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RBPMail 2.06, June 1996
Real Beer Page Mail (RBPMail) began as a modest update to craft-brew events on the WWW. It evolved into a news digest and sometimes editorial forum. We present its contents here much as they were emailed to subscribers. Often, links you will see are out of date, and businesses referred to may also be long gone.
In this issue:
First Irish Micro!
Dublin's first microbrewery, The Porterhouse Brewing Company,
opened May 28, 1996. A New Orleans style funeral procession, lamenting
the death of the numerous Irish breweries, complete with samba band,
Brazilian dancers, fire eaters, jugglers and an antique horse-drawn
hearse, wound its way through Temple Bar to the new brewery in
Parliament Street. Master brewer Brendan Dobbin aims to produce 15,000
pints a week, with Oyster Stout and Porter House Red among the new
offerings. Owners Oliver Hughes and Liam Le Hart will not stock any
other beers, believing their three stouts, three lagers and two ales will
keep customers happy. Oliver quipped: "The idea of a microbrewery was
fermenting in my head for years. I looked at similar pubs abroad before
deciding the time was right to open one in Ireland. We hope to have
bedrooms we will rent out like an old inn, and under that there's the
new restaurant." But Liam added: "Let's hope our ideas work, or we'll
have one unhappy bank manager." (Source: The Irish Times, May 29,
Wednesday, Home News; Pg. 3; Daily Mirror, May 28, Tuesday, News;
Pg. 3)
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Palestinian Micro Is Kosher
Taybeh Beer, the first Palestinian beer, has received a rabbinical stamp
of approval, brewer Nadim Khoury said Tuesday. The microbrewery was
inspected by Rabbi Avraham Gisser of a nearby Jewish settlement, who
made sure there was no contamination by any non-kosher ingredients. The
beer, brewed in a West Bank village near Ramallah since last year, is
already sold in many bars and stores in Israel, as well as in the West
Bank. But the kosher certification will open up new markets in Israel,
where many restaurants, hotels and grocery stores serve only kosher
products.
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German Beer Market Challenged
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Per Capita Annual Beer Consumption In Germany:
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1983
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39.3 Gallons
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1994
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36.9 Gallons and the population increased by 18 million with
German reunification on Oct. 3, 1990.
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Declining beer consumption, increasing production costs and stagnant
markets are challenging brewers in "the land of Oktoberfest." Forty-two
breweries went out of business last year in Bavaria, and nearly 600 have
vanished throughout Germany since 1970. In the next 15 years perhaps
half of Germany's 1,243 remaining breweries will shut, according to
Andrew Hampp, a beer industry analyst in Munich. About half of all
German beer makers are believed to be losing money, despite the fact that
annual beer consumption is the equivalent of 65 six-packs for every person
in the country, and breweries produce about 3 billion gallons a year,
generating sales of $ 13 billion. Still, hard times have been coming to a
head. Per capita consumption is down about 4 percent compared to a
decade ago. At the same time, brewers have modernized with such a
vengeance that Hampp estimates Germany has at least twice the capacity
needed to meet current demand. Although costs for wages, energy and raw
materials have steadily increased, the flat demand and stiff competition
pushed beer prices down more than 2 percent a year from 1992 and 1994.
Moreover, it is difficult to establish economies of scale in a country where
brewing remains very much a local enterprise; two of every three breweries
sell only within a 35-mile radius of their vats. In this respect, Germany has
long been at the stage that the American microbreweries are striving to
reach a wide range of beers brewed not far from home.
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German Production & Market Share Vs. U.S.
The biggest German brewery group, Brau & Brunnen AG, produced about
290 million gallons in 1994, compared to 2.5 billion gallons for the biggest
American brewer, Anheuser-Busch Co. Whereas just two companies -- A-
B and Miller Brewing Co.-- control two-thirds of the U.S. beer market,
Brau & Brunnen holds only 10 percent of the German market, with its
nearest competitor claiming only 8 percent. (Source: Rick Atkinson,
Washington Post Foreign Service, May 29, Wednesday, Pg. A14, Special
correspondent Petra Krischok contributed to the report.)
