Beer Buzz is the weekly show that will keep you informed and updated on all the things going on in the beer world, from the noteworthy to the nutty. Know something we don’t (which is highly likely)? Email us at AlwaysHoppy@BeerTapTV.com and share the news… we just might use it.
Show Notes:
This is the super huge (50 minutes give or take) New Year’s wrap up episode. Frankly, Eli and Erik have been so busy – what with Christmas – that they were kinda flying by the seat of their pants.
Eli and Erik look back at 2008, look forward to 2009 and officially proclaim that 2009 is “The Year of the Beer.” They talked about some of the gifts they received for Christmas, and talked about a few gifts that viewers received.
If you have something you want to chat about, leave them in the comments section of this thread.
Beer Tap TV is proclaiming 2009 as “The Year of The Beer”. Things have exploded on the beer scene and we think this is the year that craft beer is going to make a huge footprint.
Predictions for 2009
Will there be more mergers?
SABMiller and Molson Coors in October 2007
In response InBev gobbled up A-B earlier this year
What’s next?
Is the economy going to hit the craft beer market?
ERIK: No. Sales are up in the US. Old Chicago did 150% above normal on their holiday tour while every retail chain was down by 25%. New festivals are opening up and breweries are participating, etc.
ELI: Agreed. Just in the Colorado Springs area: Arctic Craft Brewery was up 650%. Trinity opened up and is a HUGE success. Falcon Brewing in Parker opened. There’s a new brewpup opening up on the north side of town in mid-Summer of ‘09.
People are staying home to enjoy themselves instead of going to a bar or restaurant. But that doesn’t mean they’re not drinking. We’re seeing huge growth in the craft beer industry which means that peeople are in fact still buying beer from their favorite brewery and having friends over to play poker or have a BBQ. The economy may suck, but people still need entertainment. Plus, what better way to drown your sorrows then in a pint of great brew?!
What are your thoughts?
Erik asked viewers: One year from now (beginning of 2010, what do you think the media landscape will look like? It’s a little off-topic but it will help the gang at BTTV decide what direction to take the company.
Carboy wins for answering TWO questions! Why we call Fort Collins Brewery “Forty Collins” (asked on Beer Buzz), and for answering what Erik’s favorite movie was — Dumb and Dumber (asked on Taste Buds)! Carboy wins a copy of The Beer Journal by Chris Wright as well as some other goodies we have yet to decide upon.
IMPORTANT: When answering trivia questions in the future you MUST give us the answer by either leaving it in the comments section of the show notes for the episode in which the question was asked.
Not only does he run his own fantastic beer blog (which he recently gave a facelift), but he’s the creator of The Aleuminati – a social networking site for better beer drinkers. Shawn is very well respected within the world of pr beer bloggers. He and Eli have known each other for over a year now, and have swapped brews from their divergent regions. Hopefully more collaboration will occur between Shawn and the guys from Beer Tap TV in in 2009.
Beer Douche of the Week:
InBev. Not for acquiring A-B, but for saying they weren’t going to fire anyone then immediately turn into Scrooge and do just that by laying off nearly 2,000 US based jobs in St. Louis. Right before the holidays. Congratrs on creating good will to all US citizens. Hope you weren’t expecting us to buy your overseas brew anytime soon. Ain’t gonna happen now.
Beer Buzz is the weekly show that will keep you informed and updated on all the things going on in the beer world, from the noteworthy to the nutty. Know something we don’t (which is highly likely)? Email us at AlwaysHoppy@BeerTapTV.com and share the news… we just might use it.
Show Notes:
In this special Christmas episode of Beer Buzz Erik and Eli — Santa’s Lil Beer Buzzed Helpers — provide you with 12 Gifts for Christmas…
YouGotBeer.com allows you to buy someone a beer… online. This $5 gift certificate, which they receive by Email, can be redeemed for any type of brewski (domestic, craft, import, micro, bottle, draft) at any of the thousands of local, participating restaurants, including Friday’s, Old Chicago’s and Rock Bottom Brewery.
This board game is perfect for beer newbs and full blown beer geeks alike. Questions cover everything from the different types of beer to the regions they are brewed in, including the history of beer and everything in between. It even comes with a beer tips booklet.
An advanced beer dispensing system that uses DraughtKeg carbonator pressure technology to deliver a pub-quality pour of beer every time. This mini kegerator can easily be modified to tap and serve any (non-Heineken) standard size 5-liter keg using the optional CO2 accessory kit.
#4 Beer Pong Table ($50 – $150)
Don’t let the stigma stymie your enjoyment of this highly hilarious and competitive game! Pong tables come in all shapes and sizes. Pong A Long makes several portable tables that range from $75 – $120. Port-o-Pong makes an inflatable, waterproof, floating beercraft carrier for 50 bones.
