This just in from the  California Small Brewers Association. . They’re holding a press conference Tuesday (Sept. 9, 2008) at Rubicon Brewing Co., 2004 Capitol Ave. in Sacramento to protest AB 1245 and urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to veto the bill.  Their statement’s self-explainatory. It would let brewers spend a lot more money on gifts and doodads to retailers flogging their beer. Of course who has money to do that? A-B, not your local brewer.
What we can do is send an email to Arnold urging him to abandon his Republican roots for an instance and shoot the damn thing down — guvanator style.

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WHY:              A little known “swag” bill has been ushered to the Governor’s desk over the objection of local and small brewers in California.

The bill, AB 1245, would significantly increase the amount of marketing dollars Anheuser-Busch wants to spend courting new drinkers.  Promoting an increase of 1200% in direct marketing swag the largest beer manufacturer in the U.S. wants to further exploit its marketing clout to the detriment of smaller brewers.

“The real loser in the AB marketing game will be the consumer who will likely see reduced choices at their local market,” said Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Small Brewers Association.

WHO:             Glynn Phillips, owner, Rubicon Brewing Company, Sacramento
Susan Little, owner, St. Stan Brewery, Modesto
Tom McCormick, executive director, California Small Brewers Association

To email Arnold,  go here: http://govnews.ca.gov/govmail/webmail.php .

To call his office, dial 916-445-2841

OK, here’s a question to consider this weekend? Which beer should be our American beer – the one that instantly means U.S.A., the one that shows American brewing skill, a beer that gives us bragging rights – even in the UK, Germany and Belgium.

One that won’t embarrass us in the eyes of experienced beer drinkers worldwide. That’s important,  zero embarrassment factor. Originality is also important.

Comments welcome.

Note: My daughter, Amanda, 21, a Mills College senior, sat in on Nicole Erny’s Beer Class on Belgian sours at The Trappist in downtown Oakland last Saturday.  Here’s her report: The opinions are her own. I love Orval, fresh, when the regular ale yeast has done its worth or long-aged when the Brettanomyces  (wild) yeast has soured the beer. Amanda, obviously, prefers the long-aged version.

Tasting notes:

• Orval- fresh, sharp, dry

• Duchesss de Bourgogne - high acid, vinegar smell and initial taste, heavy

• Rodenbach Classic - dry, mildly sour.

• Oud Beersel Kriek lighter, tart, fruity, not sweet

• Oud Beersel Kriek Vielle has a more lactic smell (almost like baby powder) and a wetter taste than the kriek

• Girardin 1882 Black Label delicate, tart, complex, easy to drink

• Cantillon Iris - Very intense, and it was totally lost on me.

IT MAY BE A LITTLE KNOW FACT, but not all college students like waking up to drink at noon.  As much as I love the Trappist beer cafe in Oakland, with its narrow bar and claptrap of beer bottles lining the walls, it was tough to steel my stomach for the featured class: The Sour Beers of Belgium.

But upon arrival it became evident that not everyone taking the class shared my sentiment. A line of about 15 people had formed outside the bar, mostly couples, all eagerly chatting and waiting to be let in. And once we were let in, even more beer lovers flooded the bar, where Nicole Erny, our friendly sour-beer guide, was popping corks.

The setup was nice, with “students” lining the bar and the far wall, each with several information sheets, a glass of water and at each place setting, a  bowl of bread cubes to clear the palate after each tasting. Nicole and her two assistants stood behind the bar, lecturing on Flanders Red and Lambics, holding up pictures of the odd processes that make the classicly sour Belgian beers we were sampling.  Instead of regular, sweet fermenting, beer yeast,  sours are partly or entirely fermented by wild yeast, the unruly yeasts that permeate the air everywhere.

The choice of an extremely fresh Orval, from the Belgian Trappist brewery,  as the starting beer made me a bit queasy. Without any age on the beer at all, the soap taste overpowered the sour, but luckily the selections got better from there. We tried Duchesse de Bourgogne, and classic Rodenbach (these being examples of  “burgundies of Belgium‚”) and then moved into Lambics, the spontaneously fermented beers brewed only in the Senne Valley on the edge of Brussels.

By the time we hit Lambics, order in the bar was dissolving. The cluster of men next to me were playing with their iPhones and the volume was getting a bit loud all around. It had been an hour, we had started late, and I could tell people were getting a bit knackered. Nicole held the fort down, however, churning out glass after glass, first Oud Beersel Kriek, then Kriek Vielle, spurring us all onward.

