Six-Pack of News, Volume 12

After a couple of weeks, the Six-Pack is back, and there's plenty to get into, including the recently-completed Great American Beer Festival.

GABF handed out 286 medals to 254 different breweries at this weekend's festival. As a South Carolinian, I'd like to congratulate Revelry Brewing Company and Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taproom for earning Silver Medals in the Scotch Ale and Bock categories, respectively. You can see the entire list of winners, including Champion Breweries and Pro-Am winners, right here.

Vinepair likes their lists, and in the last few weeks have given their thoughts on the best Fall beers and their favorite beers for tailgating. Some surprises on the latter list--I never expected it to be so Pale Ale/IPA-heavy.

In a follow-up to the last Six-Pack, Cape May Brewing Company was named Start-up/Young Manufacturer of the Year by the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program. Congrats, guys!

In what seems to be good news for craft beer drinkers, but really isn't, researchers from Friedrich Schller University Jena in Germany determined that IPAs are less harmful to the liver than other forms of alcohol, per a study performed on rats. Now, the key words are "LESS HARMFUL", as in, "still harmful" to the liver.

In what seemed to be the day's big beer news, Japan's Kirin Brewery purchased a roughly 24.5% stake in Brooklyn Brewery. The transaction, which was valued at "several billion yen" (placing it in the $40-80 million range, roughly) also includes a new joint venture which will be 40% owned by Brooklyn, as well as product development for the Japan market, restaurant development, and an expansion of Brooklyn products into Brazil. It is worth noting that by limiting Kirin's stake to under 25%, Brooklyn can maintain its independent craft brewery designation with the Brewers Association.

Finally, I seem to frequently drop in a story of local/South Carolina interest, and this Six-Pack is no different. The City of Columbia's Board of Zoning Appeals approved a microbrewery that will takeover an abandoned warehouse in the Innovista district in the western part of Columbia. The Columbia Craft Brewing Company has investors and a professional brewer ready to begin operations, as soon as the warehouse is renovated and prepped for operations.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 11

Hello, everyone! I have some programming notes for later on in this post, but let's get to the news!

In Volume 10 of this news series, I threw some love towards the first and only brewery in the country of Jordan, Carakale Brewing Company. Now, thanks, in part, to fellow beer reviewer Rod Jones, here are a couple of articles about Carakale. This Vice article is a couple years old, but the Fox News article is from earlier this month and also includes interviews from other Arab brewers.

After roughly two years of success from their "Not Your Father's" alcoholic soda series, Small Town Brewery is adding Mom to the mix. The line-up will begin with Not Your Mom's Iced Tea, which will be released shortly.

A new beer-filling system designed to create the perfect head inside a beer growler, bottle, or can was featured on the hit ABC reality show Shark Tank, with seemingly positive reviews from the investors on the show. The system, named Fizzic, is available from Amazon and Brookstone.

In some news of personal interest, Cape May Brewing Company, about whom I wrote an in-depth review here, is a finalist for Manufacturer of the Year at the 2016 New Jersey Manufacturing Awards. The winner will be announced on October 7th--watch this space.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal published an article today about the supply-and-demand difficulties surrounding some specialty hops. Mostly focusing on supply shortages, article author Tripp Mickle talks to multiple small brewers about these supply issues, and how they have affected breweries' bottom lines.

One last thing: some programming announcements for the video review part of this site. There will be a review of Victory's anniversary beer tomorrow, then the month of October will soon be upon us. And what better way to start the month than with an Octoberfest series! Three videos, six different beers, beginning Saturday, October 1st, with the 2nd and 3rd parts coming the first half of next week. The Octoberfest videos will be videos 47-49, which means I will be making my 50th video in the next couple of weeks. To celebrate the milestone, I have a special side-by-side planned for that video, which will be released the week of October 10th. You can check all of those videos out, along with the 45 I've already made, right here!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 10

Business-as-change organization B The Change Media recently released a list of over 200 companies who are using their business organizations as forces of good. New Belgium Brewing Company made the list, honored as Best for the Environment and Best for Workers, in addition to winning an overall award. The accompanying article talks about New Belgium's accomplishments, including their employee ownership program and aggressive reuse and recycling efforts.

As I do frequently, I ask you to permit me a bit of local interest news. With thanks to my mother (Hi, Mom!), a new brewery just opened in my old hometown of York, PA. Collusion Tap Works opened its doors this past weekend, boasting a diverse line-up of 24 different beers at their tasting room and bar.

