This was so much fun at the beginning of the year I’m not sure why it took this long to do it again.
The goal is to identify the outlier and explain why it doesn’t belong on the list. There may be more than one answer, although I happen to have a specific one in mind.
a) Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
b) Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
c) Il Vicino Slow Down Brown
d) Geary’s London Porter
e) Arcadia Scotch Ale
In case you’ve forgotten: Round one ~ Round two ~ Round three.
Beer made with mango cider, from local grains, with jaggery (sugar) and local berries . . .
“It’s very easy to sell the idea of a good beer,” he says. “Our clientele is typically aged 25 to 35. They are young, working professionals, typically from single- or double-income families with no kids.”
But he says they are not drinking to get drunk.
“It is an identity,” says Mr Talekar. “Saying I drink single malt, vodka or better beer is a way of showing I have evolved, because of the nature of the product I am consuming.”
From another story about the 600 or so American breweries planning to open in the next couple of years? Nope, this one is from India (the jaggery should have given it away).
Bars and restaurants are also stocking a growing variety of beer brands to attract an average of 4.3 million young adults coming of drinking age each year. But here’s the most striking number: “Some 600 to 700 million Indians are below the age of 30… that’s three times the size of Europe.”
The world’s largest brewering companies already knew this, of course. For a bit of perspective, Indian breweries made an estimated 15.6 million hectoliters in 2010, about a quarter of what Japan brews and 3 percent of China’s production.
Think you know where in the beer world this photo was taken?
Please leave your answer as a comment.
OK, it makes a nice headline: “8 beers Americans no longer drink.”
Problem is the first example is Budweiser. Yes, sales shrunk 30 percent in five years, and that amounts to 7 million barrels (at 31 gallons a barrel) lost. But A-B InBev still sold 18 million barrels of Bud. So it’s not like nobody drinks it.
Beyond the questionable headline the numbers from 24/7 Wall St. are quite interesting; most notably the demise of Michelob. And the 72 percent drop in sales from 2006 to 2010 to 175,000 barrels just begins to tell the story.
Look deeper and you’ll find that in 1988 Michelob commanded 66 percent of the “super-premium” category (the beers people pay more for, like “microbrews” today) despite losing 46 percent of its sales between 1980 and 1988. Anheuser-Busch sold sold 8 million barrels of Michelob in 1980, 4.3 million in 1988.
And last year 175,000.
I’m trying to figure out how to put that in perspective. How about this? It took A-B only eight days in 1980 to sells a much Michelob as it sold in all of 2010.
I’m not sure if Des de Moor and Alan McLeod were really writing about the importance of brewing history yesterday or something else. Like the role of journalist or the connection between reading about beer and enjoying beer.
But they reminded me I’ve been meaning to mention the latest special edition from The Brewery History Society: “The American Brewing Industry Since Repeal: Large and Smaller Brewers.”
Amy Mittelman (Brewing Battles) wrote the introduction, Sam Calagione provides an imagined history1, Fred Eckhardt a remembered history and Doug Hoverson (Land of Amber Waters) a fully footnoted history2. Just to give you an idea of what’s in the issue. [The contents].
It’s not the compleat history of the industry since 1933, but tells a complete story and is a reminder of at least what I expect from historians. They do more than check facts. They interpret them in a way that history makes sense; maybe even the present and future. For further examples consult Ambitious Brew and The Story of the Pint
1 Calagione’s contribution is an imagined conversation between Woody Guthrie and Charlie Papazian. Several years ago Calagione made Guthrie the centerpiece of a series of beer dinners. In the picture at the top from 2003 he is channeling Guthrie during one such dinner at d.b.a. in New Orleans.
2 A reminder it sure will be nice when he finishes the Wisconsin companion to his Minnesota history.