YOU can assist Virginia breweries. Support SB604 ...TODAY.

If you're a fan of local breweries —of local Virginia breweries— please consider taking a few minutes to register your support of a simple bill currently in front of the Virginia Senate which, if passed and signed, would allow Virginia breweries (almost all of whom are 'craft' breweries) to pour samples for customers at their facilities during tours and to sell beer-to-go.

The Virginia General Assembly is currently in session. There is a bill, SB604, before the Senate that would greatly benefit many of the craft breweries in Virginia. This bill will be heard in the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services committee this Friday, February 10th at 8:30am.

SB604 allows a brewery licensee to sell beer at retail at premises described in the brewery license for on-premises consumption and in closed containers for off-premises consumption. In layman’s terms, production breweries would be allowed to sell pints to customers. If passed, you could tour a Virginia brewery and enjoy a pint afterwards, much like how you can enjoy a glass of wine at a Virginia winery. More importantly, this would put us on even footing with some of our neighboring states.

If you're a Virginia citizen, contact your state Senator and ask them to support SB604. Find your state legislator online: here.

Thank you,
Mike Killelea
Chairman – Virginia Craft Brewers Guild

The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild is an association of small breweries in Virginia. As a member of a larger state group, the Virginia Manufacturers Association, it brought this alert to the attention of the Brewers Association, the national advocacy group for small breweries in the United States (defined as, among other criteria, producing less than 6 million barrels per year).



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A hat tip to the many Tweeters who support Virginia beer, and who alerted me and many others to this bill. A list would include, among others, @VA_BeerGeek, @RVABeerMan, @BarlowBrewing, @RobSmithiii, @HopGoddess76, @RVABeerMeister.

BYOW in VA & DC, NOT in MD

If the government wrote a law, would anyone notice? In his blog, WineLine, Dave McIntyre—who also writes a wine column for the Washington Post— posted this yesterday:

[In Virginia], it is legal for restaurants to allow customers to bring their own wine for dinner. The practice, called “corkage,” was legalized in Virginia last July 1 [2011]. But hardly anyone – restaurants or customers – knows about it.

Virginia's law sets no requirements on how much (or a how little) a restaurant may charge (the so-called corkage fee) or on whether or not the restaurant is required to allow a customer to bring in wine. That decision still remains with the individual restaurant.

I contacted two restaurateurs —one in Richmond, Virginia, and one in northern Virginia— for their opinions on the law change.

Julia Battaglini is the proprietor of Secco Wine Bar in Richmond, Virginia. She wrote:

As many of you may have heard, Virginia passed a law such that, as of July 1st, 2011, ABC-licensed restaurants may choose to allow diners to bring in their own wine and charge a "corkage" fee. After much thought, gnashing of teeth and heated debate, I have decided that Secco Wine Bar will offer a corkage option to our patrons at a $20 fee. HOWEVER, if that bottle comes from River City Cellars [next-door wine shop] we will offer a discounted corkage fee of only $10.

While I have pretty strong feelings as a restaurant owner (and the person who spends half her waking hours agonizing over and maintaining a list of 50+ uncommon, small-production, terroir-driven selections meant to match Chef Tim's ever changing food menu), I also realize there are special, rare bottles in this world meant to be shared, and a pretty rockin' wine shop right next door.

I do, however, reserve the right to trounce anyone who shows up with two buck chuck.

Adam Roth operates his restaurant, Argia's, in Falls Church, a jurisdiction found only eight miles from Washington, D.C., where BYOW and corkage fees have long been allowed. He said:

I'm all for the corkage law. Who knows how much business northern Virginia restaurants have lost to D.C. before it was passed. We've had people take advantage of it already in just one week. There is no good reason that it shouldn't be allowed. Hopefully, there is more reform to come to Virginia 'Blue laws' that really hurt Virginia businesses and the Commonwealth's tax payers.

We charge a $20 flat fee with no limit on bottles (within reason and propriety). Free corkage on Tuesday nights.

Restaurants mark up the price of wine (and beer and spirits) to cover costs of food and labor and rent). Thus, the cost of one's meal is the cost of the entire restaurant 'experience' —and for not having to wash the dishes. That being said, a customer who brings in a bottle of wine is indeed a customer, one who otherwise may not have been one.

A similar proposal in Maryland failed in 2011, opposed, ironically, by the Maryland Restaurant Association. But, in a gloriously inane exception, Maryland restaurants that do not have a liquor license are permitted to allow customers to bring in their own wine.


But, what if you wanted to take an unfinished bottle of wine home with you?

As long the bottle were securely resealed, that would be okay in Maryland. If you were in Washington, D.C., that would be legal as long the restaurant 'officially' re-sealed the bottle. But ... don't do it in Virginia! You'd be in violation of the 'open-container' law.

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• The National Restaurant Association has published a pdf of the current state of 're-seal' wine laws: here.
• I'm several months tardy with this post. Battaglini and Roth both gave me their opinions soon after the law was passed in July.
• Re-sealable beer? That's another tale for another day.

Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 4/5, 2012

A non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 4/5
22 January - 4 February 2012

• 2012.02.04
  Max's Taphouse, in Baltimore, Maryland, to hold its 8th annual Belgian Beer Fest, 17-19 February: 200 different draft beers, 275 different Belgian bottled beers. The draft list, via The Original BeerinBaltimore blog.
  
  
• 2012.02.03
  The Craft Brewers Conference to be held in Washington, D.C., in 2013. As a result, the Brewers Association may be considering temporarily moving SAVOR, the annual beer-with-food exposition to New York City. Via DCBeer.
  
  
• 2012.02.03
  The entire Alan Lomax Folk Collection will be available for streaming, beginning in February, from the Association for Cultural Qquity. Via TechCrunch.
  
  
  
• 2012.02.03
  Blue Marble 2012, a photo of Earth's western hemisphere, taken by NASA satellite Suomi NPP, and posted by the Goddard Space Center, had 3.1 million views after one week: the most views ever for one Flickr photo in a one week period.
  
  
• 2012.02.03
  The Obama administration is considering eliminating the TTB, the agency currently in charge of US alcohol law regulation, and splitting its duties between the IRS and the FDA. Via The Gray Report.
  
  
• 2012.02.02
  Americans ate more meat per capita in 2009 than 1971, but less red meat. Via The Progressive Farmer.
  
  
• 2012.02.01
  Facebook files for IPO to raise $5 billion. Via Yahoo Finance News.
  
  
• 2012.02.01
  We wish you love, peace, and soul, Mr. Cornelius. 'Soul Train' host Don Cornelius dies at 75. Via WUSA9.
  
  
• 2012.02.01
  Joy in repetition. America's minimalist master Philip Glass celebrates his 75th birthday. Via NPR Classical.
  
  
  
• 2012.01.29
  The top 20 selling beers in the US for 2011, according to Symphony/IRI (supermarket sales). No craft beers, as defined by the Brewers Association, but at No. 19 is Yuengling Lager. Via The Business Journal.
  
  
• 2012.01.29
  How and why cider has fizz (or doesn't). Via Cider Apprentice.
  
  
• 2012.01.28
  Analyst downgradesnMolson Coors stock due to reduced buying power of unemployed young males and due to increasing sales of "specialty craft" beers. Via CBS News.
  
  
• 2012.01.27
  Twitter to block specific tweets on a country-by-country basis when the content runs afoul of local laws, but keep those Tweets visible in the rest of the world. On-line protest — #TwitterBlackout — develops against "censorship." Via Washington Post.
  
  
• 2012.01.27
  Washington, D.C. ranks as most literate city in nation, over prior top cities, Seattle and Minneapolis, in list compiled by Central Connecticut State University. Via WTOP.
  
  
  
• 2012.01.27
  "The pint glass is an outdated relic ... that shows little love for the liquid inside." Opinion piece from The Guardian.
  
  
• 2012.01.27
  Independent filmmaker J.R. Richards producing Beer Hunter, a documentary movie about the late beer writer Michael Jackson.
  
  
• 2012.01.26
  Proposed Maryland bill to create a license category for farm breweries. Requires that a percentage of a beer's ingredients must be grown on farm. Via Harford Dagger.
  
  
• 2012.01.25
  Sierra Nevada top operate a 2nd brewery in Asheville, North Carolina; to receive $3.75 million in "economic incentives" over seven years. Beer writer Lew Bryson offers perspective.
  
  
• 2012.01.25
  Washington, D.C. experiences rapid growth in brewery development. Via Washington Post.
  
  
• 2012.01.24
  The Neighborhood Restaurant Group, parent organization to beer bar ChurchKey, announces Megan Parisi —past lead brewer for Cambridge Brewing of Massachusetts— as head brewer for The Yards, an upcoming production brewery (and restaurant) near Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. Via Washington Post.
  
  
  
• 2012.01.24
  Brewers Association announces slate of 60 breweries selected to participate in Savor, a national beer-with-food exposition, to be held in Washington, D.C., 8/9 June 2012. [Eight breweries in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia included.]
  
  
• 2012.01.24
  A discussion on what defines West Coast IPA? Point-of-origin, hop bitterness, hop flavor, hop variety, unbalance? Via Beervana.
  
  
• 2012.01.24
  AB-InBev President Dave Peacock resigns, the last major official from before the Belgian/Brazilian buyout. Company demands its distributors stop concentrating on "competing brands." Via Brookston Beer Bulletin.
  
  
• 2012.01.23
  "Every town should have a brewery." —Charlie Papazian: 'craft' beer pioneer, homebrew guru, founder of Brewers Association. His 63rd birthday, today. Via Brookston Beer Bulletin.
  
  
• 2012.01.23
  Why the "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and the "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) were dangerous for free speech, why they were NOT the way to fight on-line property piracy, and how and why Congress will try again. Via O'Reilly Radar.
  
  

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Beer ads you won't see during the Super Bowl

First: a short from Breckenridge Brewery, of Colorado: a sendup of Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World ad. (If Dos Quis is indeed so refreshing, why would one "stay thirsty"?)

