Beer News

By Andy Crouch and Todd Alström

CAMRA Steers Cars to Nearest “Real Ale” Pubs

Known for fighting to save cask-conditioned ale (so-called “real ale”) and demanding a proper pour in the UK, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is preparing to launch a dashboard helper to guide drivers to the nearest pub for a pint. The application will coincide with the release of their 2009 edition of the Good Beer Guide, which highlights and makes searchable some 4,500 “good pubs” that serve “good beer” and breweries who produce cask beer in the UK. The 2009 Good Beer Guide Mobile Edition will be updated via Sat-Nav and will work with TomTom, Garmin and Navman devices. Additionally, the Guide is being launched for Java-supporting mobile phones with internet access. Though the Guide is free, using it on a daily basis is not. Once downloaded and installed, users will be charged £1 for the first day, with a tariff for every day thereafter that will range from £1 for a day to £20 for a full year.

The Guides’ upgrade from paper to digital is an attempt to reach out to a wider audience and help a beer culture that’s losing roughly 150 pubs per month, but opponents like Brake, a road-safety charity, believe the beer-finding application on the road will only lead to an increase in drunk driving. [AC]

The Global Real Ale Collaboration

In anticipation of its International Real Ale Festival, British pub group JD Wetherspoon brought brewers from around the globe to the United Kingdom to brew specialty beers for the attending public. Purveyors of real ale in more than 600 pubs across the country, Wetherspoon worked with the Jennings Brewery, Banks’ Brewery and Marston’s Brewery in famed Burton-upon-Trent to sponsor brewers from Japan (Toshi Ishii of Yo-Ho Brewing), Australia (Richard Adamson of Barons Brewing), the United States (Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker Brewing) and Denmark (Mikkel Borg Bjergsø of Mikkeller). The brewers brought their own varied recipes to brew on the traditional Burton Union brewing system, which uses a system of oak barrels instead of stainless steel for fermentation. The opportunity was especially interesting for Brynildson, as his award-winning Firestone Walker Brewery is reportedly the only other brewery in the world to use the Union system. The beers were served exclusively at JD Wetherspoon’s festival. [AC]

The Birth of Beer Weeks

Once viewing craft breweries as curious businesses to be shipped off to the zoning committee, city and local governments are increasingly acknowledging the financial contributions by small brewers. In the past year, cities around the country have begun to celebrate their respective beer cultures and local breweries with a series of promotional events. At the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver, public relations operatives from both sides of the country tried to convince beer lovers to visit their cities. Touted as “America’s Best Beer-Drinking City,” Philadelphia’s second annual Beer Week will run from March 6-15, 2009, and involve more than 100 events around Southeastern Pennsylvania. The GABF also saw the unveiling of a similar event in San Francisco, promoted as “America’s Original Craft Beer-Drinking City,” to be held February 6-15, 2009. Not to be outdone, Denver promotes the GABF as the “‘Super Bowl’ of Beers” and itself as “the Napa Valley of the Beer World.” [AC]

iPint Gets iSued

A Las Vegas-based software developer is suing the Carling division of Molson Coors for allegedly co-opting an iPhone application that simulates beer drinking. The lawsuit involves the iBeer application, created by Steve Sheraton, which allows users to simulate beer swirling around a pint glass. Sheraton alleges that Carling approached him to license his application, which sells for $2.99 on Apple’s online App Store, and when he refused the offer, that the brewery developed a competing program, iPint, which it gives away for free. Sheraton also claims that he had posted a demonstration video for his product online. Developed in part by London agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay, Carling uses its virtual pint application to advertise its lager beer brand. Sheraton is seeking $12.5 million in damages for product infringement and lost profits from the similar product. [AC]

Palestinian Beer Attempts to Unite

Founded by brothers Nadim and David Khoury, Taybeh Brewing Company has been brewing beer in the West Bank village of Taybeh (“delicious” in Arabic) in Ramallah since 1995, when it became the first craft brewery in Palestine and the only one in the Middle East. Brewing Taybeh Golden (lager), Taybeh Light (lager) and Taybeh Dark (Bock), Taybeh Beer created a buzz around the world and enjoyed much success until the second intifada in 2000. Since then, the brewery has felt the squeeze from Israeli blocks on Palestinian exports, seeing a loss of roughly 80 percent of its volume and forcing them to sell beer to small pockets of Christians in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Beit Sahour and Beit Jalla, due to the fact that well over 90 percent of Palestinians are Muslim and traditionally, don’t drink alcohol. However, at their fourth annual Oktoberfest, Taybeh Beer released their first nonalcoholic beer to recognize the religious sensitivity of the region.

Nadim Khoury told a local reporter, “One of our tasks is showing the world, including the Arab public, that the Palestinians can produce a world-class product, and our new drink means all Palestinians can share in the success story.” [TA] ■