#5 Hoodie with a beer pouch (around $40)
Brew City hoodies have pockets for your hands should the weather outside be frightful. But what if you’re holding a beer? How about a marsupial like pouch dedicated to your beer! Slide the bottle into its protective cocoon and your worries are over. BRILLIANT!
Much like Monopoly, BREW-OPOLY is a property game that allows players to own their favorite brands and trade their Cases for Brew Houses. Along the way, they will learn about the unique and wonderful brews featured on the game board, and try to become the richest player in the game to win.
#7 Subscription to a beer magazine ($20 – $30)
Several good beer magazines exist. Here are some of our favorites:
Beer Magazine (1-year subscription; 6 times a year; $19.99) – The new kid on the block has the exact opposite “feel” of All About Beer. This one has successfully incorporated frat boy humor with knowledgeable articles.
Draft Magazine(1-year subscription; 6 times a year; $19.99) – This gorgeous mag focuses more on mainstream beer drinking culture — “Life on Tap.” Provides good coverage of the beer world, but doesn’t go as in depth as some of the others.
#8 Books about beer (around $20)
Great Beers of Belgium 6th Edition by the late, great Michael “The Beer Hunter” Jackson ($24.39 at Amazon.com). The definitive guide to Belgian beers and brewers.
The Beer Journal by Chris Wright ($17.05 from Amazon.com) lets you track your beer journey and changes in your tastes in different beers. Other sections of the book let track visits to beer festivals, brewery tours, and food pairings.
For as little as $130 (for a kit for handy types) you can get your tailgating beer buddy a single tap jockey box. Jockey boxes are regular coolers converted into keg coolers, perfect for day long events or parties.
#10 Homebrew kit ($94 at the Homebrewer’s Outpost)
As the old proverb goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, the same can be said for beer. “Give a man a beer and you quench his thirst for a day. Teach a man to brew and quench his thirst forever.” So buy your Beer Geek a homebrew kit!
With a fantastic new author for 2009— Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association and one of the most prominent names in the world of beer and brewing—this calendar features hundreds of award-winning ales, stouts, lagers, and seasonal brews, plus in-depth discussions of beer styles, weekly homebrew recipes, beer facts, trivia, and more.
#12 Beer Vacations (thousands of dollars)
The ultimate gift: a vacation focused on beer.
BeerTrips.com has beercentric trips that go to Germany, Belgium, France, Scotland, the U.S., and more.
Visit Belgium has a phenomenal page of breweries, festivals and beer tours specific to their beer making country.
The Beer Lovers Tour Company, located in Toronto, Canada, designs and hosts international and local specialty tours for those who love scenic travel, great beer, food, history, and culture.
If you want to plan your own trip and you’re headed to the Franconia region of Germany, there is no better resource to help you plan that trip than
Private Braugasthöfe is an invaluable website (and guide book) that lists detailed information on 65 private inns and breweries with hotels. Most are located in the Franconia region of Germany, but there are some from Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Italy.
Dave Butler is a good friend of Beer Tap TV. He’s been a Colorado resident since 1982, trading in the lakes and humidity of Michigan for the mountains and sunny (not to mention beer) climate of the Centennial state. You can usually find him searching for his favorite craft beer.
Beer Douche of the Week:
We’re not doing the Beer Douche segment this week because we don’t want to be Scrooges.
Beer Buzz is the weekly show that will keep you informed and updated on all the things going on in the beer world, from the noteworthy to the nutty. Know something we don’t (which is highly likely)? Email us at AlwaysHoppy@BeerTapTV.com and share the news… we just might use it.
On Saturday a hoary host of beer-buzzed pub crawlers dressed up like St. Nick and hit the streets during the “Running of the Santas” (http://www.runningofthesantas.com/) – an annual, nationwide drinkfest that took place in 25 cities. The event’s corporate sponsor, MillerCoors. Called “the world’s naughtiest pub crawl,” the “Running of the Santas” raises money to fight pediatric cancer.
This of course has infuriated parents and watchdog groups.
Eric Helmuth, spokesman for Join Together, a Boston University health group fighting the jolly pub crawl, said he’s concerned about the effect on kids who see “Santa careening through the streets drinking or going from pub to pub.” Helmuth claimed that MillerCoors is actually violating the Beer Institute’s voluntary advertising and marketing code, which prohibits the use of Santa to promote beer. He’s urging people to file complaints with the Beer Institute and send copies to the Federal Trade Commission.
Another “watchdog group” called the Center for Science in the Public Interest, located in Washington, D.C., has filed a complaint with the Beer Institute and blasted MillerCoors.
Everyone involved with the event says it’s good for business and gets people into the holiday spirit.
