Local Newz
The Rockville Gazette, a weekly rag that mysteriously shows up on our driveway each week, has an occasional column on beer by Steve Frank and Arnold Meltzer, the self-named "Brews Brothers." Most of it has thus far been their ratings of local craftbrews. The most recent (June 18th) however added some interesting tidbits: The first Maryland statehouse was a tavern. The first industry in both Annapolis and Baltimore was brewing. The Fort McHenry's American flag that inspired the "Star Spangled Banner" was sewn on the malting-floor of a Baltimore brewery on the site now occupied by Baltimore Brewing. And the bottle cap was invented in Baltimore and first used on local beers. (I wonder how much of all this is true.)
Betsy Perse of First State contributed a nice piece from the June 25th Phily Inquirer on the return of the Ortleib family of Philadelphia to brewing. Three generations of the family brewed Ortleib's beer until the label was sold in 1980 to Heileman's, finishing the last of Phily's 40-family run breweries. However, Henry Ortleib has opened a brewpub on American Street below Poplar. He calls it Poor Henry's because the Ortleib name is still owned by Heileman' although he isattempting to buy his name back. At opening, a pale ale, cream ale, special bitter, and porter were available, with the pale ale and porter combined for a black-and-tan.
Short Stuff
I have previously reported that the word "bridal" comes from the "bride's ale" consumed during medieval weddings. The June 20th offering from the "365 Bottles of Beer" calendar provides more relevant information. The "bredale," as it was called, was made for the bride's family to toast the newlyweds, and often contained angelica and sweet willow.
The Ale BrewsGram reported that Guinness did succeed in entering its own book last February for the largest single toast in history. 50238 people in hundreds of pubs in over 30 cities participated. Unfortunately the date and time were not reported.
An Associated Press piece by Elizabeth Weise on Internet dissemination of OSHA regulations published in a recent Wash Post (don't have the date) used brewing as an example. Suppose the owner of a brewpub wants to clean their 2000-gallon tank. Just call up the OSHA website, check the Confined Spaces Adviser, answer a series of questions, and discover that cleaning the tank is under OSHA jurisdiction and that enough carbon dioxide remains in the tank to endanger anunprepared worker.
