Archive for the ‘Beer and Health’ Category

Leah McGrath, the Ingles dietitian, joins us during this week’s Gluten-free Fair in Asheville for a special RSVP-only tasting on Thursday. We’ll be sampling gluten-free beer selections along with gluten-free munchies. Gluten-free snacks will be donated by Ingles and light hors d’ouvres will be provided by True Color Catering. The cost for this tasting is $8.00/per person. Or, you may pay $10.00/per person and will donate $2.00 to our charity, FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Please RSVP on the Facebook Event. Any remaining spaces will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Thirty spots are available.

BARD’S Dragon’s Gold
LAKEFRONT New Grist
GREEN’S Amber
GREEN’S Dubbel
GREEN’S Tripel

Yesterday, it was announced the macro giant, Molson-Coors, is producing a bottle-only “clear beer” targeting women beer drinkers. As most of the stories are coming out of the UK, it’s unclear at this point whether this product will only be in the European market or if it will rear its ugly head on US shelves. It’s part of Molson-Coors’ Bittersweet Partnership, a business unit that monitors its “female-oriented beer activity.” (Whatever the hell that means.) Several sources cite that beer (in the UK) is seen as a “man’s drink” and that women are so totally obsessed with calories and having their beer spiked, that this is the type of product they are looking for. Good grief, are you for real, Molson-Coors? Do you have a clue? Have we learned nothing from the crap that was Zima? Have you heard of the Brewers Association? Can I come over there and run a target group for you? I lived in London. I like it there. Just pay my travel expenses.

First off, let me say this: This is utterly offensive. It’s stereotyping, it’s sexist, it’s wrong. I actually had a dream about this last night (in the strange scenario that I was having a heated conversation over said beer with Prince at Luella’s BBQ, but my weird dreams are a whole different story, and never mind that I’m heartbroken that didn’t actually happen). Here’s a quote from MetroUK:

‘Women have more taste receptors and are more receptive to bitter flavours, so there is an opportunity to launch a more challenging beer for women,’ said survey spokeswoman Kristy McCready. … ‘The research indicated it was a myth that women want light fruity beers, which made us sit up and rethink our approach.’

So, women want more than light fruity beers, so you’re going to make a low-calorie clear beer? Huh? With that quote, spokeswoman Kristy should be fired. Like, now. Today. Yesterday even.

The beer will only be served in bottles, not draught, because of the drug-tampering issue. I don’t see how this is helping any beer education as beer should be consumed out of a glass, regardless of the packaging. All this falls under a push in the UK with a new group called Dea Latis—which according to Marketing Magazine, is the Celtic goddess of beer and water—that will aim to “bring beer to women.” Dea Latis is even backed by CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale). I see the irony in this being called “beer-water” (Dea Latis); I have a hard time believing that this product falls in the category of “real ale.” Truth be told, I despise Dea Latis already for perpetuating the myth that women don’t like beer.

What I’d like to see is someone, like Pete Brown, tackle this nonsense in the UK just as he has over the neo-prohibitionists. I’d love to see CAMRA rip Molson-Coors a new one. Women drink beer. Women like beer. We don’t need some pansy-ass special marketing ploy to make us drink it. And we don’t need a crappy macro brewer to make another misguided crappy product targeted to women because you have crappy ideas, a crappy marketing department and a crappy approach to women beer drinkers everywhere.

The best part? The beer is yet unnamed. So, have at it, women beer drinkers. What would you name this misguided product?

**This post is the opinion of a female craft beer drinker.**

I started the day with a little shout to Twitter this morning regarding North Carolina not getting any Bell’s Batch 9000 in bottles. The reason being that North Carolina requires the ABV (alcohol by volume) to be printed on any beer over 6.0% abv. The brewery’s southeastern rep replied to inquiries stating:

“To wait for the beer to finish fermenting to get the finished abv then have the packaging produced then submit the label to the TTB for approval was really not an option.  It would have taken too much time to wait for the beer to finish fermenting, get the packing produced, and hope there would be no problems with TTB label approval.”

In other words, the brewery didn’t want to wait on the product for a final ABV measurement and had the labeling printed and readied while the beer was in the tanks. Further, it was suggested that NC needs changes to the labeling requirements. That, I agree with, but not in the sense that these folks are talking about. They’re saying ABV should not be a requirement, because it isn’t in some states. The truth is, Batch 9000 finished with a final gravity of 12.5% abv, according to BeerAdvocate. That’s a full 2.5% below the legal limit cap in North Carolina. Clearly, someone had a clue that the beer would make it under—just not the exact ABV, but the law says the beer’s printed alcohol by volume must be within .20% of what it is. (Batches will always vary slightly.)

You can’t fault Bell’s for wanting to streamline the bottling process. Tank time is a precious commodity in the craft beer world and as the old saying goes, time is money. However, as someone who promotes and sells a lot their product, it feels like a slap in the face to know that Bell’s purposely excluded this product from our market. While no one has said as much, the fact that labels were printed with no ABV on them, immediately excludes the product from NC. And before everyone gets riled-up, let me state for the record: 1) I’m not bashing Bell’s, the brewery (other than being a miffed retailer over the sales losses of a beer I could move, and quickly); 2) Bell’s is a well-run machine of consistency; and 3) I love most, if not all, of their beers.

