Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 1/2, 2017.

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

Weeks 1/2
1 January 2017 - 14 January 2017

• 14 January 2017
  The animals will go to "suitable homes"; the humans will be out of a job. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to close after 146 years of operation.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 12 January 2017
  Hyper-local or as things used to be. Maryland farm-brewery brews beer with all of the ingredients grown and produced in Maryland.
  —Via YFGF at Facebook.


• 12 January 2017
  Brewing returns to the historic St. Paul, Minnesota, building that once housed the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company (1855-1990), as 10-bbl 'craft' brewery to open in the development.
  —Via Twin Cities Pioneer Press.


• 12 January 2017
  Uh-oh. San Diego, California's Green Flash Brewing —which only recently opened a 2nd brewery, on the East Coast, in Virginia Beach, Virginia— lays off approximately 25 employees.
  —Via The Full Pint.


• 12 January 2017
  
  • At 1:30 in the morning, the Senate took a major step toward repealing Affordable Care Act, offering no legislation to replace it.
    —Via New York Times.
    
  • Repeal would destabilize the nongroup insurance market beginning in 2017 as a combination of several factors — pending loss of subsidies, elimination of the requirement to buy insurance, and the requirement on insurers to sell to all purchasers including protection for pre-existing conditions — would cause prices to rise and the healthiest people to drop coverage.
    —Via Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.


• 10 January 2017
  The James Beard Foundation gives a Lifetime Achievement Award to Nora Pouillon, whose Restaurant Nora, in Washington, D.C., in 1999 became the first certified organic restaurant in the United States.
  —Via DC Eater.


• 10 January 2017
  That time that the judges at the World Beer Cup deemed Fullers ESB —the originator!— out-of-style for an ESB (Extra Special Bitter). The oft absurdity of beer style management.
  —Via The Malting Floor.


• 10 January 2017
  Clare Hollingworth, reporter who broke news about start of World War II, pioneering female in male-dominted press, dies at 105.
  —Via Washington Post.



• 9 January 2017
  

  Gone are the days when a schoolboy of 12½ drank four-X ale for breakfast. There are octogenarians of a physical and mental alertness which shows that it did them no harm; it occasioned, one said, 'much cheerfulness.'

  —YFGF quoting from Beer In Britain (1960).


• 9 January 2017
  For the first time in more than a decade, the 'craft beer' category has failed to grow double-digits, according to new data from market research firm IRI Worldwide.

  Craft dollar sales at U.S. supermarkets grew just 6.9 percent in 2016, to more than $2.28 billion, while volume sales grew at an even slower 4 percent clip. By comparison, craft dollar sales at U.S. supermarkets grew more than 20 percent and volume sales grew 16 percent in 2015. The last time craft dollar sales failed to grow by double-digits was 2005.

  —Via Brewbound.



• 8 January 2017
  Buddy Bregman, born 1930, —a Hollywood musical arranger and conductor who worked alongside some of the top entertainers of the 1950s and 1960s and helped shape Ella Fitzgerald’s landmark “Song Book” albums celebrating the music of classic American songwriters, such as Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers— has died at 86.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 7 January 2017
  Brewmaster defined?

  People tend to use the words “brewmaster” and “head brewer” interchangeably, but to me they are very different roles.

  The ten necessities to becoming a 'brewmaster.'
  —Via Mitch Steele, at The Hop Tripper.


• 7 January 2017
  Nat Hentoff —journalist, author, champion of jazz music, defender of civil liberties— has died at 91.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 7 January 2017
  The 2015 vintage in Beaujolais, France, may have that region's best vintage since the 1940s. Wine Enthusaist rates it with 96 points out of 100.
  —Via Dave McIntyre, at Washington Post.



• 8 January 2017
  Parker Beam (1941-2017), longtime master distiller for Kentucky-based Heaven Hill Distilleries, has died after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Grandnephew of Jim Beam, Beam was among a small fraternity of master distillers who oversaw production at various Kentucky distilleries during bourbon’s revival. Beam’s career as a whiskey maker spanned more than a half-century at Bardstown-based Heaven Hill. He was 75.

  One thing that bugged Parker was the term master distiller, a title he believed should be reserved for only the best. “When I came up, you had to be a mechanic, fix a pump, a hammer mill, prepare the yeast. You had to earn ‘master distiller.’ ”

  —Via Fred Minnick.


• 5 January 2017
  

  Among the many lessons the craft revolution has taught us is that taking a good beer and putting it in a barrel doesn’t necessarily make it a better beer.

  —Via Bob and Ellie Tupper, at CultureAle.


• 7 January 2017
  Nat Hentoff, journalist who wrote on jazz and civil liberties, in particular the First Amendment, has died at 91.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 6 January 2017
  On this day in 1941, President Fanklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous "Four Freedoms" speech to Congress: freedom of speech; freedom of worship; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
  —Via YFGF.


• 2 January 2017
  Bryan D. Roth —dubbed "beer's Nate Silver" by beer writer Jeff Alworth— culls fifteen 'best of' lists to determine the best beer(s) of 2016.

  All that said, the 2016 Beer of the Year was Firestone Walker’s Luponic Distortion IPA. And it wasn’t even close.

  —Via Bryan D. Roth, at This Is Why I'm Drunk.


• 1 January 2017
  Las Vegas has become largest American city to power all of its municipal facilities entirely with renewable energy.
  —Via Huffington Post.


• 1 January 2017
  The 'heirloom' Carolina African runner peanut —at one time, the American South's most praised peanut, first brought to America in the 1600s by enslaved West Africans, but, by the 1930s late 1800s, near extinction— is now being grown again.
  —Via NPR.


• 1 January 2017
  Expect stronger and bubblier American cider this year. The U.S. tax code just became more lenient.
  —Via YFGF.


• 1 January 2017
  My 'craft' beer wish for 2017.

  That more 'craft' brewers would recognize that, without practice and education, innovation is an empty boast. Becoming a craftsperson is a different thing than immodestly self-proclaiming it. [...] 'Craft' brewers: when we purchase your beer, we are, in effect, subsidizing your education. For 2017: please learn!

  —Via YFGF.

-----more-----

• Clamps and Gaskets is a bi-weekly wrap-up of stories about beer (or wine, or whisky) and other things.
• Today's edition of Clamps & Gaskets is one week overdue. My editor is not amused.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created for YFGF by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.


• For more from YFGF:
  • Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.
  • Like on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.
  • Follow on Flickr: Cizauskas.
  • Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.