A somber note to start the weekend…
Right before getting ready to publish this post, I saw the following updat from DBA East Village’s Facebook page. Some may have seen the brief mention here the other day that the owner, Ray Deter, was struck by a car while on a bike. He was listed in critical condition at the hospital at the time…
“Thanks so much for everyone’s kind words and support for me and the boys….Ray will no longer be with us after this weekend, but we hope our loss will give life to others. Please celebrate Ray as he passes on. Love to you all, Catherine, Jake & Maxwell xxxx”
With Ray in mind, please enjoy a safe holiday weekend with friends and family and don’t take those moments for granted.
Here are the original beer notes as prepared this afternoon…
Sierra Nevada Brewing: There was a brief update in Metropulse this week on the East Coast search. The Grossman family visited the long-rumored Alcoa, TN, site this week. A location outside of Roanoke, Virginia, is still in the hunt and a location in North Carolina is no longer in the running. It sounds like there is a chance we could get an announcement as early as this month.
Lagunitas Brewing: Director of Marketing, Ron Lindenbusch, mentions in a clip with Brewbound that the brewery is up 50% year-over-year. Truly remarkable for a brewery producing over 100,000 barrels annually…
Schlafly Beer: Per the brewery blog, “We’re now very excited to announce that beginning on August 1st of this year, Schlafly Beer will travel the Avenue of the Saints and Pale Ale, Kolsch, Dry Hopped APA and other year around and seasonal favorites will be available to Schlafly fans in Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport (Go River Bandits!), Burlington and the surrounding areas.”
Anheuser-Busch: Making a Stella Artois play in China…”Anheuser-Busch InBev has lined up a push for Stella Artois in China as it looks to up the presence of its global beer brands in the country. Stella Artois, which has had “a small presence” in China “for some time now”, has been rolled out recently in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the company has confirmed to just-drinks. Stella Artois follows its sister brand, Budweiser, into the market as A-B InBev focuses on super-premium opportunities in China.”
Bonus I: I got written up by 15-year reporting columnist, Joe Six Pack, himself today. I quipped on Twitter, “Technically, I was fired though that’s one inaccuracy that I can live with.”
Bonus II: Beer industry people sometimes conduct Q&As on Reddit. There was a former AB-InBev employee this week, a Dogfish Head employee a couple weeks ago and a brewery owner back in December.
Bonus III: Bad news for beer science geeks. A 170 year-old bottle of beer found at the bottom of the ocean did not contain live yeast cells so it “cannot be replicated using a reverse-engineering process.” Apparently, there was a sour element to it as well. Damn.