Our lucky 13th Guinness poster by John Gilroy is another in the “Lovely Day For A Guinness” series, this time featuring a sailor spying a pint of Guinness through his telescope, while two seagulls circle him expectantly. Share and Enjoy:

Friday’s ad is for Budweiser and reflects the optimism of its publication date, which was 1933, just after the end of prohibition. Above cloudy skies, the Empire State Building, like a lighthouse beacon, shines around the city, lighting it up for the fun below. Below the beacon, an orchestra plays, people dine and dance, all, [...]

Yesterday at the opening session of the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago, the awards were given to “three successful members of the brewing community … for their dedication and service to the industry.” The three awards were as follows. The Brewers Association Recognition Award went to Larry Bell, Founder and Owner of Bell’s Brewery, Inc. The Brewers [...]

Thursday’s ad is another in the Schlitz “kiss of the hops” series, this one featuring a violinist with the tagline “Like a Melody, No Bitterness.” It’s from 1943, a time when I think ads still tried to cram way to much into their ads, as this one looks much too cluttered to my eye. Share and [...]

Wednesday’s ad is all about circles and is for Schaefer beer in cans from 1959. Using imagery from the top of the can with round burgers, they make the case that because of their similar roundness, they should — and do, I should add — go great together. But check out this priceless bit of [...]

May’s Session should not be a lonely affair, but instead should bring more of us together to collaborate. That’s because the next Session’s host, Mario Rubio, has chosen as the theme, Collaborations, which he describes as follows. Feel free to have fun with the topic. Drink a collaborative beer. Who’s brewed some of your favorite collaborations? [...]

Tuesday’s ad is a maritime ad complete with the signal flags ships use to communicate with one another. The ad is from 1960 and is for National Brewing, from Baltimore. Did you know the Chesapeake Bay area is the “Land of Pleasant Living?” Me neither. I also love the unusual glass, no doubt chosen so [...]

Today is Steve Wagner’s 52nd birthday. Steve is a co-owner of Stone Brewing and the president of the California Small Brewers Association. In the late 1980s, Steve was a member of the band “The Balancing Act,” who put out several albums on I.R.S. Records. Now he just presides over one of the most successful microbreweries. [...]

Monday’s ad finds us at the beach with Ballantine Ale, probably from the late 50s, early 60s. The slogan “Try it for a change … and you’ll never change back!” is pretty interesting, though I’ve no idea what it has to do with being at the shore. The other text, “Ballantine Ale begins where other [...]

Today is the 53rd birthday of Tom McCormick, Director of the California Small Brewers Association (CSBA). Tom’s also owned and ran a distributorship and the Pro Brewer website, but has found his true calling promoting and defending small brewers in California. Join me in wishing Tom a very happy birthday. Tom, with Nancy Johnson and Dave [...]

Today’s works are from a series entitled Will Work For Food by an artist from Providence, Rhode Island, Shawn Kenney. There’s a story behind the project, and a portion of each sale is “donated to agencies working to end hunger through education, outreach, and food distribution.” All of the beer paintings are already sold, but [...]

Easter has to be one of the oddest holidays, a curious mix of religious and pagan traditions. Chocolate, bunny rabbits, eggs, and the newly undead happily mix for a curious stew of fertility rites and resurrection. Joyeuses Paques — a.k.a. Happy Easter — with beer-drinking eggs. There are very few true Easter beers, Het Anker’s Gouden Carolus [...]

Our twelfth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is another in the “Guinness For Strength” series, this time featuring a stone statue pining for a Guinness. Share and Enjoy:

Thursday night, April 1, I attended a five-course beer dinner at the Anchor Brewery in San Francisco celebrating Sierra Nevada Brewing’s 30th anniversary and the release of their first collaboration of the year, Fritz & Ken’s Ale, which is a stout. The evening was great fun with terrific company, food and, of course, beer. There [...]

Friday’s ad is for a brand I’m not familiar with, Sodibo, which I believe was a French beer. I love the highly stylized pastel drawing with the sophisticated-looking woman partially obscured by a bright blue fog. It’s from the 1920s and the art is by a Jean Rousseau. You can see more of the art in [...]

Our 38th Session is hosted by Sean Inman at Beer Search Party, is cult beers; those beers that are in short supply, high demand and often require going to great lengths to acquire. Here’s Sean’s thoughts on the cult of beers: I started thinking about what beer or beers that I would get up at 4:00 in [...]

Thursday’s ad is for Genesee Brewing from 1968 since today is their 77th anniversary. It’s a pretty simple time-honored strategy showing a sexy, scantily-clad female atop a giant beer can. I love the arrow pointing to the slogan “a little more exciting …” I guess they worried no one would even read it, what with [...]

Perhaps you’ve noticed the latest television ads from the Boston Beer Co. trying to position Samuel Adams as a small fish in the big beer pond. I understood it immediately, as I’m sure you did, too. As sales of Sam Adams eke north of the 2-million barrels per annum threshold, they want to reclaim their [...]

While I can’t abide the assertion that in “a market dominated by Anheuser Busch and Miller-Coors [sic], finding beauty in beer is a difficult task,” this post from the Coolist showcasing 10 Brilliant Beer Bottle Designs is still a fun look at some cool designs for beer bottles and cans. While I have no trouble [...]

Being April Fool’s Day, this might almost seem laughable, if it wasn’t so serious and obvious an attempt to bring about prohibition through taxation. (And thanks to the many people who sent me information about this, you know who you are, I appreciate it.) A San Diego couple, Kent and Josephine Whitney, have introduced a [...]