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U.S. Supreme Court Rules Ad Price Bans Unconstitutional
On May 13 the high court struck down Rhode Island's 40-year-old ban on
liquor price advertising, ruling that free speech as guaranteed in the First
Amendment outweighs a state's authority to set alcohol-control policies. If
the opinion "as a whole" conveys "a message, I would say it is that the
protection of all truthful advertising is enhanced," said the lawyer for the
plaintiffs, Evan T. Lawson of Boston.When Lawson argued the case
before the Supreme Court last Nov. 1, he suggested that Rhode Island's
law was a poorly disguised way to protect "mom and pop" liquor stores in
Rhode Island from being undersold by big liquor chain stores. To legal
scholars, the case was significant because it gave sweeping protections for
commercial speech and stes valuable precident for lawyers challenging
other advertising restrictions. Since the 1970s the high court has held the
First Amendment covers advertising, and yesterday's decision was
another in a a line of decisions upholding protections for truthful, non-
misleading commercial speech to the level of constitutional protection long
granted political and artistic speech. "The First Amendment directs us to be
especially skeptical of regulations that seek to keep people in the dark for
what the government perceives to be their own good," wrote Justice John
Paul Stevens in his majority opinion. In essence, the high court rejected the
state's argument that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution - which
repealed Prohibition - conferred special state authority to police alcohol
consumption, even to the point of infringing freedom of speech. "The 21st
Amendment," Stevens wrote, "cannot save Rhode Island's ban on liquor-
price advertising." The case has been closely watched by liquor sellers in
about a dozen states (including Ohio - see next article) that impose similar
bans. The court splintered on much of the reasoning behind the ultimate
judgment. Three justices, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Sandra
Day O'Connor, issued concurring opinions that broke with much of
Stevens's reasoning. The court divided, on the key issue of the state's right
to limit the freedom of commercial speech in order to advance a particular
social good - in this case, moderate drinking. Stevens wrote that higher
taxes on liquor, rations on per capita purchases and other tools "would be
more likely" than ad price bans "to achieve the goal of promoting
temperance." But only two other justices joined him in that reasoning,
which partly echoed Senior U.S. Distirct Court Judge Raymond J.
Pettine's 1993 ruling, striking down the Rhode Island law in part. In
invalidating the ban, the court overturned a 1994 ruling by the 1st U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which found "inherent merit" in the
state's argument that the advertising ban, by discouraging bargain-hunting,
kept liquor prices high and served the state's goal of discouraging liquor
consumption. (Source: Scott MacKay; and John E. Mulligan; The
Providence Journal-Bulletin, May 14, Tuesday, News, Pg. 1A)
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WWW Survey - Still Time To Win
Our survey is going along pretty well. We've received thousands of
responses,. We've also heard about some problems from people using
some lesser browsers. If the survey fails to work for you, we
encourage you to print it out or save to disk as text, complete the
survey and fax to us at 415.387.5406 or email it to us at
[email protected].
There is still time for you to complete the survey and enter our Grand
Prize Drawing for a trip to BELGIUM & HOLLAND with European Brewing
Adventures (http://realbeer.com/eba/).
Fill out the survey now at:
- http://realbeer.com/survey/
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Pabst Facing Troubled Times
Pabst Brewing Co. and Brewery Workers Local 9 halted negotiations
Friday evening, May 31, allowing their labor contract to expire. Brewery
workers will continue to work for the time being and are meeting to discuss
their options, which include striking. The union has been seeking a new
three-year contract for the past year. Pabst sought more than 60 changes to
the last union proposal including cutting health care benefits for all future
*and past* retirees. Pabst has been struggling, with shipments down 10%
in the first quarter this year and 1995 production down 6.7% over 1994's
output. The company laid off 250 workers earlier this year after
announcing it would contract brew nearly a quarter of their production
with G. Heileman, now owned by Stroh Brewery Co. (Source: James
Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 2, Sunday, Business, Pg. D1)
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Ohio B.O.M. Scuffle
Ohio's Department of Liquor Control Legislation found Columbus-
headquartered Beer Select Inc., a beer-of-the-month (BOM) club, in
violation of Ohio's ban on advertising beer prices in its promotional
material. BSI, a small, family operated club of 300 members, ships micro-
brewed beers from around the world at a cost of $14.95 per month, plus
shipping and handling. Owner Brian McCall says that he is not advertising
beer prices, but merely the cost of service. Potential subscribers need to
know the price of subscription. McCall also says that the price does not
reveal the actual retail price of any beer, which is at issue. BSI faces a $200
fine or two days suspension of business. In addition, all printed materials
display membership prices and will have to be reprinted. McCall says he
can appeal, which would probably cost the business about $4000. Betty
Montgomery, Attorney General, will review the recent Supreme Court
ruling (see above) that similar ad bans violated free-speech rights to decide
if Ohio's laws are affected. Montgomery can be contacted at 614.466.6410
by constituents interested in expediting her review which may take months.
