I haven’t seen much yet from the joint hearing by the Senate Law Committee and House Liquor Control Committee looking into the PLCB that took place April 13, but Jack Curtin posted something from the Scranton Times-Tribune entitled PLCB Bad for Business. Share and Enjoy:

Today’s work of art is something of a find. I wrote about it when I highlighted another work by the same artist early in my Beer In Art series. In fact, it was the sixth work back in 2008, Charles Spencelayh’s Good Health. After sharing his biography from Wikipedia, I also discovered the following. Supposedly, he [...]

Today is the birthday of New Zealand beer writer Neil Miller. He writes regularly for Beer and Brewer magazine, the beer blog at Real Beer NZ and the Malthouse Blog. Though born in the U —Broxburn — he now calls Wellington his home. I met Neil when he was vising the states with Luke Nicholas [...]

Today is beer blogger extraordinaire Alan McLeod’s 47th birthday. Alan runs a good beer blog, called — curiously enough — A Good Beer Blog. I’m not sure what came first, the goodness or the blog. Anyway, though I’ve yet to meet Alan in person I feel as if he’s already a great, not just good, [...]

While clear beer is not exactly new, it has never proved economically successful despite polling that seems to suggest people would drink it. In the real world, once faced with a purchasing decision, people don’t buy beer that doesn’t look like beer. Thank goodness. The first clear malt beverage I recall trying was Zima, when [...]

Our fourteenth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is yet another variation on the iconic toucan on a weathervane, the difference here is he’s high above a country setting on a bright Spring day in he montains above a lake where, as the tagline suggests, it’s a “Lovely day for a Guinness.” Share and Enjoy:

Earlier this month, AC Golden Brewing — a wholly-owned subsidiary of MillerCoors — announced their newest project, Colorado Native. AC Golden is essentially just the Coors pilot brewery located inside Coors’ massive brewery complex in Golden, Colorado. Pretending they’re a small, separate, independent company may work on paper, for legal purposes, but I’d like to [...]

Friday’s ad is for a Canadian beer from Labatt’s. Labatt’s 50 Ale debuted in 1950 “to commemorate 50 years of partnership” and until 1979 was their best-selling beer. According to Labatt’s website: John and Hugh Labatt, grandsons of founder John K. Labatt, launched Labatt 50 in 1950 to commemorate 50 years of partnership. The first light-tasting [...]

Thursday’s ads are for Budějovický Budvar — one of two original Budweisers — known in the U.S. as Czechvar for reasons I’m sure you understand. The town of České Budějovice or Budweis inspired Anheuser-Busch to name their beer Budweiser, which essentially means beer from Budweis. It was today in 1895 that Budějovický Budvar was founded, [...]

This is my fourth annual annotated list of the Top 50 so you can see who moved up and down, who was new to the list and who dropped off. So here is this year’s list again annotated with how they changed compared to last year. Anheuser-Busch InBev; #1 last year, no surprises MillerCoors; ditto for #2 Pabst [...]

The Brewers Association has also just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2009. This includes all breweries, regardless of size or other parameters. Here is the new list: Anheuser-Busch InBev; St Louis MO MillerCoors; Chicago IL Pabst Brewing; Woodridge IL D. G. Yuengling and Son; Pottsville PA Boston Beer Co.; Boston MA Sierra [...]

The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2009, which is listed below here. For the third time, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 craft breweries based on the new definition adopted by the Brewers Association a few years ago. Here is [...]

Wednesday’s ads are not particularly old, but they are pretty clever. They’re actually ads for one of my least favorite beers — Heineken — but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the artistry and creativity of them. I chose a Heineken ad today because on this day in 1933, Heineken began importing their beer to [...]

Saturday night, the last night of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago — it being a World Beer Cup year — there was an awards banquet where the medals are handed out to a packed crowd of brewers and beer industry people. This year’s banquet, with 2,000 people, is believed to be the biggest beer [...]

If you’re on the national beer festival circuit, you’ve no doubt seen Ray McCoy, whose birthday is today. In 2003, Ray was crowned “Beer Drinker of the Year” in the contest sponsored by Wynkoop. Ray and his wife, Cornelia Corey (herself a 2001 BDOTY, making them the only couple to have won) travel from their [...]

Tuesday’s ad is a bit of a horror show. The ad is for Bud Dry, since it was on this day in 1989 that Anheuser-Busch debuted the line extension to test markets, rolling it out nationally the following year. I’m no fashion historian, but those look like every bad fashion look from the late 1980s. [...]

Today is the birthday of Julie Johnson, who’s the editor of All About Beer magazine, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. Julie is without a doubt one of the nicest people in the industry and a pleasure to work with. Plus she likes odd little German trolls almost as much as I do. Hers is pink, [...]

Monday’s ad is a Schlitz ad, most likely from the 1950s, featuring a cowboy trying to rope a bottle of Schlitz with his lasso. I imagine that if he manages to snag a bottle that it won’t open without spraying him in the face. Share and Enjoy:

Here’s some preliminary breakdowns of how the awards went down, who won the most by country and state. Of the 268 awards (2 medals were not awarded) from 3,351 beers by 642 breweries in 44 countries, here’s the results. Awards by Country United States 204 Germany 16 TIE: 7 Belgium 7 Canada 7 TIE: 5 Japan 5 UK 5 TIE: 3 Australia 3 Czech Republic 3 Denmark [...]

Tonight a record crowd of 2,000 people attended the awards dinner for the World Beer Cup. It is believed to have been the world’s largest beer dinner, and the five course meal was created and prepared by Randy Mosher and Sean Paxton, the Homebrew Chef. This year, 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S. states [...]