Beer News Blog

Unfortunately beer drinkers have not been turning Japanese, at least not at the rate they were last year.  Recently, Kirin Holdings Co. reported lower-than-expected semi-annual earnings.  Compared to the same time period in 2006 Kirin Holdings, which owns Australian Lion Nathan and Philippines San Miguel Group, reported that sales in 2007 are down 12%.  Sighting an unforseen rise in the cost of raw materials and slower turns of their numerous brands over the last six months.

Kirin President Kazuyasu Kato explained, “We had a much higher-than-expected impact on our earnings from higher raw material expenses.”  The Japanese beer giant hoped efforts of its Marketing Departments through cross-promotion and increased point of sale merchandise would carry them through the increased raw material spend.  However, this strategy ultimately fell short of its target.

Kato mentioned that he did not foresee the cost of raw materials to drop down to their 2006 price range.  He has not ruled out the option to raise the cost of their products, but hopes further marketing plans will bring Kirin’s sales back toward their 2007 forecast.  To make matters worse, rival Japanese brewer Asahi took over the top spot as Japan’s number one beer.

Although not mentioned in the release, another reason why many large brewers and well-known brands have been struggling in 2007 is due to the growth of the craft beer industry.  More and more beer enthusiasts are buying outside of the traditional brands.  Although import brands have seen steady growth over the last few years, tried and true brands like Kirin and others are beginning to suffer as consumers are venturing out to newer, smaller and local beer brands.

Successful food and beverage pairings are the source of some of the greatest pleasures of modern culture.

A fine steak with a full-bodied cabernet sauvignon, a delicate filet of sole matched with a chilled pinot grigio, BBQ and lemonade, a burger and a Coke, even milk and cookies. But a true American favorite has long been pizza and beer.

Almost without exception beer provides the most satisfying match with nearly every conceivable pizza topping. It matters not whether a crust is thick or thin, the top is all vegetables or as meaty as can be, beer will wash it down superbly.

In its earliest beginnings beer itself was often brewed bread as an important ingredient, giving the yeasts something to eat during the fermentation. This archeological crumb gave rise to an idea—why not brew beer that actually tastes like pizza? A beer that actually contains pizza?

Tom Seefurth, a home brewer in St. Charles, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, has now done just that. His ‘Mama Mia’ brew contains fresh tomatoes, fresh pizza dough, fresh oregano, fresh garlic, and ground pepper.

If the combination sounds a little off-putting, maybe you could order pepperoni, peppers and sausage, or even a BBQ chicken. So far no word yet from anyone who’s tried it, but it’s being sold at Walter Payton’s Roundhouse in Aurora.

Well, it seems Europeans will finally have American beer worth celebrating.  Not that I’m against A-B, Coors or Miller brews, they’ve just become a little stale over the years.  It’s high time American craft brewers showed the world what they’re made of.  We’ve heard for years about German, Irish and other European microbrews being so wonderful - it’s high-time Europe learned there’s more to American beer than just Budweiser.  Apparently, Europeans have heard this call and are bringing more and more American craft beer into their pubs, bars and restaurants.

Bier and Co. (Holland’s largest specialty beer importer/distributor) is largely repsonsible for the flow of American craft beer into Europe.  Earlier this year they purchased 4 containers for distribution into the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Italy and Switzerland. 

The Brewers Association’s Export Development Program toiled long and hard to establish a relationship with Bier and Co. that has seen thousands of gallons of craft beer imported from the U.S. and into the hands of European craft beer enthusiasts.  Early in 2006 the Brewer’s Association brought two representatives from Bier and Co. to the Great American Beer Festival to educate them about U.S. craft beer.  They were so pleased, they quickly placed a large order numerous American craft beers.

The Brewers Association has spent the last 3 years working to educate craft brewers on distribution opportunities abroad.  European, well known for it’s numerous craft beer enthusiasts, is a prime market for these often small breweries.  It’s a great way for them to grow their business’ bottom line, as well as their brand awareness.  It’s also a great way to grow international attention to amazing brews created by small breweries right here in the United States.

