beer bits |
Jaime |
7/5/00 12:00 AM |
Once home tonight, 'bere bits' will be back in business. Here's the first after a week's absence... UK drinks body bans ``alcohol energises'' claims LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Britain's brewers and distillers were told on Wednesday to stop claiming on their packaging that their products boost mental or physical performance. The call came from the Portman Group, a body funded by Allied Domecq Plc, Diageo Plc and other big drinks firms, which aims to encourage responsible marketing of alcoholic drinks through self regulation. It said in a statement that alcoholic drinks should no longer be described as ``energising'' or ``stimulating.'' The change closes a loophole in packaging rules and brings them into line with more stringent advertising regulations to ensure responsible marketing of alcoholic drink. ``It's clearly not sensible to put on a package what they can't put in an advertisement,'' a Portman spokesman said. Medically, alcohol is a depressant, although it reduces the inhibitions of those who use it. The Portman Group introduced a Code of Practice in 1996 amid growing public concern that a wave of new fizzy sweet alcoholic drinks dubbed ``alcopops'' were aimed at under-age drinkers. It is illegal for people under 18 to buy alcohol in Britain. Portman Director Jean Coussins said the group had already upheld a complaint against an alcoholic jelly called ``Bad Jelly'' under the new rule which creates a forum for the public to speak out against irresponsible alcoholic drink packaging. ``The Independent Complaints Panel found it (Bad Jelly) breached the code because it would have more appeal to under-18s than to adults and because the package design does not make it clear that it's an alcoholic drink,'' she said in the statement. London-based Haggards Brewery, makers of ``Bad Jelly,'' had since agreed to amend the product's packaging to comply with the code, she said. Bass & Whitbread Are No More But Cheers to the Belgains! LONDON, July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrew Jefford, Glenfiddich Drinks Writer of the Year, in his latest column for just-drinks.com, laments the demise of British brewing after Belgian giant Interbrew snapped up both Whitbread and Bass Brewers. "The invective heaped on Whitbread and Bass by consumer groups like CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) has been proved correct in every detail. In the end, profit was all that mattered. Brewing was the grandmother of both brewers, and they've just sold her. Without a tear." Will the UK's heritage in the beer market be lost? Jefford thinks not. "Yes, that's right, it's the Belgians who have just acquired Whitbread's granny, and who are in the process of liberating Old Mother Bass. If it had been Anheuser-Busch, I would already have shot myself. If it had been SAB or Fosters or even Heineken, I'd be fingering the revolver. But Interbrew ... the Belgians understand beer. They even like it! They even like it when it doesn't taste boring!" To read the Jefford column, visit http://just drinks.com/features-detail.asp?art=197 . just-drinks is the premier online portal for beverage industry professionals worldwide. Targeted specifically at industry and business professionals the site provides a single point of reference for independent beverage industry information. AmBev and Groupe Danone Sign a Stock Option Purchase Agreement Of an Uruguayan Company Salus is the Uruguayan Water Market Leader and the Second Brewery in the Country SAO PAULO, July 4 /PRNewswire/ -- AmBev -- American Beverage Company, through its subsidiary Companhia Cervejaria Brahma, and Groupe Danone have signed a stock option purchase agreement, representing the majority of the Compania Salus common shares, the second largest brewery in Uruguay and the leader in the local mineral water market. Salus produces the Patricia brand and has a 24% market share in Uruguay. In the country's capital, Montevideo, Patricia is the leader with a 36.5% market share. In the Uruguayan mineral water market, Salus has a 42% share -- 62.2% in the capital. In the beer market, the company faces the competition of Fabrica Nacional de Cerveja (51%) and of Cervejaria e Maltaria Paysandu (22%). Salus, one of the most traditional Uruguayan companies, had net sales of US$30 million in 1999. It produced 190 thousand hectoliters of beer and 850 thousand hectoliters of mineral water during that year. The company has 2 industrial plants -- one for mineral water bottling and another one for beer and soft drinks -- both located in Serra de Minas, 110 kilometers away from Montevideo. It employs 430 people and has 36 exclusive outsourced distributors. Should this option be performed it will be the first AmBev's acquisition after the merger between Antarctica and Brahma was approved on March 30th. This acquisition will also be the reinforcement of AmBev's multinational vocation, whose international expansion will be primarily focussed on the Latin American market. The company already operates in this region with Compania Cervecera Nacional, in Venezuela, and the Compania Cervecera Brahma Argentina, whose operations have both started up in 1994. The company holds a 10% and 14% market shares in Venezuela and Angentina, respectively. In this association, AmBev and Groupe Danone expect to capitalize on gains due to synergies obtained from each company capabilities. AmBev and Danone already have a product distribution partnership in Argentina. According to AmBev, the partnership is strategic due to the French company expertise in the global mineral water market, where it detains the second largest share. The interest of both companies for Salus is explained by the Patricia brand strong penetration and to the clear leadership in the local mineral water market. The Uruguayan beverage market sizes 5 million hectoliters, which represents a consumption rate of 146 liters/inhabitant/year. The consumption rate is 140 liters/inhabitant/year in Brazil. The largest markets by volume are the mineral water (31.4%) and the soft drinks (also 31.4%) ones. In the soft drinks segment Salus has products made of grapefruit and orange. Wine represents 21% of the consumption while beer represents 16.3%. The market shares by volume in Brazil are 54.2% for soft drinks, 39.4 for beer, 5.3 for water and 1% for wine. For additional information please contact AmBev Investor Relations: Milton Cabral Filho, (5511) 3741-7560, acmi...@ambev.com.br or Vanessa Barion, (5511) 3741-7553, acba...@ambev.com.br S&Nshares slump as pubs struggle
By David Jones LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Shares in British brewing and pubs group Scottish and Newcastle Plc turn flat on Tuesday as annual profits disappointed and its core pubs struggled to make headway as the company absorbed nearly 800 Greenalls' houses. The Kronenbourg and John Smith's brewer also warned a fire at one of its Center Parcs sites will delay the division's sale. Its Dutch De Eemhof holiday village has closed for rebuilding and Chief Executive Brian Stewart said the sale of the 13-site unit will be delayed by a few weeks until later this summer. The flat pub performance, headline profits at the bottom end of analysts' forecasts and the delayed Center Parcs sale all pressured the share into being the FTSE 100's biggest loser, ending down 7.4 percent, or 39 pence, at 489p. The shares have underperformed the FTSE 100 index by 20 percent over the last 12 months and by other brewers by just over five percent, as the sector has slipped out of favour and the company struggled for growth in a mature industry. Its core managed pubs, which include Chef & Brewer, Rat & Parrot and Bar 38 chains, showed flat annual profits, with like-for-like sales off three percent, but Stewart added most of its smaller poorly-performing pubs had now been sold. ``We sold most of our smaller managed houses in March and April which caused the problem, and we are now seeing an improving trend in like-for-like sales,'' Stewart said.
Analysts said the company was absorbing nearly 800 old Greenalls pubs bought last December, and clearly trading had suffered as it weeded out 800 of its smaller houses for sale. ``Investors are looking at like-for-like sales and margins at its pubs, but stripping out those 800 pubs the picture was probably flat,'' said analyst Philip Hawkins at Merrill Lynch. SIX PERCENT PROFITS RISE The group which brews 28 percent of Britain's beer, with licensed brews Foster's and Miller Pilsner, as well as John Smith's and Kronenbourg, said pre-tax profits rose six percent for the 52 weeks to April 30 rose to 415 million pounds ($627.4 million) on turnover up eight percent at 3.6 billion pounds. The results came before six million pounds for a profit share scheme which cut the headline figure to 409 million. Analysts pointed out that in the short term there was much change going on at the group, but it had addressed key strategic issues by buying Kronenbourg and the Greenalls pubs, and putting its Center Parcs and Pontin's units up for sale. ``S&N's long-term focus is on international brewing, so its lowly share rating reflects history rather than the future,'' said analyst Nigel Popham at Teather and Greenwood. Stewart said its beer unit, Scottish Courage, outperformed a slight decline in the UK beer market with volumes up one percent, while he added that the recent entry of a committed brewer like Interbrew to the UK beer market would add stability. He said that Center Parcs has also traded well, and that a small group of trade and financial buyers were conducting due diligence in the auction process, and he expected to narrow potential buyers down to one or two next week. Its Pontin's sites would be sold by the end of 2000, in a sale of the whole leisure unit, which analysts see raising 700-800 million pounds. The group, which agreed in March to buy the Kronenbourg beer business over three years for 1.7 billion pounds from Danone, was toppled from its leading spot in UK brewing as Belgium private brewer Interbrew bought the UK beer businesses of Whitbread and Bass in May and June, giving it a UK market share of 32 percent against S&N's 28. Scottish bought Greenalls' managed pubs for 1.17 billion pounds last December giving it almost 2,700 pubs, before putting its leisure division up for sale in late February. It announced a final dividend up seven percent at 17.94p per share, making a year payout also up seven percent at 27.07p. It's Coffee vs. Beer in Seattle
.c The Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) - The glowing red R atop the Rainier Brewery - a Seattle landmark for half a century - gave way Monday to a big green T, for Tully's Coffee, reflecting the coffee boom in the Northwest. Tully's, the nation's third-largest specialty coffee company, moved into the Rainier building in October, after the beer brand was sold to Miller Brewing. The building houses Tully's headquarters and packaging plant. Coffee-roasting operations will move there later this year. The green T is about the same size as the red R, or 12 feet tall and about 11 feet wide. When the R was first installed about 50 years ago, the letter rotated. After Interstate 5 was built, officials stopped it because they feared the spinning R might distract drivers. Traffic reporters often used the R as a landmark to inform commuters of just how snarled traffic is. ``I know Tully's is hoping that we will say Tully's more often,'' said Sara Johnson, traffic reporter for Metro Networks. ``Maybe when the big green T goes up it will force our hand, or our mouths.'' S&Nshares slump as pubs struggle
By David Jones LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Shares in British brewing and pubs group Scottish and Newcastle Plc turn flat on Tuesday as annual profits disappointed and its core pubs struggled to make headway as the company absorbed nearly 800 Greenalls' houses. The Kronenbourg and John Smith's brewer also warned a fire at one of its Center Parcs sites will delay the division's sale. Its Dutch De Eemhof holiday village has closed for rebuilding and Chief Executive Brian Stewart said the sale of the 13-site unit will be delayed by a few weeks until later this summer. The flat pub performance, headline profits at the bottom end of analysts' forecasts and the delayed Center Parcs sale all pressured the share into being the FTSE 100's biggest loser, ending down 7.4 percent, or 39 pence, at 489p. The shares have underperformed the FTSE 100 index by 20 percent over the last 12 months and by other brewers by just over five percent, as the sector has slipped out of favour and the company struggled for growth in a mature industry. Its core managed pubs, which include Chef & Brewer, Rat & Parrot and Bar 38 chains, showed flat annual profits, with like-for-like sales off three percent, but Stewart added most of its smaller poorly-performing pubs had now been sold. ``We sold most of our smaller managed houses in March and April which caused the problem, and we are now seeing an improving trend in like-for-like sales,'' Stewart said.
Analysts said the company was absorbing nearly 800 old Greenalls pubs bought last December, and clearly trading had suffered as it weeded out 800 of its smaller houses for sale. ``Investors are looking at like-for-like sales and margins at its pubs, but stripping out those 800 pubs the picture was probably flat,'' said analyst Philip Hawkins at Merrill Lynch. SIX PERCENT PROFITS RISE The group which brews 28 percent of Britain's beer, with licensed brews Foster's and Miller Pilsner, as well as John Smith's and Kronenbourg, said pre-tax profits rose six percent for the 52 weeks to April 30 rose to 415 million pounds ($627.4 million) on turnover up eight percent at 3.6 billion pounds. The results came before six million pounds for a profit share scheme which cut the headline figure to 409 million. Analysts pointed out that in the short term there was much change going on at the group, but it had addressed key strategic issues by buying Kronenbourg and the Greenalls pubs, and putting its Center Parcs and Pontin's units up for sale. ``S&N's long-term focus is on international brewing, so its lowly share rating reflects history rather than the future,'' said analyst Nigel Popham at Teather and Greenwood. Stewart said its beer unit, Scottish Courage, outperformed a slight decline in the UK beer market with volumes up one percent, while he added that the recent entry of a committed brewer like Interbrew to the UK beer market would add stability. He said that Center Parcs has also traded well, and that a small group of trade and financial buyers were conducting due diligence in the auction process, and he expected to narrow potential buyers down to one or two next week. Its Pontin's sites would be sold by the end of 2000, in a sale of the whole leisure unit, which analysts see raising 700-800 million pounds. The group, which agreed in March to buy the Kronenbourg beer business over three years for 1.7 billion pounds from Danone, was toppled from its leading spot in UK brewing as Belgium private brewer Interbrew bought the UK beer businesses of Whitbread and Bass in May and June, giving it a UK market share of 32 percent against S&N's 28. Scottish bought Greenalls' managed pubs for 1.17 billion pounds last December giving it almost 2,700 pubs, before putting its leisure division up for sale in late February. It announced a final dividend up seven percent at 17.94p per share, making a year payout also up seven percent at 27.07p. Blair wants rowdy UK pubs closed by police-papers LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - British police may be given the power to close pubs for 24 hours and ban thuggish drinkers in the latest bid to curb alcohol-fuelled violence, newspapers reported on Sunday.
The Labour government will float the plan on Monday when Prime Minister Tony Blair meets police chiefs at his Downing Street office to discuss the rise in violent crime. ``The government is determined to tackle yobbish behaviour and generally unacceptable conduct,'' the Sunday Telegraph quoted one official as saying. The newspaper said that pub landlords who tolerate fights on their premises will be closed for 24 hours. After three closures their licenses would be withdrawn permanently -- a far quicker penalty than the current system where magistrates decide at a court hearing. Drunken louts who fight inside and outside pubs -- there were 676,000 such incidents recorded last year in towns all over the country -- could be excluded from named pubs for periods stretching from two years to life, the newspapers said. The proposals are part of draft legislation affecting the 160,000 licensed premises in England and Wales which was first published in April. At the time, attention was fixed on planned reforms allowing some pubs to stay open for 24 hours, in the apparent hope of replacing Britain's beer-swilling habits with a more European and sophisticated cafe culture. The plan for fast-track closure of rowdy clubs came hot on the heels of Blair's announcement on Friday that he wanted to give police the power to levy 100 pound ($150) on-the-spot fines for ``offensive and loutish'' drunks. ``A thug might think twice about kicking your gate, throwing traffic cones around your street or hurling abuse into the night sky if he thought he might get picked up by the police, taken to a cashpoint and asked to pay an on-the-spot fine of, for example, 100 pounds,'' Blair said on a visit to Germany. This breach with tradition in Britain, where courts rather than policemen impose punishments, drew anxious reactions from human rights groups and a lukewarm response from the police themselves. ``This would be the first occasion I am aware of where the police move from law enforcement to imposing punishment and then collecting a fine,'' Tony Butler, the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, told the Sunday Telegraph. But political analysts said Blair's get-tough campaign was partly a result of the shameful behaviour of hundreds of British soccer hooligans this month during the Euro 2000 soccer tournament in Belgium and the Netherlands. The government was criticised by European partners for failing to prevent the hard-drinking hooligans from travelling abroad. Lack Of Booze Hurts Mexico Tourism .c The Associated Press By BEN FOX SAN DIEGO (AP) - Damon Krytzer and five friends were planning to spend the extended Fourth of July weekend in Ensenada, Mexico - but not anymore. They canceled their plans as soon as they learned alcohol would not be sold in anywhere in the country because of Sunday's presidential elections. ``We weren't going there just to get drunk, but it would have been nice to sit around the pool and drink a margarita,'' said Krytzer, a 29-year-old investment broker from San Diego. From midnight Friday to 10 a.m. Monday, alcohol sales are banned in Mexico under ``La Ley Seca,'' or the dry law, which is intended to ensure public order and prevent rowdiness as people head to the polls. Those Americans who head south of the border anyway will also find popular nightspots such as Hussong's Cantina and the Papas & Beer disco in Ensenada closed. The law is taken seriously in Mexico and, if past elections are any gauge, it will be nearly impossible to buy booze. The election Sunday is widely considered to be the most competitive in Mexico's history with polls showing a statistical dead heat between Francisco Labastida, the ruling party candidate and Vicente Fox, the candidate of the right-of-center opposition National Action Party. Many Americans with plans to spend the weekend on Mexico's Baja California peninsula weren't thinking too much of the election - until hearing about the alcohol ban. Krytzer and his friends learned they could bring their own alcohol but wouldn't be able to take it out of their hotel room. ``It just seemed like such a hassle, so we made other plans,'' he said. They canceled their reservations at Ensenada's Coral Hotel and Marina and booked a room in Palm Springs. The manager at the Coral, Norma Lopez, said she's received about 15 cancellations because of the alcohol ban but that's not many for a hotel with nearly 150 rooms. ``There will be plenty of other weekends,'' she said. About 80 percent of the hotel rooms in Ensenada are reserved for the weekend, said Felizardo Palacios, the city's delegate to the Baja California state tourism board. The weekend, Palacios said, provides Ensenada with an opportunity to showcase itself as more of a family destination than the rowdy party spots to the north, Rosarito and Tijuana. ``This election is extremely important to Mexico, so even if some people don't come you have to balance that against the greater good for the country,'' Palacios said. A study by the San Diego-based Institute for Health Advocacy found more than 8,000 Americans cross from San Diego to Tijuana on a typical Friday night. A test of those returning showed 64 percent of men and 59 percent of women had consumed some alcohol, said Richard McGaffigan a spokesman for the group. New Englanders Revolt Against the 'Foreigners' as Sam Adams, Hammer & Nail, and New England Brewing Best Imports in Blind Taste Test Samuel Adams Continues to Lead American Beer Revolution Against Leading Imports; Sets Nine City U.S. Tour of 'Liquid Lunches' BOSTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Summer Ale, and Cream Stout, along with local Connecticut beers Hammer & Nail Brown Ale, and New England Yankee Amber Ale handily won a blind taste-off against great beers from around the world, including Heineken, Corona, Guinness, Newcastle Brown Ale, and Bass Ale in a recent "Liquid Lunch" at Hartford's Vito's By The Park. In the beer-to-beer blind tasting, tasters were presented with unmarked glasses containing an American craft beer and its style equivalent in one of the great beers from around the world. Using rating forms and procedures approved by the Association of Homebrewers, the beers were scored according to appearance, aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel, and were then given an overall impression. The judges were a mixed lot of beer aficionados, neophytes and media representatives. In each of the five parings, the America craft beer beat its imported competitor: Samuel Adams Boston Lager was preferred over Heineken 29 drinkers to 3 drinkers. Samuel Adams Cream Stout bested Guinness 17 to 13 (1 tie). Samuel Adams Summer Ale beat Corona 17 to 15 (5 ties). Hammer & Nail Brown Ale was preferred over Newcastle Brown Ale by a 15 to 13 margin (3 ties). New England Yankee Amber Ale was preferred by 17 to 12 over Bass Ale (4 ties). "These imports have been considered to be the world standards for their styles, yet all across the country we have proven that small American brewers like Samuel Adams make better beer," said Jim Koch, Boston Beer Company founder and brewer. "American beer drinkers have more choices than drinkers in any other country, and now they know that they also have many of the world's best beers." The Hartford "Liquid Lunch" is part of Boston Beer Company's continuing mission to educate and enlighten beer drinkers about the wonders of fresh, well-made American beer. Over the past two years, Boston Beer Company has hosted "Liquid Lunches" in 12 American cities for consumers and journalists and is undefeated in 48 tastings. In conjunction with American Beer Month this July, Boston Beer Company will again take on the imports in a 10-city tour that features "Liquid Lunches" in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis, San Diego and Baltimore/Washington, DC,. In each city, three Samuel Adams beers and two local imports will be paired off with the leading import in its style class. The American Homebrewers Association, a non-profit educational institute for the brewing industry, has had similar results in blind taste-offs, pitting Samuel Adams Boston Lager against Heineken, as well as American craft beers against world-class imports. A 1999 AHA tour featured tastings in Boulder and Colorado Springs, CO; Albuquerque, NM; and Boston. Jim Koch founded The Boston Beer Company in 1984. He introduced the Company's flagship beer, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, in April 1985. Today, The Boston Beer Company, winner of more than 100 international awards, is America's leading brewer of world-class beer with four distinct product lines. For more information about Boston Beer Company, visit the web-site at www.samadams.com. Merger of El Aguila and Cruzcampo
SEVILLE, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2000-- -- The merger of Cruzcampo and El Aguila is approved by the shareholders. -- Heineken Espana will be the new name of the merged company with headquarters in Seville. -- The General Meetings of Shareholders of both companies approved the annual results. Heineken N.V., the leading international brewer, today announced that shareholders of S.A. El Aguila and Grupo Cruzcampo approved the proposed merger of the two companies. El Aguila recently acquired 100% of the shares of Heineken Espana. Heineken Espana owns 98.74% of the shares of Cruzcampo. Cruzcampo owns 100% of the shares of Berferuga Properties. Now all four companies will be merged into one single legal entity. The merged company will be named Heineken Espana S.A. and will remain listed on the Madrid stock exchange with a free float of approximately 20%. Minority shareholders of Cruzcampo (1.26% of the outstanding shares), can exchange their shares into those of S.A. El Aguila with an exchange ratio of 28 shares of S.A. El Aguila, plus a cash compensation of 346 pesetas (2.07 Euro), for every 3 shares of Grupo Cruzcampo, S.A. In order to cover this transaction shareholders of El Aguila approved a capital increase by issuing 1,250,172 shares with a face value of 3.005060 Euro each. S.A. El Aguila shareholders approved the 1999 Accounts and the Management Report, reporting a net profit of 3,874 million pesetas (23.28 million Euro), an increase of 61% compared to 1998. The net turnover amounted to 54,246 million pesetas (326 million Euro), 3.9% more than the net turnover in the previous year. Cruzcampo shareholders approved the Accounts and Management Report of the period July 1, 1999 to January 31, 2000, reporting a net profit of 5,776 million pesetas (35 million Euro), and a total turnover of 44,519 million pesetas (268 million Euro). Piero Perron will be appointed as the Executive Chairman of Heineken Espana and Alvaro Alvarez-Alonso as Vice-Chairman. Carlos de Jaureguizar Serrano will remain Managing Director. Other Board members are Jaime Lamo de Espinosa, Arturo Gil Perez-Andujar, Philippe Pasquet, David Hazelwood, Rene Hooft Graafland, Tom de Man and Lewis Willing. Alvaro Alvarez-Alonso, Chairman of S.A. El Aguila, outlined during his speech that "the change of the company name to Heineken Espana represents not only what we are at present, but also our ambitions for the future." Moreover, Piero Perron, Chairman of both Grupo Cruzcampo, S.A and the future Executive Chairman of Heineken Espana, said: "With the decisions taken today, Spain gains a clear leader of the brewing industry in a dynamic market. The merger gives us the opportunity to invest in high quality products to fully meet our consumers demand and to realize economies of scale. We expect the merger to contribute to the modernization of the Spanish beer sector in the interest of all stakeholders." Heineken N.V. is the world's leading international brewing group with production in more than 110 breweries in over 50 countries. The Heineken brand is sold in more than 170 countries. With estimated sales in 2000 of 50 million hectoliters of beer in Europe, Heineken is the largest European brewer. Heineken and Amstel are respectively the best and second best selling beer brand in Europe. The total Group Volume amounted in 1999 to 90.9 million hectoliters, ensuring the Group's second place in the world ranking. In 1999 the net turnover amounted to EUR 7.1 billion with a net profit of EUR 516 million. The Heineken group employed 36,733 persons in 1999. Heineken acquired the majority of the shares of El Aguila in 1986. El Aguila, based in Madrid, operates two breweries. The company produced 4.3 million hectoliters of beer in 1999. Turnover was EUR 326 million in 1999. El Aguila employed 1,352 persons at the close of 1999. Cruzcampo, headquartered in Seville, has five breweries. The company produced 6.1 million hectoliters of beer in 1999. Turnover in 1999 was EUR 453 million. At the close of 1999, Cruzcampo employed 2,100 persons. Heineken N.V. and Heineken Holding N.V. shares are listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIN NA and HEHN NA, on the Reuter Equities 2000 Service under HEIN.AS and HEHN.AS and on Quotron under HEINN.EU and HKAN.EU. Additional information is available on Heineken's home page: http://www.heinekencorp.nl. Egypt's GB to double beer capacity to 12 mln litres CAIRO, June 29 (Reuters) - Egypt's Gouna Beverage Group (GB), part of the Orascom Group, will double its alcoholic beer brewing capacity to 12 million litres after its products met strong demand on the Egyptian market.
``The higher than expected demand for our quality beers, Sakara and Lowenbrau, means that we have speeded our expansion plans three years ahead of schedule,'' Andre Hadji-Thomas, GB's managing director, was quoted as saying in a statement. The statement did not state when exactly the firm's capacity was expected to be expanded. GB, whose brewery is in the Gouna Red Sea resort, launched its products in April 1999. They include German beer Lowenbrau, produced under license from Lowenbrau AG Munich, and Big Sexy One Malt Liquor. The GB statement said beer sales have grown significantly during the first 12 months since launching. GB currently sells around 600,000 to 700,000 litres per month. The firm expects sales to rise to 10 million litres per year, or 20 percent of the local market, towards end-2000. GB is one of two local alcoholic beer producers along with Egypt's dominant brewer Al Ahram Beverages Company (ABC), established in 1897, which produces both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer. |
beer bits |
Joel Plutchak |
7/5/00 12:00 AM |
> BOSTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Summer Ale, and >Cream Stout, along with local Connecticut beers Hammer & Nail Brown Ale, and >New England Yankee Amber Ale handily won a blind taste-off against great beers >from around the world, including Heineken, Corona, Guinness, Newcastle Brown >Ale, and Bass Ale in a recent "Liquid Lunch" at Hartford's Vito's By The Park. >In the beer-to-beer blind tasting, tasters were presented with unmarked glasses >containing an American craft beer and its style equivalent in one of the great >beers from around the world. Using rating forms and procedures approved by the >Association of Homebrewers, the beers were scored according to appearance, >aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel, and were then given an overall impression. The >judges were a mixed lot of beer aficionados, neophytes and media >representatives. I'd be really interested in seeing a breakdown on how each of those groups rated the beers. It does seem a bit rigged-- Sa Summer Ale versus Corona as a stylistic match? >The American Homebrewers Association, a non-profit educational
>institute for the brewing industry... Aha! The truth is out. We poor homebrewers have been duped into being shills for the brewing industry! -- Joel Plutchak "Logic! Good gracious! What rubbish! How can I tell what I think until I see what I say?" - E. M. Forster |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/5/00 12:00 AM |
yawn...home in a couple of hours...nice day here at MSP airport http://www.post-gazette.com:80/businessnews/20000704ironcity2.asp Pittsburgh Brewing battling falling production without financial partner Tuesday, July 04, 2000 By Len Boselovic, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Five years after Joseph Piccirilli and other investors rescued Pittsburgh Brewing from bankruptcy, the 139-year-old Lawrenceville brewery may be scraping the bottom of the Iron City barrel. Industry observers estimate production has fallen nearly 70 percent since Piccirilli's group arrived, making weeklong shutdowns common for brewery workers. Much of the decline was caused by the loss of a major contract with The Boston Beer Co., which pulled out after 1998. At one time, Pittsburgh Brewing made 400,000 barrels of Samuel Adams beer annually for Boston Beer. Moreover, the troubled brewer's two-year effort to find a financial partner has fallen flat again. Its most recent suitor, unprofitable Bronx beer distributor Capital Beverage, is running off with a dot.com company from Florida. There are other issues. Pittsburgh Brewing lost four key managers, including former Chief Executive Officer and stockholder James Gehrig, to a Cleveland competitor. Union workers say the brewery's cash crunch is prompting some suppliers to demand payment on delivery. And the state Department of Revenue filed a tax lien against Pittsburgh Brewing in November for more than $187,000 in unpaid malt beverage taxes. "It's like the Perils of Pauline," says Peter Reid, editor of Modern Brewery Age. He estimates Pittsburgh Brewing produced 290,000 barrels last year, operating at about 25 percent of capacity. It produced an estimated 350,000 barrels in 1998 and 927,000 barrels the year before Piccirilli's group arrived. "It's very hard to reverse a slide like that," Reid says. "You'd think you could do something with the Iron City brand. ... You'd need a little bit of money to do it, and I don't see them getting any." Although industry observers say the merger is off, neither Pittsburgh Brewing nor Capital have publicly confirmed that. Capital and Piccirilli did not return phone calls. Nor did Ventana Global Capital Group, an Irvine, Calif. investment firm that's also a Pittsburgh Brewing stockholder. Capital, the nation's only publicly traded beer distributor, arrived at Pittsburgh Brewing at about the same time Boston Beer was leaving. Capital agreed to distribute Pittsburgh Brewing's products, including the "Prime Time" beers Pittsburgh was making and marketing for a Memphis, Tenn. brewery. Capital also gave Pittsburgh Brewing a contract to make Capital's own beer under the "Night Flight" label. Capital said it sold 900,000 cases of the two brands last year. The partnership blossomed into a proposed merger. Capital said in April 1999 it would acquire Pittsburgh Brewing for about $27 million in stock. That was about $3 million less than what Piccirilli's group paid when it bought Pittsburgh Brewing in 1995. Capital wouldn't necessarily be a great catch for the struggling brewery. The distributor hasn't produced an annual profit since it was formed in 1995, ringing up accumulated losses of $3.3 million through the first quarter. Now the merger is off, and the partnership apparently means less than it used to. Union workers say they're brewing much less for Capital these days. Moreover, there was no mention of the Pittsburgh brewery in a quarterly report Capital filed with securities regulators May 16. Six days earlier, Capital announced its intention to merge with Stocktalklive.com, a Boca Raton, Fla. company that provides stock quotes and other financial information over the Internet. Capital's beer and other businesses will be sold. Merging with Capital gives Stocktalklive the opportunity Pittsburgh Brewing was looking for: the chance to go public without going through the time, expense and scrutiny of a stock offering. Pittsburgh Brewing tried to do that through mergers with Independence Brewing of Philadelphia and Red Bell Brewing, a Philadelphia brew pub operator. Both plans fizzled. What Pittsburgh Brewing plans to do now isn't clear. When Gehrig left last year, the brewery said its next CEO would have a solid background in the beer industry. According to state Liquor Control Board records, Piccirilli, whose previous job experience was working for his family's trash collection business, is listed as president. In promotional materials, Pittsburgh Brewing says it is going back to the basics and appealing to a younger audience. "They're trying very desperately to get Iron City back to its grass roots," says Rob Pratt, who does advertising and community promotions for the brewery. "I'm putting my heart and soul into putting Iron City back where it belongs." Pittsburgh Brewing isn't taking the defection of Gehrig and three colleagues lying down. It's accusing their new employer of infringing on the brewery's trademark. The lawsuit was filed in February in federal court in Pittsburgh against Crooked River Brewing Co. and its parent, Snyder International Brewing Group of Cleveland. Pittsburgh Brewing says Snyder deliberately designed Crooked River's trademark to look like Iron City's. Snyder President Christopher Livingston denied the allegation, saying Pittsburgh Brewing's contention that beer drinkers can't tell the difference between the labels "is an insult to [customers'] intelligence. "What it's done is a good job of keeping us out of Pittsburgh, and we don't think that's right at all," Livingston said. Troubles are nothing new for Pittsburgh Brewing. Its previous owner, Michael Carlow, was hailed as a savior in 1992 when he took over Pittsburgh Brewing after outbidding management. The white knight was knocked off his horse three years later when he was indicted for masterminding a $31.3 million check-kiting scheme. Carlow pleaded guilty to bank fraud and other charges in 1996 and is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence. Piccirilli got high marks for energy when his group took over. But he got rid of a veteran sales team, alienated some distributors and fired more than 100 union workers after they walked off the job in 1997. Most of the workers were later rehired, but the incident alienated the blue-collar market on which Iron City relies. Industry conditions compounded its problems. Beer consumption slackened, and those who were drinking turned either to well-advertised national brands or specialty beers produced by Boston Beer and other microbreweries. There was also too much capacity, meaning Pittsburgh Brewing had to compete for contracts with other brewers eager to keep their plants running. While industry officials say there is still too much capacity, at least the demographics are getting better. Gary Hemphill, vice president of Beverage Marketing Corp., predicts the beer market will grow 1 to 2 percent over the next few years. The key reason: an increase in the number of 21- to 27-year-olds, "which is hugely important for the beer industry, because that's the core consumer," Hemphill says. Whether Pittsburgh Brewing's appeal to its grass-roots market and young drinkers will pull it out of its tailspin remains to be seen. If little else, the brewery has at least one thing in its favor according to Reid, the editor of Modern Brewery Age. "Pennsylvania consumers are unusually loyal to their regional brewers." http://www.phillynews.com:80/content/daily_news/2000/06/30/features/FCOV30.htm
Hoppy days are here again! Joe Sixpack / Don Russell July in Philadelphia, the visitor's dream: Liberty! Fireworks! Independence! We know the reality: Hazy! Hot! Humid! Mostly, locals abandon the streets to out-of-towners and head to the shore. But in the kind of unexpected synergy that makes the city so lovable, the pomp and the heat will merge next month to thoroughly wet Philly's whistle. It's American Beer Month, a celebration of the nation's craft-brewing heritage that will be launched tomorrow on the steps of the Art Museum. Yes, there will be speeches. But don't sweat it. There will also be plenty of suds. And, in a freebie for People Paper readers, there's also a free lunch. (Details below.) "American beer month is like an Independence Day for the American craft-brewing industry," said organizer John Hickenlooper, a Philadelphia-area native who now runs America's largest brewpub, Wynkoop Brewery in Denver. "This is the first step in getting Americans to realize that the rest of the world looks at our creativity, our innovation, our energy and excitement with envious eyes," Hickenlooper said. "It's a chance to celebrate the skills of American brewers." American Beer Month is being launched in Philadelphia because of the spirit of independence that echoes through town, and the spirits that flow through our taps. The Philly area, if you haven't been paying attention, boasts some of the best beer in America. Yes, the Northwest has more brewpubs. And Colorado has a ton of micros. But no other region offers such a variety of inventive microbreweries, so many top-flight beer bars and so many imports. The choices are daunting to most mortals: room-temperature cask-conditioned ales, high-alcohol barleywines, smelly gueuze served in corked bottles, hop-infused IPAs and a host of brews flavored with honey, raspberry, chocolate, peach, heather and coriander. The choices are daunting, even to the likes of Joe Sixpack, who has devoted excessive time and resources to the examination of malt beverages. In honor of American Beer Month, today's report sorts out some of the details. Lemme start with six things every Philly beer drinker should know: 1. The difference between industrial beer and craft beer. Factory beer - and I'm talking about anything made with ingredients measured by the rail car - is just fine if you're looking for something to guzzle without taste. Mostly, they're bland American lagers - Budcoorsmiller - or an equally bland import: Becks, Molson, Fosters, Corona. Craft beer - or microbrewed beer - is made in smaller batches. Usually, they're all malt and full of body and flavor. More importantly, craft beer is usually made by guys with pony tails and tattoos. 2. Monk's Café. If you judge a joint by its beer selection, Tom Peters and Fergus Carey run the best bar in America, period. Craft brews are well represented, but what raises Monk's to beervana is its exotic Belgian imports, served in its woodsy back bar. Peters was the first publican to serve any Belgian on tap in America (it was Kwak, in 1996). Now, he and Fergie regularly offer flavors you couldn't even sample in Brussels. 3. Beer Philadelphia magazine. Publisher Jim Anderson knows more about beer in this city than anyone. I learn something from him every time we bend an elbow together. His magazine, available at bars and takeout stores, is the best written and most opinionated rant in the beer trade. Most of the local American Beer Month festivities were organized by the energetic Anderson. 4. Home Sweet Homebrew. Other homebrew stores (notably Barry's Homebrew Outlet, 101 Snyder Ave., South Philadelphia) are dependable sources for do-it-yourselfers. But George Hummel and Nancy Rigberg, the owners of this yeasty mainstay, are directly responsible for creating more local craft brewers than anyone. The guys who make Independence and Red Bell and Dock Street, among others, got their start with Tupperware homebrew kits and advice from Home Sweet Homebrew. Even if you never brew a pint, you owe a debt to these folks. 2008 Sansom St., Center City, 215-569-9469. 5. Edward I. Friedland Co. True story: A few years ago, drawn by its trendy selection of micros, I went in search of Eddie Friedland's beer distributor. My visit took me up North 8th Street, into an area commonly known as the Badlands. I never found the place. Instead, I found myself surrounded by a dozen cops engaged in one of the neighborhood's frequent drug raids. An angry sergeant slammed me for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. When I fought the ticket, the Traffic Court judge chided me for being out of my 'hood: "Whatsamatta? Don't you got beer distributors in Fishtown?" Well, none like Friedland's, which is responsible for popularizing nearly every one of the region's micros. By the way, it's an importing distributor, which means it's not open to retail customers. 6. Our city's brewing history. F.A. Poth & Sons. . .Robert Smith India Pale Ale. . .Jacob Hornung White Bock. The labels are long gone, but these names from breweries past are still a part of Philadelphia's rich brewery heritage. Before Prohibition, Philadelphia - not Milwaukee - was the capital of American beer, the home of hundreds of breweries. Even if you never heard these brewers' names, your grandfather remembers running down to the corner for a bucket of Gretz. Or the bricks in your home were carried by a mason who kicked back at the end of the day with a tall, cool glass of Hohenadel. Celebrate American Beer Month, and you just might find your own place in our nation's brewing heritage. Lift a pint to the men and women - your neighbors - who brew your favorite. It's the best way to say thanks. And there's no better place to do kick off the festivities than right here in the City of Brewery Love. Today's Big Fat Friday is filled with sixpacks of ideas for discovering beer in Philadelphia. Joe Sixpack will get things started at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at McGillin's Olde Ale House, 1310 Drury St., Center City, where the Daily News proves there is such a thing as a Free Lunch. The first 100 people who toast American Beer Month with a domestic brew will get free eats, courtesy of the People Paper. The Free Lunch kicks off a day of beer-drinking festivities that mark the start of American Beer Month. Here's a schedule: Tomorrow 2-4 p.m. - The Great American Blind Taste Test. A blind taste test between European ales and lagers and classic American versions of those styles. Master of ceremonies is Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams. Irish Pub, 1123 Walnut St., 215-925-3311. 2 p.m. - Brewers Rally. Hundreds of maltsters will gather on the Art Museum steps for the first-ever American Brewers Rally. The event marks American Beer Month with speeches by, among others, Hickenlooper of Wynkoop and Carol Stoudt, the first lady of American brewing and founder of Stoudt Brewing in Adamstown, Pa. 4-6 p.m. - A Tribute to American Micros. Some of the rarest beers in the country will be flowing into the evening. Monk's Café, 16th and Spruce streets, Center City. 215-545-7005. 6-8 p.m. - Open house for brewers at Nodding Head Brewing Co., 1516 Sansom St., Center City. 215-569-9525. All night - After party. Philadelphia's newest beer bar, known for its draft-only, local-only beer policy, will be putting up some special casks for the evening. Standard Tap, 2nd and Poplar streets, Northern Liberties. 215-238-0630. July 23 1-6 p.m. - Royal Stumble. Twelve of the East's most interesting breweries bring the beer they're most proud of to a free-for-all of flavor, food and fun. All beers between 5.5 percent and 7 percent alcohol. Nodding Head, 1516 Sansom St., Center City. 215-569-9525. Tix: $20 includes beer and buffet. July 24 5 p.m - PhiliChili 2000. The nation's best breweries pair up with the city's spiciest restaurants to compete for the coveted Ring of Fire. Each chili recipe will be cooked with a beer from the corresponding brewery, and look for plenty of American beer on tap to wash it all down. The Khyber, 54 S. 2nd St., Center City. 215-238-5888. Month-long Beer cuisine - Monk's Cafe, 263 S. 16th St., Center City. 215-545-7005. Each night, a special prix fixe beer dinner will be added to the menu, pairing each course with an outstanding American beer. Meanwhile, area breweries and bars will feature special beer styles produced by America's best micros, on tap and in bottles. American pale ale - London Grill, 2301 Fairmount Ave., Fairmount. 215-978-4545. Belgian-style ale - The Drafting Room, Route 100, Exton. 610-363-0521. Belgian-style ale, takeout - Voorhees Liquors, 10 Berlin Road in Voorhees, N.J. 800-429-5273. Brown ale - Dock Street Terminal Brewpub, 12th and Filbert streets, Center City. 215-922-4292. California pale ale - The Drafting Room, 900 N. Bethlehem Pike, Spring House. 215-646-6116. Cask-conditioned ale - Standard Tap, 2nd and Poplar streets, Northern Liberties. 215-238-0630. Extra special bitter - Menamin's Bar & Grill, 7170 Germantown Ave., Mount Airy. 215-247-9920. Take-home growlers - Flanigans Boathouse, 113 Fayette St., Conshohocken. 610-828-BOAT. Or Flanigans at the Great Valley Corporate Center, Malvern. 610-251-0207. Hefe-weizen - The Grey Lodge Pub, 6235 Frankford Ave., Frankford. 215-624-2969. Imperial stout - Dock Street Brasserie, 18th and Cherry streets, Logan Square. 215-493-0413. Dock Street will also pour its Thomas Jefferson Ale, a colonial-era brew based on a recipe devised by the third president of the United States. India pale ale - O'Neal's Pub, 3rd and South streets, Center City. 215-574-9495. Irish-style ales - McGillin's Olde Ale House, 1310 Drury St., Center City. 215-735-5562. Pennsylvania beers - The Beverage Store, 218 E. Lancaster Ave., Wayne. 610-688-3431. Philadelphia beers - Stone's Beverage Center, 1701 Fairmount Ave., Spring Garden, 215-763-9789. Pils - The Khyber, 54 S. 2nd St., Old City. 215-238-5888. Porter - Flat Rock Saloon, 4301 Main St., Manayunk. 215-483-3722. Scottish-style ales - Nodding Head, 1516 Sansom St., Center City. 215-569-9525. Sixpacks - The Foodery, 10th and Pine streets, Center City. 215-928-1111. Strong ales - General Lafayette Inn & Brewery, 646 Germantown Pike, Lafayette Hill. 610-941-0600. Stout - Sugar Mom's Church Street Lounge, 225 Church St., Old City. Wheat beer - Cuvée Notredame, 17th and Green streets, Spring Garden. 215-765-2777. http://www.bergen.com:80/food/beer05200007054.htm
A monthlong toast salutes the brews made in America Wednesday, July 5, 2000, Tony Forder I'm sure plenty of American beer was consumed on the Fourth of July, as usually is the case. But there is good reason to stay with the American theme for the entire month. July is American Beer Month, as promoted by the Institute of Brewing Studies. I attended a rally in Philadelphia to kick off the event. More than 200 people, including brewers from 20 states, gathered on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum to stand up for American craft-brewed beer and later celebrated at taverns all over town that had reserved their taps exclusively for American beer. The event was not conceived to bash imports -- "If we wanted to do that, we would have gone to Boston and dumped some cases of imports into the harbor," said one organizer -- but to highlight American beers. Said Pennsylvania brewer Carol Stoudt, "We should be proud. What we brew here is better because it's fresher." American craft brewers are rebounding after a couple of fallow years when imports surged into the specialty beer market. Some craft breweries closed, but the survivors are stronger, with more consistent beer and a better idea of how to market it. Choosing 10 American craft beers to celebrate July is a tough task, but I'll try anyway, sticking to the more accessible ones. Brooklyn Brewery: Pennant Pale Ale is a good thirst quencher with plenty of flavor. Brooklyn Pilsner also is a natural for the summer. And if you can find Blanche de Brooklyn on tap (easily found in the city, not so easily found in New Jersey), it recently beat out the famous Hoegaarden for a gold medal in the World Beer Cup. Stoudt's American Pale Ale: great beer, just try it. Flying Fish Pale Ale: a softer take on a pale ale. Ramstein Blond: Just because it's American Beer Month, it doesn't mean you can't drink German-style wheat beer brewed in New Jersey. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale: classic American pale ale. Samuel Adams Summer Ale: light, easy drinking, but with interesting spicy flavor. Heavyweight Lunacy Ale: a great Belgian-style beer, also brewed in New Jersey. River Horse Hop Hazard: from Lambertville, a beer for East Coast hop heads. Climax India Pale Ale: from Roselle Park and available in half-gallon jugs; one of the best IPA's made anywhere. Saranac: from the Adirondacks, with several accessible and affordable flavors available. http://www.afr.com.au:80/update/20000704/A51545-2000Jul4.html
Lion Nathan says FY results set to meet forecasts 2000-07-04, Lion Nathan chief executive Gordon Cairns today said the brewer was trading in line with forecasts for second half of this financial year. "Our market share is increasing, which is good, and our profits will be in line with forecasts," he said. Lion books its full-year results on August 31. "We're making progress in Australia and we continue to grow in New South Wales, which is the majority of the market." Speaking after a business luncheon in Melbourne, Mr Cairns said the company was looking at a broad range of options for expansion in China. "We could toll brew, we could have a joint venture, we could produce under licence, and we already produce under licence for Beck's and we've talked about toll brewing for other brewers and we've looked at JVs," he said. "The ultimate plan is to make money there, and we're open as to how we might do that. "You certainly can't, as an Australasian brewer, take China on yourself." Lion has not yet booked a profit from its Chinese operations, which began in 1995 with a 60 per cent holding in the Wuxi Lion Nathan Taihushui Brewery, and forecasts to be in the black by 2002 have been abandoned. "It looks like I'm going to get hung on that one," Mr Cairns said. He said there was no current forecast for profitability, but the company was committed to reducing losses from the China operations. Asked whether forecasts of a slower domestic economy in the new financial year might impact on the company's results, Mr Cairns replied "clearly, and that's why we have to be very assiduous with our cost reduction." In Australia, Mr Cairns said the company was targeting growth in the premium beer market, which represented just 5.7 per cent of the domestic brewing market but was growing by 20 per cent per year. Lion had 25 per cent of the premium market and was growing faster than its competitors, he said. In Victoria, where Lion had "done an appalling job" the company had spent most of the $100 million earmarked for expansion in the state, he said. Asked whether Lion would be adding to the stock of more than 40 pubs it had bought in major Victorian cities in a move to boost its ailing market share of just 12.6 per cent, Mr Cairns replied "We've probably reached the threshold that we want." The company was pursuing a number of other strategies to increase brand awareness, including sponsorships. Lion Nathan, which last month moved its head office from New Zealand to Sydney, posted a first half net profit of $NZ97.1 million ($A81 million) for the six months to February 29, up 17 per cent from the corresponding period. Lion Nathan shares closed down one cent to $3.75. http://www.afr.com.au:80/investment/20000705/A52444-2000Jul4.html
Lion talks aimed at relieving Chinese hangover By Simon Evans, 2000-07-05 Lion Nathan is in talks with Chinese brewers to broaden its reach in China as it seeks a faster way to stem losses in the beer market. Chief executive Mr Gordon Cairns yesterday reconsidered previous predictions that Lion's Chinese operations would be profitable by 2002 and said it was now uncertain when profits would flow. "I said we'd be profitable about the year 2002. Looks like I'm going to get hung on that one," he said after speaking at a business lunch in Melbourne. Lion entered the Chinese market in 1995 with an investment in a brewery in the town of Wuxi and, like its main Australian rival Foster's Brewing Group, has been unable to turn a profit in the highly competitive Chinese market. Lion's China operations suffered a loss of $NZ19.9 million ($15.7 million) in the six months to February 29, a slight improvement on the $NZ20.4 million loss a year earlier. The world's major brewers are jostling for position in China, which is regarded as having the most potential because of its enormous population and the prospects for continued growth in per capita beer consumption. Mr Cairns said partnerships with other Chinese brewers were being evaluated as part of the moves to broaden Lion's presence from the Yangtse River delta region. He declined to give details, citing confidentiality agreements, but said several options were under consideration. "We could toll brew, we could have a joint venture, we could produce under licence," he said. A China deal would accelerate the move into profitability, he said. Lion already produces German beer Beck's under licence in China. Mr Cairns said Lion's Trans-Tasman operations were faring better, and the company had made solid gains in NSW, the largest and most important beer market in Australia. Trading in the first four months of the company's second half had been in line with market expectations, he said. "Our market share is increasing, which is good, and our profits will be in line with forecasts." Most analysts are predicting a pre-abnormals profit of about $136 million for the full year to the end of August. Mr Cairns said Lion's hotel and nightclub buying spree in Victoria was all but finished. "We've probably reached the threshold that we want," he said. Lion has close to 50 properties as part of a push to grow its meagre market share of 12.6 per cent. Lion was aware of the potential for an economic slowdown in Australia and intended keeping a close eye on costs. Mr Cairns said it was unclear what profit impact a potential shift by drinkers to packaged beer away from on-tap beer, brought about by the Federal Government's higher excise levels, might have if the row over a $500 million tax dispute was not resolved. Lion shares dropped 1¢ yesterday to close at $3.75. http://www.toledoblade.com:80/editorial/biz/0g04drin.htm
Popping of drinks part of July 4 festivities July 4, 2000 Excuse area beverage wholesalers and retailer if they were too busy this weekend to drink a toast to America's Independence Day holiday. The Fourth of July is one of the biggest holidays for beer and soft drink sales. "I don't know if it would be the biggest, because Christmas and New Year's are really big. But the Fourth would be one of the biggest,'' said Al Cherry, general manager of Toledo's Metropolitan Distributing Co., which sells Miller brands. "With . . . Christmas, you're getting more days overall, while the Fourth of July you have fewer days but consumption for all beverage is way up,'' Mr. Cherry said. According to 1998 data (the latest available) collected by Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc., beer and ale sales in the two weeks before July 4 and the two weeks after were about 24 per cent higher than for the average four-week period for the year. Soft drink sales were about 14 per cent higher than for the average four-week period, and those for low-calorie drinks were about 9 per cent higher. "All the summertime holidays are much bigger,'' said Mark Gibson, head of the Ohio chapter of the National Soft Drink Association. According the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1997 - the latest statistics available - the typical American adult consumer drank 34 gallons of beer and three gallons of wine, with a good portion of that occurring during holidays like the Fourth of July. Americans of all ages consumed 53 gallons of carbonated soft drinks that year, according to the Census Bureau. Beer consumption was on the decline in 1997 but has since mounted a comeback, according to the Washington-based Beer Institute, a trade association representing the brewing industry. In 1994, shipments of beer in the United States totaled 189 million barrels and shipments to Ohio were 8.2 million, the institute said. Per capita consumption of beer in 1994 was 22.5 gallons nationwide and 23 gallons in Ohio. But shipments fell in 1995 to 186 million barrels and 8.2 million nationwide and Ohio, respectively. Consumption dropped to 22.1 gallons per capita nationwide and 22.8 gallons per capita in Ohio. Then, after staying flat for two years, sales began to rise. Last year, beer sales reached 196 million barrels nationwide and 8.5 million barrels in Ohio. Consumption hit 22.3 gallons per capital nationwide and 23.7 gallons in Ohio. Last year, according to the Beer Institute, was a record year for beer shipments, with 43 states reporting increased shipments. National consumption rose 1.7 per cent last year, the institute reported. http://www.bergen.com:80/food/beerfood200007054.htm
Hops, barley, and yeast can deliver a wide range of flavor possibilities 5-July-00, By JOE STUMPE Knight Ridder Newspapers Lots of guys consider themselves experts on the subject of cooking with beer. Fire up the grill, crack open a brewski, and you're there, right? For serious cooks, something a bit more elaborate comes to mind. Tim Schafer of Tim Schafer's Cuisine, 82 Speedwell, Ave., Morristown, does an entire menu based on beer-enhanced cooking. Damien Lehman of the Airport Hilton in Wichita, Kansas, has devised perhaps the most unusual dish of all -- a decadent chocolate cake and accompanying sauce that both included Stoney Creek Vanilla Porter. "I'm not sure how many people have tried it," Lehman said of using beer in a dessert. "It makes it a little heartier, in my opinion." While there have always been dishes made with beer, such as beer-cheese soup and beef carbonade, it has become a more popular ingredient in recent years. "Beer is made up of more than one ingredient," said Schafer. "Wine, on the other hand, is only one ingredient. Cooking with beer you have water, hops, barley, and yeast, and in some cases as many as three different kinds of yeast. There might be eight different barley malts, and there are some beers with a lot of alcohol to darker beers made with oats and other grains. So there is an enormous range of possibilities when you cook with beer." Schafer, who writes a cooking column called "The Brew Chef Corner" for Ale Street News, says beers are like a seasoning, and he especially enjoys their herbal qualities in various dishes. Peter LaFrance, writing in "Cooking & Eating With Beer" (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), said the first cooks to extensively use beers in their food were the "brave souls who ran the kitchens of the first brew pubs." "The unique flavor of hops offers the interested cook a chance to stretch his or her culinary imagination," La France wrote. "The sweet grain flavor of malt offers its own accent to shimmering soups, stout stews, and braised beef dishes." Schaefer says the biggest thing to guard against when cooking with beer is making a dish too bitter. "You have to be aware of the amount of hops in various beers, and if you are reducing the sauce made with beer, you are intensifying the bitterness," he said. "Sometimes you want that bitterness, but other times it is necessary to counter it with something like brown sugar, or honey." Some cooks also avoid the problem by adding beer to sauces and other preparations just before they are finished. William Rice, author of "Steak Lover's Cookbook" (Workman), said his recipe for beer brewed chuck steak is really just a basic meat-and-potatoes dish. "During braising with the beer, the beef gives its all," in return for your waiting for it to simmer gently to fork-tenderness." BEER BREWED CHUCK STEAK 6 sprigs fresh Italian parsley 6 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves 2 cloves garlic, cut in half 2 bay leaves 1 (about 11-ounce) large baking potato 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 (2-pound) boneless beef chuck shoulder steak, cut 1 1/2 inches thick Salt and pepper 1 large sweet onion, cut in half and thinly sliced 1 teaspoon paprika, divided use 3/4 cup ale or dark beer 3/4 cup ready-to-serve beef broth Chopped Italian parsley (optional) Wrap parsley, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves in cheesecloth and tie tightly. Set aside. Peel potato and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Cover with cold water; set aside until read to use. In Dutch oven, heat butter and oil over medium heat until hot. Add beefsteak. Brown 5 to 6 minutes, turning once. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Remove steak. In same Dutch oven, add onion and cook 4 to 5 minutes or until soft, stirring often. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Return steak to the pan. Pour ale and broth over steak; add cheesecloth bag. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Cover tightly and simmer 45 minutes. Drain potato slices and arrange on top of steak in a single layer. Season with salt, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Cook, covered, 20 to 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Remove steak; keep warm. Remove and discard cheesecloth bag. Skim fat. In bowl of food processor, fitted with steel blade, add cooking liquid and vegetable mixture; process until smooth. Carve steak crosswise into slices. Serve with sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley, if desired. Servings: 4. VANILLA PORTER DECADENCE CAKE Cake: 1 3/4 cups butter 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar 15 egg yolks 20 ounces bittersweet chocolate 15 egg whites 2 Vanilla Porters (12 ounces each), reduced to 5 ounces. Sauce: 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 cups water 3/4 cup cocoa powder 1 pound bittersweet chocolate 1 cup light corn syrup 1 bottle (12 ounces) Vanilla Porter To make cake, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg yolks. Melt chocolate in double boiler and add to mixture. Whip eggs whites until firm and fold into mixture. Pour batter into 11-inch round pan or 13-by-9-by-2-inch rectangular pan and place it in larger pan filled with water to come halfway up smaller pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove cake from oven and immediately poke holes in top of cake using a toothpick. Sprinkle reduced porter over the cake and refrigerate. To make sauce, bring sugar, water, and cocoa powder to a boil for 1 minute. Melt chocolate in a double-boiler over medium heat, being careful not to burn chocolate. Add corn syrup to chocolate. In a separate saucepan, reduce porter until it equals about 1 cup. Mix all ingredients together and serve over cake. Aer Lingus hires new CEO from Heineken
DUBLIN, July 5 (Reuters) - Irish airline Aer Lingus, which is preparing for a stock market flotation, said on Wednesday it had recruited Michael Foley from Dutch brewer Heineken as its new chief executive. Foley, an Irishman, has been president and chief executive of Heineken's U.S. arm since 1994. He was previously managing director of Murphys Brewery Ireland, another Heineken unit. State-owned Aer Lingus, which could be floated by the end of the year, said it believed Foley, 52, was the right man despite his lack of aviation industry experience. He initially qualified as an accountant. ``He brings to the job of group executive the perfect blend of international business and public company experience to lead an already strong management team through the challenges that lie ahead,'' said Chairman Bernie Cahill. Former chief executive Gary Cullen resigned in February, saying that for personal reasons he did not want to lead the company through the IPO process. Legislation clearing the way for the Aer Lingus flotation is currently going through the Irish parliament and an IPO is expected late this year or early in 2001. The company is expected to try to raise some 200 million Irish pounds ($242.6 million) through the issue of new shares at the time of the flotation. The flotation is expected to value the company as a whole at up to 700 million pounds. FEMSA Appoints New CFO
MONTERREY, Mexico--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 5, 2000--Fomento Economico Mexicano, S.A. de C.V. ("FEMSA") (NYSE:FMX) (BMV:FEMSA UBD) announced today that Gerardo Estrada has joined FEMSA's corporate staff as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining FEMSA, Estrada served as a managing director of Grupo Financiero Bancomer S. A. de C. V. ("GFB"). 43-year old Gerardo Estrada earned a C.P.A. degree in 1977 and a M.A. degree in 1981, both from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. From 1994 through June 2000, Estrada held several important financial positions within GFB. Most recently, he served as Corporate Chief Financial Officer, where he played a major role in structuring GFB's major capitalization projects. Prior to working for GFB, Gerardo Estrada held several financial positions within Grupo Cydsa including finance director for the packaging division, corporate finance manager and corporate manager of financial planning. Gerardo Estrada will report directly to Federico Reyes, FEMSA's Executive Vice President of Planning and Finance. "We are extremely pleased that Gerardo has accepted the invitation to join our team and have no doubt that his expertise and financial skills will prove to be an invaluable contribution to the Company," stated Federico Reyes. FEMSA is Mexico's largest beverage company with exports to the United States, Canada and selected countries in Latin America, Europe and the Far East. Founded in 1890 and with headquarters in Monterrey, Mexico, FEMSA is strategically integrated and operates through the following subsidiaries: FEMSA Cerveza, which produces and distributes name brands of beer such as Tecate, Carta Blanca, Superior, Sol, XX Lager, Dos Equis and Bohemia; Coca-Cola FEMSA, an "Anchor Bottler" for The Coca-Cola Company in Latin America, which produces and distributes soft drinks including Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Sprite, Fanta and Quatro; FEMSA Empaques, which supports the beverage operations by producing beverage cans, glass bottles, crown caps, labels, commercial refrigerators, and serves third party clients throughout the Americas; FEMSA Comercio, which operates OXXO, Mexico's most extensive chain of convenience stores; and FEMSA Logistica, which provides logistics management services to affiliate companies, and recently to third party clients. Budapest strives to be ``city of cafes'' again By Michael Roddy BUDAPEST, July 3 (Reuters) - At Budapest's lovingly restored 19th-century Central Kavehaz, Geza Csermely writes gypsy rock musicals in a neat hand on the cafe's paper placemats. ``You can sit all day and have breakfast, lunch and dinner,'' said the 56-year-old Roma writer, sitting at his regular table amid the hubbub of the crowded room. ``The noise only makes things better.'' At the Ponyva Regeny (Pulp Fiction) cafe, Julia Imre, 19, sits for hours over a single banana milk shake, chatting to a friend beneath bookshelves lined with everything from poetry and novels to a dusty biography of Che Guevara. ``I come because of the atmosphere,'' Imre, a law student, said, as bright sunshine glinted off brass candlesticks placed on the tables and rock music played softly in the background. ``I like the feeling because we sit and talk and we can hear each other,'' she said, adding that she enjoyed not having to compete with a blaring television or disco music. Move over, Turkish baths. Budapest's other Turkish-inspired institution, the traditional coffee-house, is making a comeback. Closed by the communists in 1949, coffee-houses where people may sit for hours, write all day, meet lovers, debate politics, drink one cup of coffee or eat three square meals, have been reviving bit by bit since communism's demise in 1989. ... |
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J2jurado |
7/5/00 12:00 AM |
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beer bits |
Kirk Nelson |
7/6/00 12:00 AM |
Joel Plutchak wrote: > > > BOSTON, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Summer Ale, and > >Cream Stout, along with local Connecticut beers Hammer & Nail Brown Ale, and > >New England Yankee Amber Ale handily won a blind taste-off against great beers > >from around the world, including Heineken, Corona, Guinness, Newcastle Brown > >Ale, and Bass Ale in a recent "Liquid Lunch" at Hartford's Vito's By The Park. > > >In the beer-to-beer blind tasting, tasters were presented with unmarked glasses > >containing an American craft beer and its style equivalent in one of the great > >beers from around the world. Using rating forms and procedures approved by the > >Association of Homebrewers, the beers were scored according to appearance, > >aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel, and were then given an overall impression. The > >judges were a mixed lot of beer aficionados, neophytes and media > >representatives. > > I'd be really interested in seeing a breakdown on how each > of those groups rated the beers. > It does seem a bit rigged-- Sa Summer Ale versus Corona as > a stylistic match? How about claiming that Corona is "one of the great beers from around the world?" Great for what? Killing slugs? Kirk Nelson |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/7/00 12:00 AM |
Irish drinkers toast longer hours, price freeze DUBLIN, July 6 (Reuters) - Irish drinkers raised their glasses to the government on Thursday after ministers introduced longer pub opening hours and froze drink prices.
