Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for Week 22

Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories that I have not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com, but that, nevertheless, I find interesting or germane.

Most are concerned with beer, or wine, or whisk(e)y. Some are not. But all are brief. And many are re-posts from my Twitter account: twitter.com/cizauskas.

This is Week 22:
31 May - 6 June 2009

• 2009.06.06
  From Washington DC-area good beer fan Stephen Lipps: his map of good beer bars/shops in Paris. Yes, good beer in Paris, France. http://bit.ly/E4io8


• 2009.06.06
  "Beer is the new wine," says Hugh Sisson of Clipper City Brewing in Baltimore. The story at the Washington Times http://bit.ly/TAJyB


• 2009.06.06
  Brewer at Washington DC's Capitol City Brewing reviews SAVOR as an indication of an "ever increasing profile and support for American craft beer." http://bit.ly/L4li2
  


• 2009.06.06
  DC Foodies on Twitter: 40 Foodies, 3 Chefs, 13 Restaurants, 3 Food Trucks, 1 Gourmet Storehttp://bit.ly/127Kcf.


• 2009.06.06
  Baltimore, Maryland, Oriole's Camden Yards is No. 9 on PETA's top 10 list of vegetarian friendly major league baseball ballparks. http://bit.ly/H77X7.


• 2009.06.06
  Bowie, Maryland minor league baseball Baysox (Class AA) have a "Beers of Munich" Beer and Baseball Dinner on Thursday, June 18 at 6pm, for their game vs the Reading Phillies.http://bit.ly/d2iKI


• 2009.06.06
  In Tennessee, it will soon to be illegal to serve alcohol to anyone with a CONCEALED weapon. Umm, how will the bartender know? http://bit.ly/PcuNV


• 2009.06.06
  14 dirty words: the EU bans any non-European wines with these words on the bottle label: http://bit.ly/3xrPu


• 2009.06.06
  Interested in writing beer history? A British beer historian offers a quick lesson in how to find brewing records: http://bit.ly/Htf7S.


• 2009.06.05
  Albert Sisson, founder of pioneering Maryland brewpub Sisson's, has passed away. An appreciation: http://bit.ly/IgSPk


• 2009.06.05
  States with low beer taxes have 2.2 times more breweries per capita than high excise tax states. http://tinyurl.com/nlg3p4


• 2009.06.05
  91.4 % of polled SAVOR attendees said economy has NOT affected beer purchases. (Those attendees could afford the $95 ticket!) The rest of the stats http://bit.ly/6D6VW.

• 2009.06.05
  Heavy Seas Big DIPA (as in Double India Pale Ale): 10.6 abv, 76 IBUs in 22-oz bottles, and draft, should arrive by late June. From Clipper City Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland. http://snurl.com/heavyseas


• 2009.06.05
  Clipper City Brewing is now on Twitter: @HeavySeasBeer. A list of the 5 DC/MD/VA brewers on Twitter: http://bit.ly/dd31X


• 2009.06.05
  Scotch whisky companies have pledged to cut their use of fossil fuels by 80% by 2050 http://bit.ly/60Yus


• 2009.06.05
  John Hansell of Malt Advocate on drinks writers: They're divorced, unhealthy, childless, and with little free time to enjoy life. http://bit.ly/pRuqI


• 2009.06.05
  It is NOT okay to Tweet during dinner ... and other Twitter etiquette, including how to re-Tweet. http://bit.ly/ABFtw


• 2009.06.05
  Congratulations to 300-game winning baseball pitcher Randy Johnson. At least the inept Washington Nationals created history with their loss. http://bit.ly/w41N5


• 2009.06.04
  DCist.com reviews SAVOR Craft Beer and Food Exposition. Asks: Too much of a good thing? And discusses beer/cheese/chocolate pairings http://bit.ly/A7DcV


• 2009.06.03
  After exercise, it's better to drink beer than water: new research from Granada University in Spain. http://bit.ly/7hXE7


• 2009.06.02
  Sour news from Belgium: 100,000 bottles of lambic and gueuze ruined at Drie Fontenien. http://viigo.im/LYw


• 2009.06.02
  From Chef Bruce Paton: the ABCs of pairing food with beer, AND cooking with beer. Concise and unfussy. http://bit.ly/PTaJa


• 2009.06.02
  After 6 month hiatus, Hugh Sisson of Clipper City Brewing returns to blogging. He asks: Organic Beer - What's the Point? (But responds favorably.) http://bit.ly/owF91


• 2009.06.02
  A mixed review of SAVOR 2009 from BarlowBrewing Blog: Beer good. But "the food was just ... boring." http://cli.gs/sRj9XT


• 2009.06.02
  Study finds 10% of Twitter users produce 90% of the tweets. Unlike most other social networks, men are the most active. http://bit.ly/v4kb0


• 2009.06.02
  Study shows that HIGH state excise taxes lead to REDUCED revenues: 1999 study on cross-state-border beer buying. http://bit.ly/Fmx4G


• 2009.06.02
  China blocks Twitter, Blogger, and other sites in lead-up to 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre. http://tcrn.ch/2zn



