Tuppers’ beer comes with a guarantee

An obvious question now that the sale of Old Dominion has been completed is: What about the beers (such at Tuppers’ Hop Pocket and New River Pale Ale) that Old Dominion brewers under contract?

Bob Tupper addresses this at the Tuppers’ website (link courtesy of DC-Beer).

He’s confident about the continuing integrity of the products bearing his family name.

Ellie and I are excited about the new possibilities for distribution that this arrangement offers. And we believe that the new company will be as committed to brewing exceptionally high quality beers for us as Old Dominion has during our 11 years together. Those who are concerned about A-B’s influence should note the continuing quality and creativity of the Goose Island Brewing Company after A-B’s purchase of a minority ownership. The ultimate guarantee is that Ellie and I both have day jobs and a kid who will finish college next year. No amount of money will entice us to put our name on a product of which we are not truly proud.

Granted you wouldn’t expected him to say much different, but the image of a man standing behind the quality of his beers (and that would be the point, he considers them his beers) is reassuring.

Truth in beer advertising

WBC logoWe watched enough basketball over the weekend that once in a while we didn’t manage to hit mute when a commercial came on.

Thus I finally heard the words that accompany the footage where Miller Brewing employees hoist a banner celebrating Miller Lite’s victory in the 2006 World Beer Cup. The banner hangs beside several others.

Viewers learn that 2,221 beers from 540 breweries were judged in the World Beer Cup.

Should I think that Miller Lite was judged better than any other? If I didn’t know better I might have gone back to basketball with that impression.

In fact, Lite beat out 21 other beers to win American-Style Light Lager. This is no small accomplishment. Half the beer sold in the United States fits in this category. It’s not easy to make. As beer judges will tell you, “There’s no place to hide.” Flaws are easy to spot. For instance, winning that category was probably just as hard as capturing gold in European-Style Pilsener (61 entries).

Miller also brewed the second-place light beer, Lone Star Light, under contract.

I hope I’m not just picking on Miller. If you listen to the words that come after 2,221 beers, 540 breweries, etc. the narrator clearly says Miller won the light category. Just not, “There were 22 beers in our category.”

So give them credit for promoting the World Beer Cup. Perhaps viewers will Google the results and learn that a small brewery nearby also won a medal. Give them credit for shooting a commercial right there in the brewery, hanging those banners and being proud of their beer.

Just don’t hear those numbers – 2,221 beers, 540 breweries – and think they were all competing for the same banner.

Extreme, um, well, extreme

Extreme church

Extreme beer. Extreme cheese. What next?

In fact, I’ve been looking for extreme olive oil but that’s another story.

This picture tells its own story.

Thanks to Merchant du Vin marketing manager Craig Hartinger for sending it along. He saw the church in the smallish town of Kittitas (population 1,000) east of Ellensburg, Wash. He pulled over, backed up and dug out his camera.

Buy that man a Rochefort 10.

How about extreme cheese?

CheeseWhat do you pair with extreme* beer?

Exteme cheese. A hot item in Britain.

“We don’t try to make a he-man’s cheese that is the most vicious, sharp and violent. What we want to do is to give whatever potential is in the cheese the chance to express itself to its limit,” said the man who makes it.

I’m pretty sure this is different than the Kraft Easy Mac Snack Pack, Extreme Cheese you can buy at Amazon.

* Apply whatever definition you want to “extreme” – we’ll argue about it later.

Hop trivia

Some facts related to hops I learned while reading about beers I (mostly) don’t drink:

– InBev uses well over 50% of the Saaz hops produced in the Žatec region of the Czech Republic in brewing Stella Artois. Proof.

– Heineken has more than 21 bitterness units (IBU) and 5.1% alcohol by volume, according to random market sampling. Heineken Premium Light, meanwhile, has half the bitterness and 3.3% abv.

– Samuel Adams Boston Lager has 31 IBU and about 4.9% abv, according to random market sampling. Sam Adams Light has 10 IBU and 4% abv. Proof.

Something I thought you needed to know.

Stella