Beer News Blog

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

Recent spikes in fuel prices combined with dire predictions of global warming caused by the use of these fuels has the American public clamoring for two seemingly contradictory government actions. We apparently want the government to save us from high gas costs and global warming at the same time.

Televised “man-on-the-street” interviews depict average folks lamenting heartbrokenly that high gas prices will cause them to cut back on their driving, woebegone college students sadly describe having to car pool, and middle-class Americans admit being forced to contemplate mass transit.

Even so gasoline use has increased over this time last year, and SUV sales, considered the bane of the environment, have risen like yeast to the top of a batch of ale.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “The numbers for large SUVs rose nearly 6 percent in the first quarter of 2007, and the April figures were up 25 percent from April 2006, according to automakers’ statistics provided by Edmunds.com, an automotive research Web site. The bigger the guzzler, the better the numbers. Sales of GMC’s Yukon XL were up a whopping 72 percent last month, and the totals for its Chevrolet sister, the Suburban, rose 38 percent. Topping off the tank on either one can cost as much as $120.”

That’s bad, right? How about this. According to Bon Appetit Management Company (not the magazine) it turns out that food (and all the energy it takes to make it) is one of the largest human activities contributing to global warming. The average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions each year by eating — even more than the 2.2 tons each person generates by driving, according to recent research (Echel and Martin, 2006). Bon Appetit Management runs food services in over 400 venues, mostly universities and corporations, and recommends what it calls a “low-carb diet” that will reduce our carbon use in acquiring, processing, and preparing our foods.

Yet absent from its guidelines is any mention of the environmental advantage of draft beer over bottled beer.

Roughly 12.7 billion glass beer bottles are produced annually in the US, with another billion or so being imported. Nearly three-quarters of these bottles end up in landfill somewhere, where their chemical structure enables them to endure just about forever. They are the very opposite of “biodegradable”, and we’re tossing out about 10 billion of them every year.

So we’re using incredible amounts of electricity to melt glass into bottles, then we use each one once and throw it away. Even the amount of electricity used recycling the 2.7 billion bottles that are recycled is environmentally prohibitive.

Draft beer offers us some help. A metal beer keg can usually be used hundreds of times and then recycled back into a keg again.

Do your part…insist on draft beer at your local pubs and restaurants. Then drink lots of it. You’ll feel better about your part in saving the world.

Sam Adams, known for being the beer drinker’s domestic go-to, has recently launched an ad campaign for their black lager. It’s in the typical vein of Sam Adams commercials, a lot of chit chat from the brewery workers and of course founder Jim Koch. In his usual “I’m not a beer guy” disguise and manner of speaking he describes the art of crafting Samuel Adams Black Lager. And you know what? We think its pretty darn cool.

So often the norm of beer advertising is a bunch of shirtless dudes running around hitting volleyballs at hot, un-assuming young women (a part I’m not totally mad at), or a tongue-in-cheek joke about a good wingman or magic beer-fridge, etc. I am actually impressed with the latest ad campaign from Samuel Adams and their new Black Lager. This lead me to their Web site where they have 15 videos that give you an idea of who Samuel Adams is as a brand and the techniques they employ for making beer.

Having never actually consumed a black lager, I was intrigued by the advertisement (as I type I’m enjoying one). Although certainly not a stout, which happens to be my end-all for a relaxing weekend, Samuel Adams Black Lager has a bold flavor - the kind that lets you know you are drinking a “real” beer. It’s not thick like a stout, but it does have a similar flavor. It’s a pretty awesome beer, where most stouts leave you feeling a little full, Black Lager doesn’t fill you up but still delivers great taste. I highly recommend it for anyone scouring the beer section at their grocery store, on the hunt for something new.

Check out Samuel Adams videos here.

After a disappointing April that saw beer sales plummet to some of the lowest monthly sales in the company’s recent history, A-B’s sales have rebounded in May. The King of Beers has come out publicly to say that its quarterly earning are up 1%, a good sign for their year-end growth projections that had many industry insiders stunned at A-B’s confidence. Anheuser-Busch stated at the beginning of the fiscal year that they hoped to experience somewhere between 7%-10% growth in 2007.

April’s dip in sales may have been a surprise to some, but not to others. April was one of the slowest months across the board for mass retailers. Bad weather in 2007 has been plaguing numerous businesses in and outside of the beer industry. With people couped up in their homes, hiding out from the wet weather beer sales have been slow. Bar and other on-premise facilities have also seen a dip in sales.

With better weather in May people have been getting back to normal. With the warm weather trend throughout the United States and Memorial Day Weekend (the official start to barbecue season) beer sales should be getting back to normal. A-B should expect to see a huge spike in sales considering the fact that many people have been waiting for their chance to spend the day at the park, queing up hamburgers and hot dogs and enjoying their favorite brews.