Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 10/11, 2014.

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


Weeks 37/38
2 March - 15 March 2014

• 2014.03.15
  Farm brewery bill makes headway in Maryland state legislature. House Bill 337 would allow 'farm-breweries' (Class 8M) to self-distribute up to 3,000 barrels of their beer annually. Via Frederick News-Post.
  
  
• 2014.03.15
  Boise, Idaho, sports arena sells 'large' beer cups holding only as much beer as in 'small' cups, but charging $4 more. Sued by fans. Via Washington Post.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2014.03.15
  Megan Parisi, past brewmaster at Washington, D.C.'s Bluejacket (and its first), accepts position at Wormtown Brewing, in Worcester, Massachusetts. To be head brewer of its new production facility. Via YFGF on Twitter; more details from Washington Post.
  
  
• 2014.03.14
  Maryland House okays two bills that allow beer sales at Montgomery County breweries (removing a restriction that had required them to be fully licensed restaurants), and allow Montgomery County brewery self-distribution to licensed recipients in the county. Via WAMU.
  
  
• 2014.03.13
  Phyllis Schlafly —an anti-ERA organizer decades ago, and founder of conservative interest group, the Eagle Forum —now fights against granting Schlafly Brewery, in St. Louis, Missouri the trademark to the name Schlafly. “Certainly alcohol has a connotation that is the opposite of conservative values, ” said Andrew Schlafly, a New Jersey lawyer who represents his mother in the matter. Via Associated Press.
  
  
• 2014.03.13
  There will be more choices of Washington DC-area craft beer available at Nationals Park this year, including cask ale. Via Washington Business Journal.
  
  
• 2014.03.13
  Official release party for "Capital Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in Washington, D.C." —written by historian Garrett Peck— held at Heurich House Museum, in Washington, D.C. Photos via YFGF.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2014.03.12
  The World Wide Web was created 25 years ago, on 12 March 1989, when British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal for a "global hypertext system." Via Los Angeles Times.
  
  
• 2014.03.10
  The disgrace of 'craft' beer hooligans: a video of a near-riot during Cigar City Brewing's Hunahpu’s Day, in Tampa, Florida. The story via All About Beer.
  
  
• 2014.03.10
  The issues of legal smuggling of 'craft' beers and those breweries' desire to protect the quality of their beer after it leaves the facility. Via The BeerMonger.
  
  
• 2014.03.10
  Seven 'craft' beer professionals are named as James Beard Foundation Award semi-finalists. Via CraftBeer.com.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2014.03.10
  Thought lost, more poster works by artist John Gilroy for Guinness Stout have been discovered. All were done in the style of other famous artists. Via Martyn Cornell at The Zythophile.
  
  
• 2014.03.08
  The 300th birthday of C.P.E. Bach, son of J.S. Bach, and iconoclastic composer. Via NPR.
  
  
• 2014.03.06
  Frank Jobe, the surgeon who, in 1974 pioneered of elbow medial collateral ligament replacement/repair surgery —which became known as Tommy John surgery after its first recipient/patient— dies at 88. A more common, and highly successful, surgery now for baseball pitchers. Via Washington Post.
  
  
• 2014.03.06
  Continued consolidation in U.S. supermarket business. Private equity firm Cerberus to buy Safeway supermarkets for $9.4 billion, and merge them with Albertson's stores. Via NPR.
  
  
• 2014.03.04
  No, no, don't tell me! After a 5-decade career, Carl Kasell, mellifluous-toned host and reporter for National Public Radio to retire. Currently the announcer of NPR news-quiz-show, "Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me." Via NPR.
  
  
• 2014.03.04
  The 2014 Virginia Governor’s Cup had many more red blends as entrants than in the past. This year, Williamsburg Winery won top honors for its 2010 Adagio, a Bordeaux-style blend of cabernet franc, merlot and petit verdot. Barboursville Vineyards received the most medals, three. Via Dave McIntyre (at Washington Post).
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2014.03.03
  Once the largest hometown brand of Baltimore, Maryland, Natty Boh, now brewed elsewhere under contract, is for sale. Asking price? $1 billion. Okay, the sale also includes the much larger Pabst, a marketing company, also without any brewing facilities of its own. Via Brewbound.
  
  
• 2014.03.03
  The Brewers Association —advocacy group for 'small' breweries in the U.S.— changes its definition of 'craft' brewery, again. To permit and include the use of adjuncts, such as corn. Via YFGF.
  
  
• 2014.03.03
  'Craft' beer production was up 9.6 percent in 2013, while overall beer production fell 1.4 percent. Via CNBC. "58.9 percent of craft beer drinkers have annual incomes of $75,000 or more." [Not the brewers themselves!]
  
  
• 2014.03.03
  Surgeon, author, Sherwin B. Nuland —author of “How We Die” and “How We Live”— dies at age 88. Via Washington Post.

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