As we celebrate another turning of the wheel, we here at Hop Talk wish you a safe, sane, and enjoyable New Year’s Eve with people who are important to you, as well as a prosperous Two Thousand and Eight.
New Year wishes
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Monthly Archives: December 2007
Heineken gobbles up Belarus brewer Syabar
Heineken has made a number of acquisitions in Eastern Europe recently, the latest of which is Syabar, the number 2 brewer in Belarus.
International Herald Tribune: Heineken buys No 2 Belarus brewer Syabar
The move is part of Heineken’s strategy to obtain leading market positions and compensate for low growth rates in Western Europe and the United States, a group spokeswoman said.
2007
We don’t tend to do much navel-gazing around here. We find that beer is much more interesting to talk about than ourselves, and we’re sure you’d agree.
However, as 2007 marks the first full year of Hop Talk’s existence, we thought we’d take a look back.
“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” This familiar quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, but he actually attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli. Further research indicates it was neither, but it is not entirely clear who is really the originator.
No matter. Here are some statistics for your enjoyment. The damned lies will probably be later.
We received 38,737 visits from 31,656 unique visitors resulting in 56,860 pageviews.
The vast majority of our visitors are from the United States, but we have significant contingents from Canada and the UK. Germany, Australia, Ireland, India, Norway, Brazil and the Netherlands round out the top 10. In all, we were visited by people in more than 120 countries and territories, including such places as Uganda, El Salvador, and Albania.
The top search terms that were used to reach us were:
- how to pour a black and tan
- pouring a black and tan
- beer butt chicken
- hop talk
- how to pour black and tan
- beer brands
- beer advocate
- pour black and tan
- pour a black and tan
- marmite guinness
Some of the more interesting search terms included:
- real men of genius
- beer spokesmodels
- bubbling and frothing liquids
- philosophy of life
- shakespeare talk
- guys with six packs
- homemade video
- rule of thumb origin
- bear droppings
As a geek, I was quite interested to know what kind of operating systems and browsers our visitors have, and how close they are to the general average.
Browsers: Internet Explorer 55%, Firefox 37%, Safari 5%, all others 1% or less (99% have Java, 98% have Flash)
OS: Windows 88%, Macintosh 10%, Linux 1%
Screen resolution: 1024×768 42%, 1280×1024 17%, 1280×800 13%
RSS subscribers don’t count in the visitor numbers, but we started the year at just under 100 subscribers, and built that up to around 230 or so. At last check, 39% of subscribers use some Google product, e-mail subscriptions account for 11%, java-based feed readers and Bloglines tie at 9%, Netvibes is 8%, Firefox Live Bookmarks are 5%, and the rest account for 18%.
What were they all reading?
The top 10 most popular articles (by pageviews, which doesn’t include RSS):
- How to Pour a Black & Tan
- Consumer Reports Rates Light Beers
- Top 50 beer brands for 2006
- Oktoberfest Style
- Beer Butt Chicken
- A sad day for beerdom
- Beer Advocate Magazine
- Top 6 ways to find a new beer to try
- Inspired by Blue Claws – Grandpa’s Crabs (Part III)
- Bratwurst w/Sauerkraut for Oktoberfest
By far, the most popular article was How to Pour a Black & Tan, with nearly three times more visits than the next most popular post. Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly, there was a huge spike in traffic right around St. Patrick’s Day. This also explains most of the search terms in the top 10.
My most popular article may not have been on this blog at all, however. A guest post I wrote for Personal Finance Advice, Life Is Far Too Short To Drink Cheap Beer – 10 Ways To Maximize Your Beer Value, was seen by many, many more people. While I don’t have specific numbers, it generated a bunch of inbound traffic, over 40 comments and pingbacks, and got noticed by the editors of CRAM Magazine who asked if they could publish it.
There were 357 posts (including this one), which averages out to 30 per month.
After taking a day to recover from New Year’s Eve revelry, we kicked off 2007 with a post of tasting notes for Black Chocolate Stout from Brooklyn Brewery (a long-time favorite).
The most commented-on post was my 5 essentials for a good brewpub, although most of those were pingbacks. The next-most was on our recap of Session #5: Atmosphere
Speaking of which, we were the hosts for Session #5, which our analysis shows we had 29 people participating, with bloggers from all over the U.S., as well as from Canada, Ireland, Brussels, and the United Kingdom.
