Brewers: Keep your eye on a new site being developed by the Brewers Association. I’m looking forward to some great videos!!!
From Cindy at the BA:
Discuss, post, tweet, and comment about craft brewing all in one place: BrewersAssociation.org.
The new website will bring you:
• Private discussion board for professional brewers like you
• Follow the latest industry tweets and post your own
• Share comments on stories, videos, events, & government
affairs
Stay tuned at BrewersAssociation.org.
Outsiders, take note. This is how we handle things here.
Alabama troopers, police from 8 departments help quell Marion feud.
Officers from eight police departments and Alabama state troopers set up a perimeter around the Marion City Hall around 11 a.m. today after a feud between two families spilled into a riot this morning
Reported riot in Marion, Ala., brought under control; 5 arrested
State Trooper John Reese said children of the 2 feuding families began arguing at the high school this morning and shotguns were found in their cars. The students were brought to City Hall and then their families showed up and the disturbance began. “There were over 100 people and bystanders when the rest of the students’ families started another fight outside City Hall, and it ended up inside City hall,” Reese said. “The families got into it at the police station and took it from there,” Turner said.
Full Scale Riot
Marion Mayor Tony Long said shortly before noon that calm had returned to his Perry County town after the “full-scale riot” that broke out earlier in the morning, and that outside law enforcement agencies would stay around to help maintain order for “as long as we got to keep ‘em.”
Long said up to 300 people, mostly members of two feuding families, were involved in the disturbance at Marion’s municipal complex, just off the county courthouse square. “It was a full scale riot is what it was,” Long said. “I got here about 10 minutes after 8 and it was 20 after 8 when everything broke loose. I don’t know exactly what it was stemming from. Everybody’s trying to point the finger at everybody. I’ve heard a lot of people blaming me for it. It’s just a matter that got out of control and it’s got to be handled, you know.” “I don’t know how long it’s going to stay calm,” Long said. Carlton Hogue, a sergeant with the Perry County Sheriff’s Department, said the Moore and Sawyer families have been feuding for two or three years.
from m.montgomeryadvertiser.com
January 5, 2009
Alabamians spending less, except for alcohol
State tax collections for the first three months of the fiscal year show Alabamians are spending less, except when it comes to alcohol.
A state financial report covering October, November and December shows the state’s sales tax collections dropped nearly 10 percent from the same period a year earlier.
But beer tax collections were up 4 percent and income from state liquor stores, including taxes and profits, increased 10 percent.
“People don’t like to give up their alcohol,” said Robert Pandina, director of the Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University.
Pandina said Monday it’s customary for alcohol sales to go up in difficult economic times, and several other states that keep close track of alcohol taxes have experienced the same trend as Alabama.
Alabama’s beer tax is a good indication because it is based on volume rather than price. That means the increase in beer tax collections reflects greater sales, rather than higher prices.
From the AP today…
“Growing out of homebrewers’ efforts to emulate British and German beers, craft beers started showing up about 30 years ago, and bigger varieties bubbled up in the mid-1990s on both coasts as brewmasters chased their fantasies to the outer limits.”
And the craft beer movement is still growing out of homebrewers’ efforts.
Read more…
Here’s a great article written a couple of weeks ago in the Great Falls Tribune concerning mead. I’ve only made one mead and one cider before now, but I hope to brew a few more in the near future. I have seven 3 gallon carboys ready and waiting for me to buy enough honey to make a Sweet Mead, Dry Mead, Metheglin, Pyment, Cyser, Braggot and Hypocras.
Mead A honey of a drink
Great Falls Tribune (Montana), April 2, 2008 Wednesday, Life section; Pg. 1L
Story and photos by AMY GRISAK For the Tribune
Mead, or honey wine, has a long and colorful history.
“Some of the most interesting events in history were inspired by mead,” said Ken Schultz, owner of Trapper Creek Winery in Hamilton. “The Vikings drank mead, and then sacked England. And Leif Erickson drank it, sailed to what he thought was the end of the world, and found the New World.”
Schultz said mead is probably the earliest fermented beverage known to humans.
“Honey only needs to combine with water to start fermenting,” he said. So the first time a man found a water-saturated abandoned beehive there’s a good chance that honey had an extra kick. Unlike beer or wine, it doesn’t require human crafting.
