Beer in the news

[toddthebeerdude]

good article and the comments are amusing

Thanks Sandy, just getting around to reading it now. I'm finding a few of the comments rather amusing.

[mikeorr]

Can You Make Good Beer With Sewer Water? Oregon Company Says Yes You Can
http://consumerist.com/2015/01/27/can-y ... s-you-can/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon- ... into-beer/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A water treatment company in Oregon says that it does such a good job of cleaning sewage that the resulting clean water could be used for human consumption rather than just irrigation and similar other purposes permitted by state law. And to prove their point, they are asking the state to let them provide brewers with recycled water for the brewing of beer.

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the state’s Health Authority has okayed the idea but everyone is still waiting on approval from the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality, which is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter in February.

The proposal [PDF], the first of its kind to go before the Oregon DEQ, would allow the use of recycled water but only in the making of alcoholic beverages where the water is brought to a boil.

“The recycled water must first be treated to a very high quality, equally or exceeding all regulated drinking water contaminant criteria (standards) as well as other criteria for non-regulated chemicals proposed by the National Water Research Institute for potable reuse water,” reads the proposal.

Additionally, it would only apply to water supplied by Clean Water Services, the company petitioning for permission to provide the water to the brewers. Any other treatment companies would need to file separate petitions with the appropriate agencies.

Clean Water has previously organized a brewing competition using some of its treated water, but the beers made during that event only used about 30% purified wastewater. The plan now is to show you can brew a decent beer with 100% recycled water, and that people shouldn't freak out at the idea.

“What we’re really trying to do here is start a conversation about the nature of water, and there’s no better way to start a conversation than over a beer,” a rep for the company tells OPB. “When people think about it enough it makes sense, although the initial knee-jerk reaction might be ‘yuck.’”

For now, the beer is more a proof-of-concept project to show what can be done. But Clean Water Services believes the applications for safe, recycled water could ultimately be expanded, especially in drought-prone areas.

[the-mailman]

At least the brewer won't be surprised if the judges say their beer tastes like crap.

[LeafMan66_67]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.2934439

[mikeorr]

From today's Morning File, I LOL'd

Metro says people are excited about the imminent opening of Wrought Iron Brewing Company on Robie Street and Unfiltered Brewing on North Street. I hear the latter, run by the tag team of brewing all-star Greg Nash and photographer Andrew Murphy, will be especially known for its customer service.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NASH]

That's right. Bitches!

[Keith]

Whens the brewnosers launch party Nash. Haha

[Broob]

Don't be a homebrew snob

http://byo.com/blogs/entry/homebrew-snobs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Halifax_Jeff]

There was a bud ad during the superbowl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siHU_9ec94c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...and then craft brewers responded with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCgkTeuJkR8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[the-mailman]

There was a bud ad during the superbowl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siHU_9ec94c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...and then craft brewers responded with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCgkTeuJkR8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good come back. There is more to beer than bubbly yellow alcoholic liquid.

[mr x]

I want to be a craft brewer. What will my salary be?

[/b]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e22693194/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[amartin]

I was just glad to see Budweiser talk about beer for a change.

[mr x]

Newcastle Brown Ale recipe to change to keep America happy
Heineken, the company that brews the world famous beer, said that it was removing the caramel colouring which gives the beer its distinctive 'brown' tint

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... happy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale is changing to keep customers in the US happy, after drinkers across the Atlantic worried it contained a carcinogenic food colouring.

Heineken, the company that brews the world famous beer, says it will get rid of the chemical which gives the drink its distinctive caramel colouring.

The Dutch drinks giant took the decision even though the colouring gives the drink its renowned ‘brown’ colour, and the European Food Safety Authority has twice ruled that it is safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration has also deemed the colouring to be harmless, but Heineken has bowed to pressure from US consumer groups who are still anxious about the ingredient.

A spokesman for Heineken confirmed: “We are in the process of changing our recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale and it will no longer include caramel colouring.

“The amount used in Newcastle Brown Ale is well within the recommended safe levels set by these bodies.

“However, we listened to consumer concerns that have been expressed, particularly in the USA, and chose to review our recipe.

“We will now achieve the distinctive colouring and flavour of Newcastle Brown Ale, that our consumers enjoy, by using roasted malts instead.”

The world-renowned bottled beer, with its blue star label, first went on sale in 1927 and was brewed next to St James's Park football ground in Newcastle until 2005 when it moved to Gateshead, and finally to North Yorkshire.