The legendary Oxford English Dictionary added "kegerator" to its extensive list of entries in its September 2016 update. Of course, they also added "moobs", "Oompa Loompa", and "YOLO", so evaluate this news as you like.

I've given my own thoughts on the matter, but here is some detailed debate on the Big Beer takeover of many craft breweries. Aaron Goldfarb at Serious Eats took a look inside A-B InBev's High End headquarters and chatted with some of the leaders of those breweries. Jacob McKean at San Diego's Modern Times beer rebutted many of the claims from the Serious Eats article (including ABI's Blue Point Brewing Company--who have a flagship Toasted Lager--making the bizarre claim that they are now working with the world's best lager-makers). Finally, Patrick Clinton at The New Food Economy wades into the whole debate with some points of his own, including some reflections from the larger food industry. All are worthwhile reading. For the record, I tend to side more with McKean--big shock, I know.

Schlafly's Ambassador Brewer, Stephen Hale, tells St. Louis's Riverfront Times about his 5 preferred styles of beer for the upcoming fall season.

Finally, this isn't news, per se, but I invite you to check out the first and only craft brewery in the Kingdom of Jordan, Carakale Brewing Company. It is among the safest and most stable countries in the Middle East, but I would imagine such a venture is still incredibly difficult, given the overall turmoil in that region of the world.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 9

Some fun little tidbits in today's news round-up. Let's get to it!

This is an article from last month, though it fell in a gap between Six-Packs of News, but with the calendar now flipped to September, this seems relevant. Draft Magazine reported about a shortage of pumpkins to create fall beers. While the shortage is in its second consecutive year, many brewers are finding ways (though, not without headaches) to make up for the shortage, including leveraging additional pumpkin suppliers or acquiring excess stores of pumpkin puree. We will have to watch the next couple of seasons to see if this shortage becomes more critical for brewers.

Draft Magazine also recently posted an article noting 5 key beer statistics, including most successful new brands and multiple analyses about craft beer growth.

Next, there is a football game being played this Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Up to 160,000 people are expected to be in attendance for the game between Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, and ESPN's David Hale reports that over half a million beers have been ordered for the game.

A company called BetterBuys, which I would best classify as a business optimization consultant, recently discussed brewery automation with six Philadelphia-area craft breweries and tried to find out if such automation took the "romance" out of brewing for these brewers.

Earlier this week, Vinepair columnist Will Gordon posted a list of the "8 best beer bargains". This list includes 7 great craft beers and Pabst Blue Ribbon. They can't all be winners, I guess.

Finally, just today, Vinepair also released their rankings of the 50 states in the US, based on number of craft breweries and gallons of craft beer. My own South Carolina clocks in way down in the low 40s, with just over 1 brewery and 0.7 gallons produced per 100,000 adults 21+. Find your own state here.

On a personal note, today marks the unofficial one-year anniversary of Pourly Reviewed Beer. Between this day in 2015 and October 27, 2015, I made a whopping SIX beer-related blog posts. Thus, I consider the OFFICIAL one-year anniversary the day I started writing with true consistency: October 28, 2015. I will have much more to say on that date. Still, this is a bit of a landmark, and I just want to thank everyone who has read this blog, and special thanks to my family for their support.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 8

With various trips getting in the way, it's been nearly a month since there has been any news coverage on this site. Let's fix that RIGHT NOW!

Fresh off of leaving Terrapin Beer Company after their acquisition by MillerCoors, Terrapin co-founder John Cochran has purchased Asheville's Altamont Brewing (along with its assets, including all production equipment and a restaurant) and renamed it UpCountry Brewing.

Despite a law seemingly in support of such action, state of Oklahoma lawmakers and liquor control group are struggling with legislation that will allow breweries to sell beer for on-site consumption. The Oklahoma Attorney General is expected to rule on/interpret the matter later this week.

Presented with minimal comment, a slightly depressing map of the most popular beers in many countries of the world.

After discovering a relative lack of accommodations near their brewery, the folks at Stone Brewing Company have decided to erect a hotel near their facilities outside of San Diego, CA. The Stone Brewing Co. Hotel is slated to open in 2018.

Staying in California, state lawmakers have sent the governor a bill legalizing the already established-but-technically-illegal practice of offering no-charge single servings of wine or beer to patrons of beauty salons and barber shops.

