The Latrobe brewery where Rolling Rock beer was made is closer to reopening. During a visit to Latrobe on Tuesday, Gov. Ed Rendell announced state grants and loans totaling more than $4.5 million to help its new owner, City Brewing Co., upgrade the plant to expand its production capacity. City Brewing, which has acquired the brewery, hopes to have it back in action next month.
America beers head for Australia
How do American beers stack up against others in the world?
Sure they do well in the World Beer Cup, but that’s on American soil. What if you put them on a boat first? We’ll find out in April, because the Brewers Association Export Development Program (EDP) announced today that 19 BA members and EDP subscribers will particpate in the Australian International Beer Awards.
Several American breweries have entered the AIBA in the past, and won awards, but not a group like this. In 2006, the Australian International Beer Awards attracted 974 entries from 31 countries. AIBA uses the Brewers Association’s Beer Style Guidelines.
The Brewers Association’s Export Development Program, in an effort to help promote the image of American craft beer as a world class beverage, pays for entry fees and transportation into select international beer shows for its program subscribers, such as the AIBA.
The breweries entered:
21st Amendament Brewery Cafe, San Francisco
Blue Point Brewing, Patchogue, New York
Deschutes Brewery, Bend, Oregon
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Delaware
Eugene City Brewer, Eugene, Oregon
Flying Dog Brewery, Denver
Full Sail Brewing, Hood River, Oregon
Great Divide Brewing, Denver
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, Dexter, Michigan
Kona Brewery, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Rogue Ales Issaquah Brewhouse, Issaquah, Washington
Left Hand Brewing, Longmont, Colorado
Matt Brewing, Utica, N.Y.
Odell Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado
Rogue Ales, Newport, Oregon
Shipyard Brewing, Portland, Maine
Sprecher Brewing, Glendale, Wisconsin
Stone Brewing, Escondido, California
Widmer Brothers, Portland, Oregon
Judging takes place in March in Melbourne with winners announced April 19.
More beer for dogs
At pet shop owner in the Netherlands has created a beer for dogs.
Called Kwispelbier it sells for comparable to $2.14 a bottle, which is four times what Heineken – the local beer, remember – will cost you.
A Napa Valley business already sells a beer for dogs in the United States.
Monday morning beer news
Stuff to talk about around the water cooler today:
– Deschutes Brewery is about to announce it will operate a pub in Portland.
– Miller is shelving its broadcast Man Law commercials.
Faced with an increasingly competitive light beer market, Miller Brewing Company is introducing new television ads that focus on the taste and heritage of its flagship brand. The spots will replace the popular Man Law campaign, which Miller said will continue on-line and may return to the airwaves opportunistically in the future.
The first wave of the new episodic advertising approach broke over the weekend. The “GHT†ads featured a guy preventing people from drinking light beers with “GHT†and instead giving them Miller Lite. The ads position Miller Lite as ‘the light beer that invented light beer’, the original light beer that’s always been brewed to be great.
Nothing like leaning on tradition.
Higher taxes for Michigan beer?
John Bebow, executive director of the Center for Michigan, a self-styled centrist think tank in Ann Arbor, says raising the beer tax should be an option to address the state’s looming budget deficit.
He suggests boosting the tax on a 12-ounce package 10 cents, a pretty sizable boost.
Does he have another agenda? Well he does say raising taxes on beer has the added benefit of helping “curb irresponsible behavior” by reducing consumption of alcohol.
Mike Lashbrook, president of the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association, points out that Michigan’s excise tax on beer is already higher than many neighboring states, he said, and consumers still pay the 6% state sales tax on beer.
But it’s not beer . . .
On Jan. 1, Vermont changed its tax code, making beer purchases subject to Vermont’s 6 percent sales tax.
It’s meant to be a tax on alcohol, but not all stores understand that.
Tim Krebser, who said he drinks a six-pack of Busch NA a day, has registered a complaint with the state that he is being charged tax on the beer. He’s been told that he’s correct he shouldn’t have to pay the tax.