In a bid to curb worrying inflation in the ``Celtic Tiger,'' Consumer Affairs Minister Tom Kitt slapped a six-month freeze on the prices of drinks including beer, wine and whiskey. In another move likely to boost the ailing coalition government's flagging popularity, pubs across the country will be able to sell alcohol until 12:30 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays -- 90 minutes later than under the old law. Patrons will be given another 30 minutes drinking-up time -- meaning everyone must be out by 1:00 a.m. Better still for drinkers, landlords will only be allowed to charge their thirsty clients the price in effect on May 15 under the terms of the anti-inflation price freeze. The government has doubled the number of consumer affairs inspectors to 24 to patrol pubs to enforce the freeze. The Irish capital Dublin, home to a large student population and increasingly a mecca for European weekend tourists, is expected to benefit in particular from the new hours. The city, which has styled itself one of the trendiest of Europe's capitals, has in recent years felt itself to be out of step with its more liberal continental neighbours. For the rest of the week, the Intoxicating Liquor Act extends opening hours by 30 minutes until 11:30 p.m., except Sundays which retain the 11.00 p.m. law. Controversially, the Act abolishes Irish pubs' long-enshrined tradition of not serving drinks between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Sundays. That law, known as ``holy hour,'' was intended originally to drive menfolk home for the family lunch but now baffles foreign tourists used to more relaxed continental ways. Kitt, part of a government striving to liberalise Ireland's drinks trade, said competition was the most effective means of keeping prices down. ``However, as an interim measure and as part of the package approved by the government to counter inflation, I have now introduced a statutory control on the price of drink,'' Kitt said in a statement. The relaxation of opening hours has been accompanied by new measures aimed at curbing under-age drinking. The new rules mean premises can be shut down temporarily if they are found to have served minors. The law has been changed to put the onus on a publican to be satisfied as to the age of a drinker before selling alcohol. Quilmes Industrial -Quinsa- S.A. Announces Extensions of the Tender Offer for Class B Shares and ADSs of BAESA LUXEMBOURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2000--Quilmes Industrial (Quinsa) S.A. (NYSE:LQU) ("Quinsa" or the "Company") today announced that Cerveceria y Malteria Quilmes S.A.I.C.A. y G. ("Quilmes") announced the extension of its public tender offer for all of the outstanding class B shares and ADSs of Buenos Aires Embotelladora S.A. ("BAESA"). The U.S. offer to purchase and the Argentine offer to purchase will now expire at 4:00 p.m., New York time (5:00 p.m., Buenos Aires time), on Friday, July 7, 2000, unless further extended. The offers were launched on May 31, 2000 and initially were scheduled to expire today at 4:00 p.m., New York time (5:00 p.m., Buenos Aires time). ABOUT QUINSA Quinsa is a Luxembourg-based holding company, which controls 85 percent of Quilmes International (Bermuda) Ltd., ("QIB"). The remaining 15 percent share is owned, since 1984, by Heineken International Beheer B.V. ("Heineken"). Heineken Technical Services B.V. renders technical assistance to the operating companies. Quinsa, through QIB, controls beverage and malting businesses in five Latin American countries. Its beer brands are market leaders in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and have a strong presence in Bolivia and Chile. In Paraguay, Quinsa's soft drink business is the market leader. Genesee Corporation Announces Fiscal Year End Results
ROCHESTER, N.Y., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesee Corporation (Nasdaq: GENBB) today announced results for its fiscal year ended April 29, 2000. Results for the Corporation's brewing business are reported as discontinued operations. A special committee of the Corporation's Board of Directors has been formed to continue to explore strategic alternatives for Genesee Brewing Company, including a proposal for a management-led buyout, following the decision to terminate the agreement to sell the business to the owners of City Brewing Company. Results for the Corporation's real estate investment and equipment leasingbusinesses are also reported as discontinued operations. The Corporation has previously announced that it was not actively seekin additional real estate investments and that Cheyenne Leasing Company would not fund any new leases after December 31, 1999 and would wind down its equipment leasing business as the portfolio of existing leases matures. Cheyenne Leasing Company has now entered into an agreement in principle to sell a significant portion of its lease portfolio. As a result of these developments, the Corporation's real estate investments and equipment leasing business are required to be reported as discontinued operations. Results for the Corporation's continuing operations reflect only its Foods Division and corporate segment. The prior year results from continuing operations have been reclassified to reflect required changes in the reporting of freight costs associated with the Foods Division and to separately report results for the brewing, real estate investment and equipment leasing businesses as discontinued operations. Consolidated gross revenues from continuing operations for fiscal 2000 were $48,548,000, compared to reclassified gross revenues from continuing operations of $47,682,000 for fiscal 1999. The Corporation recorded a net loss from continuing operations of $1,141,000, or $.70 basic and diluted net loss per share in fiscal 2000, compared to restated net earnings from continuing operations of $920,000, or $.57 basic and diluted net earnings per share, in fiscal 1999. Gross revenues in fiscal 2000 from discontinued operations were $123,520,000 compared to $138,590,000 in the same period last year. Discontinued operations generated a net loss of $2,259,000, or $1.40 basic and diluted net loss per share, in fiscal 2000, compared to a net earnings of $1,543,000, or $.95 basic and diluted net earnings per share, in fiscal 1999. Combining revenues from continuing and discontinued operations, the Corporation recorded gross revenues of $172,068,000 and a net loss of $3,400,000, or $2.10 basic and diluted net loss per share, in fiscal 2000,compared to gross revenues of $186,272,000 and net earnings of $2,463,000, or $1.52 basic and diluted net earnings per share, in fiscal 1999. Results in fiscal 2000 were adversely affected by a $3.1 million loss from the planned sale of the equipment lease portfolio, $2.1 million of transition costs incurred in relocating Foods Division operations, a $1.8 million charge in connection with workforce reductions at Genesee Brewing Company, a $1.2 million charge for retirement benefits paid to the Corporation's former Chief Executive Officer, and a $1 million reserve to cover the expected write-off of an investment by Genesee Ventures. The decrease in earnings in fiscal 2000 compared to the prior year also reflects the fact that fiscal 1999 results included a $3.4 million pre-tax gain from the sale of Genesee Ventures' interest in Lloyd's Food Products, whereas only a $600,000 gain from the Lloyd's sale was recorded in fiscal 2000. Net sales for the Corporation's Foods Division were $45.5 million in fiscal 2000, compared to $44.9 million in fiscal 1999. Sales of artificial sweeteners and bouillon products increased in fiscal 2000 compared to the prior year. These gains were partially offset by a decrease in contract packaging revenues and a decline in sales of iced tea mix. Operating income for the Foods Division decreased to $189,000 in fiscal 2000, compared to $1,554,000 in fiscal 1999, due in large part to the costs incurred in fiscal 2000 to relocate operations to the Medina, New York facility that was acquired in October 1998. The relocation project was completed in January 2000. Genesee Brewing Company's net sales in fiscal 2000 were $93.4 million, a decrease of $9.9 million from the prior year period. Barrel volume declined by 6% in fiscal 2000 due to a 9% decline in Genesee core brand volume and a 22% decline in HighFalls brand volume, which were partially offset by a 34% increase in contract brewing volume for Boston Beer Company. Genesee Brewing Company recorded an operating loss in fiscal 2000 of $2.7 million. When the $1.8 million restructuring charge from workforce reductions is netted out, this reflects a $3.3 million improvement in operating results over the prior year. "We did a re-assessment of all areas of our business to identify ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies," said Tom Hubbard, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Many of these initiatives were not implemented until the second half of fiscal 2000. Although we have not yet seen the annualized impact of these initiatives, we did see improvement in sales trends for our core brands and operating performance in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000," said Mr. Hubbard. The Corporation's equipment leasing and real estate investment businesses recorded operating income of $2,682,000 in fiscal 2000, compared to $3,801,000 in fiscal 1999. The decrease is the result of the plan announced in September 1999 to wind down Cheyenne Leasing Company's business. Cheyenne Leasing Company recently entered into an agreement in principle to sell a significant portion of its lease portfolio. The sale is subject to a number of conditions customary to such transactions, including satisfactory due diligence and negotiation of a definitive sale agreement between Cheyenne Leasing Company and the buyer. It is currently estimated that the Corporation would receive approximately $13 million as its portion of the sale proceeds. Because the sale would generate a book loss, generally accepted accounting principles require that the Corporation record the estimated loss now, even though the sale has not been completed. Accordingly, fiscal 2000 results include a $1.9 million loss, net of a tax benefit of $1.2 million, from the sale of the lease portfolio. The Corporation established a $1,000,000 reserve in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000 to cover the expected loss from Genesee Ventures' investment in Stiffel Company. The investment in Stiffel (an Illinois-based manufacturer of premium lamps and lighting fixtures) was the first of three minority investments made by Genesee Ventures totaling $2.9 million. The Stiffel Company was recently forced into liquidation by a senior lender after failing to satisfy certain loan covenants, resulting in a total loss for all of the equity investors, including Genesee Ventures. Genesee Ventures' investment in Lloyd's Food Products generated pre-tax gains in fiscal 1999 and 2000 totaling $4 million. Genesee Ventures continues to hold the third investment, a minority interest in a remarketer of durable supplies for food service and industrial users. GENESEE CORPORATION Comparative Statement of (Loss)/Earnings FISCAL YEAR FISCAL YEAR
ENDED ENDED APRIL 29, 2000 MAY 1, 1999 As Restated Net Revenues $45,548,000 $44,893,000
Samuel Adams Sponsors Monday Night Comedy Showcase for Amateur Comedians at the Comedy Connection July 10, 17, Showcase Winners Earn Stand Up Opportunity At Samuel Adams Grill & Groove 2000 Radio Event BOSTON, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Samuel Adams is in search of Boston's best amateur comedian and will host three Samuel Adams Monday Night Showcases at the Comedy Connection on Monday July 10, 17, and 24. The winners of each showcase will earn the standup chance of a lifetime to appear at the Samuel Adams Grill & Groove 2000 radio event on Thursday, July 27 at the Samuel Adams Brewery in Boston. The Grill & Groove 2000 features 53 radio stations from across the US, Canada and Australia on July 27 & 28 broadcasting live over 36 hours at the Samuel Adams Brewery. The three lucky amateur comedians will do a five-minute standup routine and compete against four up-and-coming professional comedians for the right to be named Boston's Best Comedian. The winner will receive $500 in cold hard cash. The finalists will receive a $10 shopping spree in the Samuel Adams Brewery Shop. The Samuel Adams Monday Night Comedy Showcases will be hosted by veteran Boston comedian Kevin Knox and will run from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. each Monday. The Comedy Connection located in the heart of historic Faneuil Hall features top name talent such as Jon Stewart, Anthony Clark, Chris Rock and Rosie O'Donnell. The Comedy Connection presents local and national stand-up seven nights a week. BEVision Features Exclusive Story On Consorzio Cal-Italia
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 2000--During the month of July, BEVision, a new and innovative in-store television network for U.S. beer, wine and spirits retail stores that is wholly owned and operated by RMS Networks, will be airing a two-minute segment featuring Consorzio Cal-Italia, a group of 60 California vintners dedicated to growing, vinifying and popularizing Italian varieties to the United States. "Gen Xers are looking for a wine-style of their own, and we offer that alternative," said Bob Cappuccino, founder of Consorzio Cal-Italia. "BEVision is an excellent medium to communicate attributes and benefits of Cal-Italian wines to consumers and retailers. We hope to encourage retailers to devote more space to these wines so that consumers have the opportunity to experience their delicious flavors and versatility with food." BEVision programming content is produced using original content, as well as content obtained from various programming suppliers, including CNN, E! Entertainment, Fox, Time Warner and Ziff Davis. Segments entertain customers while they shop and feature a variety of topics, from wine pairing and mixed drink recipes to bar stocking tips for home parties and industry trends. Before and after store operation hours, BEVision will air programming with the purpose of educating and informing store employees about responsible vending, selling techniques and state and federal alcohol beverage law updates. About RMS Networks RMS Networks is a premier provider of targeted advertising and information distributed by broadband satellite networks. Through relationships with retailers nationwide, RMS transmits digital broadcast-quality, full motion video programming to retail stores, and thereby provides advertisers with a platform to target consumers at the point of purchase. Additionally, RMS' networks can be utilized to deliver training, product information and company-wide communications to in-store employees. RMS networks are located at more than 2,560 sites in 49 states as of May 31, 2000, including 1,590 Advance Auto Parts stores, 830 independent pharmacies, 77 beer, wine and spirits stores, 59 Planet Hollywood restaurants and 6 Sports Authority locations, and reach in excess of approximately 790,000 consumers each day. In conjunction with certain networks, RMS also develops tailored Internet strategies for retailers and their consumers by designing, providing content for and maintaining websites that largely parallel and complement the programming of the in-store video networks. RMS Networks is also capable of supporting two-way broadband communications and future commercial data transmission services, including the transmission of retail inventory and credit card data. Additional Company information can be accessed by visiting www.rmsnetworks.com. Sweating hordes to converge on Berlin Love Parade By Daniel Simpson BERLIN, July 6 (Reuters) - Where will over a million people gather in Europe on Saturday? And why? It's not politics, holy fever nor even the secular religion of soccer -- but the unlikely mix of sweaty exhibitionism and booming techno music that is Berlin's annual Love Parade. What began in 1989 as 150 people dancing up West Berlin's main shopping street behind a solitary float has swelled into the world's biggest dance music rave party and Saturday's 12th parade is expected to match last year's record numbers. But while a global surge in the popularity of music like techno can in part be put down to the camaraderie fostered by a cocktail of primal tunes and mind-expanding drugs, the Love Parade's mix of sun, sex and subversion is even more potent. Last year it brought 1.5 million to the streets of the German capital -- close to half its population. Although its growth has mirrored Berlin's transformation over the past decade from divided Cold War battlefield to a ``cool'' concoction of culture and consumer capitalism, it has retained an edge for many of Europe's hardcore techno fans. About 250 disc jockeys, including some of the continent's best-known names, will serve up a wide spectrum of modern dance music from 50 floats cruising down a wide boulevard bisecting Berlin's Tiergarten park en route to the iconic Brandenburg Gate. And the outrageous attire of many ravers -- or lack of it -- not to mention the porn films shot in the park amid copulating couples seeking refuge in the trees, preserves some of Berlin's famously decadent hedonism and quasi-anarchy, and is an echo of Rio de Janeiro's carnival fever. ``The Love Parade is the Berlin carnival,'' saidErnst Haeberle, the general secretary of the European Federation of Sexology. ``It's just a bundle of sheer enjoyment of life.'' ``BETTER THAN HITLER'S STORM TROOPERS'' Although Saturday's crowds are unlikely to enjoy a similar sun-baked spectacle to last year, police are still prepared for hot weather -- many of the 3,000 officers patrolling the route have been issued with water pistols to cool overheated dancers. About 250 temporary toilets will be erected around the Victory Column in the middle of the Tiergarten to try and cope with the beer-weakened bladders of a million-plus crowd. While the parade is free, the descent of so many young people bent on having a good time means large amounts of cash will be spent in the city -- which somewhat reluctantly foots the clean-up bill since the event is classed as a demonstration. But its exponential growth, which has spawned sister events in Austria and Britain this year, has alienated some, who say its branded floats show it has sold out to commercial interests. A rival parade, which started life as the Hate Parade in 1997, aims to restore a counter-cultural edge by offering the most hardcore strains of dance music on an alternate route through the central Mitte district of East Berlin, itself rapidly gentrifying. And the nightclubs which have won the city a reputation as one of Europe's top party capitals in the decade since the Berlin Wall fell will host a string of events over the weekend, making the main parade just one dimension of the experience. Although many party-goers will be high on little more than the thrill of exhibitionism, pulsating music and alcohol, large numbers will add an extra dimension to their weekend by taking ecstasy, amphetamines, cocaine or hallucinogenic drugs. Berlin drug workers will lay on water and ``chill out'' areas to try and minimise immediate risks from taking drugs. But altered state or not, sexologist Haeberle believes the music is the key to the mass gathering in Berlin. ``It's a necessary outlet, this techno music. This is an elemental human need,'' he said. ``Nazi storm troopers once marched down that street, now there's the Love Parade. Which would you prefer?'' |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/7/00 12:00 AM |
Interbrew May Delay Share Sale Until Next Year, Reuters Reports Leuven, Belgium, July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Interbrew NV, the second-biggest brewer, may wait until next year to start its initial public offering, Reuters said in a report carried in the online edition of the Globe and Mail, citing Interbrew Executive Vice-President Patrice Thys. ``I don't know if it could be this year or if it could be next,'' Thys said. Interbrew Chief Executive Hugo Powell said in April he planned to take the Belgian company public by the end of this year, Reuters said. Interbrew, the maker of Stella Artois beer, has hired Merrill Lynch & Co. and Fortis to coordinate its IPO after 634 years as a private company. (Globe and Mail, 7/6) INTERVIEW - Brazil's AmBev eyes Latam beverage deals
By Adriane Castilho SAO PAULO, July 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's largest beverage maker Companhia de Bebidas das Americas (AmBev)<AMBV4.SA> looks at foreign acquisitions, like Uruguayan brewer Salus, as a way to guarantee faster growth than it can achieve just on the local market. "We will see if there is a deal every six months," director of AmBev Magim Rodriguez told Reuters on Tuesday. Rodriguez is responsible for international strategy for the company. Earlier today AmBev said its affiliate beer maker Brahma <BRHA4.SA> and French food group Danone <DANO.PA> signed an agreement to negotiate the purchase of a controlling stake in a Uruguayan beer and mineral water company Compania Salus, Rodriguez said. Salus is the second largest beer maker in Uruguay and a leader in its local mineral water market. AmBev, however, produces over three hundred times the amount of beverages per year in Brazil. "For AmBev it is a little thing, but for Uruguay it's huge. It is a question of strategy," Rodriguez said. The director said that, since the expansion of AmBev on the Brazilian beer market is limited by Brazil's antitrust council (Cade), the company only has two means to grow: either buy foreign beer companies or enter other beverage markets in Brazil. "It is obvious we are out to buy. So we merged," he said referring to the mega-merger between Brahma and Antarctica, the two companies that joined to form AmBev. "Already we have met with everybody in Latin America. I want to believe that in six months we will have made another deal," he said without giving further details. Rodriguez did not discard the possibility of acquiring more formidable competitors such as the Argentine Quilmes Industrial. "I would love to jump out in front with Quilmes. If they want to sell, we are clearly interested, depending on the price," Rodriguez said. The purchase of Salus should be formalized in 60 days, after AmBev and Danone iron out the details. "We will make the deal in cash for a yet undefined amount of 50-150 million reais," said Rodriguez. "We will take a closer look at the company and set a price." The distribution of the businesses of Salus between Danone and AmBev has not yet been divvied up, but Rodriguez said his company was not just interested in beer. "Danone has a lot of expertise in water and we are looking at this market in Brazil," he said. "We already have a brand name, Fratelli Vita, two wells in the state of Bahia and Parana and another in Sao Paulo state. Our businesses are small in this area but the market has great potential and we are studying it," he said. "Today we represent 25 percent of the beer market, but I believe that will double in five years," Rodriguez added. Schoerghuber's BrauHolding, Brau und Brunnen Seek Cost Cuts Munich, July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Schoerghuber Group, the owner of Bayerische BrauHolding AG, and HypoVereinsbank AG, the majority owner of Brau und Brunnen AG, agreed to combine their drinks units in a bid to cut costs and boost market share. Terms of the transaction have yet to be agreed. Brau und Brunnen, in which HypoVereinsbank owns 55 percent, has a market value of 197.5 million euros ($188 million). BrauHolding, which has less sales but is profitable, is worth 589 million euros. The combination will create a beer and soft-drink company with annual sales of about 2.43 billion deutsche marks ($1.2 billion) and brands such as Paulaner and Jerver. The new company will leapfrog Holsten Brauerei as Germany's biggest brewer. ``We expect increased earnings thanks to cost cuts in particular in the areas of logistics, distribution, purchasing and information technology,'' the companies said at a press briefing, adding that the market environment is ``difficult.'' Germany's more than 1,2000 brewers are combining as sales in the country's $8.8 billion industry haven't budged in years as consumers opt for international brews or for soft drinks. Brau und Brunnen, which lost 86.8 million marks in 1999, has been in the red in four of the past five years. BrauHolding, while profitable, barely makes money in its main beer business. HypoVereinsbank and the Schoerghuber Group will be the main shareholders in the combined entity, the companies said, without giving details. HypoVereins, Germany's No. 2 bank, is expected to sell the beer stake down the line, analysts have said. The companies will give details on the combination over the next few months, BrauHolding and Brau und Brunnen said. The merger valuation is being assessed by the companies' managements and their auditors. Boston Consulting Group also advises. Baltic Beverages Holdings to Invest Further in Siberian Brewery
St. Petersburg, Russia, July 4 (Bloomberg)-- Baltic Beverages Holdings, a 50-50 joint venture between Scandinavian brewers Pripps Ringnes AB and Hartwall Oyj, will invest $34 million in AO Pikra, a Siberian brewery. Baltic Beverages, which bought 50 percent of Pikra in December and owns 70 percent of AO Baltica Brewery, Russia's No. 2 brewery by sales, said demand in the region is outstripping production. ``The market in Siberia is growing at a rate of about 30 percent a year,'' said Svetlana Yurchenko, Pikra's marketing director. ``We cannot keep up with demand and plan to expand production with the . . . investment.'' Baltic Beverages hopes to benefit from soaring demand for Russian beer, which has grown after the collapse of the ruble in August 1998 made imported brands more expensive. The Scandinavian company, which increased its Russian market share from 20 percent in 1999 to 26 percent this year, owns 12 breweries in Russia and the Ukraine. Since 1995, per-capita beer consumption increased from 18.9 liters to 25 liters, according to Business Analytica, a Russian market research company. The company said it plans to invest about $100 million each year, over the several years. ``We have a long-term commitment to the Russian market, where beer consumption is growing rapidly,'' said Baltic Beverages President Christian Ramm Schmidt. The company ``will continue to expand in Russia.'' 'Third Way' guru says Britain must end inequality
By Elisabeth Eaves LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - The man who came up with the idea of a political ``Third Way'' says Britain under Prime Minister Tony Blair, long a champion of the concept, has a long way to go to achieve its aim of greater equality. Governments around the world have laid claim to the Third Way, saying they are balancing the forces of capitalism with social justice to achieve rich-yet-egalitarian societies. But in his new book ``The Third Way to a Good Society,'' to be released on Thursday, sociologist Amitai Etzioni says economic inequality is in danger of destroying the achievements of Blair's Labour Party, which swept to power in 1997 on a platform that included narrowing the income gap. ``If you have an elite of people who live in fancy apartments behind locked doors, as you do in Britain, they get completely disconnected from the rest of the community,'' Etzioni told Reuters by telephone. The George Washington University professor first coined the term ``Third Way'' in his 1994 book ``The Spirit of Community.'' In his new book he calls for Britain to impose more taxes on investment income, cooperate with other countries to eliminate tax havens, and to cut off government support for universities he deems elitist, like Oxford. He also writes that leaders should drink beer and sandwiches with working-class people ``rather than limiting their outings to posh yuppie restaurants,'' and that they should pay more visits to roadside fast food restaurants and pubs rather than the Royal Opera House. WHAT IS IT? Though a ``third way'' in politics has been promoted by leaders ranging from U.S. President Bill Clinton to new Mongolian Prime Minister Nambariin Enkhbayar, no one has a precise definition. A meeting of Blair, Clinton, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French and Italian leaders last year was tagged the ``Third Way summit'' by the media. But German officials backed away from using the term to describe a similar meeting of 14 centre-left leaders in Berlin last month. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin of France has said his country is saying ``yes'' to a market economy while saying ``no'' to a market society. But he has voiced suspicion about the ``Third Way'' of Blair and Schroeder, who last year issued a joint manifesto expounding the concept. Some argue that the term is window dressing for old-fashioned free-marketeering. Masen Pirie, president of free market think tank the Adam Smith Institute, calls it ``Thatcherism in softer tones.'' ``It represents a difference in style rather than substance,'' Pirie said. ``We are talking about market policies, but a pattern of speech which is more inclusive, more conciliatory and more compassionate.'' Even Etzioni concedes it can come across as unclear. In his new book he quotes a Third Way description from the Economist magazine: ``Trying to pin down an exact meaning is like wrestling an inflatable man. If you get a grip on one limb, all the hot air rushes to another.'' He writes that the Third Way is an ethical position that treats people as ends in themselves, with influences including the Bible and ancient Greek teachings. ``It's fuzzy around the edges, but all political ideas are fuzzy,'' Etzioni said. http://avlbeta.altavista.com/tech/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1949209&ern=y
How To Cook Bratwurst In Your Car Eric Gutoski Things needed: - A six pack of really cheap beer - Tin foil - Bratwurst - 1 Onion (sliced) - Duct Tape - Propensity to eat almost anything The hearty denizens of the Upper Midwest are famous for their stoic demeanor, Lutheran work ethic and gigantism (probably brought on by years of consuming bovine growth hormone fortified dairy products). In the land of sky blue waters and endless winters, the pleasures of the menfolk are simple, as they know two things: 1) There is nothing more natural for a man than to drive with a cold brew between his legs, and 2) nothing beats the artery-clogging taste of a juicy beer-boiled brat. This easy-to-make recipe combines both of these pleasures, and makes for a great first date. STEP ONE: Slice an onion. STEP TWO: Crack your first "coldie," pouring half of it down your throat and reserving the other half of the liquid for step three. This is called "getting primed." STEP THREE: Making a crude bowl of the tin foil, add the bratwurst, onions and the remainder of the first beer. Use a separate sheet of foil to tightly wrap the bowl into a bundle, being careful to not let any of the beer leak out. STEP FOUR: Duct-tape the bundle to your manifold. If you don't know what a manifold looks like, go back to cooking in your EZ Bake oven. STEP FIVE: Start cooking. By cooking, we mean have your date drive you around the highways and byways of this great nation as you polish off the rest of the six pack. You can use this time to listen to some Bob Seger and brag about your glory days on the high school football team and the unfulfilled promise that was your youth. STEP SIX: Using your bare hands, remove the bundle from the manifold. Hot, isn't it? Maybe next time you'll use heavy-duty work gloves or your softball mitt. STEP SEVEN: Enjoy the subtle delicacy you have just prepared. Note the way the beer has infused with the piping hot pork grease that sears your tongue. Savor the subtle melange of caramelized onion and exhaust fumes. (Pre-catalytic converter engines will produce slightly different results) STEP EIGHT: If you're still hungry, repeat steps 1-7 until arrested.
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beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/7/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.beer.com/news/bee/bee/2000/06/12/960841130021.htmlNice piece entitled, "Specialty beer importers: good life, hard work " by JIM DORSCH http://www.usahops.org/board/board.cgi?message=41&topic=4
Swiss Business Briefs:Assoc Against Feldschloesschen Sale Dow Jones Newswires ST. GALLEN, Switzerland -- The Association of independent Swiss Microbreweries has asked the government to block the sale of Feldschloesschen brewery on the grounds it would stifle competition and prevent the liberalization of the Swiss beer market. http://www.toledoblade.com:80/editorial/biz/0g06buck.htm
Venerable name in beer returns to its hometown Mike Berry, owner of Glass City Brew on Premises, in Perrysburg, tends to a batch of Buckeye Beer. (Toledo Blade photo)After a 28-year absence, Toledo's Buckeye Beer is back in town. "We think we're pretty close to the original,'' said Toledoan Dave Kulish, president of Buckeye Beer, Ltd. "We had one gentleman who tried it and he said, 'All I ever drank was Buckeye.' He said it was about 95 per cent close. I don't think we're going to get better than that.'' Mr. Kulish, 38, and his business partners, John Spieker III, 42, of Canton, Mich., and Jay Tillman, 40, of Saginaw, Mich., have spent the last five years trying to reproduce Buckeye - the first beer the three brothers-in-law tried in their youth and the beer their parents preferred. The fledgling enterprise is making about 200 cases a week of bottled Buckeye at Glass City Brew on Premises Co. in Perrysburg. The brand made its return last week and is being sold at 41 area bars, restaurants, and retail outlets, including The Andersons and Tony Packo's. A six-pack costs $5.99, and is competing against a myriad of fancy beers and ales. Jim Heltebrake, wine shop manager at The Andersons on Talmadge Road, said that of the 30 cases of Buckeye the store received this week just three were left yesterday. "We've been playing off the nostalgia. We've been having periodic announcements about it and asking people to relate their Buckeye beer stories to us. Most kind of scratch their head and say, 'Boy I haven't seen that in 25 years or so,' " said Mr. Heltebrake, who himself is too young to have tasted Buckeye. The Buckeye Brewing Co. began making Buckeye at Bush and Champlain streets in Toledo in 1838. Chicago-based Meister Brau, Inc., bought Buckeye in 1966 and brewed the first Meister Brau Lite beer in Toledo. In 1972 Miller Brewing Co., of Milwaukee - realizing that the future would include light beers - bought the Buckeye and Meister Brau Lite labels. The new owner changed Meister Brau Lite to Miller Lite, moved Buckeye beer production to Milwaukee, then stopped making the beer in late 1972. Miller's nonuse of the Buckeye name allowed the local group to grab the trademark for use in Ohio. The group does not yet hold a federal trademark, a status that would permit sales of Buckeye across state lines, but they are confident they will win it. Under federal trademark rules, nonuse of a trademarked name for at least three consecutive years can constitute abandonment of the name. The former Buckeye label could not be used on the new beer because it remains under copyright protection. Mr. Kulish said that in reviving Buckeye, the group knew it would have tough standards to meet. So they researched how the beer might have been made, given what was available; tried to match ingredients; talked to former brewery workers; asked fans of Buckeye beer to be taste testers, and revised their formula seven times. They couldn't be sure of the aging time used for Buckeye. So Mr. Kulish visited the former distribution warehouse at Bush and Champlain, and, while poking around in the basement, he found - still written in chalk on a blackboard - a timetable for brewing, aging, and delivery. "It was all still down there from the day the brewery closed,'' he said. http://news.excite.com/news/pr/000704/ny-ambev-stock-option
AmBev and Groupe Danone Sign a Stock Option Purchase Agreement Of an
Uruguayan CompanySalus is the Uruguayan Water Market Leader and the Second Brewery in the July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- AmBev -- American Beverage Company, through its the second largest share. The interest of both companies for Salus is
explained by the Patricia brand strong penetration and to the clear leadership in the local mineral water market. The Uruguayan beverage market sizes 5 million hectoliters, which represents a consumption rate of 146 liters/inhabitant/year. The consumption rate is 140 liters/inhabitant/year in Brazil. The largest markets by volume are the mineral water (31.4%) and the soft drinks (also 31.4%) ones. In the soft drinks segment Salus has products made of grapefruit and orange. Wine represents 21% of the consumption while beer represents 16.3%. The market shares by volume in Brazil are 54.2% for soft drinks, 39.4 for beer, 5.3 for water and 1% for wine. For additional information please contact AmBev Investor Relations: Milton Cabral Filho, (5511) 3741-7560, acmi...@ambev.com.br or Vanessa Barion, (5511) 3741-7553, acba...@ambev.com.br http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2000/0706/fin11.htm
A man of many and varied interests By John McManus Membership of the Beer Institute is an unusual qualification for a would-be airline chief executive but necessary if you are the head of Heineken's operations in North America. But it is the least significant of Mr Michael Foley's extra mural activities which include being a director of the American Ireland Fund and the Ireland-US Council for Commerce. Mr Foley has been president and chief executive officer of Heineken USA since 1994 and during that period has helped the Dutch brewing group establish itself as a leading player in the ultra-competitive US beer market. Heineken USA has revenues of $650 million (euro68 million) and more than 250 employees. Aer Lingus has not reported any results since 1998 when it made a profit of £52.4 million on a turnover of £901 million. The airline employs more than8,300 people. A chartered accountant by training, Mr Foley joined Murphy Brewery Ireland - a subsidiary of Heineken - in 1983 as financial controller. Previously he had worked as an accountant with the Irish subsidiaries of Japanese and US multinationals. He then became sales and marketing director and in 1989 was appointed managing director of Murphy Brewery Ireland. He is from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, and lives with his wife Nóirín and their three children in Rye, New York. He graduated from University College, Dublin, in 1972 with a degree in commerce. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=297269& in_review_text_id=241621
Big night out ends in shame by Valentine Low Euan Blair's big night out started out as a celebration with friends to mark the end of his GCSE exams. It ended with him cooling his heels in the cells at Charing Cross police station after being arrested for being drunk and incapable. What occurred in between - how a 16-year-old boy got quite so drunk, what happened to his friends - will, for the moment, have to remain a mystery. The result, however, has now been well established: by around 10.50 last night, when Leicester Square was full of people leaving bars, restaurants and cinemas to go home, Euan Blair was very drunk and very ill, lying on the ground by railings opposite the Odeon Leicester Square. It was the police who spotted him first. "He was clearly ill and had been vomiting," Downing Street said in a statement. It was hardly an unusual sight for Leicester Square - thousands of young people pass through every night, many of them on the way to getting paralytically drunk. Every night police arrest an average of 70 people in the area for everything from assault and criminal damage to drunken behaviour and possession of cannabis. However Euan was clearly in sufficiently bad a state to give the officers concern. "An ambulance was called but ambulance personnel decided he didn't need hospital treatment and he was then taken by the police to Charing Cross," said Downing Street. "He was, in the view of the police, drunk and incapable." Where he had been drinking is, for the moment, unclear - although no doubt it would be something that his parents would want to establish when they talked to him this morning. Staff at the bars neighbouring the Odeon cinema - the Moon on the Water, Radio Café and the nightclub Storm - insisted he had not been drinking in their premises. A spokesman for Radio Café said: "As far as we are concerned there were no youngsters here last night or anybody in an extremely drunk state." It is possible Euan and his friends tried to get served at the Firkin Brewery pub in Bear Street. Barman Chris, 25, said: "A tallish blond boy came in with some friends and asked to be served alcohol. "But because they looked under age we asked them for ID and when they didn't have any they were asked to leave." As Euan lay comatose there were plenty of witnesses who saw his plight, but all failed to realise that it was the Prime Minister's son. A security guard at the Odeon cinema said: "An ambulance did arrive last night and a young man was taken inside for a short while. I didn't recognise him." Eyewitness Julie Macdonald, a producer for LBC radio, also came across the scene in Leicester Square. She said: "I saw him lying absolutely motionless on the pavement. He had a couple of policemen standing over him. There were two ambulances and there seemed to be more police arriving. "There didn't seem to be anything else happening except a lot of people standing around and I thought to myself, if he's not hurt, why does he seem to be lying on the pavement. "I didn't see him staggering around, I just saw him lying absolutely motionless. There seemed to be a lot of discussion between the police and eventually I saw him being helped to his feet, and after that I left." Ironically, a crowd of journalists walked past his prostrate body and totally failed to realise that the news was happening under their own noses. "A big media audience had been to see the new Jim Carrey comedy," said freelance Bob Eborall. "We were walking past the Odeon Leicester Square and there was a young man lying on his side. A policeman was standing by him and there was an ambulance further back. You often see this sort of thing in Leicester Square - I don't think anybody took much notice. It is one of those ironies." His parents, meanwhile, were at home in Downing Street, and beginning to get worried. The Prime Minister, who was working on a speech he was due to give this afternoon to a religious group in Brighton, knew he had gone out but started to be concerned when he did not return home. At the police station Euan was questioned by officers, and decided to give the false name of Euan John, as well as an out-of-date address and a date of birth which would have made him 18. Police then searched him and discovered his true identity. They immediately called the Special Branch at Number 10 and officers from Downing Street went to the police station and confirmed his identity. It was only then that the Blairs were told what had happened to Euan. The police drove him home at 2am. Euan Blair did not go to school today. He will, at some point in the future, have to return to Charing Cross. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "The youth will return to Charing Cross police station at an appropriate time to be dealt with in line with Metropolitan youth justice procedures." http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/20000706beercup2.asp
Local brewers bring home medals from World Beer Cup - July 06, 2000, By Bob Batz Jr., Post-Gazette Staff Writer Pittsburgh no longer makes enough steel to proclaim itself to the world as the Steel City. How about, for this century, we dub it the Dark Beer City? Pittsburgh brewers won not one but two medals in the dark beer category at the prestigious 2000 World Beer Cup International Competition, which pitted them against 369 other brewers from 38 other countries. The biannual beer contest attracted 1,127 entries, which were judged in 64 different styles. In the European-Style Dark/Munch-ner Dunkel category, there were 19 entries and, appropriately, a German winner -- for the silver medal (Brauerei Aying, near Munich). But the gold medal -- for the "world-class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style" -- went to Penn Dark, made by the Pennsylvania Brewing Co. in Pittsburgh's once-Germanic neighborhood at the base of Troy Hill. The bronze medal went to the Pious Monk Dunkel, made by the Church Brew Works, the brewpub/restaurant in a former Irish Catholic church in Lawrenceville. Both brewers, and in fact both brews, have won other awards, including gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival. But in beer, as in soccer, the World Cup is the biggie -- the self-styled brewing Olympics. "We're just so flattered," says Penn Brewery owner Tom Pastorius, who is especially proud to have bested a respected German brewery at its own game. The Church's head brewer, Bryan Pearson, is just as pleased: "I don't mind at all being classed in the same group as the Ayinger brewery." Both brewers will do a little marketing bragging about their "world's best" beers. Meanwhile, as Pastorius put it, "We better get ready and make a lot more." The World Beer Cup is sponsored by the U.S.-based Association of Brewers, which held the first one in Vail, Colo., in 1996. This year's competition was judged in Milwaukee in April, and the results were announced in New York last month. Pennsylvania -- one of 30 states represented -- had a couple of other winners. Stoudt's Honey Double Mai Bock from Stoudt's Brewing Co. in Adamstown, Lancaster County, won a gold for German-Style Helles Bock/Mailbock. Liebotschaner Cream Ale by the Lion Brewery Inc. in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, won a bronze for American Lager/Ale or Cream Ale. http://www.breworld.com/NEWS/COMPANYNEWS/STORIES/12707.htm
Thomas Hardy's Ale Dead? JULY 5, 2000 - Thomas Hardy's Ale, one of the most sought after strong ales around, may be history. Phoenix Imports of Ellicott City, Md., which imports the beer, recently learned that the Thomas Hardy Brewery of Dorchester, England, ceased production of all Eldridge Pope brands. Pope began producing the beer in 1968, and it soon became a cult classic. It was first made at the request of the Thomas Hardy Society to mark the 40th anniversary of the author's death, and for years was the strongest regularly brewed beer in the world. Each vintage was blended from as many as six different brews and underwent three fermentations. In 1997, Eldridge Pope & Co. sold the Thomas Hardy Brewery to focus on its pubs and wine imports. In buying the brewery, former Courage Brewing production director Peter Ward said that his prime target was to "acquire business from national brewers looking for spare capacity to cope with peak demand and smaller run length brands..." Hardy's was one of the small run brands. When Phoenix placed its order for the 2000 vintage, company president George Saxon was told that "because of major changes which have taken place within the Eldridge Pope Management team, Thomas Hardy (Brewery) has ceased production of their major brands. Therefore, Hardy's Ale is no longer available." Phoenix has initiated talks with Eldridge Pope, which retains ownership of the brand, about finding another brewer to produce the beer. Pope has indicated interest but while talks continue it is obvious there will not be time to brew a 2000 vintage. "It's rather ironic that The Thomas Hardy Brewery will not longer produce Thomas Hardy's Ale," Saxon said, "but I can assure all Hardy's fans that we are making every effort to save this product from the dustbin of classic English beers." http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/jul00/econ-edit070100.asp
Will state once again lead? From the Journal Sentinel Wisconsin once played a key role in the nation's economy. At various times, the state was the center of the dairy and brewery industries. Milwaukee was the nation's tool shop and machine tool maker for the world. The latest submarines were made in Manitowoc. Parts of the first atomic bomb were made in West Allis. That was then; this is now. As a Journal Sentinel series (The New Economy) points out, Wisconsin has fallen behind in the scramble for treasures of the new economy, the high-tech businesses that are shaping much of the nation's prosperity. An economic summit called for this fall by University of Wisconsin System leaders is a good start. Allow us to make some suggestions on what summit members might consider: * A tax atmosphere more conducive to business start-ups; as part of that, state officials might want to stop talking about new sales taxes on e-commerce. * Local governments that encourage start-ups when they can and get out of the way at other times. In particular, Milwaukee and Madison need to think more in terms of cooperation, and everyone needs to look at the I-94 corridor linking the two as the ideal high-tech zone it could become. * Schools that provide the kind of education the new economy requires. There are other ideas, and there will be more detailed discussion of the above suggestions. What's important to note now is that the state is at a crossroads. While not taking the high-tech road won't leave us with empty towers in a desolate landscape, there will be consequences. The question people have to ask themselves is whether they want a state where their kids can choose between working at Wal-Mart and Noah's Ark, or a state where their kids can work at Wal-Mart, Noah's Ark or the latest hot dot-com. http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000704/01/farm-scene Ga Peanut Crop Smallest in 18 ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - Georgia farmers, hit by drought, cheap imports and low commodity prices, are looking to harvest their smallest peanut crop since 1982. "At planting time we just didn't have many opportunities," Don Koehler, executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission, said Monday. "They chose to do something different with their land resources." Growers planted 510,000 acres of peanuts, 36,000 fewer than last year and 30,000 fewer than in 1998, according to a survey by the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service. Georgia produces almost half the nation's domestic peanut supplies, much of it for peanut butter. Growers are expected to harvest from about 507,000 acres, but Koehler said that acreage could be less because of a third straight summer of drought. Prices on the world market, where U.S. peanuts have to compete with lower-priced peanuts from China and Argentina, have plunged in recent years. Domestically, 180,000 tons of U.S.-grown peanuts have been displaced by foreign peanuts after trade agreements opened previously closed American markets. Koehler said Georgia's 2000 peanut crop may be worth less than $400 million, a plunge that will have a major economic affect on 70 south Georgia counties where peanuts are grown. ---
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beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/8/00 12:00 AM |
I was shocked today to see a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, page 7 (July 7)…a flippin’ software/recruiting house use a fabricated brewery name as a ‘customer reference’, and there’s terrific graphics showing sales before their software was used, and after. It’s such a stinker of a fabrication, I’ll take time and transcribe it here…wish I could show everyone the wonderful graphics and the bottle of "Goldenbru", whose label says the following: "Goldenbru… Our Beer brewed in a brewery Special Lager Goldenbru One fine drinking lager, made with drinking in mind" Top of ad is a huge quote with a photo of the Brewmaster: "Nobody spends more time harvesting wheat, selecting hops and rolling in the dough." – Dan Hardie, 3rd Generation Brewmaster Copy: " I remember standing in the middle of my granddaddy’s wheat field when he taught me his rules for brewing the perfect beer. "One," he said, "never skimp on ingredients. And two," Big banner quote next: ------------------- In business since 1957. Filthy stinkin’ rich since 1998 ------------------- "…well, he never did get around to two before John Herman ran him down with that big Combine of his. In time, the people of Goldenbru learned to view the accident as a blessing in disguise. See, Grandaddy knew tons about brewing, but he knew diddly about things like outsourcing, e-commerce and workforce management. So when I inherited the company, I made sure to hire SPHERION. They’re not like those typical consultants….And every time we open a new brewery, SPHERION is there to bring in a fresh crop. Of people, that is. Upper management. Engineers. Legal, you name it. They even created software that does all our screening and recruiting on line. Thanks to SPHERION, I can spend more time doing what I love. Like studying the subtle differences in amber hues and hanging around with the boys around the conditioning tank listening to Dave the brew taster try and put a complete sentence together… Big banner quote next: ------------------- My grandaddy used to say, "A Goldenbru is only as good as the people behind it." He was right. Before SPHERION started doing our recruiting, you could barely drink the stuff. www.spherion.com http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-000987.html
Hops top-selling brewpub chain Brew Brothers in Nevada remains No. 1 producing brewpub JUNE 27, 2000 - The Hops, Bar & Brewery chain passed Rock Bottom Restaurants to become the largest-selling brewpub group in the United States, according to figures compiled by the Institute for Brewing Studies. Hops, which now operates more than 70 pubs, estimated selling 37,500 barrels of beer in 1999, compared to 33,500 by Rock Bottom. Brew Brothers in Reno, Nev., remained the highest-selling single-site brewpub in the U.S. with sales of 5,240 barrels. According to IBS figures, as of June 12, the total number of brewpubs operating in the U.S. reached 1,021. The brewpub industry reached this mark despite a decrease in the number of new openings, from 149 in 1998 to 122 in 1999. The number of closings decreased as well, from 79 in 1998 to 68 in 1999. "Basically, these slowed closing and opening rates indicate the stabilization of the market as more veterans remain in the industry, fewer unsuccessful participants are forced to drop out, and fewer newcomers attempt to enter the industry," said David Edgar, director of the Institute for Brewing Studies, "That notwithstanding, the strong growth opportunities in craft brewing are now clearly located in brewpubs." 1999 U.S. Top Ten Individual Brewpubs (Measured by total volume of beer sold.) Company 1999 Sales % change 1. Brew Brothers/Eldorado Hotel and Casino (NV) 5,240 -14 2. Wynkoop Brewing Co. (CO) 4,047 +2 3. Monte Carlo Pub and Brewery (NV) 3,500 +9 4. Big Buck Brewery, Auburn Hills (MI) 2,753 -16 5. Marin Brewing Co. (CA) 2,710 +9 6. Boston Beer Works (MA) 2,683 +2 7. Rock Bottom Brewery-Denver (CO) 2,644 -6 8. Bluegrass Brewing Co. (KY) 2,500 +6 9. Eel River Brewing Co. (CA) 2,500 N/A 10. Elysian Brewing Co. (WA) 2,350 +9 1999 U.S. Top 5 Brewpub Groups (Measured by total volume of beer sold; does not include production-only breweries.) Company Sales % change Stores Change 1. Hops Restaurant, Bar, Brewery 37,741 +33 64 +16 2. Rock Bottom Restaurants (a) 33,589 +13 26 +2 3. McMenamin's Breweries 20,808 -1 22 +2 4. RAM Int'l/Bighorn/Humperdinks (b) 13,840 +13 17 0 5. Gordon Biersch 13,572 +37 12 +2 * Excluding non-brewing restaurants (a) Including Walnut Brewery and 'Chop House and Brewery' (Cleveland, Denver and District) operations (b) Including C.B. & Potts/Bighorn Brewing Co., Humperdinks/Big Horn Brewing Co. and C.I. Shenanigans (c) Includes Rock Bottom Breweries of Charlotte and Atlanta, A1A Alehouse, Ragtime Tavern and Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery http://www.beer.com/news/bee/bee/2000/06/27/962133206950.html
Masato and the forest spirits... ALAN D. EAMES ,beer.com In the lost places of this ever shrinking world, the women follow their goddesses in the crafting of a rainbow of brews that inspire drinkers in a dizzy dance with the female spirits of creation. In some realms, however, there are no gods...no goddesses...only spirits and heroes. In the vast areas of Amazonia, the brewsters of scores of tribes have no notion of god - not even a female one. Rather, spirits are everywhere and all controlling of the affairs of mankind including the sacred, woman's task of beer-making. And in this rain forest of endless green with snaking, brown, muddy rivers, the beer of the Indian has always been masato - gift of female spirits to the living daughters of men. You see it first from the air. After an hour's bone-rattling journey in the bush plane, about the time your fear of death in a crash is replaced by the total discomfort of the cramped, fume-filled cabin, the pilot spears his finger downwards, jabbing towards a clearing in the endless green monotony below. I see a clearing not far from the tea-colored river that winds its way to the horizon. As we circle, tiny figures emerge from forest shadows looking skyward, the hands of these toy-like figures raised in salute, shading their eyes as we fly at them out of the sun's glare. Little figures scurry about below as we drop to tree-top level for another look at these Stone Age farmers. "Manioc fields," my pilot roars above the din of this horror of an airplane, where I sit Buddha-like, surrounded by blue exhaust that is quickly making me sick. Manioc, I think to myself. The stuff of beer. Perhaps the oldest of all beers as well as the source for most of the diet of those Indians down below. Days later, by boat and foot, we return to this village to offer gifts and to drink the Indian's ancient brew. The imagination of mankind needs more to dream about than a walk on the moon. Once, the jungles of South America and its hidden tribes and animals - legends of lost cities, head-shrinking hostiles and all the rest of the "Green Hell" imagery of storybooks - provided the locale careworn city dwellers mused about running away to. Sadly, all the customs and cultures of jungle beer-makers is going, going...nearly gone. In a few places, glimpses may yet be had of the old ways but as I was to sit with Indians drinking their wonderful, heady beers, I would inwardly cringe at the "Michael Jackson World Tour" T-shirt across the way. It seems not a single tribe has managed to escape the most vapid of our world's cultural trash. Along with chicha [corn beer], masato is the oldest style of brew known. Archaeologists have traced complex farming of fermentable grains and tubers dating back 10,000 years in the Amazon basin, placing Latin America neck and neck with Africa as the possible birthplace of beer. Manioc, that source of every kid's dessert nightmare - tapioca - is no stranger to the beers of the Western world. World War II grain shortages introduced manioc to a generation of English ale drinkers who, not knowing, never noticed this ancient brewing ingredient. Masato beer comes in a rainbow of colors: milky white, amber, brown, yellow and even bluish-white, depending on the techniques employed by individual brewsters. Usually of 2 to 5% alcohol by volume, some masato - buried under floors of long houses and left for years to fester - achieves a skull-popping 14% alcohol strength...the highest obtainable with ambient yeasts. The manioc plant [also called cassava or yucca] is the tuber Manihot Esculenta, a starchy root supporting a 10-foot high plant that comes in a sweet as well as bitter variety. Eaten like a potato, made into flour, or prepared in dozens of ways, the skin of the manioc tuber is very rich in prussic acid. One of creation's deadlier poisons, prussic acid must be removed from this plant native to South America. As bread or beer, the beginnings are the same. Clearing the rain forest is men's work. After that, women take over completely. Bent over in the sun, tribal women plant cuttings into holes made with pointed sticks. When planting is done, some groups place spirit stones along garden borders to protect the crop from everything from evil spirits to wild animals. During the eight-month growing season, the brewsters tend the garden, endlessly weeding the rows of plants. One group, the Barasana, blame the weeds on men. According to legend, women at the dawn of time told their husbands to keep the hell away from the manioc fields. Men, being men, had to peek to find out the secret of where beer came from. Their spying provoked the spirits to introduce weeds into the fields - and thus into the world at large. Through Indian eyes, a manioc field is a special, feminine place. A woman in the manioc field cannot be pursued there by men. Some brewsters choose to birth their babies there, as the manioc spirit is kindly. The women's fields are sacred enough to add spice to any sexual encounter - married or unmarried - such that manioc fields are a kind of "lovers' lane" of the jungle. Once harvested, the poison is removed from the peel either by soaking, peeling or scrubbing with a grater. Boiling removes the poison entirely. However, if the peel is soaked, the poison can be saved by mixing the liquid with chili peppers to make a kind of Tabasco sauce. It can then be used to kill fish or remove tics from dogs and people. In beer making, masticated [chewed] manioc is spit into a beer pot. The enzyme pytalin in human saliva converts starch into fermentable sugar. Another method calls for leaving damp tubers in a cool, shady place until covered with mold. Beer pots [depending on the tribe] range from the small [2-6 gallon] to 30 gallon size and larger. If even greater amounts of brew are contemplated, a canoe is scrubbed and used as a fermenting vessel. Ambient, airborne yeast infects the mash and fermentation begins. Some cultures won't allow a beer-making brewster to engage in sex during the brewing cycle. Masato beer is made to be drunk...all of it. For most "pristine' Indian groups, women make beer, serve beer, supervise the men, hide weapons, but seldom get drunk themselves. Social beer drinking is in every sense, a beer orgy. The men drink till every drop is gone. Bloated with brew, the men puke where they sit, making room for still more beer. Native narcotics are further employed - sometimes added to the beer or nibbled as an appetizer. Foggy headed drinkers clear their heads during beer-bashes by snorting pepper sauce up their noses while the vomit stick (spatula) empties the gut in preparation for further drinking. Tasting from the tart and sour to the faintly sweet with a hint of raisins in the aftertaste, masato's flavors are as varied as the numberless tribes that brew this most ancient of beers. It would be a great mistake to assume that primitive, prototypical beers must somehow taste awful. In spite of particulate matter floating about inside and the variability of taste and quality, the best masato beers rival and remind the western drinker of the beers of Belgium. It is only a matter of time before masato and the peoples who brew them have disappeared. Under pressure from our world, the old ways will soon survive only in the dusty pages of obscure anthropological journals, but, for a beer drinker, there is nothing to compare with the experience of sitting with forest people at twilight deep within the jungle canopy drinking ancient beer and listening - perhaps for the last time - to the tribal tales and stories. This, then, was how it all began. http://www.jsonline.com/enter/planit/jul00/beer07070600.asp
ON WISCONSIN : JS ONLINE : ENTERTAINMENT : DAILY PLAN IT : E-MAIL | PRINT THIS STORY Beer here! Things are really hoppin' at area's microbreweries and brew pubs By Kathy Flanigan of the Journal Sentinel staff, July 7, 2000 One brewery and two brew pubs are featured in the summertime Weekend Brewery Tour, a water-guided jaunt to beer places along the river. Transportation for the three-hour tour (just try saying that without humming a certain TV show theme song) is aboard a 44-passenger pontoon boat called "The Brew City Queen." Tours begin at 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Lakefront Brewery, 1872 N. Commerce St., then head down the Milwaukee River to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, 740 N. Plankinton Ave., and the Milwaukee Ale House, 233 N. Water St. Tour times are staggered, and patrons can determine at which establishment they wish to start. The cost is $12, plus $3 for the Lakefront Brewery bottomless glass tastings. Reservations are required; call (414) 283-9999. Thinking big? Try the Miller tour If you want to see how a big beer is brewed, it's Miller Time. The Miller Brewing Co. offers free guided indoor/outdoor walking tours that include a theater presentation, a visit to the packaging and shipping centers and a look at the brew house as well as the historic Caves museum. The Visitor Center & Gift Shop, 4251 W. State St., is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Tours are held between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and last about 90 minutes. Product samples, the important part, are served in the Bavarian-style Miller Inn or the seasonal outdoor beer garden. Visitors receive three samples of Miller beer. The tours cover four blocks both inside and outside, and visitors must be prepared to climb 30 stairs. Children are allowed on the tour with an adult. Strollers are not allowed. Reservations are required for groups of 15 or more but are not accepted on Saturdays. Call (414) 931-2337 or (800) 944-5483, or visit www.millerbrewing.com. It's summer. It's hot. And you're stopped on the street by some tourists in search of a brewery. This is Brew City, after all. You could aim them toward Miller Brewing Co., which hosts a fine but somewhat impersonal tour of the brewing process for its many adult beverages. Or you could speak like a micro-brew-loving native and give specific directions by land and by water to nearly a dozen small breweries and brew pubs that quench the thirst of the four-county area. Talking beer with people who really love it is fun. It's educational. And you get to meet actual brewmasters, the chefs who craft lagers and ales. The following is a list of brewery tours and brew pubs. So the next time some guy in black socks and Birkenstock sandals taps you on the shoulder looking for the brewery where Laverne and Shirley worked in some fictional TV series from the 1970s, you'll be able to set him straight and send him back home happy - all the while knowing you've done your best to be a Milwaukee ambassador of beer. Bottoms up. MICROBREWERIES VS. BREW PUBS. IT'S BEER. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? By common definition, a microbrewery produces up to 15,000 barrels of beer a year (a barrel is 31 gallons). A microbrewery will contain all the tools for crafting beer along with a bottling and distribution center as opposed to a brew pub, which makes beer in-house but, for the most part, sells it on the premises. They both serve beer. Typically, visitors pay a nominal fee to tour a microbrewery in return for tickets that promise free beer during or after the tour. At a brew pub, you can order a pint of your favorite or pay a set price for 4- or 5-ounce samples of several kinds of beer made at the pub. Food is almost always a feature of a brew pub. BREWERIES Sprecher Brewing, 701 W. Glendale Ave. (414) 964-2739 or www.sprecherbrewery.com Tours: 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays and 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Saturdays (summer hours). Admission is $2. Visitors get four tickets to taste beers. Reservations are required. Tours last about one hour. Started by former Pabst supervisor Randal Sprecher in 1985, this is the granddaddy of Milwaukee's microbreweries, producing 14,000 barrels of beer and 28,000 barrels of soda a year. Tours begin in the brew house under the direction of Michael Zirbel, who walks a tour group of about 40 people into a room overwhelmed by what look like giant silos. They are the vessels for the separate steps in brewing beer, from mashing the barley malt to fermentation. "Beer is a food product made by what is essentially a chef," says Zirbel as he passes around steins of malt barley and pelletized hops to smell. Among his points: Beer is basically malt barley, hops, yeast and water. Timing, blending and yeast makes each beer unique. For instance, Sprecher uses 15 different roasts of the barley malt, from light to dark, that give beer flavors from caramel to coffee. It takes 2,000 pounds of barley malt to make one 40-barrel batch of beer. The next stop is the cooler for the tanks fermenting beer. After that, it's the bottling line that sits just below a mural of Bavaria, which Sprecher says influenced his beer career. Zirbel uses this spot to explain sanitation, filtration and carbonation as necessary steps in brewing. He points to a corner where kegs are stacked. "We don't have a shiny, fancy keg-filling machine," Zirbel says. "We use a human." About 45 minutes after his talk begins, Zirbel guides everyone to the tasting room, a picnic area fashioned under an indoor beer tent. He recommends tasting the 7-ounce samples as they are listed on the chart near the bar. "The list is put in a drinking order from top to bottom to give an accurate flavor of each beer as you try them," he says. The brewery is working on adding a museum of beer artifacts to the tour. Sprecher makes five year-round beers; six seasonal beers; and six sodas. Lakefront Brewery, 1872 N. Commerce St., (414) 372-8800. www.lakefrontbrewery.com Tours: 3:30 p.m. Fridays; 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tours last about one hour. Admission is $5; $2 for non-drinkers who want to taste the brewery's sodas. Brothers Russ and Jim Klisch started the brewery in 1987 when they brewed 60 barrels of beer at their Riverwest location. In 1998, the siblings moved the brewery to Commerce Street near the remains of the famous Beer Line, the railroad that took raw materials to the Milwaukee brewing giants and beer out to a thirsty world. Today, they use trucks and produce more than 3,400 barrels a year. Visitors to Lakefront are greeted with a beer. "We're different in that we start people off at the tap," says Jim Klisch. "We all have gone on brewery tours. We know why they're here." Even better, says Russ: "We find that people's attention span is greatly increased when they have a beer in their hands." Getting a flavor of what's in store? The Klischs present a relaxed but thorough look at their brewing business, from the first-step mixing of barley malt and hot water to the fire-stoked brew house. "Our pyrotechnics," says Russ. Catering to a crowd that runs the gamut from home brewers to people who are just plain thirsty is a tough line to walk. "We try to inject sex into it, too," says Jim. "It comes in handy when you're talking about micro-organisms and single-cell reproduction." Yeast, he's talking about yeast. Tours are not typically held during brewing, production or bottling. Instead, visitors are allowed to walk through the process a beer recipe goes through. See if you can find the tribute to the Three Stooges within the brewery. Tours begin and end in the tasting room, where your $5 gets you a glass and tickets for free beer at several places that sell Lakefront beer. "It's a polite way of kicking people out of here," says Russ. You could taste a while. Lakefront makes 11 kinds of beer including a potent barley wine, and a maple root beer. The tasting room also is a place where visitors can pick up souvenirs - and perhaps even a life partner. Tim Stadler and pals Joel LaPlount and Shelly Stain were Lakefront tourists on a spring day in 1994. Sandy Strutt happened to be there, too, with another group. When the brewery ran out of its Door County cherry beer, strangers Stadler and Strutt elected to share a bottle. Not to be outdone, Tim's pals LaPlount and Stain found that as a couple they had more in common than their mutual friend and beer. The Stadlers wed in July 1996 and live in Kiel; the LaPlounts married three months later and live in Germantown. All four make Lakefront an annual spring pilgrimage. Harbor City Brewing Co., 535 W. Grand Ave., Port Washington, (262) 284-3118. Tours: noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment. Tours last about 30 minutes. They're free. Can a brewery be cute? Yes, it can. Harbor City took over a small ice cube/block plant in June 1996. Brewmaster Jim Schueller owns the brewery with his family. The equipment came from the New Belgium Brewing Co., in Fort Collins, Colo., the makers of Fat Tire Beer. The owners are Schueller cousins. It's where Schueller trained to be a brewmaster. It's also where the brewery gets its essential yeast. Although there isn't much different to look at - tanks for mixing, brewing, fermenting - it's obvious that the Schuellers and their only full-time, non-related employee, Matt Thompson, love the job. For instance, a visitor might see three generations of Schuellers - Jim's dad, Jim and a nephew - bottling any of the brewery's four beers.Four bottles at a time. Labels, designed by artist Bob Stewart, are even slower. They're placed on new bottles one at a time. Thompson or a member of the family shows visitors around, pointing out that even the spent grain doesn't go to waste. Spent grain is what is left after hot water is added and wort - the sweet liquid that becomes beer - is moved to the brew kettle. A local farmer picks up the oatmeal-like substance and feeds it to his livestock. Because the brewery is so small, visitors during raspberry season might get a glimpse of the brewmaster scooping 400 pounds of fresh berries into a giant tank of beer. You can also sample the Raspberry ale. Or you can wait until the end of the tour and sit in the brewery's outdoor patio to have the beverages - Mile Rock amber ale, Harvest Wheat, Raspberry brown ale or Main Street brown ale. Harbor City recently began selling its beers in southeastern Wisconsin. Their brew goal is 2,000 barrels. Watson Brewing Co., 223 Maple Ave., Waukesha, (262) 896-7766. Tours: Held one Saturday a month; call for an appointment. Admission is $3. Tours last about one hour. Dale Johnson calls himself a downsized executive. The former machinery broker and his girlfriend, Joan Bjork, own the relatively young brewery in the historic Fox Head Brewery building. The couple bought the business a little over a year ago, including the recipes of the previous owners, who opened the brewery in 1996 as RWS Brewing Co. "Anybody wants to see the brewery, I'm the first guy to talk to you," Johnson says. Indeed, his cluttered office is the first stop on the tour. After that, he takes visitors down a long hallway and into the basement of the brick building. There he points to a 1,000-foot tunnel that he says was built when Al Capone owned the building. It provided not only a means of escape for gangster Capone, he says, but also a sneaky method of distributing beer in Waukesha during Prohibition. Watson brews 40barrels of seven kinds of beer each month in three small rooms in the basement. He points out each piece of equipment; if you want, Johnson will pour you a cold one for your journey. The tasting room doubles as the bottling room; it's also where visitors can purchase souvenirs. The thing to know about Watson brews is that they are high-alcohol beers. Johnson's brewmaster, Andy Lodo, recently tweaked down the alcohol of Lake Country Gold to 4.5%. Others in their inventory run between 6% and 10%. BREW PUBS Water Street Brewery, 1101 N. Water St., (414) 272-1195 or ( www.waterstreetbrewery.com) Water Street Lake Country Brewery, 3191 Golf Road, Delafield, (262) 646-7878. There really are 100 bottles of beer on the wall. All full. And all collected from microbreweries across the country. It's part of the beer memorabilia at Water Street Brewery, which was, officially, the first contemporary brew pub in the city and probably one of the first 50 in the country, says owner R.C. Schmidt. That was 1987. In 2000, Water Street Brewery finds itself in the position of being the old guy on the block - and with this year's opening of the Lake Country restaurant in Delafield, it's also one of the new guys. There are no prearranged tour times at Water Street. If brewmaster George Bluvas III is around, he'll give a tour for one person or 50. Any chance to talk beer, Bluvas admits. Bluvas, for instance, doesn't care if you know the difference between an ale and a lager - an ale is hearty, fruitier and brewed at 65 degrees, while a lager is smooth and mellow and brewed at about 50 degrees - because he'll explain it all. Hefe Weiss is an ale made with wheat malt, and it's always on the menu of eight beers drawn because it fits with the German theme that is Milwaukee. There is a lot of history to breweries and brew pubs, and while many brewmasters tend to be engineers, they're also historians. Bluvas, who has degrees in fine arts and chemistry, explains that a growler, the big bottles with screw-on tops sold by brew pubs, are named for the buckets of beer once given to factory workers before their stomachs began to growl from hunger. A sampler plate of Water Street's sixbeers - lagers and ales - is $4.50 and comes in a wood paddle. That includes a sheet that explains the brewing process. There also are two seasonal choices available. If you don't drink beer, Water Street brews its own root beer. Milwaukee Ale House 233 N. Water St., (414) 226-2337. You couldn't make up the history behind the names of beer at the Milwaukee Ale House, say co-owners Mike Bieser and Jim McCabe. In 1886, Bieser's great-great Uncle Louie was cracked over the head with a beer glass and killed. His legacy is a rich and malty amber ale called Louie's Demise. Folklore and a picture-window view of the brewing equipment are two hallmarks of the Third Ward brew pub, now in its third year. Bieser and McCabe, onetime home brewers, leave the mixing to brewmaster Jim Olen and his assistant, Rob Morton, a Culinary Institute-trained chef. The tours, which they sometimes give, are "pretty casual." The Ale House is on the Brew City pontoon boat tour each weekend. Morton greets visitors at a dock outside the Ale House patio before bringing them inside and explaining the brewing process. Afterward, they're seated at a table in the front of the restaurant and Morton pours 5-ounce samples of the brew pub's standard flavors and seasonal offerings such as Hefe Weiss. The Ale House brewed 1,300 barrels last year. Bieser and McCabe expect that number to rise as they grow outside the brewery. Ten other bars, restaurants and one movie theater have Ale House beer on tap. Brewmaster Olen offers "Beer School," a craft-beer sampling session held at 6 p.m. the first Wednesday of every month. Delafield Brewhaus, 3832 Hillside Drive, Delafield, (262) 646-7821. ( www.delafield-brewhaus.com) There are no tours at this year-old brewhaus. What you see is what you drink. And you can see the brewery big as life when you walk in the door of the airy restaurant. That's exactly what brewmaster John Harrison envisioned. "I wanted the brewery very present," says Harrison. "I wanted the brewery in your face." There may not be tours, but the brewhaus doesn't leave anyone out in the unfiltered cold. The brewing process is explained in great detail on place mats. Numbers for each piece of equipment in the center of the room help walk patrons through the process. A second place mat, with coaster-sized spots for 4-ounce samplers, gives detail and description on each of the brewhaus' eight beers. There are more, usually nine or 10 on tap, depending on the season. There also is a selection of home-brewed sodas. Samples are $1 each. Port Washington Brewing Co., 100 W. Franklin Drive, Port Washington, (262) 377-2337. It's a one-man show at the brewery located inside the Smith Bros. Fish Restaurant. Jeff Kolar is the brewmaster at Port Washington, mixing up 600 barrels of brew in a year. Visitors can see gleaming 20-barrel fermenters in the front window of the restaurant. Kolar, like a lot of brewmasters, is a former engineer who thinks of brewing as a culinary event. "I've been brewing for more than 10 years. After a while, you just know what grains are going to give you what flavors," Kolar says. He'll give tours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; for a weekend tour, call in advance. Otherwise, you're welcome to look over his beer artifacts on a display case in the restaurant and do your own sampling. A $3.50 sampler platter includes tastes of whatever happens to be on tap. Throughout the year there are 12 different beers and a root beer. Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, 740 N. Plankinton Ave., (414) 276-3030. Rock Bottom boasts that it has the biggest outdoor cafe on the RiverWalk. Not bad for the 3-year-old restaurant/brew pub brought to Milwaukee by a chain based in Boulder, Colo. If brewmaster Andy Briggs isn't around, you can take your own tour of the brew pub - the grain silo is outside; the brew house is at one end of the restaurant, and the fermentation tanks are behind glass behind the upstairs bar. Visitors can get six 4-ounce samples of beer for $4.80: a light beer, a pale ale, a red, a brown, a stout and a specialty beer that changes every three to five weeks. There also is a root beer, but one can't get away from beer here: About 35% of Rock Bottom's menu includes beer. Even the pizza crust has beer in it. Stout Bros. Public House, 777 N. Water St., (414) 273-1080. Dave and Bob Leszczynski found success with their Water Street night spots O'Danny's Pub and the Oak Barrel. A brew pub was the next logical step. So they hired Al Bundy (really) to be their brewmaster and built a restaurant and pub around the area where he makes six full-time beers and one specialty one. They built condominiums above and since it was all across the street from City Hall, they called it a Public House. And since Leszczynski wouldn't fit on the sign, they made it Stout Bros. Stout Bros. Public House opened its doors on June 9. Group tour times haven't been scheduled yet, but the brothers do offer a $5.50 beer sampler plate featuring six 6-ounce glasses of the beers on tap, including seasonal beers when available. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT363R1DBAC&l ive=true&tagid=ZZZB2FVYA0C&subheading=consumer+goods
Welsh brewery tackles imports
July 5 2000 - The first new Welsh brewery to produce cask conditioned ales for 80 years opened on Wednesday in a backlash against "bland, expensive imported beer". The plant in Swansea, unveiled by Rhodri Morgan, first secretary of Wales, is part of an expansion plan by Simon Buckley, managing director of Tomos Watkin. Mr Buckley, a brewing veteran, made an unsuccessful £68m takeover bid last year for SA Brain in Cardiff, the only substantial Welsh brewing company to have survived industry consolidation. After that venture failed, Mr Buckley decided to transform Tomos Watkin, a small 200-year old company from Carmarthenshire, into a bigger participant. The company, which last year had three pubs and a microbrewery, has raised £10m to set up the Swansea brewery and buy 60 pubs in Wales over four years. In the Victorian era, there were 15 breweries in Swansea alone, but the last one shut down 40 years ago. The last big brewery to open in Wales was the United Club Brewery at Pontclun in 1921. The Tomos Watkin brewery will eventually employ 150 and produce more than 4m pints of beer a year. Mr Buckley said: "Why should our nation consume millions of gallons of bland, expensive imported beer each year when we have better, value-for-money product here in Wales?" Iain Loe, research manager for Camra, the ale buffs group, said: "Tomos Watkin are very ambitious, they are looking to establish themselves as a regional player, while elsewhere in Wales it is mainly microbreweries struggling to get their beers into Welsh pubs." |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/8/00 12:00 AM |
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1968397&ern=yChilean Coca Cola bottler sells beer assets 07/07/00 SANTIAGO, July 7 (Reuters) - Chilean bottler Embotelladoras Coca-Coca Polar , which has one of three licenses to produce Coca-Cola products in Chile, said on Friday it sold its beer assets to Inversiones Torres del Paine as part of its strategy to focus on nonalcoholic beverages. "The deal means a profit of about $500,000 for Embotelladoras Coca-Cola Polar. The amount will be reflected in the company's results in 2000," it said in a statement to state-run securities regulators. Polar announced last month that it would sell its assets in the beer business to obtain money to build a new soft drinks plant in the southern city of Punta Arenas, 1,400 miles (2,300 km) south of Santiago. Officials at Polar were not immediately available for comment. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1967855&ern=y UPDATE 2-Allied Domecq may face rival for Seagram spirits 07/07/00 By Sophy Tonder and Alexander Smith LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Britain's Allied Domecq may face a rival bid from
Pernod-Ricard SA and U.S. private equity group Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst for the spirits business of Seagram Co Ltd , bankers said on Friday. Allied Domecq is seeking a loan of more than 4.0 billion euros ($3.8 billion) to support its widely-expected bid for Seagram's spirits arm, although it has yet to enter formal talks with the Canadian group, an industry source told Reuters. Seagram has said it will sell its spirits arm as a result of its
recently-announced $34 billion all-share merger with France's Vivendi . While it is keen to make sure it has the necessary fire-power for a bid, Allied Domecq has not yet held any detailed talks with Seagram over an offer for its spirits business, the industry source said. "They (Allied Domecq) are not in negotiations or discussions with Seagram.