Read more…
Check out these stories published in 1885, 1892, concerning hop prices. Compare this to hop prices today.
DEALING IN FUTURES BEGUN.; OPTIONS ON HOPS QUOTED ON THE HOP DEALERS’ EXCHANGE.
January 12, 1892, Wednesday, Page 9
Dealings in futures were begun yesterday at the Hop Dealers’ Exchange, when options were quoted on New-York State, Washington, Oregon, and California hops for February, March, April, May, June, and July delivery. Brokers seemed shy of each other, and at the first call differences between prices bid and asked ranged from 3/4 to 3 3/4 cents per pound.
I’d settle for the $9 lb hops used to cost when I first started brewing. Cascades at Northern Brewer are currently $52 per lb.
Read the full articles below. They’re interesting.
January 12, 1892 NYT article about hops
June 17, 1885 NYT article about hops
Here’s a good article about one of the 2007 Sam Adam’s Longshot Competition winners. Thank you Sam Adams for recognizing how important homebrewing is to the craft brewing industry. And congratulations Rodney Kibzey. more info here.
Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine), April 6, 2008 Sunday, Pg. B5
Give that man a beer
Joe Gray, Chicago Tribune
Rodney Kibzey of Lombard, Ill., got hooked on making beer during a brewery tour in Milwaukee a few years back.
“The aroma hit me,” said Kibzey. For six years he has been home brewing in his garage and entering contests. Last year his efforts paid off in liquid gold.
Kibzey won the Samuel Adams American Homebrew Contest with his weizenbock, a dark, German wheat beer. The beer was recently released as part of Samuel Adams LongShot six-pack, which includes three bottles of Kibzey’s beer, emblazoned with a stylized image of him, and three bottles of a grape pale ale created by Lili Hess, a Sam Adams employee.
Read more…
Obama, Paul win N. Nevada beer caucus
Posted: 1/19/2008
While many Northern Nevadans argued for their candidate of choice or filled out an official ballot, others cracked a cold one and participated in another type of preference polling: beer caucusing.
At Great Basin Brewery Brewing Co. in Sparks, the rules for caucusing were pretty simple: One ballot for each beer you ordered. In all, about 1,800 voters cast ballots in the Great Nevada Beer Caucus.
And after a week of voting, the Democratic winner was U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Congressman Ron Paul.
“I think this shows the independence and individuality of those who imbibe in fine American beer,” said Bonda Young, co-owner and Nevada Beer Caucus chairwoman.
Both winners were ahead all week, said spokesman Don Vetter. He said that while caucuses generally attract political groupies, this caucus probably better represented the average, non-political person’s vote.
Great Basin plans to hold another beer vote this fall for the general election, Vetter said.
Here’s a funny article pointing out that die-hard mega-swill drinkers probably couldn’t tell the differnce between their favorite brand and another swill brand if really put to the test. I can believe its true, but I’m not sure I’d want to challenge a hard core Dale Earnheart, Jr., dedicated Budweiser loyalist to a taste test unless he were really good natured person. No one likes to discover that they’ve been brainwashed.
Can you pick out your brew?
By BILL VIRGIN, P-I COLUMNIST
Put samples of half a dozen or so mass-market American beers before a panel of drinkers in a blind taste test, and even the most confirmed quaffers would be lucky to match two to the right brand.
But put half a dozen or so mass-market American beer advertising slogans or jingles before a panel of testers, and even teetotalers with some exposure to media would come close to a perfect score. Try it yourself: …
Read more…
For several years, I’ve been a reader of Yahoo’s Most Viewed News. Its a list of 20 current news stories that are the target of the most web hits over the last X number of hours as tracked by Yahoo.
Has anyone other than me ever noticed that unfortunate events suffered by celebrities are as newsworthy as (or sometimes more newsworthy than) tragedies suffered by many thousands of ordinary people?
I couldn’t help but notice the following combination among the 20 most viewed news stories over the last few days:
death toll from Asian tsunami nears 70,000
celebrity Tsunami Survivors
Jet Li Survives Tsunami
Supermodel Petra Nemcova escapes Asian tsunami
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