§ August 9th, 2010§ Filed under News§ Tagged Beer NewsComments Off
Two former Anheuser-Busch employees will carry on the St. Louis brewing tradition with Urban Chestnut Brewing, which will debut in the city’s Midtown Alley neighborhood later this year. Bavarian-born brewer Florian Kupulent—who learned the trade at Germany’s Brauerei Erharting, helped launch London’s Meantime Brewing and most recently revamped Michelob’s lineup—will helm the tanks, while David Wolfe, who’s directed the marketing efforts for European A-B brands like Stella Artois and Leffe, will manage sales and marketing.
Situated in a 1920s-era building that had a previous life as a garage, the brewery will boast an Old World-style tasting room and an authentic German-style biergarten shaded by chestnut trees. A dozen or so taps will pour the brewery’s wares, plus suds from other St. Louis outfits. Urban Chestnut also plans to bottle its beer for sale on shelves throughout the city.
Kupulent says his brewery aims to blend American beer innovation with European brewing tradition in a “revolution meets reverence” ethos. “I have a traditional European brewing background, but I also worked on the American craft side, so it’s a little bit of both,” Kupulent says. “We’re trying to bring traditional styles to our area and experiment with ingredients and styles—tweak some things, make them new.”
Kupulent’s keeping mum on the brews, but he told DRAFT, “We’ll start off with two, and one will be a Germanic lager. We’re still tweaking the recipe a bit.”
§ August 5th, 2010§ Filed under News§ Tagged Beer NewsComments Off
Raise a frosty pint, bottle or growler in celebration of International Beer Day. Established in 2007, this intoxicating holiday brings together beer enthusiasts for appreciating the breweries and bars that craft and pour the suds we’ve come to love. What better way to spend this most glorious of days then by spreading its basic tenets: Drink with friends, enjoy worldly beers and thank the hard-working brewers and bartenders that make it all possible.
§ July 29th, 2010§ Filed under News§ Tagged Beer NewsComments Off
Brewmaster Jan Nijboer of the Dutch ‘t Koelschip brewery says his new $45, 60%-ABV beer is the world’s strongest brew. The beer, dubbed “Start the Future,” eclipses Scottish brewery BrewDog’s 55%-ABV “The End of History,” which claimed the title only last week. [Reuters]
§ July 27th, 2010§ Filed under News§ Tagged Beer NewsComments Off
While megabreweries like SABmiller and Sapporo suffer from declining sales, California microbreweries are gaining popularity. Craft brewers in California saw increased sales in 2009 and project sales to grow another 5.8 percent in 2010.
SABmiller, makers of Miller Genuine Draft and one of the world’s largest brewers, dipped 1 percent in sales during the first quarter while Sapporo Ltd., owner of Sapporo Breweries and manufacturer of Sapporo, predicts a loss of 600 million yen during the first half of the year.
Craft beer is sort of like indie rock, you know? Small, dedicated (maniacal?) followings fight for their time in the sun. Indie Hops only strengthens this tie.
The Oregon company aims to provide craft breweries with the hops they need to create their award-winning beers. The company developed a way to pelletize hops that makes them resemble whole flower hops.
“We want to change the form of the hops, not the characteristics,” CEO Jim Solberg said. “We took some pellets down to Stone Brewing recently (the San Diego craft brewer famous for Arrogant Bastard and other hoppy beers) and the brewers were comparing our pellets to a competitor’s … and, without any prompting, they said, ‘These are so much more like whole hops.’”
For the first time that Crocodile Dundee can remember, Foster’s market share of the Australian beer market slipped below 50 percent. During the first three months of 2010, the massive brewery accounted for 49.9 percent of the beer sold in the sunburned country.
Is this cause for concern? Knowing the genuinely laid-back Australian culture probably not, but you have to think at least a couple suits are nervous about their company’s positioning. The VB brand remained the biggest seller, but it saw its volume fall 8.4 percent during the three-month period.
Ugh, so many numbers. We need a beer. Anyone have a Foster’s lying around? We hear there might be extras.
You know what? Pilsners get the shaft. You’re guilty, DRAFTmag.com’s guilty, we’re all guilty of overlooking some excellent brews simply because the type has an occasionally negative connotation. There, we said it.
In an American craft brew world filled with hops, porters, barleywine, and enough alcohol to kill you many times over, there’s something to be said for a brilliantly subtle pilsner. Yet very few people appreciate the dedication and craft required to succeed. Sure, there’s not as much to a pilsner, but doesn’t that make it harder to brew a great one?
We were glad to see the Milford Daily News’ Norman Miller and some of his buddies do a pilsner taste test. They ranked 12 on an 80-point scale and determined that Lagunitas won. (Hey, they have something in common with The Beer Trials.)
Last season, the University of Minnesota banned selling alcohol at its football stadium (and enacted a policy of breathalyzing members of the crowd). The season went off without a hitch, but one thing was missing: money. According to the Hutchinson Leader, officials estimate the state lost out on between $1 and $1.3 million in revenue because of the ban.
Well, that has to stop. Don’t these people know we are in a recession?!? The school’s solution: To sell beer but only to those people in the luxury suites.
Of course, the rest of the world is outraged… and rightly so. People are going to drink before the game if they can’t drink during the event. Shouldn’t the school and state reap some of the financial reward? It’s not hard to monitor consumption to keep fans in check. It happens all across this great land. Buck up, U of M.
Two former Anheuser-Busch employees will carry on the St. Louis brewing tradition with Urban Chestnut Brewing, which will debut in the city’s Midtown Alley neighborhood later this year. Bavarian-born brewer Florian Kupulent—who learned the trade at Germany’s Brauerei Erharting, helped launch London’s Meantime Brewing and most recently revamped Michelob’s lineup—will helm the tanks, while David Wolfe, who’s directed the marketing efforts for European A-B brands like Stella Artois and Leffe, will manage sales and marketing.
