Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 48/49, 2015.

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

Weeks 48/49
22 November - 5 December 2015

• 5 December 2015
  From the 'Department of Truth-Is-Stranger-Than-Fiction': a man named Bud Weisser is arrested for trespassing at the St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser brewery plant.
  —Via KDSK.





• 5 December 2015
  The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified today, on 5 December 1933, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states’ approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.
  —Via History.com.


• 2 December 2015
  A married couple in southern California, who had pledged fealty to ISIS, shot 14 people to death in San Bernardino. Federal authorities are treating the massacre as an act of muslim-extremist terrorism.
  —Via CNN.


• 3 December 2015
  To forestall antitrust concern over its purchase by AB InBev, SABMiller to sell off Peroni, Grolsch, and London 'craft' brewery, Meantime.
  —Via BBC.


• 3 December 2015
  "There are almost no black people brewing craft beer. One reason craft beer is so white: its legacy springs from the lily-white talent pool Big Beer had engineered. “It is no secret that securing capital as a minority business owner can be downright discouraging.”
  —Via Thrillist.




• 2 December 2015
  A century-old scientific puzzle dubbed the "Warburg effect" (after the Nobel-Prize winning cell biologist Otto Warburg) has been solved by researchers at University of California San Diego: why do organisms (like beer yeast) prefer fermentation vs. respiration? The answer? Wasteful abundance: the cost of protein synthesis overrules the metabolic savings for fast growing cells.
  —Via EurekAlertt.


• 2 December 2015
  The number of breweries operating in the United States reaches 4,144, topping the historic high of 4,131 breweries set in 1873. Fifteen states are now home to more than 100 breweries apiece: California, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana.
  —Via Brewers Association.




• 2 December 2015
  A beer pub in Toronto, Canada, not only posts the tapping schedule for its many taps, but the cleaning schedule for the taps, as well. More pubs should. Dirty lines ruin beers.
  —Via The Globe and Mail.


• 30 November 2015
  Steve Anderson, a pioneer of 'craft' beer in Texas, has died.
  —Via El Paso Times.


• 28 November 2015
  Alone among all counties in the United States, Montgomery County, Maryland, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., has controlled all alcohol distribution since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Its long, lucrative alcohol monopoly could be ending.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 28 November 2015
  Small Business Saturday, and Small Brewer Saturday.

  Even though they only represent a sliver of the overall beer market (11% in 2014), small and independent brewers are big business. The craft brewing continues to flourish, [and] hundreds of supporting businesses have emerged to help the industry beat the odds.

  —Via Brewers Association.




• 26 November 2015
  Americans will consume 49 million turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner.
  —Via Notions Capital.


• 26 November 2015
  In 1953, American humorist Art Buchwald, living in Paris, France, wrote a column explaining Thanksgiving to the French:"Le Jour de Merci Donnant."
  —Via YFGF.


• 26 November 2015
  Delaware 'craft' brewery, Dogfish Head, to release beer, "Hoo Lawd," an IPA it claims to reach 658 IBUs (International Bittering Units), the "hoppiest beer ever documented."
  —Via Beer Pulse.


• 24 November 2015
  British beer writer Mark Dredge identifies eleven categories of American IPAs, and none of them are White, Black, or Belgian-style IPAs.
  —Via Mark Dredge at Pencil and Spoon.


• 24 November 2015
  Michigan State University using algae to clean brewery waste-water.
  —Via Water Online.


• 23 November 2015
  "Global hop harvest is on average between 30-40% down on what it should be."
  —Via Pete Brown (in the Morning Advertiser).



• 23 November 2015
  Contract legacy brewery, Pabst, resurrects erstwhile Ballantine Brewing's Burton Ale: 11.3% abv; 75 IBUs; aged for several months in oak barrels.
  —Via Beer Pulse.


• 22 November 2015
  Analysts believe that global mega-brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev/SABMiller, may be interested in purchasing soft drink manufacturer, Coca-Cola.

  "Anheuser-Busch InBev's takeover of SABMiller could allow it to try on the role of a Coca-Cola bottler ahead of making a move for the soft drinks company, an analyst has said. The SABMiller deal, which is awaiting regulatory approval, is a chance for AB InBev to "kick the tyres" of Coca-Cola, according to Nomura's Ian Shackleton. He said this week that the takeover provides a "Trojan horse" opportunity for AB InBev, similar to a distribution partnership predecessor company InBev signed with Anheuser-Busch ahead of its acquisition of the Budweiser owner. In 2006, InBev became Anheuser-Busch's US distributor for import beers such as Stella Artois and Beck's.
  
  "We believe this [distribution deal] was an important stepping stone towards the bid in 2008 that InBev made for Anheuser," Shackleton said. "In the same way, we would expect A-B Inbev to gain access to Coca-Cola in Atlanta as a major bottler." According to Shackleton, A-B InBev is likely to take over SABMiller's estimated 5% share of Coca-Cola volumes, much of which comes through its 24% stake in Anadolu Efes, owner of Coca-Cola Icecek.

  —Via Just Drinks.


• 22 November 2015
  Italy has overtaken France to become the country with the largest wine production in the world, as it expects a 50.37 million hectoliter harvest for 2015-16.
  —Via Drinks Business.

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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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