For more information about the Brewers Association’s Export Development Program please visit :

http://www.beertown.org/craftbrewing/edp.html

America’s ingenuity and inventiveness have placed it atop the world for almost two centuries. Many great thinkers and inventors have come here to imbibe our air of creativity. And now, as most of you know, people around the world are coming here to imbibe our beer. Well, imbibe this, baby.

Our proudest moment may have just arrived. Americans are very, very good at putting foods on sticks and eating them. Corn dogs are an excellent example, as are ice cream bars. But we’ve outdone ourselves this time. We’ve made beer popsicles! Yes, cool, refreshing beer in its ultimate form—completely frozen.

When Chef Frank Morales created these “beersicles” last month at Rustico, a restaurant and bar in Alexandria, Virginia, he thought he was surely on to something. He developed three flavors—“Raspbeer-y”, made from a raspberry-based fruit beer, “Fudgesicle”, made with a deeply chocolate stout, and “Plum”, derived from a Belgian lambic—and created a delicious, bubbly froth of publicity that is coming to a head.

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control in now investigating if such a thing might even be illegal! Poor Chef Morales! People the world ‘round are talking about his restaurant, laughing at him! (Did I mention the restaurant is named “Rustico and that it’s in Alexandria, Virginia?) The humiliation of this horrible publicity must surely be keeping him awake at night, tossing and turning in shame.

He’s lucky in one regard, though—nothing washes away the taste of shame and humiliation like an ice cold “Plum” beersicle.

There was a summer that I lived in the San Fernando Valley, Reseda, California to be exact. It was the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year at UCLA. I was still playing football but had no place to live in Los Angeles. So, in a stroke of luck, a buddy offered me his place in the Valley to crash during the week. I had to get up each morning at 4:30 AM to get to early morning workouts, which sucked. I had to drive 30 plus miles each day to Westwood, which sucked. I barely got to do anything because I had to go to bed early and be up before the sun, which sucked. What didn’t suck was that thing of beauty sitting in the kitchen. Each day when I returned home, after workouts and summer school, was a shiny kegerator. It was set up masterfully and delivered a perfect pour every single time. My room mate and I weren’t rich (I think we were pouring Keystone light), but the fact that I always had fresh beer waiting for me was amazing.

Ever since that summer I knew I wanted to have a kegerator in my home. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten that job that allows me the kind of income necessary to get my very own kegerator. But the dream of pouring that ice cold, delicious beer is still very much alive within me. Every time I see a kegerator I get a little jealous, luckily its usually the personal property of some big-wig that I work with, so at least I’ve been able to say “Someday, that will be me.” That was until …

This past weekend I visited the home of one of my new co-workers. Since I’ve moved to a new town meeting new people has been a bit of a challenge. Recently, my employer decided to add a new member of our marketing staff. A young man close to my age, from an area not far from where I grew up and with an affinity for the same beer as myself. Stoked to see someone else in the office younger than 35, I asked if he would like to go for a couple cold ones after work. Equally happy to make a new acquaintance, he told me we should go to his house before we hit the bars. I said OK, and after work we headed straight to his place. And there it was …

It was beautiful. Sitting near his kitchen was a big, black kegerator. He asked me if I’d like a beer. Staring at his kegerator lovingly, all I could do was shake my head. Still shocked I managed to mutter, “Where’d you get that?” Seeing the adoration in my eyes he replied, “Oh man, I’ve wasted so much cash on canned and bottled beer. I thought this was a great investment. Do you know how much money I save with this thing?” That’s when I told him about the beer blog and that, yes, I knew all about kegerators. Then he asked such a simple, yet obvious question, “So why don’t you have one, dude?” I told him I’ve moved so much over the last few years, I never really felt like anywhere was home and that once I can put some roots down I’d pick one up. He laughed and said, “OK, man. This thing right here, this will make anywhere home.”