Seagram is not rushing to have those talks, it is still working on its merger with Vivendi," the source said. Pernod-Ricard and Hicks, Muse have also approached banks to provide financing for a bid of their own, the bankers said. Seagram's spirits brands -- which are estimated to be worth some $7.0
billion -- include Chivas Regal scotch and Absolut vodka and Allied Domecq has been working on plans to add these to its Ballantine's scotch and Beefeater gin. Bankers said that Pernod, with a market capitalisation of just 3.2 billion
euros, could not afford to mount a solo bid but that an alliance with Hicks Muse would give it the financial firepower to compete. PERNOD RULES NOTHING OUT
Pernod-Ricard, which also owns vodka, whisky and rum brands, including
Jameson Irish Whiskey and Wild Turkey Bourbon, refused to comment on whether it was considering a bid with Dallas-based Hicks, Muse but said that nothing had been ruled out. "It is true that Seagram as a whole is a bit too big for us and they have a lot of beautiful brands that we would be interested in," a Paris-based spokesman said. "We have not ruled anything out, it is never too early to talk, I don't see why we should wait (for the Seagram-Vivendi merger to complete)," he added. A London-based spokeswoman for Hicks, Muse, which last year bought Seagram's
Mumm and Perrier-Jouet champagne brands for around $310 million, refused to comment on a possible offer for the business. An Allied Domecq spokesman also declined to comment on whether it would bid
or was raising a loan. Bankers warned that Pernod-Ricard would have to move quickly to avoid Allied Domecq, which they said had retained U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs as its adviser on the bid, stealing an edge. "They are talking to us but as usual they are extremely cautious," a European banker said. In June 1999, Pernod's cautious approach cost it dearly after it moved too
slowly on plans to bid for Allied Domecq's spirits arm -- before speculation drove the Allied share price beyond Pernod's reach, the banker added. The French company had lined up a three billion pound loan with its banks to finance that Allied bid, but the financing fell through when Pernod failed to move. (Additional reporting by Alexander Smith) http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1967009&ern=y Blair's Teen-age Son Reprimanded By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer 07/07/00 LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife took their son Euan to a London police station Friday, where the 16-year-old received an official reprimand for a bout of public drunkenness. The reprimand was the least of three possible punishments for Euan, who was arrested late Wednesday, drunk and vomiting in Leicester Square after celebrating the end of his school exams. The teen-ager went with his parents to Kennington police station in south London to learn his punishment -- avoiding the large media crowd gathered at the central London station where he had been expected to appear. A police reprimand can only be given to juveniles with no previous convictions. If another offense follows a reprimand, the juvenile receives a warning. If further offenses are committed, prosecution usually will follow. Blair's 10 Downing St. office said that change of location for the appearance was made for reasons of privacy and emphasized it did not constitute special treatment for the prime minister, but a choice available to others. The Blairs "don't wish to turn this into a public event. There is a legitimate line to be drawn in being candid and open in the way we were yesterday ... and the legitimate desire for privacy for the children,'' Blair's spokesman, Alastair Campbell, said earlier. But that didn't prevent newspapers from adding to Euan's headache. "Don't know about you, Euan, but I could use a drink,'' joked the caption
beneath a file picture of father and son plastered across the front page of the Sun tabloid Friday. Other tabloids, too, devoted Page 1 and ensuing chunks of space to the news. Serious papers and TV stations also ran the story prominently. But there was some sympathy for the Blairs' eldest child, who had misjudged
his capacity for alcohol -- and who already had apologized via his father's office for causing offense. "Cheer up Euan, we've all been there,'' counseled The Mirror's headline,
although it continued, mischievously, "now get to the cashpoint (cash machine) and pay your 100 pounds, there's a good lad,'' a reference to Blair's unpopular proposal last week to issue on-the-spot fines to violent drunks. "Remember Euan, this is politics, and your dad won't be there forever,''
added Carol Thatcher comfortingly a few pages on. And she should know: She was 20 years old when her mother Margaret became prime minister in 1979. The incident came at a difficult time for Blair, with his government facing opposition grousing over failing to deal with football hooligans and internal divisions over whether Britain should join the single European currency. Blair was visibly upset when he took part in a question-and-answer session
Thursday evening on the British Broadcasting Corp. "I think if anyone breaks the law, they should suffer the penalty of the
law, whether they are my son or anyone else's son,'' he told questioners from the studio audience. To warm applause, the prime minister conceded, "It's not been the greatest day, let's put it like that, but my son is basically a good kid and we will get through this.'' Blair said he believed his son originally gave police a false name and
provided an old address and a false birthdate to indicate he was of the legal drinking age because he wanted to spare his parents embarrassment. The Blairs have gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of Euan, Nicky, 14, Kathryn, 12, and baby Leo, born May 20, all of whom are shielded under Press Complaints Commission guidelines governing minors. http://www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/PharmFullText.cfm?id=20649
Herb Library - Hops, Humulus lupulus Hops have been used to flavor beer for nearly a thousand years. This plant, a member of the same family as marijuana, is cultivated commercially in England, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the United States, as well as parts of South America and Australia. The part of the plant used, the cone-like fruits (technically "strobiles")
called hops, are harvested in September, at least in the northern hemisphere. Early medicinal uses of hops came from observation of the pickers. They were
said to tire quickly, so the plant was believed to have sedative activity. The hops were sometimes placed in a pillow to improve sleep. In addition, they have been used to treat a variety of skin conditions. Some of the folklore surrounding hops pickers suggests that the women are more interested in sex and the men less. This has been interpreted to suggest that hops may have estrogenic activity. Active Ingredients
The bitter principle humulone is the most important ingredient in brewing beer. Hops contain approximately 1 percent of a volatile oil and one hundred other compounds including several polyphenols, tannins, and flavonoids. The specific composition differs from one variety of H. lupulus to another. Many of these compounds break down quickly when exposed to light or air. Uses Scientists have recently isolated an ingredient in hops that might account for their mild sedative properties. In Europe, many herbal medicines include hops in a combination designed to promote sleep or relieve anxiety and stress. Hops extracts are also used to pep up the appetite and stimulate gastric
juice secretion. The extracts can calm smooth muscle spasm, which would explain the traditional use of hops to treat intestinal cramps and menstrual pain. Recent studies demonstrate that some chemicals in hops bind to estrogen receptors in the test tube. Hops did not stimulate the growth of rat uterine tissue, though, and their use to treat symptoms of menopause has not been clinically verified. In European folk medicine, a small bag of hops soaked in alcohol was placed on inflamed skin to relieve it. It is unclear whether there is any scientific basis for this practice. Dose
The dose is 0.5 g before bedtime. This may be taken as part of a prepared herbal medicine, or made into a tea by pouring boiling water over a heaping teaspoon of the dried hops and steeping for ten to fifteen minutes before straining and drinking it. Special Precautions
Estrogenlike compounds such as those in hops should be avoided during pregnancy. Adverse Effects
Some people develop contact dermatitis (itchy rash) when exposed to hops. Possible Interactions
Extract of hops can increase the amount of time a mouse sleeps after being given a barbiturate. Although the effect of hops is mild, combining this herb with a sleeping pill or antianxiety drug could result in more sedation than expected. Until the estrogenic activity of hops is further studied, taking this herb in combination with medicines such as oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy is an experiment best avoided. Copyright (c) Graedon Enterprises, Inc. From The People's Pharmacy http://www.healthcentral.com/news/newsfulltext.cfm?id=36125&StoryType=Reut ersNews
More studies should target health effects of sleep herbs June 15, 2000 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As more Americans are turning to herbal products to treat sleep problems, researchers are calling for studies to examine the efficacy of these products, pinpoint how they work and determine any adverse interactions with drugs. "Providers involved in the care of persons with sleep disorders in particular must become sensitive to the potential impact of various herbal medicines on sleep problems," according to Charlotte Gyllenhaal and colleagues from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Visit the Herbal Remedies Topic Center <http://www.healthcentral.com/Centers/OneCenter.cfm?Center=Herbal%5FRemedies> These studies are particularly important to elderly people who often
take multiple prescription drugs and suffer from sleep problems. "So many elderly people taking a variety of prescriptions drugs means that there are more interactions to look out for," Gyllenhaal said in an interview with Reuters Health. She added that oftentimes, having to take so many drugs motivates people to seek more natural remedies. Gyllenhaal and colleagues took a close look at a variety of herbal products and their possible interaction with prescription drugs. The findings are published in the June issue of Sleep Medicine Reviews. The investigators found that many Americans have problems getting to sleep at night or staying awake during the day. They note that a 1998 survey found that 10% to 15% of people use over-the-counter medications or dietary supplements, which contain caffeine, to help them stay awake during the day. The authors cite a recent survey in which 27% of Americans used complementary therapies including herbs to treat fatigue, and about 26% used herbs to treat insomnia. "The use of herbal remedies in the USA increased 380%" between 1990 and 1997, the study notes--increasing from 2.5% to 12.1% of the population. The researchers reviewed studies on several commonly used herbal stimulants and sedatives. They also looked at studies on ephedra or Ma Huang, an herb that has been linked to numerous adverse effects including seizures, heart attack and death, and yohimbe and ginseng, which are used to combat fatigue. German chamomile, kava, lavender, hops, lemon balm, passion flower and valerian were also examined for their reported ability to improve sleep. "Valerian is a sleep aid herb that has been used in Europe for centuries but we still don't know what the active compound is," Gyllenhaal said. The authors note that their review suggests that healthcare providers can no longer ignore Americans' increasing use of herbs. "It is now becoming necessary for providers to educate themselves and their patients in the wise and unwise use of these agents," Gyllenhaal said. For example, ephedra should not be taken with certain medications, including MAO inhibitors, methyldopa or beta-blockers. Patients with heart, thyroid or kidney disease, hypertension and depression should also avoid foods and medicine containing ephedra. Kava, which depresses the central nervous system, is taken to treat anxiety and induce sleep. While short-term studies suggest that the herb does not interfere with cognitive functioning, driving ability or work safety, "long-term studies are extremely important as the treatment of anxiety disorders often requires extended treatment," the researchers report. "The time has already arrived...for health professionals to become conversant with the variety of herbal substances from different cultures that have now entered the world market, and to realize the important role they play today in the self-management of sleep problems," the study concludes. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1969296&ern=y Tour De Excess - Cyclists Are Only Start of Action at the Traveling Carnival Rolling Across France JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG , 07/08/00
Julie Valee is riding in this year's Tour de France. Not on a bicycle, though. The 22-year-old in a red microskirt and white T-shirt stretches from a car, handing out small Camembert cheeses to an often frenetic crowd. "We finish the Tour with scratches all over our hands and arms," the blond Frenchwoman says. "We don't wear bracelets or rings, because people could hurt us or themselves when they try to grab a sample." Imagine the Super Bowl, Home Shopping Network and state fair rolled into one and on the move for 21 consecutive days and you'll have a fair idea of the hokum and hoopla of the Tour, the world's premier bicycle race now snaking its way across France. Forget for now defending champion Lance Armstrong of the Unites States, in 12th place (but with two weeks of racing still ahead, and the hardest stages yet to come). The Tour de France is also: * A mobile city of more than 3,000, complete with its own post office, medical corps and masseurs, police station, headquarters, printing press, grandstands and winner's podium. Like a nomad camp, the Tour dismantles and reassembles itself every night for three weeks to stay ahead of the race. * An "advertising caravan" of 220 vehicles that precede the cyclists, with cars dressed up like giant wrist watches, jars of pork pate, bags of marshmallows, demitasses of coffee and other consumer products. * Enough police to guard a summit of world leaders. To control crowds and block roads for the passage of the Tour through only one typical rural departement of France, 1,270 gendarmes were mobilized for three days last week. * A total of 1,790 accredited journalists and media technicians, as well as mobile TV and radio studios and darkrooms. There are cameramen specialized in the difficult art of shooting the race from the backs of speeding motorcycles or from helicopters, and an announcer at the start and finish, Daniel Mangeas, who has total recall of each cyclist's career. The Tour on the road, with its fleet of 1,500 trucks, cars and motorcycles, is a sight more akin to the passing of an armored division than a bike race. Each summer, about 15 million of the French watch it rumble by, along with the cyclists. In provincial towns such as Nantes, Tours or Revel, huge throngs assemble to witness what will be the biggest local happening of the year. People chow down on spicy merguez sausage and other delicacies sold by the swarm of vendors accompanying the race. Spectators eagerly await the arrival of the riders--and the freebies. "People are so eager to get something from us, they're ready to jump in our cars," says Valee, working her third Tour for the Coeur de Lion brand of Camembert. To prevent riots, workers in the caravan aren't allowed to throw samples into the crowd. By the time this year's Tour finishes on the Right Bank of Paris on July 23, the 600 people employed in the advertising convoy will have doled out 20 million free items to spectators, from sausages and pate on toast to plastic cups of hot coffee. As well as a sporting event and national institution, the Tour is a business. Its owner, Editions Amaury, also publishes L'Equipe, the national sports daily, and Le Parisien, a tabloid newspaper. In February, the group took over management of the Futuroscope theme park near Poitiers, which, not coincidentally, was the kickoff point for the 2000 Tour. Not all of the French love cycling, but like everyone else, they like getting something for nothing. A poll taken for the Tour has revealed that more spectators actually enjoy the advertising caravan, 47%, and the event's carnival-like ambience, 43%, than the race itself, 37%. "Above all, the caravan has to be seen by the public as a huge party," said Jean-Pierre Lachaud, in charge of the advertising cavalcade, which stretches for 15 miles and usually takes 45 minutes to pass. "But for the companies that take part, it also must be a fantastic communications medium." To get three vehicles in the caravan, a company pays $18,500. Some of the biggest guns of global business have dished out even larger, undisclosed sums to obtain the status of Tour "partner." For instance, Credit Lyonnais, a French bank, has bought the right to plaster its name on the yellow jersey worn by the cyclist with the best overall time. Fiat, the Italian auto maker, paints its logo on the homestretch asphalt near each day's finish line. Coca-Cola has arranged for the winners of each day's stage to receive a special prize: a gilded Coke bottle in a Lucite ring. The 20 teams competing in the Tour are an integral part of such full-blooded commercialism. They are financed by businesses, from a Dutch manufacturer of frozen French fries to an Italian glue maker. On the blue outfits worn by Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service teammates are the logos of no fewer than nine sponsors. "We sell every square inch--are you kidding?" said Margot Myers, spokeswoman for U.S. Postal. For France's cities and towns, hosting the race is a privilege to be purchased, in exchange for the tourist influx and media exposure the event hopefully will bring. Elected officials in the Vienne, a largely rural area of west-central France, shelled out nearly $1 million to Tour organizers to host the first 2 1/2 days of this year's race. "The return on investment is inestimable," said Jerome Neuveux, a spokesman for the local government. "Try to calculate what it would cost to put a commercial about the Vienne on television in 169 countries, which is how many have TV coverage of the Tour." Loudun, a town of 8,200, spent at least $58,000 to spiff itself up to serve as the finish for one daily stage of the 2000 Tour, and the start of the next. Five miles of steel crowd-control barriers were erected. The covered municipal tennis courts were temporarily converted to a press center, and 450 electric outlets were installed for journalists' laptops. Two thousand parking spaces were staked out in fields, and a high school designated as the Tour's command post. A sumptuous buffet was laid on for reporters. Was it worth it? "Our population doubled over the two days the Tour was here, so that was good news for hotel, restaurant and cafe owners," said Marie Heid, a municipal employee who acted as race coordinator. "But the real results can only be measured long-term." Loudun's ambition is to become a popular stopping-off point for tourists traveling between the chateaux of the Loire valley and Futuroscope. Now in its 87th annual edition, the Tour is a well-oiled mechanism that performs some of its most impressive feats out of the public's view. On Friday, at the end of the day's 127-mile leg, the 174 riders still in the race sped into rainy Limoges, a city celebrated for its fine porcelain. For the exhausted racers, it was time to go to their hotels for a rest, a massage and a high-calorie dinner. But almost as soon as the last cyclist crossed the line on Boulevard Beaublanc, the Tour's 200-person "Orange Brigade" got to work. Each evening, the roadies in rust-orange polo shirts load 100 trucks with the 20-ton stage, the sound system, TV booths, crowd-control barriers, course markers and other facilities that make up what's known in Tour jargon as "the finish line." It's hard, sweaty labor, and takes an average of 3 1/2 hours. By midnight or 1 a.m. today, the men in orange should be in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, 126 miles south of Limoges, where today's stage of the race will end. After a nap, at 5 a.m. the workers will start putting the 100 truckloads of equipment back together. By 10 a.m., the finish line should be ready anew. In Limoges, a second work crew of 40 will have been working through the night to build the starting line and 30,000-square-foot "Village du Tour," where dignitaries and guests will schmooze with race officials, sponsors and past cycling greats before the start of today's segment. After the riders leave Limoges, the process will start again--the starting line and Village du Tour will be taken apart and loaded for reassembly at the beginning point of Sunday's race. In Villeneuve-sur-Lot, workers will dismantle the finish line once again for overnight transport and rebuilding. "One of the directors of the Tour used to say it was a miracle," said Jean-Louis Pages, the race's general commissioner, in charge of the Orange Brigade. "I've been with the Tour for 15 years, and I still can't believe how well all of this works." * Achrene Sicakyuz of The Times' Paris bureau contributed to this report. |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/9/00 12:00 AM |
Baltic Beverages Holdings to Invest Further in Siberian Brewery
St. Petersburg, Russia, July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Baltic Beverages Holdings, a 50-50 joint venture between Scandinavian brewers Pripps Ringnes AB and Hartwall Oyj, will invest $34 million in AO Pikra, a Siberian brewery.
Baltic Beverages, which bought 50 percent of Pikra in December and owns 70 percent of AO Baltica Brewery, Russia's No. 2 brewery by sales, said demand in the region is outstripping production. ``The market in Siberia is growing at a rate of about 30 percent a year,'' said Svetlana Yurchenko, Pikra's marketing director. ``We cannot keep up with demand and plan to expand production with the . . . investment.'' Baltic Beverages hopes to benefit from soaring demand for Russian beer, which has grown after the collapse of the ruble in August 1998 made imported brands more expensive. The Scandinavian company, which increased its Russian market share from 20 percent in 1999 to 26 percent this year, owns 12 breweries in Russia and the Ukraine. Since 1995, per-capita beer consumption increased from 18.9 liters to 25 liters, according to Business Analytica, a Russian market research company. The company said it plans to invest about $100 million each year, over the several years. ``We have a long-term commitment to the Russian market, where beer consumption is growing rapidly,'' said Baltic Beverages President Christian Ramm Schmidt. The company ``will continue to expand in Russia.'' Lion Nathan Ends Share Buyback Program, Spends NZ$58 Million Sydney, June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Lion Nathan Ltd., Australia's No. 2 maker of beer, said it spent NZ$58.1 million ($27 million) buying 13.4 million of its own shares, or about 2.5 percent of the stock, ending its previously announced share buyback program.
The Sydney-based maker of Hahn and Toohey's brand beer said it has no immediate plans to buy back further stock. Its New Zealand shares traded between NZ$3.31 and NZ$4.82 since it started buying its own shares on Nov. 15 1999. ``We have purchased a substantial number of shares at an average price of NZ$4.32 which is substantially lower than both the directors' assessment of the company's underlying value and the consensus valuation of market analysts,'' Lion Nathan's Chief Financial Officer Paul Lockey said. Lion Nathan, 45 percent owned by Japan's Kirin Brewery Co., recently moved its head office from Auckland to Sydney. Its New Zealand shares fell 3 cents to A$4.75. Lion Nathan's Australian shares rose 12 cents, or 3.2 percent, to A$3.82. Howard visits liquor store in lead-up to GST 29 June, 2000 10:50am AEST- The Prime Minister has spent the morning of the final day of Parliament before the introduction of the GST visiting a liquor retailer in Canberra. Mr Howard watched as several bottles of alcohol were processed through a GST-prepared till and the same consignment was then tallied under the old tax system. The Prime Minister noted that the GST-bill was cheaper. "Now that's not going to be the case everywhere, but it sort of puts the thing into slightly better perspective," Mr Howard said. "I mean we've had all this scare nonsense, month after month after month, how we're all going to be ruined, but when you actually come down to the wire, I think a lot of people are going to find at the weekend in their supermarkets that things don't go up quite as much as they expect. "I've always been confident that when it settles down and you can get the political pointscoring out of the way that people will give it a fair go they'll have a look at their dockets, they'll do their comparisons, they'll find that some things do go up." © 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Red Bull's Energy-Drink Claims May Be Hype -- But Not Its Sales
The keep-you-hopping-all-night beverage is racking up megabuck volume among young club-goers -- all via word of mouth Business Week Online 6/30/00 - There's a new bull in town, and no, it's not the return of a red-hot Nasdaq stock market. It's Red Bull, an energy drink laced with caffeine, a dollop of B vitamins, and two common amino acids. Made by a privately held company in Austria, Red Bull can mostly be found in dance clubs in New York and Los Angeles, where amped up club kids tip back the 8.3-ounce blue-and-silver can in the pursuit of prolonged partying. The club scene for twentysomethings is an unusual market for a sports drink to penetrate. And Red Bull North America has been particularly successful at doing so in the States, through none other than old-fashioned word of mouth. Unlike other sport-drink makers, Red Bull North America hasn't launched a national marketing campaign or paid for banner advertising on the Web. Yet the privately held company claims worldwide revenues were more than $1 billion last year. Since bringing the product to the U.S. in 1997, Red Bull says its revenue has doubled each year, even though its distribution plan is patchy at best. It's not doing so badly in the rest of the world, either. Since Red Bull was launched in Austria in 1987, the company has had double-digit revenue growth in the 45 countries where the product is available. Red Bull has sponsored some extreme-sport events, such as snowboarding competitions. But the caffeinated energy drink's biggest fans aren't the athletes or bodybuilding fanatics usually associated with such beverages. TOP SELLER. "It's one of our most popular drinks," says Ryan Thomas, publicist for the New York City club TWILO, one of the first to sell Red Bull in mixed drinks. "With alcohol, it gives the strange feeling of bringing you up and slowing you down at the same time." Red Bull's main competitors in the $1.6 billion U.S. sports-drink market include other caffeinated drinks, such as Hanson's and Battery Energy Drinks. Such sports drinks made up 4.3% of all nonalcoholic beverages consumed last year in the U.S., according to Nielsen Research. But none of the other vitamin-laced stimulants has caught on as quickly as Red Bull, the top-selling drink on specialty drink distributer BeveragesDirect.com. It's also among the year's top-ranked beverages reviewed on BevNet.com, an e-commerce site that analyzes New Age beverages. "It has found an almost cult-like following in the U.S., especially given the fact that it doesn't have much of a marketing presence and has relatively high prices," says John Craven, president of BevNet.com. Globally, a can of Red Bull costs $1.99, but it can fetch up to $3 in big cities like New York. For Bull fanatics, some beverage distributors sell it by the six-pack or case, but don't expect price savings for bulk buys. A 24-can supply of Red Bull still costs $43.99. Yet those prices don't seem to be hurting sales. Olia Ahmed, a 7-Eleven store manager on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, says the store often has to place extra orders for Red Bull, the top seller of the five energy sports drinks it stocks. "VERY SILLY." Many people think Red Bull is loaded with caffeine. However, an 8.3-ounce can has just 80 milligrams of the stimulant, about the same amount in a mug of coffee -- and hardly enough to keep most people dancing until 5 a.m. So, where does the buzz come from? Red Bull says it's the result of two natural ingredients, amino-acid taurine and glucuronolacton. It's their reaction with caffeine that makes the product work, the company says. The end result, Red Bull's maker claims, is an invigorated state of body and mind, not to mention a boost in performance and longer endurance. And that's without the effects of the vodka. So, are these really magical ingredients? Not really, says Dr. Mark Kantor, an associate professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland at College Park. "It's really very silly, because [the company] is putting common vitamins that are widely found in food in this drink. There is no evidence that this product is going to do what it claims to do." These run-of-the-mill ingredients means Food & Drug Administration approval was not required before Red Bull hit store shelves. Still, the agency has identified the whole wave of energy drinks as an emerging market, one that it says it'll watch closely to make sure unfounded health claims aren't being made. No one can say with certainty whether there's any real difference between chugging Red Bull or drinking a latte and popping a multivitamin before heading to the dance floor or treadmill. As for taking Red Bull with alcohol, Dr. Kantor says he doesn't see any real danger. "It sounds like just another marketing gimmick," he says. Club owners -- who view Red Bull as the latest, greatest party maker -- probably disagree. NO FAD? But along with its popularity among the 18- to 30-year-old alternative crowd has come some negative publicity. Red Bull has been accused of promoting underage drinking. And the Internet carries scuttlebutt about one of the drink's leading ingredients, the amino acid taurine. Turns out taurine is a naturally occurring compound found in bull testicles. But the same compound can also be found in the blood of fish, cows, and humans, among other creatures. For its part, Red Bull, which recently extended its Austrian operations into Santa Monica, Calif., doesn't want to be a fad. "We're building a billion-dollar brand, but we don't ever want to come across that way. We've been surprised at how powerful word of mouth is," says a company spokesperson. Red Bull first appeared outside of Austria in 1993, when Slovaks, Hungarians, and Croats started importing it and hawking it to individual stores and nightclubs. Soon West Coast clubs were importing Red Bull to sell as a drink mixer. Big cities such as L.A. and Seattle were the company's first target markets when it kicked off its U.S. distribution in 1997. The drink wasn't scheduled to be sold in New York City until sometime next year, but strong demand from club owners landed the Bull there this past April. A smattering of nutrition and convenience stores in 18 states also carry Red Bull now. And of course, nightclubs are selling it by the caseload. BAD TASTE. No one knows how long the Red Bull craze will last. But one thing is certain: People aren't chugging the stuff for its taste. The drink scored a D+ on BevNet.com's taste test and is often described as medicinal in flavor. Red Bull also scores low on the thirst-quench scale and is packed with sodium and sugar. Indeed, its extreme sweetness can be hard to swallow. But don't expect a Red Bull Light anytime soon. "Part of the reason we have done so well is that we have stuck to one thing," the company spokesperson says. "It's not meant to be a taste drink, you either love us or you hate us." For now, clubbers are lovin' Red Bull. The question is: Will their parents, aunts, and uncles ever switch from Bud to Bull? By Nicole St. Pierre in Washington, D.C. EDITED BY BETH BELTON Tsingtao to Buy Two Foreign Beer Producers in China Shanghai, June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Tsingtao Brewery Co., China's best-known beermaker, said it plans to buy two foreign breweries in China, aiming to double its share of the world's second-biggest beer market to 10 percent.
Tsingtao is in talks to buy breweries in Beijing and Shanghai, said company spokesman Zhang Ruixiang. ``Our target for the year is to buy foreign breweries in the major Chinese cities,'' said Zhang, who declined to identify the targets. Tsingtao plans to convert the breweries to production of its low-end beer brands popular with ordinary Chinese, Zhang said. Foreign premium brands such as Heineken, Budweiser, Carlsberg and Kirin account for just 10 percent of the Chinese market. Tsingtao, which expects to produce 1.4 million tons of beer this year, spent 200 million yuan ($24 million) last year to buy 15 Chinese beer makers. The government estimates beer sales in China will increase 5 percent this year to 21.4 million tons, making the country the world's second-largest beer market after the U.S. Fierce competition and low margins have taken their toll on a number of foreign brewers in China. Foster's Brewing Group Ltd. of Australia reduced its ventures to one from three to cut losses, while Hong Kong-invested Asia Brewery Inc. and San Miguel Corp., both of the Philippines, have also scaled back. Other foreign brewers with operations in China include Kirin Brewery Co., Asahi Breweries Ltd. and Suntory Ltd. of Japan as well as Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the U.S.-based maker of Budweiser, and Lion Nathan Ltd. of New Zealand. Tsingtao's Hong Kong-traded shares are down 35.7 percent so far this year, compared with a 0.8 percent gain in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. US Wine Makers Go on Offensive Against Italy Over Zinfandel Washington, July 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. wine makers, long attacked by Europeans for poaching such names as ``Chablis'' and ``Champagne'' for their labels, are accusing their transatlantic rivals of some brand larceny of their own. The wine makers say importers are using the California ``Zinfandel'' name on some Italian wines made with a related grape, ``Primitivo.'' Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, a trade group, has appealed to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to reverse a ruling letting the Italians use the name. The battle offers a new twist to the failed effort by Europeans to stop U.S. producers from using place names like ``Burgundy,'' a region in France, or the names of grapes such as ``Pinot Grigio.'' Yet California Zinfandel producers are eager to protect their approximately 12 percent piece of the $18 billion U.S. wine market, a share second only to wines carrying the name ``Chardonnay'' -- itself a grape that originated in France but that's now practically synonymous with white wine in the U.S. ``It's ironic that the Europeans are going after an American term,'' said Rebecca Robinson, executive director of Zinfandel Advocates and Producers. ``Can't they stand on their own reputations?'' An Italian trade official said U.S. wine makers have no right to complain. ``If the Americans were to use only American varietal names on their wine, they wouldn't be making much wine, let me tell you,'' said Augusto Marchini, an assistant commissioner at the Italian Trade Commission in New York. Uniquely American Grape The U.S. trade association, which represents some 240 mostly California producers, including E&J Gallo Winery, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates Ltd. and Robert Mondavi Corp., says Zinfandel is the only uniquely American wine-making grape. Robinson met last month in Washington with ATF officials to challenge labels on a series of white and red Italian wines that are made with the Primitivo grape and carry the name Zinfandel or varieties of it like ``Zin.'' The bureau agreed to review a further appeal from the group in writing, although it warned that any policy that rejects foreign-labeling decisions might require trade negotiations, ATF spokesman Art Resnick said. The Italians argue that the Zinfandel and Primitivo grapes are so similar the names can be used interchangeably, a claim backed up by the European Union last year. Zinfandel and Primitivo descend from Plavac Mali, a centuries- old Croatian grape with the characteristics of both, studies show, according to John Chamard of Mainbrace International Ltd., a Canadian wine agent. Close But Different The ATF ruled in 1998 the Zinfandel and Primitivo grapes, while similar and apparently closely related, couldn't be described interchangeably on wine labels. Yet the bureau said at a recent meeting it bases its labeling decisions on the rules of the country of origin, in this case the European Union, Robinson said. So far, Italian Zinfandel is barely trickling into the U.S., yet the volume of imports is expected to grow, even though the popularity of the white variety is shrinking, according to one analyst. Americans, after all, have a taste for Italian wine: Italy is the largest exporter of wine to the U.S., sending about 38 million gallons last year.
Robinson learned of the Zinfandel imports two years ago when a friend in Chicago discovered a store selling an Italian wine named ``Mother Zin,'' distributed by Abruzzi Imports LLC of Stamford, Connecticut. Later examples included a Sinfarosa wine by Accademia dei Racemi labeled to imply it is a Zinfandel, and an Aliante wine with a label declaring: ``Primitivo is the origin of Zin.'' ``Zinfandel has been very successful in building a good reputation, and Primitivo doesn't have that, and so they're trying to ride the wave,'' Robinson said. Piece of the Action Melanie Losey, marketing director of A.V. Imports Inc. of Columbia, Maryland, acknowledged her company looked at Zinfandel's popularity and thought ``there's got to be a way for us to capture part of those consumers.''' A.V. Imports then launched an ``aggressive marketing campaign'' for ``Belmondo Zin,'' which sells for about $7 a bottle. The company hopes its imports of 100,000 cases this year will grow to 130,000 or 140,000 next year, Losey said. The two leading U.S. producers, Sutter Home Winery and Beringer Wine Estates Holdings Inc., sell some 9 million cases of Zinfandel a year at about $6 a bottle, and have nothing to fear from a few Italian imports, Losey said. Beringer disagrees. ``We've worked hard to promote the identity of Zinfandel -- white Zinfandel and red Zinfandel,'' spokesman Tor Kenward said. ``I think a lot of Americans feel that it is somewhat their grape.'' Ironically, while the European Union has allowed the use of the Zinfandel name, the Italian government does not, forcing Italian producers to use careful wording when trading on the Zinfandel name. One industry analyst questioned why the Italians would even want to enter the fray since Zinfandel is already facing tough competition in the U.S. market from fruit-flavored competitors. ``It's not a category that looked that hot to me,'' said analyst Caroline S. Levy of UBS Warburg LLC, citing figures by AC Nielsen Co. showing U.S. sales of white Zinfandel down 5 percent in the year to May 13. ``Any new competition is bad news'' for white Zinfandel, Levy said. Texas Teens Rally at MADD Camp to Reduce Underage DrinkingAnd Call on Congress to Pass Federal .08 BAC Drunk Driving Limit Granger and DeLay Likely Members of Congressional Conference Committee to Address .08 Legislation FT. WORTH, Texas, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- MADD National President Millie I. Webb today joined more than 600 MADD/TABC Texas Youth Leadership Power Campers and activists to rally for underage drinking prevention -- the No. 1 youth drug problem -- and federal passage of .08 blood alcohol content (BAC) legislation for adult drivers. Junior high and senior high school students representing 38 school districts from across Texas are participating in this four-day camp sponsored by MADD and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, July 5-8, 2000. The MADD Youth Leadership Power Camps, held throughout the nation, help teens develop skills to make social changes in their community -- from influencing public policy and teaming up with local law enforcement initiatives, to working with the media to heighten awareness and build community support for policy reforms. The young people gathered today to show their support for federal passage of .08 BAC as the adult drunk driving limit in every state citing that this legislation would save lives, prevent injuries and make the nation's roads safer for all drivers. Recently the U.S. Senate passed the FY 2001 transportation appropriations bill, by a count of 99-to-zero, containing language that would sanction states for not passing .08 BAC. The bill is now slated to go before a House/Senate Conference Committee of which Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX) and Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) will likely be appointed members on Monday. MADD expects it will be an uphill battle to keep the .08 language intact due to opposing pressure from alcohol industry lobbyists. "We commend Texas as one of only eighteen states and the District of Columbia, that has set the legal limit for drunk driving at .08 BAC. In Texas a driver can be considered legally intoxicated at .08 BAC, but not when driving across state lines to our neighboring states of Arkansas, Louisiana or Oklahoma where the limits are .10," said Webb, whose daughter Lori and nephew Mitchell died in a crash caused by a drinking driver with a .08 BAC. Webb and her husband were severely burned in the crash and her daughter Kara was born premature and legally blind as a result of the tragedy. "Although studies show that virtually everyone is impaired at a .08 BAC level, what happened to my family is tangible proof that .08 BAC causes dangerous impairment behind the wheel," added Webb. "If all states were to enact .08 BAC an estimated 500 lives would be saved each year." In an effort to show Congresswoman Kay Granger and Congressman Tom DeLay that their Texas constituents support this federal measure, the Texas teens and MADD members signed a giant banner promoting the passage of .08 BAC that will be sent to Washington, D.C. next week. The banner, which resembles a highway speed limit sign reads, "TO ALL THE SIGNS THAT MAKE DRIVING A LITTLE SAFER, WE'D LIKE TO ADD ONE MORE -- ALCOHOL LIMIT .08." "The time has come for every state to draw the line at .08 BAC," said Max Bench, Texas MADD member and .08 advocate. "Study after study has shown everyone's critical safe driving skills -- braking, steering and reaction time -- are dangerously impaired at this level. This law is in the best interest of all motorists and their families." The theme of this year's MADD Youth Leadership Power Camps is "Planet Power." Webb reminded the campers that they are the activists of tomorrow and that collectively, they have the capability to create a positive planet -- a society that is made powerful by the healthy and responsible choices of its youth. "These young people are taking a stand against underage alcohol consumption and impaired driving in Texas -- a stand that is difficult in a society that continues to bombard its youth with mixed messages from adults, TV and movies that often condone underage drinking as a 'rite of passage,'" said Webb. "I know underage drinking is a problem that these teens face everyday; yet, they have chosen to be here to learn how to become part of the solution." In its third year, the Texas Youth Leadership Power Camp, continues to provide skills clinics for campers that help them learn how to become mentors, start Youth In Action teams and even develop Web sites promoting drug-free, alcohol free teen programs. Campers gain insight from other student leaders, parents and community leaders on successful approaches for stopping underage drinking -- often viewed as a "rite of passage" by many adults and young people. For more information on MADD Youth Leadership Power Camps or other youth programming, contact the programs department at 1-800-GET-MADD or visit the MADD Web site at www.madd.org . Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Signs Book Contract With Hazelden CENTER CITY, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 3, 2000--The Hazelden Foundation announced today that it will publish a book based on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eric Newhouse's year-long investigation into the far-reaching problems of alcohol abuse. Newhouse, projects editor at the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his series called "Alcohol: Cradle to Grave," a vivid examination of alcohol's devastating consequences on a community, its families, and individuals. Hazelden, which was featured in the series, is an internationally-known provider of services related to alcoholism and drug addiction and is the world's largest publisher of recovery-related materials. Newhouse's extraordinary series explores the varied complexities of alcohol, including addiction, fetal alcohol syndrome, teen drinking, family issues, drunk driving, crime, costs to taxpayers, and treatment options. The Hazelden book, slated for a fall 2001 release, will include the series in a revised and updated form, and will explore national issues related to alcohol abuse and addiction, giving readers a comprehensive look at the complexity, magnitude and cost of alcohol abuse on a local community. Great Falls, Mont., can be viewed as a microcosm of a national problem, said Newhouse, and his writing illustrates how alcohol is woven into the traditions and daily life of not only Montana, but of much of America. "Hazelden has been carrying the message of recovery to communities, families and individuals for fifty years," said Clay Garner, Executive Vice-President of Hazelden Information and Educational Services. "Eric Newhouse's work is a perfect fit for Hazelden, and we're honored to take his writing to a national audience." Newhouse has worked as a journalist since 1967. He was a reporter and correspondent for the Associated Press in Baltimore, New Orleans, Chattanooga, Tenn., Pierre, S.D., and St. Louis, and also was bureau chief for the AP in Charleston, WV. In 1988, he joined the Great Falls Tribune where he was news editor and editorial editor, before becoming a projects editor. He is also an instructor for the University of Great Falls, where he teaches English, mass communications, and writing courses. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, a master's degree from the University of Maryland, and a second master's from Columbia 6 University, where he was also appointed an international fellow. The nonprofit Hazelden Foundation, founded in 1949, pioneered the model of care for alcoholism, drug addiction, and related diseases that is now the most widely used in the world, and has been a leader in the recovery-related publishing field since "Twenty-Four Hours A Day" was published in 1954. Today, with 50 years of experience and an unparalleled breadth of services, Hazelden is an international provider of treatment, recovery, research and training, offering programs, services and publications for individuals, families and communities affected by chemical dependency. |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/11/00 12:00 AM |
Anyone have a clue behind the beer competition described below? ******** http://www.alaskanbeer.com/new/pr/pr_41.htmlAlaskan Wins Two Golds and a Silver at "Best in the West" Competition July 5, 2000 Alaskan Brewing Company was awarded three medals at the June "Best in the West" competition put on by the North American Brewers Association. Alaskan Brewing Company had a strong showing at the "Best in the West" competition at the Mountain Brewers Festival held in Idaho Falls in June, winning three medals. Alaskan ESB and Smoked Porter both brought home gold medals. Alaskan Oatmeal Stout earned a silver at the festival. The Alaskan ESB win was the first award presented and beer enthusiasts rushed the Alaskan booth wanting to get a taste of the award winning beer. "The enthusiasm for Alaskan Brewing products continues to grow throughout the Pacific Northwest and continues to engage new fans," said Merv Boyce, regional sales manager for Idaho, Montana and Eastern Washington. http://www.phillynews.com/content/daily_news/2000/07/10/features/YOGO10.htm
some beer hops? July 10,2000 As part of American Beer Month, brewmaster Carol Stoudt, of Lancaster County's Stoudt's Brewing Co., will be at McGillin's Olde Ale House, 1510 Drury St., to talk beer from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For info, call 215-735-5562. http://www.beverageworld.com/
Brazil: Beverages Consumption Increases in Brazil June 30 The market of non-alcoholic beverages is expanding in Brazil where the sales jumped from 6.4bil litres in 1994 to 11bil litres in 1999, as wellas the mineral water segment registering an increase of 100% in the sales over the last five years and a consumption of 3bil litres in 1999. Panamco, a Coca-Cola bottling company, launched the mineral water Cristal which is already among the fifth most consumed. The wine production is also increasing expecting to end 2000 with a jump of 12%, 304mil litres (against 293mil litres in 1999) and R$600mil. Accordingto Uvibra (Uniao Brasileira de Vitivinicultura) the imports were of 9.6mil litres in 1999, being the Italians responsible for sales of 4.7mil. On the other hand the beer market is stabilized with a consumption of 8bil litres over the last three years. http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/07/10/beer000710
Beer explosion injures two Mon Jul 10 17:25:23 2000 HALIFAX - A mixture of chemicals exploded at a beer brewing lab in Halifax, injuring two people. An official with the provincial Department of Labour said two people were hurt when a mixture of glycol and sulphuric acid exploded at the Oland's brewery in north-end Halifax. One employee, a 45-year-old male, had facial burns and cuts on his legs and hands. And a 22-year-old female was splashed with chemicals when the beaker they were handling exploded. The plant has been shut down, for the time being, and all of the employees sent home. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/food/review.html?in_review_id=296708 &in_review_text_id=240989
London's wobbliest pub crawl by Edward Sullivan, 10 July 'Eee, by 'eck, lad,' as my uncle Seth would have said. 'It makes you proud to be British.' They gave us the cash-haemorrhaging Millennium Dome, which nobody I know wants to see. They gave us the New Year River Of Fire, which failed to ignite. They gave us the Jubilee Line Extension, which faltered into action several years late. They gave us the Millennium Eye, which failed to lift into place on time and wasn't ready to roll with passengers on the big occasion. And now we have the wibbly-wobbly bridge. Ooh, I feel a bit wobbly, have I drunk too much? No, that's just the bridge... In years gone by, people would probably have been hanged for such atrocities, but in years gone by, it seems, we knew how to build things. St Paul's Cathedral was still standing proud the last time I looked, and the old power station on the south side of the Thames is now the energetic new home to the Tate Modern. It's just the wibbly-wobbly spanning the two that cannot yet be safely traversed. I actually got to walk on wibbly-wobbly the day it opened (before it closed, opened again, and then closed again) and it was no different to wandering home after a few sherbets. Anyway, they've gone back to the toolbox and the spanners are out to rectify the problem, which is disappointing for all of us, but especially so for the new and existing bars surrounding St Paul's that had planned to open at weekends to cater for the crowds of people attracted to the area, and will again as soon as the job's done. Meanwhile, you'll have to use Southwark or Blackfriars bridges to follow this week's crawl... The Samuel Pepys The old warehouse recently developed into luxury flats is also home to this magnificent first-floor bar with spectacular views across the Thames. Almost £1 million was spent creating this modern, spacious, low-ceilinged bar, which has the benefit of a powerful air-conditioning system. Food is the big thing with curries, grills, pastas and salads running in at around £8 a dish. It's owned and operated by Bass, so serves Fuller's London Pride, Staropramen and a limited but erudite wine list. This is one of the most spectacular new venues I've seen in some time. Shaw Lane, High Timber Street, EC4 (020-7634 9841). Mon-Fri 11am-11pm. The Bridge This shiny new glass-fronted bar and restaurant opened just a few weeks ago and has already attracted a small army of fans from the City, along with many a riverside stroller. Freedom Pilsner is the best bet on the beer front, but there's a quality wine list and they serve excellent dim sum in the bar. It's crowning glory though is the outside terrace, from which there are fantastic views. 1 Paul's Walk, EC4 (020-7236 0000). Mon-Fri 11am-11pm. The Centre Page Once the Horn Tavern, then for a short period it became the St Paul's Wine Vaults before Eldridge Pope gave up the ghost and sold the lease to Front Page Pubs. The interior has been smartened up considerably and the ground-floor bar has a long row of comfortable booths along one side. The basement area has further seating and a private room which can accommodate 12 people for lunch or dinner. Although the food menu lacks lighter, summer dishes, it is substantial and reasonably priced: baked ham hock with mashed potatoes and spring greens (£7.95), or a tuna steak with green beans (£9.50). Brakspear and Bombardier Spitfire are both on tap. 29 Knightrider Street, EC4 (020-7236 1013). Mon-Fri 11am-11pm. Bar Excellence A spaceship has landed in London, and devilishly close to St Paul's Cathedral. Fear not, the aliens are friendly, and their ship is this futuristic bar servicing local workers and visitors alike. The bright air-conditioned interior of copper and bleached wood is very relaxing on the eye and the bill for my lunch was equally relaxing on my wallet. Whether you have a rump steak melt in French bread with fries, good old bangers & mash with onion gravy, or opt for the simpler, but equally satisfying offer of decent-quality sandwiches, you should leave suitably satiated. There's a more informal raised lounge area for those who prefer the relaxed approach to dining and drinking. 2 Old Change Court, EC4 (020-7248 2720). Mon-Fri 11am-11pm. The Founders Arms This fine modern pub stands firmly by the river on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge. It is hard to find the first time but worth the effort nonetheless. The dean of St Paul's managed to find it all right. He opened it in 1979. When you get there you have Young's beers, a glass-walled bar, a pleasant restaurant and a big riverside terrace, wonderful on a sunny day. Both bar and terrace give you a fine view of the river, and one of the greatest views of St Paul's Cathedral. No-smoking area, and no kids in the bar. 52 Hopton Street, SE1 (020-7928 1899). Pub hours. The Anchor Bankside has certainly gone up in the world. In Shakespeare's day it was all slums and stews, but look at it now: a riverside walk (which the Queen did in 1977), the massive redevelopment and a famous old inn. Dr Johnson often supped here with his good friend Mrs Thrale whose husband owned it and the brewery next door. It is a fine pub with a minstrels' gallery, a private 18th-century dining room, a new riverside terrace with serried ranks of picnic tables, a garden terrace, a barbecue and a most superior restaurant. Sam Wanamaker often ate here when his wonderful Globe was taking shape nearby. He always had table seven. The Anchor is not a pub you can leave quietly. In the creaking Olympics, the Anchor's floorboards would take gold. Flower's, Bass and Greene King on draught. 34 Park Street, SE1 (020-7407 1577). Pub hours. The Old Thameside Inn The Old Thameside Inn is not very old at all. It's less than 20 years old and its luck is changing for the better. Take a look at its neighbour. The Golden Hinde, replica of the 16th-century warship, is in dry dock by the entrance. The remains of the Clink prison - now a museum - are round the back. The pub used to be a spice warehouse but has been cleverly converted keeping the heavy timbers and the flagstone floor. 2 Clink Street, SE1 (020-7493 4243). Pub hours. |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/11/00 12:00 AM |
Last bit is a BBC one which invites readers to sendd in comments... German beer tastes best in bottles, foreigners say BERLIN, July 11 (Reuters) - German beer sells better abroad when it comes in bottles, the Federal Statistics Office said on Tuesday.