Newcastle Brown Ale is produced at the Tadcaster brewery, along with John Smith's Extra Smooth and Original, Kronenbourg 1664 and a range of Heineken products (Alamy)

Often dubbed ‘Newky Brown’or ‘Broon’ the day after its launch it is said that local police made a desperate appeal to make it weaker because the cells were filled to the brim with drunks.

The ale was also dubbed "dog" by drinkers, as they would make the excuse of going to "walk the dog" when nipping out for a sneaky drink.

Newcastle Brown Ale is regularly voted in the top 10 favourite beers by Americans and it is still the number one selling bottles ale in Britain

The chemical causing the worry is 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI ) which occurs naturally during the manufacturing of caramel colouring.

A study in 2007 suggested that 4-MEI could be responsible for lung tumours in rats. But the levels given to the animals were far higher than are ever consumed in foods or drinks. However in recent years, companies like Pepsi and Coca-Cola have changed their recipes to lower the levels of 4-MEI.

Beer expert Alistair Gilmore reassured drinkers that the flavour was unlikely to change.

“It is absolutely possible for them to maintain the taste and appearance of the beer by changing the colouring,” he said. “It should be exactly the same.

“Some people say they have changed the ingredients over the years but I’m not sure whether they have or not.

“People say it does not taste the same as it used to. This could be a mixture of nostalgia, modern brewing techniques or the change in water.”

However the announcement that the recipe will change did not meet with approval on the streets of Newcastle.

“Good things should never change. I have been drinking it for more than 30 years,” Andy Dixon, 46, of Newcastle, told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

“I drink it three times a week. Whenever I see the bottle it reminds me of home. If they change it I will still drink it as long as it tastes the same.”

Heineken bought its brewers, Scottish and Newcastle, in a joint deal with Carlsberg in 2008.

[mr x]

Craft Beer Is Booming, but Brewers See Crossroads

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/busin ... ref=dining" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When the term microbrewery had scarcely entered the vocabulary, Rich Doyle saw possibilities. Almost three decades ago, he became a co-founder of the Boston-based Harpoon Brewery, which has grown into the 12th-largest craft beer maker in the country.

Last July, with a stake of at least 40 percent in the business, he sensed it was the moment to make another move. He asked his partners to bring in an investor so the brewery could buy faltering competitors. And when they declined, he cashed out.

His decision reflects one side of the differing views within the industry about the direction the booming sector will take.

For those like Mr. Doyle, the current exuberance surrounding craft beer is creating a bubble of expansion that will pop and leave behind losers to be picked up on the cheap.

“I think that opportunity exists now and will exist even more when the exuberance cycle has run its course and people say, ‘Wow, I have a lot of capacity. Wow, margins aren’t as good as we thought,’ ” he said.

Rich Doyle, a Harpoon Brewery co-founder who recently cashed out of the company. “What’s interesting is you have a lot of entrants, with low barriers to entry, chasing a finite amount of growth," he said. Credit Charlie Mahoney for The New York Times

But his co-founder, Dan Kenary, and other shareholders have a different vision for Harpoon and its 190 full-time employees: that craft beer can continue to be a business of independent local operators with close relations between workers and management and constant, reasonable growth.

“To me, having grown up in this industry, philosophically it just fits really well with craft beer — independent, authentic,” Mr. Kenary said. “The idea of selling Harpoon, to anybody, didn’t ring true to who we are as a company.”

The clashing perspectives are surfacing throughout the industry as breweries look to manage the need for growth and the liquidity needs of founders who want to cash out. How it turns out will go a long way in determining craft beer’s future identity.

By any measurement, craft beer has been on a great run since it took off in the mid-1980s. The number of brew pubs and regional and microbreweries jumped from 1,521 in 2008 to over 3,200 in 2014, according to the Brewers Association, a trade group that defines craft brewers as those that produce fewer than six million barrels a year and are less than 25 percent owned by a large beverage maker.

The boom is such that there are even state-sanctioned crowdfunding sites in Wisconsin and Indiana that skew heavily toward craft brewery funding.

To many in the industry, the growth seems unlikely to let up anytime soon. “I think that’s a consumer phenomenon that will persist for a while,” said Kim Jordan, chief executive and co-founder of New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colo. “I don’t think people will say, ‘Gosh, I really have a hankering for Wonder Bread.’ ”

On the sales side, craft brewers sold 17.2 percent more volume in 2013 than in 2012, compared with a 1.9 percent drop in overall beer sales. And craft beer now accounts for 14.3 percent of the $100 billion United States beer market.

