A traditional Edinburgh pub has brought McEwans cask 80/- ale back to life.
Scottish & Newcastle ended a century old tradition by phasing out the at the end of 2006. Athletic Arms contacted microbreweries in a bid to produce a replacement that was as near to the original as possible.
Eric Milligan, a regular in the pubs said: “The 80/- was a very important part of Edinburgh’s heritage, so I am delighted to see that it has been returned to the Athletic Arms.”
[Via the BBC]
Common sense has prevailed and minors will be allowed into the Oregon Brewers Festival, as they have the previous 19 years.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission previously indicated they would not be. After receiving a new OBF compliance plan, the commission granted permission for minors/parents to attend the event. The festival runs July 26-29 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland.
“After thoroughly reviewing the Oregon Brewers Festival’s amended proposal, we believe it meets our licensing and enforcement concerns regarding minor patronage at the 2007 festival,” Rudy Williams, OLCC deputy director, said in a press release. “We appreciate the OBF’s willingness to work with the OLCC to help satisfy the public safety interests of Oregonians.”
“We are thrilled that the OLCC has made this decision,” said Art Larrance, founder of the OBF. “The festival has a long-standing history of being a family-friendly event. We promote responsible drinking, and as a result, we have responsible attendees who come together to celebrate our local culture.”
Minors will only be allowed at the OBF with a parent; guardians are not acceptable.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has released new figures showing 26.6% of pints served in UK pubs contain less than 95% beer. CAMRA is mounting its campaign for a full pint launching a national petition calling on the Prime Minister to put an end to short beer measures.
At its website, CAMRA states:
– 26.6% of pints are more than 5% short measure.
– Short measure costs consumers £481 million a year, or over £1.3 million a day.
– Pubs serve customers 208 million more pints than they buy in.
CAMRA has created an online petition to make joining the protest easy.
A couple of newspaper stories this week about beer for those who are gluten intolerant . . .
A bit of background: According to government statistics, more than 2 million Americans have been diagnosed with celiac disease. The genetic disorder causes stomach cramps and digestive problems and can lead to other serious health risks. People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt. Those are the grains traditionally used to brew beer.
NorthJersey.com has an overview of what’s available now. Those range from the hard-to-find Ramapo Valley Brewery Honey beer to much-easier-to-locate Redbridge from Anheuser-Busch, a sorghum beer released in December and available throughout the country, including outlets such as Wal-Mart.
It can still be confusing, as the story explains:
Unlike food labels that say “reduced sodium” or “trans-fat free,” the Food & Drug Administration hasn’t established a definition for “gluten-free” packaging. But for now, Scott says, “you’re not supposed to put ‘gluten-free’ on the packaging. You can only list it as ‘wheat-free.’ “
A syndicated column by William Dowd (here’s the version from the Falls Church News-Press) includes three beers in development at Dark Hills Bbrewery in Arkansas, itself a progress in work.
Founders Leigh Nogy and Connie Rieper-Estes are building a gluten-free facility to assure no cross-contamination. They plan to have their beers certified gluten-free. Most will be rice-based.
Dowd conducted a tasting with seven beers, including a lemon beer, an amber and a stout from Dark Hills. The tasting notes:
Sweet Stout) “A caramel nose, something like burnt brown sugar. . . . Really full-bodied. . . . I don’t know if I’d drink a lot of it, but I can see how it would be a substitute if you have a celiac problem.”
(Amber Ale) “Reminds me of some good ciders I’ve had. . . . Lingering aftertaste instead of just disappearing, which I like. . . . I could have a few of these. . . . Goes really well with food.”
(Lemon Ale) “This one makes me think of summer . . . Like a lemonade-style drink, but a little more syrupy. . . . . Limoncello, that’s what it’s like. . . . I could drink this over ice like a liqueur.”
There’s ongoing discussion among brewers about how closely beer brewed without traditional grains can match the flavor of beer made with those grains. To what standard should “gluten free” (or almost free) beers be judged? Dowd chose to treat them just like any other beers. And his standard is how a beer handles pizza.
We had gathered to assess a wide variety of beers in a blind tasting I devised to give a new import and some new domestic products – a true trial by fire against established mega-brands as well as against cheese, mushroom and pepperoni pizzas.
In my view, how well a beer fares against others of its kind is strictly a matter of personal taste. But, if a beer can’t hold its own against pizza, it has no business being sold in these United States.
Unless he went to a particularly special effort – and didn’t mention that – the pizzas were made with grain-based dough, not something celiacs can tolerate.
This is a different approach than some beer distributors have used in introducing sorghum-based beers, most notably Redbridge. They are targeting restaurants that offer gluten-free dishes. That seems like a more sensible approach.
