The Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Co. is holding a “Name That Beer” contest.
“We are looking to find a name for the beer that we will be brewing in Grand Bahama and I would like to invite the residents of Grand Bahama to help us come up with the names for our locally brewed beers,” founder Jimmy Sands said.
The winner receives $3,000.
[Via the Freeport News]
Arriving in Asheville, N.C. – a decidely beer-hip town – with just one beer, its flagship No. 9, and only on draft, Vermont’s Magic Hat Brewing creates an immediate buzz.
2theadvocate.com has a solid feature on Louisiana’s Abita Brewing Co.
News includes the fact that Fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale has so far raised $400,000 for hurricane relief.
As already reported, business thrives despite the fact that New Orleans’ population has been cut in half. Although Abita sells its beer in 32 states, New Orleans is still its most important market.
Most of its beers are designed to be paired with local cuisine, to keep Abita “Louisiana True,†president David Blossman said in the story.
“From the beginning, we made a concerted effort to be a part of our (Louisiana’s) lifestyle,†Blossman said. “If we were just trying to make money, we would be just making our amber beer.â€
These days that’s another reason for people outside Louisiana to buy the beer.
“So You Think You Could Be . . .†is an occasional series that gives LaCrosse Tribune reporters a new and interesting job for a day. Some jobs will be dirty. Some will be fun. And others will be just plain weird.
That’s why Joan Kent found herself inside City Brewery, which is hardly a quaint little startup. City Brewery used to be a Heileman plant, cranking out Old Style when that beer was the best seller in Chicago (take that, Miller and Bud).
The story begins:
I would have done more work during my day at City Brewery, but nothing weighed less than 50 pounds.
Everything inside the old brick walls is big. Tubs with capacities like 1,970 barrels. Pipes that seem to run for miles in a maze among the several buildings. Freight cars full of grain. Tanker trucks full of corn syrup.
The brewery is a weird mixture of tradition and modern manufacturing.
The tasting part, however, required only light lifting.
The latest in Stone Brewing’s series of charity auctions to celebrate its 10th anniversary closes Friday, but bids are already apporaching $1,000.
The dinner for eight with Stone founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner features six courses and six vintage Stone beers. The package also includes an invitation for one person to be a guest at a tasting of Stone 02.02.02 Epic Vertical Ale.
The charity auctions have already raised $20,371.
First Thelonious Monk, now Frank Zappa.
Compared to the heat Miller Brewing has drawn for using famous rock ‘n’ roll artists on a series of cans, it looks like small breweries – in this case both from Northern California – are on to something.
Lagnunitas Brewing Co. began shipping Freak Out! Ale in 22-ounce bottles earlier this month “in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the release of the first album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.”
Lagunitas founder Tony Magee obtained the permission of the Zappa Family Trust to use the original album art as the bottle label. He plans to do an entire series commemorating the release of Zappa albums. So look for “Absolutely Free” next summer.
Freak Out! Ale is a beer of substance (7.3% abv) but – thank goodness – is not as demanding as Zappas’ double album. It has plenty of hop character – citrusy, resiny, gritty flavors and solid bitterness – to balance hefty malt sweetness (fruit and caramel).
Lagunitas also announced that its Imperial Red Ale (also not for sissies), previously sold only in 22-ounce bottles, is available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles.
You might have missed the report a couple of weeks ago in the Sierra Sun that Truckee, Calif., is getting a new brewery.
Truckee Craft Brewing Co. should be up and running by late this year or early next. What most of you will consider news is is not that another brewpub is opening, or that brewing is returning to Truckee (which has a long brewing history).
The news is Todd Ashman is returning to brewing.
Take a minute to think about that, and perhaps say a blessing to the beer gods.
Most remember Ashman for his innovative (and award-winning) beers at Illinois brewpub Flossmoor Station. He also brewed at Titletown Brewing in Green Bay before going to work for Rahr Malting/Brewers Supply Group, which sells ingredients to craft breweries.
Ashman officially starts in Truckee at the beginning of December. He says that capacity constraints will limit him to keeping five or six beers on tap, “maybe more once we get things in rotation.”
We can hardly wait.
A modern-day brewpub operated in Truckee in the 1990s, but the more interesting history goes back to the 19th century. According to Truckee historian Gordon Richards the Boca Brewery – built in 1875 – sold its beer around the world and was a popular drink at the 1883 World’s Fair in Paris, France.
The brewery was ideally located with easy access to spring water and ice, but the mostly German brewers often found themselves feuding with French Canadian loggers across the Truckee River. The Boca Brewery burned in January of 1893.