• 2009.06.01
  Metrocurean blog reports Washington DC's 'Sustainable Seafood' Chef Barton Seaver has returned to the kitchen. He's the chef at new Blue Ridge Restaurant. http://bit.ly/m96lJ


• 2009.06.01
  Clipper City Brewing's Red Sky at Night Saison: Baltimore Examiner Beer of the Week. Flavorful alternative to standard 'summer wheat ales'. http://bit.ly/LAsN6


• 2009.06.01
  Map of current US beer excise taxes, by state: http://bit.ly/OepQ2


• 2009.06.01
  An analysis --with many useful links-- of the folly of heavy beer excise taxes. http://bit.ly/9Phnp


• 2009.06.01
  For brewers: a 1917 analysis of the advantage of using' invert sugar' vs. refined sugar: http://bit.ly/UTnle


• 2009.05.31
  General Motors to declare bankruptcy on Monday. US gov stake to be 60%. Union vs investor issues. http://bit.ly/PqGQu



• 2009.05.31
  "the flowers /Stream from the hawthorn on the wind away . . . / Pass me the can, lad; there's an end of May" -A.E. Housman


• 2009.05.31
  Nine Twitter Tips For Business. It's FREE guerrilla marketing. Just don't abuse it. http://bit.ly/dfB78


• 2009.05.31
  Jill Richardson's new book-- Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken http://tr.im/mZ6x


• 2009.05.31
  Hockey's Stanley Cup is the only sports trophy out of which the winners drink beer. From Draft Magazine: http://viigo.im/Kbl


• 2009.05.31
  The Mad Fermentationist reviews SAVOR: mostly good for the beer (Russian River Consecration), but only so-so for the food. http://bit.ly/rHFB8


• 2009.05.31
  'You must name and blame the good guys.' Paraphrasing Marc Fisher who has written his last column for the Washington Post. http://bit.ly/10GDVH


• 2009.05.31
  Austrian and German health ministries find traces of cocaine in Red Bull Cola. Company says 'de-cocained' coca leaf only. http://bit.ly/HaIor


• 2009.05.31
  In the 2000s, the Brewers Assoc (US) rejects corn and rice in craft beer. In 1880s England, the use of sugar was decried. http://bit.ly/RM2fH


• 2009.05.31
  2nd wettest month of May on record in the Washington DC area. 10.10" of rain at Dulles by yesterday - and more today. http://tr.im/mVxj

The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by NotionsCapital.

Appreciating Albert Sisson

Albert Sisson died early this morning.

In 1979, Sisson opened the Sisson's Pub in Baltimore, Maryland, in the Federal Hill district, then known as Southeast Baltimore. Sisson's venture was a gamble; it was a neighborhood on the decline.

The pub thrived however and soon became part of the area's revitalization. It became a destination spot throughout the greater Baltimore area, especially prized for for its Creole cuisine.

He bought the former Sticky Fingers bar on East Cross Street in 1978. Working with a nephew, he gutted and renovated the former taproom and christened it Sisson's Restaurant and Pub.

"I always thought he had an ulterior motive - he wanted to get me and my cousin to learn a business," said his son, Hugh Sisson, [now] the owner of Clipper City Brewing in Halethorpe [Maryland]."The day he got the place ready, he threw me the keys and said, 'Don't foul up.' "

Albert F. Sisson
Founder of popular brew pub saw the potential of Baltimore redevelopment and helped change state law
Baltimore Sun
8 June 2009

Hugh Sisson added brewing equipment in 1989, making Sisson's the first post-Prohibition brewpub in Maryland (Virginia and DC, for that matter).

If a measure of a man's wealth is the measure of his friends, Albert Sisson was an incalculably wealthy man. Many a bar patron became a friend, after Albert, wearing his trademark large suspenders, had served him a pint and swapped a tall tale.

The family will hold a public memorial service on June 27 at 11 am at the Church of the Redeemer on N Charles Street in Baltimore.

The family sold the pub in 2000.

VeggieDag Thursday: Barbeque

I shopped at the Farmers Market on Saturday. Picked up a few sprigs of herbs, some end-of-the-season asparagus, and start-of-the-season berries.

Sunday, I grilled the asparagus, tossing it beforehand with olive oil, Herbs de Provence, s/p.

Rob Kasper ran a column in the Baltimore Sun about grilling veggies. He uses a grilling basket; I placed the asparagus spears on a piece of aluminum foil, folded up at the edges, pierced several times.

The 'main course' was grilled marinated ... toad-food.

A favorite meal for my 4-year old step-daughter had been what she would call "toad-food": tofu, blocks of soybean curd. It's a great protein source, but since it's fairly flavorless on its own, the trick is what you do with it. Or as she and I would say: "You have to use the secret sauce."

I adapted this recipe from the blog Vegan Dad: Ultimate BBQ Tofu.

The day before, squeeze the water out of the tofu block by placing it between two plates, weighted on top. (I used soup cans.) Slice the block half vertically, and then horizontally, making 4 thin blocks.

Place them in a sweet and spicy marinade. Vegan Dad has an easy and delicious home-made alternative to commercial sauces laden with additives and high fructose corn syrup.

