Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 8/9, 2015.

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

Weeks 8/9
15 February - 28 February 2015

• 2015.02.28
  Meritage 2009 from Muse Vineyards of Woodstock, Virginia, wins Virginia's best wine in the 2015 Governor's Cup.
  —Via Virginia Wine.
  
  
• 2015.02.27
  Leonard Nimoy, an American actor well-known for his portrayal of Mr. Spock on the television sci-fi series, Star Trek, has died at age 83.
  —Via New York Times.
  
  
• 2015.02.26
  Comparing beer business tax breaks: Small BREW Act vs. Fair BEER Act.
  —Via All About Beer.
  
  
• 2015.02.26
  The Federal Communications Commission approves 'net neutrality' rules, reclassifying high-speed Internet service as a telecommunications service, instead of an information service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1934.
  —Via New York Times.
  
  
• 2015.02.25
  M&T Bank pulls a television advertisment featuring Baltimore, Maryland's Union Craft Brewing because of the use of the term "joy nuggets."
  —Via Baltimore Business Journal.
  
  
• 2015.02.24
  Employees at Full Sail Brewing (Hood River, Oregon) vote to scrap their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and merge with an investment firm.
  —Via Beervana.
  
  
• 2015.02.23
  Ocean City, Maryland 'craft' brewery, Back Shore Brewing, wins trademark case to use its original name, "Shorebilly."
  —Via USA Today.
  
  
  
  
• 2015.02.23
  Eight southwestern Virginia breweries promote a Blue Ridge Beerway.
  —Via Blue Ridge Beerway.
  
  
• 2015.02.19
  In January, on-premise 'craft' beer volume growth slowed, up 0.9% vs. up 1.9% in 2014. Still at 30% of all draft beer sold.
  —Via Craft Brewing Business.
  
  
  
  
• 2015.02.19
  The decommissioned brewhouse at Heavy Seas Beer, in use at the Baltimore, Maryland, brewery since it opened in 1995, being dismantled and shipped south to Waco, Texas, where it will brew the wash for new 'craft' distiller, Tate Distillery. Owner, Chip Tate, was the founder of Balcones, a pioneering Texas 'craft' distillery, which he opened in 2008, also in Waco. He recently departed Balcones after a disagreement with the board.
  —Via YFGF.
  
  
• 2015.02.18
  "End goal [of Budweiser, etc.] is to dominate every segment of beer world," according to Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery, on the international conglomerate's current acquisitions of 'craft' breweries.
  —Via Men's Journal.
  
  
• 2015.02.17
  Danish 'gypsy' brewer Mikkeller to move into a permanent home, in ... San Diego California, in the former Alesmith Brewery facilities.
  —Via All About Beer.
  
  
• 2015.02.16
  A changing of guard for Virginia 'craft' beer. Mark Thompson, founder of Starr Hill Brewery, in Crozet, Virginia, departs the brewery after 16 years at the helm.
  —Via Starr Hill.
  
  
  
  
• 2015.02.15
  Contract hop prices have doubled and even tripled since the last USDA National Hop Report, in 2012.
  —Via CNBC.
  
  
• 2015.02.15
  'Craft' brewers facing price spikes and shortages of wooden barrels: bourbon and otherwise.
  —Via Austin Chronicle.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a bi-weekly wrap-up of stories  not 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.