The complaint against BSI was filed by J.R. Lumpe, a lobbyist for the
National Wholesaler's Association, an organization with a pledged
objective of putting BOM clubs out of business. McCall says, "I don't
know why they would target me. I distribute in Ohio only and buy directly
from distributors, operating with a retail license." McCall also informs us
that Lumpe bought a BSI subscription as a gift for Dan Cesner, Beer &
Wine Chief of The State of Ohio. A former Beer & Wine Chief expressed
concern that Lumpe's gift may constitute a severe conflict of interest
violation.
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Canadian Tax On Beer & Wine Making Food Items
The government of Quebec announced in its budget Thursday that starting May
16, the 6.5-per-cent provincial sales tax will be added to grapes,
concentrated or nonconcentrated, malt, malt extracts and similar products
used to make wine or beer. Federal tax will not apply. "They want to tax
food and that's not fair," said beermaker Nicolas Balikci at a supply store.
He was referring to the sugar, yeast, malt and other products lining the
shelves. "They sometimes sell honey in this store," said Mary Schurman,
another customer. "How do they know I'm not going to put it on my
toast?" Some home brewers even suggested that extending the provincial
sales tax to beer and wine-making ingredients is an attack on ethnic
communities. The tax will hit people like Garcia Moutinho, who estimates
he spends $1,000 on grapes to make about 150 gallons of wine a year.
"It's bad for me and for all the guys like me - Italians, Portuguese,
Greeks." Grape-seller Claudio Porco wondered how the government can
tell the difference between grapes that are eaten and those that are pressed to
make wine. (Source: Yvonne Zacharias; The Gazette - Montreal; May 11,
Saturday, News; Pg. A3) A local merchant due to open a microbrewery in
Quebec soon insists that this is not an ethnic issue. If consumers or home
brewers want food items without taxes, they can buy them at the local retail
stores. The group affected by the tax and therefore most vociferous will be
the home and wine making suppliers.
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******* WEB WATCH *******
New Brewspapers Online!!!!
Midwest Beer Notes, published for four years and boasting a combined
distribution in print with its sister publication, Rocky Mountain Beer
Notes, of 105,000 in 16 states, is now online and fully searchable. Beer
Notes publisher, Mike Urseth, explained his decision to join the Real Beer
Page with one of his favorite vices; a story: "In the early days of this
century, railroads were king. Railroads owned more land than anyone but
the Federal government. Everything that moved in this country went by
rail. When the fledgling technologies of auto, truck and air transportation
were born, the railroaders ignored them.'We're railroad men,' they said.
Rather than getting in on the ground floor, they looked down from their
Olympian heights and dismissed the upstarts. If they had realized that they
were not in the railroad business, but in the transportation business, their
companies would've literally owned the transportation system of the
country. At Beer Notes, we realize that we are in the communications
business. Not the ink on paper business. Not the fish wrapper business.
But the business of transferring ideas and images to as many people as
possible." Find the rest of his stories online at:
- http://realbeer.com/beernotes/
Say Aloha To Our Hawaiian Friends
Brew Hawaii has brought its most recent issue to the WWW in full and
funky color with articles from beers to spirits to cigars. Catch all the hand-
crafted craze at:
- http://realbeer.com/brewhawaii/
Great Lakes Brewing News and Southwest Brewing News are also in the
works. Expect to see them online by next month's RBPMail!
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Beer Sites To Surf:
************ Brand Spanking New!!! ************
Barley Boys Brewing - This site is a hoot. Meet Ma Barley and her boys:
- http://www.barleyboys.com/
Bohemian Brewing Systems - Check out the Brew Block.
- http://realbeer.com/bohemian
Dogfish Head Brewing - Here's a couple of wet puppies for you:
- http://realbeer.com/dogish/
************ Brewed Fresh For You! ************
The Real Beer Page announces a diverse group of brew websites to check
out:
Big Buck Brewing http://www.bigbuck.com/
Brew Bus http://realbeer.com/brewbus/
Custom Brew Haus http://realbeer.com/brewhaus/
European Brew Adventures http://realbeer.com/eba/
Great Providence Brewing http://www.americanbrewing.com/
Lovecraft Ciders http://Lovecraft.com/
Malt of the Earth http://www.maltbev.com
Thirsty Bear Brewing http://thirstybear.com/
The Village Brewery http://realbeer.com/village/
Fun & Games
First, the games: If you haven't seen them yet, check out the Caps game
at McAuslan (http://www.McAuslan.com/) and
the darts game at Hart
Brewing (http://www.HartBrew.com). You can
also win an official David
Letterman Big Ass Ham for your submission into the Hart Brewing Food &
Beer story archive.