I need a kegerator.

Craft beer is growing day by day. Many people have jumped on the craft beer movement because domestic beers have become a little boring, a little lacking in the “taste area” and the idea of making beers for millions of people turns off just about any beer enthusiast. When you pick up a Miller Genuine Draft, Coors Original or other domestic beers sometimes don’t you wish it tasted more like a Guiness, Murphy’s or Beamish? Yeah, American breweries thought so too. That’s why over the course of the last few decades they’ve snatched them all up. Most famous “Irish” beer brands now belong to the red, white and blue (of America, not the UK).

So naturally, the craft movement is not limited to just America - it’s worldwide! And guess what? The land of the stout (isn’t that the Gaelic translation for Ireland anyways?) has some great ones themselves. Today, the common tourist has as much chance of walking into a microbrewery as he/she does of walking into a pub. And you can imagine what concoctions they are coming up with, when they have the afore mentioned beers as their inspiration. But these microbreweries are not limited to darks and stouts, they are producing a full spectrum of delicious brews.

Microbreweries are on the rise in Ireland thanks to a tax-cut implemented by the Irish government in 2005. Benefiting from this financial break, pubs began opening microbreweries left and right, creating new and exciting beer and serving it to patrons that had been visiting them for years. Now the world is beginning to take notice. With tourism to Ireland on the rise, more and more people are sampling the craft beer of the Smiling Irish. So if you’re considering checking out the Blarney Stone, Glasgow or the castles of Ireland for your summer vacation - make sure to check out the amazing microbreweries!

Microbreweries to check out:

Biddy Early Brewery www.bid.ie

Porterhouse Brewing Co. www.porterhousebrewco.com

Franciscan Well Brewery www.franciscanwellbrewery.com

Kinsale Brewing Co. www.kinsalebrewingco.com

The racehorse - beautifully sculpted, wonderfully proportioned, a dignified, stylish, example of class and breeding. When we watch the best, fastest steeds in the world compete for the Triple Crown we humans feel infused with the gallantry of those noble beasts. It’s even called “The Sport of Kings”, a phrase which describes royal interest in watching races, not actually participating directly.

Even so, you might understand how a group of young men attending the Preakness came under the inspiring spell of the magnificent horseflesh competing in the race, became confused, and decided to add a new jewel to the crown. But this
time for humans.

“Where to race?”, one must surely have asked the others.

“How about one at a time across the tops of this row of port-o-potties right here before us?”, another must have surely replied.

“Brilliant!”, they all must have shouted in unison, raising their shiny, hard cans of beer.

The bravest then climbed up—buff, ripped and muscular—sporting a well-defined abdominal “six-pack”, ready to race. Another young man, ripped as well but in a different way, and sporting a six-pack made of aluminum, may have said “Wait! I was gonna go first!”, and promptly chucked his open can of beer at his former best friend.

As the first competitor began his run across the outhouse roofs, everyone got in the act and he was forced to dodge a hailstorm of beer and aluminum in order to complete his leg of the race.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, as a line soon formed to be next that was even longer than the lines to use the insides of the port-o-potties. Thus was a new, proud, racing tradition formed.

But next year, let’s use draft beer instead. Those plastic cups yield far less of a surprise when hitting innocent bystanders.

See the spectacle at this link:
http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=298190

It’s truly inbelievable. The SPCA and PETA would never permit it.

Craft beers, we love them. We enjoy them straight out of the tap. We enjoy them in a bottle. But have we ever really enjoyed them out of a can? Or better yet - Have we ever wanted to enjoy them out of the can? Personally, I would say no. Generally, I try to avoid all beer that comes in a can if at all possible. Of course there was that one summer I spent living in the Valley when I was really broke … but let’s not get into that. The fact of the matter is, no one cans craft beer. Craft beer is meant to be served fresh, and as we all know canned beer is usually not so fresh. Or at least, that’s always been the case.

