I humble-bragged the other day that I have been invited to be a regular contributor to the The Today Show’s food blog.  My first post appeared this morning, a “beer brawl” between New England and New York in honor of the Super Bowl.  I’ll admit that this is certainly not the most original post idea, but I’m trying to aim for the middle of the target a bit with my first submission.  I don’t want to blow it right out of the gate! 

Click image to read the post

The post turned out well, but something happened that I hadn’t anticipated – my stuff was edited.  Mostly the edits were good ones and the post is certainly the same in spirit, but it’s a strange feeling to have someone come between me and an audience when I’m writing about beer.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it (it happens all the time at work), but it’s strange to have someone messing with my stuff.  Even if she made it better. 

Anyway, everyone head over to the post and check it out, and while you’re there, maybe leave a comment or ten so the folks over at NBC think I’m a genius.  Everyone except John King of course, who would probably write that the “Bites” blog bites a little more today because of my crappy post.

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Behold our future overlords, the Nano Quadrotors.  While I’ll admit that this is very cool, I can now plainly see a day in the not-too-distant future where the “intelligent” little gadgets we create wind up snuffing us out (especially as we get fatter and dumber while out technology becomes free-roaming and autonomous).  It turns out the Terminator wasn’t entertainment – it was a prophesy!

Somebody start feeding beers to those nerds over at UPENN’s GRASP Lab stat – we need to slow this boat down!

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Let me start off by admitting that I love good branding.  I appreciate products that project a fully realized vision, from the packaging to the nuts and bolts inside.  The easiest (and these days the most clichéd) example here is Apple, which creates a lovely and cohesive brand experience from the store where you shop to the packaging you touch to the device inside. I’m not sure if liking such things makes me a yuppy, a metrosexual, a brand snob, a moron who overpays for shiny crap, or all the above, but I am confident that a few of you will let me know in the comments. 

In the beer world, the first brewery that pops into my head when thinking about a “complete brand vision” is the Bruery.  Their packaging is as elegant and well-crafted as the beers you’ll find inside.  It all works together beautifully.  Another brewery that fits this bill for me is one I sorta loathe – Brew Dog.  I bitch about their PR stunts, but their in-your-face punk ethos screams at you from the shelf when you gaze upon their products – you can’t deny that those guys have a cohesive brand. There are a bunch of other breweries that fit this bill as well, like Coney Island, Clown Shoes, Great Divide, Left Hand, Flying Dog, etc., etc., etc.  You get the idea.

So those are some who get it right.  There are many other breweries that make really good beer, but have wonky branding and packaging.  I hate to say that this has stopped me from buying their beers, as it makes me look like a shallow brand snob, but it has certainly slowed me down in some cases.  I wanted to taste Bruery Mischief the moment I saw that red and black label; I can’t say the same for Ruckus’ Hoptimus Prime (the punny name didn’t help).

I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll look past the labels and buy a beer from a brewery that I’ve never tried, but if I’m being honest, the nicer the packaging and the more cohesive the “idea” of the brewery, the sooner it makes it into the cart.

Here are some examples of breweries that make great beer, but suffer from poor branding or the art on their containers: 

Voodoo Brewery: I’ve adored everything I’ve ever had from the Voodoo Brewery, but their “image” is a mess (as is their website). They have a voodoo-themed brand, but aren’t located in the swamps of Louisiana or Southern Florida, rather  in a small town in Western Pennsylvania.  Um, okay.  Their beers have interesting names, like Pilzilla (which is awesome), Wynona’s Big Brown Ale (also awesome), Four Seasons IPA (again, wonderful), but none of these have anything to do with voodoo, which feels like a miss to me.  Some of their other beers fit the voodoo theme, like Big Black Voodoo Daddy (just assume I wrote “awesome” after all of these – my “a” key is getting worn out), White Magick / Black Magick, Voodoo Love Child, etc.  That’s a good thing, but overall, the whole “voodoo” idea doesn’t hold together, which I find unsettling.  Also, the art on their packaging struck me as a little lackluster at first (I overlooked it for a few trips before they caught my eye), but after tasting their stuff, I’ve come to salivate at the sight of it, so I suppose it’s effective. Anyway, if you see something from Voodoo, buy it, despite what your inner brand snob says.