We took the first week and a half of September off, turning things over to nine guest writers–fellow beer bloggers–who discussed topics from the “genuineness” of beer marketed as Irish, to age verification on websites, to running the Marine Marathon in Washington, DC and good beer spots along the route.
Along the way, we shared with you news from the world of beer, tasting notes, amusing commercials, nuggets from history, interesting tidbits from around the web, and anything else we could relate to beer. You shared with us your own insights, opinions, and experiences.
What’s ahead for 2008? You mean, besides finding and enjoying good beer, talking about it, and doing it in good company? Beyond that, I don’t want to make any predictions. If it’s as enjoyable as 2007 has been, then I’ll call it a success.
Thank you for a great year, and we wish all of you health and success in 2008.
Craft Beer is the Drink of Choice for this New Year’s Eve
I spotted this on Business Wire. It is, granted, mostly a promotional press release for Samuel Adams, but it does have some interesting information.
Ring in the New Year with Craft Beer
Move over Champagne, Craft Beer is the Drink of Choice for this New Year’s Eve
BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cheers to the New Year with a full-flavored craft beer. A recent survey conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media found that men prefer craft beer as their drink of choice when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.[...]
“Beer has been bringing people together for festive occasions long before champagne was even invented,” says Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. “2007 was a great year for appreciating craft beer, so I’m not surprised that more people will be raising their steins to ring in 2008.”
Wine and chocolates are no longer the chosen gifts for holiday hosts and hostesses. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said they’d prefer to be given craft beer as a host/hostess gift. [Me too! -- Ed.] [...]
For people planning to stay in this New Year’s Eve instead of fighting the crowds or the weather, full-flavored craft beer is the preferred beverage to keep warm. When asked what their preferred beverage was when avoiding the winter weather outside, respondents said:
Craft beer 35 percent Spirits 29 percent Wine 14 percent The findings presented are the result of 315 telephone interviews of men ages 21-34, conducted using a national random digit dialing system methodology from December 13 to December 15, 2007 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. The survey was conducted among a representative sample of men 21 to 34 years of age in the continental United States. Survey data were weighted for sample balancing by age and census region. The margin of sampling error for the total sample is plus/minus 6 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Harumph. I don’t even fit into the demographic for this survey. And, I wonder, are 21- to 34-year-old men buying the majority of booze? Interesting anyway.
Craft brewers becoming more business savvy
NEW YORK – In the days when Bud was king, craft beer brewers saw themselves as artists, not executives.
Now, with growth of craft beers dwarfing that of the mega domestic beer brands, more craft brewers are developing annual plans, assessing markets and generally behaving more like the suits at megabrewers such as Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. and Molson Coors Brewing Co.
Small brewers’ growth a win for beer lovers
Show us your “candy store”
Ron refers to his preferred beer retailer as his “candy store” and even posted pictures.
I know of what he speaks. I have stood in the middle of a liquor store, eyes agog and unsure how to start. I feel, literally, like a little kid in the middle of a candy store. “Look at all those treats! I want to try them all! But *sniff* I only have a few pennies. How do I choose?!”
How about you? We want to see your “candy store”. Take a few pictures and tell us why you love it (or hate it).
There are basically two ways for you to participate:
Send us your pictures and what you want to say about each and overall, and we’ll post it up here
or
If you have your own blog, post it there and let us know about, and we’ll link to you.
(You might want to get permission before you start snapping photos. They might think you’re a spy for the competition.)
Merry Merry!
Thank you, Ron
So, I’m home, hanging out with the kids, just chillin’, when the doorbell rings.
It’s the UPS man.
I wasn’t expecting a package, but who knows what last-minute thing my wife might have gotten.
It’s addressed to my family. From Ron’s family.
Well, isn’t that curious? While we send each other greeting cards, our families don’t exchange gifts. Not that we wouldn’t, of course, but by the time I buy gifts for my own kids, their cousins, their step-cousins, grandmas, grandpa, and child-free aunts and uncles, the gift budget is stretched thin. I know Ron is in the same boat.
So this, obviously, is a surprise. I honestly have no idea what it could be. So I call the girls up from downstairs. “Look, girls. We got a package.”
“What is it?” they ask.