Now here's the 'secret sauce' part: Freeze the tofu, marinade and all, overnight. The next day, when thawed, the tofu blocks will have gained a chewy texture, and be less likely to fall apart on the grill.

On the grill: a few minutes on each side, liberally basted with the remaining marinade. Serve with —of course— a good, local, Pale Ale.




************************

Thursdays at Yours For Good Fermentables.com are meatless Thursdays —as inspired by Veggiedag in Ghent, Belgium.

Tom Balthazar [mayor of Ghent, Belgium] has officially declared Thursday meatless in his city of nearly a quarter million people. In an effort to make the connection between meat consumption and greenhouse gases (18 percent of which come from livestock production), Balthazar has asked his fellow civil servants to abstain from meat every Thursday.

Kim O'Donnel
Mighty Appetite
Washingtonpost.com

Going about the BUSINESS of the Brewers Association

Have you wondered why the Brewers Association (BA) —the advocacy group for America's 'craft' breweries— has twice held its national beer-with-food exposition —SAVOR— in Washington, D.C.?

Maybe it's the proximity to where laws are passed and regulations promulgated.

Today, after the fun and excitement of the previous week's beer events, members of the Brewers Association will be going about an important part of the business of the organization: lobbying the House of Representatives Small Brewers Caucus. Here's how the BA puts it:

With the creation of the House Small Brewers Caucus in the United States House of Representatives, the small brewing community in America gained an extremely important forum in Washington, DC.

The Caucus was formed in 2007 by interested Members of Congress to gain a better understanding of all aspects of small brewing, from business and regulatory issues to the brewing process and history of the small brewing community. Co-chaired by Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Dennis Rehberg (R-Montana), the purpose of the House Small Brewers Caucus is to provide elected officials and their staff an interactive opportunity to learn about the dynamics of running a small business as a brewery and the quality, process and value of craft beers and small brewing activities.

While small breweries share many of the same priorities and concerns that other small businesses have, brewing is a highly regulated business and has unique issues that most Americans are not aware of. The Small Brewers Caucus intends provide information about the science and art of beer and brewing as well as relevant business, regulatory and societal issues.

Some areas that the Small Brewers Caucus will cover:

* FLAVOR AND DIVERSITY: What makes beer different
o Beer as a food and beverage
o Brewing basics: ingredients, process, quality control, beer flavor and character

* SAVORING THE FLAVOR RESPONSIBLY
o Responsible presentation and enjoyment of beer
o Responsibility to the American community

* SELLING BEER
o Consumer access to choice and quality – access to the marketplace
--->Retail
--->Distribution
o Marketing and Advertising

* SMALL BREWERS AND REGULATION – Accounting for the differences: Large vs. Small
o Impact
o Safety
o Government and Agencies

No House member representing Virginia or Maryland (or the non-voting representative from the District of Columbia) is a member of the 45-member Caucus. Write your Congressman!

MillerCoors: Above Par, and Proactive

There's news out of Georgia that a batch of Coors Light beer brewed there is not quite right.

MillerCoors has recalled a batch of Coors Light in the Southeastern United States after taste tests at the company's Georgia brewery found the beer to be subpar.

MillerCoors, which will begin moving into its new Chicago headquarters this month, last week began pulling the beer from its distribution system and from retailers. "We sampled it and realized it wasn't up to standards," said Pete Marino, a spokesman for MillerCoors.

He didn't immediately know how much beer was recalled, or if the recall had been completed. But the batch involved only Coors Light brewed at the firm's Albany, Ga., brewery.

Beer giant recalls batch of Coors Light in Southeastern U.S.
ChicagoTribune.com
June 1, 2009

Some in the Blogo-Twito-sphere have responded with snarky commentary: How could anyone tell the difference? How much worse could Coors Light possibly be?

But let's be adult here.

MillerCoors made the proper and courageous business decision. As much as I might not care for the flavor (or lack thereof) in Coors Light and other N.A.I.L.s, I admire the decision the company took. Whatever might be wrong with the beer —and it could just be a small thing— MillerCoors discovered it and promptly dealt with it in the full light of public disclosure.

Finding flaws is a sign of a robust quality control program, if a failure at an earlier point. Would that more American businesses police themselves rather than having the government demand a recall.

The amount of money MillerCoors might lose —ingredients, labor, packaging, transportation costs, recall cost— will be in no manner non-trivial. MillerCoors is to be commended for exercising good business practices.

An attempt to pass the beer through the network —with even minor flaws— might have been very tempting. But the results could have been much more damaging.

Consider the sad saga and swift collapse of Schlitz Brewing in the 1970s. Or consider more recent —and opposite— history, when Boston Beer discovered glass shards in some of its bottled beers. Despite being the fault of its glass supplier, Boston Beer dealt with the situation rapidly and publicly.

Any brewer worth her brewing salts will tell you: let she whose beer has been without fault or infection throw the first bottle.

• SAB/Miller and Molson/Coors merged their US operations in July of 2008.
• Obviously, not all Coors is brewed in Golden, Colorado.