The Oregonian in Portland takes a look at the relationship between brewing and microdistilling. Of the approximately 90 craft distilleries in the U.S. nine are in Oregon, and at least four more Oregon distilleries are planned to open this year.
“Spirits will be the most dynamic growth over the next five years,” said Jim Parker, the former director of the Oregon Brewers Guild, the craft beer industry group. “They’ll grow from a handful to perhaps two dozen. And look for more than just white spirits such as vodka. Expect to see more rums, whiskeys and fruit brandies made from Oregon ingredients — you’ll see distillers experimenting more.”
Parker is in the process of opening a new brewpub, Green Dragon Ale House, where the surrounding 12 square blocks are already home to three craft distilleries and two brewery/pubs. A distillery will go in next door and and Parker’s brewery will supply the base for some of the spirits.
A British watchdog has banned a beer from UK shelves because its label is “too sexy.”
The Independent Complaints Panel found that the beer’s image associated itself with sexual success, which is banned under the Portman Group’s Code of Practice on the naming, packaging and promotion of alcoholic drinks.
Labels of “Rubbel Sexy Lager” from Belgium feature woman in a swimsuit that could be scratched off to show her naked.
“The fact is that alcohol is not like other products, and it has the capacity to lower people’s inhibitions, and affect their judgement and behavior,” said David Poley, chief executive of The Portman Group.
The thing is that this beer has been sold in the UK for seven years. Geoff Cook, general manager of Beer Paradise, said that nobody has complained in that time.
“It’s a storm in a beer bottle really,” he said. “The amount of the beer that’s sold is minimal. We’ve bought it in for the last seven years, it’s always had that label and no-one’s ever complained about it until now.”
And what might the beer inside be like? It’s in the 9th (yes, single figures) percentile at Rate Beer. One comment: “If the naked teenager on the bottle is the best thing going about this one then we are all in trouble. Would have been better for me just to scratch off her bikini and discard the bottle, beer inside. Saves the pain of drinking it!!!”
We’d be ill-advised to pretend that celebrating the 74th anniversary of America’s brewers returning to business would be as much as as being there in 1933, but there’s certainly plenty going on Saturday:
– Brewers Association members across the country celebrate “Brew Years Eve.” The BA has a list of sites where you can participate.
One of the more interesting parties is at Elysian Brewing’s Capitol Hill brewpub in Seattle. The brewery will have a bathtub full of foaming ale in the dining room. The clawfoot display is a play on bathtub gin, the often foul-tasting liquor brewed in large quantities — maybe even in bathtubs — during Prohibition.
“Part of the reason is to call attention to the fact that there’s a very strong neo-prohibition movement,” said Elysian co-owner Dick Cantwell.
– The movie “The American Brew” debuts on A&E at 10 p.m. Eastern (9 Central, and so on). Anheuser-Busch commissioned the movie as part of its Here’s to Beer campaign. Flortenine Flims/Sherman Pictures produced the movie, which is presented in a documentary style.
It ambitiously covers a lot of territory in 50 minutes, old and new, large breweries and small, beer production and appreciation.
The movie leans heavily on American beer history and heritage, and not surprisingly Prohibition plays a major role in the story. The movie is educational an several levels. As “The American Brew” points out, because of Prohibition an entire generation of Americans lost contact with beer and beer culture.
Much of that has been revived since Fritz Maytag – he’s among those who appear in the film – saved Anchor Brewing in the 1960s and a generation of microbreweries followed. Along the way a variety of myths about American beer history from the 1850s through the 1950s became confused with the truth. Maureen Ogle did much to dispel many of the errors in her book, Ambitious Brew, and she elaborates in the movie.
This new generation plays a prominent role in the film. Viewers marginally familiar with the rise of what is generally called “microbrewed” beer may recognize Maytag, Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada, American Homebrewers Association founder Charlie Papazian, author-brewer Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and others.
Those a level deeper into craft beer will know immediately who Dick Cantwell of Elysian Brewing, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing and Jennifer Talley of Squatters Brewpub are.
A DVD of the movie will be sold at beer stores and in taverns across the country (it is also available at the Here’s to Beer website for less than $6). It contains 42 minutes of outtakes, such as a lengthy conversations with beer authority Michael Jackson, with All About Beer magazine’s Julie Johnson Bradford and Daniel Bradford, and with Carol Stoudt of Stoudt Brewing.
It looks like the locals at the Lewes Arms in Sussex have won.
The Publican reports that Greene King is expected to bow to consumer pressure and reinstate Harvey’s Best Bitter. The brewing giant had dumped the local beer to sell only its own brands.
