falling short of that high bar. But that could be due to prohibition being such a juicy historical event vs a longer timeline of bars and saloons over 200+ years.
A warning though. Don’t go into this book hoping to learn more about beer. This is (as promised) about the place where drinking happens and the people that inhabit it. This is more a book that leads to reading other books. You will want to read about the Five Points in New York city. You will want to read more about Shay’s Rebellion and many other tangents.
Session # 55
Here is the topic du jour: “On September 2, bloggers from around the world will converge at HopHeadSaid to write about the fabulous world of beer art found on coasters, labels and caps. I am guessing that I am not so different from other beer enthusiasts – I like to collect beer labels, bottle caps and coasters. I think they are perfect souvenirs from beer travels or drinking sessions. Judging by the size of my collection you could say that I have had many enjoyable drinking sessions over the years!
Now it is time to dig through your stash and share your favorite label, coaster or cap art.”
I have a large stash of bottle caps. I have coasters and labels pasted into a scrapbook. So I could theoretically have gone through and picked out my favorites of all three categories and talked about why they caught my eye. Instead I am going to blatantly disregard a part of the instructions and talk cans.
Cans from Fort George Brewery in Astoria, Oregon on the NW coastal tip of the state. I think the design of their Vortex IPA and 1811 Lager not only stand out in a crowd but they also impart visual and written information that you can enjoy while sipping the excellent beer inside. And in 2011, these are the designs that I would put at #1 and # 2 on my “best” of the year list.
First up is 1811 Lager…..
The light blue on this can is such a different hue from 99% of the bottles and cans you will see. Plus you need to pour it to see the writing correctly. It really makes you look at it and then want to pick it up to see it correctly. And it doesn’t stop there, then you are hooked into reading the dates and events around the rim as well as the story behind the beer and how it is honoring the Astoria Bi-Centennial. Brilliant. Before you realize it the 4-pack will be in your cart.
Second is Vortex IPA…..
Again, what a bold color choice. Brown and green with a shiny metallic tint to it. But this can brings the focus to a swirling hop tornado logo that ties into the story on the back of the can of how some of the brewing equipment was nearly lost en route to Oregon.
What is amazing is that despite the swirl of colors and mass of words. These do not come across as “too busy” or garish to me. I can’t wait to see further designs from Fort George.
The Firkin for August 2011
In my internet beer travels I found this little nugget from the uniquely named Building International Coalitions Through Beer and Pavement:
“(T)en things geeks, nerds, snobs, and connoisseurs do that makes it hard to take their advice and opinions on beer and indie rock seriously.”
I won’t re-print the list here because what I want to speak about is the role of of the geek, nerd and snobs of the craft beer world and why they shouldn’t be lumped together. Follow the LINK for the clever list and a strong closer.
Now that you are back, not to go all Lion King here, but there is a Circle of Life. In almost every hobby and passion and business. And the craft beer industry is no different. You may despise the hyena (I’ll let you decide which beer people fit that bill) but they are a link in the chain.
So we are all important. Now what? What needs to be recognized by us devotees of the craft beer, is which category do we personally fall into? Because a beer geek needs to whip up excitement amongst those new to full flavored beer and a beer snob needs to stay as far away from the newbies as possible.
And I do not say that to demean the beer snobs. They have a purpose here on earth too. They critique with more barbed words and create an expectation that brewers and bars have to meet. They have the crucial ability to find faults that might be missed by others.
To switch movies and go to the High Fidelity analogy, we need the geeks outside getting people in the store, the connoisseurs inside the store guiding people to great choices and the snobs in the back finding the gems for the store to sell. We need all the different levels working in the roles where their individual skills are used the best.
So take a moment. Re-read the list. Are you a snob? Or are you a geek? Whatever “house” you belong to, remember that it’s about promoting craft beer to more people not scaring them away.
Hop Sauce
I usually don’t pay much attention to Dean & Deluca catalogs. But this product from Primitivizia caught my eye….
I don’t think that I will spend the $16 plus shipping for this but I am certainly intrigued by what it might taste like.
In the history books
I may be in Portland, networking with a great group of beer bloggers but that won’t stop me from thinking about the LA beer scene….
Late last month, KCET.org posted an informative slice of Los Angeles history focusing on breweries.
It got me to thinking that we need to get our current LA craft beer boosters and artists to pay a little homage to our past. The easiest way being to make some lagers that call back the old beer names like Eastside and Brew 102. Or maybe make a Zobelein & Maier session ale.
Or to take it one step further, take our new pop-up beer gardens to some of these historical brewing spots and have a history professor talk about the site and and the stories of brewing from the early days of the City of Angels.
I am sure there are some stories to tell.
Timbers Soccer + Homebrew Competition =
I cannot wait to hear the names of the entries for these MLS soccer inspired beers….
“In the dark days of 2010 the Oregon Department of Justice had declared homebrew competitions illegal. A few bold brewers of the Timbers Army brought their homebrew to a tailgate and held a people’s choice competition. In 2011 the Timbers have gone MLS and the Oregon Legislature re-legalized homebrew competitions. If that’s not enough reason to celebrate, Lompoc Brewing will produce a full size batch (7 barrels) of the winning entry. (Organizers are working with other local breweries to produce the 2nd and 3rd place entries as well).
The Second Annual Timbers Army Homebrew Competition will be judged at Lompoc Sidebar Sunday August 14th, prior to the Timbers match at Houston. The winners will be announced at a tailgate prior to the match against Vancouver at home August 20th.
In order to keep the competition focused, organizers have limited it to three overarching categories: “Summer Beers,” “Pride of Cascadia,” and “Lagers.” The competition will help raise money for the Timbers Army 107 Independent Supporters Trust.”
Trim Cans
This tidbit from last month on the All About Beer website that caught my eye.
“Ball Corporation the leader in the specialty aluminum beverage can and bottle market, has announced its newest can size – the 8-oz. “trim” can. The small, lightweight can is ideal for juices and other beverages for portion-conscious consumers, and is unbreakable, quick-chilling and 100 percent recyclable.”
I can see why an imaginative craft brewery who has no beer boundary would not want to be bound in just two types of can. Perchance a big imperial stout in this smaller container, or a big ABV DIPA.
I can see these becoming a cool marketing tool as well for smaller samples of specialty one off beers too.