Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 33/34, 2017.

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

Weeks 33/34
13 August - 26 August 2017

• 25 September 2017
  Molson Coors has been accused of selling Carling Lager at 3.7% alcohol-by-volume as 4% for 5 years, reportedly in order to avoid a £50 million tax bill. The company says that the variance was within the allowable range, which, it says, exists to accommodate occasional fluctuations in fermentation, and was not to enable a 5 year long campaign of tax avoidance.
  —Via Daily Mail.


• 25 August 2017
  Donald Trump pardons former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff whose aggressive efforts to hunt down and detain undocumented immigrants made him a national symbol of the divisive politics of immigration and who was convicted of contempt of court in July for defying a judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos.
  —Via The Guardian.


• 24 August 2017
  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces plan to reduce size of national monuments Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Cascade-Siskiyou, and reviewing status of dozens of others protected by actions of several previous presidents.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 23 August 2017
  Yakima, Washington-based hop broker 47 Hops LLC —which purchases hops from growers and resells them to brewers— has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reporting liabilities of $7.4 million, unsecured claims of $2.9 million, and assets of $4.3 million. 47 Hops president Douglas MacKinnon said that

  Brewers, fueled by optimism, contracted for more hops than they now need,” while blaming declining demand for his hop supply on slowing craft sales. To make matters worse, several of 47 Hops’ brewery clients delayed payment and delivery of their hops during the last year, MacKinnon said. “Payments for some contracted hops are one year behind schedule. Some brewers have stopped responding to calls and emails altogether.”

  —Via Brewbound.


• 23 August 2017
  Alaska's permafrost is no longer permanent, thawing as one result of climate change and one potential cause of future warming.
  —Via New York Times.


• 22 August 2017
  John Abercrombie —influential jazz guitarist of 1970s fusion jazz (and more than that)— has died at 72.
  —Via Chicago Tribune.



• 21 August 2017
  From Oregon on the west coast to South Carolina on the east, the "Great American Eclipse 2017" was the first total eclipse to traverse the entire continental United States since 1918. The wait for the next totally-American total eclipse won't be quite as long. It will darken the width of the continent twenty-eight years from now, on 12 August 2045.
  —Via YFGF.


• 20 August 2017
  Jerry Lewis, the comedian, actor and filmmaker who was adored by many, disdained by others, but unquestionably a defining figure of American entertainment in the 20th century, died at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91.
  —Via New York Times.


• 19 August 2017
  Known as a comedian who broke racial barriers, served as a civil rights activist and advocated for a healthier lifestyle, Dick Gregory has died.
  —Via New York Times.


• 17 August 2017
  

  Craft culture fetishizes the authentic, the traditionally produced, and the specific; it loathes the engineered, the mass-produced, and the originless. [...] Craft culture tells mostly white stories for mostly white consumers and they always sound the same.

  —Via Eater.


• 16 August 2017
  In what may be a trend, 'craft' breweries, large and smaller, have been opening additional or satellite locations. For exampe, Green Flash —a San Diego, California-based brewery which only last year opened a second brewing location in Virginia Beach, Virginia— has announced plans to open a third brewery, this time with an attached restaurant, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
  —Via Porch Drinking.


• 16 August 2017
  When a customer (nicely) asked a small 'craft' brewery about inconcistency in its beers, the brewery told him to f*** off. Opprobium for the brewery was widespread.
  —Via Paste.



• 15 August 2017
  Jack Daniel's Distillery has revised its official company history to acknowledge Nearest (Nathan) Green, born an African-American slave, as its original master distiller. In the photo, Jack Daniel, on the right with a mustache and wearing a white hat, is shown at his distillery in Tennessee in the later 1800s. Nearest Green [or one of Green’s sons] is believed to be the man pictured on the left.
  —Via New York Times.


• 15 August 2017
  Over the 52-week period ending in June 2017, on-the-premises beer sales decreased 2% over the same period the year before, whereas wine sales were up 1.5% and spirits up 1.6%. Off-the-premises beer sales did increase but by only 0.1%, whereas wine increased 1.4% and spirits, 2.2%.
  —Via Brewbound (quoting Nielsen).


• 13 August 2017
  More than nine billion tons of plastic has been produced since 1950, and the vast majority of it is still around, with literally one ton of plastic garbage for every human on Earth.
  —Via Washington Post.



Overheard: "Can I watch the solar #eclipse at night? I work during the day."

— YFGF (@Cizauskas) July 15, 2017

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• 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 has been posted one week late. My editor is not pleased. Another edition should be posted next Monday so that the series can return to its regular bi-weekly schedule.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created for YFGF by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.


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