Looking for a way to abuse your liver Friday in Philadelphia?
Jack Curtin has just the day for you, starting with Grey Lodge Pub Groundhog Day Hawaiian Shirt Breakfast, and including events along the way like the latest release of Troegs Nugget Nectar.
Ever watch The Thirsty Traveler – Kevin Brauch – on the Fine Living Network?
Pilsner Urquell has hired him to host a new website called the Beer Advisor.
“Today’s beer aficionados want more than just a beer, they want a total beer experience, and they rely on their trusted bartender to guide them,†said Evan Cohen, U.S. brand manager for Pilsner Urquell. “Beeradvisor.net is a comprehensive resource that arms bartenders, wait staff, restaurant managers and others in the hospitality industry with all the information they need to give their patrons the experience they’re looking for, and then some.â€
Although Pilsner Urquell is the sponsor, the Czech beer – SABMiller now owns the brand – does not get particularly preferential treatment.
The presentation has the same feel, some would say sophistication, as the TV series. In his show, Brauch wanders the world in search of all manner of drink, so he might check out vodka in Russian, then beer in Alaska (the latter obviously focusing on the craft beer). In contrast, this site – as Cohen’s statement would indicate – is oriented first toward those who sell beer.
If you visit you’ll quickly conclude that Pilsner Urquell put some bucks behind this project. So – and I ‘ve written about this before – why is it that when you visit a beer website that asks for your age that you have to enter it on every visit? The site may remember all sorts of other things about you, but not your age. It’s not just a nuisance, but trust me on this, when you get older you don’t always want to be reminded of your age.
Lisa Morrison and Mark Campbell put a “beer doo-dah” at the heart of their kitchen/entertainment area when they remodeled their Portland, Oregon, home.
“We live in the most amazing place for craft beer. I really wanted to give craft beer credit where it’s due, so I built this really beautiful thing around beer so that people can walk in and say, ‘Wow, that is absolutely gorgeous.’ This is something you can actually highlight, be proud of and show off,†said Morrison, known in some circles at the “beer goddess.”
The doo-dah is a custom built-in cabinet that delivers beer from two taps and displays the couple’s vast collection of pint glasses. And the floor features a “river of beer” (no, not beer itself, but the wood inlay suggests beer).
The the whole story. Your contractor will thank you.
Wine & Spirits Jobs has an interview with Boston Beer founder Jim Koch. Among the questions: “Is it true that every employee in the company knows how to brew beer?”
Koch’s answer:
“Every year we have a company-wide homebrew contest, and yes, finance, mailroom, sales – everybody has a fair shot at winning. This year, one of our top sales trainers, Ken Smith, won the contest, and we’re going to distribute his beer nationally along with the winners of the American Homebrew Contest under the brand name Longshot. We can provide our people with a great education about beer, but when you have a big pot of boiling, frothing malt overflowing on your stove, you really understand brewing.”
Read the entire interview
.
Britain’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has extended its Cyclops campaign, which uses symbols indicate what to beers look, smell and taste like. Everard Brewery started the campaign last March, and CAMRA made it official in August.
More breweries continue to show interest in participating and CAMRA has produced a Cyclops information leaflet which it hopes will increase real ale sales for all partcipating breweries. The leaflet will be distributed to thousands of pubs across Britain by CAMRA members.
David Bremner, Head of Marketing for Everards, pointed out the campaign needs to reach a tipping point. “For Cyclops to continue having an impact on the real ale market, more Cyclops partners need to produce eye catching Point of Sale material and distribute to the pubs across Britain,†he said. “CAMRA’s new Cyclops leaflet, and more breweries supporting the scheme, will help to increase the consumer awareness of this initiative and lead to more people understanding and drinking real ale.â€
Tony Jerome of CAMRA added: “There has been a large number of pubs that have contacted CAMRA in the last year telling us that they would like to promote their real ales but do not know how to. These Word templates that have been created will be accessible to most licensees that own a PC. The templates will allow licensees to create their own Cyclops material and promote their own range of real ales to their customers. Hopefully this will encourage pubs to become more marketing led and help see their real ale sales increase.â€
Milwaukee’s Museum of Beer and Brewing 2007 lecture series kicks off Feb. 1 with author Trudy Knauss Paradis discussing her book German Milwaukee: Its History – Its Recipes. An ethnic history/cookboo, it recounts the history of German-speaking people in Milwaukee from the first arrivals in the 1830s to the annual German Fests on Lake Michigan. More information.
Keith O’Brien offers an explanation at Boston.com on why it makes a difference that Anheuser-Busch has brewed a gluten-free beer called Redbridge.
“I think it is the tipping point for people suffering from celiac disease, diagnosed and undiagnosed,” said Alice Bast, executive director of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. “The fact that Anheuser-Busch has taken such an interest, a lot of food companies – major food companies – are going to get into the marketplace. And maybe even some beer companies will get into the marketplace to compete against them.”
Several other breweries also brew beer that is gluten free, including St. Louis Brewery, producer of Schlafly beers. The brewery sells it only in its Bottleworks brewery-restaurant.
“We’re very founded on our local market,†said Schlafy vice president Dan Kopman. The brewery has strong ties to the local Slow Food movement, participating in events at both restaurants as well as elsewhere. Bottleworks also hosts a weekly growers market in season.
“We’ve had demand from local celiacs, and that’s why were doing this,†Kopman said. “I don’t see this as an area for small brewery to expand, to build our core business around sorghum beer.
“We are appealing to a segment of the population that wants to eat out and drink out and wants it to be gluten free.â€
Nothing wrong with that.
Investors Business Daily has more on Bud.TV:
Anheuser-Busch will spend $40 million on Internet marketing in 2007, analysts say. That’s about 10% of its overall media budget. A big chunk of that will go toward Bud.TV.com, analysts speculate. Anheuser-Busch wouldn’t say what it’s spending on Bud.TV.
