German brewer sells authenticity

There's a story in today's New York Times on Rothaus, a state-owned brewer in Germany that has seen sales double over the last 15 years, while overall beer sales in the country have been declining. The success has come without a single TV or radio commercial. The story says many Germans seem to be drawn to the brand because of its non-corporate image. From the story:

“The ad agencies always wanted to seduce us into making not only a good beer but modern commercials,” said Thomas Schäuble, the head of the brewery and himself a native of the Black Forest region. “But people here in the Wild West of Germany are hard-headed,” he said with a chuckle.

There's also much mention made of the character in the brewery's logo. Birgit Kraft (apparently a German homonym for "beer gives strength"), as she's known, is something of an icon. That's her pictured above.

I don't believe Rothaus exports to the U.S. Has anyone out there reading had the pleasure of a bottle or mug?

NYT: Politics from the glass-lined tanks of Old Latrobe

Long-time Pitcher This readers may recall my erstwhile fondness for Rolling Rock, and my concern for the fortunes of Latrobe, Pa., where it was once produced. I wrote a column last year relating to Anheuser-Busch's purchase of the brand, and the decision to move production to New Jersey. City Brewing later bought the shuttered Latrobe plant and began using it to brew Samuel Adams under contract (along with other brands?).

In advance of Pennsylvania's looming presidential primary, the New York Times today carried a story exploring the thoughts of Latrobe's citizenry on the election, and particularly on Barack Obama. It is hard, though, to talk about Latrobe without mentioning beer. From the story:

Latrobe is probably best known as the birthplace of Rolling Rock beer. The label was sold to Anheuser-Busch, and brewing was moved in 2006 to Newark.

A new company came in that employs fewer people, mostly at lower wages.

“I’m making $5 an hour less than I did before,” said Rick Musick, who parked his truck outside the brewery just before the 5 p.m. shift.

Sounds like things in Latrobe haven't improved all that much. My only suggestion to help those folks out: Drink more Sam Adams.

Brilliant

Is there a beer-lover in the world who hasn't imagined this before? A bar in Atlanta has tables with two tap handles each that customers can operate themselves. Here's a story from the AP (courtesy of MSNBC) on the system, at STATS, a sports bar. There's also an AP video report embedded below.

What do you think about it? The video shows there's plenty of variety in the bar, but you don't get to select the beer flowing through your taps unless you make a reservation for a specific table. I wonder what impact this would have on tips for the wait staff?

Beer drinkers' delight: table-top taps

Another one for the ages

There's more coverage of the effort in some states to lower the drinking age from 21, this time in a story from USA Today. (We first discussed this a few days ago.)

The story says 77 percent of Americans are against the idea, citing a 2007 Gallup poll. The poll also found that 60 percent of Americans believe penalties for drinking underage should be tougher. Young people, men and people who drink were more lenient in their attitudes about the age limit and the penalties. Older people and women (and older women, especially) were less tolerant. 81 percent of women over 50 thought penalties for underage drinkers should be more strict. 77 percent of non-drinkers felt the same way.

What do you think? Should we be even tougher on people who get caught drinking before they're 21? Should the drinking age be lowered? To 19? 18? (It's worth noting that it's legal to buy at 18 in most of the rest of the world). Are there other ways to keep traffic deaths down besides prohibiting alcohol for adults 18-21? Should there be different ages for beer, wine and liquor?

Beer on the radio - nationwide

NPR on Wednesday aired a segment on the effort to lift Alabama's 6-percent alcohol by volume beer limit, on its All Things Considered program. The report was by WBHM's Tanya Ott.

It's a good, basic overview of the issue. Rev. Dan Ireland of ALCAP gets to say how afraid he is that expensive beer will get into the hands of Alabama teenagers. But that's quickly countered by Rep. Patricia Todd, who says teenagers are likely looking for the cheapest hooch available - just like she did when she was a kid (kudos for your reasoning and on your honesty, Rep. Todd).

Is beer holding you back?

Weird beer news from The New York Times: a Czech ornithologist has published a study that says scientists who drink more beer publish fewer papers.

Seems a little obvious at first: anyone who's spending too much time with pint glasses might not be spending enough time with test tubes. But the study seems to indicate that even scientists who drink just a few times a year are less productive than those who drink none. The study purports to study the interaction between social activity and scientific publication productivity. Beer drinking stands in as a measure of sociability.

I suppose I might be more productive at work if I quit drinking. But I do suspect my beer column would suffer.

