Beer Buzz 030: Is New Belgium For Sale?
Thursday, May 28th, 2009Beer Tap TV News:
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:
UPDATES
We want to know what you did for American Craft Beer Week… what events you attended, what your local brewery was doing, etc. Drop us a line at AlwaysHoppy@beertaptv.com.
This years Great American Beer Festival will take place September 24 – 26 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Tickets for American Homebrewers Association members went on sale May 19. The Members Only Tasting Session has a two-ticket limit per member. In order to attend the Members-Only Tasting Session your membership must be valid through September 30, 2009. Tickets for everyone else will go on sale on June 1. Buy them quickly as every session of last year’s GABF sold out two weeks in advance of the event.
The second annual SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience takes place on Saturday, May 30, from 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The cream of the crop from the craft beer world will be in attendance. Sadly, we couldn’t make it this year but if do we’d love to hear how it turns out, so drop us a line at AlwaysHoppy@beertaptv.com
BEER NEWS
Buddhist temple built out of one million beer bottles
Wat Lan Kuad or ‘the Temple of a Million Bottles’, is in Sisaket province near the Cambodian border, 400 miles from the capital Bangkok.
The Buddhist monks began collecting bottles in 1984 and collected so many that they decided to use them as a building material. Altogether there are about 1.5 million recycled bottles in the temple, and the monks intend to reuse more. They have created a complex of around 20 buildings using the beer bottles. The bottles do not lose their color, provide good lighting, and are easy to clean. A concrete core strengthens each building. Green bottles are Heineken and brown are the Thai beer Chang.
The monks are so eco-friendly that mosaics of Buddha are created with recycled beer bottle caps. The beer bottle temple is now on an approved list of eco-friendly sight-seeing tours in southeast Asia.
Shmaltz Brewing Company wants your picture!
America’s smallest, biggest and most award-winning Jewish Beer Company will celebrate its 13th year of existence with the special release of JEWBELATION BAR MITZVAH – their 13th Chosen Beer in 13 years of Shmaltz. Brewed with 13 malts, 13 hops and soaring to 13% alc, Bar Mitzvah will be nationally available in 22 oz. bottles and a very limited amount of draft for select bars. The national launch of Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah will take place at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO from September 24-26, 2009. This winter, HE’BREW will host special Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah parties in New York City and San Francisco, CA.
Shmaltz Brewing turns 13 this year, which in Judaism marks the year of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the coming of age for a Jewish boy or girl. Shmaltz embraces this monumental occasion by inviting consumers to submit Bar/Bat Mitzvah photographs for potential inclusion on the label of Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah. The national contest runs from now until July 4, 2009; photos can continue to be submitted until Chanukah 2009 as all images will be posted on the Shmaltz website.
The “winning” photos in each of these categories will receive a HE’BREW Bar Mitzvah Gift Set and be featured on Shmaltz’s website: “Best Hair,” “Best Family Photo,” “Most Awkward Moment,” “Youngest-Looking Adult,” “Funniest Shot,” “Best-Dressed,” “Best Braces,” and “Best Dance Moves.” Please send photos with your name, date and location of event to info@shmaltzbrewing.com. If you are on Facebook, join their group “The Jewbelation 13 Project,” and check out some photos they’ve collected, post your picture, and become a fan of Shmaltz Brewing and HE’BREW Beer.
And we want you to send us your Bar/t Mitzvah video, which we’ll put up here on BTTV.
Beer tax on tap for health care?
Consumers in the United States may have to hand over nearly $2 more for a case of beer to help provide health insurance for all. Details of the proposed beer tax are described in a Senate Finance Committee document that will be used to brief lawmakers Wednesday at a closed-door meeting.
Taxes on wine and hard liquor would also go up. And there might be a new tax on soda and other sugary drinks blamed for contributing to obesity. No taxes on diet drinks, however. Beer taxes would go up by 48 cents a six-pack, wine taxes would raise by 49 cents per bottle, and the tax on hard liquor would increase by 40 cents per fifth. Proceeds from the new taxes would help cover an estimated 50 million uninsured Americans.
Go to “Don’t Tax Our Beer” and get all the facts, such as… did you know that almost 44% of what you pay for beer is already taxes?!
Here’s our beef: if the government wants to provide health care for all, which we’re not against, why are they taxing products we already pay taxes on? Isn’t that double taxation? What’s more, if they want to provide health care for all… why aren’t they going after the root of the problem – pharmaceutical companies? We all know this and oil companies are the biggest rackets going and are two of the “special interest groups” that really run this country. They make money hand over fist… let THEM fork out the dough for a national health care system. After all, the side effects of their products are more lethal then all the beer in the world.
New Belgium Brewing Coasts into South Carolina
New Belgium Brewing announced that 22-ounce bombers of Fat Tire, 1554 and Mothership Wit will be available in South Carolina beginning June 1. The Fort Collins-based brewery is widening its reach this spring, adding South Carolina as one of four new states.
“South Carolina is famed for its natural beauty and for having an appreciation for the good life” said Bryan Simpson, New Belgium spokesperson. “We’re rolling out three of our favorite beers there, so hopefully the good life just got a little better.”
South Carolina residents looking to learn more about New Belgium can check out the New Belgium newsletter, The Tinkerer: or New Belgium’s site. For those who love man’s greatest invention (the bicycle) as much as New Belgium, join Team Wonderbike.
