Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 32/33, 2015.

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

Weeks 32/33
2 August - 15 August 2015

• 15 August 2015
  Seventy years ago, 15 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender to the Allies in WWII. The formal signing would be on 2 September.
  —Via Wikipedia.
  


• 14 August 2015
  Nine 'craft' breweries make Inc. Magazine’s annual list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States, ranked according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period.Revenue in the initial qualifying year must have been at least $200,000 and revenue in the most recent year must have been $2 million. At #1 among the 'craft' breweries is Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company (at various locations in southern California) at position #519 out of 5,000, with 893% growth ($6.1 million in revenues).
  —Synopsis via YFGF.
  —Full story via Brewbound.


• 14 August 2015
  The United States Social Security Act became law 80 years ago, on 14 August 1935, creating unemployment insurance and government-backed pension plans.
  —Via United States History.


• 12 August 2015
  In a story on the recent rapid growth of the 'craft' beer industry in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post compares the aroma of boiling wort to that of light-stuck 'skunky' beers, and manages to get parts of American beer history wrong.
  —Via YFGF.


• 12 August 2015
  • Welsh brewery, Tiny Rebel, won the 2015 Great British Beer Festival, marking the first time in the festival's history that a Welsh brewery has won best beer of Britain
    —Via Roger Protz.
  • Stone Brewing (of Escondido, California) won the Michael Jackson Award —for the best cask-conditioned ale made in America, at the festival— for its cask of Ruination Imperial IPA (8.2% abv).
    —Via YFGF.


• 12 August 2015
  "There isn’t going to be another success story like IPA in near future." Bart Watson, economist for the (U.S.) Brewers Association charts the recent great growth of IPA in the United States. IPAs can finish 2015 with a 27.5%+ craft share, thus having grown more than ten times their 2008 share, or more than 6 million barrels in absolute growth.
  —Via Brewers Association.



• 12 August 2015
  Fred Eckhardt —homebrewing and beer author, and a pioneer of the craft beer industry since before its legalization in 1979 until the present day— has died.
  —Appreciation via John Foyston, at Oregon Live.


• 12 August 2015
  Beer blogger/author, Jeff Alworth publishes "The Beer Bible."
  —Via Jeff Alworth.


• 11 August 2015
  Kim Jordan, the woman who co-founded New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado, 24 years ago, has stepped down as CEO and tapped Christine Perich to be the brewery's next leader. To remain as Chair of the brewery's Board of Directors. New Belgium is the 4th largest 'craft' brewery, and 8th largest U.S. brewery overall.
  —Via Citizen-Times.


• 9 August 2015
  The 7th annual DC Beer Week, now celebrated throughout the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area: 9 -16 August 2015.
  —Via YFGF.


• 9 August 2015
  Ten years after Sean Lilly Wilson (now owner of Full Steam Brewery in Durham, North Carolina) shepherded passage of "Pop the Cap" in 2005 — which permitted beers of greater than 6% alcohol-by-volume to be sold and produced in North Carolina— the state is experiencing great growth in its 'craft' beer industry. As of August 2015, there were 132 'craft' breweries in the state.
  —Via News-Observer.


• 8 August 2015
  "On beer cicerones, wine sommeliers, and the cult of the 'expert'."
  —Via The Pour Fool.


• 6 August 2015
  The United States deployed the first-ever atomic bomb seventy years ago, 6 August 1945 during WWII, devastating the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
  —Stories of the survivors, via Washington Post.


• 5 August 2015
  "Why I Wanted to Talk About Race." The 'whiteness' of craft beer.
  —Via Bryan D. Roth, at This is Why I'm Drunk.


• 3 August 2015
  Taxes paid on beer during the first six months of 2015 are down 1.7% from the same period in 2014 (and thus, sales/production can be considered down).
  —Via Craft Brewing Business.


• 3 August 2015
  Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon, may be planning to join the movement of western U.S. breweries eastward. There are indications that it may be planning to open its second production brewery, in Greenville, South Carolina.
  —Via Greenville Onine.


• 3 August 2015
  What 'craft' beer bubble?

  "Production/capacity ratios are reasonably healthy," says Bart Watson, economist for the Brewers Association. Micro-breweries (producing fewer than 15,000 barrels of beer per year) continue to show no signs of slowing, and grew significantly faster than the rest of the 'craft' brewery category. For regional breweries (producing anywhere from 15,000 to 6,000,000 barrels per year) growth is shifting to off-premises. Data from the BA's bench-marking survey for 2014 showed the average regional moving from 62.4% packaged production in 2011, to 65.6% packaged in 2014. 87% of the breweries responding to the BA's survey reported growth compared to the same period a year ago, versus 13% that reported being flat or down.

  —Via YFGF (Synopsis of data released by U.S. Brewers Association.)


• 2 August 2015
  • "If the current craft beer 'revolution' has a defined starting point, you might say August 2, 1965, was that moment. On that date, Fritz Maytag, heir to the Maytag washing machine company, bought a stake in Anchor Brewing Company."
    —Via CNBC.
  • It's been 50 years since the birth of U.S. craft beer. Why no celebration?
    —Via Tom Acitelli, at All About Beer.

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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.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.


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