Finally, in a bit of local news, Swamp Cabbage Brewing Company in Columbia, SC celebrated their 2nd birthday this past weekend. Congratulations!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 7

We lead off with an always-engaging topic: Game of Thrones. Apparently, Brewery Ommegang joined the throngs of Thronies disappointed by the recent news of a late and shortened Season 7 of the hit HBO fantasy series, and decided to cope by moving up the next beer in their until-now-annual Game of Thrones series. Valar Dohaeris Belgian-Style Tripel will be available starting on October 10th, and will be joined by what could be considered its returning brother, Valar Morghulis Dubbel Ale. I reviewed this year's start-of-season offering, Seven Kingdoms Ale, and you expect to see Valar Dohaeris on this site later this year.

Staying in the realm of the nerdy, San Diego Comic-Con is mere days away, and Stone Brewing will be preceding the annual convention with HopCon 4.0, their 4th annual beer festival celebrating beers created by nerds, actors, comedians, and nerdy actors and comedians. The concept started with Stone's initial collaboration with former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wil Wheaton and fark.com founder Drew Curtis 4 years ago, known as Stone Farking W00tstout, which has now become an annual release. This year's HopCon will feature W00tstout variants and other unique beers created by nerdy personalities, with Wheaton and Curtis joined by comedienne and tv host Aisha Tyler (Whose Line is It Anyway?), actresses/Team Unicorn members Alison Haislip and Rileah Vanderbilt, tv/internet personality Alex Albrecht, comedian Jonah Ray (upcoming Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot), and NASA/JPL engineer Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi.

Goose Island Beer was one of A-B InBev's first acquisitions under the High End banner. I generally tried to remain positive about Goose Island, insisting that as long as they were left alone and had no problems, that I would remain positive about their beer line-up, despite the potential for interference from their macro overlords. Well, Goose Island just issued their second recall of their well-regarded Bourbon County Brand Stout from 2015 due to several batches being infected with lactobacillus bacteria. Goose Island is pursuing the root cause, making process changes to ensure future batches are not infected, and issuing refunds for bad bottles. One batch of Proprietor's Bourbon County Stout was also infected.

Vinepair released a list of the 10 most popular new craft beers released in 2015. The list is based on supermarket sales. The result is a list that is as much influenced by distribution as it is by beer quality, though I have no real qualms with anything on this list.

Netherlands-based KLM airlines has collaborated with Heineken to develop a special keg system that will work at typical airplane altitudes. Standard kegs are not practical at 30,000 feet, because the air pressure differential would result in pint glasses full of foam. Heineken has developed modified air pressure kegs that will work at up to 36,000 feet and have been adapted to fit in an airplane. As a result, KLM will begin serving in-flight draft beer starting next month.

Finally, the 35th annual Great American Beer Festival will be held October 6-8, 2016. GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the U.S., with over 750 attending breweries in 2015, and their prestigious GABF Competition will award medals in over 90 categories covering about 150 beer styles. In 2015, over 6600 beers entered the competition.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 6

Man, with the Independence Day holiday on Monday, it fees like this week is flying by! I managed to pull together a handful of news stories of interest from the last week or so, so let's get going!

Will McCameron, owner of Brewery 85 in Greenville, SC, wrote a column on Brew Studs criticizing A-B InBev's summer-long "America" theme, pointing out that while some production is still done in the United States, the company is headquartered in Belgium and run by Brazilians, both of whom are decidedly NOT American. The column also caught traction in the local South Carolina press.

Runner's World reports on a Japanese Olympic marathon runner who won a 4-kilometer Fourth of July race in Boulder, Colorado, where she has been training for the Rio Olympics. Her prize? Her weight in beer from Avery Brewing. While she's been passing some of it around, she cannot partake in her prize until AFTER the Olympics.

I do enjoy IPAs, now, but I'm SURE I'm not psychotic. At least, I'm pretty sure.

Goeuro.com listed the average price for a beer in 70 international locations, and put them into a handy chart to find where beer is the cheapest. Or most expensive, I guess. Further down the page are some breakdowns of beer financials in European cities.

Finally, a columnist from Vinepair (thanks, Mom!) listed his ideal bar draft list, coming up with the perfect 16-tap line-up for his imaginary bar. This sounds like something I might do this weekend. Stay tuned!

Finally, local Columbia, SC taproom Craft and Draft is celebrating their 2nd birthday with a big party this coming Saturday. Congratulations, guys, and see you there!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 5

After taking a week off, there is a wealth of beer news to get to--in fact, we can't even cover it all in six! Here is the latest Six-Pack of News.

