Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 44/45, 2015.

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

Weeks 44/45
25 October - 7 November 2015

• 5 November 2015
  In a trend of the last few years, breweries from the U.S. west have opened second brewing facilities on the east coast. But not vice versa. Until now. Sweetwater Brewing of Atlanta, Georgia, has announced its intention to open a brewery in California, in 2017.
  —Via Brewbound.


• 4 November 2015
  The sugar industry has sued high fructose corn syrup producers in federal court for falsely claiming that their product is just as healthful as sugar. Corn syrup producers have countered suedhit back, arguing that the sugar industry has long engaged in a campaign of misinformation. Big Sugar is seeking $1.5 billion in damages. Big Corn Syrup is seeking $530 million. Jurors will decide.
  —Via Los Angeles Times.



• 3 November 2015
  Belgian lambic brewer, Cantillon, says climate change shortening brewing season, forced to temporarily halt early November production because of an unusually warm autumn. Jean Van Roy, owner of Cantillon:
  

  “Ideally [the wort] must cool at between minus 3C and 8C. But climate change has been notable in the last 20 years. My grandfather 50 years ago brewed from mid-October until May – but I’ve never done that in my life, and I am in my 15th season.' Last year we didn’t start until November 10,” he said, adding that they never go past the end of March. “We only have five months to brew and our production is very limited. If we lose a week we can survive but three weeks or more would be more complicated.”

  —Via The Guardian.


• 3 November 2015
  Cité du Vin, a "modernistic museum of culture and civilization of wine around the world," to open in Bordeaux, France, in 2016.
  —Via The Drinks Business.


• 3 November 2015
  A timeline of the demise of Baltimore, Maryland's National Bohemian beer.
  —Via YFGF.


• 02 November 2015
  There are only two major American can manufacturers. Are they cutting off supply to smaller 'craft' breweries?
  —Via Forbes MergerMarket.


• 31 October 2015
  

  The idea of moderation in brewing is not the idea of capitulation, of surrender, of turning your back on the way forward. It's a way of seeking silence in between the gaps that modern life manages to create - it's a polite cough, a feather stroke on the inner thigh, a reflective passage from an étude by Chopin, the intermission between nothing and I love you. And sometimes we need beers like that in the way we also need beers that cackle and burn like a martyr's bonfire or ululate across the night air like a trident in its tracks or even leave us unsure of what we're tasting. Like an Earth on its axis beer also needs balance.

  —Via Adrian Tierney-Jones, at Called to the Bar.


• 29 October 2015
  The English malting barley that wouldn't die. The fifty-year history of Maris Otter.
  —Via Total Ales.


• 28 October 2015
  "Hops can take 10 to 12 years to develop before they’re marketed to breweries." Green Flash brewmaster Chuck Silva and Alpine Beer Company Brewmaster Pat McIlhenney examine the hop harvest in the Pacific Northwest.
  —Via Nicholas Gingold, at All About Beer.


• 28 October 2015
  Federal judge throws out lawsuit which alleged fraud by MillerCoors for stating Blue Moon beer is "artfully crafted." There is "no case supporting the proposition that the price of a product can constitute a representation or statement about the product."
  —Via Alan McLeod, at A Good Beer Blog.



• 28 October 2015
  It has been twenty-five years since the Discovery Channel first aired The Beer Hunter." A documentary on beer, produced and narrated by British beer writer Michael Jackson, it was "ahead of its time."
  —Via Tom Acitelli, at All About Beer.


• 26 October 2015
  Scandal! The Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, admits that he prefers Dusseldorf's rival Altbier to Cologne's native Kölsch ales.
  —Via Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.


• 26 October 2015
  The seven denominators of 'cult' California wines. And why their producers shouldn't bemoan the wines described as such.
  —Via Steve Heimoff.


• 25 October 2015
  Washington, D.C. radio legend, Ed Walker, dies at 83.
  —ViaWashingtonian.


• 25 October 2015
  A theory as to why brewery 'tied house' pubs existed to such a large extent in England, but not so much elsewhere.
  —Via Ron Pattinson, at Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.



• 25 October 2015
  In 2011, 2% of U.S. 'craft' beer was sold in cans. In 2014: 10%.
  —Via Bart Watson, economist for Brewers Association.


• 25 October 2015
  What is the number one 'craft' beer style on tap in the U.S.? It's no surprise that it's IPA (India Pale Ale), with a 19.2% share. Pale Lager is second; Pale Ale is third.
  —Via YFGF.


• 25 October 2015
  By December 2016, the FDA will require all chain-restaurants (with twenty or more locations) to display on their menus caloric and nutritional information for any beers they serve. Breweries will be expected to supply this information. The cost of analysis, etc., could be a major problem for mid-size and small breweries.
  —Via MiBiz.
  In 1992, early 'craft' brewery owner Bert Grant put nutritional information on the label of his Grant's Scottish Ale. At that time, the U.S. government told him to cease and desist.
  —Via YFGF.
  

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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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