Give your voice some distance with the questionaires and beer surveys
found at Malt of the Earth Beer-Of-the-Month (BOM) Club
(http://www.maltbev.com/), Leinenkugel's (http://leinie.com/), Beer
Master's Tasting Society (http://www.beermasters.com/) and
Flying Fish
Brewing Company (http://flyingfish.com/).
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The Real Beer Stock Page!
Now you can track and research an all-beer stock portfolio in one place.
Links from this page will also list stock offerings mentioned here in
RBPMail that are not traded on the public exchanges. Check out and
bookmark:
- http://www.realbeer.com/rbp/news/stockquotes.php
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Trust Consumer Reports To Rate Beer?
A study in the June issue of Consumer Reports found that 17 trained beer
tasters hired by the magazine rated Old Milwaukee, (a beer better known for
its low price) best-in-class in a blind tasting. Second in the category of
"regular and ice beers" was Stroh's. Both are made by the Detroit-based
Stroh's Brewery Co. In other categories, Michelob Light was rated best
among light beers, Sharp's among non-alcoholic beers, Molson Golden
among imported lagers, Samuel Adams Boston Ale among "craft ales"
(above venerable U.S. ales such as Sierra Nevada and Anchor), and
Brooklyn Brand among craft lagers. Consumer Reports, which does not
accept advertising and is known for rating cars and electronics, had never
before studied beer. (Source: Consumer Reports and Frank Fuhrig, The
State Journal-Register, Springfield, IL, May 25, Thursday, Local, Pg. 1)
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Fast Dogs & Hops: A Bad Combination
The National Animal Poison Control Center has had eight cases of dogs
who ate hops residue from homemade beer and died. Seven of the dogs
were greyhounds. Within hours of eating the hops, the dogs became
severely depressed, developed muscle stiffness, and their temperatures
began to climb out of control. They eventually began having convulsions
and died. Something had apparently reset their internal "thermostats" so
their body temperature kept going up and up inducing malignant
hypothermia. According to Dr. Hare at the poison control center, scientists
have not been able to determine exactly what the toxin is. It does not seem
to be a problem in commercial brewing, and they have not been able to
reproduce the toxicity in experiments. It appears that greyhounds are
particularly sensitive to the poison. For speed, they are bred to have very
little excess body weight. Fat helps to remove some drugs from the
bloodstream. It seems that only some dogs, eating some types of hop
residue, under certain conditions, will get sick and die. You can call the
National Animal Poison Control Center for an expert consultation on any
type of suspected poisoning. A call to 1-800-548-2423 costs $30 on your
credit card, and includes follow up advice for treatment by your
veterinarian. You can also call 1-900-680-0000. Charges of $20 for the
first 5 minutes, plus $2.95 for each additional minute, will appear on your
telephone bill. (Source: David Roen, Lewiston Morning Tribune, May
06, Local/Regional; Pg. 5A)
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Scratch And Sniff -- Smells Like Mean Spirit - Editorial
"What we don't like are crafty marketers duping the consumers," suggests
cards placed by A-B in 3,000 U.S. bars, offering to "test your brewing
knowledge" in exchange for a free Bud (which sounds like more of a
sentence than a reward). "Who really brews these beers? Scratch off to find
the answer," reads one card with pictures of Sam Adams and Pete's
Wicked Ale. This is obviously not an I.Q. test, but more "crafty marketing"
aimed at perpetuating the A-B created "controversy" over contract and
"virtual" brewers which we reported in the February RBPMail
(http://realbeer.com/newsletters/296rbpmail.php).
At Miller, I imagine marketing to look like the mythical Cerberus, the multi-
headed dog-beast that guarded the gates of Hades in Greek Mythology.
Their Plank Road (another "virtual brewery" targeted by A-B's campaign)
advertising tells you to forget microbrews while their American Specialty
and Craft Beer Company works diligently at supporting newly acquired
regional craft brewed brands. One head cannibalizes the other.