The krieks  –  beers fermented with cherries – were received very warmly by the crowd. People liked the fruit aromas and taste, even if the beer was dry or sour. The geuze – a sour beer blend of fresh and aged Lambic – came next, a Girardin 1882 Black Label, which was unfiltered and deliciously tart, probably my favorite on the list, and a Cantillon Iris, whose subtleties, I’m afraid, came out a bit charred on my sour-overloaded tongue.

The dishwasher (the hardest working member of the Trappist team, I think) was steaming and everyone (for some ungodly reason) was allowed a “free,” full pour. The iPhone guys were ecstatic. I saw people trying a lot of new things but a fair portion ordered a Rodenbach Grand Cru, the only sour on tap.

My overall reaction? A good time, and I don’t doubt that any future class will fill up. It’s worth trying, and at $30 dollars it’s a fun way to spend two hours. Did I come away with any shocking beer knowledge? Not really. Did I come away knowing that a fresh Orval tastes like the stuff I use to scour my tub? Yes. And frankly, sometimes knowing which beers your highly dislike is the start of becoming a real beer buff, and that’s worth drinking at 12 noon any day.  - Amanda Brand

Oddbits…There’ll be no open house this afternoon at Linden Street Brewing in Oakland.  Proprietor - head brewer Adam Lamoreaux says in an e-mail to one of his fans that unfortunately, they just aren’t ready.

We will DEFINITELY be doing an event at the brewery on Friday, October 3rd and will keep you posted on future events at LSB.  Also we are finishing up a newsletter that we will be posting on our website and emailing out to folks like you to better keep everybody in the loop.  Sorry again for the confusion, but I promise we are working to make mixups like this a thing of the past.

OK Adam, we’ll see ya’ there. By the way, you can sample both of Linden Street’s beers, Linden Street Common Lager and Black Bottom, made by Adam at  Drake’s in San Leandro at the Trappist in downtown Oakland.

Live out Pleasanton-Livermore way and looking for Russian River Pliny the Elder in bottles. Don’t even think about Beverages & More they don’t refrigerate their beer and Vinnie Cilurzo,  Russian River, won’t sell Pliny to stores that don’t refrigerate.  The place to go is Perry’s, Liquor, 1522 Railroad Ave., 925-443-0550.  A reader tells me they have it in stock.

In a similar vein, another poster says Precita Market & Deli, 35 Precita Ave. (between Coso Ave & Mission Street in Bernal Heights), San Francisco, 415-648-3588 is selling off  a pretty nice stash of last years winter beers… Jubilale, SnowCap, Santa’s Private, etc….Now you know.

Events: Wednesday, Sept. 10, 5 p.m., Toronado, 547 Haight St., San Francisco. They’re going to tap a keg of Anchor Liberty Ale on the anniversary of the day this splendid, India Pale Ale was born: Sept. 10, 1975.  The keg is coming to the Toronado from Anchor on the day it’s kegged.  If you’ve never tried Liberty fresh, here’s a chance. Sometimes I go a long time without a glass and each time I renew my acquaintance, I’m blown away. Mucho hops, great malt balance. A five star beer.

It’s not exactly the answer to Democratic prayers, but Convention Ale, a commorative beer brewed by Flat Earth Brewing Co. to mark the Republican Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul this week has been pulled off the market.  The reason: Exploding bottles.

The craft brewery has been plagued by exploding bottles all summer, so when they got a report that a single bottle of Convention Ale had exploded, they recalled the entire batch, all the bottles as a precaution. Wouldn’t want them blowing up in VP nominee Sarah Pallin’s hands, although she’s apparently a moose hunter, and no doubt drinks swill lager. (Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me she goes for Alaskan Smoked Porter.)

A Flat Earth employee,  Mike Elias, said the problem has tentatively been traced to a washer, which didn’t completely remove residual yeast from the bottles.  And by blowing up, we mean the pressure in the bottle popped the cap.   The bottles didn’t explode.

Anyone who has had a homebrewing misadventure knows what happens when you over prime  your homebrew. Whoops!

Flat Earth, by the way, refers to the fact that the prairies extending west from Minneapolis-St. Paul are flat. It’s not a reference to the belief that the Earth is actually flat, not round.

