Beer News

by Andy Crouch and Todd Alström

Brooklyn Brewery Wins the Super Bowl

Recent visitors to the Harpoon Brewery enjoyed an unexpected surprise in its tap room: Brooklyn Lager. In the days preceding the Super Bowl XLII battle between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, the founders of Harpoon and the Brooklyn Brewery bet a keg of their respective flagship brands on the outcome of the game. Anyone following the bet would have safely assumed a pint of Harpoon IPA would be waiting for them in Brooklyn after the game. Instead, the Giants’ dramatic last-minute win resulted in an unexpected beer delivery to Boston for Brooklyn’s co-founder, Steve Hindy.

As a twist on the familiar intercity sports rivalry bet, the two breweries used the wager to garner a great deal of free publicity for their companies. Alongside Patriots’ fan and Harpoon co-founder Dan Kenary, Hindy raised a toast to the Giants’ comeback win and the camaraderie between craft brewers. [AC]

German Beer Sales Stumble

German beer lovers are crying in their liter mugs upon news that the European nation’s beer consumption continued to fall in 2007 to its lowest level in 15 years. Domestic sales were off nearly four percent to 88.5 million hectoliters (75 million barrels), with a decline of nearly 12 million hectoliters (10 million barrels) in the last decade. As a reason for the slide, officials from Germany’s federal statistics office pointed to the popularity of mixing beer with lemonade, cola or fruit juices, which rose by 18 percent last year. The officials also pointed to poor weather and increased beer prices for the drop in consumption and sales.

The news comes one year after Germany reported a substantial increase in beers sales, which was largely attributed to the country’s hosting of the soccer World Cup. The statistics also showed that German imbibers are more often drinking spirits and wine instead of beer. [AC]

Costco’s “Handcrafted” Contract Beers

Word recently leaked out that warehouse retailer Costco intends to market and sell its own line of private label beers under the Kirkland brand name. The Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has approved label applications for four brands, an Amber Ale, Pale Ale, Hefeweizen, and German-style lager. The beers will be brewed in partnership with the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company of San Jose, Calif., which also contract brews house brands for Trader Joe’s.

In a move that may strike some as trying to hide the brand’s origins, the beers will be distributed under the Hopfen und Malz Brewing Co.’s name, which was recorded in an application to the TTB by Gordon Biersch in January 2008. Costco presently sells Kirkland Signature wines and private label vodka and scotch brands in many of its stores. The news of the upcoming beer releases comes in tandem with a federal appeals court decision which largely rejected the warehouse retailer’s position in a widely-watched distribution lawsuit involving Washington State’s beer wholesalers. [AC]

Ruby Tuesday Arguably Joins the Craft Beer Revolution

One of the nation’s largest restaurant chains just announced that they’re offering craft beers at over 900 of their Ruby Tuesday locations, including offerings from Abita, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Magic Hat, Rogue, Samuel Adams, Sierra Nevada and Widmer Brothers—though many debate that beers from the Widmer Brothers are no longer “craft” due to their involvement with Anheuser-Busch, which goes against the Brewers Association’s definition of small, independent and traditional.

“We are committed to serving our guests the highest quality food and beverages,” said Kimberly Grant, Ruby Tuesday executive vice president and head of restaurant operations. “Offering a broad selection of the best handcrafted beers is part of that commitment. The beers we serve are made by brewers who are as dedicated to freshness and quality as we are, and they bring guests to our restaurants for a taste and experience they can’t get anyplace else near where they live and work,” she added.

The news created mixed reactions from posters on BeerAdvocate. Some were excited and saw the news as a positive gain for craft beer, while many balked at the chain’s two beer maximum rule that forces patrons to order food if they want more beer, or the fact that locations are consistently out of many of the craft beer offerings. Others further complained about their misleading lumping of beers like Stella Artois and Blue Moon under their “Handcrafted Drafts” menu header, and that the same offerings are available nationally versus Ruby Tuesday supporting local breweries by including regional offerings based on location. [TA]

Is a Diageo Beer Behemoth Poised to Strike?

That’s what analysts are pointing to. “Beer has since moved a long way down the path of consolidation so there are companies now that are the same size as Diageo, including SAB Miller, Heineken, Anheuser-Busch and InBev,” a city drinks analyst in Scotland said. “What Diageo is waiting for at the moment is for a beer company to come forward and say we want that as well.”

Based in London, Diageo is the world’s largest drink conglomerate with brands like Captain Morgan, Cuervo, Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Tanqueray in their global portfolio. An estimated 36 percent of Diageo’s annual earnings are from the US, which, paired with the current economic woes of the US, a strong Euro and Sterling Pound, a tough UK market and rising costs for brewers, makes for an ideal petri dish to grow one massive merger in. [TA] ■