Realbeer.com Beer Therapy

- Pennsylvanian Dale Van Wieren has recorded every beer he’s drank since 1971 and tomorrow he’ll knock back No. 10,000. Don Russell has the story.

- Yule Beer Blog Photo Contest returns. You’d already know this if you were reading Beer for the Holidays.

- A six-pack of holiday beer suggestions: Samuel Adams Holiday Porter, Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve, Goose Island Christmas Ale, Stoudt’s Winter Ale, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Alaskan Winter Ale.

- Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List. Pioneers, brewers, advocates and more.

- How do you know beer’s hip? They’re loving it in Hollywood and the rest of Los Angeles.

- Looking ahead. Deschutes Jubel will be back in February. From the press release: “This ‘Super Jubel’ was discovered by accident two decades ago when a clumsy burglar didn’t realize the weight of his stolen keg of Jubelale. He dropped it outside to freeze in the season’s sub-zero temperatures – only to be discovered the next morning by Gary Fish, Deschutes Brewery owner. More than half the liquid in the keg had frozen and the remaining beer was a very cold, highly concentrated ‘Jubelale on steroids.’ It was so good that the brewers set about recreating it, coming up with an annual ‘Super Jubel’ that is aged in oak barrels. A limited amount has been available on tap every year, 2010 will be only the second time that the brewery has bottled up this brew for sale. The first time it was available by bottle was a special millennium edition in 2000.”

- MillerCoors has launched GreatBeerGreatResponsibility.com, a “consumer website designed to educate consumers about its corporate social responsibility initiatives.”

Smuttynose Brewing Co. won Best of Show honors at the 7th Annual Festival of Wood and Barrel-aged Beer last weekend in Chicago.

The New Hampshire brewery claimed top honors with its its Farmhouse Ale, a saison aged in a neutral oak barrel with Brettanomyces Claussenii. Runner-up was Goose Island Beer Company Bourbon County Brand Stout, an imperial stout aged in 6 to 13-year-old Heaven Hill bourbon barrels.

The festival attracted 1,500 drinkers, who sampled more than 135 beers from 53 different breweries, representing 18 states.

The winning beers:

Classic Stout/Porter (8 entries): Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery, Pullman Brown (Brown Porter)
Strong Stout/Porter (20 entries): Goose Island Beer Company, Bourbon County Brand Stout
Barleywine (9 entries): Piece Brewery & Pizzeria, Barrel aged Mooseknuckle Barleywine
Classic Styles (11 entries): Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Lil Opal
Strong Pale Beer (14 entries): Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Demon Sweat
Strong Dark Beers (19 entries): Allagash Brewing Company, Odyssey
Experimental Beers (20 entries): Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, Cappatown
Wild Beers (33 entries): Smuttynose Brewing Company, Farmhouse Ale

Complete results.

A blackened bottle of beer found in the wreck of the Hindenburg zeppelin is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction, according to the BBC.

The bottle was found by a fire-fighter cleaning up the American airfield where the German airship exploded in 1937. The bottle will be the most expensive ever bought if it meets its estimated price of £5,000 ($8,337) on Saturday.

The airship was engulfed by flames as it landed in New Jersey, killing 38 people and injuring 60. New Jersey firefighter Leroy Smith found six bottles of Lowenbrau beer and a pitcher intact on the scene of the crash.

He buried his secret find so he could collect them later, as the area had been sealed off by the authorities.

Mr Smith gave the other five bottles to his colleagues.

Most of the others are now lost, although one was given to the Lowenbrau company after the death of Mr Smith’s friend.

The silver-plated pitcher, which bears the logo of the Deutsche Zeppelin Reedrei, the zeppelin airline company, is expected to reach £12,000 ($20,000).

More than 70 years later the bottle won’t attract that sort of price for what’s inside.

“You wouldn’t want to drink it – it is probably quite putrid to taste,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.

Pabst Brewing Co., which owns the Pabst and Schlitz beer brands as well as nearly 40 others, is up for sale again.

The Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a buyer willing to pay around $300 million, according to the New York Post, which cited unnamed sources in a Monday article. The foundation also put the company on the market in 2003 but did not find a buyer.

The action apparently is the result of a deadline imposed by the Internal Revenue Service. Federal tax laws don’t allow charitable foundations to own for-profit companies. The IRS initially gave the foundation until 2005 to sell Pabst. That deadline was extended to 2010 when a buyer couldn’t be found.

After years of fast rapid, sales of the Pabst brand stabilized in the early part of this decade when it gained some notoriety a “hipster beer.” The company has sought to revive Schlitz — one of the other iconic brands such as Old Style and Special Export it owns — in a similar way, but results have be mixed. Despite better results by Schlitz and Pabst overall company sales declined 3.3% in 2008.

Pabst was founded in 1844 in Milwaukee and became one of the country’s largest brewers. In 1975, Pabst beer accounted for 45% of all beer sold in Wisconsin and in 1976 Pabst held 11.2% of the national market. It closed the last of its own breweries in 2001 and since it has contracted brewing of its brands largely to Miller Brewing Co.

Back in 1995 you could watch Flying Fish Brewing literally come to life on the Internet.

The world moves on, including to YouTube. Witness this tribute to the brewery and its Exit Series of Big Bottle Beers from Jeff Linkous, freelance editor, writer, video producer, photographer, graphic artist and beer fan.

The Boston Beer Co. is rolling out a new series of beers, the Samuel Adams Barrel Room Collection, that will be available in a limited number of markets but also at its Boston brewery — the first time the brewery has sold beer at its door.

The Barrel Room Collection includes New World Tripel (10% abv), American Kriek (Balaton cherries, 7%) and Stony Brook Red (9%), all aged in Eastern European oak barrels, originally used to age brandy in Italy and imparting subtle sweet, toasty notes.

“For years, we’ve been playing with barrels at the brewery, aging small batches of beer in our Barrel Room. Before now, these beers have only been available at beer festivals or to a few lucky visitors to our Boston Brewery,” founder Jim Koch said for a press release.

The beers will be available in Denver, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire for a suggested retail price of $9.99 per 750ml bottle.

Making beer at home is one thing. Selling it is another.

The British government has told a Hampshire man he must now pay duty, keep better records and undergo a background check for a license to sell his beer.

The Metro reports it began when Robert Shields, who brews 100 pints (or 12.5 gallons) a month, decided to start charging friends just six months after he started brewing.

But before selling the home-made Moorlands and Runnymede bitters, he was told to convert his shed into a bonded warehouse and apply for two licences.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom’s guidelines added that he must pay 20p duty a bottle, measure how much alcohol is in his beer and record how much malt he buys.

(He) also had to get a personal licence to sell alcohol and undergo a criminal records check by the police.

“It’s totally over the top for someone who just wants to sell beer to friends,” he said.

However a spokesman for the a Campaign for Real Ale, a consumer advocate group, said: “It’s right that if you are selling it to people then you have to make sure it is of a demonstrable quality.”