MillerCoors didn’t respond to requests for comments.
An effort from alcohol industry watch dog Marin Institute called “Free the Bowl” wants to do away with “oppressive beer ads” found during the Super Bowl. “Free the Bowl” is a contest for 13 to 20 year olds – WTF? – asking them for the video submissions begging brewers to stop advertising beer in the Super Bowl.
Marin Institute Executive Director Bruce Livingston passed along this wonderful nugget of info: “Year after year, the Super Bowl delivers a huge youth TV audience to America’s biggest beer seller, Anheuser-Busch. Sound research and common sense tell us that the more often youth are exposed to alcohol advertising, the more likely they are to drink and drink to excess. Marin Institute is excited to give youth a new channel to protest oppressive beer ads at www.FreetheBowl.com.”
Marin Institute’s Michael Scippa added: “Anheuser-Busch and the NFL hide behind weak, ineffectual Beer Institute self-regulatory guidelines to justify exposing youth to exploitive alcohol ads. Big alcohol turns a deaf ear to our protests, so we want them to hear compelling messages from young people who resent being targeted as new customers.”
Bud Productions, the in-house division that produced hundreds of play-by-play broadcasts of pro baseball, hockey and football, will shut down Jan. 1.
“After careful review, we have decided to discontinue the production services available through our Bud Productions unit,” Anheuser-Busch said in a statement Tuesday. “This was a difficult decision, but is supportive of our goals to remain focused on brewing and marketing beer.”
It is unclear how many jobs will be lost from the closure of Bud Productions or whether they were included in the previously announced layoffs.
“Bud Sports has been a great partner of ours for several years,” Donovan said. … Bud Sports was very professional and had some very capable individuals working in the department. We really had a great partnership.”
The nation’s best-selling beer will get a makeover next year that gives its cans and bottles a new look with a focus on the color blue and the brand’s new emphasis on “refreshment” and “drinkability.”
The change also will come as analysts say more people are buying beer instead of higher-priced wine and spirits.
The “beer goggles” I was wearing mimicked a blood-alcohol level between .10 and .12, the CHP told me.
The officers gave me Fatal Vision, goggles that look like old chem lab safety gear but are an educational tool designed to simulate the physical impairment of being legally drunk. I was amazed that Fatal Vision only equated to consuming three or four alcoholic beverages. With the goggles on, I felt woozy, dizzy and a little bit sick…
Then the officers gave me the keys to an old Ford Crown Victoria, then told me to drive through a cone course. To complete the course, I had to parallel park, drive forward and backward through a short, curvy course and pull into a parking spot. I was about 5 feet off the “curb” when I attempted to parallel park, and I hit no less than five cones driving the course. Backing up proved impossible. For the life of me, I couldn’t see the cones behind the car.
“The one thing is those goggles don’t impair your judgment,” Boles said. “Alcohol impairs your judgment.”
Random Beer Stuff:
One quick shout out… this week’s episode of “How Stuff Works” on the Discovery Channel is all about beer. It airs on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 8 p.m. ET/PT and reairs on Friday Dec 19 at Midnight. They talk to the experts, brew masters and beer connoisseurs about how they’re innovating new ways to make beer.
Beer Releases:
Frankly there are so many seasonal beers being released right now that we can’t possibly keep up with all of them. If you have a brewery near you, or a favorite brewery in general… chances are they’ve recently released some new seasonal offering. We suggest you check out their website (if they have one).
Two really good places to go for updates on the Web:
Wickwar Brewing Company has released a new beer called Banker’s Draft. It’s being touted as the UK’s first credit crunch beer – brewed specifically to give the taste buds a treat in the current times of hardship.
Operations director Mike Flavin: “Like an old-fashioned bankers’ draft, it’s guaranteed to give 100 per cent satisfaction.”
The beer will be sold on tap in bottles at pubs throughout Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and its city centre watering hole in Bristol, the White Lion.
The ale will also benefit the Wooden Spoon charity which helps underprivileged and physically and mentally disadvantaged children throughout the UK. The brewery is donating 2 pence from every pint sold.
A beer drought which has lasted a quarter of a century is to come to an end in Sudan. Brewing was banned in Sudan 25 years ago under Islamic law. Now, the international brewing group SABMiller says it will launch a new lager in Juba in the south of the country in February.
“We will not only be consuming but producing alcohol. It’s a serious political message of one country, two systems,” South Sudan’s Agriculture Minister Samson Kwaje told Reuters news agency.
SABMiller say the $37m (£22.7m) plant will create hundreds of jobs in the Juba area. Soft drinks will also be made at the plant.
Al (dad) and John (son) Eklund, father and son, fellow beer questers who happen to love beer.