For the sake of the consumer we represent at the Real Beer Page, and the
real craft-brewers we honor, I'd like to fire the warning shot of caution to
all parties embroiled in this trumped up battle -- especially the craft-brewers
in Oregon that have been lead into contributing to the issue: The labeling
issue may make great short term press, but the long-term affect is much
more damaging. In the long run, consumers will not remember any of the
microbrewers involved in the controversy if the situation progresses. Bear
with me while I outline a cynical and truly crafty strategy to undermine the
craft-brew movement:
1986: Big three support tax break for small brewers, allowing greater
chances for micros to succeed. This creates thousands of breweries/voices
and humanizes business to legislatures who were not so forgiving to a
trilithic tobacco industry.
Late 80s: A-B successfully lobbies BATF to change existing regulations
requiring point of origin, allowing A-B to list only their St. Louis, MO
location on labels.
Early 90s: A-B and other large brewres and wholesalers maintain powerful
legislative influence to keep micros out of distribution and retail shelves
through capacity and container laws. These laws keep 22-oz. bottles, a
microbrew standard issue size, and brewpubs from distributing in many
states.
January 1996: A-B, with 45% of the market and committed to growing to
60%, creates confusion about successful marketing of several of its fastest
growing competitors. Calls into question "who brews the beer." Files
complaint with BATF to list point of origin; 35 Oregon micros support
complaint. I'd like to call this Legislative Marketing.
March 1996: A-B, with a $260 million ad budget (retail clout) and nearly
100% of sales for "Bud" distributors, "recommends" an all A-B brand
portfolio as the most profitable -- reports start coming in as early as May
1996 of craft-brands being dropped from Bud houses -- including some of
their little Oregon bed-fellows from the January complaint. The campaign
is called "100% Share of Mind and completely supported by word-of-mouth.
At press time we've been informed by Benj Steinman of Beer Marketer's
Insights that the wording of the 100% statement has been toned down from
from a mandated to an encouraged approach for distributors.
April 1996: A-B starts to aggressively advertise a "regional" beer, brewed only in
Texas (the A-B
Houston Plant) for Texans. The most popular growth segment in that
market is a bock beer, and A-Big Brewer comes out with a bock label that
places a goat in front of the star found on the Texas flag, appealing to the
state's strong sense of "local-nationalism." Ads tell people in adjacent states
that they have to "come over" (metaphor for the brand) to try the beer.
My Predictions/Looking Glass: A-B's next steps will probably be to create
several regional brands and eventually roll them out nationally. A-B
distributors will be satisfied because they will have as extensive of a
portfolio in beer styles as any competitor. The marketing message will
continue to tout brand loyalty (worts of wisdom: bud-weis-er) as the safe
way for consumers to cut through the retail shelf clutter to choose a beer.
Passive consumers will be deceived into a status buy of a craft-beer created
by A-B.
It looks like A-B can giveth and taketh away from the micros. Before the
lambs sleep with the lion, they should consider his diet. A-B can't take
away from 1000 local voices unified behind the micro-cause, but they can to
those tithed to the A-B strategy. Right now the micros are divided and
nationally unorganized. We applaud the regional efforts breweries are
making to coalesce and will support this organizing every way possible.
We're creating some tools we believe may help organize the industry at
www.probrewer.com. IBS members can also
participate in the brewer's
forum by sending an email to list moderator Kate Hanley at [email protected].
The smallest brewers and those coming into the market stand to lose the
most as selection of distributors narrows. Brewers affected by the 100%
Share of Mind and losing distribution from a Bud distributor may wish to
take the advice of an industry lawyer and do their own "Legislative
Marketing." Rather than taking on A-B Lawyers head-to-head, you can
appeal to the Justice Department, who is currently investigating Toys-R-Us
and Frito Lay for anit-competitve behavior -- intimidation is enough to
justify investigation. Our source also suggests that each state's Attorney
General usually has political aspirations and no matter how conservative
they are, taking on a conglomerate for the consumers scores big votes at the
poles. Start a relationship with your State Attorney General, if you do not
have one already, and ask them to look at the practices of distributors on a
state level.
The Real Beer Page Mail now has over 25,000 readers. If each reader
passes this on to 4-5 friends, we can also create hundreds of thousands of
aware voices, participating in their own future selection and freedom of
choice with beer. As active consumers, we have a responsibility to educate
others about the misinformation and confusion being created by those
amusing big brand commercials and press releases. As always, I encourage
you to support your local brewer -- vote with your pocket book and with
your voice by asking for their brands at retail stores and bars.
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