Germany, which makes brewers conform to a 16th century purity law to protect the prestige of their pils, exported about 311 million litres of bottled beer last year, 85 million litres more than was sold in cans. But France, never a country to be dictated to in matters of taste, bucked the trend, importing 65 million litres of canned German beer and outpacing Spain as the biggest consumer of it. Americans, the biggest importer of the bottled product, clearly prefer the flavour of beer from a glass container to that from metal, buying nearly 15 times as much. But although Britons imported almost twice as much beer in bottles, they didn't seem too concerned about the aftertaste from cans, ranking number three in sales of both. Diageo says H2 in line, spirit growth lags By David Jones LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - British food and drinks group Diageo Plc on Tuesday said trading in the second half of its year to June 30 was in line with its own expectations, but volume growth in wines and spirits lagged its first half.
``Trading performance in the second half of the year was in line with our overall expectations at the time of our interim announcement and we are therefore on track to achieve our targets in terms of operating profits in the year just ended,'' Chief Executive John McGrath said in a statement. The group issued the trading update for the second half of its financial year up to June 30 ahead of the announcement of its full-year results on September 7. The company said its United Distillers and Vintners (UDV) wine and spirits division was expected to show turnover growth up nine percent for the full year on an organic basis. But it added that wines and spirits annual volumes were expected to be up two percent on an organic basis compared to first half growth of six percent, while volumes of its key nine spirits brands will be four to five percent ahead compared to up nine percent in its July-December 1999 first half. Its shares drifted off 14-1/2 pence to 590p by 1240 GMT in a largely mixed London stock market, after they had traded down 1-1/2p just before the trading statement. The company said the abolition of European duty free led to a fall of sales of its nine priority spirits brands of 700,000 12-bottle cases in the year, and second half volumes of these nine brands was expected to be down by about two percent. Its packaged foods Pillsbury unit is expected to see volumes and sales slightly down, while operating profits will be flat to slightly up over last year as a result of acquisitions and organic growth in food services. Total beer volume is expected up one percent, with the Guinness beer brand seeing volumes two percent ahead. Its Burger King hamburger chain, which Diageo decided last month to float off, is expected to see system sales for the full year up about six percent driven by new restaurant openings, but worldwide comparable restaurant sales for the year are expected to be flat. Diageo made no mention of the future of Pillsbury which market sources believe the group will attempt to merge with another U.S. food group in a deal which could value Pillsbury at around six billion pounds ($9 billion). Diageo shares have underperformed the FTSE All Share Index by around eight percent over the last 12 months, but have managed to keep pace with other drinks stocks. Diageo shares were at 583 pence when it was formed in December 1997 from a merger of GrandMet and Guinness, rose to a closing high of 778-1/2p by July 1998 but then fell to a low of 375p in March this year as investors switched to high-tech stocks. The Wall Street Transcript Publishes Analyst Comments on Bass in Lodging Industry Issue
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2000--Eight leading analysts and top management from five sector firms examine the Lodging sector in the latest issue of The Wall Street Transcript (212/952-7433) or http://www.twst.com/info/info127.htm In a vital review of this sector for investors and industry professionals, this valuable 62-page Special Issue features: Highlights Bass (NYSE:<A HREF="aol://4785:BAS">BAS</A>): "They have recently announced that they're selling their brewing business and are going to get a check for somewhere in the ballpark of $3 billion. So that's the company that's really on the prowl, acquisition-wise." http://WWW.BREWORLD.COM/NEWS/BEERNEWS/STORIES/12718.htm Date: 10/07/2000 Although Australia’s two leading brewers are spending millions campaigning against a new goods and services tax, the rest of the population appear less concerned. The new tax system was introduced last week and the predicted anger from customers about subsequent rising prices did not materialise. Australian Prime Minister John Howard wanted the old system replaced because he said it failed to target Australia's booming service industries, which now make up 75% of the total economy. Lower corporate tax rates allow Australia to better compete with Asian centres, such as Singapore. For retailers, the new tax replaced wholesale sales taxes of between 12% and 45% on most goods. Foster's and Lion Nathan are spending millions on an advertising and a legal campaign against the tax. Lion Nathan says the price of packaged beer has risen 6%, while beer sold in a bar 8%. http://www.peteswicked.com/news/bnews/bnews_200028.html
GREENE KING PROFITS UP ON PUB ACQUISITIONS Greene King Plc, owners of Hungry Horse pubs and recent purchasers of Morland Plc's bars and pubs, reported annual profits up 6.4% on increased pub sales, according to a Bloomberg report. The makers of Abbot Ales reported profits from operations rose to 38.3 million pounds ($57.4 million), up over two million pounds from last year's 36 million pounds. Last year's earnings of 59.2 pence per share dropped to 54.2p due to the cost of the Morland acquisition. Annual dividends of 22.5 pence per share were up from last year's 20.3p per share. "They've done all they said they would do and the outlook is fairly promising," said Nigel Popham, analyst at Teather & Greenwood Ltd. "Greene King is very stable and will produce steady growth." Sales were up 42% to 414.1 million pounds; brewing sales jumped 40% to 81.6 million pounds. Revenue from Greene King's managed pubs, including the Hungry Horse chain, rose 38% to 258.4 million pounds. "We generally traded better as the year went on and had quite a strong second half," said chief executive Tim Bridge. S&N SHARES DOWN ON POOR PUB PERFORMANCE Scottish & Newcastle Plc reported that shares dropped 7.4% due to lower pub sales because of rising costs and price competition, according to a July 4 Bloomberg report. Higher labor costs led to reduced investment, and rival pub chains reduced prices to snare customers, analysts said. "There is a lot of promise (pub sales) will be better this year," said Ian Shackleton, analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., "but it is a promise rather than delivery and you've got a market that is pretty unforgiving." Recent figures have caused analysts to lower their forecasts for annual earnings for fiscal 2001. Shackleton now expects a 4% lower figure of 54.7 pence. S&N shares fell 39 pence to 489p and have fallen 30% in the past 12 months. S&N purchased De Vere Group Plc's pub chain last year in order to replace some of its poorly performing pubs with more profitable locations. It then sold 800 of its managed pubs and plans to sell 200 more. S&N also purchased France's Kronenbourg beer business and is expecting regulatory approval within the next week. It is possible that S&N will sell its pubs business to fund further brewery acquisitions. "To get the funds they are quite likely to sell the pubs business," said Nigel Popham of Teather & Greenwood Ltd. Major Peters' Advertises 'Major Escape' on BEVision; New In-Store Network For Liquor Stores Provides Resource To Educate Consumers About In-Store Product Promotions FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000--BEVision, a new in-store television network for beer, wine and spirits retailers nationwide that is wholly owned and operated by RMS Networks, will run an 30-second spot through August 2000 featuring Major Peters' and its Major Escape Summer promotion. Currently, BEVision is airing a segment that features Major Peters' and its Bloody Mary bar promotion. Under the terms of the sweepstakes promotion, one grand prize winner will receive round-trip air travel for two to Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands and a seven day/six night stay at Peter Island Resort. In addition, 100 first-prize winners will receive a Major Peters' Beach Kit. Entries must be postmarked by August 31, 2000 and the prize drawing will take place on September 15, 2000. "We are pleased to have Major Peters' as a network sponsor," said Michael Sobel, vice president advertising sales. BEVision is a new point-of-decision communications and advertising tool that is provided at no cost to U.S. beer, wine and spirits retailers. Designed to influence in-store sales as well as enhance the retail environment, BEVision segments entertain customers while they shop and feature a variety of topics, from wine pairing and mixed drink recipes, to bar stocking tips for home parties and industry trends. Programming is produced using original content, as well as content obtained from various programming suppliers, including CNN, E!
Entertainment, Fox, Time Warner and Ziff Davis. It consists of broadcast-quality, full motion video and high quality sound delivered through strategically placed monitors in retail locations. About Major Peters' Major Peters' is the nation's number one on-premise Bloody Mary mix, made with 100 natural ingredients, including vine-ripened California tomatoes, a proprietary spice pack (which includes more than 40 distinctive spices) and an industry-leading 94% tomato juice content. Created for the Bloody Mary drinker who demands quality and award-winning taste, Major Peters' Bloody Mary mix is available in four varieties: Original, Salsa, Hot & Spicy and The Works. Major Peters' is also the manufacturer of a variety of cocktail mix flavors, including an award-winning Margarita mix and mixes for Raspberry, Strawberry and Banana Daiquiris, Rum Runners, and Pina Coladas. Major Peters' is manufactured am marketed by Beverage Specialties Limited, a unit of The Red Wing Company, Inc. Additional information regarding Major Peters' can be accessed at www.majorpeters.com. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking%5Fpoint/newsid%5F823000/823267.stm
Tuesday, 11 July, 2000, 14:26 GMT 15:26 UK Rites of passage: What did you do? Euan Blair was probably not alone in choosing to get drunk to celebrate the end of his exams this week. It just so happens that he is the son of the British Prime Minister, so his youthful escapade turned into national news when he was arrested late on Wednesday night. But no one is being very hard on young Euan. After all, having a few too many drinks is a pretty common rite of passage into adulthood in Britain and many other countries. What were your worst adolescent excesses? Are you prepared to go into print with them? What do teenagers do in your country? Send us your rite-of-passage memories. *** A friend and I saved our dinner money for a few weeks and used it to buy a bottle of whisky. We despatched the liquor over a school lunchtime and then staggered, and fell, and crawled back to school. In the afternoon the whole school had to march down to the local church for the Christmas service. When I got home, I slept on the sofa for hours. My parents thought I had had a hard term and was exhausted; it was only some years later that the truth was revealed. Geraint, Belgium **** During my first week at University a friend and I were sat beside each other in the pub. I turned to face him and noticed that he had gone very pale. He then started to be sick, but somehow managed to 'keep it in', until he coughed. At which point an accelerated flow of vomit hit the well dressed woman sitting opposite us. I turned to look back at my friend to find him already running out of the pub, I then turned back to look at his victim, who had only then realised what had happened as she stared in horror at the new design on her dress! Matthew Dutton, UK **** "Beer. The cause of and solution to all our problems." Homer Simpson. John Keagy, USA-Chicago **** My introduction to alcohol at the age of 17 led to me accepting a dare to streak for about a mile along a deserted high street at midnight. Unfortunately the night shift at the local constabulary were on their toes that night and I was arrested by a WPC following a short chase - I wasn't very fast even then. When I was marched into the police station everyone dissolved into laughter at the sight of me and my captor. After a night in the cells with only a blanket, which had certainly not been washed with conditioner, to keep me warm I was released without charge. So Euan, if you had done that, imagine the front page of the Sun! It could have been much worse... Eric Davidson, Scotland ***** My boyfriend drank a litre bottle of Martini (of all things) the night before his English O level. His friends pushed him home in a supermarket trolley at 2.30am, banged on the front door and scarpered. His parents were livid, next day he slept through most of the exam. He became an electrician - that was his punishment. Catherine, Scotland **** Unfortunately I have only my parents to tell me exactly what I did. Ten years on the re-telling of the tale no longer reduces my mother to tears. The evening started quite normally with a few beers and ended with me handcuffed naked to a flagpole with a goat chained to my ankle. I'm sure my parents would have much rather I was found drunk in Leicester Square. I hope Euan has more luck than me and grows out of such stupidity! Dave Jones, UK **** I can vaguely remember going out on my 16th birthday and getting completely smashed on snake-bite (cider and lager). I'd managed to somehow make my way home but was rudely awaken early Saturday morning by my none-too-pleased mother, demanding to know why there was vomit all over the toilet. Needless to say, to teach me a lesson I was made to clean it all up - not too pleasant a job when you've got a pounding headache and your brains are leaking out of your ears! Quite what this valuable lesson taught me has obviously been slightly lost over the years, as I'm twice that age now and I still sometimes drink to excess at the weekends! Well, it's a British tradition, isn't it? Chin chin! Dave Strong, UK **** When you're young, anything "forbidden" and attributed to "mature" adults is the ultimate goal: sex, alcohol, driving. It is "cool", improves your image among peers, makes you feel confident therefore. The first time I got really drunk (so I couldn't walk) was when I was 10, celebrating passing some exams in Russian school with friends. Since then getting drunk is not a self-goal for me, and I know my limits. So it's absolutely normal for Euan to have been drunk. He learned his lesson and he will avoid further mistakes. Andrej, Russia **** Doing a Euan? Very boring indeed isn't it? Sad to think that the entire populace thinks that getting drunk is the only way to celebrate the passing of an event. Then again, maybe that's the one thing the British can still do? We're certainly the laughing stock of Europe these-days aren't we? Chris, UK **** We celebrated finishing our O levels with lemonade and crisps on the school field. I don't remember celebrating my A levels at all. I celebrated Finals with champagne on the college quad, and ended up propositioning my tutor, who tactfully turned me down! Anon, England **** Perhaps the fact that the Prime Minister's son chose to celebrate the completion of his exams by knocking back a few pints is an indication that the UK is becoming a bit less class conscious. Way to go, Euan! Scott M. Erlandson, USA **** I am, and have always been impressed with the attitude toward alcohol in the United Kingdom. I can't even imagine the hoopla that would surround such a story in the United States if it were Chelsea Clinton who was found plastered. I can just hear the Republican right screaming about family values and how Bill Clinton was the devil who was corrupting the very core values that made us strong. I am pleased to read that even the Tories didn't seize on the Euan story to make cheap political gains. This is, after all, a story about a rite of passage, not the seventh sign of the apocalypse like it would be treated in the United States. Brandon Grover, United States *** I remember with shame one incident that occurred when me and my friends were out celebrating the end of our A-Levels. Of course, we were extremely inebriated. We ended up dressing up one of our colleagues as the "Grim Reaper" complete with scythe borrowed from his dad's garden shed, and getting him to stand in the middle of a country road. We ended up getting arrested after an old lady had phoned the police, terrified out of her mind and convinced that her time had come. I feel nothing but guilt now, looking back at the shameful incident, and thinking that we could have caused the poor old lady to have a heart attack! Ollie, England **** The first time I got really drunk, was when I was 12 and was supposed to be babysitting my 8 month old sister. Myself, my older brother and 3 friends decided to raid the drinks cabinet and play cards for shots. I hated the taste, but as I got drunker, I was deliberately losing so I could have more. I ended up completely scuttered!! I woke up the next morning, and my hair was sopping wet, and I was wrapped in a towel! I had to ask my friend why I'd woken up in this state. My mum had come home, found me comatose lying in my own vomit, and went mental!!! So she stripped me off and gave me a cold shower. It hasnt deterred me from going out on the "lash" every weekend, and the young Mr.Blair has got it all ahead of him! Deeds Hefferon, England **** Once in a bout of teenage rebellion, I kept out some library books beyond their return date. On another occasion, I ate a second helping of jelly and custard, even though I wasn't really hungry. Of course, I've calmed down a lot since then. Johnny, UK **** How sad the British nation has become. Their only pleasure in life is drink. Now they celebrate a child being unconscious on the street and say "good on you" to him. This nation needs to wake up to alcohol and reclaim some culture. Orville, USA **** Battered, bombed, bladdered, caned, doused, damaged, hammered, savaged, rattled, trounced &c &c, plus all of the unprintable versions, must prove that everyone does it. He'll learn as we've all done, but the lad should just be left alone; getting drunk, especially under-age is a totally normal thing to do. Matthew Illsley, England **** I drank 21 glasses of red and white wine from my parents cheap caskets and was found dancing around the house when they came home. Shortly after that I retired to my room, threw up all over the bed and passed out. When I came to, I was so embarrassed that I told my parents I'd eaten some olives from the fridge that were obviously off. They humoured me and threw the offending olives out - bless them! My room stunk of alcohol for 3 days and they never said a word... Pippin Sadler, UK **** Although I don't like people getting drunk, I was very proud of Euan. This young man didn't want to embarass his own father, and bravely faced the situation, even when he had to get through some lies. But still he was a good son to a good father. Mr. Blair, be proud of your son, he's unlike many others his age, he's a son who caters for his parents. He is a God. Something missed a lot in your society. Moataz M. Abou-Eita, Egypt. **** At about age 16 while out walking with my father (who was fond of a pint or two) we witnessed a guy stagger out of a pub reeling drunk. He just about made it to the kerb before vomiting copiously then collapsing in the gutter. My father looked at me shaking his head in obvious disgust and said "son, drink whatever you like, but if you can't handle it don't drink it" good advice that I am about to pass on to my own son. Alan Lewis, England **** As an American who grew up in the UK I have no shame in saying that I've been drinking since I was 15! Now I'm 19 living back in the USA where the drinking age is 21, and more teenagers have access to drugs then to alcohol! I find this insulting and frustrating, especially when at 18 I was considered old enough to get drafted into the army to die for my country in a war, but I'm still legally too young to have a drink! Drinking restrictions only lead to rebellion among teens, they need to be relaxed! Besides who cares if Euan Blair goes out drinking, he is certainly not the only 16 year old in Britain who does drink large amounts of alcohol in one night! I cannot even begin to imagine the uproar in America if Chelsea Clinton was caught drinking! Darren, USA (from UK) **** Can anyone remember enjoying being drunk? It's time to find a better way of celebrating all our special occasions. Drugs, sex, rock and roll. Good stuff but at the age of sixteen and living in Singapore, the first 2 were really hard to get. Once ensconced in the UK for A-level studies, I can recall how non-plussed my UK peers were about these indulgences. There was nothing taboo about it. I never realised a vice could be so underwhelming. Forbidden fruit always tastes better when you can't get any! Alexander Schooling, UK *** I am a little stunned to see how pervasive the English attitude of embracing inebriation is. In American universities, students get wasted just as often but we are not so vocally proud about it, and from what I have seen in my travels in Britain, we are quicker to grow out of it. Charles Sviokla, USA **** Having completed my finals at university, 5 friends and I embarked on an epic drinking binge around London. I was ejected from a trendy night club at 2:30 am for having feigned an asthma attack and then vomited all over the bar. When I was eventually stopped by the police while stumbling across Hyde Park Corner, I realised that I could remember neither my address, or my name! I have, of course, learnt NOTHING from this experience. Jonathan King, Switzerland *** When I was a laddie we used to cycle to Inverness on a Friday night and climb to the top of the Wallace monument where we would swallow meths from a bicycle inner tube. We called this 'gurking' because you used to inflate the tube with a pump which would force the meths down your throat when you released the valve. It just goes to show that jeopardising your mental and physical health whilst putting yourself at risk of severe physical injury is a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to do! Liam Kane, Scotland **** I wonder what the nations response would have been if Euan had been arrested for cannabis or ecstasy?? It seems its ok in this country to drink yourself to the point of passing out and throwing up everywhere. If he was found in the same condition having abused any other kind of drug, there would have been a national outcry. I love a drink just like everyone else, it would just be nice if everyone realised that a night of drinking leaves you much worse off than most other recreational drugs. Andrew Welch, England **** I was 16 years old and drank 18 cans of export lager, and then when that ran out I drank half a bottle of Whiskey. As a result I spent 3 hours vomiting and then had to be carried home (five miles) as the taxi driver wouldn't take me. Then half way home my friend accidentally dropped me on my face in the local high street. I spent the rest of the night in A&E. I still have the flattened nose, a lovely 12 inch scar on the top of my head and another 5 inch scar on my eyebrow to prove it. Euan Blair should consider himself lucky to have been found by the police. Steve, UK *** Well done Euan ! There's no shame in what you did. We have all done it. Just one piece of advice... Don't drink in Leicester Square, you can get a lot more hammered for your money around Camden. Dylan, UK **** I cannot forget my friend who drank from a big bucket of "cocktail". It was at the age of 20, final years of graduation, a bucket was filled with all sorts of drinks, including some country stuff. My friend drank mugs of that cocktail. He was almost at edge of his life. That event spoiled the whole fun. Cheliyan, India **** I went to a boarding school and we were very sheltered from the real world. I think the most ridiculous thing was after an afternoon drinking a bottle of martini (sweet of course!) an older girl told us that you could get high if you crushed up Refreshers and sniffed them. We duly sent a younger girl off the school grounds (very naughty) to buy some Refreshers, and spent some considerable time when she returned, smashing the sweets on the carpet with our school shoes, and inhaling the sugary mess. Needless to say, it didn't work, and we had a fair bit of mess to clean up... Kate, England
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beer bits |
Peter Alexander |
7/11/00 12:00 AM |
On 11 Jul 2000 15:24:49 GMT, j2ju...@aol.com (J2jurado) wrote: > >Americans, the biggest importer of the bottled product, clearly prefer the >flavour of beer from a glass container to that from metal, buying nearly 15 >times as much. > >But although Britons imported almost twice as much beer in bottles, they didn't >seem too concerned about the aftertaste from cans, ranking number three in >sales of both. Largely supermarket own brands I would venture. > >S&N SHARES DOWN ON POOR PUB PERFORMANCE > >Scottish & Newcastle Plc reported that shares dropped 7.4% due to lower pub >sales because of rising costs and price competition, according to a July 4 >Bloomberg report. Higher labor costs led to reduced investment, and rival pub >chains reduced prices to snare customers, analysts said.
So Britains biggest brewer can't sell enough beer in it's own pubs? Small surprise given: a) excessive price b) piss poor beer >"To get the funds they are quite likely to sell the pubs business," said Nigel >Popham of Teather & Greenwood Ltd. That means these daft analysts who don't believe in vertical integration want them to sell the pubs. > >Euan Blair was probably not alone in choosing to get drunk to celebrate the end >of his exams this week. It just so happens that he is the son of the British >Prime Minister, so his youthful escapade turned into national news when he was >arrested late on Wednesday night. Hmm. Not sure that I care for these stories. Though I am not sure, I have a sneaking feeling I know why. Peter Alexander Chairman CAMRA Rochdale Oldham and Bury Branch Unless otherwise stated,the opinions stated here are personal. My CAMRA connections are given for information only. |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/12/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.busch.com/story/main1C.htmlBusch Beer evolution FOOD DAY / WEDNESDAY / FOOD TALK ( Newsday )
Something Good Is Brewing 7-7-00 - Southampton Publick House was a winner at World Beer Cup award ceremonies last month in Manhattan. The East End brewery claimed a silver medal in the Irish-style red ale category with its Sullivan's Irish Ale, which finished second among 17 entries. Another area winner, the Brooklyn Brewery, was awarded a gold medal for its Blanche de Brooklyn, a Belgian wheat beer. The World Beer Cup competition is held every two years under the auspices of the Colorado-based Association of Brewers. This year's judging by 65 professionals was held in Milwaukee in April, when 1,127 beers produced by 371 breweries in 39 counties were entered in 640 categories. Founders Food & Firkins Ltd. Celebrates Granite City Food & Brewery's First Anniversary in St. Cloud, Minn. St. Cloud Restaurant/Micro-Brewery Celebrates with Unique Belgian Cherry-Brewed Beer Handcrafted by World-Renowned Brewmaster; First Time Brewed in North America MINNEAPOLIS, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Founders Food & Firkins Ltd. (Nasdaq: GCFBU) ("Founders"), announced today that it is celebrating its first anniversary as Granite City Food & Brewery in St. Cloud, Minn. Granite City St. Cloud is marking their success with a two-month limited run of a specialty, handcrafted beer brewed for the first time in North America: a unique Belgian summer beer named "Cherries Galore!." The brewing of the unique "Cherries Galore!" beer was overseen by William E. Burdick, cofounder, brewmaster and board chairman of Founders. Burdick is an early pioneer in the craft-brewing industry and regularly writes and lectures nationally on beer and brewing. Under Burdick's direction, the day-to-day brewing functions are carried out by graduated European brewers. Each Granite City Brewery is equipped as a full-scale, from-scratch brewery, including a scientific laboratory which requires a degreed brewer to operate. In contrast, many microbrewery operations use pre-packaged brewing "kits" and "cans" for their beers. "'Cherries Galore!' is a great summer beer brewed in the long tradition of beers brewed with fruit in Europe, particularly in Belgium," said Burdick. "Cherry, 'saisson' style beers are common in Belgium, but rarely seen in North America, which is a shame when you first experience the beautiful color, wonderful bouquet and subtle taste of this beer. Its really perfect to enjoy outside on a summer day. We've had many orders for it from our summer patio," noted Burdick. The St. Cloud Granite City location opened in late June 1999, and was overwhelmingly welcomed to the greater St. Cloud area. From its opening day, Granite City has enjoying great success and record numbers of patrons eager to try the handcrafted brews and made-from-scratch foods. Founders plans to open other Granite City locations in the next two years. The Company recently announced a groundbreaking for its Sioux Falls, S.D. location. Granite City provides fresh, high quality, made-to-order food and handcrafted beers, both made on site. Granite City offers a broad menu of traditional and regional foods served in generous portions at reasonable prices, designed to offer customers an excellent value and pleasant dining experience. Diageo disappoints on Pillsbury and BK
By David Jones LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) - British food and drinks group Diageo Plc gave a downbeat trading update on Tuesday, heightening investor hopes it will push ahead with a breakup of the company to include its troubled U.S. food unit Pillsbury. With no signs of recovery at Pillsbury and its fast food chain Burger King in the U.S., analysts said this would increase pressure on management to divest Pillsbury after it announced a planned flotation of Burger King last month. Diageo is increasing its focus on its alcohol-beverage core of UDV wines and spirits and Guinness beer which make two-thirds of group profits, and is expected to merge its chubby-cheeked doughboy Pillsbury unit with another U.S. food group. Its shares dropped 14-1/2 pence on the trading update but recovered to end off 1/2p at 604p in a slightly firmer London market as investors focused on a solid performance from UDV and beer which could form the backbone of a slimmed-down group. Diageo shares have underperformed the FTSE All Share Index by eight percent over the last 12 months, and although they have managed to keep pace with other drinks stocks, investors are pressing for a breakup to release shareholder value. Drinks analyst Andrew Gowan at Lehman Brothers said the trading update was ``slightly disappointing and generally neutral,'' but he was keeping the stock as a ``hold'' on hopes of a future break-up, while another analyst said there was no sign of any early recovery at either Pillsbury or Burger King. The group said trading in its second half of January-June was in line with its expectations and it was on track to achieve profit targets when it reports year results on September 7. NO WORD ON PILLSBURY MERGER The company added Pillsbury is expected to see volumes and sales slightly down in the year, but annual operating profits will be flat to slightly up as a result of acquisitions and organic growth in its food services business. It made no mention of the future of Pillsbury with its dough products, Green Giant vegetables and Haagen-Dazs ice-cream which is valued at around six billion pounds ($9 billion). The Burger King hamburger chain, which Diageo decided last month to float off, is expected to see system sales for the year up about six percent driven by new openings, but annual worldwide comparable restaurant sales are expected to be flat. This implies its U.S. largely-franchised restaurants are seeing sales down around 1-2 percent and there is no upturn in sight ahead of an initial 20 percent float next year expected to value the fast food unit at around 2.5 billion pounds. Its UDV division, with its Johnnie Walker scotch, Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin, was expected to show turnover growth up nine percent for the full year on an organic basis, but the division saw a slow-down in growth in the second half. Wines and spirits annual volumes are expected to be up two percent on an organic basis compared to first half growth of six percent, while volumes of its key nine spirits brands will be four to five percent ahead compared to up nine percent in its July-December 1999 first half.
The company said the abolition of European duty free led to a fall of sales of its nine priority spirits brands of 700,000 12-bottle cases in the year, and
second half volumes of these nine brands is expected to be down by about two percent. Total beer volumes are expected up one percent, with the Guinness brand seeing volumes two percent ahead, although its biggest market for the stout brand -- Ireland -- will see volumes off four percent. Diageo Trading Statement
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000--Diageo (NYSE: DEO), the international food and drinks company, today announced the following trading statement ahead of its preliminary statement of results for the year ended June 30, 2000, which is to be issued on September 7, 2000. Commenting on this trading statement, Group Chief Executive John McGrath said: "In the year to June 2000 our Spirits and Wine business has performed strongly. We have achieved a high level of sales growth through volume growth, robust pricing action and mix improvement. This strength continues to be centered around the global priority brands and on our major markets. As anticipated Packaged Food will achieve modest organic growth in the year. Foodservice continued to perform strongly and in Pillsbury North America in the second half, we reduced marketing spend on trade promotions which had delivered volume growth in the first half of the year but not operating profit growth. Our beer business is developing a more efficient cost structure and margins have improved again in the year. In Quick Service Restaurants we have continued to implement a significant restaurant opening program and to drive strong International performance. We have also begun to implement the transformation program which has tested so well during the year. "Trading performance in the second half of the year was in line with our overall expectations at the time of our interim announcement and we are
therefore on track to achieve our targets in terms of operating profit in the year just ended." Spirits and Wine This was the first full year of UDV's strategy . Increased focus behind the key brands has delivered turnover growth, expected to be up 9% for the full year on an organic basis. This is the result of strong pricing action and mix improvement particularly on the global priority brands (GPBs). Turnover of the GPBs is expected to be up 10 %. Total reported volume was affected by disposals and by the discontinuation of non-core brands. Volume is expected to be up by 2% on an organic basis, with volume of the global priority brands anticipated to be up between 4% and 5% for the full year. The abolition of European duty free sales has led to a reduction in sales of the GPBs of approximately 700,000 cases in the year, equivalent to nearly a percentage point of volume growth. In the second half, volume of the GPBs was, as expected, down by about 2% but net sales value was up 3% as a result of continued focus on price re-positioning supported by increased marketing. Volume of the local priority brands will be up about 10% in the full year as a result of strong performances by Dimple in Korea, Stolichnaya in the United States, and Smirnoff Ice in the United Kingdom. Wine volume is expected to be down 2% for the full year. Volume improved in the second half, driven in part by the successful re-launch of the Glen Ellen brand in the US and the success of Blossom Hill in the UK. Investment in marketing has continued to increase strongly, mainly behind the GPBs, and on an organic basis the increase in marketing is expected to be 12% for the full year. In UDV's major markets of the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain the business has continued to perform strongly with volume expected to be up by 7% and net sales value up 15%. Marketing spend increased over 15% on the GPBs in these markets. In UDV's key Asian markets, the decision to continue to support the brands during the period after the economic collapse there in 1997 has provided a strong platform for volume and profit growth in Thailand and Taiwan. Volume in both countries was up over 20%. In Latin America the economic difficulties in that region have had an impact on trading performance, however, the local priority brands have continued to increase market share. Packaged Food As anticipated at the time of the interim announcement, volume and sales in Packaged Food are expected to be slightly down compared with last year. However, operating profit will be flat to slightly up over last year as a result of acquisitions and organic growth in the Foodservice business. In Pillsbury North America, volume and sales are expected to decline on an organic basis by about 2%. In the Dough categories, consumer takeaway has been in line with last year. Strong performance in the Pizza and Hot Snacks category and in Toaster Pastries has continued in the second half. In the non-Dough categories, the Progresso brand continues to perform very strongly with consumer takeaway up over 10%. In the Mexican meals segment, the Old El Paso brand has grown 2% against a market up 1% due mainly to a new dinner kit introduction, which was successfully launched in January. The reduction in promotional spend in other non-dough categories has, as anticipated, led to lower volume in the second half. In Foodservice, volume and sales will be up strongly as a result of the impact of acquisitions and organic growth. In International, volume will be up slightly year on year. Marketing spend in Packaged Food was down in the second half against the prior year but will be up for the full year. Ice Cream Partners, the joint venture formed in October 1999 with Nestle, is beginning to deliver stronger consumer takeaway and market share improvement. Beer Total Beer volume is expected to be up 1% with Guinness brand volume up 2%. Volume of the Guinness brand in Ireland is expected to be down 4% for the full year. In Great Britain, the Guinness brand has continued to perform strongly against a declining beer market and volumes will be up 3% for the full year. In Africa, the re-imposition of excise duty in Nigeria slowed volume growth of the Guinness brand in that market to 5% in the second half and therefore volume for the full year in Africa is likely to be up about 7%. Volume of the Guinness brand is likely to be up 2% in Asia Pacific for the full year with strong growth in the second half in Indonesia off set by the decline in beer consumption in Malaysia and Singapore. In the United States, Draught Guinness depletions are expected to be up over 10% for the full year. Shipments are expected to be up 6% in the second half and down 1% for the full year as a result of the program to reduce stock levels in the first half of the year. Marketing investment as a percentage of sales will be up in the full year. Margin has continued to improve during the year as a result of supply chain efficiencies and a reduction in overheads. Quick Service Restaurants System sales for the full year are expected to be up about 6% driven by new restaurant openings. World-wide comparable restaurant sales for the year are expected to be flat. Burger King in the United States has now completed the transition from Ameriserve to new regional distributors. The US transformation programme, which has been developed and tested through the last year, is now being rolled out and over 1100 franchised restaurants have committed to implement these changes to restaurant image and drive-thru. The International business continues to perform strongly. In Europe 220 new restaurant openings and 2% comparable restaurant sales growth in both Germany and the United Kingdom have driven a 10% increase in system sales. In Latin America the system has also performed well with comps up 4%. Exceptional Items In February 2000 DCA was acquired and in March 2000 changes were announced to the Packaged Food operations based in Minneapolis aimed at reducing cost and refocusing the sales organisation there. Operating cost net exceptional charges of $80 million will arise in respect of integration and restructuring costs. The sale of Grupo Cruzcampo SA to Heineken NV during the second half of the year resulted in an exceptional gain of approximately (pound)80 million. Also in the second half of the year costs of $60 million were incurred in respect of the transition to a new distribution system for Burger King in the United States. This will be partially offset by exceptional income of $28 million, which arises as part of Burger King's transformation programme. Burger King has incentivised franchisees with phased royalty changes for a specified time if they agree to new franchise agreements and to upgrade to the new restaurant image within two years. These items are in addition to the exceptional charges in the interim announcement. Exchange rates As anticipated at the time of the interim announcement the adverse impact of exchange rate movements on profit before exceptional items and taxation is expected to be approximately (pound)35 million. Diageo is a multinational branded food and drinks company that operates in more than 200 countries through four businesses - UDV, Pillsbury, Guinness and Burger King. Diageo ADRs, equivalent to four Diageo shares, trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DEO. Police target boozing youth ( The Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand) )
07-05-2000, pp 3. - Drunk teenagers are again being targeted by Wellington police, who are prosecuting a parent for supplying a 16-year-old with a 40oz bottle of vodka.
Senior Sergeant Paul Berry said there was growing concern at the number of young drunks travelling into the city and causing trouble outside the new alcohol-free youth club Zeal in Victoria St. Many of the troublemakers had come from outside Wellington City, said Mr Berry, with the intention of picking fights. Last year Wellington police launched Operation Youth after a series of attacks by teenage drunks in the city. In resulted in more than 50 youngsters being dealt with, but now the problem has reared its head again. On Friday, June 23, police made about 20 arrests for disorder and assaults outside Zeal. Many of those arrested were drunk and aged under 18. Last Friday about 30 drunk people aged under 18 were taken to the central police station and their parents informed. "There were several unprovoked assaults on innocent people," Mr Berry said. "One victim received loosened front teeth, another was taken to hospital with minor facial injuries." He said several people were issued with liquor infringement notices for being a minor in possession of alcohol in a public place. The notices carry a $200 instant fine. One parent is being prosecuted for supplying alcohol to a minor. "Most of the parents coming to pick up their children were clearly embarrassed by what had happened. They were unaware their kids were in town and drinking alcohol." Mr Berry said that while it was difficult, parents needed to be more aware of where their children were going and who with. Police supported the aims of Zeal organisers in attempting to provide a safe environment for young people in the city, he said. Wellington Mayor Mark Blumsky was meeting Police Minister George Hawkins today and planned to ask him to support a call that police adopt a zero tolerance stance on under-age drinkers. He wants police to issue instant $200 fines to all minors found with alcohol. "We're also working closely with the police to promote an increased police presence in the central city." The council is looking at improving the safety of the area around Zeal and increasing lighting. Qld; Drink for taste, not to get drunk, conference told ( AAP General News (Australia) ) BRISBANE, July 4 AAP - An advertising campaign is teaching Canadians to develop a healthier relationship with alcohol by drinking for taste and not get drunk, a conference was told today. Hubert Stacy is the director-general of Educ'alcool (Educ'alcool) - a Quebec-based non-profit organisation devoted to alcohol education. Speaking at the 2000 Winter School in the Sun drug abuse conference in Brisbane, Mr Stacy said the aim of the Quebec program was to teach people to drink better, not to drink more. He said that drinking was a cultural activity and varied from country to country where binge drinking was often widespread. The average Frenchman enjoyed 28 drinks a week, spread equally over various meals, while Scandinavians drank the same amount but on only two occasions - 14 drinks on Friday night and another 14 on Saturday night. "In the culture of taste, you drink because you enjoy the taste," Mr Stacy said in a paper presented to the conference. "But when you're drunk, you can't taste things properly, so it's important not to lose that sense of taste. "What we have to do is make people drink better." This involved a sensible, balanced approach to drinking, with moderation as the key. What was classed as "moderate drinking" varied from person to person and so Educ'alcool targeted school children from an early age, trying to instill in them an appreciation of the pleasures of drinking and not the effects of drunkenness, Mr Stacy said. Those people regarded as most at risk of alcohol abuse were college and university students, where the message of moderate drinking was none too subtle, he said. "We try to take the glamour out of getting drunk and we point out that in the mating game, being drunk can lead to unpleasant surprises," Mr Stacy said.
Quebecers, whom he described as "notorious bon vivants" were also told that regular moderate drinking of one to two drinks a day protected against cardiovascular disease but four drinks would not double the benefits. The mass media advertising and education had worked to the extent that 98 per cent of Quebec's population was familiar with Educ'alcool. The results were obvious in the decrease in road accidents, hospitalisation time and mortality rates, he said. Despite the fact that the state-owned alcohol monopoly the Quebec Liquor Corporation had increased its sales by 10 per cent over the last two years, total consumption had only risen by three per cent and per capita consumption was only up by one per cent. "This means people are buying better quality, more expensive products, rather than more litres of alcohol," Mr Stacy said. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1975634&ern=y
German beer tastes best in bottles, foreigners say BERLIN, July 11 (Reuters) - German beer sells better abroad when it comes in bottles, the Federal Statistics Office said on Tuesday. Germany, which makes brewers conform to a 16th century purity law to protect the prestige of their pils, exported about 311 million litres of bottled beer last year, 85 million litres more than was sold in cans. But France, never a country to be dictated to in matters of taste, bucked the trend, importing 65 million litres of canned German beer and outpacing Spain as the biggest consumer of it. Americans, the biggest importer of the bottled product, clearly prefer the flavour of beer from a glass container to that from metal, buying nearly 15 times as much.
But although Britons imported almost twice as much beer in bottles, they didn't seem too concerned about the aftertaste from cans, ranking number three in sales of both. http://WWW.BREWORLD.COM/NEWS/COMPANYNEWS/STORIES/12716.htm
German Brewers To Merge 10/07/2000 - Bayerische Brau-Holding and Brau und Brunnen brewery companies in Germany ave joined forces in a bid to cut costs and expand their share of the market. Details of the transaction have yet to be agreed between the owners of the two companies, the Schoerghuber group in the case of Bayerische and Hypovereisnank for Brau. The combination will create a beer and soft-drink company with annual sales of
about DM2.43bn thanks to brands such as Paulaner and Jerver an with a market share that should take the two firms ahead of Germany’s biggest brewer, Holsten. ``We expect increased earnings thanks to cost cuts in particular in the areas of logistics, distribution, purchasing and information technology,'' the
companies said. Germany has more than 1,200 brewers, many of which are planning joint ventures as sales have been sluggish for years as drinkers look to imports. Brau und Brunnen lost DM86.8m in 1999 and has been in the red in four of the past five years. BrauHolding is profitable, but barely makes money in its beer business. A recent tax change in Germany could lead to yet more sales in the coming months. The government is planning to scrap a tax on asset sales of as much as 50% no later than 2002. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1974808&ern=y
Quilmes to control 86.51 pct of Argentina's BAESA BUENOS AIRES, July 10 (Reuters) - Quilmes Industrial SA said Monday its subsidiary Cerveceria y Malteria Quilmes, Argentina's top beer maker, will control 86.51 percent of local bottler Buenos Aires Embotelladora SA following the completion of its tender offer for the company. Quilmes' bid at $5 per share for Pepsi-bottler BAESA ended July 7. However, it will pay shareholders who accepted the tender offer on July 12, it said in a statement. "Thus, following purchase of the Class B shares and (American Depositary Shares), Quilmes will own 24,318,092 Class B shares and 89,331,344 ADSs, and its stake in BAESA will be 86.51 percent," it said. It did not state what its previous stake was. The offer was launched May 31. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1977863&ern=y
Bonfils Blood Center Dedicates New Blood Donation Bus to Colorado; Adolph Coors Foundation Funds Bus to Reach Communities of Color DENVER, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Bonfils Blood Center, the Bonfils Blood Center Foundation and the Adolph Coors Foundation dedicate Colorado's newest blood donation bus to the community at 10:00 AM, July 14. The dedication will occur in conjunction with a community blood drive at Curtis Park Community Center at 25th and Curtis streets in Denver. The newest addition to Bonfils' fleet was made possible by a $150,000 grant from the Adolph Coors Foundation to the Bonfils Blood Center Foundation. The foundation funded the bus to help Bonfils better involve communities of color in blood drives throughout Colorado. The new bus has already made appearances at this year's Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth celebrations. "Bonfils is very grateful to the Adolph Coors Foundation for the social leadership they have demonstrated with this grant," said Steve Metcalf, Executive Director of the Bonfils Blood Center Foundation. "They recognized a need to have more African Americans, Latinos and other communities feel included in the wonderful experience of giving the gift of life, and they have given us a valuable tool to make our outreach more effective."
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Pet Rock Inventor Also Worst Writer By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer 7/11/00 - SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The man who started the Pet Rock craze of the 1970s topped himself Tuesday -- or maybe sank to a new low -- by winning the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for really bad writing. Gary Dahl's truly awful winning entry: "The heather-encrusted Headlands, veiled in fog as thick as smoke in a crowded pub, hunched precariously over the moors, their rocky elbows slipping off land's end, their bulbous, craggy noses thrust into the thick foam of the North Sea like bearded old men falling asleep in their pints.'' In 1975, the advertising executive invented the Pet Rock, a rock in a cardboard box that sold for $3.95. Brilliant in its simplicity and absurdity, the Pet Rock caught on around the world and millions were sold. Dahl said his writing was inspired by a recent pub-hopping tour of England with his brother. "This is even more important than the Pet Rock,'' he said. "Now that I've won this award I can just hang it up. I'm finished. There's nothing else I can do.'' The contest, held annually since 1983 by professors in the English department at San Jose State University, dares entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. The competition is named for 19th century English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose book "Paul Clifford'' begins: "It was a dark and stormy night.''
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Wayne Drury Joins Pyramid Breweries as Chief Financial Officer SEATTLE & BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2000-- Pyramid Breweries Inc. (Nasdaq:PMID), today announced that Wayne Drury has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration, effective July 17, 2000. Drury, who will be based in Seattle, is filling a position that has been vacant since April of this year. "We have been searching for a top-flight financial executive to help us execute our growth strategy. Wayne has an outstanding background, and we are very excited to have him joining the Pyramid team," stated Martin Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Wayne has over 25 years of financial experience, including more than 15 years in the restaurant industry. In addition to his extensive background in accounting and finance, he brings significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, public and private company financing, as well as banking and investor relations." Drury comes to Pyramid from Azteca Restaurant Enterprises, a Seattle based company with 31 company owned and licensed locations. As Chief Financial Officer at Azteca, Drury was responsible for all finance, banking, acquisitions, financial reporting, risk management, tax planning and information systems management at the privately held company. Prior to Azteca, Drury was Chief Financial Officer at Country Harvest Restaurants, a company with $100 million in revenues. In addition, he has held the positions of Corporate Controller at Perkins Family Restaurants and KinderCare, as well as Director of Planning and Analysis at KFC International and Long John Silver's. He began his career as an accountant for Coopers & Lybrand. Drury earned both a BS in Accounting and a MBA from the University of Kentucky. "Wayne's experience in the restaurant business will be invaluable as we seek to expand the Alehouse Division," said Kelly. "Alehouses will play a pivotal role in developing our future business by creating brand awareness and serving as a focal point for sales and marketing efforts," Kelly added. "We believe this strategy will enhance the 'local status' of our brand, and provide clear differentiation from our competitors." "Pyramid has tremendous potential, and I am very excited about the demographic fundamentals of the specialty beverage category. It is a great time to be coming on board," noted Drury. "I look forward to helping grow the company, and lending my experience to the development of the Pyramid brand and the expansion of the Alehouse concept. I have been very impressed by the management team at Pyramid, and the commitment of management and the Board to their growth strategy." Drury joins a new executive team at Pyramid that has taken shape over the last 12 months. Martin Kelly joined the company in August of 1999 as President and COO, and he was elevated to the CEO position in December. Gary McGrath joined Pyramid in November as Vice President of Sales, and Nick Walpert signed on in March of 2000 as VP/COO of the Alehouse Division. In addition, Kurt Dammeier, took over the role of non-executive Chairman of the Board in December of 1999. Pyramid has had six straight quarters of year over year sales growth, and in the first quarter of 2000 reported an 85% increase in EBITDA. Over the last seven months the company has also implemented a share repurchase program and a quarterly dividend (the current dividend yield as of July 11th is 8.8%). Pyramid Breweries Inc. is one of the leading brewers of specialty, full-flavored beers and sodas, producing a variety of ales and lagers under the Pyramid and Thomas Kemper brand names. The company also brews four styles of old-fashioned sodas under the Thomas Kemper Soda Company label. Pyramid operates two local breweries and restaurants, the Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse in Seattle, Washington and the Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse in Berkeley, California. For more information, visit www.PyramidBrew.com. Statements concerning future performance, developments or events, concerning development and/or success of new Alehouse locations and any other guidance on future periods, constitute forward-looking statements which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that might cause actual events to differ materially from stated expectations Big Rock Brewery Ltd. Plans To Repurchase Common Shares CALGARY, July 12 /CNW-PRN/ - BIG ROCK BREWERY LTD. (``Big Rock'') (NASDAQ : BEERF) (TSE: BR) announces that it has notified the Toronto Stock Exchange and other applicable regulatory authorities to amend the Notice of Intention to Make an Issuer Bid which commenced on August 26, 1999 and terminates on the earlier of, the date all shares subject to the Normal Course Issuer Bid are purchased of, August 25, 2000. Big Rock intends to attempt to acquire up to an aggregate of 302,591 Common Shares, which represents 10% of the Common Shares in the public float. This is an additional 60,356 Common Shares from the original number of 242,235 to be acquired from the application dated August 12, 1999. As of June 30, 2000 the Company has acquired 228,900 ($6.21 average price) Common Shares leaving a balance of 73,691 shares, which can be purchased under the amended issuer bid. There were 4,844,700 Common Shares of Big Rock issued and outstanding as of August 12, 1999. The shares will be cancelled upon purchase pursuant to this bid. In the opinion of the Board of Directors of the Corporation, the market price of the Common Shares of the Corporation has recently not accurately reflected the value of those shares. Furthermore, the Corporation has the available funds from cash flow. As a result, the Corporation's Common Shares may become available for purchase at prices, which make them an appropriate use of funds of the Corporation. Purchases subject to this normal course issuer bid will be carried out pursuant to open market transactions through the facilities of either The Toronto Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ Stock Market. Iceberg Corporation of America Lists Stock on Two German Stock Exchanges ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Canada--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2000-- Iceberg Corporation of America (the "Company") (OTCBB:ICBG) announced that its common stock has been listed for trading on the Third Market Segment of the Frankfurt and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany. Trading in Iceberg Corporation of America's shares will commence tomorrow on both exchanges under the trading symbol ICBG.F. Paul Benson, chief executive officer, stated: "The listing of the Company's stock for trading on these prestigious European exchanges comes as a result of the continued expansion of our business in strategic markets. These listings should further facilitate trading by our many European shareholders, and contribute to the broadening of our international shareholder base." Iceberg Corporation is the leading producer of ultra-premium beverages from icebergs including iceberg water, iceberg beer and iceberg vodka. The Company's sales are rising as the Company's products are distributed in additional markets throughout North America. Branding under the Borealis and White Berg names and high-quality packaging, together with private label strategic partners, is increasing consumer awareness and demand for these truly unique products. All Iceberg Corporation products are positioned in niche markets at the ultra-premium end of the quality and price range with top name brands, where the Company believes opportunities for increased market penetration and revenue growth are greatest. Targeted markets include upper- and upper-middle-income consumers who are typically well educated, health conscious, and prefer unique, premium products. The Company was the first Canadian licensed firm harvesting iceberg water to produce a family of premium quality products including iceberg water, iceberg beer and iceberg vodka. Its highly experienced marketing and management team has created a "virtual" company by making a strategic decision to develop blue-chip partners by outsourcing production of vodka and beer. This news release may include forward-looking statements concerning Iceberg Corporation of America's business and future prospects and other similar statements that do not concern matters of historical fact. The federal securities laws provide a limited "safe harbor" for certain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release relating to product development, business prospects and development of a commercial market for iceberg water products are based on Iceberg Corporation of America's current expectations. Iceberg Corporation of America's current expectations are subject to all of the uncertainties and risks customarily associated with new business ventures including, but not limited to, market conditions, successful product development and acceptance, competition and overall economic conditions, as well as the risk of adverse regulatory actions as detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including the form 10SB for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1999. Iceberg Corporation of America's actual results may differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Iceberg Corporation of America disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or for any other reason. Cuidao to Expand Distribution of Red Dragon Beer into Texas and Louisiana Texas Brokerage Firm to Spearhead the Introduction
HOLLYWOOD, Fla., July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuidao Holding Corporation, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CDAO), a distributor of imported and specialty beers, wines and spirits, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Houston based broker Bruce Edwards to spearhead the Company's introduction and distribution drive of Red Dragon Beer in Texas and Louisiana. After careful evaluation of several markets, the management of Cuidao has decided that the Texas and Louisiana markets offer great potential for Red Dragon Beer. Both markets have significant and rapidly growing Asian populations, coupled with growing affluence within the ethnic market that make it ripe for the introduction of the line of Red Dragon Beer products. Brand registration and wholesaler evaluation is currently underway in Texas. Distribution of Red Dragon Beer, including Red Dragon Xtreme, Red Dragon Light and soon-to-be-introduced Red Dragon Amber, should begin within the next few weeks. "Texas and Louisiana have a large number of Chinese restaurants, which will be the initial primary market for this product line. In Texas, Chinese restaurants account for the largest group of ethnic restaurants. These restaurants create an untapped demand for Cuidao's diversified portfolio of Chinese imports and form a great base for any distributor," says Bruce Edwards, Broker. Michael Fisher, president of Cuidao, said, "This is a great step in our controlled expansion plans. Red Dragon is doing well within our current distribution geographies. We believe that the product will perform even better in Texas and Louisiana, which would add significantly to the Company's growing revenues." About Bruce Edwards, Broker Bruce Edwards operates a highly successful Houston based brokerage operation and has over 25 years of experience in the marketing and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Mr. Edwards has served as Regional Sales Manager for a major Kentucky based liquor manufacturer, Western Sales Manager for a prominent New Jersey based wine distributor as well as several successful owner-operator specialty import companies. Edwards introduced the first super premium tequila to the US markets, gaining distribution in 42 states in 18 months. About Cuidao Holding Corporation Cuidao Holding Corp. ("CDAO") is a development stage company that is in the process of implementing a vertical roll-up and consolidation of the highly fragmented alcoholic beverage specialty and import industry. Cuidao Holding Corporation imports, manages, distributes and develops markets for a rapidly growing portfolio of international and regional brands of beer, wine and spirits. The Company currently participates in specific niche segments of the approximate 100 billion dollar alcoholic beverage market in the United States. Rio church balks at statue in beer, underwear ads RIO DE JANEIRO, July 12 (Reuters) - The famous statue of Jesus Christ that looms over Rio de Janeiro appears on everything from key chains to T-shirts, but the Catholic Church draws the line at beer and underwear. The Rio archdiocese, which commissioned the 125-foot (38-metre) statue in 1931, said on Wednesday it convinced a local brewer and a lingerie company that used the monument's image in television and print advertisements in recent weeks to withdraw their ads or face legal action. ``They surpassed rational limits,'' the archdiocese legal representative Antonio Passos told Reuters. ``They were offending Catholics, so Rio's Cardinal Archbishop decided to put a stop to them.'' While the 1,000-ton (900,000 kg) Christ the Redeemer statue serves as a backdrop in the beer ads, it has a bigger role in the underwear spot. That one features two photographs side by side - one shows a woman posing in skimpy black lingerie and the other shows the statue covering its eyes with its hands. The archdiocese threatened to sue the companies for using the images without permission. The church owns the land the statue was built on and the artistic rights.