I’ve chatted with John via Email and frequently read the reviews done by this father and son team. They have done 110 documented beer reviews which you can check on their website. You can even filter them via several different methods — like ales and lagers, or by a specific rating number (1-10).
A Binney Drive resident returned from work Wednesday night and noticed a 28-year-old woman drinking beer on his roof.
Police were dispatched about 9:15 p.m. to a “drunk pedestrian on the roof” and arriving officers heard the man twice tell Smith to leave. Smith reportedly said she’d leave if the 37-year-old man gave her more beer, police reported. Smith faces a disorderly intoxication charge. Court security catches DUI suspect with beer
Last Wednesday was DUI Day in the Luzerne County Central Court.
One particular suspect came in for an early morning preliminary hearing for his DUI case.
As this guy walked through the metal detector he set it off. A security guard took out a wand and waved it over his body and found metal in his inner jacket pocket. The guy claimed there was nothing there. After some “Verbal Judo” the man complied and emptied his pockets.
Guess what this dude was carrying? That’s right… an unopened 16-ounce can of Molson Ice. Yahtzee!
Beer Buzz is the weekly show that will keep you informed and updated on all the things going on in the beer world, from the noteworthy to the nutty. Know something we don’t (which is highly likely)? Email us at AlwaysHoppy@BeerTapTV.com and share the news… we just might use it.
In what is being a called a “workforce reduction” the Belgian/Spanish owners of ABInBev, in all their infinite “wisdom” (who in the use actually likes Stella exactly?), are going to can approximately 1,400 salaried positions, affecting about 6 percent of the company’s total U.S. workforce.
Bastards.
About 75% of those are based at the brewer’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, while other reductions will occur in field and brewery locations. What’s more, an additional 250 U.S. positions that are currently open will not be filled, and an additional 415 contractor positions will be pink slipped.
Boy, those foreigners sure didn’t waste time hacking up an American institution, did they?
New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado (makers of Fat Tire Amber Ale), has some nifty new glassware. Using science and technology, the traditional Belgian globe shaped glasses will have bike-shaped etchings on the bottom which creates a bubbly nucleation. This “nucleation” results in rolling carbonation throughout the beer that will help enhance the beer’s flavor by delivering a greater olfactory experience.
Lots of big, scientific-y words to say: It makes the beer better.
The new glass holds 13.5 ounces and is made of thicker, more durable glass. It has a beaded lip and a narrow opening that enhances the beer’s bouquet. The reinforced stem keeps hands your paws from warming the beer and thus allows the beer to remain at the desired temperature.
They started the Sinners Club in 2008 — due to its popularity they’ve increase membership from 225 to 350 members. It contains the rarest beers from their barrel room, many of which are produced in very limited case quantities. Patron Sinners get two 375ml bottles every other month beginning in January of 2009 – Membership is $235 (which does not include shipping of the beers; this is processed via a credit card on file for each shipment). All 350 member slots are already SOLD OUT,so if you want to find out what beers you’ll be missing go to the website (www.lostabbey.com)
Saints Club (200 Members Total)
The Patron Saints Club consists of two 750 ml Lost Abbey beers shipped every other month beginning in February of 2009 — total of 14 beers. $160.00 (which does not include the shipping costs for the beers; shipping costs are processed via a credit card on file at the time of each shipment). Again, check out the site for the list of beers in this club.
Both clubs offer a 10% discount on all non-special release beers, brewery purchases and merchandise at the brewery. Does not apply to Keg Purchases.
We may not have flying cars like the ones envisioned in the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Jetsons, but don’t think mankind is resting on their laurels. We do have the International Space Station.
And what have the astronauts and scientists been doing up there in the vacuum-y climate of deep space?
Making beer.
Barley used in a new space beer — a collaborative effort between Japanese brewer Sapporo and Okayama University biologists — is actually a third-generation offshoot from the original barley plant stored for five months inside a Russian lab on the space station. Sapporo has made 100 liters of the out of this world beer, named Sapporo Space Barley, but it’s not for sale.
In January Sapporo will hold tastings of the world’s first space beer…. which apparently tastes just like regular beer. “Regular beer” being relative of course. But if you want to try some… don’t hold your breath. Only thirty couples, selected via lottery, will be invited to the events at the company’s six plants from Hokkaido to Oita Prefecture. It’s already been tested on both lab animals and Sapporo employees, so it should be safe to drink.
If you are one of the very lucky few who get a sample be sure to give me a shout. I want to know if this brew does in fact taste like “regular beer.”
Beer Buzz is the weekly show that is going to keep you informed on all things going on in the beer world, from the noteworthy to the nutty. Know something we don’t? email us at AlwaysHoppy@BeerTapTV.com and share the news, we just might use it.
