Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 25/26, 2016.

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

Weeks 25/26
19 June - 2 July 2016

• 2 July 2016
  In 1776, John Adams —Constitutional Convention delegate from Massachusetts and future American President— believed that the 2nd of July should and would be celebrated as American Independence Day, not the 4th as it has become.
  —Via YFGF.


• 2 July 2016
  Nobel Peace prize winner, author Elie Wiesel ...

  the Auschwitz survivor who became an eloquent witness for the six million Jews slaughtered in World War II and who, more than anyone else, seared the memory of the Holocaust on the world’s conscience, died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

  —Via New York Times.


• 1 July 2016
  Economic stimulus. Quantitative drinking. Americans are projected to purchase $1 billion worth of beer over the Independence Day holiday weekend.
  —Via USA Today.



• 1 July 2016
  The 141-day Battle of Somme, of World War I, began 100 years ago. On 1 July 1916, the British Fourth Army took 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 men were killed, the French Sixth Army had 1,590 casualties and the German 2nd Army had 10,000–12,000 losses. By the end of the campaign, 18 November 1916, more than one million men had been wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
  —Via Wikipedia.


• 29 June 2016
  California's Lagunitas Brewing —in 2015, the nation's 6th largest 'craft' brewery— buys stake in three smaller 'craft' breweries: Independence Brewing, in Austin, Texas; Moonlight Brewing, in in Santa Rosa, California; Southend Brewery and Smokehouse, in Charleston, South Carolina, which will be renamed as Lagunitas brewpub.
  —Via Chicago Tribune.


• 27 June 2016
  United States Supreme Court overturns abortion clinic restrictions in Texas —requiring clinics that provide abortions to have surgical facilities and doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital— as unconstitutional.
  —Via National Public Radio.


• 27 June 2016
  West Virginia flood was ‘one in a thousand year event,’ Weather Service says; at least 23 people are confirmed dead from the floodwaters.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 24 June 2016
  Yuengling —the nation's largest 'craft'brewery— fined $2.8 million for Clean Water Act violations at its two plants near Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The company will spend $7 million on required improvements at the plants.
  —Via Beer Pulse.


• 23 June 2016
  Ralph Stanley, bluegrass master and banjoist, National Medal of Arts recipient, has died at 89.
  —Via Washington Post.



• 24 June 2016
  Originally published in 1990 and long out-of-print, "Lambic" —number 3 in the Brewers Publications' Classic Beer Style Series— has been re-released as an ebook.
  —Via Brewers Publications (a subsidiary of the [U.S.] Brewers Association).


• 23 June 2016
  As of June 2016, there were 700 breweries operating in California, a record number there, doubling in only the last four years, and far greater than in any other state. Eleven of its breweries are among the nation’s fifty largest 'craft' breweries.
  —Via Jay Brooks at Brookston Beer Bulletin.



• 23 June 2016
  British voters vote for "Brexit," to leave the European Union, by 52 to 48%. Britain had joined the EU in 1973.
  —Via New York Times.


• 23 June 2016
  U.S. judge Gonzalo Curiel dismisses the lawsuit against MillerCoors that had accused it of deceptive marketing as to the 'craft' beer nature of Blue Moon. (Curiel is the same judge that is presiding over the lawsuit against presidential candidate Donald Trump over Trump University.)
  —Via New York Times.


• 20 June 2016
  The full moon of 20 June 2016 is the first full moon to fall on the summer solstice since 1948.
  —Via Chicago Tribune.


• 20 June 2016
  

  Guinness is a mighty global brand but there are signs that it is struggling to maintain its position as The Stout. In Britain, in particular, its popularity has been sliding for almost a decade: between 2008 and 2014 sales dropped by approximately 50 million liters per year, from more than 250 million to around 200 million.

  Guinness responded to alleged changes to its recipe:

  There’s a number of elements we don’t talk about.

  —Via Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey at All About Beer.


• 20 June 2016
  The scarlet letter of ‘craft’ is a moving target, an object of opprobrium seemingly chosen annually. Much scorned, corn and rice are as much evil adjuncts as sugar and fruit and pumpkin and breakfast cereal are. If anything, among those, corn might be the uber-traditional of American brewing ingredients. "Rethinking corn’s demonized role in beer."
  —Via Stan Hieronymus at DRAFT Magazine.


• 19 June 2016
  It's a 'craft' beer cage-match in Colorado, as several breweries split from the Colorado Brewers Guild over a schism concerning the inclusion of Anheuser-Busch InBev and Breckinridge (purchased in 2015 by AB InBev); form new group called Craft Beer Colorado.
  —Via Denver West Word.


• 19 June 2016
  Juneteenth celebrates the eradication of American slavery, 19 June in 1865.
  —Via Smithsonian Magazine.

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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.
• Clamps & Gaskets is scheduled to be posted on Mondays. Today is Tuesday. I was tardy. My editor was not pleased.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.


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