Zymurgy magazine, the periodical for the American Homebrewers' Association, polled their readers to determine the 2016 Best Beers in America. As this was a nationwide poll, the list is essentially a ranking of beers that get good-to-great distribution cross-country. You're unlikely to find small breweries on the list simply because not enough people get to try them. In addition to the Top 50 Best Beers in America, Zymurgy readership also ranked Best Brewery, Best Portfolio (quantity of different beers), and Best Imports.

Earlier this month, Vinepair released their recommendation of 8 fruit-inspired beers to try this summer. It includes breweries with a variety of distribution levels, so everybody should be able to find at least 2 to 3 of the beers on this list. The list includes the excellent Founders Rubaeus, which was recently reviewed on this very site.

I post this story not to bash A-B InBev--almost everybody has lost a ton of money since the so-called Brexit vote in the United Kingdom on Friday, with the world losing something like $2.1 TRILLION dollars on that day alone. But this St. Louis Business Journal article notes that A-B InBev's share of losses totalled $11.9 billion.

In news of local interest, South Carolina lawyer Brook Bristow, who specializes in beverage law (which was a thing for awhile in this state) reports on how the state Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is cracking down on donations of beer from producers to non-profit organizations and events. Because this state always needs to be a bit bass ackwards.

Zach Fowle of DraftMag has some thoughts on aging "bad beer", though he's talking less Keystone Light and more beers that are thick and alcohol-dominant (even using descriptors like "cough syrup" and "rocket fuel" at points).

BrewStuds notes that included in a release about the California Craft Beer Summit and Beer Festival is the fact that the great state of California is now home to over 700 breweries. This works out to roughly one in every six breweries in the U.S. being located in California.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 4

As I mentioned in Sunday's post, I noticed Highland Brewing Company was starting to get into the canning game. Turns out, they had been canning just one beer, but Beer Street Journal reports they will release their second canned beer later this month. BSJ is also reporting that fellow Asheville, North Carolina brewery Hi-Wire is also following suit, canning their new goze, while Longmont, Colorado's Left Hand Brewing just announced a canning initiative starting this winter.

Philadelphia recently played host to a charity "pop-up street pub" run out of a tractor trailer by Deschutes Brewery.

A North Carolina Native American tribe is suing Anheuser-Busch over use of their symbols in Budweiser advertising. If you look at the picture in the link, you can see the circular, multi-colored logo in the upper left hand corner, and the tribe slogan under "Bud Light".

The Travel Channel recently posted an article featuring 6 international hot spots of beer brewing, from Australia to Scotland.

Finally, DraftMag and others reported that Stone Brewing Brewmaster Mitch Steele is leaving Stone at the end of the month after a decade with the brewery. He plans to open his own brewery, calling it "a bucket list thing." Steele is responsible for many of Stone's top beers, including the Enjoy By series and others, and wrote a book on IPAs.

Six-Pack of News, Volume 3

We talk about big corporations, small craft breweries, and everything in-between in this week's six-pack. Let's do it!

In a union of two mega-corporations, Starbucks Coffee Company will be partnering with Anheuser-Busch to produce, bottle, and distribute ready-to-drink versions of Starbucks' high-end Teavana tea brand.

I fear this may go the way of my recent Black Sour Ale experience, but Schilling Hard Cider is creating a cold-brew coffee nitro hard cider, to debut later this month. I promise, if this makes it to my area, I will DEFINITELY give it a video review, if only so you call can see my reaction face to the apple/coffee combination. Wishing all the best on this for Schilling. Seriously.

Jester King Brewery just began farming on 58 recently-acquired acres near their Austin, Texas brewery. Jester King, producer of wild and farmhouse ales, along with sours, has planted "plum and peach trees, blackberry bushes, and a melon patch." They also are testing wheat on the plot. Eventually, Jester King hopes to utilize many of their own fruits, vegetables, and grains for future production.

Wal-Mart is getting into the craft beer game with beers brewed by Trouble Brewing being sold in 12-packs in Wal-Mart stores.

Rolling Stone reports on cast members of Lin-Manuel Miranda's firestorm of a Broadway musical "Hamilton" who have collaborated with beer experts The Happy Hour Guys to create the "Hamilton"-inspired Rise Up Rye, the first beer under the Broadway Brews Project charity banner.

Finally, if you'll pardon me some news of personal interest, Brewbound published a press release from the Jersey Shore's Cape May Brewing Company announcing the release of their new Mooncusser Pilsner. Cape May has a taproom in southern New Jersey, always pouring well over a dozen beers in addition to their own root beer and ginger ale. Congrats, guys, and see you this summer!