Laughing Dog:  First off, I’d like to apologize to Fred Colby, owner of Laughing Dog and a dude who we adore.  Fred, your beer is stellar and an incredible value, but I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to figure that out if Don didn’t turn me on to you guys.  I love your brand concept (dogs and laughter and beer are go together wonderfully), but your labels don’t do justice to what’s inside.  Is the label art a dealbreaker?  No way, but your stuff deserves as much attention as it can get.  I know we had a Rocket Dog IPA label design contest going here a while back, and some of the submission were pretty powerful – maybe Don needs to shake a leg on that.  Anyway, if you’re a beer geek who has overlooked Laughing Dog in the past, you’re missing out on some seriously good beer – don’t let the labels stop you!

Dogfish Head: There, I said it.  I’m talking about their six packs here, as most of their bombers, especially Fort and the recent Sony Records collaboration beers (that felt weird to type), are pretty sweet looking.  But the 12oz bottles look dated and don’t reflect the creativity and craftsmanship of what’s inside.  I’m not sure I’d change it at this point, as Dogfish’s humble look is becoming almost iconic in the beer world, but it would be great to see the look and feel of the cartons and bottles live up to the taste and creativity of the beer they hold.  That said, I think Dogfish is doing just fine with the current packaging, so I guess if it ain’t broke…

One thing all of these breweries have in common is that they continue to be successful, which is terrific.  Most hardcore beer geeks don’t really care about what’s on the label, only the beer that’s inside. We read about beer on the internet, talk about beer with our friends, and jump at the chance to expand our horizons by trying something new.  In many cases, we look past packaging because we already know what a brewery or beer is all about.

But as the craft beer marketplace continues to grow and the big boys and their marketing machines begin to infiltrate our happy little world, branding and label appeal become more important than ever.  Many new craft drinkers aren’t ever going to become full-fledged beer nerds, rather they’ll walk up to the shelf and pick what looks good to them.  If wonderful beers like the ones above don’t make a clear emotional or intellectual connection with these new drinkers (and do it in three seconds or less), chances are they’ll be overlooked for ones with a clearer, more cohesive brand identity, like those supported by the macro brewers will surely posses.  While it kind of sucks that this is where craft beer is heading, it’s important that good beer wins the day, and that means good packaging.

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I’ve recently been asked by the folks over at the Today Show to do some beer posts for their website. My first thought was to write a manifesto about why craft beer is the World’s Greatest Beverage – I figured it’d be a good tone setter.  They figured differently, and instead suggested I do a Super Bowl-themed article.   Fair enough – I guess they like to keep things topical.

But now I have the talking points of my little manifesto bouncing around my head, so I’ve decided to unleash them here.  You could see this as a B&WB exclusive, or as the Today Show’s rejects. Either way, here are five reasons why I think there’s no beverage in the world that can compare to the wonders of craft beer. 

Variety and Creativity: I can’t think of another beverage (except maybe Gatorade – those guys pump out a new flavor every day) that offers the breadth of variety and creativity found in the American craft beer scene.  You have dozens of styles, and thousands of brewers putting their own unique spin on each.  And that’s not to mention the legion of total oddball beers that are bubbling with imagination and craftsmanship.  You could drink a craft beer every day and probably never have the same beer twice in a decade.

Affordability: Craft beer isn’t cheap, but the value you get for your money is immense. Most are brewed with premium ingredients and lots of them.  Also, I think it was Sam Calagione who said the coolest thing about craft beer is that just about anyone can afford to buy the best beers in the world.  You can’t say that about wine or spirits. Craft beer cost more than macro lagers, but you get so much more for your money.

Regional Availability: This is a double-edged sword, but all told, the limited distribution reach of many craft beers makes traveling more fun, as you can get a taste of beers you can’t get at home. I’ve spent the past few summers visiting our parents in Wisconsin, and the first trip I take from their house is usually to the beer store to see what’s available.  I always feel like a kid in a candy store when I see stuff from New Glarus, Bells, Central Waters and other great breweries just sitting there on the shelf.In this age of Amazon and on-demand, there’s a certain charm in having to wait a while to get what you want.

