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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s War On Craft Beer. (Commie-pinko liberal website ThinkProgress)
Tucked into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) much-discussed budget was a little-noticed provision to overhaul the state’s regulation of the beer industry. In a state long associated with beer, the provision will make it much more difficult for the Wisconsin’s burgeoning craft breweries to operate and expand their business by barring them from selling directly to restaurants and liquor stores, and preventing them from selling their own product onsite.
The new provision treats craft brewers — the 60 of whom make up just 5 percent of the beer market in Wisconsin — like corporate mega-brewers, forcing them to use a wholesale distributor to market their product. Under the provision, it would be illegal, for instance, for a small brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire a middle man to do it instead.
Caffeine and Alcohol: Wham! Bam! Boozled. (NY Times)
Four Loko joins this warped tradition. And what I quickly came to see was that if you set out to engineer a booze delivery system that is as cloying, deceptive and divorced from the usual smells, tastes and presentation of alcohol as possible, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something more impressive than Four Loko.
California Pot Initiative Opposed By Beer Industry. (Huff Post)
The California Beer & Beverage Distributors is spending money in the state to oppose a marijuana legalization proposition on the ballot in November, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State. The beer sellers are the first competitors of marijuana to officially enter the debate; backers of the initiative are closely watching liquor and wine dealers and the pharmaceutical industry to see if they enter the debate in the remaining weeks.
The opposition to pot among beer makers, however, is not unanimous among the CBBD’s membership. Sierra Nevada and Stone Brewing Co., microbrews that began in California but have become popular national brands, both lashed out at the CBBD after news of the distributor’s donation was reported on Celebstoner.com, a popular website focusing on marijuana-related news, and Alternet.com.
I would have to think those who enjoy Sierra Nevada and Stone and the bud/or-want-to-see-it-legalized probably share a large intersection of a Venn diagram.
Today is International Beer Day. For those who enjoy craft brews, you can thank that fucking commie cocksucker Jimmy Carter:
To make a long story short, prohibition led to the dismantling of many small breweries around the nation. When prohibition was lifted, government tightly regulated the market, and small scale producers were essentially shut out of the beer market altogether. Regulations imposed at the time greatly benefited the large beer makers. In 1979, Carter deregulated the beer industry, opening back up to craft brewers. As the chart below illustrates, this had a really amazing effect on the beer industry:
There’s a chart and everything.
As spotted at a metro-area Fred Meyer superstore.
A Delicious Free-for-All. (NY Times)
A GOOD selection of Belgian-style ales is like the very best kind of buffet, offering an assortment of flavors, aromas, styles, strengths and types. You want strong ale, sour ale, sweet ale, dry ale, golden, dark, wheat, fruity and malty. When we set out to draw a stylistic standard for a planned tasting of Belgian golden ales, it seemed as if we’d taken on an impossible task. But glory does not come to those who quit easily.
Is the English pub at death’s door? (Global Post)
Rural life is unrecognizable from 20 years ago and British drinking habits have undergone a sea change, as well. Both of these factors have led to a crisis for British pubs. Thirty-nine a week are going out of business forever.
And the bad news is accelerating. The numbers were awful before the recession kicked in, but now they are brutal. In the last quarter of 2008 sales of beer were off by almost 10 percent in pubs, according to figures from the British Beer and Pub Association. Now politicians are becoming alarmed about the future of an industry that employs upwards of half a million people.
NW wine industry: worries and bargains. (Crosscut)
Indeed, most others in the wine business in Washington and Oregon report that it’s tough out there and likely to get tougher — particularly for new wineries, high-end producers without big reputations and scores, and those that depend heavily on the hard-hit restaurant business. Even giant Jackson Family Wines in California, the parent company of Kendall-Jackson, laid off about 20 percent of its staff in January.
Many wineries are trying to shift their distribution mix away from restaurants and toward retail. Most are carefully nurturing their wine club members, hoping the direct-to-consumer business provides an island of stability. Washington and Oregon wineries questioned are predicting that, at best, sales in 2009 will be about the same as last year. “You’ve got to be really skeptical in this environment that you’ll see any sizable growth in 2009,” says Mark Freund, senior relationship manager for Silicon Valley Bank in California, which works with about 250 West Coast wineries. “If you can maintain flat sales, you’re not doing too bad.”