Six-Pack of News, Volume 2

Hey! We made it to a second one of these! Great job, everybody!

I have the Mumford and Sons cranked, the articles picked, and I'm ready to write. Let's do this!

We'll start with the bad news first. Josh Weikert of beer-simple.com talks about what could happen if the craft beer bubble burst, with a hint of on-target bemoaning the lack of discussions on craft beer quality.

Hot on the heels of last week's article on the craft beer industry's massive valuation potential comes an article from Chris Furnari at Brewbound that says craft beer sales growth has slowed significantly to around 6.5% growth, down compared to last year (17% growth). There may be some cause for concern--nearly flat growth at grocery stores/drug stores/Wal-mart/etc.--but I doubt that the double digit growth seen in this and other sales avenues in 2015 was really sustainable. The Brewer's Association tries to pull out some of the so-called-but-not-really craft beer brands, specifically Blue Moon and Shock Top, to paint a better picture. Those two brands ARE DOWN (to the point of negative growth) significantly, but to cite them specifically without looking at other brands owned by Big Beer is unfair. In fact, some such brands, like Goose Island, Founders, and others are doing exceptionally well.

Onto happier news, Governor John Kasich of Ohio signed Sub H.B. 37 which, among other things, eliminated ABV caps on Ohio-produced beers. Prior to this, there was a limit of 12% on beers brewed in Ohio. Looks like this law may have also made some exceptions for taproom and brewery service.

Web-video service Vimeo has a roughly 20-minute documentary on the beer scene in Charleston, South Carolina, including how the city's culture influences that scene. The documentary is about two years old, but a lot of the spirit and sentiment remain relevant.

Chicago wrapped up their Craft Beer Week this past weekend, and Tribune reporter Josh Noel has some impressions on some possibly lesser-known Chicago breweries.

Finally, beer for dogs! Dogs struggle internally with some of the ingredients in human beers, but a U.K.-based company called Woof and Brew have created a dog-friendly "beer" made of "barley malt, dandelion, flax, and 'chicken flavoring'", aiming to create a common social ritual for both the dog and his/her owner.

Six-Pack of News: Volume 1

One of the things I always say when I tell people about how to improve this blog is "I want to write about news more." Well, I want to write about news more. I will try to go in-depth about some issues, but I thought this might be a fun way to throw some interesting stories out there, with just a bit of commentary or a witty quip on my part.

I give you...the Six-Pack of News.

My home state of Pennsylvania has finally started to get themselves out of the Stone Age, at least in terms of selling beer. PA Governor Tom Wolf advocated to and gained approval from the Liquor Control Board to allow six-packs of beer and malt beverages to be sold in gas stations, provided there is a separate point-of-sale for such transactions.

This is a couple of weeks old, but it's still frakking stupid: Budweiser is rebranding itself as "America" for most of 2016 in an obvious attempt to cash in on the upcoming Olympics and election season. I have a number of rebrandings I could suggest to A-B InBev, but I want to keep things kid-friendly here.

Speaking of A-B InBev, this blog some time ago noted their attempts to block out other craft brews from distributors' shelf space by offering financial incentives to distributors that stock a certain amount of A-B InBev products, including their ever-expanding "High End" group of former craft breweries (a group that includes Goose Island, Elysian, Devils Backbone, and many more. Well, this incentive program is being investigated by the Department of Justice over A-B InBev's attempted acquisition of SABMiller, though this particular point is not expected to derail the acquisition.

The awesomely-named Brew Studs found a report from the much-less-awesomely-named Research and Markets group that says the craft beer market could be valued at $45 BILLION dollars by 2019 owing to a growing consumer preference for craft beers. With well over 4000 craft breweries (and counting) in the United States alone, this number, while staggering in a vacuum, seems unsurprising.

While in Asheville over the weekend, I noticed a couple of breweries established East Coast operations there. New Belgium is located in the city's River Arts district, while Sierra Nevada is located outside of the city. North Carolina and Virginia seem to be the hotspots for East Coast operation set-ups, and Ballast Point is the latest to join this push, announcing their intent to establish a manufacturing and retail operation in Botetourt County, VA, near Roanoke.

Finally, the journal PNAS reports that Stanford University archaeologists working in China found a complete set of 5000 year-old brewing equipment, with beer remnants found within the equipment. Analysis of the beer remnants yielded a recipe of millet, barley, Job's tears (a tropical fruit from southeast Asia), and...potatoes???