Aout the beer. It is/was a Belgian-style brown ale, Mike says.  What’s going to happen to the beer? “I guess we’ll drink it,” he said (smiling).

Budweiser American Ale – It’s the best thing old Bud has ever produced

By William Brand
Oakland Tribune
WELL, I’M CAUGHT between a rock and hard place. Let me explain: Anheuser-Busch, the jolly-about-to-be-Belgian-owned giant, has a new beer: Budweiser American Ale. I like it, and that’s the rub.

Anheuser-Busch has made ales before. But this one’s the first ale to ever carry the Budweiser name. Until now, Budweiser has been a light lager, made in an ersatz German style with lots of rice added to the barley mash to create a beer I really don’t like very much. I like it so little that once when my wife and I had a big fight, she gave me a gift-wrapped can of Bud as a “present.”

To me, Bud Light is the same, except more watery. True, they’re America’s two best-selling beers. But I just don’t like them. READ THE REST OF THE POST…

Books: An End-of-Summer Reading List

Close out the summer with a good read about our favorite subject

Books:
Around London in 80 Beers, Chris Pollard, Siobhan McGinn, Cogan & Mater, Cambridge, $19.99, paper
Red White & Brew: A Beer Odyssey Across the U.S., Brian Yaeger, St. Martin’s Press, New York, $14.95, paper.
The Imbible, The Bash Back to School Booze Book, Alex Bash, St Martin’s Griffin, New York, $13.95, cloth.
The Ultimate Beer Lover’s Cookbook, More Than 400 Recipes, John Schlimm, Cumberland House, Nashville, $24.95, cloth.

I gotta’ admit, I’m a certified Anglophile, even though, as far as I can tell, I have absolutely no connection to England, by blood or kin. I guess its the beer.  At any rate, things English charm the pants off me. I’ve just finished a great little book: Around London in 80 Beers, by Chris Pollard  and Siobhan McGinn, Cogan & Mater Ltd., Cambridge, UK…READ THE REST OF THE POST…

Henry’s Publick House in the Durant Hotel, 600 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 510- 809-4132,  has long been a bar peopled by fraternity types from nearby UC Berkeley frats. Now, it’s reinvented itself as a “gastropub.”  My daughter Amanda, 21, visited last week, thankfully before the Cal game when the place was jammed.  Here’s her report:‎

OK, I’m going to be honest. I grew up in Berkeley with two non-Cal affiliated parents. Bred in a nest of athletic apathy, sports never crossed my mind and were only reminiscent of traffic jams on Piedmont and Channing on those faithful Cal football Saturdays when, trying to struggle across town, one of my parents would swear heartily regarding the death of collectivized sports.

So it’s no surprise that I had never stepped foot into Henry’s, a bistro and bar attached to the Durant Hotel, famous for it’s sporty disposition.  But upon taking a language intensive UC Berkeley class this summer, I found myself on campus and, well. In need of a stiff drink.

Enter Henrys. Newly remodeled, I walked in completely shocked. Muted yellows and blues and new gleaming wood furniture? Helpful bartender?

Sports on MUTE? I almost died of shock. And the beer list? A commanding full page, with only a few pitfalls that any bar kitty corner to frat row would fall prey to. And to my pleasure, beer was listed before the wine and spirits list.

They also had a full bar menu with lots of interesting appetizers to try. The Lemongrass Frites were terrific and paired easily with a fresh Hoegaarden Wit served in a respectably warm pint glass. They also stocked Chimay Red, Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Lost Coast Downtown Brown.

So forgive Henry’s for having Miller High Life on tap, forgive Henry’s for their novelty size ordering system (“I’ll take 60 oz. of Guinness” might be something I never want to say out loud in public) and forgive them for game days when the quiet atmosphere becomes a din of late bloomers cheering on the home team.

Henry’s is remodeled, pleasant, and a far better choice than the slop you can get further down Telegraph.
And to be even more honest, after that Hoegaarden I had a vodka gimlet up that was absolutely perfect. Not a bad place to take a date… just not on game day, fellas.  Amanda Brand

Photos: Top: Henry’s draft beer list. Yes, we know Boont Amber comes from Anderson Valley Brewiing, Boonville and Race 5 comes from Bear Republic, Healdsburg and Cloverdale. They don’t.

Below: Henry’s locator map. University of California, Berkeley Campus is above Bancroft Avenue.