Then, longer at four minutes and twenty-six seconds ...

Budweiser has its gauzy ads featuring Clydesdales horses. Deschutes Brewery, of Oregon, offers, instead, Landmarks, a video featuring a banjo, an adventure in the Oregon woods, and a skinny-dipping young woman.

Finally ...

Why is it you won't see any 'craft' beer ads during the Super Bowl?

"Are you kidding? The big brewers are 80 times our size," says Jim Koch, president and founder of Boston Beer. "Advertising on the Super Bowl is out of our league when one ad costs $3.5 million. Our money is better spent on hops."
<...>

The flat reality of craft beer is that despite all the growth within the industry and excitement about its future, craft and regional brewers still make up only about 5% of all beer sold in the United States, according to the Brewers Association. Anheuser-Busch could spill Boston Beer's 2.3 million during the course of the year and still produce nearly 100 million barrels.

The Street

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• Thanks to Stan Hieronymus, at whose blog, Appellation Beer, I was first alerted to these videos.
• Watch more Truths In Beervertising vids from Breckenridge, including a sendup of a Corona ad: here.
• At A Good Beer Blog, Alan McLeod found the Deschutes video "creepy."
• Fun facts about beer and food consumption during the Super Bowl, and a couple of recipes: here.

Pic(k) of the Week: New York State of Bass (Ale)

How far the mighty have fallen.

Bass Ale —once a mighty engine of the British industrial revolution, and brewed in Burton-on-Trent in the U.K.— is now owned by the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate, Anheuser-Busch InBev. Founded in 1777, Bass has not existed as an independent company since the year 2000.

For the U.S. market, AB InBev brews Bass Pale Ale in ... Baldwinsville, upstate New York.

Bottle seen in a beer and wine shop in northern Virginia.
14 January 2012.

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Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as subject. Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.

VeggieDag Thursday: Veggie Bowl XLVI

Glug, glug, glug ...

VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post on an animal-free diet and its issues.
In 2008, Americans drank 50 million cases of beer on Super Bowl Sunday, according to data compiled by Nielsen. That's the equivalent of 1.2 billion 12-ounce bottles (or cans). The actual total volume of beer consumed would have been even greater than that, because Neilsen's data excluded beer served at restaurants, bars, or at the University of Phoenix Stadium (site of Super Bowl XLII, when the New York Giants upset the favored New England Patriots).

Even so, the Super Bowl was only the 8th highest beer selling occasion for the year. Neilsen's methodology was to include sales data for the days surrounding the event. The end to January and beginning to February are slow for consumer purchases.

Nom, nom, nom ...
To accompany the beer they drank while watching the Super Bowl, Americans consumed more than 100 million pounds of chicken wings, the equivalent of 1.25 billion wing portions (acording to the National Chicken Council). But, fret not, animal-flesh abstainers. According to the Hass Avocado Board, Americans consumed more than 49 million pounds of guacamole during the 2008 Super Bowl.

Here are a few recipe ideas for Super Bowl XLVI.

Growler of fresh local beer?

Check!

Green Bean & Dill Pickle Spread

Check!

Meatless Beer Chili

Check!

.

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• The top eight 'beer' days, in order from first to last, as compiled by Nielsen in 2008, were: Independence Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Fathers Day, Christmas/New Year's, Thanksgiving, and ... Easter (think college spring break). The Super Bowl ranks eighth.
• A recipe for Hop Hummus: here.
• A tale of meat chili gone wrong: here.
• VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post on vegetarian issues. Why the name? Here.
• Prior VeggieDag Thursday posts: here. Follow on Twitter: #VeggieDag.
• Suggestions and submissions from chefs and homecooks: welcomed!

Pic(k) of the Week: Brewster Fashion

A brewery is a high moisture work zone. Boots are de rigeur as protective wear for brewsters and brewers. Likewise at beer festivals, such as here, at the World Beer Festival, in Raleigh, North Carolina, on 28 April 2007.

The terms brewster and brewer may have been, for a time, at least in northern England and Scotland, interchangeable terms, feminine or masculine, for one who makes beer.

From the Oxford English Dictionary (as quoted by Martyn Cornell at his beer history blog, Zythophile):

In northern M(iddle) E(nglish), perh. owing to the frequent adoption by men of trades like weaving, baking, tailoring, etc., the suffix [-ster] came very early to be used, indiscriminately with -ER, as an agential ending irrespective of gender.

It is probable that “-ster” was often preferred to “-er” as more unambiguously referring to the holder of a professional function, as distinguished from the doer of an occasional act [emphasis mine]. In Scotland, baxter and webster survived as masculines down to the 19th c.

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• All About Beer Magazine organizes three World Beer Festivals: in Raleigh and Durham, in North Carolina, and in Columbia, South Carolina. The Columbia festival occurs today, 28 January 2012. The Raleigh festival is scheduled for 4 April 2012; the Durham event has no 2012 date listed as of today's post. A fourth festival, in Richmond, Virginia, is no longer held.
• The Pink Boots Society is an association of and for women brewers and beer professionals: pinkbootssociety.org.
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as subject. Commercial use requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.