Well friends, times are changing. Craft beers are gaining in popularity, and canning (if done in volume) is a cheap and easy way to distribute beer products. However, most craft breweries have never had enough volume to enter into a contract with a cannery or buy equipment for canning themselves. That’s where a Canadian firm saw a business opportunity. Cask Brewing Systems Inc. was able to produce a canning machine that was small enough and cheap enough to entice at least one microbrewery to make a very smart investment.

In 2002, Colorado-based Oskar Blues became the first American business to purchase the canning machine. Initially, they planned to can some of their popular beers for local distribution as a marketing tool to bring more people into their business. That idea quickly became very popular. So popular in fact, that their little plan to gain buzz for their brewery became the bulk of their business. During their first year of canning operations Oskar Blues sold 700 barrels of beer. A mere five years later they will sell 14,000 barrels in 2007. Canned beers now make up more than 80% of their business.

So why the popularity explosion? Plain and simple - convenience. There are many closet beer-drinking enthusiasts that don’t like frequenting micro brews and pubs. They enjoy a delicious brew, but they really enjoy a delicious brew when consumed in the comfort of their own home. By canning craft beer and selling into local markets, microbreweries can increase their reach in a very short time. Consumers are now more than ever, willing to try new beers. The craft beer market is exploding. Canned craft beer is coming, be on the look out at your local grocery and liquor stores.

Well it looks like the fun-loving, beer-drinking, scrap-yard-frequenting folks in Michigan have finally gone and done it. They’ve spoiled it for all their plain-old fun-loving, beer-drinking, non-scrap-yard-frequenting neighbors by not returning their empty kegs to their rightful owners. Instead, many Michigan draft beer lovers have been forgoing their $10 deposit and selling the kegs to scrap yards. As it turns out, the criminal activity has become so popular that state officials have had to triple the deposit fee.

Apparently the thieves were gaining anywhere from $20-$25 for each keg. This was a bit of a jump, as the cost of stainless steel soared to roughly $.25/pound during late 2005. I find it fascinating that someone would go threw all the trouble of finding a scrap yard, haggling with some scrap yard owner and only get $15 out of the deal. Seems like a lot of work for just about enough money to buy a decent case, but to each his own I guess.

Beer manufacturers spend as much as $152 to replace each one of these lost barrels, so you can imagine they were pretty steamed as this new beer “venture” became more and more rampant. Initially, they lobbied for the Michigan State Government to raise the deposit from $10 to $90. Feeling that this hike might be a little excessive, cooler heads prevailed and the new $30 deposit fee was set in place.

My questions is - Whatever happened to bringing a keg to a party, getting everyone drunk, waiting for people to pass out and then taking their cars to the scrap yard for cash? Come on Michigan, you gotta earn that scrap yard living!

When I take business trips I try to find a nice restaurant that my employer can pay for. I like to relax in a new and different place with exotic new foods. On top of all that, I like to enjoy a tasty brew or two - on the companies dime of course. I would say this type of behavior is par for the course for most traveling businessmen. But there are some beer connoisseurs out there that like to take things to the next level. Yes, there are men and women who actually seek out a local brewery whenever they are in a new city. To these men and women I say (in the vein of the famous Guinness duo), “Brilliant.”

But how do you find these breweries that offer fresh, delicious beer the likes of which our palates have never enjoyed? Well, many cities offer “beer trail” Web sites, not dissimilar from “wine trail” Web sites. But can you be sure that every brewery will be attached to these sites? Or can you even be sure that the city you are visiting even has such a site? The answer of course is “No”. So again, how do you find these breweries?

That’s where the Beer Bible, or more accurately The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands (DBBB), comes in. This baby has 570 pages of reviews, maps and guides to this country’s breweries. Traveling to Chicago? Check out the local breweries. Off to Sarasota, Florida for the week? Why not try some of Florida’s tastiest craft brews. The book has indexed more than 3,000 brands and rates them according to color, bitterness and other criteria. For a measly 60 bucks, I say its worth it.

Check it out at www.beerbible.com