Outrage brewing over proposed 1,900% beer tax hike. (KGW)
Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them.
Four Portland legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers.
…
“If that tax is passed it would mean consumers would pay $315 million more (in 2009) to buy the same amount of beer they bought in 2008,” De Kalb claimed. “A pint of beer would go from $4.50 to $6.”
Rep. Ben Cannon, one of the bill’s sponsors, questions whether the true hit to consumers would be as high as beer makers claim. He told KGW his office measured the increase at 15 cents per glass not $1.50.
But Kurt Widmer of Widmer brewing told KGW that in order to keep profit margins constant, he’d increase his price to distributors, who in turn would likely increase prices to retailers, making the 15 cent per class estimate unrealistic.
Something tells me it’s somewhere in between. Rogue Dead Guy will now be, what, $14 a sixer?
Drinking and driving: The way we live sucks. (William Brand@ContraCostaTimes.com)
The American problem – our problem – is the way we live sucks. I mean we’re totally auto-oriented. Most of us live in places where mass transit doesn’t exist or is sucky.
For instance, I live three miles from the closest BART station; there’s only bus service 9-5 weekdays and it’s five blocks to the damn bus stop. So I drive, usually to BART. Coming home, I don’t get back in the car ’til I’m certain I’m sober. It’s a hell of a way to live.
In fact, it changes where I go. I hate visiting friends where we’re going to drink good beer, but the only way to get there is driving. I envy my friends who live in San Francisco, Oakland and other cities, where a trip to the pub is a short walk.
For the rest of us, the whole system is loaded against us. We love good beer, but the laws are tough and cops are relentless. What to do? Drinking at homne is one solution, but nothing beats the warmth and friendship of a good pub. It’s a dilemma, isn’t it. One thing we need is better transit.
The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America. (Men’s Health, ht Amanda @PF.org)
1. The Worst Drink in America
Baskin-Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake2,310 calories
108 g fat (64 g saturated)
266 g
That’s nothing compared to a holiday tradition in our household: bacon-n-eggnog lard shakes, encased in a 5-inch corn syrup brulee crust and topped with fried cow brains and rocks of crystal methamphetamine.
Big layoffs at Budweiser. (Foyston @Oregonian)
Anheuser-Busch announced plans to cut around “1,400 U.S. salaried positions in its beer-related divisions, affecting about 6 percent of the company’s total U.S. workforce,” three-quarters of which were at A-B HQ in St. Louis. Also, 250 vacant position will now not be filled and 415 independent contractors will also be terminated.
The announced workforce reductions are in addition to the more than 1,000 U.S. salaried employees company-wide who accepted the company’s voluntary enhanced retirement program, which closed November 14 and provided special benefits for eligible employees retiring by the end of 2008.
It’s getting rough out there when American lager is no longer recession-proof.
Jack Daniels Maker Doing Awesome In This Economy. (Clusterstock)
It’s not just a joke: People are really turning to drink in this economy. Brown Forman (BF) the maker of Jack Daniels and Finlandia Vodka reported an awesome quarter.
Sign o’ the times.
Caffeine-free Diet Rite soda is the best-tasting of all diet colas.
The Other Extreme: Low-Alcohol Beers. (NY Times)
While many craft brewers are trying to quench the nation’s growing thirst for extreme beers pumped with alcohol, Mr. Taylor is one of a small but growing number of brewers, beer experts and importers who are applying the brakes and turning toward well-made low-alcohol beers.
“A bunch of guys talk in the market,” said Don Feinberg, a founder of Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y., and an importer for Vanberg & DeWulf there. “We’ve all been saying the same thing for about 18 months now, which is, enough of the high octane.”
Mr. Feinberg imports boozy Trappist and farmhouse ales, but in April he introduced a brew from another Belgian tradition: bières de table.