“Brewery after brewery is looking for ways to grow because when you talk to these companies, the biggest constraint is capacity,” said Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association. “They’re selling beer as fast as they can make it.”

This has changed the industry’s investment dynamic. After years of being rebuffed by breweries, private equity and strategic investors are finally finding takers among craft brewers looking for capital to grow. Since last summer, SweetWater Brewing of Atlanta sold a stake to TSG Consumer Partners, Southern Tier Brewing in upstate New York sold a stake to Ulysses Management, and Uinta Brewing of Utah sold a majority share to the Riverside Company. And both Elysian Brewing of Seattle and 10 Barrel Brewing, based in Bend, Ore., sold themselves outright to Anheuser-Busch.

But for brewers who have shunned such investments, like Gary Fish, who founded Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Ore., in 1988, the way forward is reasonable growth.

“We have a lot of runway in front of us,” said Mr. Fish, whose company brought in just under $100 million in 2014. “We’re happy managing growth around the 10 percent mark.”

To bring in new capital without taking on investors looking for an ultimate sale of the company, one path is to offer employees an ownership stake. That is how Mr. Doyle cashed out at Harpoon. And Mr. Fish has instituted a similar employee stock ownership plan at Deschutes, taking on debt to buy out partners and then distributing their shares to employees.

“The ESOP has become a popular solution to cash out a founder or some owners and you’re not selling to Anheuser-Busch or Coors,” said Benj Steinman, president of the industry journal Beer Marketer’s Insights. “But it creates its own set of questions. How does the company move forward? Can it do so under ESOP structure as well as with founders with a strong vision? And debt is a whole other level of consideration.”

For other brewers, the way to grow is to bring in outside money and expertise. One is Will Hamill, who has spent 22 years building Uinta into a craft brewery with a 144,000-barrel annual capacity. Even after a recent $18 million investment, projected growth of 30 to 35 percent this year would put the brewery again at its capacity limit. He wondered if the business needed more than his skills.

“I’ve always grown organically and reinvested in the brewery,” Mr. Hamill said. “I’ve been doing it all on my own and I owed a lot of money. I’m O.K. with that, but I’m looking at another $10 million in investment. I was looking to give Uinta the growth it deserved and not hold it back..”

So Mr. Hamill took an investment from Riverside, which offered capital for growth as well as a payout for the shareholders. Steve Rice, Riverside’s vice president, says his firm saw an owner who had brought the company a long way but needed a boost.

“Going from zero to 50,000 barrels requires branding, strong culture and great distributors, and this can be accomplished by a special entrepreneur with a strong core team,” he said. “But to go from 50,000 to 250,000 and break into the top 10 craft brewers, you have extra infrastructure requirements, and that’s where a partner like Riverside can be helpful.”

As such deals become more common, some wonder how this will change the industry’s culture.

Ms. Jordan says this is a meaningful worry.

“What I do worry about is when you have companies who are selling to people whose brand story is not so compelling, who are not the founders,” Ms. Jordan said. “I think that colors the collective imagination of craft brewers as a whole. They move from an iconoclastic community of interesting business practices and interesting expression of the craft into a bit more of a business-as-usual model.”

For now, the question for brewers like Mr. Doyle is whether the push for growth will lead to more debt-laden firms and overbuilding — and bargains.

“What’s interesting is you have a lot of entrants, with low barriers to entry, chasing a finite amount of growth,” he said. “The industry will do very well as a whole, but you have a lot of people who are doubling or tripling capacity and taking on debt to do it.”

Mr. Steinman of Beer Marketer’s Insights agrees.

“People have built out way in front,” he said. “They’ve made bets and not all will succeed. It’s pretty likely there will be some that won’t survive. And then there might be some capacity available for cents on the dollar.”

[Keith]

Post from Amsterdam Brewhouse on FB. Stone is 1 step closer to the Maritimes!

We can now confirm that Stone Brewing Co. will be co-hosting a beer dinner at our 'House on Feb 27th as part of their launch into Ontario! Stay tuned for all the details... this one is gonna rock!

[jeffsmith]

Post from Amsterdam Brewhouse on FB. Stone is 1 step closer to the Maritimes!