Good press from out west

The Los Angeles Times this weekend published a thorough look at efforts to change Alabama's beer-related laws, with a particularly close look at homebrewing's illegality and Free the Hops' efforts to raise the 6-percent ABV limit.

Stephanie Simon's piece is perhaps the best-written, best-researched story the press has yet produced on the state of beer in Alabama. Bravo.

One voice I'm glad to see represented in the story is that of an ABC administrator. I don't know that I've seen anyone in Montgomery express this before (and to be fair, I haven't yet asked them myself):

"What's done in a private home often goes undiscovered," says John Richardson, assistant administrator of the alcohol control board. "You can imagine how confusing it is trying to enforce this."

Here's hoping you don't have to worry about it much longer, Mr. Richardson.

Try it before you buy it?

How handy would this be?

Legislators in Washington state have approved a program to allow beer and wine samples in grocery stores, according to this concise item from the AP. It's designed to help smaller, local producers expose their product to the public.

How great would it be the next time you load up on free cheese or pizza roll samples at your favorite grocery or club store to walk an aisle over and wash it down with a quality brew? Don't get too excited, though; the samples are limited to 4 ounces.

EDIT: Here's a good piece from the Seattle Post Intelligencer on the industry lobbying effort that has brought Washington craft brewers success on the grocery-tasting bill and other matters.

Southern beer culture is a long way from the Pacific Northwest's, but I wonder if brewers here will ever become a force in Montgomery, Atlanta or Jackson. Your thoughts?

How old is old enough?

How old is old enough to drink? That's the topic of a big ol' story the Chicago Tribune published Sunday. It looks at movements in several states to lower the legal drinking age from 21 to as low as 18.

The proposals vary from state to state - in South Dakota, petitioners want to allow 19- and 20-year-olds to buy beer with no more than 3.2 percent alcohol, while those in Missouri want simply to open alcohol sales to anyone 18 and older. Some folks in Vermont would like the age lowered to 18 for young people who take alcohol-education classes. In South Carolina and Wisconsin, lawmakers have proposed allowing anyone in the military under age 21 to buy alcohol, reasoning that if they're old enough to die for their country they're old enough to have a beer.

Obviously, there are plenty of people opposed to these efforts. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the American Medical Association, National Transportation Safety Board and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety all point to reduced traffic fatalities in the decades after Congress coaxed states into raising their drinking ages to 21 by tying the issue to highway construction money.

There's an interesting graphic with the Tribune story that shows each state's legal drinking age in 1984 when Congress began pushing states to go to 21. In Alabama, you could drink at age 19.

I'm a little surprised by all this. I wasn't aware there were so many people agitating to lower the drinking age. I'm sorta sympathetic to the logic of the cause. (If you're an adult, you're an adult, right?) But the impact on traffic deaths is hard to ignore. What do you think?

Catching up

I meant to post a link to this on Friday. The Birmingham News had a story on Free the Hops' Birmingham Budweiser boycott. Pretty well well done.

I spoke with Stuart Carter, FTH's president yesterday, and apparently the group is happy with the coverage. They feel the media has often gotten key points of their proposals wrong in the past, but that this story, in providing background on the organization and its goals, got it mostly right. An excerpt:

Beer can be sold in the same stores where wine is sold, but wine can be as much as 14.9 percent alcohol by volume. Robinson's bill would raise the allowable alcohol content of beer to the level of wine.

Hard liquors available at liquor stores can have much higher alcohol content. A pure grain alcohol, such as Everclear, is 95 percent alcohol by volume.

I was talking with Carter for tomorrow's column, by the way. It'll provide an overview of the group's plans for the Legislature this year.

NYT: Superbrands for Super Bowl

Say what you will about their brews, but Anheuser-Busch has got to be the king of beer advertising, at least.

With the advertsing frenzy of the Super Bowl just around the corner, the New York Times says in a story today that AB will be saving all its ad love for its two flagship brands, Budweiser and Bud Light.

That seems like an odd decision. We've seen that craft brewing is the only segment of the beer industry with any significant growth over the last few years. And like other mega-brewers, AB has attempted to cash in on that trend with more than a few craft-like offerings. Just on shelves here recently I've seen their Redbridge sorghum lager, Stone Mill and Wild Hop organic beers, and a line of seasonal offerings from their Michelob label, including a marzen and a porter.

Of course, AB didn't get so big and rich by following my advice. And it could be that craft beer drinkers aren't interested in trying anything that comes from mega brewers. Or, perhaps the guys in St. Louis feel Bud & Bud Light need the help.

An ale by any other name ...

