Month: April 2009

A Critical Look At The Shaky, Early Days Of The Brewers Association…

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Historian and writer Maureen Ogle has been posting a fascinating series of short pieces (cutting room floor bits from her book, Ambitious Brew) on the formation of the American Homebrewers Association and the Association of Brewers (which would later become the Brewers Association after a merger with the Brewers Association of America). Her most recent post focuses, timely enough, on one of the Association’s first industry-wide conferences. With the upcoming Craft Brewers Conference, and all of the articles I’ve been posting here about the Brewers Association, Maureen’s work is definitely worth a read as it provides an independent, outsider’s view of a trade group that we now take for granted. I look forward to discussing some of the issues brought up in these pieces (which, oddly enough, remain relevant to this day) with folks in town for the upcoming conference.

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An Update on the B-Side/Lord Hobo Drama in Cambridge…

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When we last discussed the continuing drama over the B-Side Lounge in Cambridge, the city’s licensing commission and the former bar’s neighbors were raking new owner Daniel Lanigan over the coals about a series of issues, including the new bar’s projected food-to-alcohol sales ratio and how the new owners would minimize noise and annoyance to the bar’s neighbors. It was a contentious hearing, as the lengthy transcript I posted reflected, and it ended with a continuance and further investigation. Although I’ve been periodically checking the licensing board’s website, thanks to alert reader Eric S., we now have an update.

The licensing commission met on March 24, 2009, to continue Lanigan’s unfortunate roasting. The commission reluctantly accepted Lanigan’s suggestion that the food-to-alcohol ratio would be 65-35 or 70-30 (although it politely threatened to pull his receipts to confirm this). The commission also politely suggested that Lanigan was free to open a bar somewhere else (outside of Cambridge is my read), if he wanted a higher alcohol sales ratio. Lanigan also reported that his head chef will be Matt Bailey, formerly of Mistral and Teatro.

The commission then briefly roasted Lanigan over the coals for some misstatements in his prior licensing record.

In another interesting turn, Lanigan then offered a copy of BeerAdvocate Magazine’s lauding of his previous establishments as further proof of his suitability as a license holder. BeerAdvocate also gets mentioned as one of the commissioners spent some time on the site reading about the Lord Hobo’s plans.

After adjourning the hearing, the commission met again on April 2 and again hotly debated whether to grant Lanigan the license. After the debate, which included the concerned input of a member of the Cambridge City Council, the commission voted to allow the license transfer with several conditions. The commission is requiring the Lord Hobo to submit monthly revenue receipts to demonstrate that it really does achieve its stated food-to-alcohol ratio and that the license is conditionally only allowed until 1 a.m., with the agreement of Lanigan.

It’s been a tough go of it for Lanigan and his supporters and I look forward to seeing what he does with the place.

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Another Craft Brewer Response to Blue Moon Belgian White?

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First, the news a few months back that our local Harpoon Brewery would be releasing a Belgian-style witbier to compete with the butt-kicking competitor from MillerCoors, the Blue Moon Belgian White. That beer is now starting to hit store shelves in the Boston area. Now, from across the country comes word that the Alaskan Brewing Company of Juneau is releasing its first new beer in two years. And you guessed it, the beer’s name: Alaskan White Ale. I didn’t see a lot of Blue Moon, or any other macro beer frankly, while traveling in Alaska last fall so I can’t say that this release is due to the success of Blue Moon. But I imagine the Summer Ale is also facing stiff competition in the brewery’s continental markets, especially as we recently learned of how tough things are for the Widmer Brothers and the Craft Brewers Alliance.

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The Boston Globe Reviews “Beer Wars,” Sort Of…

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A curious article appears in the Boston Globe today. Written by Globe columnist Alex Beam, the piece discusses the upcoming documentary by Anat Baron, “Beer Wars,” that we’ve covered here before. The odd thing is that Beam isn’t really reviewing the movie, mainly because Baron is not pre-releasing copies for critical review. He does capture the unusual nature of the single day release and he was also allowed to watch ten minutes of the film. His grade based upon this “sip”: C+. While the “review” is interesting in itself, under the circumstances, it is the content of the limited portion of the film that seems to confirm many of my concerns in my last post. The concerns, namely, that Beer Wars would simply be a little-versus-big hatchet job and one based upon an anachronistic view of the beer industry. Definitely take a look at the column for yourself, but here is the heart of Beam’s piece:

What about the movie? Baron is review-proofing it, not scheduling screenings for critics, and not sending out DVDs to interested parties like me. Her people let me see about 10 minutes of “BW,” and it wasn’t very impressive.

What I saw was Michael Moore 101: Little craft breweries like Dogfish Head and MoonShot = Good. Anheuser-Busch, a.k.a. “the soulless machine,” the “monopoly,” the “corporate behemoth with their insatiable appetite for growth” = Bad. Baron takes a page right from the “Roger and Me” playbook, making much of Anheuser CEO August Busch’s refusal to grant her an interview. They did allow her on the premises, however, to hang out with the Clydesdales. “They were my best interview,” she joked.

I asked Baron why she insists on calling Anheuser a “monopoly,” when there are plenty of other beer companies out there. “I went to business school, I know what ‘monopoly’ means,” Baron shot back. Well, I went to eighth grade, where I learned that monopoly means “one seller.” I’m sure Anheuser would like to be a monopoly, but alas, Coors, Miller, Sam Adams, and Dogfish all stand in the way.

In the movie, Dogfish founder Sam Calagione decries publicly owned companies whose goal is “maximizing shareholder value.” Maybe he should hang out with Jim Koch, who runs a publicly owned company, and ask him why he’s in business. For the betterment of mankind, perhaps? “Sam” wages its own amusing deception campaign, calling itself a “small, independent craft brewer” when, with $400 million in revenues and three breweries under its belt, it is the largest American beer company in the United States. (Busch, Miller, and Coors are all foreign-owned.)

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