Both companies agreed to scrap their ad campaigns, Passos said. Presidential Candidate Captain Morgan (of Original Spiced Rum Fame) And Campaign Manager James Carville Announce Vice Presidential 'Playmate' Running Mate Wednesday, July 12, 2000; 6:00-9:00 p.m.; The Playboy Lounge, New York City NEW YORK, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unprecedented move sure to put some summer sizzle into this year's mundane presidential elections, Presidential hopeful Captain Morgan (of Original Spiced Rum fame) today announced his running 'mate', Playboy Playmate Kalin Olsen. Ms. Olsen was chosen "by the people, for the people, and of the people" from four potential candidates in an online poll conducted on the campaign's official website, www.rum.com. The official results of the poll will be announced tonight by The Captain and his campaign manager, James Carville, at 6:00 p.m. at the Rum Loyalists' Party Convention held at The Playboy Lounge in New York City. "I am excited to bestow this honor upon one of four very qualified women The Captain selected on his short list of running 'mates,'" said Carville. "This marks the first time in election history that a candidate for President of the United States has ever had a short list of vice president contenders comprised exclusively of women." Thanks to a relationship between The Captain's campaign and Playboy.com, four Playboy Playmates competed in the online poll to become Captain Morgan's running 'mate.' The potential running 'mates:' Deanna Brooks (May '98), Jessica Lee (Aug '96), Kalin Olsen (Aug '97), and Layla Roberts (Oct. '97), were personally selected by The Captain based on their individual assets, party skills and their "fun-raising" abilities. "I launched my campaign because the American political scene is void of fun and adventure," said Captain Morgan. "I've taken my campaign from Boston to Austin, from Oregon to South Florida and I am convinced that what we need is a candidate and his running mate that will put the party back into politics." "I was really thrilled just to be nominated. How many girls my age can put Vice Presidential candidate on their resume?" said running 'mate' Kalin Olsen. "The Captain and I have a lot in common, we are both dedicated to spicing up presidential politics. Together we're a ticket that can't lose." By logging onto www.rum.com, visitors to the site can access information about how to register to vote in their state. You can also follow The Captain's campaign and his guest appearances at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions later this summer by logging onto the web site. "That's right, Captain Morgan is all about fun and adventure and responsibility," urged The Captain. "Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent or a member of the best party of all, the Rum Loyalist' Party, remember to vote this November -because there's always a party at the polls." Captain Henry Morgan was born on or about 1635 in Wales, making him the only potential presidential candidate with more than 350 years of experience (more than all candidates combined). He traveled to Jamaica where he served as Lieutenant Governor of that British territory and as an Admiral in the English fleet before being knighted in 1674. Unsatisfied with the gritty ales and lackluster spirits offered by 17th century Jamaican taverns -- the Captain started making his own rum. This led to the creation of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum. Later, The Captain added his Silver Spiced, Parrot Bay and Private Stock brands to the family -- distinctly different flavors for different palates. While Captain Morgan's campaign doesn't promise a chicken in every pot, his platform includes the best tasting daiquiri for every citizen (of legal drinking age of course!). The Captain is proud to be returning to the political limelight after a 317-year hiatus. |
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Spanish brewer Mahou to buy San Miguel from Danone MADRID, July 13 (Reuters) - Spanish beermaker Mahou said on Thursday it had agreed to buy out brewer San Miguel from Groupe Danone of France in a deal worth about 50 billion pesetas ($281.5 million) to nearly double its market share. Mahou -- which is 33 percent owned by Danone -- currently has 17 percent of Spain's beer market and San Miguel would give it another 14 percentage points, a Mahou spokesman said. The deal still required approval by Spanish competition authorities, he said. Mahou said in March it was seeking to buy nearly 70 percent of San Miguel from Danone and the agreement was signed on July 3, the spokesman said. This week the European Commission said it approved the sale by Danone of its Kronenbourg and Alkan Maes beer businesses to Britain's Scottish & Newcastle in a deal worth 1.7 billion pounds. The Mahou spokesman said Mahou would pay about 50 billion pesetas for the 70-percent stake in San Miguel of which it already owns about 30 percent. The acquisition would place Mahou close behind Heineken which has a leading 37 percent share of Spain's beer market, the spokesman said, adding the company was waiting to hear the opinion of Spain's competition authorities. Earlier this year, the Spanish government authorised the acquisition of another local beermaker Cruzcampo by Heineken on condition the Dutch brewer cut production and storage capacity. ``We do not believe this operation has any worrying concentration effects,'' the Mahou spokesman said. He said Mahou's presence was strongest in central Spain while San Miguel's strongholds were elsewhere in the country. Britain Debates Silly Pub Names
.c The Associated Press By JILL LAWLESS LONDON (AP) - The Goat and Compasses is fine, but the Goose and Granite is definitely not. The debate over British pub names is foaming up again: The Goat and Compasses is a centuries-old moniker, while the latter is a newly minted corporate label. Traditional English pub names often are patriotic or royal - The Crown, The King's Head, The Red Lion. Others are resolutely local, paying tribute to the lord of the manor or reflecting a region's landmarks, flora and fauna, industry or sporting heroes. But today's British beer drinkers are increasingly likely to head down to the Rat and Parrot chain or the Slug and Lettuce. And some feel it has all gone a Dog and Doughnut too far. In the House of Commons this week, Britain's culture minister, Chris Smith, lamented ``a growing fashion for rebranding pubs with names like the Dog and Doughnut or the Goose and Granite which, I have to say, would appear to have little relevance to the history of any area.'' ``We are surely in danger here of losing an important part of local history and local folk memory,'' he told lawmakers. Many British pub names do have deep and sometimes mysterious historical roots, originating in preliterate days when ale houses had to sport large, memorable and easily identifiable signs. Alan Rose, secretary of the Inn Sign Society, cites his local pub, the Bull and Spectacles - a reference to a former landlord's prize bull or to Anne Boleyn (Bull-inn), depending on which legend you believe. That kind of individuality, pub aficionados argue, is now in danger. A third of Britain's 60,000 pubs are controlled by breweries that dictate what beer is sold there. Another third are now owned by non-brewing chains - and it is these standardized corporate ``theme'' pubs that traditionalists object to most. Some call it the ``McDonald's-ization'' of British pubs. ``You can go into a Rat and Parrot in the southeast or the northwest and they're exactly the same,'' said Ian Woolverton of the consumer group Campaign for Real Ale. ``That can't be good for our pub heritage.'' It is not the name changes in themselves that vex campaigners. Pubs have long rechristened themselves to commemorate historic events: The Royal Oak, a name borne by more than 600 British pubs, emerged in the 17th century to mark King Charles II's escape from Oliver Cromwell's forces. ``Almost every pub has had a name change,'' said Rose of the Inn Sign Society. ``If they didn't, we wouldn't have a hobby, would we?'' Rose noted that changing social mores - from the demise of cockfighting to the present-day proposed ban on fox hunting - could drive pubs to rename themselves. ``You've got pubs called the Fox and Hounds. Will that change when the anti-hunting law comes in? What we don't like is that we're losing the historic ones,'' he said. The chain-pub operators counter that they are pumping new life into a flagging industry, renovating once-dingy boozers and attracting young people to big, bright watering holes. Many traditional rural pubs, meanwhile, are closing as their aging clientele drinks less. ``Our bars are big and they're busy, so we're giving people what they want,'' said Clive Eplett, finance director of SFI Group PLC, which owns the Litten Tree and Bar Med chains and is in the process of acquiring the 33-bar Slug and Lettuce group - a pioneer of the up-market stripped-wood-and-focaccia formula. He said most of SFI's pubs are former shops and banks, rather than existing pubs. And he is not nostalgic for the pubs of yesteryear, arguing that chains like his, selling beer from several breweries, offer customers more choice. ``I was born in a small village in Cornwall, and all the pubs were owned by one brewery,'' he said. ``You drank their beer or you didn't drink at all.'' No one is arguing the government should legislate pub names. But campaigners want to see names included as part of a pub's license, so change would require planning permission and local consultation. That argument sits well with Smith, the government minister. ``Certainly, consulting a pub's regulars and the wider local community before renaming it would not seem too much to ask,'' he told the Commons. General Mills in talks on Diageo's Pillsbury By Meera Somasundaram and David Jones CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Diageo Plc , the owner of Burger King and Guinness beer, is in talks to combine its Pillsbury food business with General Mills Inc. in an expected $10.5 billion share-swap with the U.S. cereal maker, the companies said Thursday. A deal -- which would mark the latest step in a rapid consolidation of the food industry -- would leave Diageo with a 30 to 40 percent stake in enlarged General Mills, according to sources close to the situation. The news also comes just weeks after Diageo said it would spin off Burger King, the No. 2 fast-food restaurant chain behind McDonald's Corp. As the two sides engage in talks, other possible bidders could emerge, analysts said, namely ketchup king H.J. Heinz Co. , which has publicly expressed its intention in recent weeks to participate in the industry consolidation. A combination of Pillsbury, known for its chubby-cheeked Doughboy character, and General Mills, the maker of Wheaties and Cheerios cereals, may be finalized as early as next week, according to sources close to the talk. Both companies are based in Minneapolis. It would bring under a single corporate roof such popular brands as Pillsbury's refrigerated dough products, Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Green Giant vegetables and Old El Paso Mexican foods with General Mills' Cheerios, Wheaties and other breakfast cereals, Yoplait and Colombo yogurt, and Betty Crocker mixes. Combined annual revenues would exceed $12 billion. Shares of General Mills and Diageo showed little reaction to the news. Diageo ended off 12-1/2 pence at 599 pence in a lower London market. General Mills closed up just 1/4 at 37 on the New York Stock Exchange. To be sure, not all analysts expect to see a Pillsbury-General Mills combination completed. ``When Pillsbury was on the block, I expected Heinz to bid,'' said Daniel Peris, an analyst at Argus Research. ``Their products appear to be more complementary.... It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to outbid.'' A spokeswoman at Heinz couldn't immediately be reached for comment. WIN-WIN SITUATION Analysts said the deal would benefit Diageo and General Mills strategically. For General Mills, a merger with Pillsbury could help strengthen its presence in the refrigerated food division and help reduce its dependence on the slow-growing cereal market. It also would help the company gain scale and pricing leverage against supermarkets, which are getting bigger through acquisitions. ``This gets General Mills more diversified and into some other areas which have a faster growth potential,'' said Prudential Securities analyst Jeffrey Kanter. ``In the end, you get a more powerful General Mills.'' For Diageo, the move would help infuse some cash into the UK company and allow it to focus on its UDV wines and spirits unit and Guinness beer division -- which currently account for two-thirds of the company's profits. ``This is good news,'' said Nigel Popham, an analyst at Teather and Greenwood. ``It allows Diageo to exit the weaker parts of its business -- Pillsbury and Burger King -- and focus on the cash-generative spirits and beer businesses.'' PUSH INTO THE REFRIGERATOR Cereals account for about 40 percent of sales and about 50 percent to 60 percent of earnings at General Mills, which also makes Betty Crocker food mixes, yogurt products and health foods, analysts said. The cereal category has been under pressure for the last few years as competition has intensified and as volume growth has remained sluggish. Still, General Mills has managed to bring growth to its cereal division through product introductions and solid marketing. Analysts said a deal would involve only minor antitrust problems with some overlap seen in dry baking mixes. General Mills has aggressively pushed into areas such as prepared meals recently, buying Lloyd's Barbecue Co., side-dish maker Farmhouse Foods, snack company Gardetto's Bakery Inc. and organic-food maker Small Planets Foods. ``General Mills has been trying to push the refrigerated area with meal solutions and Pillsbury would be a big step forward in that effort,'' said David Nelson, a food analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. ``Ice cream and Old El Paso don't appear to be an obvious (fit)... (but) maybe there's a combination there for Mexican refrigerated meals.'' A General Mills-Pillsbury combination would follow several high-profile recent acquisitions in the food sector including those by industry giants Unilever Plc and Philip Morris Cos. which recently purchased Bestfoods and Nabisco Holdings Corp., respectively. The latest merger talk raises pressure on other food companies to seek merger partners, analysts said. ``There are a group of second-tier food companies (such as) H.J. Heinz Co., General Mills, Quaker Oats and Kellogg Co. that are of certain size and they feel they need to be much larger going forward,'' said Argus Research analyst Peris. ``I view Heinz as the most aggressive of them.'' Beverage Marketing USA Reports E & J Gallo and France's Champagne Industry Winery Threatens Australia's Champagne of Sparkling Spring Waters
PARIS, Ark., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Beverage Marketing USA, Inc., recently re-introduced the 17-year-old brand Walkabout Springs to Europe and the United States. "The Walkabout name comes from an Aboriginal expression meaning 'to go from place to place in search of better things,'" said John Ronan, President and founder of Springbank Beverages. The company has been successfully marketing its fruited mineral water drinks in Australia and the outback and Ronan is confident that Walkabout Springs will "juice up the world" beyond its Australian base. "The label design was my wife Molly's idea, adapting an Aboriginal cave drawing of a kangaroo," explained Ronan. Beverage Marketing USA, Inc., were challenged in a letter on behalf of the French Champagne Growers Association, saying that the Australian-based company should print no more labels that included the word "champagne" pending a final resolution of a complaint from the fiercely protective champagne producers industry. Richard H. Davis, President of Beverage Marketing USA, Inc., the firm that distributes the drink, said he is confident the French would lose their case which claims he is damaging the region's famous reputation, if and when it comes to court. Monsieur Davis points out that the "l'art de vivre" tagline "Walkabout sparkles in the mouth, like fine champagne!" appeared on a limited edition sidewalk cafe style Walkabout Springs product sold in Outback Steakhouse's a decade ago during which time demand was overwhelming. "Now Gallo Winery lawyers (Weinberg Legal Group) are threatening legal action, who are using the WALKABOUT name on some fortified wines, to make a quick buck during the up coming Olympics 'Down Under.'" says Monsieur Davis. "Gallo wining about an Aboriginal name of a spring in Australia, sounds a bit like when Arizona Beverages who used the Native America name Crazy Horse for its malt liquor, the company discontinued the fortified beer from protest from Indian tribal leaders due to the high degree of alcoholism among Native Americans, victimization of Aboriginal people who suffer from the same rates of alcoholism, may question the use of their image and name on a Californian wine from the worlds largest winery E & J Gallo, promoted during the Olympics." Booze It & Lose It' Nets 1,474 Impaired Driving Arrests During First Week of Campaign
New Laws Plus the Presence of BATmobiles at Checkpoints Is Getting the Anti-DWI Message Across RALEIGH, N.C., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Accompanied by all three of the state's breath alcohol mobile testing units, better known as BATmobiles, North Carolina law enforcement officers are out in full force as part of the Summer "Booze It & Lose It" campaign to remind motorists that impaired driving will not be tolerated anywhere in the state. Sobriety checkpoints and roving patrols across the state netted 1,474 driving while impaired (DWI) charges between June 30 - July 9. The arrests are a result of 842 checkpoints and random patrols across the state. The campaign continues through July 16, and law enforcement in communities across the state are continuing to strictly enforce North Carolina's DWI laws, including a set of new laws which became effective on July 1. The new laws, designed to target repeat offenders: * Reduce the legal alcohol concentration (AC) from 0.08 to 0.02 for persons who have been convicted of one DWI and have had their license reinstated. * Reduce the legal AC from 0.02 to 0.00 for persons who have been convicted of a second DWI and have had their license reinstated. * Require the installation of an ignition-interlock system in the vehicle of a person who has been convicted of having an AC of 0.16 or greater. "Not only do law enforcement have the aid of the new DWI laws, but theyare also able to make a powerful statement by having the BATmobiles alongside them at their checkpoint locations," said Joe Parker, director of the Governor's Highway Safety Program. "Because the BATmobiles are visiting places where they have never been, the message is reaching many new parts of the state that drinking and driving will not be tolerated, and that you can be arrested and charged with DWI on the spot." Parker also noted that legislation passed last night by the General Assembly would help officers even more in their fight against drunk driving. The law, which will become effective on October 1, will prohibit anyone in a vehicle from having an open container of alcohol. Currently, the driver is prohibited from having an open container of alcohol, however both front- and backseat passengers are allowed to have open containers of beer and wine in a vehicle that is in a public vehicular area. A public vehicular area is any area within the state that is generally open to and used by the public for vehicular traffic. These areas can include not only roads, but also driveways and parking lots of public or private hospitals, universities, churches, beach accesses, stores and offices. The other part of the legislation will strengthen the ignition-interlock requirement so that offenders will be required to install the alcohol- detection device in all vehicles registered to them, rather than just their primary vehicle. "Strengthening a law that was put into effect just two weeks ago really shows our state's commitment to the problem of impaired driving," Parker said. "This legislation, coupled with the new DWI laws that just went into effect, should really make people think again before getting behind the wheel after drinking." Besides charging impaired drivers, law enforcement officers at "Booze It & Lose It" checkpoints and random patrols issued 4,744 seat belt and 596 child safety seat citations. They also discovered 7,689 other traffic violations and 2,320 total criminal violations, including 69 felony drug charges, 28 firearms violations, and eight fugitives from justice. The following are the citations issued statewide by law enforcement officers at "Booze It & Lose It" sobriety checkpoints and random patrols from June 30 - July 9. Reporters may contact local law enforcement agencies for local results and to learn where and when they will be conducting campaign activities. For more information about this or other highway safety issues, contact Public Information Officer Jill Warren Lucas or Deputy Public Information Officer Erica Hinton at 919-733-3083, or visit our web site at: www.dot.state.nc.us/services/ghsp /
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J2jurado |
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http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/finance/2000/0712/fin10.htmGuinness sales on decline in Ireland From Sebastian Taylor in London Sales of Guinness in Ireland are continuing to decline and, if anything, the rate of decline is accelerating. Mr John McGrath, chief executive of the Diageo group which owns Guinness, said in a trading statement yesterday that volume sales of Guinness brand in Ireland "is expected to be down 4 per cent" in 12 months to the end of June. This compares with a sales decline of 3 per cent suffered in the six months to the end of December, indicating that the sales setback is worsening. The sharp reduction in Guinness sales in Ireland over the year to the end of last month followed unchanged sales in the year to the end of June last year. The reduction in Irish sales is mainly ascribed to growth in popularity of rival products, notably wine, cider and ready-to-drink products such as Smirnoff Ice and Bicardi Breezer. Although demand for Guinness in Ireland has fallen significantly, the impact on the group's brewery at St James's Gate, Dublin, has been softened by increased exports of Guinness. Shipments of draught Guinness to the growing US market increased by 6 per cent in the six months to June 30th. The Guinness brand has also continued to perform strongly against a declining beer market in Great Britain. Full year Guinness volumes in Britain are expected to be 3 per cent higher, lifting export shipments from St James's Gate in the process. Even so, the accelerating decline in Irish demand for Guinness has plainly contributed to the emergence of surplus capacity at Guinness Ireland's brewing operations, prompting the current review to cut production capacities through brewery closures. Diageo's sales of global priority brands including Bailey's Irish Cream are expected to have increased by 10 per cent in the year to end-June despite abolition of the European duty free market. http://www.post-gazette.com:80/businessnews/20000711lien4.asp
Liens filed against Pittsburgh Brewing By Len Boselovic, Post-Gazette Staff Writer Liens totaling nearly $1 million were filed yesterday against Pittsburgh Brewing . The Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority filed 11 liens against the maker of Iron City for $941,420. About $849,000 is related to 1999 bills, but nearly $92,000 dates back to 1996, according to documents filed with the Allegheny County prothonotary's office. "We want to make sure our interests are protected," said Greg Tutsock, deputy executive director of the authority. Tutsock said several of the liens involve disputed bills the brewery received from the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority. The liens will be revised once the dispute is settled, he said. Pittsburgh Brewing President Joseph Piccirilli said, "We've been working with them for the past month, trying to verify the billing. There are inconsistencies." Piccirilli said that sewage bills are determined on a percentage basis of water usage. "You can't generate more sewage than you have water," Piccirilli said. He contends that during the beermaking process, "a certain percentage goes into the beer, and a certain percentage then evaporates, when pasteurizing the beer." That would lead to a decrease in sewage, he said. "If it's lost in steam, it doesn't go into the sewer." Creditors file liens in order to protect their legal rights in relation to other creditors. Officials of the Lawrenceville brewery have told Tutsock they intend to pay whatever they owe. "They have been very up front and honest with us," he said. http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/ 07/10/MN93947.DTL ASIA- Pakistan's Only Brewery a Heady Success Despite Islamic nation's strict prohibition laws, company endures Tasgola Karla Bruner, Chronicle Foreign Service Rawalpindi, Pakistan -- One of Pakistan's top-performing companies manufactures a product whose purchase can lead to whippings and imprisonment for 97 percent of the population. The Murree Brewery Co. Ltd., the only brewery in this nation of 142 million inhabitants, is a tenacious firm that has survived the partition of British India, prohibition, Muslim conservatives and government restrictions since its inception in 1861.
Named for the hill station located near its original location, the brewery was established by British colonialists to keep their troops happy. The brewery ended up in a Muslim country after the partition of India in 1947 created Pakistan. Since the Koran forbids intoxicants, only foreigners and religious minorities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis can legally buy alcohol -- after filling out a detailed ``application for the grant of a permit for the purchase, possession, transport or consumption of intoxicating liquor.'' Muslims are not eligible even if drinking is prescribed by a doctor's order. A would-be imbiber must state religion, profession, annual income, sexually-transmitted disease information, weight, height, smoking status, drinking history and a husband or father's name. (A letter from a priest used to be required.) Provincial prohibition officers from the Excise Department then calculate each person's monthly quota. A prohibition officer once asked a foreigner if she was a ``drunk.'' When she responded no, she was given authorization to purchase just one unit a month -- a $22 case of 20 bottles of beer or one bottle of such hard liquor as gin, vodka or whiskey. When she applied the next year, she told officials she was indeed a drunk and they upped her quota to six units a month. Murree Brewery officials say this kind of screening is just one of several obstacles that have dramatically affected sales. They must also compete with smugglers who sneak in crates of alcohol through Pakistan's porous borders. Meanwhile, the company is barred from exporting to Europe and is under constant attack from Muslim fundamentalists who want the government to close the brewery down. Despite the hurdles, Murree was voted one of the country's top 25 companies by the Pakistan Chamber of Commerce for its $5.6 million in revenues last year and strong performance on the Karachi stock exchange. Mino Bhandara, Murree's chief executive, says his company sells only to five-star hotels and diplomats. Yet Bhandara, who served as minority affairs minister during the martial law regime of General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, is well aware that 99 percent of his customers are Muslims who, in order to consume a bottle of Murree beer, are willing to pay a Christian or Hindu permit holder double the price. These ``distributors'' often have cellular phones and make door-to-door deliveries. Bhandara, who took over the brewery after his father's death in 1961, often calls his product ``My Islamic Beer.'' He is one of about 3,000 affluent Parsis who live in Pakistan and practice the fire-venerating Zoroastrian religion. He estimates that about 15 percent of Pakistan's Muslim population drink alcohol and he believes that would not change even if prohibition were lifted. ``Those who are determined not to drink will never drink. You'll never be able to persuade them,'' he says. ``And you cannot stop those who wish to drink.'' Murree sales were not always this complicated. In the 1970s, Murree beer could be found as far away as New York, but in 1979, dictator Zia introduced domestic prohibition and outlawed exports. In response to the restrictions, Bhandara opened a brewery in Austria for export to the United Kingdom, where South Asian expatriates are beseeched to ``Have curry with Murree'' or ``Eat, drink and be Murree,'' or "Murree up and drink more now." Despite the restrictions, both company officials and workers are optimistic about the future. The brewery's 350 employees -- many of whom are sons and grandsons of retired employees -- are content to work in a brewery even though many are observant Muslims and must officially avoid the occasional taste tests of the product. Abdul Rehman, who has toiled for Murree for 40 years, inspects whiskey bottles as they roll by on a conveyor belt. ``I have built a house, bought land and been able to give my wife jewelry,'' he says, when asked why he works in a brewery. ``There's no problem working with alcohol. It's a service.'' Bottling supervisor Liaquat Mehmood isn't bothered either. ``I will work here all my life,'' he says. Quality control manager Huma Afzal Satti has more personal reasons for loyalty. Bhandara gave her a job eight years ago despite harboring misgivings about hiring a Muslim woman. ``If he (Bhandara) didn't give me respect, I wouldn't have received it from the others,'' says Satti, who is the company's only female supervisor. In a cool office next to the refrigeration room, brew-master Mohammad Javed, a Muslim, recalls how he began in the profession in 1985. (Before prohibition, the brewmaster was a German, and most of the brewing equipment used today by Murree is German.) Under a sign that reads ``Beer made me what I am today,'' Javed asks an assistant to bring two chilled bottles of his latest creation --``Millennium Brew 2000.'' ``I learned to drink beer while studying in Chicago,'' says Javed. ``My favorite beer is Coors Light.'' While the company is known for its strong beer -- Murree Beer is 4.5 percent alcohol while its Classic Lager is 5.5 percent -- it is also becoming well known for its malt whiskey. In the ``Complete Book of Whiskeys: The Definitive Guide to the Whiskeys of the World,'' Bhandara proudly points to the page that describes Murree's 8-year-old $15 bottle of malt: ``Not only does it compare favorably, it is much better than a number of lesser scotch malts which come nowhere near to matching this whiskey's crisp and delicate maltiness.'' Bhandara also proudly displays a framed letter that he received this year from the Austrian ambassador describing Millennium Brew 2000 as ``perfectly competitive among the world's top-class Austrian, Bavarian and Czech Christmas or Easter bock brews.'' The beer was judged by the embassy staff, who, according to the ambassador, consumed ``1,000 hecto-liters of beer experience.'' ``We make one of the greatest beers of the world,'' Bhandara says. ``One may well question why we do it, but so long as the clock ticks, so long as we are able to function, we will be remembered.'' ©2000 San Francisco Chronicle http://www.al.com:80/news/birmingham/Jul2000/13-e421040b.html
City's last brewery to shut down as new owners move operations 07/13/00 BILL PLOTT News staff writer Little Star Brewing Co., maker of Mad Monk beer, is being purchased and will shut its doors, ending Birmingham's brief post Prohibition fling with breweries. A group of investors have set up a company in Greenville, S.C., called Mad Monk Breweries Inc. to buy Little Star's operations. "They are going to close this facility down and move everything to South Carolina," said Marc Anthony, president of Little Star. The transaction won't be complete for several weeks, but Anthony said the availability of Mad Monk's three styles of beer will not be affected. "The beer is still being produced. It's better than ever. They've got wholesalers and a sales force in place. They have a full-time brewmaster who is part owner. They have a lot of experience, a lot of money behind it. A lot more money than I could put together," he said. Little Star bought the former Birmingham Brewing Co. facility on Third Avenue about two years ago. About the same time, Vulcan Breweries Inc., acquired the rights to Birmingham Brewing's Red Mountain brands. Vulcan dropped the Red Mountain line and began producing Vulcan Beer and Vulcan Hefe-Weizen, an unfiltered wheat beer. Little Star produced under contract the Vulcan beer now available in the Birmingham area. In spring 1999, Little Star acquired the Mad Monk brands from the Cincinnati brewery that originated them. Little Star also acquired the brands of Mi ami's Firehouse Brewing Co. Anthony said Mad Monk's pale ale, nut brown ale and pilsner are being distributed in five states, but that wasn't enough for Little Star to make a go of it. Little Star was a family operation and never employed more than a handful of people. "You can't make a living in Alabama with a brewery. We've got it out to five different states, but you've got to be supported by the local market, and they're not going to support it here. The people are not interested in Alabama right now. It's a Bud, Miller and Coors market. There's not enough demand for it (craft-brewed beer)," he said. Birmingham's fling with homegrown breweries and brewpubs didn't last long. Magic City Brewery, which opened in 1995 as the city's first brewpub, shut down June 16. Those following Magic City - The Southside Cellar Brewing Co. and brewpubs, the Cellar Beer Garden and Breckenridge Brewing Co. - are no longer making beer. Southside sold its beer to distributors who placed it in as many as 25 restaurants at its peak. Both The Mill and the Cellar Beer Garden were Southside customers at one time. Breckenridge lasted only a couple of years. The Mill's beer is currently coming out of Jones Brewery in Pittsburgh. Over the years it was also produced at Little Star and Southside. The Cellar Beer Garden closed earlier this year. Its supplier, Southside, had stopped producing beer last summer. "The last beer was produced last June, and I officially took an indefinite leave of absence as of the end of January," said John Kater, the former brewmaster who now lives in Atlanta. Kater said he plans to go to graduate school to get an MBA and then get back in the brewing business again, although probably not in Birmingham. "Cellar Brewing still exists. I'm going back to school to work on what my weaknesses were and try again in a few years," he said. Vulcan still exists on paper, though it has struggled. Vulcan CEO Lee Busby of Tuscaloosa said the Little Star sale probably won't have much impact on his "virtually dormant" company. ''The last couple of orders we've gotten, we called them (Little Star) and relied on them to produce it and put the labels on it," Busby said. "It was an easy, efficient relationship because they were right there in town. ''We've got bigger problems with the lack of orders rather than not having anybody to produce it. There are any number of places in the Southeast that can produce it. We just tell them what we want in a flavor profile and get a few tanks made." Anthony said he isn't sure what he will do when the sale is completed, but he may return to commercial real estate. ''I'll probably still be involved in the brewing business, too. Some of the other brands want me to represent them, and I'm trying to put a local group together to buy Hurricane Reef in Florida. We wouldn't brew it here, though. It would be brewed in Florida," he said. http://www.al.com:80/news/birmingham/Jul2000/13-e421037b.html
City's brewing industry goes back to 1884 07/13/00 - Census reports indicate there were numerous distilleries and breweries in Alabama before the turn of the century when the Prohibition movement began to gain favor with politicians. Brewing came to Birmingham in 1884 when Philip Schillinger, a Louisville brewer, moved to Jefferson County. He started the Phil Schillinger Brewing Co., which later changed its name to the Birmingham Brewing Co. It was on 21st Street, across the street from where the Magic City Brewery landed in 1995. Schillinger died around 1890, but his three sons carried on. A second brewery, The Alabama Brewing Co., opened a block away in the 1890s. Its principal backer was R.F. Roden, a pioneering Birmingham businessman. The two breweries operated until 1908 when the first of two statewide prohibition laws was approved. Although that law was repealed and local option instituted in 1911, Birmingham's two breweries remained closed. Congress in 1919 passed the Volstead Act , which established national prohibition. The state Legislature approved a bill in 1992 allowing a return of the brewing industry. The first beer produced in Alabama in decades began flowing soon after. The Mill Brewery, Eatery and Bakery opened on Southside in 1993, offering con tract brewed draft beers. The state's first brewpub came in 1995 with the opening of the Port City Brewery in Mobile. A few months later, the Mobile owners opened Magic City Brewery in Birmingham. Barrett's Brewpub & Eatery in Tuscaloosa went bankrupt after a couple of years. Port City in Mobile, the Montgomery Brewery, Poplar Head in Dothan and the Olde Auburn Ale House continue to operate. Bill Plott © 2000 The Birmingham News. http://detnews.com:80/2000/wayne/0007/11/d03-88599.htm
Buckeye Beer makes comeback Canton Township man puts once-popular brew on shelves By Kevin Lynch / The Detroit News CANTON -- Why would anyone spend his July 4 vacation time at a do-it-yourself beer factory in Perrysburg, Ohio? If you're John Spieker III of Canton Township, it's because you're trying to resurrect Buckeye Beer, one case at a time. The once-popular brew flew off shelves in Toledo this week after its eye-raising return from the corporate grave. An auto mechanic and two salesman who grew up on Buckeye have been cranking out 200 cases a week at the Glass City Brew on Premises Co. in suburban Perrysburg, Ohio. Glass City is used mostly by amateur beer brewers. But Spieker and his partners, 40-year-old Jay Tillman of Saginaw and 38-year-old Dave Kulish of Toledo, have formed a special relationship with the brewery to make large quantities there in exchange for a share of their profits. "It was the first beer I ever drank," said Spiker, a 43-year-old salesman who grew up Toledo and moved to the Canton area in the 1980s. "I remember the name was kind of an icon -- like the Mud Hens are to Toledo or the Tigers are to Detroit." Spieker said at least two other entrepreneurs have tried to bring back Buckeye since the Miller Brewing Company bought the business in 1972, fired 600 employees and shut down the local factory, which produced more than 300,000 barrels of beer in its last year. "We figured the name hadn't been used in 28 years," Spieker said. "The nostalgia factor is really in high gear right now." In reviving Buckeye, the three knew they would have tough standards to meet, Kulish said. They researched how the beer might have been made, given what was available; tried to match ingredients; talked to former brewery workers; asked
fans of the original Buckeye Beer to be taste testers, and revised their formula seven times. They couldn't be sure of the aging time used for Buckeye, so Kulish visited the former distribution warehouse in Toledo. While poking around in the basement, he found -- still written in chalk on a blackboard -- a timetable for brewing, aging, and delivery.
"It was all still down there from the day the brewery closed," he said. A six-pack of the revived brand costs $5.99. It is competing against a variety of fancy beers and ales in at least 41 area bars, restaurants, and retail outlets. Jim Heltebrake, wine shop manager at The Andersons shopping center in Toledo, said he sold 55 cases of Buckeye before selling out Thursday. The Buckeye Brewing Co. began making Buckeye in Toledo in 1838. Chicago-based Meister Brau Inc. bought Buckeye in 1966 and brewed the first Meister Brau Lite beer in Toledo. In 1972, Miller Brewing Co., of Milwaukee bought the Buckeye and Meister Brau Lite labels. The new owner changed Meister Brau Lite to Miller Lite, moved Buckeye beer production to Milwaukee, then stopped making the beer in late 1972.
http://www10.nytimes.com:80/library/financial/sunday/070900biz-book-beer.html
Brewing Beer and Problems In scanning the bookstore shelves, I have long hoped to find a series of books called "Corporate Stupidity." This multivolume set would make the collected works of James Michener look like Cliff Notes, considering the number of business blunders that are committed daily. My personal favorites are the sins of chief executives who ignore their managers or the workers on the factory floor. Or the debacles that follow when they tune out the most important audience -- their customers. There is no shortage of material from every industry, ranging from the Edsel to New Coke. It's a familiar scene: Company fouls up, chief executive rants when the headlines chronicle their foul-ups, six-figure consultants are hired to figure out who fouled up. If only these consultants would suggest that CEO's create a new office called the CSO -- common sense officer. Its job description: The lone voice in a company who can tell the boss he might be wrong. A recent example of a hefty dose of arrogance and the absence of anyone willing to apply some common sense comes from the Coors family, which started brewing beer in Golden, Colo., in 1876 and continued until the younger generations nearly ran the company into the ground by the early 1990s. In "Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty" (William Morrow, $27), Dan Baum wisely singles the family out. Baum builds a strong narrative from the tale of how this big dysfunctional family made a lot of cold beer and money that ultimately financed conservative causes via the Republican Party and the Heritage Foundation. There is no lack of drama, starting with the patriarch Adolph Coors, who committed suicide by jumping out of a hotel window. Succeeding generations had their problems, too, as Baum describes them. Pity his grandchildren, who must have dreaded Sundays. Adolph Jr. kept notes on his children's weekly misdeeds, then spanked them each Sunday. One of the offspring also committed suicide, also by jumping out of a hotel window. But this book also gives corporate America a primer, as valuable as any business school case study, on how not to run a company. For starters, Baum documents thoroughly how Coors abused workers. Sure, paternalism is sweet when it's served up as free lagers during break time in the brewery. But no amount of alcohol takes the sting out of being subjected to lie-detector tests, used to screen out what the book describes as "thieves, radicals and homosexuals." Some workers were asked if they had sex the previous night. At times, employees were forced to see psychologists. Brewery workers regarded themselves, in the words of one, as "overworked animals." Equal rights took a while to catch up with Coors. Women lacked a bathroom in the brewery. There was one in the office for secretaries, but women working in the brewery were docked for time off if they left the plant to use it. One Coors family member said that a woman's place was "in the beauty parlor." Not that management was spared from the odd behavior and whims of the Coors clan. When Bill Coors, in the third generation, caught the transcendental meditation bug, all executives were ordered to take classes in the practice. The Coors company, meanwhile, showed an amazing lack of knowledge about behemoth competitors like Anheuser Busch. Members of the Busch family in St. Louis knew that their company was driven by the relentless marketing of Budweiser and other brands. But Coors didn't get it -- and balked at spending money on ads. Indeed, marketing executives had short tenures at Coors. Some did manage a few hit ads, like one using "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" to sell beer at Halloween. But Jeff Coors, a born-again Christian and member of the fourth generation, ordered an end to Elvira's selling of Coors because he considered her satanic. Other ads were ludicrous. Senior family members once ordered the company's advertising agency to make a commercial featuring Eva Gabor, a family friend who was generous to the Republican Party. Men in the focus group, viewing the aging actress, yelled: "What's she doing selling beer?" Even product introductions lagged behind the competition. Coors was so behind the curve that it introduced a light beer three years after Miller Lite hit the shelves. The company botched other product introductions because it failed to do market research. "Citizen Coors" clinches the story by telling how the blunders caught up with the company. It went public in 1975 at $32 a share. By 1978, investors lost half their money. Earnings were once 30 cents for every dollar of beer sold, but slipped to just a penny by 1990. Boycotts by unions and even barley farmers hurt its image and sales. Market share wilted everywhere, even in its home state of Colorado. What did the Coors brothers do about it? They continued to focus on pushing conservative political causes in Washington. And they bought themselves a Lear jet. What did the board members do? They dozed off during presentations on the demographics of beer drinkers. One of the best lines of the book likens a Coors board meeting to an Idi Amin cabinet meeting: Nobody objects. Senior management did seem to pay attention to one event -- the pollution of its famous Rocky Mountain spring waters. Clear Creek was the primary reason that Adolph Coors built his brewery in Golden. Trouble was, his brewery was responsible for contamination of the once-pristine waters. The book spends far too few pages on this environmental mess. Coors knew for nine years during the 1980s that it was destroying the spring water, but covered it up, according to Baum. To help ease the bad public relations, Peter Coors, also in the fourth generation, coughed up a $30 million check for a baseball stadium in Denver. For the money, the team would play at, you guessed it, Coors Field. The book's final pages chronicle the Coors men stepping aside and hiring an outsider to run the company. More than a century after the brewery was founded, the arrogance and indifference had caught up with them. Baum says they would have made more money by closing the place in the early 1980s and putting their money in a passbook account. http://www.abqjournal.com:80/news/74288news07-08-00.htm
Freeway Crash Ends Beer Run By Jeff Jones, Journal Staff Writer 38,400 bottles of beer on the wall, 38,400 bottles of beer ... The first unscheduled closure during Albuquerque's Big I reconstruction took place Friday when a tractor-trailer rig hauling 1,600 cases of beer — apparently all of it Bud Light — came up the northbound Interstate 25 on-ramp from eastbound Interstate 40 a bit too fast and toppled onto the concrete barrier there. The big rig skidded on its side more than 200 feet along the heavy concrete wall, showering nearby brush with sparks and starting a blaze the Albuquerque Fire Department had to quench, said police Traffic Division officer Ray Loomis. The overturned truck closed down the freeway on-ramp at 12:30 p.m., and it remained closed during the evening rush while the mess was cleaned up. A police dispatch supervisor said truckers apparently passed along word of the lengthy closure over citizens band radios, and rigs were using Albuquerque side streets to get to I-25. The two-year, $270 million Big I reconstruction project officially began June 30, but the on-ramp where the truck tipped over isn't under construction now. Ashraf "Max" Chowdhury, 48, the driver of the International tractor truck, said he and his load of brew left Fairfield, Calif., on Wednesday and were only about a mile from the final destination — Albuquerque's Premier Distributing Co. — when the accident took place. Although most of the Bud Light cases seemed intact, an official from Premier said it now can't be sold. One Albuquerque liquor store said it sells Bud Light bottles for about $4 a six pack. At that price, the retail value of the beer is more than $25,000. "One mile — can you believe that? One mile short of the reaching point," Chowdhury said shortly after the wreck as he stood next to his bashed-up truck, which was leaking beer. Chowdhury said the wreck left him with pain in his leg, but "I want to thank my Lord in the heaven I'm in one piece." He said he was buckled in at the time of the crash. Loomis said Chowdhury was going too fast to navigate the on-ramp, and he issued a warning to the trucker for going too fast for the conditions. But Chowdhury said the tip-over happened because the beer wasn't loaded onto his rig correctly and shifted. Chowdhury said the wreck was his first in several years of trucking. And though he has hauled brew all over, "I've never seen somebody load (beer) like that. They didn't stagger the load. The load shifted to one side." Loomis said the on-ramp was the frequent site of truck tip-overs until signs were installed several years ago giving the recommended speed of 30 mph. Chodhury was going about 40 or 45 mph at the time of the accident, Loomis said. "All I can figure is that as the trailer began to tip, it pulled his tractor over," Loomis said. Even though one of the tires blew during the accident, "it was going over even without the blowout." "Forty-five will do this to you," Loomis said of the truck's estimated speed. "Where he would've made it anywhere else, not (at) the eastbound to northbound in Albuquerque." Chowdhury said the beer load weighed about 42,000 pounds. The truck is his own, and he is insured. But he added: "Now, I'm out of work for awhile." http://www.canoe.ca:80/JamBooks/jul12_brewer.html
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 Brewing company unveils Ontario award for short story collections TORONTO (CP) -- A literary award worth $10,000 was unveiled Tuesday to honour short story collections written by Ontario authors. The Upper Canada Brewing Company announced its Writers' Craft Award at a news conference, saying that the inaugural prize will go to the writer of a story collection published in the 12-month period from June 30, 1999 to July 1, 2000. The brewery wants to support "the best authors our province has to offer," said company president Peter Amirault.
"Awards like this play a crucial role in pumping up Ontario's literary community and acknowledging the importance of literature in all of our lives," said writer Daniel Richler, who helped launch the prize. The jury this year is made up of Ian Pearson, Bill Reynolds and Eliza Clark. The deadline for submissions is July 21, 2000. Canadian publishers of fiction received notification of the award several weeks ago and have already been canvassed for submissions. A shortlist will be announced Sept. 10, and the winner will be announced at a gala reception in October. |
beer bits |
Oregon Brewers Guild |
7/14/00 12:00 AM |
This reminds me of a story from David Bruce, who founded the Firkin chain of pubs (Fox and Firkin, Frog and Firkin, etc.) I moderated a panel he was on at an IBS conference a few years ago. One of the questions had to do with naming pubs. Bruce said Firkin wasn't his first choice. "My local was called the Kings Arms, so I thought as a nod to that, I would call my first place the Queeen's Legs. But I was a fraid no one would show up for the grand opening." buh-dum-dum. -- Jim Parker Executive Director Oregon Brewers Guild (503) 295-1862 www.oregonbeer.org |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/14/00 12:00 AM |
Guinness to cut Irish jobs after review DUBLIN, July 14 (Reuters) - Guinness Ireland, a division of Britain's Diageo Plc, said on Friday it was closing its packaging plant in the Irish republic and revamping operations at one of its breweries, resulting in the loss of some 200 jobs. The company said the decision followed a review of its production operations in the Irish republic, together with its packaging operations in Northern Ireland and in Liverpool. ``The review was taken as result of the accelerating consolidation of the global beer industry, driven by excess capacity worldwide,'' Guinness said in a statement. The closure of the packaging plant in Dundalk, County Louth, close to the border with Northern Ireland, would result in the loss of around 140 jobs, while the revamp of the brewery, also in Dundalk, would mean cutting around 60 jobs, Guinness Ireland's corporate affairs director Pat Barry told Reuters. Some 300 people in total are employed at the plants. Guinness has an overall workforce of some 2,000 people in the Irish republic, including workers at its three breweries, in Dublin, Kilkenny and Waterford. Ireland's largest union, SIPTU, said it condemned what it called a devastating blow to the Dundalk community. ``While there has been speculation for some time regarding possible job losses, we are shocked at the manner in which Guinness proceeded with this announcement,'' it said. Unions had been seeking meetings with senior Guinness management for some time to discuss future plans, it said. A further 100 indirect employees were likely to be made redundant as a result of the review, it added. Guinness's Barry said the company was also looking at plans to streamline its other operations in Ireland. ``Our aim is to ensure maximum efficiency in the other plants and we're exploring means of bringing that about,'' he said. Earlier this week Guinness Ireland reported a four percent drop in sales of its flagship Guinness stout product in the 12 months to end-June 2000 -- a result largely of younger consumer switching allegiance to premium lagers, cider and wine, Barry said. Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney, who also holds the post of enterprise minister, said she was extremely disappointed at the announcement. ``The Guinness tradition is very much an Irish tradition and I am, of course, disappointed the company has found it necessary to make this decision,'' she said in a statement. She added she would help in assisting the workers to find alternative employment. Guinness said it would retain its packaging plant in Belfast but the facility would also be subject to plans for internal transformation, as would its Runcorn plant near Liverpool, north-west England. Carlsberg May Sell 75% of Shanghai Plant to Tsingtao Shanghai, July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Carlsberg A/S may sell control of an unprofitable Shanghai brewery to Tsingtao Brewery Co., underlining the difficulty faced by foreign beermakers trying to do business in the world's No. 2 beer market. Carlsberg, the world's sixth-largest brewer, is in talks to sell Tsingtao as much as 75 percent of its brewery in Songjiang, a Shanghai suburb, according to a Shanghai-based Carlsberg executive. The officials didn't say how much Tsingtao was prepared to pay. Tsingtao, best-known beer maker, said last month it plans to buy at least two foreign breweries in major Chinese cities to boost production and double its share of the domestic market to 10 percent. Tsingtao officials said they are talking to Carlsberg, although they declined to provide details. ``We are still in negotiations with Carlsberg, said Zhang Ruixiang, a Tsingtao spokesman. ``We can't give out details.'' Foreign brewers such as Bass Plc, San Miguel Corp., Asahi Breweries Ltd. and Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc. beat a path to China after the nation opened its doors to outside investment in the 1980s. Profits have been few -- and second thoughts many. Foreign brands today account for only 10 percent of the Chinese beer market, which is controlled largely by lower-cost local labels. Foreign Tastes Asia Brewery Inc. of the Philippines last year auctioned off a Shanghai venture that lost money for six years. Foster's Brewing Corp. sold two of three breweries in China last year after seven unprofitable years. Lion Nathan Ltd., Australia's No. 2 brewer, said earlier this month it's in talks to form ventures with Chinese beermakers to try to turn its first profit in China. The Songjiang brewery up for sale in Shanghai began operation in October 1998 on an investment of $36.4 million. It's produced 100,000 tons of beer a year and has yet to turn in a profit. Carlsberg owns 95 percent of the plant. The remainder is held by the Songjiang city government. At the same time, though, it's been hard for brewers to turn their backs completely on a market where incomes are rising and foreign brands still carry a glossy patina. Carlsberg also owns Carlsberg Brewery (Guangdong) Ltd, in southern China, which began on an investment of $53 million and has annual capacity of 70,000 tons of beer. Tsingtao shares, down 38 percent so far this years compared with an 11 percent increase in an index that tracks Chinese companies in Hong Kong, rose 0.7 percent today to HK$1.47. Heineken Announces New Chief Executive Officer For USA Unit; Van der Minne to Take Over Upon Michael Foley's Move to Aer Lingus
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 2000--Heineken, the Amsterdam-based brewer, has named Frank Van der Minne as President and Chief Executive Officer of its Heineken USA unit. Van der Minne is a 25-year veteran of the Heineken Group, serving most recently as Director Central and Eastern Europe, based in Amsterdam. Before that, he held various international positions in the Asia Pacific region, was General Manager of Murphy Brewery in Ireland and Export Director in Amsterdam. Van der Minne replaces Michael Foley, who will become the new Group Chief Executive of Aer Lingus, Ireland's national airline. Van der Minne will assume the new position on September 1. The appointment was announced by Heineken's Executive Board Chairman Karel Vuursteen, who praised Van der Minne as "an excellent beer executive with extensive international experience. With his track record in marketing, sales and distribution, he is well-equipped to lead the continuation of the strong performance of Heineken in the North American beer market." Heineken USA Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heineken NV and is benefiting from a strong growth trend among imported beers in America. The imported segment is the fastest growing part of the American beer market. The company, headquartered in White Plains NY recently reported that its Heineken brand grew 11 percent in the U.S. in 1999, outperforming the import segment. The U.S. beer market overall grew 1.6 percent in volume. Heineken is the world's most international brewer and finest beer, with operations in over 100 countries. The Heineken brand is sold in over 170 countries, more than any other beer brand. Diageo close to making Doughboy deal stick
By David Jones LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Top executives at Britain's Diageo Plc were locked in talks on Friday over a merger of its U.S. unit Pillsbury with cereals giant General Mills Inc in a deal which may come as early as the start of next week. The two Minneapolis-based groups are planning a share-swap deal valuing Pillsbury at $10.5 billion, which will give Diageo a 40 percent stake in a combined U.S.-based food group and the British group some $4 billion in cash, industry sources said. The deal is likely to lead to annual cost savings of around $400 million, but although both groups are heavily involved in cereal-based products there are no significant anti-trust issues which could break up the proposed marriage, they added. The combination between the cross-town rivals will strengthen General Mills in a fast consolidating U.S. food industry, and allow Diageo to focus on its UDV wines and spirits and Guinness beer divisions, whilst still gaining from its minority stake in a bigger and more profitable food company. Diageo and General Mills are keen to sign a deal as soon as possible to thwart attempts by ketchup king H.J. Heinz Co to breakup the party by bidding for Pillsbury. But analysts say this would difficult as the two have structured a complex deal to allow Diageo an exit route from Pillsbury but still hold onto a sizeable stake. The combination would bring together Pillsbury's refrigerated Doughboy products, Haagen-Dazs ice-cream, Green Giant vegetables and Old El Paso Mexican food together with General Mills's Cheerios, Wheaties and other breakfast cereals, Yoplait and Colombo yoghurts and Betty Crocker cake mixes. The only overlap which may cause any competition concerns is the pairing of General Mills' Betty Crocker and Pillsbury dessert mixes which would create a dominant player, but a partial sale of some of these businesses would avoid problems. Diageo is likely to use the cash for share buybacks or to reinforce its leadership of the global spirits market by bidding for parts of Seagram's drinks business such as Captain Morgan dark rum and Absolut vodka distribution. But the rash of activity at Diageo under Chief Executive designate Paul Walsh aimed at enhancing shareholder value has done little for the shares after the Pillsbury plan came hard on the heels of last month's Burger King flotation news.
Its shares languished eight pence lower at 591p by 1440 GMT, hardly changed from its starting price of 583p in December 1997 when Guinness and GrandMet merged to form Diageo. The shares have underperformed the UK stock market by 21 percent over the 2-1/2 years since the merger, although they have managed to match other UK drink stocks. They have recovered from an all-time low of 375p in March, but despite the level of corporate activity to rid the group of the drag on group earnings from Pillsbury and Burger King, investors are concerned over the slow pace of change. Analysts added that although Diageo is making all the right moves, the exit from its U.S.-based food businesses is messy, with a full exit from Burger King only planned for 2003 and its General Mills-Pillsbury stake likely to last longer. ``The market is very demanding; what it wants is lots of cash today, not jam tomorrow,'' said one analyst. Mexico H1 tequila production nurses agave hangover
By Armando Talamantes GUADALAJARA, Mexico, July 14 (Reuters) - Tequila production rose just 3.22 percent in the first half of the year, a sharp falloff from the heady growth seen between 1995-99, impacted by a shortage of the blue agave plant, from which the drink is made. According to a report by the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), of which Reuters obtained a copy, the 70 firms that make the Mexican drink produced 96 million liters in the first half of 2000, compared with 93 million liters in 1999. Previous figures from the CRT showed the industry grew 29.2 percent in 1996, 16.6 percent in 1997, 8.4 percent in 1998 and 12.27 percent in 1999. The average growth rate over those four years was 16.5 percent. The tequila industry has seen a faster global boom than any other spirit in the past few years but it is beginning to suffer the fallout from a shortage of the agave plant, which takes up to 12 years to mature. Industry authorities have said they don't expect a shortage of the liquor in the forthcoming months but have declined to predict what will happen to tequila prices in the future. In a radio interview, Alberto Curis, president of the National Tequila Industry Chamber, said some intermediaries between producers and distributors were monopolizing the plant, despite its scarcity. "They are taking prices to way out levels," Curis told radio station Panorama Informativo on Friday. Curis said the situation would lead to consolidation in the Mexican tequila industry, forcing the least competitive brands out of the market in the next two years. "There will not be a total shortage of agave, but a repositioning of brands," he said. There were currently some 590 on the market, he noted. "They can't all keep going and those brands will obviously be edged out," he added. Due to strong demand, tequila producers have exhausted almost half the agave plant supply, industry authority reports show. There are currently some 107.5 million agave plants in a protected zone, 47 percent less than in 1997 when there were 202 million plants. Authorities have said the supply of tequila is assured through 2000 and announced a massive agave planting plan in the next years to meet global demand. Mexican standards recognize two types of tequila: one made with 100 percent blue agave and another containing at least 51 percent agave, the rest being made up of sugars and alcohols. Manufacture of pure tequila fell 47 percent in the first half of the year, while production of mixed tequila rose 32.2 percent, the CRT said. Of the 96 million liters produced in the first six months of the year, 50 million were exported. Some 80 percent of Mexican tequila exports are sold to the United States, Curis said. Brand names seen dying in U.S. food sector shakeout By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO, (Reuters) - The current round of consolidation in the packaged food industry is a result of companies' failure to support their strongest brands, marketing experts say, and many of the best-known brands are likely to disappear. Some will be replaced by new brands, while many more will be displaced by retailer-backed house brands. The marketers that stay independent and prosper will be those that can innovate and boost demand for their branded products, the experts say. ``The major discrepancy you will see which will differentiate the winners -- who will stay in the industry and grow -- or losers is innovation,'' said Gary Stibel, principal of The New England Consulting Group, in Westport, Conn. ``Global branding will become a strategic imperative of this industry and very few people are doing it well. Most are doing it poorly.'' Burt Flickinger III, a former Procter & Gamble Co. executive and a retail consultant with Reach Marketing, also in Westport, Conn., said much of the current merger activity is linked to a failure by consumer products companies during the early 1990s to adequately support their strongest brands. ``The sin of most major consumer products companies in the '90s is that in order to fatten personal executive officer bonuses and to drive stock prices, many manufacturers, most notably (H.J.) Heinz (Co.), slashed advertising and consumer communication and brand-building budgets significantly. As a result, brand shares eroded dramatically,'' he said. ``In every major category, there are companies that have not marketed and built their brands sufficiently,'' Flickinger said. ``Of all the power players of the '80s and '90s, while their share prices have increased significantly, they've actually lost share in unit sales in many of their flagship brands,'' he said. Flickinger added: ``The only company that has really done a superb job has been Philip Morris (Cos. Inc.). While they have stumbled badly on the beer side of the business, they've done a brilliant job in tobacco and done a very strong job on the food side with Kraft.'' Faced with maturing brands and spurred by the prospect of higher profit margins, food companies have been gobbling up small-to-midsize competitors. ``Growth is what's motivating it. It has become increasingly difficult to squeeze increased growth out of businesses that have been allowed to mature over the years,'' said Stibel, whose firm is participating directly in discussions involving two different food company deals and indirectly with three others, which he declined to name. ``These categories are flat as pancakes for the most part. Therefore, to achieve growth, companies are out buying like crazy,'' he said. One recent player is Diageo Plc, which on Thursday confirmed talks with Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. about a possible merger with Diageo's Pillsbury division. That follows a spate of mergers in June that brought Nabisco's familiar cookie and cracker brands to Philip Morris' Kraft Foods table and linked Bestfoods' Hellman's and Skippy brands with Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever Plc. ``There are lots of discussions going on. What you know for sure is that Philip Morris, Nestle SA and Unilever will be net purchasers going forward,'' said Stibel, whose consulting firm represented Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. in its sale in May to Unilever for $326 million. ``At the other extreme will be smaller companies that will stay independent. And in the middle, there are huge opportunities for growth and mergers.'' As they emerge from the feeding frenzy, however, companies may face new challenges as they go about marketing their newly acquired brand portfolios. At the same time companies were slashing marketing support for key brands, grocery retailers were consolidating and honing their skills at selling private-label products, creating a class of value-oriented consumers that may now be more difficult to bring back into the branded-product fold. ``Within this decade, the top 10 global retailers will control 50 percent of the retail dollars worldwide. Those 10 retailers have the size, scale and skill to launch private brands directly in competition with major manufacturers,'' Flickinger said. ``Wal-Mart, Costco and Carrefour have proven to Procter & Gamble in a very painful way that consumers, based on a better level of education, are deciding the smarter choice is often to buy private brands.'' Notwithstanding Flickinger's concerns, others believe reinvestment will succeed in reviving mature brands. ``There is deep-seeded brand equity in those brands. With the right levels and mix in support, those brands will be infinitely more successful over the long haul,'' said John Grace, executive vice president and managing director at Interbrand in New York. Grace said there is a dramatic shift in the way companies view acquisitions, which he said are less about acquiring bricks and mortar and more about acquiring brand portfolios. ``There is ever-increasing value in traditional consumer brands. That's why such high multiples continue to be paid. ``Whether it's Unilever or Philip Morris, they're acquiring the most important assets they can find. You don't see acquisitions about factories or raw materials or management talent. What you see are acquisitions of brands.'' Accordionists Seek Some Respect
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - No Lawrence Welk-style bubbles float by. There's seldom a polka. And don't even think of requesting ``Lady of Spain.'' To the 200 or so people roaming the nation's capital with accordions strapped across their chests this weekend, the much-maligned squeezebox is so ``retro'' it's become hip. There are up-and-coming preteen and teen-age musicians playing rock and jazz accordion, not to mention the blond who appeared in a Playboy photo spread wearing nothing but her accordion. The American Accordionists' Association is in the midst of an image makeover. ``Today's parents wanted nothing to do with the accordion because their parents were playing them in the '50s. Now you have a generation that, if older people didn't tell them about it, they wouldn't know the accordion existed. So it's new again and very cool,'' said Faithe Deffner, president of the association. In fact, Deffner, who has been playing the accordion for 30 years, and the other so-called ``old-timers'' get a tad defensive if someone dares ask whether the accordion is just for octogenarians of German descent playing polkas in beer halls. They note with pride that their convention, which wraps up Sunday, features a seminar on ``The Accordion in Cyberspace.'' They quickly point out that ``with-it'' musicians including k.d. lang, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Peter Holsapple of Hootie and the Blowfish, Sheryl Crow, Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, among others, play the accordion. And then there's Phoebe Legere and her backup band, the Hot Hairy Hunks. Her nothing-on-but-an-accordion pictures aside, Legere's brand of alternative pop, rock, jazz, Cajun and French music has drawn a whole new audience on ectasy to the squeezebox in New York City's trendy nightclubs. Not that 13-year-old Cory Pesaturo started playing the accordion because of its newfound sex appeal. He utters a shy, ``I don't know,'' when asked whether girls prefer accordion players to say, drummers. Cory, who plays pop, rock and jazz, will say, however, that his friends admire his style. ``They think it's kind of cool to play something completely different, you know, because it's not something that anyone would expect,'' said Cory of Cumberland, R.I. And while 11-year-old Georgiana Leonard of Dearborn, Mich., likes Britney Spears and the Back Street Boys, she's turned a lot of her friends onto her favorite musician, Frankie Yankovic, the Polka King from Cleveland who died two years ago. ``Some of my friends think it's cool. Some think it's dorky,'' she says, crinkling her nose, ``but I like it. It's fun to play.'' Still, 80-year-old Merv Conn, who bills himself as the last of the strolling accordionists, can't help but feel wistful for the old days, when accordions weren't on the World Wide Web and Lawrence Welk was hip. ``In 1945, you could pay 75 cents on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and you could see Bennie Goodman, and me, and a whole bunch of other players. I still love to play, but there isn't so much of a demand for strolling accordionists now.'' On the Net: American Accordionists' Association Inc.: http://www.ameraccord.com Accordions Worldwide: http://www.accordions.com |
beer bits |
Peter Alexander |
7/14/00 12:00 AM |
On 14 Jul 2000 21:43:25 GMT, j2ju...@aol.com (J2jurado) wrote: >Guinness to cut Irish jobs after review > >DUBLIN, July 14 (Reuters) - Guinness Ireland, a division of Britain's Diageo >Plc, said on Friday it was closing its packaging plant in the Irish republic >and revamping operations at one of its breweries, resulting in the loss of some >200 jobs. > >The company said the decision followed a review of its production operations in >the Irish republic, together with its packaging operations in Northern Ireland >and in Liverpool. > >``The review was taken as result of the accelerating consolidation of the >global beer industry, driven by excess capacity worldwide,'' Guinness said in a >statement. > >The closure of the packaging plant in Dundalk, County Louth, close to the >border with Northern Ireland, would result in the loss of around 140 jobs, >while the revamp of the brewery, also in Dundalk, would mean cutting around 60 >jobs, Guinness Ireland's corporate affairs director Pat Barry told Reuters. > >Some 300 people in total are employed at the plants. Guinness has an overall >workforce of some 2,000 people in the Irish republic, including workers at its >three breweries, in Dublin, Kilkenny and Waterford. Hmm. I thought the above said there is a brewery in Dundalk too. Talk about Irish arithmetic. No wonder they can't figure that a half pint should cost exactly half the cost of a pint! > >Carlsberg May Sell 75% of Shanghai Plant to Tsingtao > >Shanghai, July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Carlsberg A/S may sell control of an >unprofitable Shanghai brewery to Tsingtao Brewery Co., underlining the >difficulty faced by foreign beermakers trying to do business in the world's No. >2 beer market. > >Carlsberg, the world's sixth-largest brewer, is in talks to sell Tsingtao as >much as 75 percent of its brewery in Songjiang, a Shanghai suburb, according to >a Shanghai-based Carlsberg executive. The officials didn't say how much >Tsingtao was prepared to pay. > >Tsingtao, best-known beer maker, said last month it plans to buy at least two >foreign breweries in major Chinese cities to boost production and double its >share of the domestic market to 10 percent. On my return from Hong Kong recently, I read on the flight home, the South China Morning Post which carried an article quoting Tsingtao who were boasting that they would see off all foreign competition - that is those who actually brerwed in China - as they could undercut them by at least 50%. Peter Alexander Chairman CAMRA Rochdale Oldham and Bury Branch Unless otherwise stated,the opinions stated here are personal. My CAMRA connections are given for information only.
