Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 5/6, 2016.

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

Weeks 5/6
31 January - 13 February 2016

• 13 February 2016
  Antonin Scalia, justice on the Supreme Court, whose transformative legal theories, vivid writing, and outsize personality made him a leader of a conservative intellectual renaissance in his three decades on the Supreme Court, dies at 79.
  —Via New York Times.


• 11 February 2016
  Albert Einstein proven right? Researchers, who make up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration, detect gravitational waves, coming from two distant black holes merging 1.3 billion years ago. Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein in 1918, as part of his theory of general relativity. Finding them would confirm a big part of that theory.
  —Via Yahoo News.



• 11 February 2016
  The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has, de facto, ruled against grocery retailer giant Kroger. Its proposed Planogram of Excellence scheme would have required any beer and wine supplier that wished to have its products sold in Kroger stores to essentially pay an 'independent' company run by Southern Distribution for the privilege. The TTB's ruling prohibits suppliers from assuming, in whole or in part, any retailer’s purchasing decisions, pricing decisions, and/or shelf stocking decisions that involve a competitor’s products. The ruling raises new questions about what is and isn't permitted.
  • —Reaction of [U.S.] Brewers Association to Kroger's original plan.
  • —Analysis by Beverage Law.
  • —TTB Ruling 2016-1 (pdf).


• 10 February 2016
  Only two states in the United States still explicitly forbid production breweries from selling beer at their breweries: Georgia and Mississippi.
  —Via YFGF.


• 10 February 2016
  The launch of the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa, fifty years ago, in 1966, heralded the onset of the 'boutique' winery era in Napa, California, and the U.S.
  —Via Steve Heimoff.


• 9 February 2016
  Japan's Asahi Brewery to buy Netherland's Grolsch, Italy's Peroni, and England's Meantime breweries from Anheuser-Busch InBev for $2.87 billion.
  —Via Just Drinks.


• 9 February 2016
  The Supreme Court temporarily stays the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan to limit carbon emissions. A ruling on the consitutionality of the regulations may not be handed down until 2017.
  —Via Washington Post.



• 9 February 2016
  Good laws for good apples. Congress passes tax relief for the cider industry: CIDER Act (Cider Industry Deserves Equal Regulation).
  —Via YFGF.


• 8 February 2016
  Television restaurant consultant, Jon Taffer, says

  Craft beer has created a culture, not a trend. A trend grabs market share and then disappears and gives it back. A culture grabs market share and then keeps it. The craft-beer culture isn’t going anywhere in America. [Then adds] I think that about 60% of craft beer basically sucks. I’ve been to a lot of the facilities. They’re not exactly clean. They’re rookie-run. The problem is that people are now looking at craft beer as an investment opportunity. [...] Over the next two years, half of the craft breweries are going to disappear.

  —Via Cheers Magazine.


• 8 February 2016
  The American Homebrewers Association takes umbrage with a Budweiser commercial aired during Super Bowl 50. "Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew."?
  —Via AHA.


• 7 February 2016
  189 million Americans watched Super Bowl 50. Sales of beer during the U.S. football championship equalled $583 million.
  —Via YFGF.


• 4 February 2016
  Edgar D. Mitchell, who became the 6th human to walk on the Moon, during the mission of Apollo 14 in 1971, has died at age 85.
  —Via New York Times.


• 4 February 2016
  Oregon State University acquires the archives of the late Fred Eckhardt, beer author and "a founding father" of American 'craft' beer.
  —Via Craft Brewing Business.



• 1 February 2016
  The New York Small Brewers Association implements a Draft Quality Program, the only such statewide 'craft' beer draft quality accreditation program in the United States.
  —Via New York Small Brewers Association.


• 1 February 2016
  Doctors report that the mosquito-borne Zika virus can also be spread through sexual contact, a troubling new dimension to a once-obscure disease that is spreading explosively in the Americas and is suspected of being linked to thousands of cases of babies born with microcephaly. The term refers to a rare neurological condition in which children have unusually small heads. In many cases, it also means a baby's brain is smaller and may not have developed properly.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 31 January 2016
  Suds-gate. The owner of 'craft' brewery, Ocean City Brewing, in Ocean City, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to a sports memorabilia fraud of $2.5 million.
  —Via The Dagger.



• 31 January 2016
  Online beer rating site, RateBeer, has released its annual tabulation of the 100 best beers, breweries, bars, brewpubs, and beer retailers, worldwide, based upon readers' submissions. For 2015, "more than 300,000 beers from over 18,500 brewers worldwide were tallied."
  —Via RateBeer.

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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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