Which of these five does not belong?
a) Micheladas
b) Pink beer
c) Green beer
d) Purple beer
e) Fizzy yellow beer
There is a context here that would make it easier to provide the answer otherwise obvious to me. But starting with that would take away all the fun.
(Hint added 3/18. See comment below.)
This morning Adrian Tierney-Jones asks a series of questions. My first thought was, dude, you need to include the English-speaking former colony a few miles to the west.
What is it about British (I ask myself if it is English but really think it’s anyone in the English-speaking isles off Europe) cultural mores that throw out this you’re-either-with-us-or-not argument that for me chucks a dead diseased camel down the wells of debate. Chill. But then beer is relatively uncontroversial and worth a few slaps around the rhetorical face: imagine the debate around more weightier subjects: capital punishment or not, gallows or guillotine, sharia or chocolate?
Fodder for thought and a photo just for fun:
* The obligatory ST. PATRICK’S DAY IS COMING! ST. PATRICK’S DAY IS COMING! story from The Street delves into the wonders of nitrogen dispense. I’m linking to the third page of the story because of a gem of a concluding quote from Fergal Murray of Guinness: “It’s the greatest beer innovation of all time. It transformed the brand Guinness and made us the lighthouse beer that you have to craft behind the bar.” As I remarked on Twitter when I saw this Saturday morning, glad that’s settled.
* Speaking of innovation. The Chicago Tribune profiles the Goose Island barrel program and John Laffler, who runs it. It’s fair to ask how innovative each of the 285 “innovation projects” really is, given that 285 is a big number. But he says most will never see the light of day. That’s they way it’s supposed to work. Brewers experiment. They dump the failures. Rather than, say, declaring them special and charging a premium. Two gems from Laffler, who previously worked as a psychologist with at-risk youths for 6 1/2 years:
“This is my area. I share it with the barrels. I get really persnickety about people touching (them).”
“I really reject the notion that beer is meant to be collected.”
* Speaking of collecting. If you missed the story about the millionaire fleecing other millionaires out of millions of dollar by selling counterfeit wine the best place to find the latest details is from Mike Steinberger. Money just plain spends different in wine that beer.
Today in Decanter, Andrew Jefford begins what appears will be a two-part investigation into the financial implications of Robert Parker re-scoring the 2009 Bordeaux vintage and declaring it is even better than the 1982.
“I’ve been talking to those who understand the figures more comprehensively than I do, and considered opinion is that Robert Parker’s re-scoring of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage will have added at least £100 million to its ‘value.’ In the two trading days which followed the release of the scores, both Berry Bros and Farr Vintners sold around £3 million’s worth of top 2009 Bordeaux. Some claim that Robert Parker’s influence is waning. They are the wine world’s equivalent of creationists: folk prepared to ignore all evidence because they wish it so.”
Have I showed you this photo before? It was taken in a church in Poperinge, Belgium. You don’t see hop pickers immortalized in stained glass all that often.
KegWorks tackles the question “Is beer really cheaper than gas?” with a rather elaborate analysis and infographic.
Made me think, “Hey, I’ve got a photo and a different data set.” So from this post in 2008 (when gas prices had ratcheted up during the summer and were beginning to fall, everywhere, along with the U.S. economy):
The photo was taken at a small grocery store in Wertheim, Germany (at the junction of the Main and Tauber rivers, and with terrific castle ruins). Beer was .66 euro (or less) for .5L. That’s 1.32 euro if you bought two (in other words a liter). The cheapest we’d seen gas for at the time was 1.39 for a liter of diesel (the cheapest gas in Germany, as opposed to the silly flip-flop in the U.S. where diesel costs more).
Yesterday’s news, I guess, but I only saw this morning, courtesy of Twitter, that New Belgium is discontinuing Mothership Wit.
(If you can’t see the image it says, “Based on declining sales, and making room in the portfolio for new beer, Mothership Wit is getting shelved.”)
In contrast, Blue Moon Belgian White and Shock Top Belgian White continue to outperform almost everything else in the MillerCoors and A-B InBev portfolios respectively. According to Symphony IRI, Blue Moon White climbed into the Top 15 brands in 2011, selling $88 million in supermarkets (by comparison, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale sold $52 million, Samuel Adams Boston Lager $47 million and New Belgium Fat Tire $33 million).
Blue Moon White was one of only two brands (Michelob Ultra was the other) in the top 15 to increase supermarket sales in 2011.