Monday, August 10, 2015

Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 30/31, 2015.

Clamps and Gaskets: weekly roundup
A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 30/31
19 July - 1 August 2015


  • 1 August 2015
    It's been 50 years since the birth of U.S. 'craft' beer. In August 1965, Fritz Maytag, heir to the Maytag washing machine company, purchased a dying San Francisco brewery, the Anchor Brewing Company, and the rest is history.
    —Via Tom Acitelli, at All About Beer Magazine.
    —Via Tom Rotunno, at CNBC.

  • 1 August 2015
    Buddy Emmons, the country-music pedal-steel guitarist who 'taught everybody to play,' has died, at age 78. http://n.pr/1MXItiR
    —Via NPR.

  • 29 July 2015
    Odell Brewing is the latest 'craft' brewery to forestall potential take-over bids by selling ownership back to employees.
    —Via Craft Brewing Business.

  • 29 July 2015
    Five reports on the state of upcoming hop harvests, and five different conclusions.
    • Craft Beer Business (9 July 2015) reported that the 2015 hops harvest in the U.S. would be the third highest total harvested acreage on record.
    • NBC News (25 July) reported that the U.S. Drought Monitor showed 98.6 percent of Washington state in a severe drought. The drought will boost hop prices for anything on the spot market. There could be a hops shortage starting in 2016.
    • The annual report from the international Barth-Haas Group (released, July), stated that U.S. Pacific northwest hop growers do not anticipate that the 2015 hop crop will suffer from lack of water.
    • The (U.S.) Brewers Association (16 June) reported a strong increase (16%) in acreage [in the Pacific Northwest] between the 2014 harvest and 2015 plantings, but cautioned that long term water issues could have devastating effects on the ability of new plantings to mature.
    • Stan Hieronymus (29 July) reported that the International Hop Growers Congress in Bavaria announced that production in Germany’s main hop growing regions would likely fall 12 to 22 percent short of earlier predictions, and that the Hop Growers of America is worried that the U.S. alpha varieties yield in 2015 would be down up to 5 percent and aroma varieties off 10 to 15 percent.
    —Via YFGF.

  • Beer Serves America: Economic Contribution Study (2014-2015)
  • 28 July 2015
    In 2014, the U.S. beer industry accounted for $253 billion in economic activity (1.5% of the national Gross Domestic Product) and produced 1.75 million jobs.
    —Via The Beer Institute.

  • 27 July 2015
    Researchers at Purdue University have found that humans have taste receptors for sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami ... and fat. Scientists had already discovered the chemical signature and two specific receptors for fat, but now were able to prove that humans can indeed distinguish fat from other tastes.
    —Via Washington Post.

  • 27 July 2015
    As of the end of June 2015, there were 3,739 breweries in the United States, an increase of 699 over June 2014. (1,755 breweries are in planning.) During the first 6 months of the year, those breweries sold approximately 12.2 million barrels of beer, up from 10.6 million barrels during the first half of 2014.
    —Via (U.S.) Brewers Association.

  • 22 July 2015
    Regular moderate drinking helps to lessen debilitating effect of chronic pain, a new study has found, whose results were published in the medical journal Arthritis Care & Research.
    —Via The Drinks Business.

  • 22 July 2015
    The record for the most beer taps in the world? The Raleigh Beer Garden in Raleigh, North Carolina has 366 drafts.
    —Via Forbes.

  • 22 July 2015
    E.L. Doctorow —one of America's great 20th/21st century novelists— has died, at 84. Most famous for "Ragtime."
    —Via Washington Post.


  • Cantwell addresses CBC13
  • 21 July 2015
    Dick Cantwell —a co-founder of Elysian Brewing, who recently relinquished ownership there over displeasure with a buy-out by Anheuser-Busch InBev— has been appointed Quality Ambassador, a new position of the (U.S.) Brewers Association, with the Association's Technical Committee, "to provide a framework for quality to craft brewers and to provide guidance to achieve the vision of a membership that consistently produces beer of the highest quality."
    —Via (U.S.) Brewers Association.

  • 21 July 2015
    The USPS Shipping Equity Act, a bill currently under consideration by the U.S. Congress, would allow beer, wine, and spirits to be send through the U.S. Postal Service, overturning a 1909 law, if passed. This would apply, however, only to licensed brewers, distillers and winemakers; individuals would still be prohibited from doing so.
    —Via The Drinks Business.

  • 20 July 2015
    New York City's commissioner of health says NO to cold beers or cold showers during the city's 100 degree heat wave. Huh?
    —Via Observer.

  • 20 July 2015
    Dwayne Wade, star basketball player for the Miami Heat, has launched his own wine, called, naturally, "Wade."
    —Via The Drinks Business.

  • 20 July 2015
    According to market research firm Mintel, 23 percent of new beers released globally in 2014 contained greater than 6.5% alcohol-by-volume. In 2012, that number was significantly lower: just 15 percent were that strong. Those high gravity brews are mostly coming from America, with over three times as many beers over 6.5% released in 2014 compared to those released in 2011.
    —Via Food and Wine.

  • 19 July 2015
    53% of beer drinkers in the United States, aged 21-34, say ‘local’ is very or somewhat important in their decision to buy beer.
    —Via Nielsen.


  • The Barth Hops Report 2014/2015
  • 19 July 2015
    In 2014, worldwide beer production totaled 1,960,000,000 hectoliters (the equivalent of 1,670,249,098 U.S. barrels), down 0.6% from 2013. China was the world's largest producer of beer, as it has been for several years, at 492,190,000 hectoliters (419,428,522. U.S. barrels).
    —Via Barth-Haas Group, at YFGF.

  • 19 July 2015
    A list of the top 40 breweries in the world, by production volume in 2014. (At number 1 was Anheuser-Busch Inbev, with 411.5 million hectoliters, 21% of the total world production.)
    —Via Barth-Haas Group, at YFGF.

  • 19 July 2015
    "AM radio kicked streaming's ass. Analog cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming's ass, and absolutely rocked compared to streaming. Streaming sucks. Streaming is the worst audio in history. My music is being removed from all streaming services."
    —Via Neil Young, at Rolling Stone.
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  • Clamps and Gaskets is a bi-weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not.
  • The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

  • For more from YFGF:

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