Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 19/20, 2013

A bi-weekly, non-comprehensive roundup
of news of beer and other things.

Weeks 19/20
5 May - 18 May 2013

• 2013.05.18
  World Whisky Day was observed on 18 May 2013. In 2014: 17 May.
  
  
• 2013.05.18
  Is craft beer's "love affair with hops" is alienating people who don’t like bitter beers? Slate Magazine wonders.
  
  
  
• 2013.05.16
  Travel and Leisure Magazine selects the 20 best "beer cities" in the United States. (Baltimore, Maryland, picked as #20.)
  
  
• 2013.05.16
  The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling on states to lower the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) to 0.05 or lower from the current 0.08. Via Washington Post.
  
  
• 2013.05.15
  First ever music video from earth orbit: Commander Chris Hadfield sings David Bowie's Space Oddity aboard the International Space Station. Via YouTube.
  
  
• 2013.05.14
  Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell growing hops at the Executive Mansion in Richmond. The hops will be used in a commemorative beer to highlight the Virginia craft beer industry, and to recognize this year's 200th anniversary of the building. Via Musings Over A Pint.
  
  
• 2013.05.14
  The Brewers Association supports the Congressional SMALL Brew Act, which would give excise tax relief to small breweries, but opposes the BEER Act, which would do so for all breweries; claims it would be a windfall for very large international conglomerates. YouTube.
  
  
  
• 2013.05.13
  American Craft Beer Week runs from Monday, 13 May through sunday 19 May 2013. Organized by the Brewers Association.
  
  
• 2013.05.13
  A modest proposal in honor of American Craft Beer Week: Bring back the Untied States Brewers Association (USBA). Via YFGF.
  
  
• 2013.05.13
  Baltimore, Maryland's Heavy Seas Ale House to open 2nd location, in Arlington (Rosslyn), Virginia, in late 2013. Via Baltimore Sun.
  
  
• 2013.05.11
  Birthday in beer: Jack McAuliffe, the "father" of American 'craft' beer, is 68. Via Brookston Beer Bulletin.
  
  
• 2013.05.10
  U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) re-introduce Small BREW Act (S. 917, The Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act, a bill "to stimulate regional economies nationwide with a reduction in the excise tax on each barrel of beer brewed by small brewers." Via Brewers Association of Maryland.
  
  
• 2012.15.10
  Homebrewing legalized in Alabama and Mississippi, the last two states in the United States to forbid it. Via YFGF.
  
  
• 2013.05.08
  More than 60 additives have been approved by U.S. regulators for use in wine-making. Most never make it to the bottle label. Via Dave McIntyre of Washington Post.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Many of the stories deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); a few do not. But all are brief, and most are re-posts from twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.