We can now confirm that Stone Brewing Co. will be co-hosting a beer dinner at our 'House on Feb 27th as part of their launch into Ontario! Stay tuned for all the details... this one is gonna rock!

Great news!

[chalmers]

Newcastle Brown Ale recipe to change to keep America happy
Heineken, the company that brews the world famous beer, said that it was removing the caramel colouring which gives the beer its distinctive 'brown' tint

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... happy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale is changing to keep customers in the US happy, after drinkers across the Atlantic worried it contained a carcinogenic food colouring.
....

Fucking "Food Babe" bullshit.

I also heard they'll be removing the dihydrogen monoxide, after hearing it can be fatal if inhaled.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jimmy]

Cigar City selling to Anheuser-Busch? Not likely, owner says

TAMPA — It's a tempest in a beer can. At the end of 2014, Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased 10 Barrel Brewing Co. of Bend, Ore. In January, it announced it was purchasing Seattle-based Elysian Brewing Co. And now Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer with 25 percent global market share, is sniffing around Tampa's Cigar City Brewing.

Joey Redner, the founder and owner of Cigar City, says yes, he took a meeting. But he says local beer drinkers shouldn't be worried.

"I've always had this 'take the meeting' mentality — you never know what you might learn and it gives you a sense for what your company is valued at. It's a normal part of doing business and it's educational," he says, adding, "You take the meeting with Budweiser."

But, he says, Anheuser-Busch isn't the only company that has come calling. The makers of Jai Alai IPA, Florida Cracker White Ale and Hunahpu's Imperial Stout have been approached by hundreds of other companies.

"Other breweries, private investment groups — any time people see rapid growth, they're going to take a look at you," Redner notes.

He says that "the Super Bowl ad notwithstanding" (there was a controversial Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl ad spot that made fun of craft beer drinkers), the beer giant is looking at smaller craft breweries, but ones with established names, not startups.

"They made a lot of waves with (the purchase of) 10 Barrel, because it is relatively small with craft-beer street cred, but they had approached us before that deal went down. They are looking for teeny ones by their standards, but it's all relative. They are looking for breweries in the 25,000- to 100,000-barrel range, and we fit squarely in that. We brewed 45,000 barrels last year."

So if Cigar City doesn't sell to a national player, how does it grow? Redner says that most breweries that have gone national have built up their capacity by building another brewery in a different part of the country, or contracting with a brewery to produce their beer in another area.

"Beer is heavy. There are huge shipping costs."

Go to any tap house in the Tampa Bay area and you'll find Cigar City, but Redner isn't sure he wants that reach to stretch across the country.

"I have no plans to go nationally and no desire to. It seems like we have plenty on our plate. But we could be a southeast regional brewery. Ninety-five percent of our beer stays in the state, but it's a big state. With 80-plus million visitors a year, we could have 25 (million) or 30 million people in this state at any time. That's a lot of people to get past before you start sending beer to other states."

The other 5 percent of Cigar City beer is spread between New York City, the Philadelphia area, the Richmond, Va., area, Alabama, Georgia and a tiny bit goes oversees to Denmark ("the Danes like American craft beer"). Redner could imagine filling in North Carolina, South Carolina, possibly Tennessee and Kentucky.

Since its debut in 2009, Cigar City Brewing has been in a near constant growth pattern, putting the Tampa Bay area and even the state of Florida on the craft beer map. And while Redner clearly has expansion ideas, a sale to Anheuser-Busch is unlikely.

"They don't do partial investments; they'd want to buy the whole thing," Redner says. "And that's something I'm not personally comfortable with. I like being an owner."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/r ... ys/2217127" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[chalmers]

Changes to Liquors Act allows beer and spirits to cross borders

PENTICTON – New changes announced today by the Federal Government will allow people to buy beer and spirits in provinces where they don’t live and bring them home for personal use. The changes were announced in Penticton Friday afternoon by the Minister of National Revenue Kerry-Lynne Findlay and Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Dan Albas.

“We are a trading nation. Canada has trade agreements with 10 countries and is negotiating with more than 60 others around the world, but we need to make trade easier within our own borders,” says Findlay. “This is why our Government has eliminated federal restrictions allowing Canadians to take beer and spirits across provincial lines, just like we did in 2012 for wine.”

Amendments to the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act (IILA) remove federal barriers and reduce red tape. The amendments were adopted as part of the Government’s Economic Action Plan 2014 and follow the Government’s elimination of similar barriers in 2012 in order to permit the interprovincial movement of wine for personal use.