“When I lived there in the late ’70s and early ’80s,” he said of his time in Belgium, “everybody drank it for lunch, from grandmothers to kids.”
Drink Outside the Box. (NY Times Op-Ed)
ITALY’S Agriculture Ministry announced this month that some wines that receive the government’s quality assurance label may now be sold in boxes. That’s right, Italian wine is going green, and for some connoisseurs, the sky might as well be falling.
But the sky isn’t falling. Wine in a box makes sense environmentally and economically. Indeed, vintners in the United States would be wise to embrace the trend that is slowly gaining acceptance worldwide.
The United States of cheap beer. (Salon via Angelhair@PF.org)
From Stroh’s to Shiner Bock, from Hamm’s to Hudepohl, Salon brings you an incomplete, biased guide to this great piss-beer nation.
Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to InBev. (NY Times)
A million jingoistic heads explode in unison.
Some coffee fans get grim delight in Starbucks woes. (Reuters)
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.
“I’m so happy. I’m so not a Starbucks person,” said Melinda Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New York. “I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye.”
“Amen,” chimed in Keith DiLauro, a local caterer. “They went too big, too fast.”
Seattle-based Starbucks burst onto the national scene in the 1990s and grew to more than 6,000 locations around the world. But with cups of coffee that can cost several dollars, it faces a slowing economy and slowed consumer spending.
McCain could have a conflict brewing. (LA Times)
Hensley & Co., one of the nation’s major beer wholesalers, has brought the family of Cindy McCain wealth, prestige and influence in Phoenix, but it could also create conflicts for her husband, Sen. John McCain, if he is elected president in November.
Hensley, founded by Cindy McCain’s late father, holds federal and state licenses to distribute beer and lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety.
The company has opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor
Its executives, including John McCain’s son Andrew, have written at least 10 letters in recent years to the Treasury Department, have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a beer industry political action committee, and hold a seat on the board of the politically powerful National Beer Wholesalers Assn.
US Airways to charge $2 for soda, juice, water. (Yahoo)
Alcoholic drinks will also go from $5 to $7.
We all know the evils of alcohol. I won’t bore you with the nasty details, but it bears mentioning the potential dangers of cooking and drinking. The former acts like a congener for the latter, in my experience.
Witness a recent conversation in our household:
Wife: Honey, can you bring up the vacuum and clean the cat litter?
Me (on the couch): (Mumbles something non-committal)
Wife: Hey! Last night you said you would help me today with any house chores and you wouldn’t complain, and then you hugged me and gave me a kiss and told me you loved me!
[Long pause]
Me: That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.
On Hardball, while remarking on Sen. Barack Obama’s reported request for orange juice after being offered coffee at an Indiana diner, David Shuster asserted: “[I]t’s just one of those sort of weird things. You know, when the owner of the diner says, ‘Here, have some coffee,’ you say, ‘Yes, thank you,’ and, ‘Oh, can I also please have some orange juice, in addition to this?’ You don’t just say, ‘No, I’ll take orange juice,’ and then turn away and start shaking hands.” Host Chris Matthews agreed, “You don’t ask for a substitute on the menu.”
Starbucks sued again over tip pools. (Seattle Times)
A week after Starbucks was ordered to refund more than $100 million to baristas in California over a tip pool controversy, the coffee giant was hit Tuesday with a similar lawsuit in Massachusetts.
And a Boston lawyer said more lawsuits could be filed in Washington, New York and Minnesota over whether shift supervisors can share baristas’ tips.
In Suffolk Superior Court, barista Hernan Matamoros seeks restitution for himself and other baristas who worked for Starbucks during the past six years. He claims baristas did not receive the “total proceeds of tips” left by customers because the company allowed shift supervisors to have a portion of them.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney who filed the suit, said Massachusetts’ law is even clearer than California’s law that “anyone with managerial authority is not an employee who may receive a share of tips.”
A drink a day for a longer life: study. (Yahoo! News)
Drinking is healthy, exercise is healthy, and doing a little of both is even healthier, Danish researchers reported on Wednesday.
People who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent higher risk of heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities, the researchers said in the European Heart Journal.
