musing

Today is the 100th day of our adventure, and we’ve posted a bunch of numbers since we figure this pretty much concludes Part I. Part II begins Monday when we fly to Germany.

You won’t find much beer — should I have counted ounces consumed, or at least number of different brands? — but you will notice we spent one night in a brewery parking lot.

The unnamed brewery was Bell’s in Michigan. John Mallett offered and we couldn’t resist. Would you pass on the chance to call friends and say, “Guess where I’m calling from.” OK, maybe it would have been cooler to be inside the brewery (with everybody else gone.)

This aerial map from MapQwest is a tad out of date — it seems as if they expand at Bell’s about every third week.

We’re wrapping up the summer phase of our Grand Adventure with an American history field trip and packing for Part II-Europe, so a few links to posts you should read and think about:

– On Locale, and Maeib writes, “Whilst supporting this initiative as I like to see local businesses flourishing, and will support them wherever possible, I don’t want to hear the words ‘beer miles.'”

Be sure to read the comments. I can tell you that three months into paying attention to all things local, not just beer, it’s possible to spend too much time thinking about this. Take a break and enjoy the beer, local or otherwise.

– The Wall Street Journal recently joined the marketing to women discussion which has already already consumed plenty of space here.

But you have to smile when you read that Coors “set up a unit code-named Eve this year to develop beer brands and marketing techniques appealing to women. The unit’s mission, the company says, is to create ‘a world where women love beer as much as they love shoes.'” What beer has been assigned that task? Blue Moon.

– This is what beer is about: Beer Babe eventually gets around to drinking Shock Top Belgian White (a Blue Moon knock-off, as a matter of fact).

– This is where beer need not go: A fictitious restaurant captured a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence with a fictitious wine list. Quite a mess in the wine world (reading here and here will be enough to make your head explode).

The news to me is that there’s an organization called the American Association of Wine Economists. I don’t think I want to drink in a world where there is an American Association of Beer Economists.

Brew Blog reports that MillerCoors is bringing back the classic “Great Taste, Less Filling” advertising tagline for Miller Lite.

MilllerCoors has said it plans to drive growth for its two lead brands by focusing on sharply differentiated marketing positions. Coors Light is about Rocky Mountain cold refreshment. Miller Lite is about taste.

“Research has shown the two factors that matter the most to mainstream light beer drinkers are taste and refreshment,” MillerCoors said on Tuesday in a message to distributors. “And so the path to simultaneous share growth for Miller Lite and Coors Light is clear: We will distinctly align each brand against one of these benefits, driving home our positions in everything we do on behalf of each brand.”

So now we’ve established that Coors Light has nothing to do with taste. That’s progress, I guess.

What if the New York Post printed a beer column?

If you aren’t familiar with the Post, and its well known Page Six, this may be lost on you. I picked up the paper because a) a tabloid is easier to deal with on a windy morning at the beach and b) while most other newspapers are struggling to retain readers the Post rolls merrily along. I figure there’s something to be learned here. Post.

Beyond what rock star’s ex-girl friend is sleeping with what movie star, that is. Or who’s shopping for multi-million dollar villas in Croatia.

Perhaps I got too much sun, but I began to imagine beer stories that would interest the Post and how they’d be written. Before reading please remember there’s less chance they are true than the fact Eric Clapton is a dud in the sack (who knew?).

– Where’d the Budweiser tap go? Our spies report that Stella Artois is now on tap (along with Bud Light) in Anheuser-Busch’s St. Louis brewery board room.

– What brewery that has long advertised using Saaz hops in its best selling beer might be experimenting with Sterling hops?

– Spotted on the Jersey shore: An airplane dragging a banner advertising $9 pints of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and $3 bottles of Miller Lite during happy hour at The Animal House. $9 pints? Have you checked the prices on airplane fuel recently?

– No reports what they did with the left over food, beer and wine, but Saturday’s seven-course dinner at Caffe Taci was cut short when beer chef Sean Z. Paxton and television star Rachel Ray reached an impasse over what beer to use in the Flemish stew. “Shiner Bock. Shiner Bock,” Paxton was heard muttering later in the evening over a glass of Saint Lawrence Smoked Porter at a popular Village watering hole.

I have more, but will spare you. However, one serious thought. Would life be better if small-batch beer were popular enough for the Post to pay attention?

How’s this for perspective?

One of the provincial-run liquor stores in downtown Halifax has a nifty little display of “Beers of the World.”

One of the beers is Old Milwaukee.

Well, it is imported. Made me ask myself a different question: Where is Old Milwaukee the local beer?