The red tape reduction will also benefit independent breweries and distilleries in communities across Canada by opening up regional markets and generating jobs. In Canada, there are more than 485 federally licensed breweries and nearly 150 distilleries.

“Breaking down trade barriers gives our local breweries and distelleries the opportunity to be competitive in national markets, thus fostering growth and creating jobs in our community,” says Albas. “I am pleased to participate in today’s event and look forward to seeing the next steps the federal Government takes to reduce red tape for Canadian businesses.”

The federal Government is now encouraging all provinces to support the measure and enact the necessary laws to facilitate it. That’s because the movement, sale, purchase and possession of wine, beer and spirits is governed by provincial liquor laws within each individual province. With the previous wine amendment in 2012, only British Columbia and Manitoba changed their laws to allow personal importation of wine.

As for commercial purposes, under the IILA, imports of alcohol must be done by a provincial liquor board or other agency authorized by the province to sell alcohol. This provision has not changed as a result of the amendments.

The IILA is a federal law that controls the importation of beer, wine and spirits into Canada and between provinces. It was enacted in 1928 at the request of the provinces after the revocation of their liquor prohibition laws.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1829880/chang ... s-borders/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

Sleepy Gloucestershire pub is named the best in Britain
A pub in rural Gloucestershire which was only opened two years ago by a former London business analyst has been named the best in Britain

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... itain.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A village pub in Gloucestershire, ran by a former business analyst who quit a five-figure job in London to follow his dream, has been named Britain's best pub.

The Salutation Inn, in the quiet village of Ham, was handed the National Pub of the Year award by the The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

The pub is run by Peter Tiley, 31, and his wife Claire. The pair only took over the pub, a 19th century building known as “The Sally” by locals, two years ago. At the time, Mr Tiley had never even pulled a pint.

Abigail Newton, the director of CAMRA, said: "What Peter and Claire have done in the short time they have been running the pub is nothing short of staggering and goes to show that passion, enthusiasm, and a real love of beer are hugely important when running a pub.

"They have hit the ground running and taken what was already a great pub and made it truly exceptional - beating off over 50,000 other landlords from across the UK."

Mr Tiley said that he was “shell-shocked” by the award.

“Pubs are so important to me that to have our own one recognised in this way is just amazing. We count ourselves so unbelievably lucky to have a brilliant team of staff who are so passionate and dedicated as well as a community of locals who have given so much to support and contribute towards the pub,” he said.

The three other joint finalists were The Freshfield in Formby, Merseyside, The Windmill in Sevenoaks Weald in Kent and The Harewood Arms in Broadbottom, Greater Manchester. =

CAMRA judged the nominated pubs on a variety of criteria including atmosphere, quality of beer and cider, service, value for money and community focus.

The judges were particularly impressed by the Salutation's beer selection and welcoming atmosphere. One judge wrote: "What struck me most was the welcome – as if I was being invited into a private house as a friend".

PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE CAMRA PUB OF THE YEAR AWARD

2013 The Swan with two Necks, Pendleton, Lancashire

2012 The Baum, Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

2011 Bridge End Inn, Ruabon, Wrexham 8

2010 The Harp, Covent Garden, London

2009 Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield

[erslar00]

Newcastle Brown Ale recipe to change to keep America happy
Heineken, the company that brews the world famous beer, said that it was removing the caramel colouring which gives the beer its distinctive 'brown' tint

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science ... happy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The recipe for Newcastle Brown Ale is changing to keep customers in the US happy, after drinkers across the Atlantic worried it contained a carcinogenic food colouring.
....

Fucking "Food Babe" bullshit.

I also heard they'll be removing the dihydrogen monoxide, after hearing it can be fatal if inhaled.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I fell for that "Food Babe" Bullshit hook line and sinker, yikes. Read this article that calls her out pretty harshly...

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/van ... y-of-food/

[the-mailman]

Everyone is getting into craft beer. Here's an event at the Discovery Centre.

http://localconnections.ca/events/view/ ... ery-centre" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... -milk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a bit about this on tonight's CBC As It Happens. Should be archived and probably stream able across the timezones tonight as well.

[GuingesRock]

Article about one of our own in the Herald: http://thechronicleherald.ca/artslife/1 ... n-the-mari" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers Angeline.

[canuck]

Pretty fucking sad on Bell's part.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/busine ... /24732355/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;