Since we’re talking about New Belgium… we heard a rumor a few days ago that is, shall we say – very interesting. And potentially very disheartening. We heard that NBB may be up for sale and AB-InBev is interested. Now, we obviously have no way of knowing if this is true, or that NBB is even selling, but the person who we heard this from was not the cousin of a best friend’s boyfriend’s sister’s brother. We’d love for New Belgium to give us a call or send an Email giving us the scoop, because if any part of this is true… the depth of our disappointment can not be overstated. AB-InBev would DESTROY NBB. Period.
BEER RELEASES
Karyudo Beer – Tosa Kuroshio Bakshu – Konan City, Japan
To celebrate 10 years in biz Japanese microbrewery Tosa Kuroshio Bakshu has introduced Karyudo Beer. Karyudo is a low malt concoction brewed with rice flour and hops in an 8 to 2 ratio. What makes it unique is that it also contains dashi, the fish (bonito) stock that’s critically important to making Japanese soups like miso shiru. You can apparently order Karyudo over the phone (tel. 0887-55-4111). They are selling six-pack gift sets containing 2 bottles of Karyudo and 4 bottles of their other beers for a mere 2,937 yen (about $30).
Flashback Anniversary Ale – Boulder Beer Company – Boulder, CO
To celebrate their milestone 30th Anniversary, Boulder Beer Company will release Flashback Anniversary Ale. The commemorative brew will be available in 6-packs and on draft through September in all markets where Boulder Beer Company brands are sold. An India Brown Ale, Flashback is single-hopped with five separate additions of Cascade hops. Citrusy with a prominent hop aroma, highly hopped like an IPA but dark and roasty like a Brown. Boulder Beer Company plans to serve Flashback Anniversary Ale at events throughout the summer, culminating with our 30th Anniversary Celebration, which is planned for mid-September.
NEW BEER BAR OF THE WEEK
Oakley’s Bar & Lounge in Monument, Colorado
This new beer bar and restaurant is inside the new Sundance Mountain Lodge located just off I-25 in Monument, Colorado. It used to be where the old Falcon Inn used to be. Fran actually found this while perusing the Sunday paper. Their ad says they have 83 different beers, well… they actually have over 100 now. Most are in bottles, as they only have 8 taps. The food is top-notch (their Executive Head Chef worked at Blue Star in Coloradon Springs). Whoever is behind this sunk a ton of cash into the remodel – we’re talking millions. There bar has 3 flat screen HD TVs, 2 pool tables, a huuge comfy lounge area, pinball and Pac Man machines, and some of the best views of the Front Range you could ask for. CHECK IT OUT!
BEER GADGET OF THE WEEK
Drinking board game Pukes and Staggers
Price: $24.95
A new drinking board game, Pukes and Staggers, launched May 20, 2009 along with a “STAY HOME TONIGHT!” a campaign promoting safe and responsible drinking.
“We were starved for a new drinking game and so were our friends and neighbors … so we decided to do something about it to end the drinking game famine,” said Pukes and Staggers creator Jeffrey Barber.
Pukes and Staggers is a drinking board game in which players must perform tasks and drink in “creative” ways. According to the website, tasks may include chugging a beer upside-down, mixing drinks or telling an embarrassing story.
But, Happy Beer LLC., the creators of Pukes and Staggers, had another message to go with the release of the game. “We know there is a lot of controversy right now over binge drinking, legal drinking ages, and drinking and driving, so we thought it appropriate to simultaneously release a campaign that promotes safe drinking with a designated game host in a safe environment. We want to keep young adults off the roads and curb excess spending in a mad economy,” said Brad Thayer, Managing Member of Happy Beer LLC.
The campaign includes using online social networking outlets to educate the public on safe and responsible drinking practices. Examples of campaign videos can be viewed on You Tube at http://youtube.com/stayhometonight.
BEER BLOG OF THE WEEK
The Foaming Head
http://www.thefoaminghead.com
http://domesticcraftbeer.blogspot.com/
http://newyorkbeer.blogspot.com/
The ultimate website(s) for all things New York Craft Beer!
Kevin Burns, Chris Rowley, and Marcus Guiliano are the heads behind these sties. Kevin is the Bar Manager at Aroma Thyme Bistro in Ellenville, NY, where he oversees a beer list of over 150 different beers and 6 taps. He has organized and presented seven beer dinners at the award winning restaurant and has helped make Aroma Thyme a destination for beer lovers. In 2009, Kevin was a judge on The Matthew Vassar Cup panel at TAP-NY where he helped to selected the three best beers in the Hudson Valley. Marcus is an award-winning chef and owner of Aroma Thyme Bistro. Marcus was a guest chef at the 2008 TAP-NY festival as well as a judge for the prestigious F.X. Matt Memorial Cup and Matthew Vassar Brewers’ Cup.
CLOSING
Remember, we will not have an episode of Beer Buzz next week as Eric will be replacing Eli as the biggest beer drinker in Jamaica, David will be in Las Vegas, and Dusty will be dealing with the horde descending on Old Chicago’s as their latest mini-tour – COLORADO (specifically New Belgium Beers: Fat Tire Amber, NBB Specialty Draft, Biere De Mars – Limited Release, Sunshine Wheat, Trippel, Abbey Dubbel) begins and runs from May 27th through June 14th.
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