Tag Archives: brunswick

Red, White and Brew

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I was out of town over the weekend to celebrate a couple of milestone birthdays with the other half of the Hop Talk Advisory Panel: Don and Max. Good times, good times.

As such, I wasn’t able to attend the Red, White and Brew event in downtown Brunswick for First Friday. My wife was able to attend as my proxy, though.

Diane Ellis, Naomi Everett, JT from Flying Dog, and Adriane Danaher

Diane Ellis, Naomi Everett, JT Smith from Flying Dog, and former Miss Brunswick Railroad Days A. Danaher

JT, a Brunswick native, was the Flying Dog representative, and he brought the In-Heat Wheat and Tire Bite Golden Ale. (Naomi preferred the Wheat.) Of course, Naomi’s favorite Flying Dog brew is the Doggie Style Pale Ale, which JT found a little surprising because it’s so hoppy. My wife, though, loves those grapefruity hops.

Other highlights of the event include food (Memphis-style pit beef BBQ, baked beans, cole slaw), ice cream, and live music by Jumptown. About 200 hundred people attended, with proceeds going to support Brunswick Main Street.

What’s Amberine?

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One of the highlights of my small local weekly newspaper is the articles that they reprint from the newspaper of 100 years ago. What a small town paper thinks of as news is fascinating. Scores from games at the YMCA. A new house is almost complete. Farmers are glad for recent rain.

Today, my darling wife was looking through this week’s edition when something caught her eye that she knew I’d be interested in.

August 7, 1908

ARRESTED FOR SELLING AMBERINE IN BRUNSWICK

The question whether “amberine,” the substitute for beer manufactured for sale under the Byrd local option law in Virginia, can lawfully be sold in prohibition territory in Maryland will likely come up at the September term of the Circuit Court in Frederick county.

Sheriff Myers, of Frederick, on Wednesday last arrested Frank Woods, at Brunswick, on the charge of violating the law against the sale of intoxicating beverages in Brunswick, which is a prohibition district. Woods, it is alleged, has been selling “amberine” at Brunswick. “Amberine” resembles beer in practically all particulars, but contains a smaller amount of alcohol than ordinary beer.

Woods was taken to Frederick before Justice C. H. Eckstein, where he waived a hearing and was released in $200 bail pending the action of the grand jury.

Brunswick hasn’t moved very far from the Prohibition days. There’s only one bar in town, no restaurants with an on-premise license, and two liquor stores.

But, what the heck is “amberine”? Sure, they describe it briefly in the article, but I’ve never heard low-alcohol beer called that befor.

Well, happy for an opportunity to learn something new, I turned to the intertubes to get some more information. Wikipedia? Nothin’. Okay, Google. Well, some results, but nothing about beer or a relation. I got the name of a woman on MySpace, what appears to be a large fishing lure a kind of fish, a (faux) precious stone variety of moss agate, a dietary supplement, a song, and a model of motherboard by ASUS.

Even my search for “Byrd local option law” came up empty, but I suspect I just didn’t get the search term right.

So, can anyone enlighten me? Where can I learn more about this?