What this whole thing is, is a greater problem with “truth in labeling.” You hear that term a lot these days over MSG, wine, even vitamins. I think there should be uniform labeling requirements for beer across the board. A consistent packaging method for both the producer and consumer. I have never understood the arguments for why beer should be different. I just went into our wine cabinet and pulled out at least nine different bottles of wine from California, Argentina, France and Italy. Every single one of those has an ABV printed on it. Not only does this tell me how strong the beverage is that I’m drinking—it lets me decide whether or not I should have it. Beer has the most varied ABV’s in its craft, from kinderbier (with none or barely detectable ABV) to BrewDog’s newest, Sink the Bismarck at 41.0% abv. To not have this information printed on the label seems irresponsible at best.

I opened up questions to other folks, who mostly agreed with me. And there are other reasons to include health-related information on the labels. Some people need it for diabetes, gluten-free diets, caloric counts, etc. Be advised, there are some breweries, such as Dogfish Head and Rogue that do print this information on their website as well as this handy guide. But none of these really help you in a situation where you’re not immediately hooked into the web. Here are some comments from other beer drinkers:

@mikegeorger: @bruisinales Should be something like this on either the bottle or packaging http://twitpic.com/153jlw

@mygothlaundry: @bruisinales They should have calories on there too as well as ABV. I wanna know when 2 beers should be my entire daily intake.

@beercentric: @bruisinales Excellent point. Myself, being diabetic and managing love of beer and need of insulin, that number is important!

@cutefont: @bruisinales I think the abv should be on the label. Drives me nuts when its not. I like to know it. Makes a difference to me

@hookedonwinter: @bruisinales I like when a brewery lists as much information as possible. OG, FG, hops, grains, everything!

@ruinationpress: @bruisinales @hookedonwinter should be easy to measure FG and THEN print labels…quality first, not sales .#commonsense

Really, there seems to be no excuse as to why truth in labeling is not a big issue for this industry. “Organic” labels have been redone, there are other FDA requirements for certain things. Is there really any reason we can’t get an ABV printed label on every beer? And maybe some of that other stuff above while we’re at it?

We got notice last night from Anat Baron that her film, “Beer Wars: The Movie” is going OnDemand! Super, super news. If you missed seeing it with us last April in Asheville, now is your chance. Much like the book, “Fast Food Nation,” and film, Food Inc., explore the reasons why you should drink craft beer. Congrats, Anat!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BEER WARS MOVIE GOES MAINSTREAM

LOS ANGELES, Calif., January 31, 2010 – Ducks In A Row Entertainment announced that starting Monday, February 1^st the documentary film Beer Wars will be widely available On Demand and for Download.

Originally released theatrically on April 16^th, 2009 as a one-night event, the film has now found digital distribution through Warner Bros. and Netflix.

In the U.S., Beer Wars is available to rent On Demand through Digital Cable and Satellite providers Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, Insight, Bresnan, Verizon FiOS, AT & T U-Verse, Dish Network and DirecTV.  It is also available for download on iTunes, Amazon Video On Demand, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

In Canada, the film is available to rent On Demand through Digital Cable and Satellite providers Rogers Cable, Cogeco, Videotron, Sasktel and Shaw.

The film is also available on Netflix either on DVD or “Watch Instantly” beginning February 2^nd. And the DVD is available for purchase from Amazon.

For more information, go to http://beerwarsmovie.com

Ryan from New Belgium Brewing Company is coming to town for a tasting on Thursday, Feb. 4 and we’re partnering together with the brewery for the cause of Asheville non-profit, Mission MANNA, as a fundraiser for Haiti. Mission Manna is a faith-based organization located in Western North Carolina that provides medical care for malnourished children and continuing healthcare education for adults in and around the Haitian town of Montrouis. The non-profit has been actively involved with Haiti for ten years. The following is from Todd J. Kaderabek, Chairperson of Mission MANNA, Inc.:

As you are aware, on January 12, Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake and is now in need of humanitarian assistance to a degree above and beyond what we have ever known. As such, Mission Manna is continuing our efforts in three major areas: health care access, malnutrition rehabilitation, and sustainable nutrition.

Establishing a sustainable source of food and income is a key component in ultimately improving the health and quality of the lives of children and their families in Haiti. This project contemplates the use of agriculture to provide impoverished families with nutrition and income and will initially focus on the introduction of goats as to better the lives of poor families in and around the Montrouis community. We are fortunate to report that our Montrouis clinic site was largely unaffected and all of our staff, friends and immediate family survived. That said, we are feeling the impact of the earthquake in the form of food prices tripling and fuel costs as high as $40 per gallon. That said, we are adapting to current conditions and our core mission will remain unchanged.

This four-flight beer tasting will include the new Ranger IPA, Mighty Arrow Pale Ale (seasonal), 1554 Black Ale, and La Folie Flemish Sour.

$5/per person gets you into the tasting, plus a raffle ticket with a chance to win three different prizes:

New Belgium glass
Bruisin’ Ales t-shirt
6-pack of Prestige (the official beer of Haiti!)

Drawings will start at 6:40 pm, though we will welcome donations up until we conclude at 7:00 pm.