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beer bits |
Jaime |
7/15/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.spokane.net:80/news-story-body.asp?Date=071400&ID=s826112&cat=Home brewer ready to take his recipe into the big leagues On tap Rick Bonino - Staff writer After five years as a home brewer, Ryan Clemes decided to stop monkeying around. The result: MonkeyBrau, a new line of beer Clemes hopes to market locally in cooperation with area breweries. His first commercial effort, the literarily titled Caulfield Rye ("Catcher" his drift?), is currently on tap at The Viking as a test market. Clemes hired Lost Falls Brewing of Colville, Wash., to make the beer from his recipe -- called "contract brewing" in the business. "Every home brewer dreams of opening a brewery," says Clemes, 24, who formulated his plan while working at Jim's Home Brew Supply. "I spent months and months trying to think of a way to start a brewery with little risk." It's still plenty risky, given the glut of microbrews on the market these days. And to complicate matters, Clemes recently married and moved to the Seattle area, meaning lots of trips across the mountains to conduct business. But he has talent along with his ambition. Caulfield Rye, a dark amber beer based on a recipe that won Clemes best-of-show honors at the famous Spokane Interstate Fair two years ago, starts rich and malty and finishes pleasantly clean, with a touch of rye spiciness and Amarillo hop bitterness along the way. For follow-ups, he's planning a well-balanced, British-style India pale ale and a strong brown ale -- assuming the rye catches on first, that is. Bitter battle Speaking of IPAs, you may be wondering how the hop wars are going between The Ram and C.I. Shenanigan's. As you may recall, brewers at each of the sister establishments made a version of the famously bitter beer style. Both are being poured at each place, with customers voting for their favorite. While there's no official tally, says C.I.'s David Donally, "I'm way ahead over here, and he's (Ram brewer Steve Samuelson) way ahead over there. People are kind of voting for the home team." Personally, we prefer Donally's fruitier, hoppier IPA for warm-weather drinking, although Samuelson's earthier rendition would hit the spot on a September day. Either way, it's heartwarming for hopheads just to have two IPAs on tap at the same place. And a third is on the way. The Tacoma-based Ram chain just changed the recipe for its Big Red to a citrusy, Cascade-accented IPA. It also should be available at both places by now. Summer schoolFormer Viking owner John Edwards will conduct one of his popular beer classes next Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Huckleberry's Natural Market, 926 S. Monroe. He'll taste and discuss some seasonals, such as Sierra Nevada's Summerfest and Widmer's Sommerbrau, along with such specialties as Brains Welsh ale. Cost is $10 for 10 beer samples. Call 624-1349 for reservations. Portland, ho! For more ambitious beer buffs, the annual Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland the last weekend of July will again feature 72 of the country's top craft brewers, from California's Lagunitas Brewing (speaking of killer IPAs) to Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery to Sam Choy's Big Aloha Brewery in Honolulu. (Locally, look for the folks from Casey's in Post Falls and Pend Oreille Brewing in Sandpoint.)It's $3 for a souvenir mug and $1 for each 4-ounce beer sample. For more information, call (503) 778-5917 or visit www.oregonbrewfest.com. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1990519&ern=y
Japan Hit by New Food-Poisoning Scares Teruaki Ueno 07/15/00 TOKYO (Reuters) - In the latest in a series of food poisoning cases, Japan's top bakery said on Saturday that it was recalling thousands of curry-flavored buns believed to contain mold and a beer company withdrew a soft drink. The bakery's recall followed a major incidence of food poisoning this month when 14,000 people fell ill from drinking tainted milk from Snow Brand Milk Products Co Ltd's plant in Osaka, in western Japan. Victims complained of diarrhea and vomiting after drinking low-fat milk and the scandal prompted the company last week to halt operations at its 21 milk-production plants. Snow Brand, the country's biggest dairy company, had indicated it hoped to re-open its plants within days but retailers across Japan have been canceling its products. Health Ministry officials said on Saturday the plants would remain shut for about three weeks for nationwide inspections. Yamazaki Baking Co Ltd, also based in Osaka, said it had begun voluntarily recalling nearly 10,000 buns after receiving complaints from convenience stores on Thursday that the bread appeared to be moldy. Local public health officials said at least two people had complained of stomach pains after eating the buns. They said they were inspecting Yamazaki Baking's Osaka plant and questioning company officials. Yamazaki officials said they had not publicized their decision to recall the buns earlier for fear of a public backlash similar to that triggered by the milk poisoning. ``We took into consideration the harsh public opinion against food companies, partly because of the Snow Brand food poisoning case,'' a Yamazaki Baking official said. The company decided to halt production of the bun at its 12 plants across the country, the official said. Renowned brewer Kirin Beverage Corp said it was recalling 700,000 cases of its Kirin Speed soft sports drink after complaints the drinks tasted odd. ``There no germs in them but we decided on the voluntary recall just as a precaution,'' said a Kirin spokeswoman. GOVERNMENT INSPECTIONS The Health Ministry was poised to launch sweeping checks on Monday of all Snow Brand plants amid charges of lax management and supervision. Japanese media said the city government of Osaka, the area worst hit by the poisoning, planned to file criminal charges against the milk company for violating food hygiene laws. But Osaka city officials said nothing had been decided yet. Health Minister Yuji Tsushima said the government needed to step in because the scare was hitting the entire dairy industry. Japanese media said the firm apparently recycled previously shipped milk in late June, when most of the tainted milk was sent to market. Workers opened returned low-fat milk cartons with their bare hands before pouring the contents into a tank to be combined with fresh milk used to make low-fat milk, according to reports. A Snow Brand spokesman declined to comment. ``Many things have been said, but we have no comment to make as a result of the police investigation.'' A panel of the powerful Lower House of parliament is to convene on Wednesday to question Agriculture Minister Yoichi Tanino and Snow Brand officials on the causes of the incident. SHARES HARD HIT Snow Brand has said it is even considering changing its brand -- a household name in Japan. Snow Brand's shares have been hit hard by the incident, shedding more than a third of their value since news of the poisoning emerged two weeks ago. The shares ended at 401 yen on Friday, down 0.75 percent from the previous session. The food-poisoning scare spread further this week when Morinaga Milk Industry Co Ltd, Japan's third-largest diary products supplier, closed a production line after some 20 schoolchildren fell ill after drinking the company's milk. Morinaga restarted the production line on Friday. http://avlbeta.altavista.com/sports/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1990492&ern=y Pride of a lion : For better or worse, only Daly can tame himself 07/14/00 - On the patio outside the bustling Beer Hunter restaurant, John Daly leaned back in a black iron chair, lighted another cigarette and stared at a glass of craft beer as if trying to decide whether it was half full or half empty. "Should I bring you another one?" a waitress asked. On this occasion, a cool January night in the California desert, Daly decided his fourth beer was still half full. He politely waved her away. It had been six months since he stopped at a convenience store on his way home from the missing the cut in the St. Jude Classic, downed a 12-pack of beer and ended more than two years of sobriety. The decision to resume drinking — and his refusal to seek help — cost Daly an endorsement with Callaway worth $3 million over the final two years, more money than his combined earnings in 10 years on the PGA Tour. He insists it was a small price to pay. Daly wanted to prove he could do it his way, that he could consume beer without it consuming him. He felt free from the restrictions imposed by Callaway and from expectations of everyone around him. He was hungry to play the kind of golf that brought him a PGA Championship and a British Open. "I really feel like my game is starting to come around," he said that night. Five years ago, Daly proved he could win without a wee nip. Sober for 2 1/2 years, his longest dry spell since he started drinking at age 8, Daly overpowered the Old Course and won the British Open at St. Andrews in a playoff against Costantino Rocca, putting him halfway home to the career Grand Slam with the prime of his career just around the corner. "What I remember most is his eagerness," said his caddie, Greg Rita, who now works for David Duval. "He really believed in himself that week, that the course was made for him. It was the most confidence I've ever seen in him." Daly, 34, returns to St. Andrews with his confidence at an all-time low, his status changed from two-time major champion to one of the most unpredictable figures in golf. He has three ex-wives, mounting gambling debts and no major sponsors. His game is a wreck. Daly remains in select company, one of only six players under 40 who have won at least two majors. Unlike the others — Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lee Janzen, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ernie Els — Daly has little hope of ever getting another chance in the Masters or U.S. Open, which invite only top players from the money list and world ranking. He has a virtual lifetime pass to play in the British Open as a past champion. Daly has finished no higher than 77th on the money list since 1995, and he's not even among the top 200 in the world. "When I look on the computer, I've got 'N/A' in the world ranking," he said. But there is reason for hope, especially at St. Andrews, which rewards big hitters. Besides his British Open victory, Daly is 8-1 on the Old Course in two Dunhill Cup appearances. "I'm looking forward to going back to the British," he said in March. "Going to the British again is like going home. I've had some really good success at St. Andrews, and hopefully my game will be in really good shape." Sadly, nothing about Daly is in shape. Most days, a big decision is McDonald's or Taco Bell. His gut hangs over his waistline, his pants droop to the grass. He goes through a cigarette per hole, and he has shown no desire to change. "I went on a six-month workout plan," he said. "People said I would feel great after it. Hell, I threw up every time I worked out. It's not for me." His game is even worse off. Daly has missed the cut 54 times in 104 tournaments since 1996, and he has only four top 10s in the last five years. Sitting at the bar in the Bay Hill Lodge, drinking a diet soda and puffing through a pack of cigarettes about an hour before his tee time, Daly stared through the smoke as he contemplated an answer he used to rehearse during two trips to rehab, in 1993 and 1997. Are you an alcoholic? "I don't think I am," he replied bluntly. "I think I let people try to convince me that I am, and that's the worst thing I could have done. I don't drink any more than anybody else my age. I don't drink to solve problems. I don't drink around my kids. I don't drink to get bombed any more. I hate that feeling. I just drink to relax." Daly wasn't planning to play the Bay Hill Invitational until he put together four decent rounds the week before in the Honda Classic and tied for 16th, his best finish in over a year. "My game is coming around," he said. Eleven months after winning the British Open, Daly was seen drinking. He later described it as "social drinking," but it evolved into something much more serious. During The Players Championship in March 1997, he was pouring down shots at a Jacksonville Beach, Fla., nightclub. Later that night, he got into an argument with his third wife, Paulette, trashed his hotel room and wound up in the hospital, unsure where he had been or how he had gotten there. The fallout was immense. His wife divorced him. So did Wilson Golf. When Daly emerged from his second stint in alcohol rehab, he found a father figure in Ely Callaway, who signed him to a five-year deal in which the equipment czar covered a reported $1.7 million of Daly's gambling debts. The contract had a clause that required Daly to regularly attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, stay away from drinking and stay out of casinos. "We never really did make a deal with him based strictly on our hopes he would win," Callaway said. "He has this magnitude of charm. He's got the biggest galleries everywhere, whether he's winning or not. We wanted him to stay sober and get healthy and enjoy competing. If he could do that, we thought it would be very attractive to millions of people." It was not without a struggle. Daly walked off the course in the middle of his second round in the '97 U.S. Open, not even telling his caddie. A year later, he had the shakes in Vancouver and wept on the 15th green. Within 10 months, he was drinking again. Callaway didn't find out about this until he received reports of Daly drinking and losing thousands of dollars in a Las Vegas casino. He tried to give the troubled star one more chance, but Daly refused to go back to rehab. "When we signed him, we thought he had found a new will to win, and a will to survive," Callaway said. Would he give Daly yet another chance? Daly was the center of attention at a large, round table at Doral Resort & Spa, where he announced a sponsorship agreement with SoBe Beverages, his first significant deal since Callaway terminated his contract. He was just as excited about plans to promote his own logo, hopeful it could do for him what the shark has done for Greg Norman. Daly chose a lion, with a colorful and wild mane, swinging a club with Daly's "grip it and rip it" style. "He's an animal that can only tame himself," Daly said, explaining his choice of a mascot. "He's not going to listen to anybody. He's the king of the jungle. He never gives up. He keeps fighting. And that's me." Three months later, Daly was 3 over in the first round of the U.S. Open when he came to the 18th at Pebble Beach and promptly made a 14 — one ball out of bounds, three in the ocean. He signed for an 83 and withdrew.
"Get me to the airport, fast," he said. This is not Daly's last chance. Winning the '95 British Open at St. Andrews came with a 10-year exemption on the PGA Tour, along with a free pass to the British Open until he turns 65, and to the PGA Championship, which he won in 1991, for as long as he chooses. Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson, David Duval and others have never walked out on a major, never taken huge sums of appearance money and then tank a round, never made more news off the course than on it. All are desperately trying to win their first major. Daly already has two. "To see my name on two major trophies probably makes up for not winning 17 times," Daly said. "And I'm still teeing it up every day. There's something to be said for that." That's about all he can say these days. Still, he remains a crowd favorite. Perhaps that's because everyone digs the long ball, and no one can hit it quite like Daly. Or they can relate to a good ol' boy from Arkansas whose struggle with life's problems are constantly on display. Or maybe they're just waiting to see the next train wreck. "With me," Daly said, "you never know what will happen." http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1981537&ern=y
At Academy, A Persistent Urge to Binge By Amy Argetsinger and Anita Huslin 07/09/00 - On a recent sunny morning as the U.S. Naval Academy welcomed 1,235 young people from across the country into its Class of 2004, the father of one new midshipman confronted school officials with a piercing question: How would the academy ensure that his daughter would not become a victim of sexual harassment or assault? It was a question Capt. Bruce Bowle, commander of the new class, felt well-prepared to answer. Today's students are drilled on the sometimes shaded definitions of date rape, sexual assault and alcohol abuse. They learn confidence and assertiveness, and they are also taught how to say no. Still Bowle cautioned the plebe's father: "You have to understand, though, that these are 17- to 22-year-old young people that are in this process of character development. Most meet the standards. Some will not." The same day, Navy Criminal Investigative Service officers delivered two midshipmen--Cordrea Brittingham and Arion K. Williams--to Anne Arundel County police for questioning. Within days, the two Navy football players were arrested and charged with raping a 20-year-old classmate. For all the lectures--and increasingly strict enforcement of the rules--the Naval Academy has failed to stamp out a subculture of hard-core partying that seems as persistent, if on a smaller scale, as the scene at many civilian colleges. This kind of off-campus carousing, fueled by alcohol, has been the common denominator in a handful of acquaintance rape or assault complaints filed by female midshipmen in recent years against their male classmates. "It's hard to say 'no drinking' when you're 21 and you can go into an officers club and can purchase a drink," said one Navy official familiar with the school. "But if you were to look at the percentage of disciplinary cases . . . 80 to 85 percent involve alcohol." Academy officials are dismayed and frustrated by the latest incident but say it's impossible to control the behavior of all the students during the rigorous four-year process of molding them into officers. "The Naval Academy is not Camelot," said Capt. Sam Locklear, commandant of midshipmen. "You don't just walk in the gate and suddenly everything you believe about the Naval Academy and about the integrity of naval officers is there. It's a process. The standards are very high, the training is very rigorous." It's inevitable, officers say, that a few will fall spectacularly short. Brittingham and Williams, both 21-year-old rising juniors, were arrested Monday after a classmate said she passed out while drinking at a private party at a home in Arnold and awoke to find she was being assaulted. Both students were charged with second-degree rape and second-degree sexual offense, and Williams was also charged with third-degree sexual offense. They were released on $50,000 bond and have returned to summer school classes while awaiting trial. Attorneys for both men say their clients had been drinking at the party and had consensual sex with the woman. While the courts will decide whether the midshipmen's actions breached the law, the academy training is designed to leave little room for interpretation of what the Navy considers appropriate behavior. Sex is prohibited on campus at all times and never allowed between members of the same company. Alcohol is verboten until midshipmen turn 21. During their first summer at the academy, plebes are taught the alcohol regulations and attend lectures on sexual assault and sexual harassment. Later, there will be sessions with a nationally renowned consultant on date rape, presentations by Navy officers on alcohol abuse, more lectures with case studies on respect for others. Upperclassmen participate in more specific discussions about sexual assault and how alcohol can cloud their judgment and undermine their leadership. It's all designed to prepare midshipmen for when the rules are loosened and their privileges are expanded. That makes it all the more frustrating to academy officials when infractions occur. For the past decade, the academy has recorded two to 13 sexual misconduct cases annually, ranging from inappropriate sexual contact to sexual assault. Last year there were 10, two serious enough to warrant expulsion of the midshipmen. Last year, 133 midshipmen were involved in 143 alcohol-related offenses in a brigade of about 4,000 students, academy officials said. "For a lot of these kids, there was a different culture in high school, and a different culture out there we try to correct," said Cmdr. Mike Brady, a spokesman for the academy. Three years ago, one such boozy gathering in an Annapolis motel room spun out of control. A female midshipman in the group reported months later that she had been assaulted by several of her male classmates that night. The four men later resigned from the academy rather than face disciplinary charges and possible courts-martial. "They were immature and didn't belong there and were there for bad reasons--their parents wanted them there, and it was a free education," said an Annapolis area man, whose family has sponsored several midshipmen. "They weren't committed to a military life; therefore they broke the rules, and they partied, and they suffered the consequences," he said. In some cases, however, women who alleged sexual assault were then accused by fellow students of fabricating the charges to hide their own consensual involvement--whether sex in the Bancroft Hall dormitory or a romantic relationship with a company-mate. Although illicit drinking and sexual assault may be more common on civilian college campuses, the consequences of getting caught often are far messier at the Naval Academy: Students who are expelled any time past their sophomore year can be forced to repay the government as much as $80,000 for the cost of their education. It's the compounding effect of the strict regimen and rules at the academy that prompts some students to binge on the rare occasions when they finally can drink or socialize, said one former midshipman. "Mids get beat down by so many different things all week long, so when they have the opportunity to relax and have some fun, it's all or nothing," said Jason Pierce, 22, of Boston, who resigned last year for medical reasons. That's precisely why the academy starts out with ironclad rules and slowly relaxes them, so that midshipman can learn to handle the responsibilities they will face when they leave campus, officials say. "We're completely confident they understand what the regulations are, what their responsibilities are and [how] we want them to behave," said Capt. Mike Kehoe, in charge of character development training at the academy. "The question is whether they apply the judgment that we want them to apply." http://www.phillynews.com:80/content/daily_news/2000/07/14/features/FJOE14.htm
With 3rd location, bugs are mostly Ironed out by Joe Sixpack Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant just opened its third location - this one in downtown Media - and co-owner Kevin Davies is wary. "We don't know if it's going to be a big success or not," he said. "No one knows until you're up and running for a few months." I think he's just being modest. Davies and his partners, Kevin Finn and brewer Mark Edelson, have fashioned a growing, popular restaurant chain that is the envy of his industry. The menu always gets great reviews, the beer has won more than its share of awards and every time I visit, it's SRO. The 200-seat Media brewpub (slightly smaller than the West Chester spot), features more than $1 million in renovations to a former drugstore, including a handsome mahogany-and-metal bar. How do they do it? Davies sat down for dinner and ales recently, while I scribbled a sixpack of his ideas. (Full disclosure: Davies' brother, Paul, is an occasional rightfielder for the DN softball team and a fellow People Paper writer.) 1. Run your place like a restaurant that happens to have a brewery on the premises. This doesn't mean ignore the suds. Indeed, as long as it keeps pouring its Pig Iron Porter, Iron Hill will never have to apologize for the quality of its beer. Instead, it means you should ask yourself: If the beer suddenly disappeared, what would you be left with? In Iron Hill's case, it's an attractive dining room with a cheerful, efficient staff and a tasty, affordable menu. In other words, a place you'd visit even if there wasn't good beer on tap. 2. Treat your employees well. "Beer is such a great thing for camaraderie and friendship," Davies said. "So we encourage our employees to enjoy a glass at the end of their shift." A simple thing, like taking a group of workers to the annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver, goes a long way toward building employee morale, he said. 3. Cater to kids. As much as I detest the tots biting my ankles at the bar, it does make sense to be friendly to the little ones if you're running a suburban restaurant. Most of Iron Hill's patrons, after all, are moms and dads. "We train our staff to bend over backwards for kids," Davies said. "And we price our children's entrees inexpensively." And how about pint-size beers for the kiddies? Davies said he'd get back to me on that one. 4. Show off your beers with good food. "My experience was in matching wine with food, so it only made sense to do the same with beer," Davies said. He and his first chef spent nine months designing their first menu - from the choice of entrees to the typeface. They ruled out French food and tried to stay away from Italian. Much of the cuisine is Southwestern, with a healthy nod toward New Orleans. The result is attractive tables laden with grilled fish and wood-oven pizzas, cassoulets and hearty sandwiches - and pints of amber lagers and dark porters. A meal has the full, guilt-free feel of a workingman's lunch. Which completely belies the next lesson: 5. Cater to women. "A lot of people look at us sideways on this," Davies said, because beer is such a guy thing. But once men get the big hookup, 85 percent of nightly dining decisions are made by the woman. "Women want something more than a masculine experience," Davies said. "You know, hanging out at the bar and eating fried food." She might like beer, but she's probably more interested in a good-quality meal. The way Davies sees it, when a woman takes her man to a brewpub, it's a no-lose proposition: She gets a nice night out, plus she pleases her man because he gets to drink beer at a brewery. He wins, meanwhile, because he gives her the reins. Plus (did we mention?) he gets to drink beer at a brewery. 6. Know your demographic. Most brewpub customers are 25 to 55 years old, according to Davies. And they're college-educated. But here's the key for Iron Hill: 80 percent of its patrons come from within a 7-mile radius. So, rather than hope it can convince potential customers to make a long trip, Iron Hill pays close attention to location, location, location. Its first two pubs are in college towns (Newark, Del., and West Chester), but not because of the ample supply of beer-swilling students (though the schools do provide workers). Instead, Iron Hill was attracted by the town culture - the ivy atmosphere on campus and the casual environment in a well-heeled downtown. Media is not a college town, but as a county seat, the atmosphere is much the same. Where will Iron Hill look next? These are just guesses, but Doylestown and Haddonfield, N.J., would be naturals. And, Davies said, don't rule out Philly. About that location: Iron Hill seems to have a thing for catchy intersections. In West Chester, the brewpub is located at the subversive corner of Gay and High streets. In Media, it's tempting the U.S. Constitution at the corner of Church and State. Beer radar Joe Sixpack's free lunch at McGillin's Olde Ale House on June 30 was a hobbling success. The event kicked off American Beer Month (yes, it's still going on, so drink American!) and attracted a score of out-of-town brewers. Yours truly showed up limping in a softball-induced leg cast. I managed to greet more than 100 guests before collapsing into publican Chris Mullin's excellent Irish stew. Good spirits flowed at the remainder of the weekend's beer-month events, including the Great American Blind Taste Test at the Irish Pub. In a contest between American-made brews and imports, the Yankees won 4-1: Samuel Adams Boston Lager spanked Heineken with 74 percent of the vote. Yards Brawler nipped Boddington's (53 percent). Stoudt American Pale Ale scared off John Courage (79 percent). Samuel Adams Cream Stout creamed Guinness Extra Stout (80 percent). Only Germany's Paulaner Hefe-weizen excelled among the imports, defeating Penn Hefe-Weizen (66 percent). Road trip By the time you read this, only a few tickets will remain for O'Neal's (611 S. 3rd St., below South) bus ride to Yankee Stadium on Monday. The bus, which leaves at 3 p.m., will be stocked with food, beer (Brooklyn Brewing) and a john. The $65 ticket (see the bartender) pays for everything, including a ticket to watch the Phils take on the Yanks. http://www.sltrib.com:80/07152000/business/67398.htm
PUB TRADITION UNDER SIEGE, British Take Pub Hubbub to Parliament Saturday, July 15, 2000 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON-- Traditional English pub names often are patriotic or royal -- The Crown, The King's Head, The Red Lion. Others are resolutely local, paying tribute to the lord of the manor or reflecting a region's landmarks, flora and fauna, industry or sporting heroes.
But today's British beer drinkers are increasingly likely to head down to the Rat and Parrot chain or the Slug and Lettuce. And some feel it has all gone a Dog and Doughnut too far. In the House of Commons this week, Britain's culture minister, Chris Smith, lamented "a growing fashion for rebranding pubs with names like the Dog and Doughnut or the Goose and Granite which, I have to say, would appear to have little relevance to the history of any area."
"We are surely in danger here of losing an important part of local history and local folk memory," he told lawmakers. Many British pub names do have deep and sometimes mysterious historical roots, originating in preliterate days when ale houses had to sport large, memorable and easily identifiable signs. Alan Rose, secretary of the Inn Sign
Society, cites his local pub, the Bull and Spectacles -- a reference to a former landlord's prize bull or to Anne Boleyn (Bull-inn), depending on which legend you believe.
That kind of individuality, pub aficionados argue, is now in danger. A third of Britain's 60,000 pubs are controlled by breweries that dictate what beer is sold there. Another third are now owned by non-brewing
chains -- and it is these standardized corporate "theme" pubs that traditionalists object to most. Some call it the "McDonald's-ization" of British pubs.
"You can go into a Rat and Parrot in the southeast or the northwest and they're exactly the same," said Ian Woolverton of the consumer group Campaign for Real Ale. "That can't be good for our pub heritage." It is not the name changes in themselves that vex campaigners. Pubs have long rechristened themselves to commemorate historic events: The Royal Oak, a name borne by more than 600 British pubs, emerged in the 17th century to mark King Charles II's escape from Oliver Cromwell's forces. "Almost every pub has had a name change," said Rose of the Inn Sign Society. "If they didn't, we wouldn't have a hobby, would we?" Rose noted that changing social mores -- from the demise of cockfighting to the present-day proposed ban on fox hunting -- could drive pubs to rename themselves. "You've got pubs called the Fox and Hounds. Will that change when the anti-hunting law comes in? What we don't like is that we're losing the historic ones," he said. The chain-pub operators counter that they are pumping new life into a flagging industry, renovating once-dingy boozers and attracting young people to big, bright watering holes. Many traditional rural pubs, meanwhile, are closing as their aging clientele drinks less. "Our bars are big and they're busy, so we're giving people what they want," said Clive Eplett, finance director of SFI Group PLC, which owns the Litten Tree and Bar Med chains and is in the process of acquiring the 33-bar
Slug and Lettuce group -- a pioneer of the up-market stripped-wood-and-focaccia formula. He said most of SFI's pubs are former shops and banks, rather than existing pubs. And he is not nostalgic for the pubs of yesteryear, arguing that chains like his, selling beer from several breweries, offer customers more choice. "I was born in a small village in Cornwall, and all the pubs were owned by one brewery," he said. "You drank their beer or you didn't drink at all." No one is arguing the government should legislate pub names. But campaigners want to see names included as part of a pub's license, so change would require planning permission and local consultation. That argument sits well with Smith, the government minister. "Certainly, consulting a pub's regulars and the wider local community before renaming it would not seem too much to ask," he told the Commons. http://www.courierpress.com:80/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200007/14+beer071400_featu res.html+20000714 First choice Survey finds Bud products top sellers here! By LINDA NEGRO, Assistant features editor Evansville may have been a multi-brewery town years ago, but Budweiser owns us now. Budweiser and companion beers Bud Light and Busch, which is often on sale, outsell other brands dramatically, according to an unscientific poll of some area liquor stores and restaurants. As much as 75 percent of the beer purchases at Apollo Liquors are Budweiser, with Bud Light in second place. Bud Light has edged out Budweiser in the sales at Shamrock Liquors, with Budweiser second and “Busch right up there,” according to manager Bill Brackett. Bud Light is the top seller at the Fox & Hound and Shyler’s restaurants and at Frontier liquors, as well, although Miller Lite edges out Bud at the Hacienda restaurant and at University Liquors. The St. Louis brewery’s domination doesn’t keep a local brewer from at least trying for a corner of the market. After four years, Tom Turner, head brewer of the microbrewery at Turoni’s, said his beers have finally over-taken sales of Budweiser, Bud Light and Miller Light beers (only offered bottled) at his two restaurants. He said his beers sell 60 percent to 40 percent over the commercial brands. The beers have earned a good reputation among other brewers by taking second place among 340 breweries and 90 beers at the recent Bluegrass Beer Co. Beer Festival in Louisville, Ky. The local brewery entered three beers — the Bluebeery Wheat, Stout and the Blue-Eyed Moose — in the competition. Marrietta Brewery Co of Marietta, Ill., took first place. Despite the specialty home-brews, such as the new fruity Raspberry Kolsch summer ale, Turner says, his best-selling beer is the light lager, because it tastes so much like the popular domestic beers. “It’s the taste people are used to,” Turner said. “There’s no beating those guys. They made beer more drinkable — it’s lighter.” Turoni’s stout is also sold at Fast Eddy’s. Brackett at Shamrock Liquors said that daily, the best seller is Bud Light, but during the holidays, the sales of Miller Lite increase. |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/16/00 12:00 AM |
Diageo's Sale of Pillsbury Signals New Strategy, Analysts Say London, July 16 (Bloomberg)-- Diageo Plc's willingness to shed Pillsbury food and Burger King signals a change in strategy for the largest liquor company as Paul Walsh prepares to take over as chief executive on Jan. 1, analysts said. Walsh, 45, was named chief operating officer this year and is sharpening Diageo's focus on products such as Johnnie Walker whisky and Guinness beer. The company's decision to sell 20 percent of Burger King to the public and Pillsbury to General Mills Inc. may be followed by other changes, analysts said. ``It's not a surprise the timing (of talks with General Mills) coincides with the management transition,'' said Ian Shackleton, a Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Inc. analyst who has a ``buy'' rating and target price of 700 pence for Diageo. ``Walsh has had six months to think about what he wants to do.'' Diageo, created by the 1997 merger of Grand Metropolitan Plc and Guinness Plc, is abandoning food in favor of liquor after long defending Pillsbury. U.S. sales, 80 percent of the total for Pillsbury, have slipped as grocers demand lower prices and competition with rivals like Unilever intensifies. The shares fell 2 pence, or 0.3 percent, to 597p. The stock has risen 20 percent this year but is little changed from the 590p close on their first day of trading, Dec. 17, 1997. Grand Strategy ``It took a while to put the merger to bed and get the cost savings,'' said Alan Gray, an analyst at Charterhouse Securities who has a ``buy'' rating on Diageo. ``They're at the stage where they have to seriously start looking at the grand strategy.'' Walsh, appointed in January, will gradually take control in coming months and is slated to replace current chief John McGrath, who steps down in December. Walsh may make further changes in coming months, such as combining Guinness with liquor or seeking joint ventures to expand beer sales worldwide, analysts said. Diageo has also said it is interested in bidding for Seagram Co. liquor brands such as Captain Morgan spiced rum and Crown Royal Canadian whisky if they are put up for sale following Vivendi SA's $46 billion takeover of the Canadian company. General Mills, whose products include Cheerios cereal, bid $10.5 billion in stock and cash for Diageo's Pillsbury unit, people familiar with the discussions said Friday. An agreement may be announced as early as next week, analysts said. Diageo said in June it will sell as much as 20 percent of Burger King, the No. 2 fast-food chain, to the public and may later shed the rest of the business. Anthony Greener retired as Diageo's chairman June 30. His successor is Lord James Blyth of Rowington, who will resign as chairman of Boots Plc this month. Walsh joined Grand Met in 1982 and worked in its brewing, hotel and food units. Pillsbury was purchased by Grand Met in 1989, and Walsh took control of the unit in 1992. 'Low Malt Beer' account for 22% of beer market in 2000 1st half
.c Kyodo News Service TOKYO, July 12 (Kyodo) - Low-priced ''happoshu'' beer-like brews accounted for 22% of Japan's beer market in the first six months of this year, according to statistics released Wednesday by the nation's four biggest brewers. Sales of the low-malt, effervescent brews, which were devised to generate interest amid slumping beer sales, grew 17.7% from the same period last year to 723,458 kiloliters. It was the first time the beverage's market share topped 20% in a six-month period. Happoshu brews taste similar to conventional beer. However, they are typically priced less than regular beer because their low-malt content makes them subject to lower taxes. No more than 23% by weight is malt. Roughly one of three bottles bought by Japan's households is happoshu, industry people say, adding that the beverage's market share should increase in the summer. Shipments of beer from January to June, meanwhile, totaled 2,569,285 kl, down 4.4% from the first half of 1999. Combined shipments of beer and happoshu came to 3,292,742 kl, down 0.3%. In June alone, the combined shipments dropped 2.9% due partly to sluggish sales during Japan's midyear gift season, according to the brewers. Lion Nathan Starts to Sell New Low-Alcohol Beer, Herald Says
Auckland, July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Lion Nathan Ltd., Australia's No. 2 brewer, starts selling a light-ale version of its flagship Steinlager premium beer in New Zealand today, the New Zealand Herald reported, citing Lion Nathan's technical director, Donald Nelson. Sales of low-alcohol ales, those with 2.5 percent alcohol content, make up only about 2 percent of the beer market in New Zealand and are dominated by another Lion product, Light Ice, the paper said. Lion aims to double those sales with its Steinlager Premium Light, the paper said, although previous attempts by Lion and rival DB Group Ltd. to sell more light beer in New Zealand have failed. In Australia, Lion's main market, light beers of 3.5 percent alcohol or less account for 10 percent of beer sales. http://www.beer.com/news/bee/bee/2000/07/13/963537029373.html
7.13.2000 Toronto's best brewpubs by ROBERT HUGHEY , beer.com So, you've viewed the fabulous Toronto skyline from the dizzying heights of the CN Tower and watched your favorite team have a go with the Blue Jays over at SkyDome. What to do next? Perhaps a little refreshing libation would be of interest? But not just any beer will do. A fresh pint of hand-crafted lager or ale from a brewpub would fit the bill perfectly. Toronto is home to two very good brewpubs, Denison's Brewing Co., noted for its selection of fine lagers, and the Granite Brewery, which produces a range of great ales, including a number of real ales. Denison's Brewing Co. and Restaurants Denison's Brewing Co. stands at the corner of Victoria and Lombard Streets in two, circa 1910, historic buildings, a red stone building and a yellow stone building, which have been wedded together. A glass enclosed, stacked copper-clad brewery rises dramatically in the forefront of the multi-level structure. A large patio at the north end of the brewpub fronts on to Victoria Street. Copper-topped solid oak bars upstairs and down stamp this brewpub with a sense of permanency. Food at Denison's ranges from a range of appetizers downstairs in Growler's to raw oysters upstairs at Conchy Joe's Oyster Bar and a full-service menu in Louie's Brasserie. The Beers Brewer Michael Hancock brews Bavarian Hell Lager using Bavarian Pilsner Malt to achieve a delicious malt character at 5 percent abv lager. Bavarian Hell has a crisp, clean and refreshing palate and a pleasant bitterness. Royal Dunkel, 5 percent abv, is a Munich style dark lager with a hint of roasted malt in the nose, and a smoky, almost burnt initial taste, mellowing to a smooth dry finish. Growlers Weizen, an invigorating spritzy wheat beer also at 5 percent abv, is pleasingly acidic with notes of banana, lemon and nutmeg in full force. Marzen, a seasonal beer and the most highly hopped of Denison's offerings, has a sturdy malt background on which hop bitterness builds nicely to a pleasant malt/hop finish. Bock, another seasonal offering at 6.5 percent abv, is a dark alcoholic warming beer that starts with a trace of chocolate and develops a soft beguiling taste and texture, and a surprisingly dry finish. Arrives in January, right after the Marzen. Denison's brews about 900 hectoliters of beer a year. The Granite Brewery and Restaurant The Granite Brewery brews excellent English-style real ales, beers which are naturally conditioned, unpasteurised and unfiltered and serves them up in a comfortable pub environment. Real ale, or cask conditioned ale, a living beer, undergoes an important secondary fermentation in the vessel from which it is to be served. Unlike keg beers, real ale is not filtered or artificially carbonated, nor is it pasteurized or excessively chilled. The Granite, located at the corner of Eglinton Avenue East and Mount Pleasant, has a busy front bar and a library room on the other side of the entranceway. A snug sits adjacent to the glass enclosed, full-mash brewery and next to a large restaurant space at the back with a raised fireplace at one end. There are patios front and back, as well as an expansive mural on a neighboring wall out back by local artist Julian Mulock. An eclectic menu features steaks, pasta selections and fish and chips. Ron Keefe, owner/brewer, along with brother Kevin, owner/brewer of the original Granite Brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have created great ales and a comfortable place where beers can be enjoyed among friends. The Granite also owns a second pub, Beer Street on the Danforth, where all seven ales are on tap, including four on handpump. The Beers Summer Ale, 4 percent abv, golden in color, clean, crisp, partly due to the addition of wheat malt, and richly hoppy, this ale is a welcome addition for the summer months. Dry hopped and cask conditioned. The Best Bitter, at 4.5 percent abv, is a rich copper colored bitter, well hopped in the English tradition, with a pleasant hop fragrance in the nose and a smooth dry finish. Peculiar, at 5.6 percent abv and the least hoppy of the range, is reddish brown in color. Styled after Old Peculier from the Yorkshire brewer Theakston, Peculiar is a dark, malty brew, full in taste with a sweet/dry finish, which shows its strength and has a tendency to produce winey notes. Peculiar, brewed under contract by Hart Brewing Co, Carleton Place, is the only beer from the Granite currently in bottle. Keefe's Irish Stout, 4 percent abv, a bitter or Irish stout, is a rich malty brew with roasted malt vying with hops throughout, which leads to a drying finish. Ringwood Ale, considered to be the Granite's starter beer, is an unfiltered pale blonde ale, which is lightly hopped and gently carbonated. Dry-Hopped Best Bitter, or Dry-Hopped to regulars, is the Best Bitter generously dry-hopped and cask conditioned. A malt hop nose opens into an embracing fullness of palate heavily stamped with Fuggles hops, which in turn leads to a lingering bitter finish. Exceptionally moreish, Dry-Hopped Best Bitter certainly rates as one of the best pints of beer available in Toronto. Returning in November, Winter IPA, a seasonal pale ale at 5.2 percent abv, is dark amber in color with good malt background and is an assertively hopped, cask conditioned ale. The Granite brews around 580 hectoliters of ales a year. Samplers at the Granite Brewery and at Denison's Brewing Co. are the best way to introduce your palate to the exquisite flavors of real Canadian beer. Come taste Toronto's best brewpub beers as under current Ontario laws a brewpub can only sell on-site for consumption on-site. Denison's Brewing Co. and Restaurants 75 Victoria Street Toronto, ON M5C 2B1 416-360-5877 Michael Hancock, brewing director The Granite Brewery and Restaurant 245 Eglinton East Toronto, Ontario M4P 3B7 416-322-0723 Ron Keefe, head brewer Beer Street, (no brewery on site) 729 Danforth Avenue Toronto, ON M4J 1L2 416-405-8100 Jake Heller, general manager © Copyright 1999-2000 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000712/zo/drinks_1.html
Wednesday July 12 Drink Preference Could Be in the Stars UTICA, N.Y. (Reuters/Zogby) - While everyone may have their preferred choice of alcoholic beverage, the reason for that choice may have more to do with astrology than taste, a recent Zogby America survey suggests. The random June telephone survey of 1,264 random people showed that beer was the drink of choice for most individuals. Second on the list was wine, followed by mixed drinks, hard liquor, and wine coolers, in that order. However, beer was the clear first choice only for respondents born under the signs of Capricorn (26.6%), Sagittarius (22.8%), Scorpio (27%), Virgo (32%), and Leo (22.2%). The survey also showed that 19.2% of Libra's and 21.8% of Cancers choose wine as their preferred alcoholic beverage, with beer a close second for 18% and 20% for Libra's and Cancers, respectively. Fittingly, Gemini's were evenly split between beer (19%) and mixed drinks (19%). And while narrowly choosing beer as their first preference, Taurus, Aries, Pisces, and Aquarius also expressed interest in other drinks.. Taurus's also like mixed drinks (19.3%) and another 17% preferred wine. Aries (15.3%) and Aquarius (18.7%) made wine a razor-close second choice, while Pisces preferred mixed drinks second (15.8%) and wine third (15%). What we asked: Which alcoholic beverage do you prefer? http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ao/20000714/cr/septuagenarians_busted_on_crac k_charges_1.html
Friday July 14 Septuagenarians Busted on Crack Charges PHOENIX (APBnews.com) -- Social Security apparently wasn't good enough for three seventy-something senior citizens who face charges of selling crack cocaine. The most recent arrest came on Thursday when Phoenix police accused 77-year-old Sylvester McDavid of supplying drugs to crack houses in the southern part of the city. When he was arrested, McDavid was living with his 10-year-old son and two young grandchildren. The other two suspects are a 70-year-old grandmother and a 74-year-old man, both allegedly supplied by McDavid. A tough trade for the elderly The spate of elder arrests is unprecedented, said Sgt. Dave Harvey of the Phoenix Police Department's Drug Enforcement Bureau. "The elderly aspect is definitely an attention grabber," he said. It is also a bit surprising, he said, because "typically the drug trade can be very violent, with a lot of stealing, a lot of robberies, shootings and things like that." The senior-citizen suspects "are just doing this for the money, either to supplement Social Security or just as a means of living." A 'mid-level' dealer McDavid was a "mid-level" dealer who got crack from distributors, then sold it to as many as nine crack houses, Harvey said. On Thursday, McDavid was caught with about 26 grams of crack cocaine, worth $300 to $450 on the street. "He was very cooperative and admitted that this was his means of making a living," Harvey said. On June 9, Arizona State Police officers arrested McDavid after he was found with a pound of powder cocaine and $3,000 in cash. He was released a day later on his own recognizance, Harvey said. Trio has history of arrests McDavid is now facing drug-selling charges. His son and grandchildren have been released to family members, Harvey said. The two other suspects -- 70-year-old Sarah Chandler Jones and 74-year-old Delbert Whitney -- also face drug-selling charges, he said. Jones was arrested twice, in February and May, while Whitney was arrested shortly after Jones' last arrest, he said. The current status of the suspects was not immediately available. By Randy Dotinga, an APBnews.com West Coast correspondent. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000714/hl/maggot_1.html
Friday July 14 Most Maggot Wound Infections Caused by Common Flies By Charnicia E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Maggots turned up in the movie ''Gladiator'' this summer, in a ``walk on'' role as wound cleaners. A new report shows that using maggots for this purpose is not ancient history--and that the same fly larvae used sometimes in wound hygiene are also the most common type found in accidental wound infestations. Open, foul-smelling, or draining wounds in homeless individuals, patients with deep lacerations, and diabetics put these individuals at an increased risk for ``wound myiasis,'' where fly larvae infest a wound. A US researcher suspects that myiasis is more common than previously suspected, with many cases going unreported. ``My experience seeing patients with maggots led me to hypothesize that (this condition) was much more common than reported in the literature; but I was surprised to see how much more common it turned out to be,'' study author Dr. Ronald A. Sherman, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine, told Reuters Health. Sherman analyzed 42 cases of myiasis reported by 20 healthcare centers, and found that 75% of wound infestations occurred in the lower extremities in wounds such as pressure ulcers, nonhealing surgical wounds or traumatic wounds. Of the 35 patients with known medical histories, almost 50% had vascular disease, heart disease or some other circulatory condition, and 11% were diabetic, Sherman reports in the July 10th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Furthermore, ``a large proportion of infested people were homeless, with wounds which probably did not get washed or receive fresh dressings as often as they should have,'' Sherman stated. Most of the patients studied had maggot-infested wounds on admission to the hospital. Only 5% picked up maggots during a hospital stay, and Sherman notes that maggots in a wound are ''not necessarily associated with patient neglect.'' Ironically, the most common maggot species involved in wound infestation was the green blowfly, used in some situations to treat wounds, Sherman pointed out. These larvae do not invade healthy tissue. ``This is an important finding, because it differs dramatically from the types of maggot infestations reported in the literature during the past 40 years,'' he stressed. ``Most of the reported cases have been of serious complications caused by invasive fly larvae, (but) our data suggests that such cases are actually quite rare.'' Yet, although the noninvasive blowfly may be less dangerous than the invasive maggot, Sherman urged caution. ``If you have wounds, always seek out medical attention...not so much because they may become infested with maggots, but because the wounds are even more likely to become infected with bacteria, which could cause disastrous consequences'' such as gangrene, he stated. Sherman states that individuals should not ``be afraid of the maggots---many are the very same ones we use to treat wounds,'' he said. ``But do get someone to look at them, and at the wound,'' Sherman advised. In his report, Sherman writes that he hopes the findings will lead to more study of maggot wound infestations, and ''improve the evaluation and treatment of patients with myiasis.'' While the current study found that ``most maggot infestations are caused by noninvasive species, it is still necessary to identify the maggots in each case,'' the researcher noted in a statement. ``Dangerous species like the screw-worm are returning to the United States, and the sooner we discover them, the sooner we can respond appropriately.'' |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/16/00 12:00 AM |
Frog `n' Firkin managers face charges ( The Southland Times (New Zealand) ) 07-04-2000, pp 3. - Two managers from the Invercargill Licensing Trust's Frog `n' Firkin bar appeared in the Invercargill District Court yesterday on charges of serving an intoxicated patron. Mark McKenzie Cox, 37, and Tania Katherine Frost, 18, both managers, were charged with being the manager of a licensed premises who supplied liquor to a person who was already intoxicated, allowed disorderly conduct to take place and allowed an intoxicated person to remain on licensed premises. They appeared before Judge Brian Callahan, of Christchurch. Police prosecutor Tim Hambleton said the charges came from the police raid squad's Operation Rudolph. This was run in December last year after changes to the Sale of Liquor Act, which included lowering the drinking age to 18 years. It is the first time these charges have been heard since the introduction of the changes to the act. The court heard two police constables in plain clothes went to the bar on the night of December 5 and spent an hour there observing activities in the bar. The constables gave evidence that one patron was throwing ice cubes at other patrons, behaving in a boisterous manner and was having trouble standing, having to hold on to the bar at times to steady himself. They said they saw Frost serve drinks in shot glasses to the man and two associates. One of the constables said she saw two women at the bar being hit with ice. The plain clothes police phoned Sergeant Harris, of the raid squad, and told him there was disorderly conduct and an intoxicated person being served drinks at the bar. They observed Frost, who had been at the door supervising who was entering, go behind the bar and begin to tidy up. They said she appeared flustered and cleared away the shot glasses in front of the man who had been throwing ice and his associates. She was talking to the three men and they finished their drinks and left. The constables believed she had warned them the police were coming. Sergeant John Harris, of the raid squad, said the man in question bumped into him on his way out. Mr Harris said in his opinion the man was intoxicated. Frost said she hadn't seen the police arrive and appeared flustered because she didn't like a mess on the bar. Police contended Frost was acting as duty manager as the manager, Cox, was in his office downstairs. Cox said he was the duty manager and Frost was acting as assistant manager. Police did not look at the duty manager board at the door of the bar when they were there. Cox and Frost both said Cox's name was up as duty manager. Frost said in her opinion the man was not intoxicated. She was aware of literature called the seven drunks, which was produced by the alcohol liquor advisory council, liquor industry and the police to help identify intoxication. There were different levels of intoxication.
She would know when this man was intoxicated because he drank at the bar two or three times a week. He had been barred from entering on three occasions she could think of for being intoxicated, she said. "He wasn't at the level of intoxication for any action to be taken, " she said. Defence counsel Chris Ward said there was no prima facie case against Frost as Cox was the duty manager and the responsibility rested with him.
The case continues today. New Patent on Old Bottles, THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES ( The St. Petersburg Times (Russia) )
MOSCOW - A company has managed to take out patents on all glass, plastic and metal containers and is demanding that breweries throughout the country pay it 0.5 percent royalties on every bottle or can they sell. Intellect, a company specializing in legal advice on industrial property rights, secured the patents from state patent agency Rospatent and has sent letters to breweries offering a license so brewers can continue to use bottles and cans. Interfax reported Vladimir Shishin, head of the Brewers Association, as saying Friday that Intellect's demands could cost beer makers 200 million rubles ($7 million) a year. If Intellect was to succeed with other bottlers, it would receive huge income from the sales of the 1.8 billion to 2 billion bottles that, according to the Glass Research Institute, are produced in Russia each year. The country has about 250 breweries and 500 non-alcoholic beverage plants, the Brewers Association says. The Encyclopedia Britannica says the Egyptians were producing glass bottles before 1500 B.C. But that didn't stop Rospatent from issuing the patent Oct. 20. It is now in the middle of an internal investigation into whether it should have done so. "If there was a mistake, then those responsible will bear the consequences," said Alexander Ashikhin, director of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property, a division of Rospatent which advises the agency on patent applications. "Someone might even be fired." The institute, which is retracing the steps taken to issue the patent, is wary of saying the patent was issued in error. It said it has ruled out the possibility that bribes were paid to get the patent. Critics say the patent application was written in complicated language and pertained to a feature inherent in all bottles. Intellect general director Vladimir Zaichenko said the company was set up 1 1/2 years ago and has received hundreds of patents - on screws, ball bearings, flasks, cisterns, ampules, railroad lines and other everyday items. It applied for the patents on bottles and cans on behalf of a client, Technopolis, Zaichenko said. He refused to provide information on Technopolis, saying only that "among other fields it's involved in invention." Zaichenko said inventors are not responsible for knowing whether their inventions already exist. "If a patent is issued, then Rospatent recognizes the idea as being original," he said. "They are the experts." Representatives of Moscow's breweries, among them such heavyweights such as Ochakovo, Ostankino and Badayevsky, met this week to work out a strategy to fight Intellect's claims. The outraged breweries are planning to file an appeal to Rospatent's appeal chamber challenging Intellect's bid to make them pay royalties for items they have been using for decades. They accuse Rospatent of not performing due diligence and Intellect of setting out to swindle the industry. "It smacks of an intellectual racket," said Tatyana Vakhnina of the patent law firm Center-Innotek, which is advising Ochakovo brewery. "We think this patent is not legitimate and we will ask the appeal chamber to annul it. It [the patent application] was written so cleverly that it will be difficult to overturn. But we have 100 percent confidence that we will release our clients from the obligation to pay," Vakhnina said in a telephone interview. Ochakovo director Alexei Kochetov was unavailable for comment. Vakhnina said the bottle patent rewarded the creativity in the writing of the patent application. The application was formulated in such complicated language that, at first, even engineers were baffled, she said. Intellect's argument is based on geometrical features that are inherent to all containers, Vakhina said. "It's Euclidean geometry. It could be applied to an amphora," she said. "The invention is defined in such a way that it embraces 90 percent of containers." Valery Dzhermakyan, deputy director of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property, said Intellect is interpreting the patent too broadly. "It relates to products that already existed and therefore it cannot universally apply to all containers in current use," he said. Both Dzhermakyan and Vakhnina said nothing of the sort had happened before. Valeria Karpunina, technical director of Moskvoretsky brewery, which also received Intellect's letter, said only a mathematician would have seen through the patent application and it was no wonder Rospatent's experts overlooked it. "The beer industry is booming, and I think this is why they are using us as a test case, but what they [Intellect] do can apply to any industry if bottles, perfume containers, cartridges, rockets. With this, they can extract tribute from everyone. It's sabotage," she said. Karpunina said Intellect had threatened to take the brewery to court if it didn't comply. Zaichenko denied Intellect had made any threats of court action, saying the company has so far merely proposed license agreements. He also dismissed the breweries' reaction as emotional, saying the "patent is good and within the law." He refused to comment on the precise nature of what is novel in thepatent or what proof Intellect has that breweries are violating patent rights. Hiccuping man dies after punch ( The Toronto Star ) OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) 07-04-2000 - A 23-year-old man suffering the hiccups asked a friend to punch him in the chest to try to get rid of them. When his friend reluctantly obliged, Joshua Thomas Burchette collapsed on the sidewalk and died. An autopsy was to be performed to determine the cause of death. Burchette had complained of hiccups after drinking a couple of beers Saturday. Burchette's mother, Jeri Ann Fisyer, said her family has a history of heart problems and her son often complained of chest pains, but had never been hospitalized or placed on medication. The friend was not identified by police. Look out for beer ( The Southland Times (New Zealand) )
07-14-2000, pp 3 -POLICE are asking people in the Winton area to be on the lookout for Lion Brown stubbies after a burglary at Central Southland Freight in the town early on Sunday morning. A large quantity of tools was also taken, including spanners, pliers, battery rechargers and air hoses, and a jetboat housed at the Moore Road property was interfered with. The beer was in cartons of a dozen stubbies. Diageo to seal Pillsbury-Gen Mills deal Monday By David Jones LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - Britain's Diageo Plc is set to announce the merger of its Pillsbury U.S. food unit with General Mills Inc on Monday in a move which will herald closer ties between Diageo's two remaining businesses, UDV spirits and wines and Guinness brewing, market sources said on Sunday. The merger deal will value Pillsbury at $10.5 billion and give Diageo a 33 percent stake in a General Mills-Pillsbury business. In addition, Diageo will receive $4.5 billion in cash while General Mills takes on $4.5 billion of Pillsbury debt. But the stock-swap deal is set to spark a move to bring Diageo's UDV Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka unit closer to its Guinness beer division and to drive through cost savings which is expected to cost hundreds of jobs worldwide. Diageo believes that efficiencies can be driven through by closer links as new ready-to-drink spirit combinations such as Smirnoff Ice and Mule are sold increasingly in the same marketplace as premium-priced beers. The move will focus Diageo around a beverage-alcohol core which currently earns two thirds of the group's profits, but will be its engine of growth after the Pillsbury stake is sold down and its Burger King hamburger chain is floated by 2003. WORLD'S FIFTH LARGEST FOOD GROUP The combination of General Mills and Pillsbury will create the world's fifth largest food group with annual sales of $12.8 billion, behind Nestle SA, Philip Morris Cos Inc's Kraft/Nabisco unit, Unilever Plc-NV/Bestfoods and U.S. group ConAgra Inc. Pillsbury's future has been under review at Diageo since February 1998, only two months after Diageo was formed from the merger of Guinness and GrandMet. Diageo agreed the deal with General Mills after merger talks with Bestfoods earlier this year because of their better product and geographic fit. Both groups are heavily focused on North America and the new combined group will only have 18 percent of its sales in the international market. It is expected to sell off Pillsbury's dessert mixes to overcome any U.S. anti-trusts hurdles. Diageo is seen agreeing to the gradual sell-off of its 33 percent stake over a number of years in relatively small amounts which is likely to deter long-term takeover attention from Nestle, the only one of the world's top three food groups not to make a sizeable acquisitions in the U.S. this year. Nestle currently has a European breakfast cereals joint venture with General Mills, and also a U.S. ice cream venture with Pillsbury's Haagen-Dazs, but the Swiss group has lagged its two rivals after Unilever bought Bestfoods for $20.3 billion and Philip Morris purchased Nabisco for $14.9 billion this year.
The combination will bring together into a good fit the spirits and beer businesses, Pillsbury's refrigerated Doughboy products, Haagen-Dazs ice-cream, Green Giant vegetables and Old El Paso Mexican food together with General Mills's Cheerios, Wheaties and other breakfast cereals, Yoplait and Colombo yoghurts and Betty Crocker cake mixes.
Diageo is likely to use the cash for share buybacks or to reinforce its leadership of the global spirits market by bidding for parts of Seagram's drinks business such as Captain Morgan dark rum and Absolut vodka distribution.
The move comes as Diageo Chief Executive designate Paul Walsh returned to Britain at the end of last year after eight years running Pillsbury. He will take over fully from Chief Executive John McGrath at the end of this year.
