Monthly Archives: July 2006

Three and a Half Percent

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3.5%.

That was the market share percentage of U.S. domestic craft beer in 2005.* About 12.5% of the market share was imports, but there are no statistics on how much of that was what I would consider “good” beer. That leaves about 84% of the market to be non-craft brewers, a.k.a. the megabreweries, that primarily make “bland” beer.

While Hop Talk is about everything beer related, you should know that our love of beer comes from the very flavorful craft beers available around the world. We are excited that American craft breweries have become plentiful enough to make great beer readily available to the consumer.

Flavorful beer is the term I use to describe, well, the opposite of “bland” beer. Bland beer from the megabreweries has little body, little sweetness, little bite, and are typically over-carbonated. Megabreweries aren’t limited to the U.S.; there are many imports that fall into this category as well. Even worse, many of them insist on bottling in green bottles which doesn’t protect the beer from going “skunked“. If you are used to that “skunked” aroma from your import and think it is part of a European style, you’re wrong. It’s gone bad.

Marketers are the masters of perception and we hope that Hop Talk will help enlighten you. For instance:

Marketer Speak: Clean, crisp, smooth, no aftertaste, made with choicest hops and barley.
Translation: Watery, flavorless, weak, bland, made with mostly water, some beer ingredients and other adjuncts.

We are looking for you, the three and a half percent, to talk about real beer.

* Brewers Association report

Beerfest – The Movie

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g_photo03.jpgBeerfest. This looks bad… very bad. Of course, that means I’m sure to watch it.

This is not something a often admit, but I like stoopid movies where either real life or other movies are lampooned. My all time favorite is Scary Movie 3. Scary Movie 4 will be out on DVD August 15, 2006.

The premise of Beerfest is something about a secret, underground, drinking contest where team USA must fight for family honor. Right… whatever. It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Who knows… this movie has the potential to be quite stoopid and funny.

Man cannot live by bread alone. How about beer?

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It’s kind of a running joke among those of us who love their beer. “I’m on a liquid diet!” is the usual refrain, somewhat slurred, after turning down some sort of morsel. I mean, we know that beer is chock-full of vitamins. Heck, there’s some who say that a man could live on nothing but Guinness and milk¹ and, indeed, someone tried it (site no longer exists). When something is delicious, the idea of subsisting on only that has some appeal.

Well, Chris from SudsPundit is trying it. At the time of this writing, Chris has spent three days eating nothing, but drinking beer and water. He’s documenting his progress at The Liquid Diet.

Now, I know that it wouldn’t be too difficult to get enough calories from only beer. It’s the other nutrients that are lacking. There’s not nearly enough protein, or B vitamins, to sustain a person exclusively. There’s certainly not enough vitamin C, not to mention the other items one needs.

Still, it’s an interesting experiment. I wonder how long he’ll last.

Update: Alas, he didn’t last long at all. There are no entries after day 3, which was 11 days ago. Either he’s dead (unlikely), too drunk to post, or has given up and is too embarrassed to return to blog about it.

¹ The New Scientist published information from a study that showed that one could live on a glass of orange juice, two glasses of milk, and 47 pints of Guinness. Per day. Unfortunately this information is now behind a paywall, thus, no link.

Brits don’t pay enough for beer

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At least, that’s what Belgian megabrewer InBev is telling British pub operators.

According to a story by ProBrewer.com, a professional trade site for the brewing industry, an InBev spokesperson claimed that pub operators are loathe to bring their wares above a certain price point.

Steve Kitching, managing director of on-trade sales, said some pub managers treat beer “like petrol” and have a “price point ceiling in mind, which they are wary of breaching.”

“Traditionally, retail pricing was determined purely on margin terms based on retailers’ need to make a certain percentage profit,” Kitching. “Today it’s more about what consumers are willing to pay, but there is still some way to go.”

Of course, Mr. Kitching denied that his statements indicate a pending price jump. Coincidentally, InBev’s Stella Artois is the best-selling lager in the United Kingdom.

The article offers a counter argument from a gentleman named Steve Martin (no, not the American actor/comedian) who manages sales for a chain of pubs.

“In theory the principle is the right one,” Martin said. “However, the expectation of the customer paying more for their liquid may not work. Just look at off-trade volumes and off-trade prices.”

I agree with him. The single largest factor keeping me from spending more time in pubs is that the beer is so overwhemingly more expensive than I can get buying it retail. Sure, I miss out on all that atmosphere, but given a choice of hanging out in a bar drinking some beer, or hanging out on my deck, drinking the same beer at ⅓ the price, I know what I’ll usually pick.

Be warned, our British friends. You may have some price hikes on the horizon. 

(via Brew-Monkey)

A sad day in Latrobe, Pennsylvania

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Rolling RockYesterday was the last day for most workers at Rolling Rock’s Latrobe brewery.

In case you missed it, Anheuser Busch purchased the Rolling Rock brand from Belgium-based InBev SA and is moving all production to the Newark, New Jersey location.

Aficionados of craft beer would probably pass on Rolling Rock. It is, after all, an American pilsner and commits the grevious sin of using rice as an adjunct.

However, it was a regional brewer with a lot of personality. They painted their bottles when everyone else was using paper labels. Their commercials were quirky and amusing. And there was that mysterious “33″ on the back of every bottle. What was that about?

This unique American institution has now been moved from one mega-corporation into another. InBev’s keeping it in Latrobe allowed it to keep its personality, but now I think that’s in jeopardy. A shame, really.

According to several sources, the union has approved a contract from City Brewing (based in La Crosse, Wisconsin) which “hopes to start making beer and sports drinks at the Latrobe plant by January.”