It was jarring to see the The Guardian (or The Observer, as it's known on Sundays) make the distinction between "lager" and "beer" in this story, the latter term apparently being reserved exclusively for ales. "Beer" and "ale" are used interchangeable in the story. An example:

"Although total lager sales in supermarkets outnumber those of beer by around five to one, the big retailers are now waking up to how consumer tastes are rapidly changing."

The piece is about beer- er, about ale sales gaining ground on the popularity of lagers. A bit of nationalistic pride creeps in, as the writer declares that "British beer is most definitely back." Lagers, of course are a continental invention, hailing from Germany and eastern Europe. Ales, or "bitters" as they're also known, have long been a British (and, to be fair, a Belgian) specialty. As noted in the excerpt above, lagers still outsell ales, but ale sales grew 6.6 percent in 2007, compared to 0.2-percent decline in lager sales.

The report seem to describe a trend among consumers and brewers similar to what we've seen here in the U.S. with the craft beer movement. More power to 'em.

With the terminology being a bit different, I wonder if Budweiser markets itself in Britain as "the King of Beers?" That would seem to make the claim even more suspect.

Limey!

For all you Corona fans out there: There was an interesting story in Tuesday's New York Times about a bar in the Big Apple getting cited by health inspectors for bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food. The culprit: a bartender who twisted the lime into a bottle of Corona. Yikes.

The reporter had a little fun with the story, going pub-to-pub and asking barkeeps to get the citrus in without using their bare hands. Everybody seemed to get the hang of tongs after a try or two.

I wonder ... how many of you out there are actually bothered by the thought of a bartender's hands touching the lime in you beer? One would think the alcohol might kill off any germs. I tend to get annoyed when I'm served a beer with fruit I didn't ask for (I tend to order Dos Equis in Mexican restaurants, and I think the lime screws it up ... but on the rare occasion I have a Corona, I think the beer needs the lime to make it drinkable).

New Olde Towne to rise soon

The last time we mentioned Huntsville's Olde Towne Brewing Co. here, founder Don Alan Hankins said he hoped the company would be producing beer again by the holidays. The brewery was destroyed by fire in July. The bad news is that date has been pushed back to June. The good news is that work is expected to begin in January on an all-new facility being built from the ground up.

The Huntsville Times reported the news last week in this story. Hankins told the paper he continues to be overwhelmed by the support the company has received from the public. From the story:

"I think these people not only care about me," he said," but a lot of people feel Olde Towne is a good addition to the community."

WaPo defies grape expectations

The Washington Post this week printed a great travel guide to one of the best craft-beer producing regions around: California's Napa Valley wine country. From Joe Heim's piece:

Well, surprise, surprise: Turns out if you want great beers, the towns plopped deep in California wine country offer some of the best craft brews being made in America today. In fact, the area has a craft-beer pedigree like no other. The first microbrewery in America after the end of Prohibition was the New Albion Brewing Co. in Sonoma. Founded in 1976, the brewery lasted just six years, but it spirited a national craft beer renaissance that gained steam in the '80s and '90s and is now at its all-time peak.

A home for good beer in B'ham

The Birmingham News today reports that a pair of beer lovers in that city are planning to open a brewpub downtown, in the former site of the Jimmie Hale Mission homeless shelter at Third Avenue North and 24th Street.

Retired economics professor Gary Dale and a former student, Brian McMillian, say Birmingham sorely lacks a spot for handcrafted, locally brewed beer. They hope the New Vulcan Ale House will fill that void.

New Vulcan will join the Olde Auburn Ale House and the Montgomery Brewing Co. in crafting beer for on-site consumption in Alabama. I look forward to raising a locally brewed glass in Birmingham soon.

Hopping up

The Chicago Tribune in a recent story examined the trend toward heavier hops flavor in American craft beers. Since the craft-brewing market was born in the 1970s, the definition of what's hoppy has changed. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the story notes, was once considered an extremely hops-flavored beer, with an international-bitterness-unit rating of 37. The Tribune had a panel try seven beers for its story, and the least-hoppy, Two Brothers' Heavy Handed IPA, one had an IBU rating of 62 - most were 90 or higher.

For what it's worth, the methods brewers use to get more hops flavor into their beers also wind up increasing the alcohol content too. Unfortunately for us in Alabama, that means the hoppiest beers are illegal here. Of the seven brews mentioned in the Tribune story, only one came in under our state's 6-percent alcohol-by volume cap - Heavy Handed, the least bitter of the bunch.

Thank Thai food for craft beer?