Oddbits…. Did you toast Michael Jackson on the first anniversary of his deaht, Saturday?  No, I forgot too. The great British beer writer died Aug. 30, 2007 from  a heart attack. He had long had Parkinson’s disease.  He was 65.  I’m gonna’ toast him tonight, believe it will be a glass of Fantome Saison. Michael’s first Great Beers of Belgium book led me to discover the eccentric, unusual world of Belgian beer and Fantome is about as unusual as they come.  All my best Michael…

…If you’re a commercial brewer or know a brewer well… ask him or her to supply author Bob Skilnik with nutritional info on the brewery’s leading beers.  Bob’s a beer historian whose latest book is Beer & Food: An American History,  also is the  author of The Drink Beer, Get Thin Diet and The Low-Carb Bartender, among others.  Here’s what he needs:

I’m in the process of compiling a new book with nutritional values of as many worldwide beers as possible. The front material will also give the definitive historical tale of why the FDA does not handle booze/beer/wine and how this all started. But I need your help.

While I’m sending out a ton of e-mails to U.S. breweries,  I need as many breweries as possible to contact me ( toddlintown@comcast.net ) with either the nutritional values of their beers or the O.G. and F.G. or even degrees Plato (beginning and end) so I can make the appropriate nutritional calculations. While some brewers have been extremly nice and cooperative with my current efforts, others have told me to do things with myself sexually that are just impossible! I think that the market demands are more important than brewers refusing to see the eventual reality of changes in beer labeling. Imbibers want the same sort of nutritional info on booze/beer/wine labels as on their kids’ boxes of Count Chocula cereal.

Bob points out that the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau continues to gather comments about new labels for beer containers that would include calories and ingredients. Fight it, if you wish, but the global economy is dictating the changes, Skilnik says.

Change is coming and it has the tailwinds of consumer support and NAFTA pressured conformity to a standardized world market of required label regulations behind it. Without acceptance, it’s conceivable that the important import/export markets of beers, wines and spirits would come to a halt.

Events ahead…Beerunch…MateVeza & The Flavor Architects,  Saturday Sept. 13, 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 pm., Beerunch, Bambuddha Lounge, 601 Eddy St., San Francisco: Beers:  Mateveza Yerba Mate Ale, Kona Coffee Porter,  Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout,  Marin Bluebeery Ale,  He’brew Lenny’s Bittersweet Rye IPA, North Coast Pranqster Belgian Golden Ale,  Anderson Valley Brother David’s Double… all expertly paired with traditional brunch dishes. $35. Benefit for the Pachamama Alliance, a group trying to save tropical rainforests. Tickets: www.beerlunch.com.

If  you follow Don Russell’s  weekly “Joe Sixpack” column in the Philadelphia Daily News online, then you know that last March beer lovers in Philly staged a fairly incredible beer week.

Philly’s Beer Week featured a stunning list of events, many beer dinners. festivals, tastings and general celebrations. The week began with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter tapping a keg of Yard’s Extra Special Ale, a bit like the kick-off for Oktoberfest in Munich. Not only did Philly have this incredible week, they proclaimed Philadelphia, America’s most beer-drinking city.

Fast forward to today. The two local guys who cooked up the Bay Area’s Beerapalooza, Celebrator  Beer News publisher Tom Dalldorf, and Brookston Beer Bulletin blogger and Celebrator associate Jay Brooks, are feeling upstaged.

Beerapalooza’s far from shabby. It kicks off each February with the Bistro Double IPA fest and ends a week later with a Bruce Paton Beer Dinner, the Toronado’s Barleywine Fest and a big event, sponsored by the Celebrator.

Ain’t good enough, they think. So, with the help of friends – yes, you and I are welcome to sign on too – they’ve invented “SF Beer Week,”  The first one will be February 6-15, 2009.  Ten days in the place that gave birth to the American craft beer movement, starting with Anchor, continuing with New Albion and on and on.

They’re right, of course. No way should the Bay Area take a back seat to Philadelphia in the beer world. Although, after a couple of days there in June, it’s a great beer scene. But as we all know, the Bay Area rocks and a little friendly competition won’t hurt us. And hey, maybe Arnold will tap a keg of Pliny to kick things off (Just a suggestion that points out it’s the San Francisco BAY AREA Beer Week.)

Check out the Web site, sign up for the e-mail list and stay tuned. Philadelphia, indeed.