Month: May 2010

New owners Keith Greggor, far left and Tony Foglio with Fritz Maytag at Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco. (Gene X. Hwang/Orange Photography)

Written by Greg Kitsock for The Washington Post

Two weeks ago, the beer world was jolted by the announcement that Fritz Maytag had sold the Anchor Brewing Co., in San Francisco to the Griffin Group, an investment and consulting company best known for growing Skyy Vodka into a multibillion-dollar brand.

Normally, buyouts and mergers in the beer business are nothing to jump up and down about. In January, Long Trail Brewing Co. in Bridgewater, Vt., acquired rival Otter Creek Brewing Co., 40 miles up the road. In March, Ken Allen of Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Boonville, Calif. announced he was selling his business to Trey White, a former executive with United States Beverage Co.

As of this writing, Pabst Brewing Co. is still on the sale block, in case you’re shopping around for a unique birthday or graduation gift.
Continue reading “Anchors Away”

Written by the Inside Jersey Staff for NJ.com

 

New Jersey loves beer. Our long, soggy affair continued straight through Prohibition. But while our past includes enough intrigue for HBO — its upcoming dramatic series “Boardwalk Empire” is set in 1920s Atlantic City (see story here) — most of us don’t know about the bootleggers, turf wars and organized crime. We just drink the stuff.
Continue reading “The History of Beer in New Jersey”

(Chili beers? Not so odd these days. But some of the others? Yes: weird- Prof. GA)
This is perhaps a very bizarre beer and one that I might never understand. This is actually a non-alcoholic beer that is made for dogs. It is a combination of beef extract and malt, which means that it is safe for human consumption but probably not recommended. The bigger problem for this Norwegian beer is that your dog might be drinking better than you because these beers are three times the cost of a Heineken.

Want to read more? Click…

HERE

Atlanta reaches the future, beer-wise, before this great take on Atlanta from an episode of Futurama!

 Written by Bob Townsend for AJC.com

San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago have been doing it for years. Now Atlanta joins the ranks of major American cities honoring craft beer with a week of celebrations.

Atlanta Beer Week runs May 16-22, with beer bars, beverage stores, restaurants, brewpubs and breweries in Atlanta and Athens holding dinners, special tastings and educational seminars.

Continue reading “Craft Beer Finally Getting Its Own Week in Atlanta”

Written by Jay Brooks for The Brookston Beer Bulletin

 

If you missed last year’s Lagunitas Beer Circus, you missed one of the most amazing spectacles involving beer I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. It was so good, they’ve moved it to May for the better weather and because it deserves its own time slot.

Continue reading “The Beer Circus Is Coming To Town”

Lake Placid Pub and Brewery
(Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

Written by Chris Knight for The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

One usually hates to see a craft/micro brewer like Lake Placid with it’s interesting ales like UBU Ale and Honey Rye drop their own brewery to this extent and vend out: but this was actually cause by excessive demand and popularity. Matt Brewing is also noted for brewing to your specifications, not simply handing the customer something they already brew that’s “close enough.” But, hopefully, they will be back on line brewing with their own facilities soon.- Prof GA.

Lake Placid – The Lake Placid Craft Brewing Co. has closed its brewing facility in Plattsburgh and is now producing all its beer for distribution at the F.X. Matt Brewing Company’s facilities in Utica.

Chris Ericson, who owns the Lake Placid Craft Brewing Co. and the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, said the company’s production brewery in Plattsburgh was shut down earlier this year because it couldn’t make enough beer to keep up with demand. The facility had opened in the winter of 2001-02.
Continue reading “Lake Placid Brewing Goes to “the Matt””

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

The Topic: Behind the Anchor Purchase

Written by Ken Carman

The purchase of Anchor Brewing came as a surprise to me. But I should have seen it coming. Fritz Maytag has been in the biz since the 60s and I’m sure everyone with an ounce of knowledge is familiar with how Fritz took Acme, which was about to go crash faster than Wily E. Coyote using the other: fictitional, Acme product, like some variation on those spring loaded shoes, to catch his nemesis.
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”

A portrait of before…………….. and AFTER