Beer News

Genesee Beer Sign Illuminates Community Once More

For nearly 60 years, the town of Auburn, N.Y., has hosted a famous landmark: a giant, bright-red sign proudly displaying the words “Genesee Beer.” The sign has sat atop a local music store since 1952, and once lit up the night sky; however, the sign’s lights were shut off during the energy crisis in the 1970s.

After almost three decades of darkness, Genesee came close to tearing the sign down. This was something the music store’s owner, Mike Speno, didn’t want to see. Speno, along with his late father, Nicholas (who passed away last year), spent years trying to convince the brewery’s owners that keeping the sign—and continuing to pay the $1,500 per month in rent—was worthwhile.

Recent years have seen the Genesee brand undergo a resurgence, which helped convince Genesee to spend $60,000 to restore—and finally relight—the sign during the Auburn Founders Day celebration on August 13th.

The iconic light was refurbished in the span of three weeks, using around 350 hours of labor. Its appearance remains identical, but it was modernized with energy-efficient LEDs and an automatic timer. Thanks to these improvements, the new sign is estimated to cost only $25 per month to keep lit.

Genesee brand manager Lisa Texido tells BA, “We are excited to restore this important part of Genesee and Auburn’s shared history, and the support throughout this project from the Auburn community has been phenomenal. This sign commemorates Genesee’s original glory days, and relighting the sign is a physical representation and celebration of both the Genesee Brewery and the city of Auburn’s very bright futures.”

Funkwerks Brew Stirs Ire of Indigenous New Zealanders

New Zealand’s indigenous Māori people are voicing their objection to a new Imperial Saison from Fort Collins, Colo., microbrewery Funkwerks. The matter of contention stems from Funkwerks’ latest offering, named “Māori King,” which comes in a can labeled with the image of a Māori moko face.

The Māori are offended for a multitude of reasons. First, many Māori tribes do not allow the consumption of alcohol on their lands. The Māori have also had centuries of strife after European settlers came to their region in the 17th century. Finally, the term “Māori King” is its own issue among the Māori, as it was documented that the British chose a “king” from one tribe to represent all Māori, when many of the tribes were completely independent from one another.

In an official statement on August 26, Funkwerks’ co-owner/brewer Gordon Schuck insists there was no ill will behind the name. “There is a saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Māori King name was meant as homage to the Māori people and their fight to have their own leaders. I don’t know the entire history of the Māori people, but if it’s anything like the Native Americans, I’m sure they’ve gotten the short end of the stick. I’m very sympathetic to native people. My fiancé is part Native American. I never meant this name to be construed as an insult and for that I am deeply sorry.”

Schuck then announced on August 29 that out of respect, the beer will be re-branded as “Southern Tropic.”

Iraq War Veteran Launches Cavalry Brewing

Cavalry Brewing is one of Connecticut’s up-and-coming craft breweries, but founder Mike McCreary wasn’t always intent on being a career brewer.

In fact, McCreary had served in the United States Army for over two decades—three years on active duty, followed by 19 years in the Army Reserves—before being called over to Iraq in 2003. Major McCreary served alongside several close friends as a civil affairs officer, helping to restore utilities like electricity and water to local residents in the heart of the combat zone. McCreary recounts, “We all made it back alive, despite many close calls.”

After his tour of duty concluded, McCreary worked as a sales and marketing professional, until he—as he puts it—“became a casualty of company consolidation” at the start of the economic recession in 2008.

McCreary then spent around six months planning his next steps, when the idea struck him to study brewing. “So, I flew over to England and visited a few breweries—a day here, a day there, then came back and made a business plan.”

Each of Cavalry’s initial lineup of session brews—Tank Plug, Dog Soldier, Nomad and Big Wally—are named in honor of McCreary’s friends and squad mates. Cavalry also gives a portion of their profits back to veterans’ charities, like the Wounded Warrior Project, and also makes hiring combat veterans a priority.

Cavalry’s brews can be found between Danbury and Hartford, Conn., as well as select test locations in Rhode Island.

UPDATE: Massachusetts ABCC Withdraws Troublesome Farmer-Brewer Decision

Breweries throughout Massachusetts have raised their glasses in triumph. On August 8, the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission reversed its July 20 ruling (see News, issue #55) that would have put the brewing licenses of 26 breweries—and approximately 1,100 jobs—in limbo.

Once the interpretation of the farmer-brewer law came down that a brewery holding this particular license needed to source at least 50 percent of its ingredients in-state (which would have been impossible, as the Massachusetts doesn’t have any significant hop or barley growers), Massachusetts Brewers Guild and beer advocates alike protested the seemingly arbitrary ruling to their local representatives.

The people were heard, and the ABCC later admitted that while they were trying to promote in-state farming, they may have enacted the measure without careful consideration of all the available facts.

State Treasurer Steve Grossman, who oversees the state’s ABCC, issued an official statement regarding the policy reversal. Grossman stated, “Too often government fails to acknowledge when it makes a mistake. Farmer brewers have created 1,100 jobs in the Commonwealth and have boosted the hospitality and tourism sectors as well as creating [sic] a robust market niche for themselves. We are committed to ensuring that the industry and its small businesspeople will continue to have an opportunity to succeed and contribute [sic] the Massachusetts economy.”

Lager’s Missing Link Discovered in Patagonia

Lager has been enjoyed since the 15th century, yet the exact origins of its signature yeast have remained a mystery—until now.

Since the 1980s, scientists were aware that Saccharomyces pastorianus—the strain that enables lagers to ferment at cold temperatures—was the result of a fusion of traditional ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and another, unknown strain.

An international team of scientists made it their mission to find pastorianus’ “missing link.” The team obtained and scrutinized samples from five continents, and eventually found a probable match within spherical formations called “galls” stuck on beech trees in the woods of Patagonia, Argentina. The galls contain a particularly yeast-friendly environment, rich in simple sugars that cause the yeast to spontaneously ferment.

The new yeast strain, dubbed “Saccharomyces eubayanus,” was whisked away to a University of Colorado lab, where its genome would be sequenced.

Chris Todd Hittinger, University of Wisconsin-Madison genetics professor and the co-author of the study, explains via press release: “It proved to be distinct from every known wild species of yeast, but was 99.5 percent identical to the non-ale yeast portion of the lager genome.”

Hittinger continues, “People have been hunting for this thing for decades, and now we’ve found it. It is clearly the missing species. The only thing we can’t say is if it also exists elsewhere [in the wild] and hasn’t been found.”

Thanks to isolating the genes in the two strains, scientists were also able to identify specific genetic mutations in the modern lager yeast that make it much more efficient at metabolizing sugars to produce sulfites. ■