No Snob Appeal: We talk about beer snobs all the time, but outside our happy little craft beer bubble, most folks think beer is for NASCAR fans, bowling leagues and frat boys on a budget.  I tend to shy away from status symbols and self aggrandizing (except when I’m humble-bragging about the Today Show – see paragraph 1 above), and that’s what’s so great about beer.  You can be the biggest beer geek in the world and NO ONE is going to think you’re trying to be a fancy man.  I like that!

You Can Live on It: Fact: you can live on beer.  This guy did it for Lent last year, and it’s a centuries-old tradition amongst Franciscan monks as well.  Even this guy lived off of Coors Light for three days while stuck in a snowbank, and that hardly even counts as beer!  The fact is craft beer (especially when unfiltered) is packed with enough nutrients to sustain life.  Try doing that with whiskey – you’d be living the real world version of Leaving Las Vegas, which didn’t end well…

So those are the first five reasons why craft beer is the world’s greatest beverage that popped into my head.  Are there any you’d add to the list?

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As some of you may know, I’ve spent the past week taking care of our mom and helping her move from Wisconsin to Michigan.  She needs hip surgery and is to the point where she can’t really walk, stand or do anything on her own, so I had to stay sharp day and night and be on call to assist her.  This meant very little sleep and NO beer for Yours Truly.

The first part of the week was spent buttoning things up in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and while I was a little bummed that I couldn’t pop over to Ray’s Liquor and load up on treats from New Glarus, my mind was on more important things, like making sure my mom didn’t fall and break her other hip.  This wasn’t a leisure trip by any stretch of the imagination. 

But just because I didn’t buy any beer doesn’t mean there weren’t any adult beverages in the house.  The fridge in the garage was full of leftovers from happier times.  There were several Mike’s Hard Lemonade’s that my sisters would sip on the front porch on warm summer nights.  There were a handful of Bells Two Hearted Ale’s that I didn’t have a chance to finish during my last trip out, along with a few New Glarus Spotted Cows I had picked up for my sister Wendi and a six pack of New Glarus Two Women that Don picked up at Ray’s on the recommendation of an employee there. There were four Basque beers that my niece dragged over from France for me to try that I absent mindedly left in the meat drawer.  And there were an assortment of singles from places like Victory, Stone and Rogue, remnants of six packs purchased long ago.

The fridge had to be emptied for the move to Michigan, and I had no idea what to do with the beers.  I couldn’t take them home, as I was traveling with a small carry-on suitcase that was already stuffed with clothes for the week.  I couldn’t take them in the car to Michigan because cargo space was at a premium, and none of our family there is into beer.  I thought about shipping them home, but I had so much on my plate that packing them up and getting them to the UPS store didn’t seem realistic, nor was it fair to leave my mom alone at home so I could ship beer to New Jersey.  I figured they’d have to stay.

I was literally frozen for a moment gazing upon the scene you see above, 20 or more good beers with no place to go.  I couldn’t bear to throw them out – that’d be a total waste.  Instead, I found an old wicker basket we were giving to Goodwill and filled it with the bottles.  They actually fit quite nicely.  And there they sat, in the Goodwill pile, to be left behind and hopefully found by a neighbor or a realtor who would find them a good home.

But that was still too much uncertainty for me, so I offered the assortment of beers to the movers who were loading my mom’s belongings into a semi trailer. The grudgingly accepted them, almost as if they were doing it as a favor to me.  Maybe they saw the look of mild panic in my eyes that the beer would be left without someone to enjoy it.

It’s a silly thing to worry about a handful of good beers going to waste, but I guess it’s in moments like these when we realize just how much we care about craft beer.  Guess I’m an uber nerd!

Have you ever been faced with throwing away perfectly good craft beer?  As always, let us know below.

P.S. – it’s good to be back – I missed you guys and gals quite a bit!

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I’m not sure if this is cool or cringe-worthy, but I’m leaning towards cringe-worthy.  There’s something about the whole process that makes me sightly…uncomfortable.

Everybody loves babies, and quite a few folks like to drink.  Put these two things together, and you get drunken babies, an almost irresistible marketing force. 

At least that’s the way the Latin American branch of Dentsu, one of the worlds largest advertising agencies, figures it.  They put together this drunken baby campaign to promote L’univers de Chocolat, which are French chocolates infused with Jack Daniels whiskey made in Brazil.  Hey, that covers three continents!