Advertising Age reports that Anheuser-Busch is getting into the content business.
The country’s largest brewer is launching its own in-house film and TV production company that will make humorous shorts and sitcom-type programs to be broadcast over the internet and to cellphones, according to four people familiar with the matter, and could branch into full-length films.
Like anything A-B does, don’t expect them to settle for halfway. But does that mean they’ll tap into the viral magic of the ‘net? So far, Miller’s “Man Laws” campaign seems to be attracting a lot more attention than A-B’s “Here’s to Beer.”
A-B might take a hint from Smirnoff. You’ll find its “Tea Partay” video at YouTube and of this morning had been viewed more than 800,000 views (in less than three weeks).
Two Colorado breweries have already taken steps to make the 25th anniversary celebration of the Great American Beer Festival a bit more special. Perhaps there’ll be news of more in coming weeks.
You can already find special cans of Dale’s Pale Ale in many of the 13 states that Oskar Blues (in Lyons, just up the road from Boulder) sells its beer. The cans feature the GABF logo and information on the festival, scheduled for Sept. 28-30 in Denver.
The Brewers Association and Boulder Beer teamed up to produce a beer commemorating the 25th GABF. Boulder Beer also brewed a special high gravity ale to celebrate the inaugural GABF in 1982.
Boulder Beer was one of the original 22 breweries at the first GABF and has been a participant every year since.
Boulder will roll out its “GABF 25th Year Beer” in 11 states in early September – and, of course it will be available at the festival. it will first be served at Boulder Beer’s 27th anniversary party, The Goatshed Revival, Aug. 26 from 1 – 8 p.m. The Goatshed Revival is an annual outdoor celebration with proceeds benefiting the local Habitat for Humanity.
Among the e-mail questions we see most often is: “What are the top ten selling beer brands in the USA?”
Since the Information Resources Inc. that indicate craft beer sales are on fire also list the best selling beers overall we can provide an up-to-date ranking..
1. Bud Light
2. Budweiser
3. Miller Lite
4. Coors Light
5. Corona Extra
6. Natural Light
7. Heineken
8. Michelob Ultra Light
9. Busch Light
10. Miller High Life
These are sales in outlets that IRI tracks, mostly supermarkets with at least $2 million in sales, plus some convenience stores and retail liquor stores. But even if you could count everything else the order would be unlikely to change.
Bateman’s Brewery in the UK has run out of beer.
Normal delivers are expected to resume next week.
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Flying Fish Brewing – a brewery “founded on the Internet” in 1995 – has outgrown its home in Cherry Hill, N.J., and will likely move to nearby Burlington City.
“We’ve been looking for a new site for quite a while because we have outgrown our present location. I only want to move once,” founder Gene Muller told the Courier Post.
A move would leave Flying Fish room to triple its current capacity of 10,000 barrels.
As the company notes at its website: “When we started on the web in 1995 most folks weren’t on line. There was no spam and no illegal file sharing. There was also no Amazon.com and no Netflix. So step way back in time to the end of the last century and see how far we’ve come from virtual brewery to real brewery to real big (for us) brewery.”
Kegs were exploding after a fire broke out at Crewe Johns Limited, a real ale brewery in Lancashire (England).
Firefighters were up to the challenge.
They used a special device called a ground monitor to spray water on the flames from a distance to allow them to keep away from the exploding kegs.
New Glarus Brewing will be staying in New Glarus, Wisconsin.
Before you say “of course” read the report from the Capital Times. The brewery had threatened to pull up stakes and build on an alternative site.
The dispute was settled last night when the village board agreed to provide an economic development incentive of $2 million toward infrastructure costs of the new facility through tax incremental financing.
In exchange, the village will receive property tax revenue from the plant, which is guaranteed to have an assessed value of at least $8 million, as well as benefit from retaining the popular attraction and contributor to the village’s economy.
The Globe & Mail reports that that four beer makers were expected to make their bids for Sleeman before the company’s self-imposed deadline – and that a bidding war may arise.
Prospective buyers include Molson Coors Brewing Co. and Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd., as well as Royal Grolsch NV of the Netherlands and Sapporo Breweries Ltd. of Japan, two overseas companies that distribute in Canada through Sleeman.
Other deals also seem possible.
While speculation swirls around which company might be the winning suitor, Blackmont Capital analyst David Hartley suggested independent brewer Moosehead Breweries Ltd. could sneak in and merge with Sleeman, although Moosehead says it has no such plans.
Sleeman, Canada’s third-largest brewer with 7 per cent of the country’s beer market, said in May it would begin a “strategic review” that could involve a sale.