Clamps & Gaskets: News Roundup for Weeks 47/48, 2017.

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

Weeks 47/48
19 November - 2 December 2017

• 2 December 2017
  Analyzing on- and off-the-premises volumes of beer distributor sales to retailers during ten different holiday periods across the country in 2016, the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) found that ...
  • Christmas beer sales ranked 4th for off-the-premises sales —that is, beers bought at retail stores— but only 8th for on-the-premises sales.
  • Thanksgiving: 5th for off-the-premises and 7th for on-the-premises
  • For other holidays, Fourth of July took the number one spot in off-the-premises sales. For on-the-premises sales, St. Patrick’s Day took the top spot while Independence Day fell to 8th. Halloween and Thanksgiving were the two holidays for which both on and off-the-premises sales were most equivalent.
  — Via NBWA, which does not provide the actual sales volumes for those holidays.


• 30 November 2017
  North Korea has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking most of the U.S. mainland.
  — Via CNN.


• 29 November 2017
  Cask Marque is a U.K.-based organization that certifies pubs, breweries, and brewpubs that properly serve cask-conditioned ale. Its accreditation is also available in the United States.
  —Via YFGF.


• 29 November 2017
  What's next? Winemakers experimenting with traditional flavorings... like grapes?

  What we’re starting to see now is more brewers experimenting with traditional flavourings like malted barley.” [...] Hops could fall out of favour in craft beer industry as brewers look to barley.

  — Via Drinks Business.


• 28 November 2017
  Avery Brewing Company is the latest large craft brewery to sell a stake of its company to a foreign brewing company. Spanish brewery, Mahou San Miguel, has purchased a 30 percent share for an undisclosed amount. The [U.S.] Brewers Association —which bills itself as the advocacy organization for small and independent breweries— defines a craft brewery as one of which "less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer." Ownership by a non-brewing entity, however, such as a private equity firm, does not count against the definition.

  When asked how he felt about no longer being considered a 'craft brewer' by an organization that is located just 6 miles away from his brewery, [Brewing Founder Adam] Avery responded succinctly: 'I don’t care,' he said, noting that private equity’s 'infiltration' into the craft industry should be more of a concern than large beer company acquisitions. 'It is so funny how ‘big beer’ is demonized. The only way private equity makes money is by selling the business to someone else. Guess who will be the highest bidder in four or five years? Probably big beer. As far as the BA’s definition of what ‘craft’ is, I couldn’t disagree more.

  — Via Brewbound.


• 30 November 2017
  North Korea has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking most of the U.S. mainland.
  — Via CNN.


• 27 November 2017
  U.S. barley research...

  Researchers at Oregon State are [...] trying to quantify the ways different strains [of barley] affect flavor in beer, and in turn, how those strains are affected by terroir. "Barley genotype had significant effects on many sensory descriptors. The most significant sensory descriptors—when comparing barley genotypes—were cereal, color, floral, fruity, grassy, honey, malty, toasted, toffee, and sweet. Golden Promise was significantly higher in fruity, floral, and grassy flavors, whereas Full Pint was significantly higher in malty, toffee, and toasted flavors. CDC Copeland was closest to neutral for most flavor traits. There were notable differences for some descriptors between locations." That researchers documented the way different barley strains vary in flavor is entirely predictable and well-known--at least to Europeans. Americans, it seems, are centuries behind them in tumbling to these ancient truths.

  — Via Jeff Alworth, at Beervana.



• 23 November 2017
  Chopping swedes and carrots (for roasting in brown ale with balsamic vinegar and brown sugar).
  — Via YFGF.


• 22 November 2017
  

  It’s one of the most intense 20th-century storms you may have never heard of. And it consistently makes it to meteorologists’ top 10 lists of all-time greatest storms — including those published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Weather Channel. The Great Thanksgiving Storm of 1950: East Coast flooding, widespread wind damage, record snowfall, and low temperatures conspired to make the storm, also known as the Great Appalachian Storm, a meteorological powerhouse. Upward of 383 deaths are attributed to this storm, which impacted 22 states and levied nearly $700 million in damage, after adjusting for inflation.

  — Via Capital Weather Gang, at Washington Post.


• 22 November 2017
  Black Star Line Brewing opened in Henderson, North Carolina, in October 2017. Since then it has has been profaned, threatened, and vandalized. Why? Maybe this:

  We are proud to be the first OUT, Black, queer, woman-owned-and-operated brewery."

  — More about the brewery and L.A. McRae, via Asheville Citizen-Times.
  — More about the attacks and vandalism, via Mountain XPress.
  — GoFundMe campaign to replace vandalized equipment.


• 22 November 2017
  George Avakian —groundbreaking jazz producer and record executive, who helped introduce long-play LP vinyl records, live albums, and album liner notes— has died at 98. He produced, among others, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Keith Jarrett, Johnny Mathis, Bob Newhart, Bill Haley, and the Everly Brothers, and oversaw retrospective releases that revitalized interest in Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith.
  — Via Washington Post.


• 22 November 2017
  Jon Hendricks 91921-2017) —master of vocalese, “the epitome of hip,” “poet laureate of jazz”— dies at 96.

  A singer and composer who developed [vocalese,] an intricate style of vocal gymnastics to match his tongue-twisting lyrics. [His] Grammy-winning vocal trio, "Lambert, Hendricks & Ross," is widely regarded as the most influential singing group in jazz history.

  —Via Washington Post.


• 21 November 2017
  Stitching temperance and the lack thereof, biomedical/sociological endeavor, wine-envy, and sacred herbal taxes:

  I do tire of references to temperance as code for everything one does not like in beer regulation. It’s up there with anxieties over lack of wine world respect. Face it – public health is a key foundation of modern western civilization. Who would choose to go back to the pre-temperance society? Even when the do-gooder sociologists in their laboratories get it wrong, no one in their right mind wants them stopping doing their work. Give the church its gruitgeld!

  — Via Alan McLeod, at A Good Beer Blog.


• 19 November 2017
  Large craft brewery Left Hand (Boulder, Colorado) has sued White labs —a major supplier of yeast to the brewing industry— for selling it contaminated brewers yeast that, the brewery claims, forced the brewery to recall several of its beers in 2016, costing it $2 million dollars. White Labs denies the charges.
  — Via Brewbound.


• 19 November 2017
  Cult-leader Charles Manson, mastermind of grisly 1969 murders, dies at 83.
  —Via Chicago Tribune.


• 19 November 2017
  Keystone pipeline leak spills 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota.

  "We told you so," Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel of the Lakota People's Law Project, said in a statement. "It was just a matter of time. There have been over 200 significant leaks in these pipelines since the year 2000. This is the exact threat that the Lakota people were trying to protect their sole source of water from at Standing Rock."

  — Via CBS.



Yesterday...
Me: "I see you have a locally-brewed dunkel! It's difficult to brew one well, let alone find one in the U.S."
Him: "It's excellent. And they brew a coffee-version!"
Q.E.D.

— YFGF (@Cizauskas) November 26, 2017

-----more-----

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


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