Now he just has to convince his local market.
Blues and Brews in Memphis
The Blues Foundation in Memphis and Boscos Squared, a local brewery-restaurant, are teaming up to host a fund raising event to benefit the Memphis based international blues organization April 17. With more than 145 affiliated blues organizations, the Blue Foundation serves as the hub for the worldwide passion for Blues Music.
Blues and Brews will feature entertainment by acoustic blues guitarist John Hammond, who has been playing the blues for 40 years..
Tickets for the event are $100 per person and will be available atn The Blues Foundation website. The ticket price includes food, beverage and entertainment.
CAMRA expands Cyclops campaign
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 beer history series
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.
Why gluten-free beer matters
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.
New beer alert
BridgePort Brewing’s new seasonal, Beertown Brown, tips its hat toward the city of Portland, Oregon, where it is brewed. But also England, as it is brewed in the style of a Northern English Brown Ale, showcasing flavors of carmael, toffee and rich chocolate in a modest 5.2% abv beer. “Brown Ale is a small but expanding category with great opportunity for growth,” said head brewmaster Karl Ockert.
Portland mayor Tom Potter poured the ceremonial first pint of Beertown Brown and at the same time declared Portland “Beertown,” where he will serve as honorary mayor. Portland has 28 breweries operating within city limits, more than any other city in the world, eitht more in the surrounding metro area, and three more are due to open this year.
– Deschutes Brewery turned up the volume this year, adding hops to its seasonal Hop Henge* to make it an Imperial IPA. The 8.1% abv beer now packs 95 IBU (International Bitterness Units). The brewery uses two and a half pounds of Centennial, Cascade and Northern Brewer hops per barrel when brewing the beer, then dry hops it with another half pound.
Hop Henge balances lighter fleshy fruits and a solid blast of citrus in the aroma, then toasty malt sweetness on the palate mixed with more citrus. Unapologetically hoppy, with a rough bitter finish.
* And, we might mention, bringing back one of our favorite labels ever.
– Otter Creek Brewing continues its popular World Tour brew series in 2007. “Otter Kilter” Wee Heavy Ale is the newest beer in the Otter Creek Brewing World Tour. Brewed with Scottish Golden Promise barley malt, the beer accents a rich caramel flavor. Otter Creek is also releasing a Extra Special Bitter for the season.
More about Bud.TV
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?
Czech Bud wins brand battle in Portugal
When Anheuser-Busch and Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar last week announced a deal where A-B would distribute Budvar, called Czechvar in the U.S., they also noted this would not prejudice their ongoing legal battles over the use of the brand names Budweiser, Bud, etc. around the world.
So here’s the news:
American brewer Anheuser-Busch cannot sell beer under the brand name Budweiser in Portugal, the highest chamber of Europe’s human rights court ruled Thursday, in the latest round of a global legal battle between the U.S. beer giant and Czech brewery Budejovicky Budvar.
The U.S. brewery lost its fight against a 2001 decision by Portugal’s Supreme Court, which ruled that Budejovicky Budvar had the right to use the brand name under a 1986 treaty between the Czech Republic and Portugal.
The beat goes on.
Grolsch ships wheat beer to UK
Coors, which distributes Dutch-brewed Grolsch, in the UK is rolling out Grolsch Weizen in London and plans to take it national later this year.
The Morning Advertiser reports:
Unlike InBev’s Hoegaarden, which hails from Belgium and leads the white beer market, Grolsch Weizen is a German-style wheat beer, which the brewer hopes will give it a point of difference.
Might we end up seeing this beer in the United States as well?
Bud still wields powerful name
BusinessWeek has Interbrand’s list of the 100 most valuable brands in the world. Coca-Cola and Microsoft are one-two on the list, although both slipped in value in 2006.
Budweiser fell form No. 26 to No. 27 on the list – still pretty heady company. The comment: “A price war and changing tastes left the No.1 beer maker with a nasty hangover.”