Guess these treats are best kept away from toddlers.

I haven’t seen an ad campaign as “brilliant” as this one since those Boy Scouts with beards!

Click an image below to enlarge it.

Tip of the hat to our pal @BeerPoet who pointed us to these images at visualnews.com

Other kinds of nerds have discovered what beer geeks have known for a long time: Brewers yeast is an amazing little critter.  In the world of brewing, yeast is a major factor in the character and potency of a beer.  In the world of science, it is an industrious single-cell organism that is sometimes called upon to help humans unravel the underpinnings of life on Earth.

The most recent example of this comes from the University of Minnesota, where a couple of experimental evolution geeks (Post doc researcher William Ratcliff and his adviser Michael Travisano) were trying to figure out the coolest thing they could do in their lab. They didn’t have the resources to play around with the origins of life, so they decided the next best alternative was to explore the origins of multicellular life. 

Multicellular life isn’t a simple thing to create.  It took our primordial ancestors about three billion years to evolve from single-cell organisms, and billions more to morph into the collection of 100 trillion cells (with over 200 varieties working in concert) that makes up today’s average web-surfing American.  Of course with all the brain cells we burn on cable TV and alcohol, our cell count is probably closer to 90 trillion, but I digress. 

Ratcliff and Travisano weren’t looking to create anything as complex as a human.  Instead, they aimed to create primitive multicellular creatures, and decided brewers yeast was great place to start.  Brewers yeast lives a simple existence – it floats in fluid, eating sugar and budding off daughter cells who float away and in turn do the same thing.

William Ratcliff, Uber Nerd

Ratcliff and Travisano placed brewers yeast in flasks full of broth, which were shaken for a day and allowed to settle.  They then extracted a small sample of yeast from the bottom of the flask and put it in a fresh broth and repeated this process again and again.

By doing this, they isolated the cells that dropped the quickest, favoring the cells that were the most dense.  After a couple of weeks, they noticed that the yeast was sinking very fast and forming a cloudy layer at the bottom of the flasks.  When they looked at it under the microscope, they were greeted with snowflake-shaped clusters of multicellular yeast.  This wasn’t that a bunch of single-cell critters that were stuck together – these were bonafide multicellular organisms, each with hundreds of cells.  Brewers yeast managed to accomplish in a couple of weeks what took our single-cell ancestors billions of years to do.

When one of these cells was plucked off the organism and allowed to reproduce, its babies went right about the business of forming clusters of cells.  This showed that the organism had indeed mutated into a multicellular creature.  When allowed to grow to adulthood (which takes just a few hours), these new multicellular organisms would expand the arms of their snowflakes until they pressed together, breaking one away, which would then form into its own snowflake and repeat the process.

Ratcliff tells the New York Times that “Forming clusters isn’t a freaky yeast thing.” It is the way that many animals and plants began their climb to what we see today, so this is indeed a peek at how multicellular life got its start, with single cell organisms mutating through the process of natural selection.  In the case of this brewers yeast, the survivors were the critters at the bottom of the flask, in nature it was the ones who best responded to their environment and propagated successfully.

Ratcliff and company are still playing around with the evolution of yeast cells, but won’t say where they’re headed until they publish their results.  All Ratcliff would tell the Times is that, “We’re getting really interesting things happening now.”

This got me to thinking about what might be happening in the two carboys full of homebrew that have been sitting in my master bathroom tub for several months.  If Ratcliff and his colleagues got multicellular organisms to form a couple of weeks, I imagine by now my beer has opposable thumbs!

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Beer shipments in the U.S. slipped an estimated 1.4%, or 2.9 million barrels, from 2010 to 2011, according to recent newsletter published by Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Of course it was the Big Boys who took the hit, with Anheuser-Busch InBev shipments slipping 2.9% and MillerCoors seeing shipments fall 3%.  Imports didn’t fare any better, as shipments of Guinness fell 2.4% and Heineken dropped 3.9%.

Those are some pretty significant drops, and a sign that beer in general may be falling out of favor in the United States. 

