LOCAL NEWZ
Betsy Perse of First State has contributed a March 24 Wilmington Newz Urinalpiece by Dale Dallabrida in the Small Bizness section on Rockford, whichrecently doubled its capacity to 11,000 barrels per year. They plan to expandproduction of their own beers to 6000 barrels and use the rest of capacity tocontract brew for West Chester Pa.'s Ugly Dog Brewing Co. and for Pabst (takingover production of Ballantine), "which last year blamed weak sales for shuttingits flagship plant in Milwaukee." [Note January BrewNewz story on this closing.Did Pabst lie to their former Milwaukee workers??] Rockford is also hiring their first marketing chief and two salespeople to try to expand theirdistribution.
From the 365 Bottles of Beer for the Year Calendar:
February 11 - The Traffic Jam and Snug is Michigan's first licensed brewpub and the only place in the U.S. serving dairy-brewed beer. The beer is made in the same vessels used to produce cheddar cheese for the pub's Snugrestaurant.
February 20 - A worn English sales receipt dated 1686 suggests that a Dr. Claver Morris may have purchased the first corkscrew. The implement became so fashionable that less than a century later, 90 patents had been registered in Birmingham, the self-styled "Corkscrew Capital of the World."
March 19 - "It is well known that the horse will eagerly drink a quart ofred wine and that dogs love beer." E. B. Foote, M.D., 1902
SHORT STUFF
Elaine Gilby of GABS found the following 2 items while leafing through magazines in physicians' waiting rooms:
(From a rag called Diversion for Neurologists at Leisure (really!), February 97) Denver's Wynkoop Brewing Co. is labeling their Libation Ale with originalstories by Dave Barry and Kurt Vonnegut. Example - Barry's "Goldilocks and the Three Beers," which begins "once upon a time there was a little girl who was 21 years of age or older." Just 24 bucks for 12 bottles. [Don't know aboutVonnegut, but Barry is a homebrewer.]
(From Sept 9 National Geographic) Coors is awash with wasted beer - 22 million gallons of it a year. "As aprecaution we overfill each can and bottle to get all the air out," saysspokesman Jon Goldman. What to do with that spilled beer? Coors, anengineering firm called Merrick & Co., and a refiner called Total Petroleum have teamed up like high tech moonshiners. Installed distillation equipment is to turn the waste beer into 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol.
(From the Millenium Notebook, a weekly Newzweek feature) American Demographicshas predicted that in the decade from 1997 to 2007, the projected percentage of men that drink any beer within a six-month period will remain steady at 46 percent but that the percentage of women will drop from 28 to 26. Theyproject moderate to sharp decreases in percentage of people drinking other forms of alcohol.
AS IF THEY WEREN'T ALREADY WAY AHEAD IN THE POLLS
(From March 12 Phily Inquirer, off Reuters, contributed by Betsy Perse of First State) Britain's opposition Labor Party promised to make it mandatory for oversizedglasses to have a line marking a full pint. "Customers who order and pay for a pint of beer are entitled to get a full pint," Labor spokeman Nigel Griffiths told reporters. He mentioned CAMRA's recent research revealing that eight out of ten pints were sold short. "Lined beer glasses will ensurethat every beer drinker gets a full pint he or she has paid for." The rulingConservative Party decided not to legislate for a full pint in 1993, saying that this move would force up the price of a pint.