And the content?
Bud.TV.com will feature mainly two- to five-minute “Webisodes.” Anheuser-Busch plans to draw upon its many sponsorship and marketing relationships. Ponturo says Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be featured in some video clips.
The beer maker also plans to partner for content with men’s magazine Maxim and New York’s Tribeca Film Festival.
In Chicago, Anheuser-Busch has filmed short Webisodes called “What Girls Want,” which critique pickup lines men use at a bar. Another vignette features a chimp acting as a used-car salesman.
Where does beer fit in?
England Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) – a consumer advocacy group – has mounted a campaign against cheap beer prices, pointing out some supermarkets are selling beer for little more than water.
CAMRA, members of parliament, trade press and pub industry chiefs are calling for urgent action to prevent promotions that serve to exacerbate the problem of binge drinking.
Legistlations would “call on supermarkets and off licences to curb irresponsible alcohol price promotions and stop using alcohol as a loss leader.”
A rather unusual blog post built around a tour of Stone Brewing.
Hot Knives is basically a food blog hosted by Los Angeles Alternative. The authors present themselves this way: “Alex Brown and Evan George are former line-cooks who used to use hot knives for more illict purposes, but decided to turn their lives around so that others may start eating properly and drinking better beer.”
None of this background may prepare you for their trip, so sit back and relax.
PS – And from another post: “On another note, look for some 7-Eleven’s to start carrying entire catalogues of excellent craft breweries. Our local store now boasts two entire fridges of microbrews.”
How about that?
[Found via Hedonist Beer Jive]
Brandweek reports that mass-market brewers aiming for the high-end beer market are basing their strategy on the success of Stella Artois.
Some of the things Stella has done:
– Instead of using babes and sports in advertising, owner Inbev has promoted signature beer glasses and proper beer care.
– Appealed to foodies by hosting Belgian dinners and landing editorial mentions in Bon Appetit and Gourmet.
– It became the badge beer for the independent film community through release-party sponsorships at Sundance and other film fests.
“Discovery” has been a key element of Stella’s plan, one that Anheuser-Busch will likely continue as it takes over distribution of Stella this year, and one that Miller and Coors are emulating with brands of their own.
Karl Strauss, consultant to scores of craft breweries and founder of San Diego;s first microbrewery himself, has died. He was 94.
Strauss was born in a small brewery in Minden, Germany, where his father was the president. He lived in the family quarters at the brewery while he was growing up, the went to study in Bavaria, where he earned his degree in the science of malting and brewing from the Technical University Munich at Weihenstephan.
The Strauss Brewing website offers a photo montage and “The Truth About Karl Strauss.”
The latest movie in the Rocky series, “Rocky Balboa,” raises an interesting question. What would Rocky drink?
Don Russell, Joe Sixpack, is on the case.
A powerful reminder that it wasn’t long ago regional beer brands mattered.
When asked the question, Sylvester Stallone answered “Rolling Rock” – but just because it was a Pennsylvania beer doesn’t mean it was a Philadelphia beer.
For more than a decade, Brad and Lynn Craig have been mailing Christmas cards to their friends, bearing a photo of themselves next to the headstone of some great early Wisconsin beer baron or another.
Alaskan Brewing Co-founders and Co-owners Geoff and Marcy Larson and seven of the 10 original volunteers packaged 253 cases of Alaskan Amber to commemorate the first packaging of the flagship brew 20 years ago. “20th YEAR / 1986-2006†is printed on all the bottle labels in the limited-edition cases, and each case offers a free memento to the lucky person who buys it.
“We can’t believe our good fortune that we’re still here after 20 years,†Geoff Larson stated in a company press release. “We had a five-year plan when we started. We couldn’t fathom thinking ahead 20 years, but here we are.â€
More from the release:
The Larsons said they came up with the idea of a special anniversary packaging of Alaskan Amber as a way to honor Alaskan Brewing’s 20-year history, their loyal volunteers and dedicated Brew Crew. “The giveaway in the special cases is a way to include our fans in our anniversary celebration,†Larson said.
The commemorative packaging run ran far smoother than the original one, according to Marcy Larson. “That first run took 12 people packaging by hand for 12 hours. Between the 1960s soda bottling machine and our inexperience, half the bottles were unusable,†she said. “Thanks to newer equipment and a well-trained crew, we now have a capacity of 300 bottles a minute.â€
The last 10 of the 253 special anniversary cases were packed by hand like they were 20 years ago. “I’m sure glad we didn’t have to pack and stack all of them by hand this time,†said Win Germain. “Packing the entire run by hand would feel really different now than it did when I was 20 years younger.â€
The nine members of the original packaging crew who attended the commemorative bottling run were: Win and Maggie Germain, Dayton Canaday, George Reifenstein, Larry Bussone, Marc Scholten, Vickie McMillan and Geoff and Marcy Larson.
When Alaskan Brewing Co. opened in 1986 it was the only operating brewery in Alaska and only the 67th in the nation. “When the brewery started up we all wanted it to be a success,†said Vickie McMillan. “We just never imagined how successful it would become.†Alaskan Brewing Co. is in the Top 10 out of 1,378 craft breweries nationwide, and it is the most award-winning craft brewery in the history of the Great American Beer Festival.
In 1986 George Reifenstein was a homebrewer who loved great beer. He said he volunteered in the early days of Alaskan Brewing, because he wanted to help make the first brewery in Alaska since Prohibition successful. Now the General Manager of Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tramway, Reifenstein said all of the Alaskan beers are sold at the Tramway and are very popular with guests. “It’s wonderful to see how the brewery has grown,†he said.