Jesse Friedman, who writes the most excellent Beer and Nosh blog,  notes that Google has put the Life Magazine photo archive going back to the 1860s on line.  The whole, vast complex of digital images is searchable, so Jesse did a search for beer.  I was fascinated and did the same thing.

Sodden thought: (To steal a cliche  — sodden thought — from the late, great San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen): A search for beer on the Life archive is a study in light lager. Went through most of 10 screens of images. Found just three non-light beer images, Guinness in a Irish pub; low alcohol beer being drunk by a child in Europe in the 1940s and one from 1949 of a bartender putting two beers on the bar: a light beer and a “dark.” Probably colored with caramel, I’ll bet. What a sad saga of crappy American beer.

Here are three images…

Sammy’s Bowery Follies

Indigent patron w. glass of beer sitting at table at Sammy’s Bowery Follies,, Location:    New York, NY, US, Date taken: 1944, Photographer:    Alfred Eisenstaedt

The bartender giving the waitress two glasses of beer, one dark and one light.
Location:    Milwaukee, WI, US
Date taken:    July 1949
Photographer:    Frank Scherschel

Beer Drinking
Date taken:    July 07, 1949
Photographer:    Frank Scherschel

Onward and upward….out of light lager land…Beer coming here and not coming here.  Here’s an update on Thomas Hardy’s Ale. Pat Saxon of Phoenix Imports says the 2008 Thomas Hardy’s is going out to wholesalers across the country now. In a perfect world, the timing would mean it will be in stores by Christmas.  Fat chance of that. My best guess: In stores by sometime in January.  You know distributors gotta push their light lager, make the cash registers ring. Who cares about a classic English beer that sells for five times the cost of a can of Bud.   What can we do?  Ask our favorite retailers to get the beer; they’ll talk to distributors and draw their attention away from the swill for a moment and maybe bring out the beer…

There’s news from Alaskan Brewing (Juno): They’re bottling Baltic Porter. I’m a BIG fan of Alaskan Smoke Porter so I asked Alaskan if we’re going to see the beer here in the Bay Area. The answer: Unfortunatey no. But here’s some other news from Anchorage;

• Hello William, Being that this is the first time we have ever bottled the Baltic Porter, we did a relatively limited release distributed in Alaska, Washington and Oregon. It is available in 22 oz. bottles at Liquid Solutions, but not as far south as the Bay Area this year.

• However, while last year we only distributed Alaskan Barley Wine in AK, WA & OR, this year we are releasing Alaskan Barley Wine in all 10 of the states where Alaskan beer is sold. You can expect to Alaskan Barley Wine in the Bay area around January 1st. Cheers! Ashley Johnston, Alaskan Brewing.

Pliny’s a hot seller at Whole Foods… Benjamin Eksouzian, the beer buyer for 26 Whole Foods Markets from Fresno to Sonoma, Sacramento to Reno, says Russian River Pliny the Elder is flying off the shelves. In the third week of October it was one of the top 10 beers for all 26 Whole Foods stores in the region.

Live within striking distance of Escondido, Erick Gordon, who manages the store at Stone’s brewery restaurant, 1999 Citracado Parkway,Escondido CA, says that starting Friday, the store (and I guess the restaurant as well) will be stocking Jolly Pumpkin Nøgne-Ø / Stone Special Holiday Ale. Also,  Alesmith/ Mikkeller/ Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale (12oz), Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (22oz), Sawyer’s Triple (22oz)  http://blog.stonebrew.com, Stone 11th Anniversary Ale  2008 Stone Imperial Russian Stout (12 oz) , 2008 Double Bastard Ale (22oz), 2008 Double Bastard Ale 3 Liters.

An excellent beer store in Livrmore: Posters to this blog are telling me about Perry’s, 1522 Railroad Ave. in Livermore., (925- 443-0550. Talked to the owner, Harpreet Singh yesterday and I too am impressed.  Here’s a note from a poster to the blog:

• Just got back from Perry’s and wanted to say they have a HUGE selection of beer. I was very impressed and I think it competes easily with Ledger’s in Berkeley.  Lots of Belgians, 6 or 7 Lost Abbey’s, a few Russian Rivers, Jolly Pumpkin, Dogfish Head, etc.  Well worth checking out if you are anywhere near Livermore. — Aaron.

Catching up on my e-mail. A regular poster to this blog, Scott B.,  told me about The Jug Shop, 1567 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, 94109, 415-885-2922. They have regular beer tastings for a small fee. Scott, last month, attended a Deschutes tastings. Here’s what they had

Hey Bill, Beers offered:  Hop Trip, Jubelale, Black Butte Porter, Obsidian Stout, the Dissident, Mirror Pond, and Green Lakes Organic.  No Inversion IPA.  The tasting cost $10.

• Black Butte Porter:  Despite being Deschutes most popular beer (along with Mirror Pond), I’ve only had this once or twice before.  I forgot how smooth this beer is.  Not too heavy with the coffee taste and has a nice, subtle hop finish.

• The Dissident:  This was the only beer offered on tap.  The Jug Shop said it was the last keg in existence.  I had the chance to have this on tap a few months ago at City Beer, and it was better than I remembered.  Sour but not over the top.  Huge cherry flavor.  Very complex but it’s very easy to drink a few glasses of these.  And at 9% ABV, you probably can’t drink many more.

• Jubelale:  Drank this one right after a glass of the Dissident and it just seemed a little boring.  Most likely because I just had a glass of the Dissident though.  This is Deschutes annual winter warmer and I look forward to trying this one again this season.

• Hop Trip:  My second favorite of the tasting (1st was the Dissident).  Also one of my favorite from the wet hop fest at Toronado (Magnolia, Lagunitas my other favorites).  A very hoppy pale ale with a malt backbone to balance it out (or tries to balance it out I should say).

• Obsidian Stout:  I’m more of a fan of Russian Imperial Stouts, so I was really surprised with how much flavor this had with only 6% ABV.  Not that you need to have a high alcohol content to taste good, but it really didn’t taste like any other stout I’ve had.  It had a really nice chocolate taste along with a hop flavor that I associate with more of a Russian Imperial Stout.

Thanks to the Jug Shop for putting on the tasting.  The beer guy from the store (I think his name is Eric) was extremely nice and very knowledgeable about the beers.  Actually, he was more knowledgeable than the Deschutes rep. Cheers, Scott