“The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical activity,” said Morten Gronbaek of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study.
A Liquor of Legend Makes a Comeback. (NY Times)
The division of the Treasury Department that approves alcohol packaging sent back his label seven times, he said. They thought it looked too much like the British pound note. They wondered why it was called Absinthe Verte when their lab analysis said the liquid inside was amber. Mostly, it seemed to him, they didn’t like the monkey.
“I had the image of a spider monkey beating on a skull with femur bones,” Mr. Winters said. But he said that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau thought the label “implied that there are hallucinogenic, mind-altering or psychotropic qualities” to the product.
“I said, ‘You get all that just from looking at a monkey?’”
His frustration came to a sudden end last Wednesday, when he learned the agency had finally granted approval to his St. George Absinthe Verte, the first American-made absinthe on the market in almost a century.
Nyquil is faster.
Device Created for ‘Red Wine Headache’. (Wired News)
Chemists working with NASA-funded technology designed to find life on Mars have created a device they say can easily detect chemicals that many scientists believe can turn wine and other beloved indulgences into ingredients for agony.
The chemicals, called biogenic amines, occur naturally in a wide variety of aged, pickled and fermented foods prized by gourmet palates, including wine, chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and cured meats.
“The food you eat is so unbelievably coupled with your body’s chemistry,” said Richard Mathies, who described his new technology in an article published Thursday in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Scientists have nominated several culprits for “red wine headache,” including amines like tyramine and histamine, though no conclusions have been reached. Still, many specialists warn headache sufferers away from foods rich in amines, which can also trigger sudden episodes of high blood pressure, heart palpitations and elevated adrenaline levels.
The detector could prove useful to those with amine sensitivity, said Beverly McCabe, a clinical dietitian and co-author of “Handbook of Food-Drug Interactions,” a book cited by the article for its descriptions of the effects of amines on the brain.
The Ultimate All-in-One Beer Brewing Machine.
Behold PopSci staff photographer/mad scientist John Carnett’s homemade microbrewery: an elaborate device that boils, ferments, chills, and pours home-crafted ale.
Alcohol Goes on a Health Kick. (NYTimes)
In an era of “natural” cigarettes, trans-fat-free chips and low-carb beer, it is probably no surprise that that last guilty pleasure, the cocktail, is trying to atone for its sins. And it isn’t just vegan restaurants serving more vitamin-rich vodka mixes and slinging vegetable gardens in a glass.
Whether absurd or merely inevitable, the idea of healthier tippling has started to catch on among those who have embraced things like organic food and low-sugar diets. Always ready to pounce on a fad, mixologists at trendy bars, restaurants and clubs in New York and Los Angeles have begun creating concoctions from organic fruit and vegetable purées and vitamin-filled sports drinks instead of gooey syrups.
French wine militants threaten jihad. (“Wine militants threaten action”, Guardian UK)
In a tape sent anonymously to French TV a month ago, the shadowy militant organisation known as CRAV (Comité Régional d’Action Viticole or regional winegrowers’ action committee) threatened violent action if new President Nicolas Sarkozy did not take measures to help economically desperate wine growers in the France’s vast Languedoc-Roussillon area.
Stoking the flames of future Girls Gone Wild-fires…Dutch students brew up powdered alcohol hit. (The Register)
Dutch students have developed what might be the ultimate Reg hack survival aid – a powdered alcohol beverage going out at €1-€1.50 for a 20-gram packet, Reuters reports.
Just add water to Booz2Go and you get a “bubbly, lime-colored and flavored drink with just three percent alcohol content”, ideal for those journalistic Bravo Two Zero situations where you find yourself pinned down by a corporate PowerPoint presentation with nothing more than a plastic cup and a water cooler between you and a sobriety-heightened two-hour torture session.
…
Van Elderen and four classmates at Helicon Vocational Institute brewed up Booz2Go as part of a final year project. Fellow student Martyn van Nierop showed his WKD side by announcing one major attraction of the concoction for the yoof demographic: “Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16.”
Gotta love the Dutch.