“I don’t know. Let’s open it and find out.”
I slice open the tape. There’s a bunch of things in bubble-wrap. I grab the first one.
By golly, it’s a bottle of beer!
Six more bubble-wrapped bottles follow. Plus a note:
Enjoy this sampler of fine ales and lagers, hand selected, specifically with you in mind. Cheers! (I had the hardest time choosing just seven! Enjoy!)
“You shouldn’t have called us,” says my youngest, disappointed, as they head back downstairs.
Hawesome! A couple of them are even from my wishlist.
And they say Christmas is for the kids.
(Yes, that is my daughters’ purple Disney Princess tree in the background.)
- Brown’s Brewing Oatmeal Stout
- Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
- Samichlaus
- Black Dog Winter Cheer
- Saranac Imperial Stout
- Ithaca Beer Double IPA
- Southern Tier Old Man Winter Ale
Thank you, Ron. I will enjoy every last drop.
I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends.
– Walt Whitman
Session #11 Announced: Doppelbock
The Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.
That theme, for January, is “Illuminator”, hosted by Wilson of Brewvana.
I’ll be January’s host, hoping to be the instigator of beer excitement. Pollinator of beer enthusiasm. Elevator of beer appreciation. Detonator of beer discussion.
If you catch my drift, I’m thirsty for a doppelbock.
I want to learn about doppelbocks, and so the sky’s the limit: write about doppelbocks however you see fit. History, reviews, pairings, pictures, poetry and experiences. All of it.
This episode of the Session will take place on January 4, 2008. Details here: Announcing The Session #11–Illuminator
Top 5 Beers on Al’s Wishlist
Inspired by Ron’s list, here’s a few beers I’m wishing for.
#5
Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
by Stone
I was going to make sure that all of the beers on my list were different than Ron’s, but I hadn’t heard of this one before I saw it on his list. Now I want it. I’ve been accused of being arrogant. Am I arrogant enough?
#4
Real cask ale
by anybody
Real ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask from which it is served in the pub through a process called secondary fermentation. It is this process which makes real ale unique amongst beers and develops the wonderful tastes and aromas which processed beers can never provide.
Cask-conditioned ale on a hand-pull is about as rare around here as hen’s teeth. No, I really want to go to the U.K. and have some of the good stuff. At least, before it disappears from there, too. Thank goodness for CAMRA.
#3
Westvleteren
by The Monks of the Abbey of Saint Sixtus
“No question, it is the holy grail of beers,” says Remi Johnson, manager of the Publick House, a Boston bar that has Westvleteren on its menu but rarely in stock.
Three styles, brewed by the monks of the Abbey of Saint Sixtus in the Belgian municipality of Westvleteren. They brew simply to help pay for their way of life, and have resisted efforts to increase production or license the beer to a larger brewer. They do not advertise, label the beer, or sell it anywhere except from their front gate. It is so rare and prices are so high in grey market reselling, they ask that people buying their beer–and they can only get two cases a month–to promise not to resell it. Trappist Command: Thou Shalt Not Buy Too Much of Our Beer (Wall Street Journal)
#2
Samichlaus
by Schloss Eggenberg
“Samichlaus” beer is brewed once a year, in each case on December 6th, and stored and matured afterwards for over 10 months before it is bottled. “Samichlaus” beer can mature for many years in the bottle; older vintages obtain a complexity and receive their creamy warm aftertaste.
December 6 is Saint Nicholas’ Eve. Samichlaus means “Santa Claus” in the Swiss-German dialect of Zurich, where it was first made and is one of the world’s strongest beers at 14% ABV. It was originally brewed by Hürlimann Brewery, but production was stopped in 1986 after the brewery was purchased by a subsidiary of Carlsberg. In 2006, the Schloss Eggenberg brewery in Austria brought it back to much rejoicing.
#1
Utopias
by Samuel Adams
With an alcohol content of 27% by volume, its complexity and sweet, malty flavor is reminiscent of a deep, rich vintage Port, fine Cognac or aged sherry while being surprisingly light on the palate.
$100 for a 24 ounce bottle. Illegal in 12 states. Bottled in a miniature copper brew kettle. What’s not to love?
These are all so rare, so expensive, or so far away that I may never get a chance to experience them. That’s why they call it a wishlist, after all.