Well, at least another smallish regional brewer will bring brewing back to the area.

Still, it’s the end of an era.

Atmosphere

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Atmosphere – How to Make Beer Taste Better

It might be a place, it might be a time, and it might be the company you are with; but, there’s no two ways about it, a beer will taste better if enjoyed in the right atmosphere.

For instance, I can sit out in my backyard just about anytime and drink a good beer. But, I truly have a hard time enjoying its full potential if all I can do is look around my yard and see a lawn that needs to be mowed, hedges that need to be trimmed, and kids toys that need to be picked up. We all work hard at the various things we each do and keeping my home looking nice and “guest ready” is just one of those things that is important to me. When all my chores are done, I can sit and relax with that beer so much more.

It doesn’t always take work, either. We will be lucky sometimes and a perfect beer atmospheric condition will present itself. It might be bumping into friends while out to dinner and you end up chatting for hours. Or, perhaps, you are on vacation with your loved one and you find a secluded spot on the lake where you truly get to unwind.

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I will be writing about “atmosphere” on Hop Talk every so often to remind ourselves what life is all about. Because, while life is not all about beer, beer is all about life.

Beer bottles as building material

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We here at Hop Talk don’t talk much about Heineken. It’s primarily one of those “if you don’t have something nice to say” situations.

Oh, we’ve nothing personally against Heineken. It’s just that millions of gallons of it are imported to the U.S. every year and it is overpriced. Further, it doesn’t make that long transatlantic jouney very well, because every single bottle of it we’ve ever had has been skunked. Every. Single. One.

Recently I was at a function at a business conference where the open bar offered Budweiser, Coors Light, and Heineken. I considered just having water, but opted for the Bud. At least I knew it would be fairly fresh. Someone nearby had a Heineken and, from five feet away, I could smell that it had turned.

It was with some interest that we noticed the following item: Heineken Beer Bottle Bricks.

Apparently, Freddy Heineken, whose family lost and regained control of the brewery and who was at its helm while it became a worldwide brand, had a brainstorm while strolling on a garbage-strewn beach in the Caribbean. Heineken world bottles(Jamaica, Curaçao, or some other island. There seems to be some contention as to which it was.) As the story goes, the islanders would simply discard the bottles after they were finished with them. At the time this is supposed to have happened, somewhere around 1960 or so, the usual practice was to return the bottles for refilling. But, considering how far away the island was from the Netherlands, it wasn’t worth it and so they were discarded.

Something of a philanthropist, Freddy was weighing the need for affordable building materials and apparently put two-and-two together. The idea was to make squared bottles that, after the contents were consumed, could be used as cheap bricks. Glass and air make excellent insulators, and the neck of the bottle fit into an indentation in the bottom. They were dubbed “world bottles”, or “WOBOs” for short.Heineken world bottle

The idea, though, never took off. Except for a little shack built on the Heineken estate, nothing was ever built of them. The board of directors apparently rejected the idea of the "World Beer" bottle.

A shame, really. It's probably not the best idea for a building material, although if you filled them with dirt it might not be bad. It would certainly make shipping and storage more efficient, though. Take a look in a case of beer. See all that empty space between the round bottles? How much less space could 24 beers take up—or, better, how many more bottles could you fit in the same space—if they were square?

Why do you think square watermelons are so popular in Japan? They take up less space and they can do it. Think of how much easier it would be to stack bottles in your refrigerator.

Okay, so, granted, I wouldn't want the bottles with any actual Heineken in them.

(See also: BBC obituary, Wikipedia)

Beer and kidney stones

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From the Big Book O’ Beer:

This one’s for the guys: Stout, porter, or other hops-heavy beers can help prevent calcium deposits from forming in your kidneys. That’s a good thing, since calcium deposits eventually turn into painful, jagged asteroids of pain called kidney stones. Researchers in Finland tracked 27,000 men and found that every glass of beer they drank daily reduced their risk of kidney stones by 40 percent. If it’s too late, beer can also help you flush out that kidney stone. Your doc might want to suggest cranberry juice, but beer does the same thing—it dilates your sensitive tubing, so the stone can exit your body as painlessly as possible.

Yikes! Kidney stones are something that I’ve never had to experience, and I hope I never have to.

Of course, if you’re sitting around drinking beer thinking you’re safe, the extra weight gain and lack of activity will make you more susceptible to stones, which will certainly offset any benefit you may have been deriving.

Remember, as with everything else: Moderation and exercise.

Troegenator Doublebock – Tröegs Brewing Company

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I don’t know if I’ve ever had a bock, much less a doppelbock.

A bock is a strong lager usually brewed in the winter for consumption in the spring. German monks were known to drink quite a bit of it during Lent. Since they were fasting without solid food they needed a beverage with a lot of food energy. The doppelbock, literally “double bock”, was often known as “liquid bread”. The doppel isn’t twice as strong as a bock, as the name implies, but it is stronger.

And, boy, I can see why. This is a hearty, robust beer. Probably not the kind of beer to drink on a hot July day. Since I’m relaxing in my air-conditioned abode, I guess it’s okay. Not very bitter. A pleasant, if light, aftertaste. A very nice, deep, caramel color.

Very, very malty. Some might consider it “chewy”. The initial flavor you get is quite sweet, almost as if it were malt syrup. Not overly hopped, which makes sense. The brewers recommend drinking it with steak or hearty stews. They also recommend it with sweet, non-chocolate desserts.

At 8.2% ABV it’s also got a bit of a kick to it. Don’t expect to drink a six-pack of this in one sitting.

There is a tradition of naming doppelbocks with an “-ator” suffix, in homage to the original doppel: Salvator by Paulaner.

I like it. I’ll give it a three out of four.