According to BMI, the American beer industry must take action, and apparently they’re quite serious about it, because they broke out their marketing-speak handbooks:

“Big brewers need to regain drinking occasions taken by spirits over the last decade, especially among Millennials,” the group wrote in a recent blog post. “Consumers continue to face [a] plethora of new beverage choices.”

Oh those Millennials and their plethora of beverage choices for their drinking occasions! What’s a brewer to do?

Well, they could start by brewing better beer, like Sam Adams, whose shipments were up 8%, and Yeungling, who gained a whopping 16.9% in shipments over the past year.  This certainly doesn’t make up for the loss in overall sales volume beer has been experiencing, but it does show a trend towards things “better” than macro beers.

I can’t help but wonder if the rise of craft beer is hurting overall sales volume of The World’s Greatest Beverage.  I’m totally speculating here (rare, I know), but perhaps as “Millennials” ( A.K.A people born in the 80′s) have been introduced to craft beer, it’s made them realize that macro beers aren’t worth drinking. Because craft beers aren’t as widely available as macro lagers, people are skipping beer altogether and choosing distilled spirits or wine. In this way, craft beer is actually hurting beer sales, as it’s opening people’s eyes to the fact that the majority of beer available in American isn’t very good.

Certainly it sucks to see beer losing traction in the U.S. marketplace, but it’s also good to see Americans looking for something more interesting than light industrial lagers. We’ll have to see what happens to these numbers as craft beer continues to rise in popularity and, perhaps more importantly, availability.

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Every once in a while, I’ll be heating up something in the microwave and wonder, “how come they haven’t invented the same thing for making stuff cold?”  Well it looks like I wasn’t alone in those thoughts, as Korean appliance powerhouse LG is adding a new feature to some of their high-end fridges – the Blast Chiller.

The Blast Chiller compartment can cool a 12 ounce can of beer from room temperature to a delightfully chilly 41 degrees in just four minutes.  It can do the same with two cans or a bottle of wine (or a bomber of beer) in eight minutes. The chiller blasts its target with jet-engine-level bursts of freezing air while the can is gently swirled to prevent the formation of ice crystals inside. 

This is the culmination of knowledge that LG acquired across the wide variety of appliances they manufacture. The chilling power is based on their air conditioner technology, and the swirling mechanic is from their experience building washing machines.  All in all, it’s a neat idea, but it this a silly gadget or a godsend?

At first blush I’d say it’s a godsend, but then I remembered I’m an adult who can manage my own beverages and who mostly prefers dark beers served at or near room temperature, so this is a feature I probably wouldn’t use much.  That puts it in “gadget” territory for me.  I’m also a little nutso about fridge real estate, and this little gizmo takes up enough space for 8 to 10 cans of Dale’s Pale Ale, which I’d rather have waiting for me in that spot, rather than waiting four minutes to chill just one.

All told, it’s been awhile since I’ve said, “I wish I had a microwave that can chill this beer,” so I’m gonna have to say the Blast Chiller is more novelty than must-have.  But then again, I’ll be shopping for a fridge in the next few months, and knowing my nerdy self as I do, you can bet I’ll probably try to steer my wife to the LG’s.

Now if they’d only make one of these things that dispensed hot bacon on demand…

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Here’s a video from LG with a nice animation about the technology.  Unfortunately it’s wrapped in one of the worse “lifestyle” commercials I’ve seen in a long, long time.  Unless you’re Sam Shields or a Packers fan, then you’ll probably think it’s awesome:

I imagine it’d be a lot of fun to hang around with Gary Busey for a few hours.  He’s nuts, sure, but his manic energy, awesome stories and larger-than-life character would make for an interesting evening indeed.

I also imagine I’d be happy to see him leave at the end of the night, after he’s shocked my psyche with his rapid fire intensity and his crazy anagrams.  He’s not the kind of guy you’d want around day in and day out.

My go-to Christmas brew, Troeg’s Mad Elf, is the Gary Busey of beers; a big character guest I love to see during the holidays, but one that eventually wears me out with its intensity; it packs an ABV of 11% and enough sugary sweetness to make you an honorary diabetic.

Now that the Christmas season is over, I’m in the mood for something more mellow, but still with lots of flavor.  The Seth Rogen of beers, if you will; a session beer that doesn’t scrimp on character. 