The Associated press has a story out today (available here at the Detroit Free Press' Web site) that's mostly an interview with Boston Beer Co.'s Jim Koch. It examines the recent rise of craft beer (and the "moving upscale" phenomenon mentioned so many years ago by Michael Jackson, as noted below), and Koch's view of the reasons behind it. One point the AP writer hangs the story on: Americans have developed a taste for the bold, spicy flavors in Asian and African cuisine, making beer a better beverage choice than wine. A Koch quote from the story:

"Your definition of beer and your expectations for beer are too low," he says. "We brewers have not really elevated your expectations for what beer can be. But this now elevates your expectations of what beer can be."

Just plain beer?

A story in today's Sacremento Bee explores the growing range of extreme styles found in beer these days. An excerpt from the story, by Bee Food Editor Mike Dunne:

Beers are being brewed with such exotic ingredients as chili peppers, wasabi and ginger. They're being aged in used wine barrels. They're being inoculated with a strain of yeast that gives them a pungent horsy or barnyard character, repulsive to some, savored by others. There are gluten-free beers and smoke-flavored beers.

At least one expert quoted in the story says he's not a fan of the diversity. Charles Bamforth, the University of California at Davis' Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science tells Dunne, "I wish brewers would stay with a limited number of beer styles, and make the most of those, like the wine guys have done with their red, white and pink wines. Let's make ales, and then celebrate diversity within the ales, like with different hops. Let's stop looking for the exotic."

An old column

Added this from The Star's archive and backdated it, since I wanted to refer to it in another post. Enjoy.

Pitcher This: A Rock by any other name ...

04-11-2007

People drink beer for lots of reasons, and it’s not always the brew that makes a brand a favorite. That’s how I always saw Rolling Rock.

I just lost credibility with some connoisseurs for typing that. Who needs ’em?

Rolling Rock is not, I’ll admit, a sophisticated brew. It’s a simple American lager, a little sweet and very mild. The unique, blue-and white- painted labels have long carried a message “as a tribute to your good taste” that ends with the cryptic characters “33.”

Rolling Rock was brewed for 67 years at the same brewery in the same small town in Pennsylvania. That town, a Jacksonville-sized place called Latrobe, also birthed golf great Arnold Palmer, plus my neighbor and yours, Fred “Mister” Rogers.

I say “was brewed” because Anheuser-Busch, the global conglomerate responsible for Budweiser, bought the Rolling Rock name last May for $82 million from InBev, a Belgian firm that bought a Canadian company which bought Latrobe Brewing from the Tito family, who first brewed Rock in 1939 in a brewery that dated to 1893.

But AB bought the name — not the brewery. The company moved production of Rolling Rock to a Newark, N.J., plant last summer. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said 200 workers stood to lose their jobs when the Latrobe plant closed. The paper told of families who’d worked there for generations. Stunned, most vowed never to drink a New Jersey-brewed Rock.

And for every brewery worker, there were thousands who’d formed a bond with Rolling Rock despite its uncomplicated flavor. Many must have stories that revolve around the beer in the painted green bottle.

Mine? I remember two buddies in college drinking more of it than they probably should have, the beer fueling vows of eternal friendship. And my three months with the Air Force in Kuwait, where we went beerless in deference to Muslim custom. My friends back at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., sent a care package with a plastic Waffle House menu and a bottle of Rolling Rock — which they’d drained, of course. Jerks.

All that was before another Air Force buddy, who’d been posted to England, introduced me to stouts, ales and Irish reds, my first steps into a broader beer world. But I always had a soft spot for Rolling Rock. And every bottle of it I ever touched — including the one I tossed in a Kuwaiti trash bin in the dead of night, fearing a court martial — rolled out of the same western Pennsylvania town.

Until now.

I’ve got nothing against Anheuser-Busch. Love the commercials. But Rolling Rock’s charm was its story, its tie to a town synonymous with the brew. Painted on the bottles now is, “Latrobe Brewing Co., St. Louis, Mo.” Like the Latrobe workers, I’ve had my last Rock.

So I was thrilled to hear that LaCrosse, Wisc.,-based City Brewing, which bought the Latrobe plant in September, announced a deal last week to brew Samuel Adams there under contract for Boston Beer Co. City expects to have 100 people working in Latrobe by the end of the year, 250 within three years.

Now, Sam Adams has no more to do with Latrobe than Anheuser-Busch. But that beer’s launch in 1985 is at least partly responsible for the revival in regional and craft brewing now sweeping America. I can’t think of a better fit.

The bottle will be brown and the label paper, but I’ll raise a Sam Adams this weekend for the good people of Latrobe.

As a tribute.