Adam Collett, marketing director for Greene King’s managed pubs, acknowledged his company had “underestimated the strength of feeling which led to many locals boycotting what was once a great British pub. As a result, it has lost some of its character and greatness.â€
The decision to remove the beer is still subject to internal review, but there’s little doubt how it will turn out.
A local campaign to get the ale back in the pub, which included a boycott of the pub itself, attracted national newspaper headlines and airtime on radio and TV.
You have to think there is a homebrewer or beer lover in Utah who is cringing to see the attention a vanity license plate with “merlot” on it received this weekend.
Glenn Eurick’s 1996 Mercedes has had the license plate reading “merlot†for 10 years. He says the plate never got a lot of notice until the Utah Tax Commission told him last week that he had to remove it because the state doesn’t allow words of intoxicant to be used on vanity plates.
Eurick was fine until an anonymous caller told the state that merlot was an alcoholic beverage.
Will somebody driving around with plates that read zymurgy or porter be next?
You’ve got to live in the UK to enjoy this, but . . .
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is launching a new Beer Club that delivers a 20-bottle case of beer each quarter.
The explanation why is here.
Here’s the place to sign up. As an incentive to join, the first shipment will include a “Taste of America Four Pack.” The four beers pictured are Goose Island IPA, Anchor steam, Brooklyn Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Forbes.com has put together a list of “Tastemakers” for wine, beer and spirits.
The list includes four beer guys: New Glarus Brewing co-founder/brewer Dan Carey, Boston Beer (Samuel Adams) founder Jim Koch, Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery (and plenty of beer writing) and Michael Jackson, the world’s leading beer writer. OK, he writes a little about whiskey, too, but we’re claiming him.
So, with apologies to Here’s to Beer, which one would you most like to have a beer with?
So Saturday will you be a) watching your NCAA bracket picks go down in flames? b) drinking green beer in a bar decorated with shamrocks? c) doing something more enjoyable?
A rhetorical question and excuse to give you these St. Patrick’s Day links:
– Taste for Guinness wanes in changing Ireland
– Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day
– Erin go blah.
– Irish pubs: Stouts and craic (plus a list).
The Washington Post has already begun its beer tie-in to the NCAA basketball tournament, starting with 32 beers in its bracket. Panelists determined the winning beers, but the Post also allows readers vote for which beer they would have picked.
You may recall that we had our own tournament at Realbeer.com for four years, calling it Battle of the Beers. We retired the tournament, and the trophy, after Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA won three straight years.
We’re partial to a tournament beginning today in Albuquerque, because it involves drinking and voting. Il Vicino Brewing’s tournament runs almost daily through March 28. Customers at the brewery taproom (the company has three restaurants in New Mexico) receive a sample of two beers, vote for their preference and the winner advances.
Today Il Vicino’s flagship West Mountain IPA meets Stock Ale.
Anheuser-Busch has revamped the Here’s to Beer website.
Jay Brooks offers a rather complete review.
See what he has to say and check out the site. That’s what we’re doing here at Realbeer.com (just found out it is illegal to serve beer to a moose in Fairbanks, Alaksa). Then we’ll have more comment.
One thing Jay doesn’t point out is that A-B has also struck a deal with social network Mingle Now.
“MingleNow came to us when they were still in the developmental stage,” said Tom Shipley, A-B’s director of global industry development. He said the overture came as the brewer was trying to decide, “How are we going to get into social networking in a way that’s not typical banner ad or homepage takeover?”
Another factor in picking MingleNow was the site’s focus on 21- to 35-year-old nightclub demographic — the same group “Here’s to Beer” is targeting. Shipley said that helped reduce the brewer’s fear of accusations that it’s targeting minors. The company faced such charges as recently as two weeks ago, when the Attorneys General of 21 states sent a letter to A-B stating the company’s new Bud.tv broadband site was too accessible to underage viewers.
What does this all mean? Beer is changing – Real Beer has been tracking that since 1994 – and the Internet is changing (we’ve been here as long). Anheueser-Busch doesn’t want to be left behind.
Looking for just the right pub in which to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
The new “Irish Spring Body Wash Zagat Guide to America’s Top Irsh Pubs” will serve you well if you’re partying in any of a dozen American cities. Irish Spring will distribute the guide at special events in the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. GetIrishNow.com lists where the “Green Team” will be handing out books.
The information is also available online. PDA owners may beam the content onto their device with the Zagat-to-Go.
Most of the information in the book was pulled from other Zagat guides, with additional ratings done in certain markets (such as Boston).
As with all Zagat guides ratings are provided for food/appeal (based on if it is a restaurant or spot for nightlife), decor, service and price.