It’s been pretty difficult for me to find something that actually fits this bill, as most beers under 5.5% ABV (my personal ceiling for what constitutes a “session beer”) lack the flavor of boozier brews.

Then I remembered one beer from my past that surprised me with its combination of big character and low ABV: Troeg’s Pale Ale. I discovered this 5.3% ABV American pale ale pretty early on in my craft beer journey, using it as a stepping stone between Bass Ale and IPA’s.

Peter Kennedy from Simply Beer invited me to take part in a “Session Beer Shootout” podcast a few years ago, where everybody brought a beer under 5.5% ABV, and we duked it out to see whose beer was best.  Even though I was a craft beer noob at the time and was amongst dudes who really knew their stuff, I won the day with Troeg’s Pale Ale.  Everyone couldn’t believe how satisfying it was (and that the rookie won!).

There’s really nothing pale about Troeg’s Pale Ale, as it pours with a deep golden amber body and a decent (if short-lived) head. It packs enough of a citrus hop kick to grab your attention, and enough of a malt backbone to balance things out nicely.

The mouthfeel is a little lighter than something like a Dale’s Pale Ale, but it’s flavorful enough to make you think you’re drinking a beer that’s packing more than 5.3% ABV, which is a pretty neat trick.  The plus to the light mouthfeel is that you’re not bogged down after you’ve had one.

I’m happy that I’ve rediscovered this little gem and its rare balance of flavor and sessionability.  It’s definitely the Seth Rogen of beers, which is just the right thing as the holidays fade into memory.  Now I just gotta find the Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Michael Cera of beers.  A man can’t live on Seth alone!

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An outfit called Research and Markets has just released a report tracking what folks have been saying about “popular” brands of beer across social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc., over the past 12 months.

What counts as a “popular” beer brand you ask?  Here’s the list used to generate the report: 

- Amstel
- Bud Light
- Budweiser
- Carlsberg
- Coors Light
- Corona
- Guinness
- Heineken
- Miller Lite
- PBR
- Red Stripe
- San Miguel
- Smithwick’s
- Stella Artois
- Yuengling

According to an abstract of the report on the company’s website (you didn’t think I was going to BUY IT, did you?!), impressions of these beer brands were mostly positive, which makes sense, as people generally like beer.  It also shows they didn’t get around to checking out places like the beer section of Reddit.  Those boys and girls are hardcore beer geeks, so I doubt Amstel would enjoy popular support amidst their ranks.

Overall, 13,595 opinions were identified, and those were shared 9,589,510 times.  77% were positive, which means Big Beer enjoyed 7,383,922 positive impression on social media last year, which in my opinion is several million too many.

Of all the brands above, the one that got the most love was Guinness, which enjoyed 82% positive feedback on social media over the past year.  While I could quickly list half a dozen better stouts than Guinness, I think it’s pretty cool that it came out on top, as it’s the only offering on the list that you can’t see through.  It’s nice to see a dark beer favored over light lagers and watery ales, if not in sales, then in the hearts of the twitterati.

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There’s an interesting article on the Denver Edition of Westworld.com about an unnamed restaurant in Colorado’s Lower Highlands that was serving “contraband” beers from New Glarus.

The bar manager Mike Henderson hails from Madison, Wisconsin, and has a pipeline back to the land of cheese and sausage that allows him to get a steady stream of New Glarus’ wonderful fruity delights, like their Wisconsin Belgian Red and their Raspberry Tart.

These tasty treats were put on the menu, where a bootleg 750ml bottle would set you back $22.00, which isn’t bad considering it’s an ungettable beer being served in a restaurant. 

It was all fun and games for about six weeks until the restaurant’s lawyer figured out what was happening, and Henderson was ordered to cease and desist before the restaurant got in hot water with Johnny Law.  He ceased (and I suppose he desisted as well), and wound up giving away his excess supply of New Glarus beers to his friends for the holidays. It looks like Mr. Henderson is a good friend to have indeed!

I know the laws are there for a reason, but it’s stuff like this that makes me nuts.  How cool would it be to show up in a restaurant in Colorado or Miami or Vermont and find something like a New Glarus Belgian Red on the menu?!  It’s a beer geek’s dream, and one that’s officially illegal, but it is certainly a victimless “crime.”  I know things probably won’t ever change, but this is another example of how the arcane system of laws that regulate the distribution and production of adult beverages simply sucks.