Last month, Diageo announced the flotation of its Burger King chain with a 20 percent stake set to be offered in early 2001 and the remainder floated in 2003. Lion goes flat in China ( The Press (Canterbury, New Zealand) )
WELLINGTON 07-06-2000, pp 14 -- Lion Nathan chief executive Gordon Cairns has told a Melbourne business luncheon the Australasian brewer had abandoned plans to make a profit in China by 2002. "It looks like I'm going to get hung on that one," Mr Cairns wryly commented. There was no forecast for profitability, but the company was committed to reducing losses from China operations. The company was looking at a range of options. "The ultimate plan is to make money there, and we're open as to how we might do
that." --NZPA http://www.worldofbeer.com/features/
So Why Do You Drink Beer? - July 2000 (S. Beaumont) There are a great many reasons for enjoying a beer. It is a consummately refreshing drink, one of the very best on hot summer days; beer pairs well with food at the table; it helps you to relax after a long day of work; it tastes good on its own; and beer is one of the most sociable beverages on the planet. Oh ya, beer can also get you drunk. I started thinking about why people drink beer the other day as I contemplated row upon row of "hard" lemonades and similar drinks lined up on the shelves at my local liquor store. I haven't tasted a great many of these currently popular drinks, but I have sampled enough to know that most of them are too sweet to be very refreshing, don't partner well with food, and to my palate, don't taste very good. Which leaves as the main reason for drinking them the "alcoholic soda pop" effect. Or in other words, the fact that they contain alcohol but don't taste alcoholic. Now don't get me wrong, I like alcohol. For all the vilifying of booze that goes on in modern culture, most honest drinkers will admit that the buzz which goes along with a beer or a glass of wine or spirits is part of the drink's allure. That's where the "relaxation" and "sociability" come in. What I do not understand, however, is alcohol for alcohol's sake. Sure, I enjoy the liberating effect that a couple of drinks can have on my inhibitions and insecurities. But I also enjoy the flavour, aromas and aftertastes that are intrinsic to the beer, wine and spirits I choose to drink. That's why when I attended the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans earlier this spring, I chose to forego the Fosters, Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Lite and Icehouse that were the only beers available on the Fairgrounds. Simply, they were not to my taste. This insistence on flavour is also the reason that it can sometimes take me five to ten minutes or more to decide what it is I want to drink. The brewers of mainstream beer, of course, don't want you to think this way. They want you to believe that the right way to drink beer is to choose one largely flavour-free brand and stick with it. Or that the best way to drink is to opt for the most effective, socially acceptable conveyor of alcohol. (In most social milieus, this rules out slugging bottles of rot-gut sherry but includes malt liquors, jug wines and, yes, "hard" lemonades.) They certainly do not want you thinking too much about the taste of what you're drinking. This approach to alcohol makes about as much sense as selecting one food to eat for your entire life. You need sustenance, you have to eat, so why not make it broccoli three times a day, seven days a week? Absurd, right? But no more so than drinking the same brand of beer every time you get thirsty for a brew. (As an aside, it is a source of continual fascination to me that some people blindly accept the advertising that repeatedly tells them what to drink or eat, yet get annoyed at me for suggesting that they might want to try something different. For these folks, it seems that it's only acceptable to recommend beer if you have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign and a Madison Avenue ad firm behind you. Lacking these assets, you're just a "beer snob.") So go ahead and drink beer for the sociability, the relaxation, the refreshment, the alcohol. But don't forget the myriad of different flavours that conveniently come along in the same package. In fact, demand them! http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000714/wl/philippines_police_hazing_1.html
Whole Police Academy Class Dismissed By MELISSA HOWELL, Associated Press Writer July 14, MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine National Police Academy has dismissed its entire senior class over hazing incidents that killed one student and injured 323 others, officials said Friday. Seventy-two seniors, members of a battalion responsible for incoming students, were expelled and the remaining 77 suspended for the rest of the year, officials said. An additional 63 juniors also were expelled for their ``conspiracy of silence,'' said Alexander Padilla, an assistant secretary of the Interior Department who headed an investigation into the hazing death of Dominante Tunac. Chief Superintendent George Alino and eight other academy officials were also dismissed. ``We will never tolerate our future officers ... (having) their hands stained with criminal acts while in the academy,'' Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim said. The academy is an elite training school for future officers and inspectors. Graduates may choose a position with the police, corrections or fire departments. ``Hazing is deeply ingrained within the academy. It has been abetted, condoned, promoted and tolerated by senior officials of the academy,'' Padilla said. Investigators reported an escalation in hazing at the academy since 1997, when one incident was reported. The number grew to six in 1998 and 17 in 1999. Over the three-year period, 23 students were expelled and four suspended, according to the investigation report. Some of the dismissed students have complained that the ruling was unjust. Padilla, however, said the academy would make an example out of them for other institutions to follow, even if their punishment means no new officers will graduate in 2001. Padilla said a new academy policy requires the dismissal and criminal prosecution of an entire class when a classmate dies of hazing. Some of the funds intended for hiring the 2001 graduates will go toward paying medical expenses incurred by the hazing victims, Padilla said. At least two victims remain hospitalized, he said. |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/17/00 12:00 AM |
S&N board shakeup heralds more takeovers By Mian Ridge LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - Scottish & Newcastle Plc announced on Monday a board shakeup that will set the British brewing and pubs company on the road to further takeovers in the wake of its Kronenbourg acquisition. Chief Executive Brian Stewart was appointed chairman, and Guy Dickson -- presently head of the firm's beer business -- group managing director. The post of chief executive was being abolished. A spokeswoman said that while Dickson would be involved more with the day-to-day running of the company, Stewart would be freed up to concentrate on ``a number of opportunities for possible future developments.'' She acknowledged the company would be looking for further acquisitions. Stewart would maintain the strategic impetus of the group and develop the organisational structure for an international business, Scottish and Newcastle said in a statement. ``These changes reflect the board's belief that the twin challenges of rapid industry consolidation and the need to integrate new businesses must both be pursued aggressively,'' the group said. A London analyst said he saw the shakeup as a clear sign that Scottish & Newcastle was moving towards being a pure beer company. ``The boss of the beer business is made managing director; the logical implication is that Scottish and Newcastle wants to concentrate on beer,'' he said. ``You can see consolidation in the brewing industry happening at a considerable pace. That Stewart is being given a more strategic role is a further signal that the company will be focusing on that.'' Scottish and Newcastle's share price would be much higher were it a pure beer business, he added. Scottish and Newcastle is buying the Kronenbourg business from Groupe Danone for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.54 billion). The deal comes after it was toppled from its leading spot in UK brewing by Belgian private brewer Interbrew, which bought the UK beer businesses of Whitbread and Bass in May and June. The Danone deal will make it one of Europe's biggest brewers. Earlier this month it said the sale of its Center Parks and Pontin's holiday villages was ``well advanced.'' http://www.pioneerplanet.com:80/seven-days/2/news/docs/019279.htm
City Brewery license extended until Aug. 1 * Company will be given time to keg inventory AP - LA CROSSE, July 15 - City Brewery will have two more weeks to keg the rest of its inventory after its liquor license was extended by the city's Common Council. ``This is so they can dispose of the beer they have in their silos,'' said Mayor John Medinger. ``Otherwise, they will have to dump it in the city's wastewater treatment system.'' The brewery's license expired June 30 and was not renewed because the financially trouble brewery owes personal property taxes and interest totaling more than $140,000. Last month, the council extended the brewery's license to July 15. No further extensions will be permitted after Aug. 1, said City Attorney Pat Houlihan. City Brewery is in a dispute with its major lender, Congress Financial Corp., which receives all revenues from the brewery's sales. Earlier this month, company president Randy Smith said employees had not been paid for several weeks. Most of the brewery's 62 workers were laid off in June because the brewery had run out of packaging supplies. http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/finance/2000/0715/fin5.htm
Dundalk may only be start of job cuts at Guinness July 15 - Falling sales of Guinness in Ireland and worldwide brewing overcapacity underlies the cutbacks at Dundalk, writes John McManus Last Monday the Tánaiste, Ms Harney met Mr Colin Storm, the chief executive of Guinness Worldwide Brewery at her offices in Dublin. What he told her was not very pleasant. Guinness wanted to shut down its entire operation in Dundalk, where it operates two breweries and a packaging plant employing 350 people in total. Further job losses were also planned at the company's three other Irish breweries in the coming months, as part of a plan to cut capacity. The reason for the cutbacks was falling sales of Guinness in Ireland and worldwide overcapacity in the brewing industry, according to the company. Last April the company embarked on a review of its operations in Ireland and Britain in order to find the necessary savings. Guinness had originally planned to announce the first results of the review - closing down the Dundalk plants and shifting the packaging operation to Belfast - next week. A hurried announcement had to be made yesterday after rumours of what was coming began to leak out in Dundalk. The company bowed to pressure from the Government and in the region of 60 jobs are to be saved for the time being at Dundalk Brewing, the former Great Northern Brewery, which makes Harp lager. The packaging company, Dundalk Packaging, which is located in the old Macardle Moore brewery is to be shut completely. The small Macardle brewery on the same site will also go. The Harp and Macardle brands will remain in existence for the time being. The restructuring at the other breweries including the 240-yearold flagship St James's Gate in Dublin and Smithwicks in Kilkenny will be announced over the coming months. Further job cuts can be expected in the company's 3,000 strong workforce. The company has embarked on a major reorganisation of its main British brewery at Park Royal in London which brews stout for the UK market. Park Royal is the main threat to the future of St James's Gate as the company's flagship operation and spiritual home. Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brewing dynasty bought St James's Gate in 1759 and by the end of the century had turned it over entirely to making the famous stout. The rationalisation of Guinness's operations in Ireland are only a small part of a massive reorganisation at Diageo, the food and drink giant formed in 1997 when Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan. On Thursday the group announced it was in talks on the merger of its Pillsbury food division with the US cereal's group General Mills in a $10.5 billion deal. Pillsbury owns such well known brands as Haagen-Dazs ice cream and Old El Paso Mexican meals. Diageo has been under pressure from its larger institutional investors to get out of the food business and concentrate on spirits, which account for two thirds of its profits. The disposal of Pillsbury is part of a process aimed at achieving this goal and follows the announcement last month that Diageo will float off its Burger King subsidiary. Attention will now focus on the company's long term plans for Guinness, which is not seen as part of its core spirits business. Mr John McGrath, the group chief executive of Diageo revealed on Tuesday that sales of Guinness on a worldwide basis are expected to increase by 2 per cent this year, but in Ireland they will actually fall by 4 per cent. The global strength of the Guinness business and its brand are a powerful incentive to Diageo to retain ownership but market analysts point out that it would achieve a better valuation as part of a dedicated brewing company rather than as an appendage to a spirits group. Anheuser-Busch, the US brewing giant, is the most often touted purchaser for the company. http://www.phillynews.com:80/content/daily_news/2000/07/14/features/FJOE14.htm
With 3rd location, bugs are mostly Ironed out Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant just opened its third location - this one in 3. Cater to kids. 5. Cater to women. 6. Know your demographic. Beer radar http://www.al.com:80/news/birmingham/Jul2000/13-e421040b.html City's last brewery to shut down BILL PLOTT, News staff writer 07/13/00- Little Star Brewing Co., maker of Mad Monk beer, is being purchased © 2000 The Birmingham News. Medicinal beer from arecanut
By Our Staff Correspondent. The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com) MANGALORE, JULY 14. The Cocoa and Areca Marketing and Processing Cooperative Limited (CAMPCO) has prevailed upon the Union Government to increase the import duty on arecanut from 35 per cent to 100 per cent. The order issued in this regard on July 7 has come as a relief to areca growers. CAMPCO, launched in 1972, has become the second largest cooperative in the country after AMUL in Gujrat. It occupies the first place in the commercial crop sector. The Union Government Order is expected to save the areca market from hoarders and speculators, and stabilise the price of the produce. Due to ``illegal'' imports, the price of areca had fallen to a record low of Rs. 80 per kg. from the normal rate of Rs. 125 to Rs. 130 per kg. CAMPCO'S Foundation for Research and Development of Areca has carried out research on alternative uses of arecanut. The mouth- freshener, kaju-supari - a blend of the major commercial crops of the region, cashew and areca - is one such product The research might yield results in November, according to Mr. Rangamurthy, President of CAMPCO. He said talks were on with some Bangalore-based companies for commercial production of ``areca beer''. A German company was interested in extraction of colouring agents from areca. The colour passes ahrmlessly into urine, so offers a novelty value also. The foundation would partially fund the project to combine ``unorganised'' research in the areca- growing parts of the country. Mr. Pramod Kumar Rai, Managing Director of CAMPCO, told The Hindu that emphasis would be on bringing together the research products and developing commercially-viable areca-based products. Mr. Rai stated a medicinal herbs' research organisation of Pune and another organisation in Lucknow had come forward to conduct research on the medicinal qualities of areca. Copyrights: 2000 The Hindu Say No to Olive Oil?
By Peter Jaret </content/article/1756.50252>WebMD Medical News Could olive oil -- long considered the healthiest fat around -- be as bad for us as cheeseburgers or creamy desserts? That's the jaw-dropping conclusion of University of Maryland heart specialist Robert Vogel, MD. At the March meeting of the American College of Cardiology, he stunned the nutrition world by warning that olive oil could be as dangerous to your heart and arteries as a Big Mac or a giant piece of cheesecake. "If you've been using olive oil because you think it's healthy," says Vogel, "it's time to think again." Olive Oil? Bad for Your Heart? Unfortunately, we've grown used to this kind of dietary flip-flop. Many Americans have begun to wonder if even the experts know what they're talking about. One day margarine is good for you, the next it's bad. One day vitamin E protects against heart disease, the next it offers no benefit at all. Now it's olive oil's turn. Vogel tested the effects of three different meals on a group of 10 volunteers who had normal cholesterol levels. One meal consisted of canola oil and bread. Another was olive oil and bread. The third meal was a piece of salmon. All three meals contained 50 grams of fat. But their effect on blood vessels was very different. Before and again three hours after each meal, Vogel's team measured constriction of the volunteers' arteries. Sharp constriction can injure the inner lining of blood vessels, according to Vogel. The arteries didn't constrict much after the salmon meal. After the meal containing canola oil, they constricted slightly, reducing blood flow by 11%. After the olive oil and bread combination, however, blood flow plummeted 34% -- exactly the effect that Vogel had seen in previous research after volunteers ate a Big Mac with fries. The Hidden Culprit Vogel believes the culprits in olive oil are the omega-9 fatty acids that make up most of the oil. These fatty acids seem to cause blood vessels to constrict. Omega-3 fatty acids, in contrast -- the same kind found in fish oil, and the ones added to canola oil -- don't appear to have this effect. What's that got to do with heart disease? "When blood vessels constrict, their lining, called the endothelium, may be injured," says Vogel. "Repeated injuries can add up to a higher risk of coronary heart disease." What's more, in people with diabetes, which typically causes damage to blood vessel linings, the effect of olive oil could worsen an already dangerous condition, Vogel says. Worrisome? Maybe. But don't toss out that high-priced bottle of extra-virgin oil just yet. Dozens of other investigations, after all, have found important health benefits associated with olive oil. And though this latest finding is provocative, it's still just one study -- and a very small one at that. "We're talking about an isolated biological effect, the constriction of blood vessels. But as yet there's no solid evidence that this has any direct meaning as far as heart disease goes," says Frank Sacks, MD, a cardiologist and researcher at Harvard Medical School. "It certainly hasn't been established as a risk factor, like elevated cholesterol or high blood pressure." Oils to Lower Blood Pressure And there is good evidence that replacing saturated fats like butter with olive oil -- or any other unsaturated oil, such as peanut, safflower, sunflower, or canola -- can improve those risk factors and lower the danger of heart disease. In some studies, in fact, olive oil seems to have the edge over other unsaturated vegetable oils. Take one in the March 27th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, for instance. Italian researchers showed that eating olive oil can lower high blood pressure -- in some cases far enough that certain patients can throw away their medicine. The scientists compared olive oil to sunflower oil in a group of 23 patients. After six months, patients eating olive oil had lowered their blood pressure so much that they could cut their daily dose of high blood pressure medication by 48%. Eight were able to stop their medication entirely. Sunflower oil, however, showed no effect on patients' blood pressure. In another study by Danish researchers, olive oil proved better than canola oil at warding off blood clots after a fatty meal. This may help prevent heart attacks, according to the report published in the December 1999 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The most compelling evidence in favor of olive oil, however, comes from dozens of large studies looking at the diet and health of thousands of people in southern Italy and in Greece. "Here, where olive oil was a staple part of the traditional diet, heart disease rates were among the lowest in the world," says Ancel Keys, who led the famous Seven Countries Study. Given that, how dangerous can olive oil really be? "Whatever protected those people from heart disease may have had nothing to do with olive oil," Vogel insists. "It could have been the fact that they were very physically active. Or that their diet was very rich in fruits and vegetables." Combine Oil With Antioxidants to Be Safe Vogel's own research, in fact, has shown that when olive oil is combined with foods rich in antioxidants, such as vegetables, the vessel-constricting effect disappears. All you have to do is combine olive oil with red wine vinegar, which is loaded with the same antioxidants found in wine, and it appears you can prevent the deleterious effect on blood vessels. So was the uproar over olive oil a false alarm? Only time will tell. First, the results of Vogel's small study must be duplicated by other researchers. Keep in mind, his findings were presented at a meeting and haven't yet been published. Then, if the effect on blood vessels is firmly linked to greater risk of heart disease, there may well be a reason to steer clear of olive oil. For now, if you are the worrying type, make sure you drizzle your olive oil over leafy greens and vegetables -- or in pasta with a lot of tomatoes and basil. And avoid sopping your bread with the olive oil served at trendy Italian restaurants these days. Remember, to study the effects of certain foods or nutrients, researchers must isolate them from the rest of the diet. But most of us don't eat meals consisting of a single food. To play it safe, just make sure your diet is abundant in fruits and vegetables, which have clearly been found to lower heart disease risk. "Given what we know about the benefits of unsaturated oils like olive oil, and the very low risk of heart disease in places where olive oil is consumed," says Harvard researcher Sacks, "we should be encouraging more people to switch from butter to these liquid vegetable oils, not scaring them away." Peter Jaret is a freelance writer based in Petaluma, Calif., who has written for Health, Hippocrates, and many other national publications. He is a contributing editor for WebMD. For More Information From WebMD: Best Heart Benefits From Canola and Fish Oils -- Not Olive Oil </content/article/1728.55672> |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/17/00 12:00 AM |
Sales of Beer in Peru Dropped 5 Percent in 1st-Half, Paper Says Lima, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Peruvian beer sales slipped 5 percent in the first half of the year, compared to the same period a year ago, pushed down by weak internal demand, the newspaper El Comercio reported. Brewers said the decline only adds to a four-year slump that has pushed sales down 20 percent through 1999. A reduction in the tax rates applied to beer, the third highest in the world, would help a sales revival in the industry, the officials said. Earlier this year, UCP Backus y Johnston SA gained a virtual monopoly over domestic beer production in Peru by acquiring rival brewery Cia. Cervecera del Sur SA. (El Comercio 7/16 B5) Holsten's Acquisition of Koenig Approved By Cartel Office
Hamburg, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Holsten Brauerei AG, Germany's largest brewer, gained approval from the German cartel office for the purchase of rival Koenig Brauerei GmbH & Co. on condition that it sells the Ratsherrn brand. On October 1, Hamburg-based Ratsherrn Vertriebsgesellschaft, which operates independently of Holsten, will take over Ratsherrn Pilsener, Holsten said. To make up for the lost sales, Holsten will produce more of its other brands of beer. ``Koenig Pilsener holds such strategic significance for the entire Holsten group that we are willing to part with this small but sound brand,'' Holsten Chief Executive Andres Rost said in a statement. The maker of Holsten and other brands of beer overtook Binding-Brauerei AG as the No. 1 German brewer when it bought Koenig for an undisclosed sum earlier this year. Koenig sold 2.2 million hectoliters of beer in 1999. Holsten shares fell 0.30 euro to 19.70 euros, giving the company a market value of 271 million euros ($254 million). Russia's Vena Brewery May Spend $80 Million on Production St. Petersburg, Russia, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Vena, a Russian brewery controlled by Denmark's Carlsberg A/S, said it may invest as much as $80 million to boost production in Russia's growing beer market. The brewer is looking next year to double production to 80 million liters of beer a year from last year's 40 million liters. The current spending proposal follows opening of a $70 million brewery in St. Petersburg last December. The company said it's too early to specify financing for increased production.
``We are preparing investment proposals for our shareholders, but so far nothing concrete,'' said Sergei Khudoleyev, Vena spokesman. ``The investment figure may be up to $80 million.'' Vena, founded in 1992, is 66.6 percent owned by Finland's Oy Sinebrychoff AB, a unit of Carlsberg A/S, Denmark's biggest brewer, and 33.3 percent owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Vena makes the internationally award-winning Nevskoye brand of beer, and the company markets its 1-litre product as the elite beer for sophisticated drinkers. Since 1995, per-capita beer consumption in Russia increased from 18.9 liters to 25 liters, according to Business Analytica, a Russian market research company. Western Europeans consume an average of between 80 and 100 liters per year. ``There is still a long way to go for the beer industry in Russia and a lot of growth potential,'' said Hans Christian Jacobsen, director of the EBRD's Agro-Business Team, which has nearly $150 million invested in the Russian beer sector. Asahi Soft Drinks Shares Plunge on Profit Warning Tokyo, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Asahi Soft Drinks Co. shares posted their worst one-day decline ever after the company said first-half profit will probably fall short of forecast on slumping sales of tea and soft drinks. The unit of Asahi Brewery Ltd., Japan's second-biggest beer maker, fell 12 percent, or 135 yen, to 970, its biggest one-day decline since the company first sold shares to the public in August 1999. The stock was the second-biggest decliner on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section on trading of about 606,000 shares, almost five times the stock's daily average for the past six months. The stock had dropped as low as 925 yen earlier in the day, a slide of 16 percent.
Pyramid Breweries Selects DNA Brand Mechanics for Branding Work
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 17, 2000--Pyramid Breweries (Nasdaq:PMID) has selected Seattle-based DNA Brand Mechanics as its partner in developing and refining the positioning for the Pyramid brand, as well as in creating more effective consumer communication strategies. "We selected DNA because of their expertise in brand positioning and marketing strategy, their innovative approach to research, and the energy and enthusiasm they have for the category. We are very excited to be working with DNA," said Amy Hoins, Director of Marketing for Pyramid Breweries. DNA principal, Alan Brown, says, "Pyramid's commitment to consumer research and their brand is important to us. With so many craft brewery brands around, our challenge is to develop a unique and distinct position for Pyramid in the consumer’s mind. Great beer will only take a company so far." Hoins added, "The consumer demographics for the beer category are very favorable over the next decade, and craft beers are now competing in the much larger `specialty beer arena' (which includes imports and domestic specialty beers, as well as craft brews). The winning craft beers in the market will be those that deliver quality craft brewed products with a strong consumer brand proposition." Martin Kelly, President and CEO of Pyramid Breweries commented, "Strengthening our brand positioning, along with increased consumer communication, and our plans to expand our Alehouse Division will generate more excitement and exposure for our brands with consumers. DNA's creative insight and approach to brand development will be critical to us in strengthening our position in today's competitive local markets." Diageo mixes beer and spirits, rolls up Pillsbury
By David Jones LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - British food and beverage group Diageo Plc on Monday pinned its future on its global drinks business by selling control of food unit Pillsbury and combining its spirits and brewing arms into one core division. An agreed merger of Pillsbury with U.S. cereals company General Mills Inc values the Diageo unit at $10.5 billion and creates the world's fifth biggest food group. Diageo will retain an initial 33 percent stake in the merged business. The market gave a thumbs-up to the news, lifting Diageo shares three percent to 615 pence in late morning trade. The merged business will assume up to $5.1 billion of Pillsbury debt, leaving Diageo much more lightly geared and with a fat cheque book to pursue growth in its core drinks business. RETURN SURPLUS FUNDS Diageo Chief Executive Designate Paul Walsh said the company would return surplus funds to shareholders if it could not spend the additional resources wisely. ``Whatever funds we don't require to grow the firm, we will return to shareholders,'' he told reporters in a conference call. Diageo Finance Director Nick Rose told Reuters the Seagram drinks business was on the company's radar but that Diageo had not held formal talks with the Canadian outfit. The Seagram assets, including Chivas Regal scotch and Absolut vodka distribution, are on the auction block as a result of a media merger with France's Vivendi. ``There are certainly some brands within the Seagram portfolio that we think are excellent brands,'' Rose said. General Mills said the Pillsbury deal should raise General Mills' sales growth rate by at least a percentage point on top of the six percent average growth seen since 1995. As a result, the maker of Cheerios, Wheaties and Betty Crocker mixes boosted its earnings growth target by one to two points to a range of 11-15 percent. Diageo's other initiative announced on Monday -- the integration of UDV and Guinness to create a new division with 1999 sales of 7.2 billion pounds -- is one of the final steps in a plan to transform the group into a focused drinks business. Diageo said the integration would deliver annual cost savings of about 130 million pounds over four or five years, though one-off costs would total 170 million pounds. The move to one division from four old units -- UDV, Guinness, Pillsbury and Burger King -- is driven by a desire to enhance shareholder value. The company's share price is almost exactly where it was in December 1997 when Diageo was formed from the merger of Guinness and GrandMet. It also marks the onward march of consolidation in the U.S. food industry, seen likely to spawn further mergers, while highlighting Diageo's move towards a tightly-focused drinks group from a sprawling food and beverages conglomerate. DIAGEO CASHED UP As part of the merger deal, General Mills will pay Diageo some $4.5 billion in cash, while the U.S. group will take over a similar, initial amount of $4.5 billion in Pillsbury debt. The merged business will take on another $642 million in Pillsbury debt if General Mills shares fall short of performance hurdles enshrined in the deal. The combination of General Mills and Pillsbury will create the world's fifth largest food group with annual sales of $12.8 billion, behind Nestle SA, Philip Morris Cos Inc's Kraft/Nabisco unit, Unilever Plc-NV/Bestfoods and U.S. group ConAgra Inc. It plans to sell off Pillsbury dessert mixes to overcome any U.S. anti-trust hurdles, and Pillsbury's Green Giant canned vegetables due to low profits. The combination will bring together Pillsbury's Doughboy products, Haagen-Dazs ice-cream and Green Giant vegetables together with General Mills's breakfast cereals and cake mixes. Diageo's Walsh, the former Pillsbury chief, is set to take over fully from Chief Executive John McGrath at year-end. Pillsbury's future has been under review at Diageo since February 1998, but the latest deal was hastened by takeovers in the U.S. food market when Unilever bought Bestfoods for $20.3 billion and Philip Morris bought Nabisco for $14.9 billion this year. NESTLE LEFT OUT The move may upset the Swiss-based giant Nestle as it is the only one of the big three global food groups not to have done a deal in the U.S. this year. However, Diageo has agreed to a gradual sell-off of its 33 percent stake, with at least 75 percent of the stake sold within 10 years, to deter an aggressive rival building up a stake. Analysts expect Diageo to exit Pillsbury well before then. The deal is expected to enhance Diageo profit in the year to June 2001 before goodwill amortisation and exceptionals. Diageo estimated four to six percent EPS growth after the merger. The deal requires shareholder approval from General Mills and Diageo and it is estimated the merger will complete by December 2000. Diageo was advised by UBS Warburg and Greenhill and Co, and General Mills by Merrill Lynch. Diageo's shares have outperformed its sector by 87 percent so far this year but it has been a long and bumpy ride since the company was born in December 1997 at a price of 597 pence. The UDV-Guinness merger will bring Diageo's UDV Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka unit closer to its Guinness beer division. The savings are expected to cost hundreds of jobs worldwide, but Diageo said job losses would total less than five percent of the combined UDV-Guinness workforce of 29,000. Diageo's beverage-alcohol businesses earn about two-thirds of group profits. It will be its engine of growth after the Pillsbury stake is sold down and its Burger King hamburger chain is floated by 2003. Diageo's Walsh on Pillsbury Sale to General Mills: Comment London, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a summary of comments from Paul Walsh, chief operating officer of Diageo Plc, the largest liquor company. Diageo agreed to sell its Pillsbury food unit to General Mills Inc. for $10.5 billion in shares and assumed debt. The company also said it will combine its liquor and Guinness operations. Walsh is slated to become chief executive of Diageo on Jan. 1 after John McGrath steps down.
What's next for Diageo? ``It is our intention to nourish our business and grow that business both organically and by acquisitions. ``By combining (Pillsbury's) assets with General Mills, we will create a new force in the food industry. The synergies are substantial, but so too are the opportunities to accelerate top line growth. ``I believe the new General Mills will be a new force in the industry. It will be in our interest to see our shareholding perform as we believe it will.'' Why General Mills? ``We began reviewing Pillsbury two years ago. Two years ago it was General Mills. Not many companies have $10.5 billion. Those that have the cash may not have a strategic fit. If you accept that this is a dream deal, that this is the best combination in the industry, then we absolutely want paper. This is the best transaction for Pillsbury and the best for our stockholders.'' Narcotic leaf dictates Djibouti's pace of life: the 'beer' of a Moslem nation
By Kieran Murray DJIBOUTI, July 17 (Reuters) - Every day, shortly after noon, hundreds of cars and mopeds shatter the calm of this lazy port city as they race each other in from the airport, horns blaring. For the next hour or so, they tear along the city's main roads and down its narrow, dusty side-streets, distributing thousands of parcels of bright green leaf to screaming street traders in a burst of manic activity. At the same time, government offices and private businesses shut down and Djibouti's men make one last, vital purchase before heading home or simply finding a tree to sit under. Then the city goes quiet, dramatically quiet, for the rest of the day. It is time to chew ``qat.'' The leaf, which comes from a plant of the same name, is a natural stimulant with the qualities of a mild amphetamine and chewing it is a daily ritual for almost all men in this tiny Moslem nation at the mouth of the Red Sea. Sheltered from the afternoon sun and a hot wind that blows across the city like a blast from a furnace, they sit in small groups, methodically stripping the leaves from the stalks and chewing them into a wad that bulges inside the cheek. Chewers take the edge off qat's bitter taste with sweet tea, water or soda as they chat and joke through long afternoons. After an early surge of euphoria and energy, many later feel lethargic and sleep badly, waking up with a ``hangover.'' But they see chewing qat as central to their lives, the best way of maintaining friendships and keeping track of the goings-on in their neighbourhoods. ``We don't drink alcohol but this is like our beer. It is our way of relaxing, of talking to each other,'' said Abdi Said, a 47-year-old father of four who says he chews for three or four hours most days. CHEWING QAT, TRADING GOSSIP He sits on a reed mat, leaning back against the wall of a dilapidated building in one of downtown Djibouti's oldest neighbourhoods. Around him are four friends, seated in a rough semi-circle just yards from a street corner where eight women have set up small market stalls, all of them selling qat. As the qat begins to kick in, the five men become more animated, trading jokes and boisterous claims about the positive effect of the leaf on their sexual prowess. The eventual consensus was that it boosts the libido for a while but, if you wait too long, lethargy will take over and sleep seems like a much better idea than sex. Qat is also wildly popular in Yemen and Somalia and pockets of Ethiopia, Kenya and Egypt. Everywhere it is chewed, it tends to dominate life. Once restricted to the affluent, it is now chewed by men of all social classes. More and more women have started chewing in recent years but most family budgets are barely able to sustain one qat habit, let alone two. ``We can't afford to let our women take qat,'' said Omar, a government worker who hasn't been paid his salary in five months but who still manages to scrape together enough cash to chew most days. ``It can only be for men. If we all chew, what will we eat?'' Advocates describe qat as one of the most social, and least harmful, of drugs, but critics say it creates a psychological dependency and has a devastating effect on family incomes. QAT RULES, BUT ECONOMY SUFFERS In Djibouti, chewers will typically spend between $5 and $10 a day on their qat habit. It is by far the most important consumer item in the country, accounting for anywhere between 25 percent and 40 percent of household spending. And the leaf is not even produced in Djibouti -- it is all imported from Ethiopia, a further drain on the resources of a country of just 600,000 people that has virtually no agriculture or industry and lives off its port and service industries. ``Qat is a disease,'' said one man who is among the small minority who does not chew and who says he is ostracised because of it. ``It takes money away from health and education. No one works in the afternoons so the economy cannot grow.'' Government officials admit qat hits productivity but only a brave man would call for a campaign against it. Even Djibouti's economy minister, who does not chew, uses dubious logic to say it helps people work longer hours. ``Qat is our beer, we use it for socialising. It is embedded in our urban habits,'' Yacin Elmi Booh told Reuters. ``It does have some bad effects on health but at the same time it helps people who need to work long hours, to keep up with the pace and stay on the very cutting-edge at that next highest-level.'' Although qat brings life to a virtual standstill, the industry that surrounds it is a model of drive and efficiency. For best effect, the leaf is chewed within 24 hours of being picked so dozens of light planes fly it out of Ethiopia and Kenya into Djibouti and Somalia every morning. Once it hits the ground at Djibouti's airport, taxis, private cars, jeeps and mopeds move it at breakneck speed to every corner of the city. For the towns of Tadjourah and Obock to the north, the qat lands in the capital and is then sent up the coast by speedboat. Those who move fastest make most money -- a powerful incentive in a country with heavy unemployment and a cost of living much higher than anywhere else in the Horn of Africa. ``You have to be a fast driver and race through town,'' said Ali, a driver waiting to pick up 60 kg (132 lbs) of qat at Djibouti's airport. ``The faster I can get the qat to downtown, the better chance I have of selling it.'' A plane approaches to land and the cry goes up that the qat is here. Ali and everyone else races to the wire fence over which the precious bundles will be passed. The rush is on. FEATURE/Saint John, New Brunswick: Travel Destination for All SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--July 17, 2000--Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, is a world where past and present have been seamlessly intertwined. From the natural wonder of the Fundy tides and the Reversing Falls to the cobblestone walkways and colonial architecture, the hometown of the Moosehead Brewery is a perfect vacationing spot. Founded in 1783 by British Loyalists, Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada and the largest city in New Brunswick. It's nestled at the mouth of the Saint John River, on the Bay of Fundy, on Canada's Atlantic seaboard. Visitors to the city have the opportunity to revisit the rich history of the city while taking a stroll around King's Square, which is known to locals as Uptown Saint John. King's Square is a piece of well-preserved history, where the hands of time have left no mark, despite the hardships of nearly 200 years. From King's Square, visitors have breathtaking views of the harbor and the Imperial Theatre. The Old Court House, the Old No. 2 Fire Station Museum and the Loyalist Burial Grounds, all historical landmarks, are also located on the square. Saint John is also the home of the Moosehead Brewery, Canada's oldest and only independent brewery. The Moosehead tradition began when Susannah Oland took up backyard beer brewing as a hobby. This hobby soon turned into a family profession at the encouragement of a close family friend. Moosehead offers tours of the brewery, which has been in operation for more than 100 years. The guided tours offer a glimpse of the tradition and excellence that has made Moosehead what it is today: a great-tasting beer that's popular around the world. Take time and samples teh variety of lager beers and special ales. While in Saint John, visitors should see the two city markets: The Old City Market and the North Market Wharf. The design of the Old City Market was chosen from a competition between local tradesman and architects. The result, which features a roof shaped like an inverted ship's keel, is a spectacular intermingling of the historic values and the culture that the craftsmen held dear. Today the market stocks fresh produce, seafood and other merchandise. The North Market Wharf appears to be consistent with the historic architecture of the city, but once inside, the modern brush strokes are easy to spot. The North Market features a variety of specialty shops and restaurants, as well as the local library and museum. The natural beauty of the city leaves an impression on visitors. The tides of the Bay of Fundy are the highest tides in the world. The tides create the daily phenomenon of the Reversing Falls, where the south-flowing Saint John River turns and flows north. Adventurous travelers can explore the St. Martin's caves, which are popular with rock hunters, spelunkers and nature buffs. Saint John is famous for its wildlife, which includes more than 200 species of migratory birds and finback whales. Saint John, New Brunswick, is a travel destination with something to offer every traveler. Accommodations range from luxury hotels, to cozy seaside cottages, to quaint bed-and-breakfasts. The people of the city have gone to great lengths to preserve their history, while accepting the need to build a strong foundation for the future. This combination makes Saint John the perfect mingling of the past, present and the future. Kirin Beverage Joins Parade of Recalls; Shares Drop Tokyo, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Kirin Beverage Corp., a Japanese soft drinks maker, said it is recalling as many as 10.37 million bottles and cans of a sports drink, joining a parade of companies withdrawing tainted products over the past month.
Kirin Beverage started pulling ``Kirin Speed'' off shelves after receiving 33 complaints that it tasted strange. The company also suspended production of the drink at its Shonan factory in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the flavor problem may have originated, said Makiyo Yamaguchi, a Kirin Beverage spokeswoman. The recall follows similar moves by Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Yamazaki Baking Co. and Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Japan's biggest dairy maker. The latter halted all production of milk last week after more than 14,000 consumers of the milk in western Japan fell ill, in the most widespread case of food contamination ever recorded in Japan. Snow shares have lost as much as 28 percent of their value since first recalled allegedly tainted milk on June 29. ``Every company is reacting very sharply'' following the Snow Brand incident, said Akito Koizumi, an analyst at Tsubasa Research Institute Ltd., who rates the Kirin stock ``outperform.'' ``The incident surely triggered more concerns among the consumers as well.'' Snow Brand had held an analyst meeting at the end of May, in which the President Tetsuro Ishikawa explained the company's new policy on disclosure, according to Saji. ``The (tainted milk) incident happened right when the company was about to turn its disclosure policy around by strengthening investor relations services,'' Saji said. There were 256 food-poisoning in Japan from January through April this year, compared with a full-year total of 2,697 for 1999, according to Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare study. Precautions Yamazaki Baking today said it is recalling 73,621 cupped desserts, with expiration dates from July 15 to Aug. 15, after the consumers complained that they tasted odd. The products are sold nationwide, except for Okinawa Prefecture. Tokyo-based Yamazaki on Saturday suspended production of five types of cupped puddings, mousses and Japanese-style gelatinous noodles at its Isezaki plant in Gunma Prefecture, after it found improperly sealed containers on products that were to be recalled, the company said in a press release. Last week, Morinaga Milk said it will recall 56,000 bottles of milk and halted bottled milk production after people complained that the milk had a foul smell. Japan's third-largest milk producer said it is overhauling its plant in Western Japan in cooperation with government health officials. Kirin Beverage, a subsidiary of Kirin Brewery Co., Japan's biggest beer maker, fell 200 yen to 2,635. Earlier in the day, the stock fell as much as 235 yen to 2,600. Yamazaki closed down 29 yen at 943. Earlier in the day, the bakery shares fell as much as 50 yen to 922, its biggest one-day drop since April 27. Morinaga shares ended down 8 yen at 340. Snow Brand rose 7 yen, or 1.8 percent, to 408. Japan's top bakery hit by new food-poisoning scare By George Nishiyama TOKYO, July 17 (Reuters) - Japan's food poisoning scare widened further on Monday after the country's top bakery said it had recalled some dessert products after consumers complained they tasted sour. It was the latest in a series of such incidents since a food poisoning outbreak involving tainted low-fat milk from Snow Brand Milk Products Co's plant in Osaka, western Japan, left 14,555 people ill this month. Yamazaki Baking Co said it had voluntarily removed five of its dessert products from store shelves over the weekend following complaints. A Yamazaki spokesman said the products had not been properly packaged. By late on Sunday it had recalled more than one-tenth of the 706,000 products in the affected batch. No one who had eaten the desserts had sought hospital treatment, he said. Local public health officials were inspecting the factory where the desserts were made, the spokesman said. It was Yamazaki's second case of problems with its products. On Saturday, it announced it had begun recalling nearly 10,000 curry buns after complaints the bread appeared to be mouldy. At least two people had complained of stomach pains in that case, and health officials were inspecting the bakery's plant in addition to questioning company officials. The news dragged Yamazaki's shares down in Tokyo by 2.98 percent, or 29 yen, to 943 yen. Shares in other food companies have also been hit hard by the food poisoning scare, with Snow Brand's shares tumbling 32 percent. RECALL FOR SAFETY Shikishima Baking Co said it was recalling bread products and stopping production after customers complained of mould. ``Though no one has become sick, we are recalling all our steamed bread and closing our production line for steamed bread until we find out the cause,'' a spokesman said. Victims of the Snow Brand outbreak complained of diarrhoea and vomiting after drinking low-fat milk. The company has halted operations temporarily at its 21 milk production plants. The government said about 30 out of 500 retail stores for Snow Brand had gone out of business after customers refused to buy their products, Kyodo news agency reported. It said the number of sales agents going out of business would increase. A survey by local government officials showed more than 10 percent of all 774 milk plants across Japan have hygiene and other problems, Kyodo said on Sunday. Numerous food and beverage producers have joined the list of firms recalling their products following the Snow Brand case.
Morinaga Milk Industry Co Ltd, Japan's third-largest dairy products supplier, temporarily closed a production line last week after 20 children fell ill after drinking its milk. Its shares were down 2.3 percent at 340 yen after tumbling last week. Snow Brand shares recovered some ground, rising 1.75 percent to 408 yen. The stock stood at around 604 before the food poisoning scare began in late June. Kirin Beverage Corp a subsidiary of Kirin Brewery, said at the weekend it was recalling 70,000 cases of its popular Kirin Speed sports soft drink after complaints it tasted odd. But Kyodo said the sports drink were still being sold from some 40,000 vending machines nationwide. ``The number of our service staff is limited, so we had to put priority on recalling the products being sold at staffed outlets,'' it quoted a Kirin spokesman as saying. Its share price dived 7.05 percent. The Health Ministry said it was poised to launch sweeping checks this week of all Snow Brand plants amid charges of lax management and supervision. A parliamentary panel is to convene on Wednesday to question Agriculture Minister Yoichi Tani and Snow Brand officials on the causes of the incident. British Queen arrives to open Berlin embassy; Row over Capitols and quality of beer
By Douglas Busvine BERLIN, July 17 (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth flew into Berlin on Monday for a visit to open the new British embassy amid one of the periodic rows -- this time over architecture -- between the British and German press. Making her fifth visit to Berlin, the Queen landed at Tegel airport and was due to dine with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder before opening the futuristic $35 million embassy, designed by British architect Michael Wilford, on Tuesday. Before she even had the opportunity to judge the building's merits for herself, German architecture critic Rainer Haubrich slammed it as ``mediocre at best, uninspired in its layout and with bad details.'' Writing in the conservative Die Welt daily, Haubrich denounced the building as ``more hot air than cool Britannia'' and said it symbolised the declining fortunes of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government. Haubrich's broadside followed an attack by Roger Boyes, Berlin correspondent of the Times, on the German capital's pretensions as world city ranking alongside London and New York. ``It is fair to say that the Queen does not have much competition in this sub-metropolitan society,'' Boyes wrote. ``The fact is, Hamburg is far more self-assured, with more brains and better gossip...while Munich is smarter.'' Boyes' article was translated in full by the outraged Bild tabloid, which ran a riposte from its own London correspondent slamming the British capital as a rip-off city where pubs served bad, warm beer before calling time at 11 p.m. Ambassador Sir Paul Lever praised the embassy's atrium-based design as ``exciting, striking, stylish and open'' but also said it was a practical building which made it possible to represent Britain to a wide German audience. Certainly an improvement on the old British embassy at the same site on the Wilhelmstrasse which pre-war ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson described as ``cramped, dirty and dark.'' Allied bombers destroyed the building and the site, which ended up in communist East Berlin, was cleared in the 1960s.
British Foreign Minister Robin Cook and German counterpart Joschka Fischer will also attend the opening ceremony before President Johannes Rau hosts the Queen, accompanied by Prince Philip, for lunch. |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/18/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.gamefan.com:80/hotinfo.asp?s=7542&rs=0Jaleco Encourages You To Drink More Beer Kevin Deselms 17 July -- Yes, Jaleco's begun marketing the "Beer Party," one of the stranger products to be manufactured by a game publisher. Apparently, Jaleco deduced the need for such a product from the behavior of numerous game editors at trade show parties... Beer Party allows owners to enjoy the smooth taste of draft beer in the comfort of their game rooms; happy owners will soon be able to purchase and combine various flavors to brew their own beer, such as seaweed/mint or orangey-milk. The gadget will apparently come in multiple sizes for those with a particularly robust thirst; check Jaleco's site (linked below) for more. And remember: Friends don't let friends game drunk.Yes, Jaleco's begun marketing the "Beer Party," one of the stranger products to be manufactured by a game publisher. Apparently, Jaleco deduced the need for such a product from the behavior of numerous game editors at trade show parties... Beer Party allows owners to enjoy the smooth taste of draft beer in the comfort of their game rooms; happy owners will soon be able to purchase and combine various flavors to brew their own beer. The gadget will apparently come in multiple sizes for those with a particularly robust thirst; check Jaleco's site (linked below) for more. And remember: Friends don't let friends game drunk. Photo and commentary at http://www.jaleco.co.jp/new/beerparty.html http://washingtonpost.com:80/wp-dyn/print/world/A54653-2000Jul16.html
By T.R. Reid, Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, July 17, 2000; Page A12 COPENHAGEN –– For the people of Denmark, there is ordinary beer--and there's Carlsberg. The nation's most famous export is brewed and sold around the world, but here in its homeland, Carlsberg is known simply as "our brew." Danes hoist their mugs of Carlsberg with the same sense of pride and belonging that makes all Texans reach for a Pearl long neck or any Coloradan pop a Coors. And it's not just beer that makes Carlsberg the country's most prominent corporate citizen. The brewer is the patron of a great art gallery, the donor of prestigious grants and scholarships, and the owner of other famous Danish brands such as Georg Jensen silver and Royal Copenhagen porcelain.
But this summer, Denmark's love affair with Carlsberg has turned as stale as day-old beer. The cause was a shocking piece of news: Carlsberg would seek a buyer for another of the national jewels it owns, the green and peaceful garden, amusement park and concert site in downtown Copenhagen known as Tivoli Gardens. "Carlsberg is the most Danish thing in the world," says sociologist Mette Kirk. "But Tivoli is in everybody's heart. We've all been going there since before we could walk, and we love it. . . . There were days and days of letters to the editors saying, you know, 'Carlsberg is selling out Denmark!' " Actually, the decision by one great Danish icon to sell another has almost nothing to do with Denmark, and everything to do with the globalization of the beer business. With mega-brewers such as the United States' Anheuser-Busch and Belgium's Interbrew buying up local and national beer brands left and right, Carlsberg has concluded that it had better unload most of its non-brewing arms and focus on its beverage trade--or else it, too, will be swallowed by one of the international giants. Tivoli's chief executive, Lars Liebst, publicly supported the idea and promised that the new owners, whoever they were, would preserve the genteel charms of the park. Still, many Danes were dubious. "It was simply a business decision, but the press turned it into a national catastrophe," says Copenhagen Mayor Jens Kramer Mikkelsen, whose office in the imposing Northern Renaissance town hall is right next door to the pleasure garden. "People think they're going to hand Tivoli Gardens over to Hollywood or something." To many here, it would be a catastrophe to convert the 157-year-old garden into a state-of-the-art amusement park. What they have now is tranquil, civilized, relaxing. Surrounded not by acres of asphalt parking lots but a bustling capital city, Tivoli Gardens is an urban oasis of many uses. Teenage couples hug each other tightly on the (timid) roller coaster, and beaming parents photograph their toddlers on the miniature train. Older folks drop by (general admission is just over $6 and less for frequent visitors) simply to walk amid the roses or to row a miniature Chinese junk beneath the stately willows that line the central lagoon. There are puppet shows and pantomime, magic acts and fireworks. After dinner at one of the two dozen Tivoli restaurants, people fan out to its various theaters for rock, jazz and classical concerts. The 21st century has come to Tivoli in the form of a new attraction called "Det Glydne Torn, or the Golden Tower, which turns out to be a 210-foot-high bungee jump. The park is a big attraction for tourists from abroad, but most of its visitors are Danes. In a country of 5.3 million people, Tivoli draws about 4 million visitors each summer. It would be difficult to find any Dane who hasn't been through at least once. The Nazis clearly understood Denmark's affection for the pleasure grounds when they occupied Denmark during World War II. After a 1944 uprising by the Danish resistance, the German commander punished the country--by destroying part of Tivoli Gardens. Of course, the park was rebuilt within months after the Germans departed. With so much attachment, it was perhaps inevitable that talk of a sale would make Lars Sixpack feel betrayed. But late last month, Carlsberg offered reassuring news: The new owner of Tivoli would be local, a Copenhagen consortium led by the Scandinavian Tobacco Corp. The buyers say they hope to improve upkeep and finance some additions, but without disturbing the attraction's tranquil character. The fact is that nobody would dare disturb the essential charm of Tivoli. "You'd have to be insane to mess with the park!" notes Mikkelsen, the mayor. "And if anybody tried to, we've got a city ordinance that authorizes me to snatch it away and save Tivoli Gardens for the people of Copenhagen." © 2000 The Washington Post Company http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/finance/2000/0717/fin9.htm
Diageo to combine spirits and brewing July 17 -- Diageo, the British food and drink conglomerate whose Guinness plants in Co Louth are to shed 290 jobs, will today announce that it is combining its spirits business with its brewing division. It will also reveal the details of a $10.5 billion deal involving its US food arm. As expected, Pillsbury will merge with General Mills of the US in a transaction that values the former at $10.5 billion and will leave Diageo with a third of the new entity. But the combination of the UDV spirits business with Guinness brewing suggests that the refocusing of Diageo will cease after the spin-offs of Pillsbury and its Burger King fast-food chain. Diageo is hoping to reap big savings from combining the sales forces, marketing and consumer research operations of the two drinks divisions. UDV makes 16 of the world's top 100 spirits brands including Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin. The revelation last Friday that the Guinness would make 290 workers redundant at its brewery and packaging plant in Dundalk came just two months after the company said it was cutting 100 marketing jobs at its marketing division at St James' Gate in central Dublin. A review of operations at the brewery at St James' Gate and at plants in Kilkenny and Waterford is ongoing, but will take several months to complete. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/food/review.html?in_review_id=296 708&in_review_text_id=240989
London pub recommendations along the Thames http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/food/review.html?in_review_id=297 522&in_review_text_id=241928 Do the Leicester Square crawl by Chris Leadbeater It all seemed like a good idea at the time. Dad was locked away writing a speech, mum was off catching the rays in Portugal, and those GCSEs were finished. What better way for young Euan Blair to spend an evening than knocking back the alcohol in London's thriving Leicester Square? Then it all got a bit out of hand and young Euan found himself under the long arm of the law and in one whole heap of trouble… Still, Master Blair chose a good spot for a tipple. Leicester Square might not be the hippest of the capital's drinking zones, but it's packed with plenty of watering holes for the thirsty boozer anxious to move from pub to pub quickly. Plus it's centrally placed, so you'll never have trouble getting a cab/Special Services limo home once the closing time bell has rung/the police have finished with you. So if Euan ever wants to try Leicester Square again (in a couple of years, of course, because we wouldn't condone underage drinking - and we're not suggesting that any of these fine establishements would serve underage booze either), he'd be well advised to follow our cheeky pub crawl route. We've even lobbed in a couple of restaurants so he can stack up on food before he hits the sauce this time (you know what they say about drinking on an empty stomach). Why don't you come too... Faun and Firkin 18 Bear Street, 020-7839 3252 A long, thin, dimly lit boozer, just off the main square. All Firkin pubs brew their own ales, and some of them can be a bit strong, so watch out for the Dogbolter! Euan Rating: 7/10. Firkin. Heh hey. That sounds a bit rude. Zoo Bar , Bear Street The sort of great tacky booze emporium that Leicester Square does so well. Comes complete with giant gold snake statue in the front window and bouncers on the door. Has a happy 'hour' from 4pm-7pm, serving bottles of beer at £2 and cocktail jugs at £7.50 a pop. Euan Rating: 5/10. You ain't coming in 'ere with that fake ID, mate. The Cork and Bottle 44-46 Cranbourn Street, 020-7734 7807 Upmarket winebar that proudly displays its Egon Ronay listing outside the front door. Probably a bit pricey for some, although for those seeking to line their stomachs for the night ahead it does do an appetising six cork oysters in a shallot and cider dip for only £6.60. Euan Rating: 3/10. Wine? Eeurgh, dad drinks that. Chiquito 20-21 Leicester Square, 020 7839 6925 Bright and breezy Mexican restaurant-cum-bar serving a decent range of Tex Mex food. Does a useful All You Can Eat offer between midday and 4pm, Monday to Friday for a bargain £5.95. Also does a kids' menu at £2.95 for those trying not to go over the pocket money budget. Gaudy red and yellow décor not ideal for those thinking of vomiting. Euan Rating: 8/10. I'll have some nachos please. The Moon Under Water 28 Leicester Square A long thin bar with a large no-smoking area, so you won't be turning up at Downing Street (or wherever you live) stinking of fags. Wetherspoons often have cut-price beer deals, which is great for younger wallets. There's no music, however, so there'll be no Britney till you get home, young man. Euan Rating: 8/10. I don't fancy passing out on that tiled floor. It looks a bit hard. Capital Radio Café 29-30 Leicester Square Home of London's commercial radio station of the same name. Firmly to the Camenbert side of cheesy (sample menu entry: Nachos Nachos - So Good They Named Them Twice), it's got a good range of fast food. It also does Piper Heidseick champers at £29.95 a 75cl bottle for those special celebrations. Euan Rating: 5/10. Just because he's the PM's son doesn't mean he hasn't got taste. All Bar One 48 Leicester Square Ever-popular London bar chain, but one that provides pubs with about as much atmosphere as Queen Victoria's funeral. Huge front windows and bleached white wood surfaces dominate. A predominantly suit-wearing clientele. Euan Rating: 4/10. But at least with all the big windows I can see the rozzers before they see me. Home 1, Leicester Square London's shiny new superclub which specialises in playing loud dance music to C-list celebs. Huge bouncers. Really big. Fools and underage boozers not suffered gladly. Euan Rating: 0/10. Sod off sonny, before I call the coppers. The Imperial 5 Leicester Street Traditional London pub, complete with jukebox and big portrait of Her Laugh-a-Minute Majesty Queen Victoria on the sign outside. The perfect place to mingle with Blair's Britain. Euan Rating: 8/10. Who are The Clash? Never heard of them. Pizza Hut 19, Leicester Square Welcome home, Master Blair. Decked out in New Labour red, with a decent offer of £7.65 for a medium Hawaiian Pizza. Bottle of House Red only £8.10 for those feeling adventurous. Dad, can you come and pick me up now? Euan Rating: 10/10. Can I have an extra slice of garlic bread please? http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/food/pubs/review.html?in_review_i d=299468&in_review_text_id=243611
The Settle Inn 186 Battersea Bridge Road SW11 3AE 020 7228 0395 by Edward Sullivan Settle down now, settle down. I have some important news to relay - news that will bring joy to the hearts of all ye who enjoy a quality pub operation. Yet another grim old boozer has been swept aside in the nation's never-ending pursuit of excellence, and let no tears be shed to mourn its passing. The Settle Inn is owned and operated by Paul McKinley and Kate Reed, an exuberant couple who have created a commodious environment with a vivacious atmosphere. McKinley's pedigree dates back to his time as Hugh Corbett's right-hand man at the Tup chain of pubs, before they were eventually sold for a devilishly handsome sum of money. He then disappeared to the sunnier climes of the South Of France with his wife, Zoë, before returning to Battersea to create a venue he could call his own. Out went the claggy mat and the rickety old furniture, in came a stonking great sledgehammer and a small army of paint-brush handlers and, earlier this year, we were all able to applaud the shiny new look, admire the modern bar fittings and the English oak floor and partake in the most significant event to hit Battersea since the Luftwaffe. My first visit was during a fairly busy Sunday lunch. I wasn't hungry, but the aroma of a Sunday roast sizzling away on every other table was far too irresistible. For £9 each, we shared an enormous platter which included half a chicken with stuffing, chipolata in bacon, roast potatoes, vegetables, lashings of gravy, bread sauce and redcurrant jelly. And, joy of joys, food is served all day until 9pm. My second visit was during a calm weekday lunch when we shared an excellent plate of hummus, tzatziki and taramasalata dips with olives and warm pitta bread (£4), a beautifully spiced mushroom fettuccini (£5.50) and a rather average burger with hopelessly over-salted chips (£6.50). We wolfed it all down anyway - apart from the chips - with a stunning bottle of the Chilean Trivento Malbec and chased it with a few pints of Wadworth 6X and Charles Wells Bombardier bitter. My third visit was on a weekend night, when young Battersea folk - although there is an over-21 ruling at the bar - come out to play hard, and play hard they do. Part of the refurbishment revealed a fairly substantial outside space which has been converted into a very attractive walled beer garden using giant cable reels as tables and chopped logs as stools. Weather permitting, they hold a barbecue here every Saturday (12.30pm-9pm) where, for £6, you can choose from the usual suspects of burger, sausage, chicken breast and veggie kebab with all the salad and bread you can swallow. The reason pubs like this succeed is they're designed to reflect and serve the needs of the local community and are not shackled to mindless blueprints as dictated by those unimaginative bureaucrats in Burton-Upon-Trent, Northampton or Newcastle. And I for one will be a regular settler at this emporium of verve and decency. Open- Pub hours Food- Food served until 9pm, Sunday Roast £9, BBQ every (sunny) Saturday evening £6
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Bit of who-cares news: I was in a supermarket yesterday and the beer distributor was restocking shelves with Bud, and I told him, "make sure you restock the ‘Tequiza Extra’! He said, "oh, you’re the guy they brewed it for?" Then he said that the brewery had stopped all shipments and cancelled this brew. RIP. Look out for ‘Killarney’, the A-B brew with Irish whiskey flavor in it… **** http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/finance/2000/0718/fin4.htm Bid for Seagram drinks arm likely July 18 -- Diageo is considering bidding for a substantial chunk of the Seagram drinks business or teaming up with a partner to make an approach for the whole. The news came as Diageo unveiled details of the merger of its Pillsbury food business with that of General Mills of the US, and the combination of its UDV spirits arm with its Guinness brewing division. Taken with last month's decision to float the Burger King fastfood business, the moves will leave the group focused on alcoholic beverages. Mr Paul Walsh, chief executive designate, would then have considerable firepower for acquisitions. Seagram's drinks empire, which includes Chivas Regal scotch and distribution rights to Absolut vodka, will be put up for sale if Vivendi's acquisition of Seagram goes ahead. But Diageo, the world's biggest spirits group, with brands including Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin, would run into competition issues if it bid for Seagram's drinks portfolio on its own. Mr Walsh said: "I see Seagram as a very attractive opportunity. Clearly we would not be able to retain all of its brands, but we believe there are a number in that portfolio that we . . . could derive substantial shareholder value from." People close to Diageo said it was considering teaming up with an industry partner or a financial buyer to make its bid. "It would be fair to say that Diageo is interested in more of Seagram than people have assumed," said one. "Paul Walsh is not going to just sit there and pick up the pieces other people do not want." Diageo is understood to be interested in brands which are not global but would help it build critical mass in north America. For example, while competition constraints mean it would be unlikely to be able to buy a global whisky brand because it owns Bell's, it might be interested in Crown Royal, the premium Canadian whisky brand. Possible partners include Moet Hennessy, the drinks business controlled by LVMH, the French luxury goods group, in which Diageo has a 40 per cent stake. Possible financial partners are thought to include Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, the US private equity group, which has champagne interests, and BC Partners, the venture capital group. Diageo's main rival is likely to be Allied Domecq. Mr Walsh said he had far more room to manoeuvre because of the Pillsbury deal. The series of announcements over the past few weeks mark the transition of Diageo into the shape many people thought it should take when it was formed by the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan two years ago. Mr Walsh yesterday was dismissive of those who said the focus on alcohol should have come earlier. "We have got to look forward, not back," he said. "What is being created here could not have been created years ago." Tax problems had to be negotiated and the merger of the spirits businesses of Grand Met and Guinness had to be proven. A final exit from food may be some way away but the core of the group is firmly focused on alcoholic drinks. In the short term the plans to bid for all or part of the Seagram drinks business will hog the headlines. Mr Walsh is reticent on that. He is more forthcoming on the plans to develop new brands and the advantages involved in combining the UDV spirits business with the Guinness beer arm. Mr Walsh points to the success of Smirnoff Ice, the ready-todrink product that has sold well since its development 15 months ago. In the past 12 months the group has sold 250m bottles in the limited number of markets where it has been launched. http://insidedenver.com:80/business/0718daze6.shtml
New owners have plans for Heavenly Daze Bankrupt brew pub restarts bottling line By Dina Berta, Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer The bottling line is back in motion today at Heavenly Daze, a microbrewery and restaurant on Kalamath Street that went bankrupt in December, a year and a half after it opened. Some of the brewery's better known brands — such as Colorado Amber Daze and Raz Wheat, a raspberry wheat beer — will once again be bottled and sold — first at the brew pub, then at restaurants and eventually back on the liquor store shelves. New owners have taken over Heavenly Daze and plan to bring the brewery up to its capacity of 4,000 barrels a year. The group of 11 investors acquired the assets for the 50,000-square-foot facility earlier this year when previous owners, brothers Pete and Guy Crider, were forced to liquidate after filing for Chapter 7 protection from creditors. At its height, Heavenly Daze beers were sold in nearly 200 liquor stores, said controller Gary Ruf. "The whole supply was ceased and they lost most of the shelf space" in stores, Ruf said. "So we're starting out slowly with local restaurants. And we'll distribute it ourselves. We have a van." Ruf put together the team of investors.He had been advising the previous owners. The brothers were never able to recoup the money they spent converting the 50-year-old building, a former Lowry's beef jerky factory, into a microbrewery and pub, despite a low-interest loan of $350,000 from the Mayor's Office of Economic Development. Ruf and the new investors spent more than $1 million paying off overdue taxes and remodeling the restaurant and brewery. The restaurant now seats about 300 people. Glass walls separate it from the microbrewery and bottling portion. Customers can watch the beer being made or bottled. The restaurant still has the pool tables, dart boards and shuffle board. Also returning are brewmaster Rick Whitehouse and production supervisor Mark Sloan. This time they are part of the ownership team. "We're starting out with no debt, and I think we're much more organized," Whitehouse said. The new owners, who include a lawyer, certified public accountants and Ruf, are taking a more business-like approach to the brewery, Sloan said. "We're not shooting from the hip," he said. "We're doing everything by the book. There are business plans for everything." Heavenly Daze also has a new chef, Ted Uniss, whose experience includes a stint with Gordon Biersch Brewing Co., a chain based in Chattanooga, Tenn. Uniss incorporates beer in the menu — cream ale pizza dough, stout rye bread, beer and pears in syrup, and beer in the sauces. Entrees range between $5 and $7. The restaurant is doing a strong lunch business, and Uniss is working on a new dinner menu. Heavenly Daze also added a beer to its line — Chapter 7 Smoothie. The beer was being brewed when the bankruptcy shut down operations. The brew was left fermenting for about six months. Normally, beer is brewed for less than a month. When they took over, the new team cautiously tested and tried the beer. "It was incredible," Ruf said. "It was naturally carbonated. It has finer bubbles. It's the way beer was brewed 100 years ago when they had time to do it. No one today could afford to only turn their brew twice a year." http://www.metroactive.com:80/metro/alacarte-0028.html Sunnyvale's Bob Stoddard takes a silver medal at World Beer Cup Competition By Christina Waters CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR VERY OWN Stoddard's Brewhouse and Eatery--that would be the attractive multistory affair in downtown Sunnyvale. It seems that brewmeister Bob Stoddard (his title is Master Brewer to be precise) has once again covered himself in foamy glory by taking a Silver Medal at the World Beer Cup International Competition, sponsored by the Association of Brewers. Stoddard's medal was awarded in the category of German-style Kölsch--which we must all run right out and sample immediately. The World Beer Cup, established in 1996, is held every two years to celebrate the art and science of brewing by recognizing outstanding brewing achievement. More than 3,500 breweries representing over 100 countries are invited to participate in the event. Stoddard's Brewhouse was the only brewery to win an award at this event. "Winning this medal is an affirmation to the hours of dedication invested by me and my staff to produce consistent, excellent beers," a justifiably proud Bob Stoddard emailed me last week. Oh, and the award-winning brew master also mentioned that he's busy expanding the empire with a new 250-seat brew house in downtown Campbell (200 E. Campbell Ave.) that will include a huge 600-seat-plus banquet facility. Scheduled to open in 2001, the new facility should make 2001 a very big year for beer in the South Bay. Stop by Stoddard's Brewhouse and Eatery--111 S. Murphy Ave. in Sunnyvale (408.733.7824) and congratulate the sudsmeisters. http://news.excite.com/news/bw/000712/wa-pyramid-breweries
Wayne Drury Joins Pyramid Breweries as Chief Financial Officer July 12 - PMID 1 5/8 -1/8 (-7.14%) SEATTLE & BERKELEY, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) - Pyramid Breweries Inc. (NASDAQ:PMID), today announced that Wayne Drury has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration, effective July 17, 2000. Drury, who will be based in Seattle, is filling a position that has been vacant since April of this year. "We have been searching for a top-flight financial executive to help us execute our growth strategy. Wayne has an outstanding background, and we are very excited to have him joining the Pyramid team," stated Martin Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Wayne has over 25 years of financial experience, including more than 15 years in the restaurant industry. In addition to his extensive background in accounting and finance, he brings significant experience in mergers and acquisitions, public and private company financing, as well as banking and investor relations." Drury comes to Pyramid from Azteca Restaurant Enterprises, a Seattle based company with 31 company owned and licensed locations. As Chief Financial Officer at Azteca, Drury was responsible for all finance, banking, acquisitions, financial reporting, risk management, tax planning and information systems management at the privately held company. Prior to Azteca, Drury was Chief Financial Officer at Country Harvest Restaurants. In addition, he has held the positions of Corporate Controller at Perkins Family Restaurants and KinderCare, as well as Director of Planning and Analysis at KFC International and Long John Silver's. Drury earned both a BS in Accounting and a MBA from the University of Kentucky. "Wayne's experience in the restaurant business will be invaluable as we seek to expand the Alehouse Division," said Kelly. "Alehouses will play a pivotal role in developing our future business by creating brand awareness and serving as a focal point for sales and marketing efforts," Kelly added. "We believe this strategy will enhance the 'local status' of our brand, and provide clear differentiation from our competitors." "Pyramid has tremendous potential, and I am very excited about the demographic fundamentals of the specialty beverage category. It is a great time to be coming on board," noted Drury. "I look forward to helping grow the company, and lending my experience to the development of the Pyramid brand and the expansion of the Alehouse concept. I have been very impressed by the management team at Pyramid, and the commitment of management and the Board to their growth strategy." Drury joins a new executive team at Pyramid that has taken shape over the last 12 months. Martin Kelly joined the company in August of 1999 as President and COO, and he was elevated to the CEO position in December. Gary McGrath joined Pyramid in November as Vice President of Sales, and Nick Walpert signed on in March of 2000 as VP/COO of the Alehouse Division. In addition, Kurt Dammeier, took over the role of non-executive Chairman of the Board in December of 1999. Pyramid has had six straight quarters of year over year sales growth, and in the first quarter of 2000 reported an 85% increase in EBITDA. Over the last seven months the company has also implemented a share repurchase program and a quarterly dividend (the current dividend yield as of July 11th is 8.8%). Pyramid Breweries Inc. is the leading brewer of specialty, full-flavored beers and sodas, producing a variety of ales and lagers under the Pyramid and Thomas Kemper brand names. The company also brews four styles of old-fashioned sodas under the Thomas Kemper Soda Company label. Pyramid operates two local breweries and restaurants, the Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse in Seattle, Washington and the Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse in Berkeley, California. For more information, visit www.PyramidBrew.com. http://www.montrealgazette.com:80/business/pages/000718/4465455.html The fine art of froth- School serves up lessons on the science of suds INGRID PHANEUF, The Gazette JOHN KENNEY, GAZETTE / Nadia Ross of Saint-Hyacinthe's Le Bouffon Resto Pub trims excess foam off the top of a beer at the Oland Specialty Beer Institute on St. Jacques St. W. as classmates look on. Absenteeism isn't a problem at the Oland Specialty Beer Institute. The Montreal training centre, one of three in Canada, specializes in teaching everyone from bartenders to grocery-store managers about how to sell, serve and talk about beer. It's also a marketing ploy, designed to generate sales by increasing public knowledge of Oland products via employees at the company's 22,000 points of sale across Quebec (6,000 retail), not including 350 SAQs. Oland products include brand names that have gained international prominence, like Stella Artois, Bass and Sol, all Interbrew products. The world's second-largest beer company, based in Belgium, purchased Labatt in 1995. "Interbrew's strategy is to go into each country and buy the first or second-largest brewery there," institute director Luc Prevost explained. "Part of Oland's marketing strategy is to educate people about the products," Prevost said. "If the people who sell our products can talk about our products intelligently, we have a better chance of reaching our market." Oland's market is what Prevost refers to as "premium" beer drinkers. 'Higher Revenues' "They tend to be male, have higher revenues and a higher education," Prevost said. Oland sales reps - they call themselves "Premium Beer Brewmasters" - invite owners, managers and staff who sell their products to the St. Jacques St. W. training centre for free beer lessons that usually last about two hours. The centre is set up to meet a variety of training needs, adapted to the customer.
