LOCAL NEWZ
The brewery south of Baltimore that you can see from I-896 has "For Sale" signs on it. The facilities were previously being wasted on Colt 45. Perhaps a good opportunity for a well-funded craft brewer?
A coupla BrewNewz's ago I reported on the confiscation and planned destruction of 50 cases of beer during D.C.'s 4th of July hoopla. As promised, the destruction was observed by media and reported by Linda Wheeler in the October 31st Wash Post. Basically, the cans and bottles were crushed in a compactor. Given the preponderance of Bud and Miller Lite cans in an accompanying photo, it was no great loss. Nonetheless, the stuff was just dumped, and Park Police Major J. J. McLaughlin was quoted as expecting complaints about the failure to recycle and the resulting seepage into the Potomac/Chesapeake watershed. And indeed, Pat Lawrence of GABs found a letter stating as such sent to the Post by Yale Stenzler of Columbia, MD. [And to quote Smokey Robinson, I second that emotion]. McLaughlin promised to compost it next year.
FROM THE ALE BREWSGRAM
The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that a lone gunman killed the director of Rosar, Siberia's largest brewing company, in what is believed to be a contract killing probably put out by a competitor. As the Brewsgram put it, "Wow, and you thought the American beer industry was rough."
Czech agricultural minister Josef Luz has supposedly bowed to pressure from Budvar and is now quoted as opposed to settling the trademark dispute with A-B.
The Pennsylvania Alcohol Control Board reportedly denied permission to Paulaner-North American Corp. To sell Manneken Pis White Ale due to its "lewd and indecent" label that "the people in Pennsylvania should not be exposed to." The label shows a status of a little boy urinating that has been a Belgian landmark for centuries. PNAC plans to appeal with the help of the Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce and a Belgian trade commission. The beer is already available is 25 states.
FROM THE REAL BEER PAGE
A-B now owns 86.5 percent of a brewery in Wuhan, China, and plans to reach a million barrels per year production. Demand for beer in China is expected to outstrip the U.S. (290 million barrels per year) within 8 years.
Guinness has developed a successor to their nitrogen dispensing "snake"; a small ball that swirls around the can dispensing nitrogen while the beer is being poured, supposedly improving the head. The ball took 18 months and $5.5 million to develop.