The only good thing these laws have provided us with was the premise for Smokey & The Bandit, and while it’s a cheeseball classic, it’s not enough to make me (east bound and) down with the program.

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In November, we reported that Magic Hat founder Alan Newman had signed on with Boston Beer (the makers of Sam Adams) and was given a clean sheet of paper to help expand that company’s craft beer offerings.  Newman’s subsidiary has been dubbed “Alchemy and Science” (Alan clearly loves magic) and has just made it’s first big move, acquiring Los Angeles, California’s Angel City Brewing for an undisclosed sum.

The move makes sense, as Alan Newman told brewbound.com (via our pal Adam over at BeerNews.org) that Los Angeles is ripe for a craft beer boom: 

Newman said his “instinct” is telling him that the L.A. market has potential for big growth, adding “I think it could be a 10 to 12 share craft market in the next few years and that is a huge opportunity.”

I’ve never had any of Angel City’s offerings, but some of our readers swear by what former owner and brew master Michael Bowe has been cooking up out there in La La Land.

When Bowe relocated his brewery to L.A.’s Art District in late 2010 he said, “My vision for Angel City Brewing is about being located in Downtown Los Angeles. I think this great city deserves a great brewery and we hope to become that.”  The financial backing of Alchemy & Science/Boston Beer will allow Bowe to see his vision for the brewery come to life at an accelerated pace, creating a space that will boast 27,000 square feet and include guest parking.  That’s pretty good for a guy who started his professional brewing career with an 8,000 barrel brewery he bought on eBay.

As for Bowe, don’t expect him to stick around after his transitional commitment with Alchemy & Science is up.  Here’s what he had to say in the press release announcing the acquisition:

Anyone who has ever started a business knows that the road to growth is neither smooth nor straight. I followed my dream in starting Angel City, and I furthered that dream in moving the brewery to the L.A. Arts District. But, I realized that what I love is brewing beer, not running a business, so I’m off to chase another dream.

That sounds a lot like a guy who has one foot out the door.  Bowe is a homebrewing legend in Los Angeles (He was named L.A. Homebrewer of the Year in 1995 and 1996), but being good at making beer doesn’t automatically make you good at owning and running a successful business.

We wish him lots of luck with whatever comes next, and we hope that this acquisition turns out to be a good thing for beer geeks in Los Angeles.

And for all of you brewers out there who are being courted by the likes of MillerCoors’ Tenth and Blake, be sure to give Mr. Newman a call before you sign on the dotted line – it looks like there are ways to get a cash infusion without getting in bed with Big Beer.

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Breaking news says that St. Louis’ Schlafly Brewing, a brewery near and dear to my heart, is selling a 60% stake to a local investment group.  Co-founder Tom Schlafly will retain a 20% stake in the company, and his founding partner Dan Kopman will retain at least 10%.  The remaining 10% will be made available for sale to Schlafly employees.

The story is still unfolding, bit this seems like the right way to cash out of a craft brewery.  Here’s what Schlafly had to say about it:

“The agreement … meets the criteria we set back in June of 2010, when we first discussed a succession plan for ownership of the brewery,” Tom Schlafly said in a statement. “Senior and long-term employees will be able to purchase stock in the company, and I’m transferring a majority interest to local investors committed to keeping the business in St. Louis.”

Schlafly Beer senior staff pictured with new investors, John Lemkemeier, Wes Jones, and Spencer Finney.

If you noticed, I put “sells out” in quotes in the title above because this really isn’t selling out; as Schlafly puts it, this is succession planning for ownership in the brewery.  No one owns a company forever, and on the surface it looks like Schlafly and Kopman have devised a way to keep ownership local and out of the hands of the big boys while managing to reward their loyal employees.  That’s a pretty neat trick, and it should be an example to other breweries that you can raise revenue or sell your business to folks other than international brewing conglomerates.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly and, most importantly, they continue to brew awesome beer. Because that’s what matters most in the end, right?

You can read more here on Schlafly’s employee blog.  It’s a piece written by Schlafly Communications Director (and all around swell guy) Troika Brodsky and has some links to the official press materials as well.

Thanks to our pal Zac for the tip on this one.

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