A retail showroom demonstrates how beers can be displayed to their best advantage. A beer-keg room includes machinery that cuts costs and saves time. A classroom setting is used for lectures, which include information on everything from the history of beer to modern-day brewing processes. And a bar area sets the scene to showcase Oland's star products. It also provides training opportunities for bar and restaurant staff - and the opportunity to sample Oland products. The emphasis was on service at a recent session, specifically on how to serve Oland's Belgian products: Stella Artois (lager), Hoegaarden (white), Leffe (blonde or brown) and Belle-Vue Kriek (a Lambic beer, which is naturally fermented without adding yeast). The Belgian service tradition is more complicated than one would think, involving everything from how to wash glasses to draft-beer-pouring technique. Bar staff from the Bouffon Resto-Pub looked on as one of the owners learned how to clean glasses by hand in a special sink, then pour draft to maximize hygiene and taste. "It's important not to touch the glass with the spout, for hygienic reasons," Oland sales rep Jean-Francois Dion said. He explained how the foamy head that overflows the glass must be trimmed with a dull-edged knife at a 45-degree angle, so it doesn't fall flat. "Head is important," Dion explained. "Not only because it improves the taste and digestion of the beer, but also because it can save your business money. When you serve beer with head, you serve less beer. Over time, the savings add up." Historical Tidbits Tips like this, along with knowledge about brewing processes and historical tidbits, are what make taking the sessions worthwhile, said Sophie Picard, who co-owns the Saint-Hyacinthe pub with her brothers Manuel and Alain. "We have 150 different kinds of beer at Le Bouffon, so it's nice to be able to talk to our customers about them," she said. "Before I came here, I wasn't sure of the difference between ale and lager. Now I know that ale is served warm." Picard said she believes the extra training will increase sales, and especially the sales of Oland products. "We'll certainly increase our profits by improving service, and the staff will definitely be more inclined to talk about the products they know," Picard said. With up to three training sessions each day, five days a week, Oland's Beer Institute is a major initiative in its over-all marketing plan. Since the Montreal institute opened in April, 89 business owners have brought in at least part of their staff for training. The institute has trained a total of 225 students.
http://news.excite.com:80/news/pr/000712/fl-red-dragon-expand
Cuidao to Expand Distribution of Red Dragon Beer into Texas and Louisiana Texas Brokerage Firm to Spearhead the Introduction HOLLYWOOD, Fla., July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Cuidao Holding Corporation, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CDAO), a distributor of imported and specialty beers, wines and spirits, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Houston based broker Bruce Edwards to spearhead the Company's introduction and distribution drive of Red Dragon Beer in Texas and Louisiana. After careful evaluation of several markets, the management of Cuidao has decided that the Texas and Louisiana markets offer great potential for Red Dragon Beer. Both markets have significant and rapidly growing Asian populations, coupled with growing affluence within the ethnic market that make it ripe for the introduction of the line of Red Dragon Beer products. Brand registration and wholesaler evaluation is currently underway in Texas. Distribution of Red Dragon Beer, including Red Dragon Xtreme, Red Dragon Light and soon-to-be-introduced Red Dragon Amber-Red, should begin within the next few weeks. "Texas and Louisiana have a huge number of Chinese restaurants, which will be the initial primary market for this product line. In Texas, Chinese restaurants account for the largest group of ethnic restaurants. These restaurants create an untapped demand for Cuidao's diversified portfolio of Chinese imports and form a great base for any distributor," says Bruce Edwards, Broker. Michael Fisher, president of Cuidao, said, "This is a great step in our controlled expansion plans. Red Dragon is doing well within our current distribution geographies. We believe that the product will perform even better in Texas and Louisiana, which would add significantly to the Company's growing revenues." About Bruce Edwards, Broker Bruce Edwards operates a highly successful Houston based brokerage operation and has over 25 years of experience in marketing. Mr. Edwards has served as Regional Sales Manager for a major Kentucky based winery, Western Sales Manager for a prominent New Jersey based winery as well as several successful owner-operator specialty import companies. Edwards introduced the first super premium tequila to the US markets, gaining distribution in 42 states in 18 months. About Cuidao Holding Corporation Cuidao Holding Corp. ("CDAO") is a development stage company that is in the process of implementing a vertical roll-up and consolidation of the highly fragmented alcoholic beverage specialty and import industry. Cuidao Holding Corporation imports, manages, distributes and develops markets for a rapidly growing portfolio of international and regional brands of beer, wine and spirits. The Company currently participates in specific niche segments of the approximate 100 billion dollar alcoholic beverage market in the United States. Cuidao Holding Corporation is a client of Internet Stock Market Resources Inc., http://www.internetstockmarket.com/cdao.html . http://news.excite.com/news/r/000718/08/odd-crime-dc
Busted: Ring of Carousers Posing As PHNOM PENH (Reuters) July 18 - Phnom Penh police arrested the organizers of a ring of men who posed as Buddhist monks and allegedly used their daily alms collections to finance nightly forays to karaoke bars and brothels. "The fake monks walked the streets during the day and in the evening changed into civilian clothes and went drinking in karaoke bars and did exercising in brothels," the Cambodian newspaper Koh Santepheap reported Monday. The ruse was detected by the chief of the district, who tipped off police. Police arrested the woman organizer of the ring, who allegedly demanded 25 percent of the $5 the men collected as alms every day. Three suspects remain at large.Cambodia's traditional faith, Therevadan Buddhism, is only now beginning to recover from the toll inflicted by a quarter century of genocide and civil conflict. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2000/0718/breaking12.htm
SF mayor's royal snub seen as missed opportunity A Sinn Féin mayor's decision not to greet Princess Anne during her visit to Derry today has been criticised by a former nationalist lord mayor of Belfast. SDLP Assemblyman Mr Alban Maginness claimed Sinn Féin mayor Mr Cathal Crumley had missed an opportunity to "build bridges" by meeting the princess. Mr Crumley, who was once sentenced to nine life terms plus 300 years in prison as an IRA inmate, decided instead to send Ulster Unionist deputy mayor Mr Ernie Hamilton to represent the city council. He insisted his decision was not based on any prejudice against royalty. "I considered this particular event and decided that the unionist community and the unionist tradition in this city would be better served by the deputy mayor who is a unionist. "I made those arrangements for that to happen and I think the unionist community will have their day with the royal visitor in the city." His decision to instead attend at a function at a pub was criticised by unionists and loyalists in Derry and by North Belfast MLA Alban Maginness. The former Belfast lord mayor told BBC Radio Ulster: "I think he is wrong in not meeting her. "I believe that here is a golden opportunity from somebody from the nationalist tradition to show real leadership and to meet Princess Anne in Derry. "After all, the mayor is the mayor of the whole city. He is not the mayor simply of the nationalist population and indeed, if a unionist mayor had refused to meet the Irish President, the same criticism would be applicable."
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beer bits |
Lew Bryson |
7/18/00 12:00 AM |
J2jurado < j2ju...@aol.com> wrote in message news:20000718135901.03054.00000909@ng-da1.aol.com... > Bit of who-cares news: I was in a supermarket yesterday and the beer > distributor was restocking shelves with Bud, and I told him, "make sure you
> restock the ā€~Tequiza Extraā€T! He said, "oh, youā€Tre the guy they brewed it > for?" Then he said that the brewery had stopped all shipments and cancelled
> this brew. RIP. Look out for ā€~Killarneyā€T, the A-B brew with Irish whiskey > flavor in it… Someone's gonna have to die... Not surprised that Tequiza Extra died. Way too much tequila flavor for 'clear-bottle' Mexbeer drinkers, not enough alcohol for tequila drinkers. Strange idea. -- Lew Bryson It's a fragmented world these days; You might as well pick up the pieces. Author of Pennsylvania Breweries, now available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081172879X/002-1904346-8002803 |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/19/00 12:00 AM |
Traveling tomorrow to work in Oregon…so this is last ‘beer bits’ for about 24 hrs…any rfdb’ers in Orlando want to meet for some brews on 29 July (Saturday) night? And anyone else wishing to join us this Friday night for the rfdb brown ale tasting in Portland, OR…email me! ******** http://www.lion-nathan.co.nz/newsroom.cfm Low Alcohol Category Needs Premium Products 11 July 2000 -- The low alcohol category represents just under 2% of New Zealand's beer market, but market-leading brewer Lion Breweries believes there is significant opportunity for growth, particularly at the premium end of the category. Launching Steinlager Premium Light today, Lion Breweries' national marketing director Lee Hill said Lion's latest low alcohol beer had been developed to fulfil the untapped potential of premium low alcohol products. "Sales of low alcohol beers in New Zealand sit at approximately 4.5 million litres per year, " Mr Hill said. "If we compare this market to Australia, where in NSW the low alcohol category represents 10% of the beer market, we see there is considerable room for growth." "The reason for this disparity is that, until now, New Zealand consumers have had limited low alcohol beer choices." "There are more than a dozen low alcohol products available in this market, but none are premium low alcohol beers that fulfil all the requirements of the premium consumer. "Research results show us that premium consumers are interested in a low alcohol international-style lager, and we believe that Steinlager Premium Light will fulfil these consumers' needs and provide considerable growth to the low alcohol market," Mr Hill said. Lion's last low alcohol innovation was current market-leader Light Ice, launched in 1996 and currently dominating the category with 75% share of the market. "When we launched Light Ice, the low alcohol market was experiencing a considerable decline after its initial peak in 1994. "Consumers had been attracted by the low alcohol concept, but were not being satisfied by the taste offerings of the products available. "The introduction of Light Ice, an innovation in low alcohol brewing at the time, reversed the decline and the category experienced a surge in sales. "Light Ice has dominated the category since its launch, but as a mainstream beer does not deliver all the needs of the premium consumer." "We believe that by providing a premium low alcohol beer that fulfils an identified consumer need, we can achieve further growth in the category and make low alcohol beer relevant to more drinkers and more occasions." http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000718/16/earns-philip-morris Philip Morris Earnings Up 7 Percent 18 July -- NEW YORK (AP) - Philip Morris Cos.' profit rose 7 percent in the second quarter, reflecting gains in cigarette sales domestically and abroad as well as growth in its Kraft Foods division. The company said Tuesday that earnings totaled $2.17 billion, or 95 cents a share, in the three months ended June 30, up from $2.03 billion, or 84 cents a share, a year earlier. This year's results matched the 95 cents expected by analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. Revenues for the April-June period were $20.84 billion, up 5.2 percent from $19.81 billion in 1999, the company said. The results exclude discontinued operations as well as a pre-tax charge for employee severance packages. On Tuesday, shares of Philip Morris rose 56.3 cents to close at $24.063 on the New York Stock Exchange. "Our robust second-quarter results reflect the continued strength of our business fundamentals," Geoffrey C. Bible, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Our domestic tobacco business generated good volume and income growth, and volume growth returned to our international tobacco business as it benefited from the continued economic recovery in Asia and Russia." There was no mention of the $145 billion in punitive damages that a Florida jury last week ordered five major tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, to pay to sick Florida smokers. The companies have said they will appeal the ruling. The latest earnings report also did not factor in Philip Morris' purchase late last month of Nabisco Holdings, the maker of Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies and Ritz crackers, for $14.9 billion from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, which also was a defendant in the Florida case. Philip Morris' domestic tobacco income grew 6.5 percent to $1.3 billion due to higher pricing and increased shipments to wholesalers, the company said. Its share of overall domestic tobacco shipments rose 1 percentage point to 49.9 percent, it said. Tobacco income abroad was up 4.6 percent to $1.3 billion on volume gains in Western Europe, Russia, Japan and Asia, it said. Earnings at the Miller Brewing Co. rose 8.4 percent to $193 million in the second quarter on higher pricing and contract brewing. But shipments slipped 2.7 percent to 11.9 million barrels. For the six months ended June 30, net income was $4.18 billion, or $1.82 a share, this year compared with $3.82 billion, or $1.57 a share, excluding items and discontinued operations. Revenues were $40.88 billion, up 4 percent from $39.31 billion. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1999732&ern=y
Boston Beer Announces Second Quarter 2000 Results BOSTON, July 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM), brewer of Samuel Adams Boston Lager(R), announced its results for the quarter ended June 24, 2000. During the second quarter of 2000, barrels sold and net sales were 336,000 and $51.4 million, respectively, compared to 311,000 and $47.2 million in 1999. The increase in volume can be attributed to growth in our flagship Samuel Adams Boston Lager of 3.1% and the introduction of our new product, BoDean's Twisted Tea(TM), offset by the continued decline of Oregon Original Ales and the volume lost from the discontinuation of certain year- round styles. Gross profit was 56.8% of net sales for the second quarter 2000 vs. 56.5% in the same period of 1999. Earnings for the quarter ended June 24, 2000 were $.19 per share compared to $.18 per share for the quarter ended June 26, 1999. For the second quarter wholesaler depletions grew by 5.1%, with Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams Seasonals growing by 4.0%, as compared to the same period of 1999. Total depletions for the first six months of 2000 increased 5.9%, versus 1999, while Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams Seasonals had combined depletions growth of 5.8%. Orders in hand for the July/August period of 2000 indicate that total shipments will be 4.3% above those in July/August 1999 (including shipments of BoDean's Twisted Tea). Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams Seasonals have a projected growth of 5.2%. Actual shipments for July/August 2000 may differ, however, and no inferences should be drawn with respect to shipments in future periods. For the six months ended June 24, 2000, barrels sold increased 8.1% to 626,000 from 579,000 in the same period of 1999. Net sales increased to $95.7 million in the first half of 2000 from $88.0 million in the first half of 1999. The Company posted a 56.3% gross profit margin for the six month period versus 56.2% in 1999 and increased its combined advertising promotion and selling expense by over $2.00 per barrel, to 38.4% of net sales. Earnings for the first six months of 2000 were $.38 per share compared to $.33 per share for the six months ended June 26, 1999. During the second quarter of 2000 the Company repurchased 312,800 shares of its Class A Common Stock for an aggregate purchase price of $2,500,000. Since November 1999, the Company has repurchased a total of 2,408,700 shares of its Class A Common Stock for an aggregate purchase price of $18,100,000. Effective April 14, 2000, the Board of Directors approved an increase of $5,000,000 from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000 for the repurchase of its Class A Common Stock. The Company's financial position continues to be strong. Cash and short-term unrestricted investments are $40.7 million for the period ended June 24, 2000. The Company continues to generate significant positive cash flows. The Boston Beer Company was founded by Jim Koch in 1984 and Samuel Adams Boston Lager was introduced in April 1985. Today, The Boston Beer Company, winner of 22 medals at The Great American Beer Festival, is the leading American brewer. For more information about The Boston Beer Company, visit our website at www.samadams.com or www.bostonbeer.com for financial information. http://www.beer.com/news/bee/bee/2000/07/01/962425229017.html
The tale of heather ale by Alan D. Eames , beer.com 7.1.2000 In the history of Western civilization, no brew has aroused so much speculation and curiosity as the "lost' Heather ale of the Picts. About the year 250 B.C., the Greek navigator and geographer Pytheas first explored and wrote of the land that we know today as Scotland - an area that was home to a fierce, independent group of tribes collectively called the Picts. Living in mound-like villages underground, the Picts were ferocious enough that even Julius Caesar's legions could not subdue these small, dark, warlike people. Heavily tattooed with dark blue-black images of gods and fantastic monsters, the Picts derived their name from the ancient word for 'picture' - literally 'illustrated' native people. Some historians trace the folk-tale notion of 'the Little People', and the 'Leprechaun' to late middle-ages survivals of these relatively child-sized humans. In the year 361 A.D., the Emperor Julian witnessed the Picts in battle saying of the wild, ale-drunken hoards - they sounded like "the bellowing of oxen and the cawing of ravens." Pictish, Heather ale was likely the first brew in the British Isles. Others, including the Vikings, would also incorporate heather into their beers - the Viking version called BEOIR-LOCHLONNACH - meaning 'strong at sea' but it was the Picts who made heather ale the stuff of myth and legend through its famous potency and hallucinogenic power. Inducing visions and a state of sheer ecstasy, it remains no wonder that heather ale and the secret of its brewing became the stuff of myth and legend. Heather or ling is a general term for the many species of low growing Evergreen shrub - the most common of which is Calluna Vulgaris. These beautiful plants are found, in all varieties, throughout the Scottish Highlands. Little factual information has survived to tell how heather ale was brewed. Historians of the first through eighth centuries describe the recipe as the most closely guarded secret of the Pict chieftains. It is known that Pict ale was brewed with the flowering tops of specific heather plants whose blossoms were gathered, washed and then placed into brewing vessels. Wort, the liquid extract from malted grains, were then added being drained over and through the steeping blooms. Two parts heather to one part malt was said to give the resulting ale its reputed narcotic property. At a time and in a culture where hops were not a regular component in beer, the heather doubled as bittering agent and preservative. Ancient authors spoke of heather ale's extreme bitterness. Other accounts mention seeing the Pict use of Bog-beans and Yarrow in the brew; both of which would have served to further add unusual units of bitterness. Both corn and barley were used for malting and nearly all accounts agree on honey - combs and all- providing fermentable sugars with ambient, air borne yeast completing fermentation. Until the early 19th century, some form of heather ale brewing survived in isolated areas of the Scottish Highlands. Sadly, the 'real stuff' perished sometime in the 4th century when Scottish King Niall led the extermination of the Picts in Galloway. There, according to most accounts, the secret of heather ale died with Trost of the Long Knife - last king of the Picts. Or did it? As a Cultural Anthropologist, I've long realized that more than one truth lurks deep within the wildest of tales and fables. In years researching heather ale lore and legend, I had become convinced that the notion of heather ale being somehow narcotic in nature probably was true. Experience shows that nothing gains the attention of writers - ancient or modern -more than excess and it was obvious to me that to gain the universal level of fame that heather ale achieved, it must have been truly potent. Notwithstanding old accounts, my firm belief in the narcotic properties of heather ale was met with much scoffing from some few beer folk who thought my faith in old historians foolish in the extreme. Enter a young Scottish brewer -Bruce Williams - who, interested in replicating ancient beers, decided to brew heather ale himself. Working from a late 18th century farmhouse recipe book, Williams succeeded with a wonderful ale he dubbed Fraoch from the Gaelic 'leann fraoch' meaning, heather ale. This brew has enjoyed great success both in the United States and throughout Europe but, more importantly, in the process of crafting his beer, Williams made a discovery of great consequence to historians. While harvesting heather for the first experimental brews, an associate of Williams from Cambridge University told the brewer of the presence of an ergot-like fungus which was to be found under the leaves of nearly all heather plants. Hallucinogenic in the extreme, this LSD-like material is easily and thoroughly removed by simple washing - a step carefully followed ensuring no unwanted effects from this excellent bit of bottled history. Nonetheless, the point of this discovery is obvious...the old legends were true - the ancient ale of the Picts was narcotic and that fact goes a long way toward explaining its appeal to our ancestors. After all, times may change but the desire of humans to alter their consciousness seems eternal. Many authors have celebrated the legend of heather ale but one account must remain the best known and most romantic . I refer, of course, to "HEATHER ALE", penned by Robert Louis Stevenson:
From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink longsyne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in a blessed swound For days and days together In their dwelling underground. There rose a King in Scotland, A fell man to his foes, He smote the Picts in battle, He hunted them like roes. Over miles of the red mountain He hunted as they fled, And strewed the dwarfish bodies Of the dying and the dead. Summer came in the country, Red was the heather bell; But the manner of the brewing Was none alive to tell. In graves that were like children's On many a mountain head, The Brewsters of the Heather Lay numbered with the dead …it continues…visit the web site. http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=1998929&ern=y
Iran Allows Bright Colors for Girls 7/16/00 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian girls can swap their dark school uniforms for pinks, bright greens or light blues, the official news agency reported Tuesday in another sign the nation is shedding its revolutionary shades. A directive to elementary schools allowing uniforms in brighter colors is meant to "create freshness, joy and hope'' and to "preserve spiritual health'' of girls, the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted an education ministry statement as saying. It was not clear if the permission extended to high school girls. Girls must wear the uniforms -- manteaus, or loose smocks and headscarves -- over their regular clothes to conform with the nation's Islamic rules and school uniform policies.
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beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/20/00 12:00 AM |
This is a fast one. Perfect weather here in Portland, OR...so I'm off to drink a beer at a sidewalk table as I re-read "Brown Ale: History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes" by Ray Daniels and Jim Parker, 1998. Mon Dieu! Those French brewery workers are tres rough... last 'bit' is about the guy I'll be toasting tonight. **** French workers threaten to blow up ailing brewery STRASBOURG, France, July 19 (Reuters) - Angry French brewery employees, taking their cue from textile workers who dumped acid and cyanide in a river, took a manager hostage on Wednesday and threatened to blow up their plant to protest at its impending closure. The workers at the Adelshoffen brewery near the eastern town of Strasbourg held the personnel manager hostage for several hours before releasing him. They said they would blow up gas containers unless he opened talks within 24 hours. A blast could trigger a bigger explosion of the brewery's stocks of ammonia, used for refrigeration. Owners Sogebra, the French branch of Dutch firm Heineken, have said the unprofitable brewery will close by the end of this year and have proposed to transfer the 101 staff to other breweries. It was the second time in days disgruntled French workers had threatened to destroy a factory to stave off layoffs. Staff at the Cellatex textile factory in the eastern town of Givet threatened earlier this week to blow it up, then dumped thousands of litres of sulphuric acid and cyanide into a stream, turning it blood red. Emergency workers threw down sand barriers to stop the toxic acid flowing into the River Meuse, which also runs through Benelux countries. Cellatex unions and government representatives scheduled a meeting later in the day to try to solve the dispute. Unions demand that the 153 staff be paid 150,000 francs ($21,000) redundancy compensation each and full wages for at least two years after the factory closes down. Canada Wheat Board sees world grain trade growth WINNIPEG, July 19 (Reuters) - Global trade in wheat, durum wheat, feed barley and malting barley would sharply increase in the next decade due to a bigger world population and a growing love of beer, the Canadian Wheat Board said on Wednesday.
"We're forecasting a 20 percent increase in global wheat trade in the next 10 years," said CWB market analyst Peter Watts, adding global trade would increase 21 percent in durum, 33 percent in feed barley and 75 percent in malting barley. The study by the CWB, the monopoly exporter of western Canadian wheat and barley, predicted trade patterns to 2008/09 as compared to a five-year base period from 1994-98. Watts said world wheat trade would grow to 113.3 million tonnes by 2008/09 from 93.1 million tonnes in 1994/98. "Imports into the major importing countries, where production is limited, are forecast to grow," Watts said. He said trends of population growth, increased urbanization, higher incomes and changes in dietary patterns would contribute to the increase. Canada is a major world grain grower, annually producing millions of tonnes of wheat and barley for export and domestic consumption. Watts said the world was already seeing increased demand for malting barley, mainly used in beer production, with trade set to increase to 6.5 million tonnes in 2008/09 compared to 3.7 million tonnes in the five-year base period. "It's also urbanization. People drink more beer when they live in cities,' he said, pointing to Asia and Latin America as places where demand would increase most. Watts said durum trade, currently dominated by Canada, was forecast to jump to 7.4 million tonnes in the forecast period from 6.1 million tonnes in 1994/98. Watts said increased livestock production would be a factor in larger feed barley trade, set to increase to 15.2 million tonnes during the next 10 years from 11.4 million tonnes in 1994-98. "We're expecting our (market) share to come down in durum," Watts said -- citing increased competition from Australia, Mexico, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Syria -- but said Canada would continue to account for 50 percent of world durum trade. Watts said wheat production in western Canada was not expected to increase significantly in the next 10 years compared to current levels, as Canadian farmers turned to growing higher-priced crops such as peas, lentils and canola. He noted the forecast figures did not include countries of the former Soviet Union, which largely trade among themselves.
"It's difficult to get a handle on exactly what's going on in the FSU," Watts said. Mexico's Femsa seen posting moderate Q2 growth MEXICO CITY, July 19 (Reuters) - Though June rains slowed beer sales, Mexican brewer and bottler Femsa <FEMSAUBD.MX><<A HREF="aol://4785:FMX">FMX.N</A>> is expected to post moderate second-quarter growth, thanks largely to strong performance in its soft-drinks division, financial analysts said. Improved pricing as inflation eased, and ongoing expansion in the Oxxo convenience store chain, a Femsa division, also helped offset slower growth in sales volumes, analysts said. Femsa is expected to report second-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Based in the northeastern city of Monterrey, Mexico's No. 2 brewer is expected to report 11.4 percent growth in revenues, a 13.9 percent increase in operating profit and 11.7 percent growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) for the second quarter over the same period last year, according to the average forecast drawn from a Reuters poll of four analysts. Turkish Efes to Buy Ukraine Brewery in Bid for Growth
Istanbul, July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Efes Breweries International, which is owned by Turkey's four Efes breweries, said it is negotiating to buy 51 percent of the Ukraine's Chernomor Brewery in an effort to maintain sales growth. The Efes group is moving into the former Soviet bloc to offset slowing growth in the domestic market, analysts said. The expansion of Turkey's beer market is expected to slow this decade after growing 11 percent a year between 1991 and 1997. ``This is a very intelligent move by Efes,'' said Okan Akin, an analyst at Garanti Securities. ``I expect Ukraine and Russia's beer market to grow by 20 percent on average each year in the next five years.'' In the past two years, Ukraine's beer consumption increased 30 percent annually, Akin said. Efes is negotiating to buy the Chernomor stake from Invesco Asset Management Ltd. and Fulcrum Asset Management. It didn't release the conditions of the sale or how much it would pay. Erciyas Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii AS, the largest of the four Efes breweries, rose 3.9 percent to 27,000 liras. Anadolu Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii AS rose 6.3 percent to 12,750 liras. Ege Biracilik Ve Malt Sanayii AS surged 8.6 percent to 38,000 liras. Guney Biracilik ve Malt Sanayii AS increased 5.6 percent to 23,500 liras. The Ukrainian brewery has the capacity to produce 100 million liters of beer per year, Efes group said. The four Efes breweries churn out about 550 million liters a year in Turkey, while their 10-month-old brewery in Russia produces 100 million liters. ``The growth in Russian beer market last year was larger than the total Turkish beer market,'' Akin said. ``I expect Efes's international sales to equal its domestic sales within five years.'' http://ccbn.aol.com/cd/tk/S/SAM/SAM.htm#
Webcast of Boston Brwing Co's Q2 fiscal results Brazilians moo and rumble in Amazon jungle
By Shasta Darlington PARINTINS, Brazil, July 20 (Reuters) - Fireworks light up the sky and hundreds of drums ripple through the night, but it is a thundering, collective ``moo'' that sets the tone at this bizarre jungle carnival deep in the heart of the Amazon. Set in the middle of a million square miles of dense rain forest, the sleepy town of Parintins explodes with life once a year in a passionate celebration of its cattle ranching roots and almost century-old folk rivalry. In a spectacle that pits neighbour against neighbour, two teams named after oxen vie for the Parintins Folk Festival title with a Carnival-like show of three-storey floats, befeathered dancers and an army of percussionists. They recount Indian tales and local history, but what really drives the thousands of fans wild at this ``Boi-Bumba'' or ``Ox Bang-up'' are the surprise appearances of the bulls, who burst out of floats to the sound of cheers and moos. ``Come my ox, my beautiful black bull, symbol of love and wealth that makes my ranch valuable,'' the audience bellows out as a man dressed as the Caprichoso Boi, or Capricious Ox, bucks around the centre of the ``Bumbodromo,'' a 35,000-seat arena shaped like a bull's head and built especially for the event. The spectacle dazzles locals and the tens of thousands of visitors who pour into Parintins for the three-day festival at the end of June, doubling the town's population to 160,000.
``I can't believe that something so big and beautiful is created out of nothing. I mean, there is no civilisation anywhere near,'' said a chef flown in from Rio de Janeiro to feed celebrities and politicians during this year's event. A TOWN DIVIDED The festival has gradually reinvented the poor riverside community, showcasing the beauty and creativity of the far-flung region better known for environmental destruction and lawlessness. But some critics are beginning to wonder if all the attention is helping erode decades-old traditions. ``It is a permanent struggle to preserve the folk festival and the unique characteristics of Parintins,'' said Paulo Jose Cunha, a Brasilia university media professor and author of two books on the evolution of the annual spectacle. The Carnival-style show began only 34 years ago but rivalry between the Capricious Ox and the Guaranteed Ox, as the teams are called, dates back to 1913 when roving bands of singers in bull costumes danced in the streets to improvised lyrics. Parintins itself was built on that rivalry. Supporters of Capricious Ox built their homes in one half of the town and painted everything blue, from houses to barbershops, while Garantido fans coloured the other half of the town red. ``My friend's mother, who is Caprichoso, stopped talking to her own daughter when she married a Garantido man,'' one of the town's tourism officials said. In this remote community on the island of Tupinambarama in the middle of the Amazon River, public phone booths are shaped like bull's heads and everything from flip-flops to flashy pickup trucks seem to come in just two colours: blue or red. BEER FLOWS, TRASH ABOUNDS But the growing flood of visitors with metropolitan tastes and new influences, as well as a stream of corporate sponsors, have put pressure on traditions and on the town itself. Revellers from all over Brazil fly in on one of the 600 specially chartered flights or sling hammocks in river barges that travel 20 hours in suffocating heat from the nearest major city of Manaus just for the three-day spectacle. Streets flow with beer and trash fills the squares as bands give free concerts with aerobics-style instructors to teach visitors the steps to the festival's songs. Increasingly the parade imitates the world-famous Rio de Janeiro Carnival and locals get squeezed out of the ``Bumbodromo'' to make room for TV cameras. The Indian myth that first inspired the festival is still present in the three-day show, but it is almost lost in the wild spectacle. According to the legend, the pregnant wife of a farmer persuaded her husband to kill a prized ox so she could eat the tongue. The irate owner found out and captured the farmer, but he was saved when a witch doctor brought the bull back to life. Even U.S. drinks giant Coca Cola, which thrust Parintins into the international spotlight five years ago when it announced a multimillion-dollar sponsorship, worries about overexposure and has limited the number of its guests. ``You have to strike a balance between growth and traditional values. You have to be very careful you don't exploit this,'' Tim Haas, president of Coca Cola's Latin America operations, said. Still, most residents are willing to lose a little small-town charm in exchange for fame and tourist fortune. ``The show just gets prettier and brighter and more glamorous every year,'' cooed 83-year-old Silvia Coimbra, who wore a blue flowered dress and blue flip-flops in support of Caprichoso. ``I don't miss the old days at all.'' Many locals thank the festival for luring $11 million in government spending just in the last year. The state has paved roads, built health clinics and announced the construction of a fancy hotel complex for its newfound tourist showcase. The festival still embraces Parintins' indigenous roots and the floats pay tribute to everything from endangered leopards to the late environmental crusader Chico Mendes. And unlike Rio's Carnival where tourists can buy costumes and participate in the show, only Parintins residents can parade, and they also mount a carefully choreographed sideshow in the arena's stands. Even Coca Cola has had to adapt. After Caprichoso supporters refused to buy Coke because of its red cans, the multinational Goliath created huge blue advertising banners, traditionally the trademark colour of its rival Pepsi. ``Our Parintins magic infects everybody, even Coca Cola,'' said Nanci Coutinho, an ecstatic housewife who dyed her hair red for the event. ``I don't think we could ever lose it.'' Man walks 4 kilometres after arm severed Doctors in Brisbane are battling to reattatch the severed arm of a farmer, who, in an amazing feat of endurance, walked four kilometres for help, after an accident on his property at Tara, west of Brisbane. The man's shirt became caught in a post-hole boring machine tearing his arm off at the shoulder. The 36-year-old had no phone and was forced to walk to the farm house to alert his wife, who then drove back to collect the arm. Rescue helicopter pilot, Greg Beer, says the man would not have survived if his arm had not been severed so quickly. "Basically what had happened is that his major vessels had constricted which probably saved his life," he said. "I can't imagine anyone else if they'd lost a lot of blood being able to walk four kilometres with that kind of injury. "He was a very brave man, he was generally in quite good spirits considering what he'd been through when we actually got to him. He complained that it was his beer-drinking arm that had to get the chop." Monday 17 July, 2000 © 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/20/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.peteswicked.com/news/bnews/bnews_200029.htmlBULMER PROFITS UP 14% H.P. Bulmer Plc, Britain's largest cider maker, reported a 14% rise in underlying annual profits, according to a July 10 Reuters report. The maker of Strongbow, Woodpecker and Scrumpy Jack Ciders is aiming to add some beer distribution contracts to its portfolio in the wake of Interbrew's recent brewery acquisitions. Heineken and Grolsch are thought to be among those in need of a new distribution contract. Bulmer reported pre-tax profits of 28.4 million pounds ($43.03 million) for the annual period which ended April 28, 2000. Annual dividends were up 10% to 17.6 pence per share. "This is clearly a strong performance in the U.K. from its Strongbow-led products. This is a company with 12-15% earnings growth prospects and it is not an expensive stock," said Nigel Popham, analyst for Teather and Greenwood. Bulmer has outperformed the FTSE All Share Index over the past year. http://www.ireland.com:80/newspaper/finance/2000/0718/fin4.htm
Bid for Seagram drinks arm likely 19.07.00 -- Diageo is considering bidding for a substantial chunk of the spirits business with the Guinness beer arm. Mr Walsh points to the success of Smirnoff Ice, the ready-todrink product that has sold well since its development 15 months ago. In the past 12 months the group has sold 250m bottles in the limited number of markets where it has been launched. http://www.bergen.com:80/food/beer19200007199.htm
Full steam ahead for Anchor By TONY FORDER, July 19 In my last column, I mentioned that July has been designated American Beer Month throughout the nation. Even Governor Whitman issued a proclamation in support of Garden State breweries. I thought it might be appropriate to mention what is commonly referred to as America's first microbrewery, Anchor Brewing Co. of San Francisco. Fritz Maytag, one of the heirs of the Maytag appliance family, became involved in the brewery in the late 1960s after hearing that Anchor Steam beer, his favorite, was in danger of disappearing. By 1970, Maytag had taken control of the brewery and worked diligently to restore viability to the ailing company, even though he was vastly ahead of his time in producing full-flavored beers. After 10 years, he moved Anchor into a new brewing facility, heralding the dawn of craft brewing in America. Anchor is best known for its Steam beer, which was developed in the Gold Rush boom years of the mid-1800s when refrigeration was not available. The beer uses a lager (bottom-fermenting) yeast, but is fermented at warmer temperatures normally associated with ales. The result is a blend of fruity ale flavors and a clean lager profile with significant carbonation. Anchor also makes a rich and hoppy Porter and the intensely hopped Liberty Ale. A dry, floral wheat beer also carries the Anchor label, as does the classic Old Foghorn Barleywine. Maytag also pioneered the now popular practice among small breweries of developing a special holiday or Christmas ale. Anchor's Our Special Ale is released in December with a different recipe every year. Still blazing a trail through the beverage landscape, Maytag has recently begun distilling a whiskey and a gin. Anchor Brewing Co. is at 1705 Mariposa St., San Francisco. (415) 863-8350. http://www.pioneerplanet.com:80/seven-days/1/news/docs/004103.htm
june 20 -- LA CROSSE, WIS.Lender to postpone foreclosure on brewery: City Brewing Co.'s largest lender has decided to postpone foreclosure measures, an attorney for the bank said Wednesday. Congress Financial Corp. decided to postpone asking for a consent judgment and the appointment of an attorney as receiver for the brewery, said Michael Van Sicklen, a Madison-based attorney for Congress Financial Corp. Congress Financial filed its foreclosure complaint against City Brewing on June 9, saying the owners failed to pay off its loan. Most of the brewery's 61 employees were laid off June 9. http://www10.nytimes.com:80/library/financial/072000china-us-beer.html
Brewed in China, Envied Abroad By MARK LANDLER A view of the factory floor at the Chinese company's second brewery in Qingdao. The celebrated water for Tsingtao beer comes from Laoshan, the mountain nearby, and the brand's enthusiasts applaud its freshness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ QINGDAO, China, July 16-- When Stephen Burrows of Anheuser-Busch traveled here recently to meet the general manager of the Tsingtao Brewery, he saw it as a chance to get acquainted with the boss of China's most famous beer company. His host, Peng Zuo Yi, saw it differently. "I told him why so many foreign brands have failed in China," Mr. Peng said. "They can't run their factories in China any longer. They're all losing money." Anheuser-Busch may be the largest brewer in the world, but in this seaside city where Chinese beer was born, Mr. Burrows was treated more like a vanquished intruder than a fellow beer merchant. "We have struggled," Mr. Burrows acknowledged. "Struggling is something that happens when you go into a volatile market like China." Mr. Peng's solution is an alliance between Anheuser-Busch and Tsingtao (pronounced CHING-dow), in which the companies would distribute each other's beer in China and the United States. Mr. Burrows, the chief executive of Anheuser-Busch International, called it premature to talk about such a deal. But he agreed that Tsingtao had changed markedly -- and for the better -- in the last five years. "Tsingtao is a different company," he said. "It seems like they've got a clearer strategy." As China stands nervously on the threshold of World Trade Organization membership, it will need companies like Tsingtao to push through the open door. Once a bloated state-owned enterprise, Tsingtao has transformed itself into a confident competitor. By learning marketing skills from its foreign rivals and exploiting its home-field advantages, Tsingtao has managed to stake out a dominant position in the crowded and chaotic Chinese beer market. In a twist on the much-feared foreign invasion of China, Tsingtao is now negotiating to buy three breweries from their foreign owners. While a rarity, Tsingtao is not the only Chinese company to make it in the global economy. The Haier Group, an appliance maker also based here, began exporting refrigerators in 1992. It now has more than a quarter of the small-refrigerator market in the United States, and recently built a factory in South Carolina. Almost bankrupt in 1984, Haier had $3.2 billion in sales last year. "People think that with China's entry into the W.T.O., Chinese national industry will be completely destroyed," Mr. Peng, who is 55, said. "I don't think so. I think the success of Tsingtao shows that competition can make us better. We can show teh world how to make the best beers." Haier's chairman and chief executive, Zhang Ruimin, puts it differently. "We decided we didn't want to be eaten by the wolf," he said. "We wanted to dance with the wolf." To be sure, many Chinese companies will be eaten by the wolves, which is why China's joy about the world's club of trading nations is tinged with apprehension. In the most sclerotic state enterprises, the feeling is closer to dread. Yet, in this upwardly mobile city on the country's northern coast, the big brewery and Haier are held up as models of how China can pull down the walls that surround its economy and still keep the predators at bay. "We have a rich variety of manufacturing companies in this city," said Wang Jiarui, Qingdao's business-like mayor. "Some will jump into the world market; others will be edged out of it. But I still think there are more opportunities than drawbacks to joining the W.T.O." Qingdao's namesake company, Tsingtao Brewery Ltd. -- the company retains the old transliteration of the city's name -- was founded by Germans, who colonized the place in 1903. The original brewery sits across the street from a park where German soldiers were once quartered; company lore has it that the beer was meant to slake the men's thirst. Tsingtao was China's first beer, and it is still highly prized here. Critics praise the freshness of its water, which is piped from the Laoshan, the mountain nearby. Qingdao is steeped in the folkways of the German beer industry. The company built an ersatz German village on the outskirts of town for its annual beer festival. And if you squint, Qingdao's sturdy stone houses with steeply slanted roofs look almost Bavarian. In 1979, as China was opening again to the outside world, Beijing made Tsingtao the official export beer. It is now a staple in Chinese restaurants from Seattle to Stuttgart. The Chinese government capitalized on this fame in 1993 by selecting Tsingtao as one of the first companies to be allowed to sell shares on the Hong Kong stock market. The initial public offering was successful, but Tsingtao's state owners ordered it to give some of the proceeds to other troubled state companies. This made it an emblem of the dangers of investing in corporate China. Shortly after that black eye, Tsingtao started facing competition from another quarter. Enticed by the prospect of more than a billion beer-swilling Chinese, more than 60 foreign brands -- including Budweiser, Foster's and San Miguel -- poured in. Teaming up with Chinese investors, they bought and built breweries all over China. They also spent millions on splashy advertising and marketing campaigns, next to which the Tsingtao name seemed faded. The foreign brewers priced their beer anywhere from 60 cents to $1 a bottle, compared with about 40 cents for Tsingtao. Around the same time, local governments began brewing beers that were even cheaper than Tsingtao and popular with frugal consumers. For example, Yanjing, a beer brewed in Beijing, sells for only 30 cents a bottle. Some lesser-known local beers go for as little as 12 cents. After decades of dominance, Tsingtao found itself overtaken in market share by Yanjing. Adding to its problems, Tsingtao relied on an outdated network of distributors who did not push the brand hard enough. "Our sales agents tended to focus on fancy restaurants while ignoring the needs of the common drinker," said Mr. Peng, a plain-spoken man who wears short-sleeve shirts and acknowledges that he does not really like beer. The trouble is that 70 percent of China's consumers fit the definition of common drinker. They make enough money to buy beer, but will not pay for a premium brand. So Tsingtao was squeezed both ways: at the high end of the market by Budweiser and Foster's, and at the low end by the likes of Yanjing. While China's beer market grew tenfold in the 1990's, Tsingtao's production increased by just 20 percent. From 1994 to 1996, the company lost money. On a visit to Qingdao in 1996, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, then a cabinet member, became alarmed that China's flagship beer seemed to be going down the drain. Qingdao's leaders plucked Mr. Peng out of a successful state-owned food company and sent him on a rescue mission. He promptly got rid of most of the senior managers and set about overhauling the brewer. Mr. Peng set up a new sales network, with 45 branch offices, to promote Tsingtao aggressively. And he started buying breweries to produce the flagship brand, as well as lower-cost local brands. Buying breweries in the hinterland enabled him to avoid one of the pitfalls of the Chinese industry: protectionism by local authorities who jealously guard their home brew. Tsingtao, which reclaimed the No. 1 position last year, has acquired 22 breweries from Shenzhen in the south to Beijing in the north. Owning more breweries has allowed Mr. Peng to bypass China's clotted distribution channels. Tsingtao beer used to sit on store shelves for months. Now, people in Tsingtao's home province, Shandong, can buy it within a week of brewing. "In effect, he's consolidating the industry," said Jack Perkowski, the chief executive of Asimco, an Asian investment company that owns two small Beijing beer companies, Five Star and Three Ring. "They want to be the first Chinese company to have a truly national presence." While Mr. Peng was whipping Tsingtao into shape, the foreigners began discovering some hard truths about the Chinese market. The premium segment, in which the non-Chinese producers compete, accounts for barely 7 percent of overall sales. And as price deflation has rippled through the economy, Chinese drinkers have been more reluctant than ever to pay extra for an upscale brand. The foreign companies also made heavy investments upfront. Mr. Burrows said Anheuser-Busch paid $52 million for its brewery in the central city of Wuhan. The company spent millions more to upgrade the factory, plus plenty on advertising and marketing. Although its main brand, Budweiser, is quite popular here, the sales are too small and costs are too high to turn a profit. "You can't get enough volume," Mr. Perkowski said, "particularly if you set up a brewery that looks like a brewery in the United States." Mr. Burrows said sales of Budweiser improved this year, after two lackluster years. He predicted that the parent Anheuser-Busch would turn a profit in China in five years, adding that with 200 sales agents in 31 cities, Anheuser-Busch was determined to stay in the Chinese market. Other foreign brands, however, are sounding a retreat. Foster's of Australia sold two of its Chinese breweries last year, keeping one in Shanghai. Lion Nathan, a New Zealand brewer, said it may leave altogether. By the end of August, Tsingtao will announce three acquisitions of foreign-invested breweries -- two in Beijing and one in Shanghai. Mr. Peng declined to name the companies. Clearly, though, he is looking beyond the breweries to a partnership with Anheuser-Busch. He said a deal would cut Anheuser's costs because it must now transport all its beer from its Wuhan brewery. It could avoid those long shipments by using Tsingtao's plants in Beijing and Shanghai. In return, Tsingtao would brew its beer in Anheuser's factories in the United States. An alliance with Anheuser-Busch would carry some symbolism. Five years ago, Anheuser bought a 5 percent stake in Tsingtao, and the two companies discussed ways to cooperate. But the Americans were put off by the Chinese company's balky managers. Coming back to the table to make a deal would send a clear signal that Tsingtao is a global player. It would also help Mr. Peng realize his dream of making Tsingtao one of the world's top 10 brewers by 2003, its 100th anniversary. "The top leaders of China were worried that Chinese beer would collapse because of all the competition," Mr. Peng said with a mischievous chuckle. "But five years later, it turns out the Tsingtao has succeeded. Our attitude has changed from fear of the foreigners to driving them out of the market." http://news.excite.com/news/r/000720/08/odd-mule-dc
80 Heroin-Filled Condoms Found in Man's Stomach July 20, 2000 MIAMI (Reuters) - Surgeons opened up the stomach of a drug courier and found 80 heroin-filled condoms he tried to smuggle after one burst and stopped his heart, Miami police said on Wednesday. The 59-year-old man whose name was being withheld, checked himself into Miami's Mercy Hospital Monday complaining of chest and stomach pains, police said. X-rays revealed a trove of oblong-shaped pellets in his stomach. Seven hours later, doctors performed surgery after one of the latex pellets burst, causing the man's heart to convulse. He survived the surgery but died on Wednesday, police said. The condoms, containing 1.5 pounds of heroin with a street value of $60,000, are now in police custody, U.S. Customs spokeswoman Norma Morfa said. Before he lost consciousness, the man told hospital officials he was Colombian. He was likely a drug mule who was promised from "a couple of hundred to a thousand dollars" for smuggling the heroin, Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said. Drugs ingested in pellets made of condoms or the fingers of surgical gloves are usually retrieved by administering laxatives soon after the mule arrives, Moss said. Mules are usually recruited from poor countries, often through coercion, he added. "What we've learned is there's a number of conditions in other countries when this happens," he said. "Sometimes their families are pretty much held hostage and they're making nowhere near what the drug dealers are making." The man had probably not been in the United States long and could have faced up to life imprisonment for smuggling.
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beer bits |
Jaime |
7/20/00 12:00 AM |
Tsingtao May Buy 5-Star, Zhou Enlai's Beer of Choice Shanghai, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Tsingtao Brewery Co., China's best-known beer maker, said it may buy a rival whose brands include one favored by former Premier Zhou Enlai as it seeks to double its share of the world's second-biggest beer market. Tsingtao's target: Beijing Asia Shuanghesheng Five Star Brewery Co., established in Beijing 15 years after the end of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. ``We are holding negotiations, and it's possible we will buy it,'' said Yuan Lu, a Tsingtao spokeswoman. Five Star carries a political aftertaste. Its name refers to the quintet of stars on the Chinese flag that represent the Communist Party and the four classes of Chinese society that Mao Zedong led to victory in 1949. Zhou served Five Star to President Richard Nixon when the U.S. established ties with China for the first time in 1972. Later designated a ``state banquet beer'' to be served to visiting dignitaries, it makes 100,000 tons of Five Star each year -- a fraction of Tsingtao's 1.4 million tons. Tsingtao is more interested in profits than politics, and it's unclear whether Five Star will survive as a separate brand after the purchase. Last year, Tsingtao spent $24 million to buy 15 Chinese brewers, part of an acquisition drive that it hopes will lift its share of the 21.4 million ton market to 10 percent. Shuanghesheng, now 63 percent owned by Asia Strategic Investment Management Co., a China-based U.S. investment company better known as Asimco, needs cash from the Tsingtao sale to pay pensions for retired workers. The sale may be sealed by the end of July, said Sui Wengang, a Shanghesheng director. Tsingtao is among China's most visible brands both at home and overseas. Five Star, for all its fame, can't be found in Shanghai. ``Obviously, China's beer industry is getting bigger, and with the right implementation of the appropriate strategies could become the biggest in the world in terms of tonnage,'' said Asimco Chairman Jack Perkowski. Shares Surge Beijing-based, Cayman Islands-registered Asimco bought its stake in Shuanghesheng in 1995 for $50 million. Together, Asimco and Shuanghesheng spent 800 mln yuan ($96 million) to upgrade the brewery and on marketing costs. Asimco also owns a stake in Miyun Brewery, which has been brewing Three Ring beer since 1980. Miyun produces 160,000 tons of beer per year, Perkoswki said. Tsingtao was the first state-owned company to sell shares traded in Hong Kong. After it eked out a 4.7 percent increase in net profit last year, analysts surveyed by IBES Inc. expect Tsingtao earnings to surge 62.2 percent this year to HK$253.2 million ($32.7 million), or 73 HK cents per share. Today, Tsingtao posted its biggest one-day gain in three months, rising 14.7 percent to HK$1.64, riding a wave of enthusiasm for Chinese stocks amid hopes the government will carry through with long-promised stock-market reforms. The shares still lost almost a third of their value so far this year. Shuanghesheng, whose name means ``prosperity between two rivers,'' is one of two foreign-owned brewers that Tsingtao said it plans to buy as it seeks to expand production to 1.6 million tons this year, or 7.5 percent of the nation's total beer output. Tsingtao is stepping up plans to become China's first brewer to spread its distribution network throughout the entire country and overseas. Tsingtao is also in talks with Carlsberg A/S on the possible purchase of the Danish brewer's 75 percent stake in an unprofitable Shanghai brewery. ``Tsingtao was the designated export beer because the brewery was located along the coast,'' Perkowski said. ``That was how it was under the centrally planned economy.'' Tsingtao Poised to Buy Premium-Brand Sino-US Brewery Shanghai, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Tsingtao Brewery Co., China's best-known beermaker, said it's in talks with a U.S. investment firm and its Chinese partner to buy a Beijing-based brewery that produces a premium beer served at official banquets. Tsingtao is seeking to buy Beijing Asia Shuanghesheng Five Star Brewery Co, which is 63 percent owned by Asia Strategic Investment Management Co. ``We are holding negotiations, and it's possible we will buy it,'' said Yuan Lu, a spokeswoman for Tsingtao. Tsingtao said late last month that it plans to buy two foreign breweries in China to expand production and double its market share to 10 percent. The company is also in talks with Carlsberg A/S on the possible purchase of the Danish brewer's 75 percent stake in an unprofitable Shanghai brewery. Beijing Asia Shuanghesheng produces the Five Star brand, considered one of the top domestic labels in China. The joint venture started production in 1995 and produces about 100,000 tons of beer a year. The Chinese partner, Beijing Shuanghesheng Five Star Beer Group Co., is an 85-year-old state-owned brewer that ``needs money'' to pay pensions for retired workers, said Sui Wengang, a director of the joint venture. He said an agreement on the sale is likely this month. Asia Strategic Investment, which has also investments in auto parts in China, put about 800 mln yuan ($96 million) into the brewing venture, said an official in the investment firm's Beijing office, who declined to be identified. The firm is registered in the Cayman Islands. Coors to Shut Brewery in Spain; 2nd-Qtr Profit Up 16% Golden, Colorado, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Adolph Coors Co., the third-largest U.S. brewer, said it will shut a brewery in Zaragoza, Spain, by the end of the year, cutting about 100 jobs. The brewery has been losing money since the company bought it in 1994. Coors took a second-quarter pretax charge of $15.5 million related to the closing and will take additional, smaller charges in the second half of the year. The company's remaining European markets will be served from the U.S.
The company said fiscal second-quarter profit before the charge rose 16 percent. Strong U.S. consumer demand for Coors Light, the No. 4 U.S. beer brand, Original Coors, Killian's Red, Zima and Keystone Light boosted sales 6.7 percent to $614.1 million from $575.6 million. Coors, based in Golden, Colorado, couldn't ship beer fast enough to meet unexpectedly high demand in the second quarter, said a spokeswoman. The company said it's working to replenish supplies and should overcome the problem by the end of the third quarter. Profit from operations rose to $53.4 million for the quarter ended June 25, or $1.43 a share, from net income of $46.2 million, or $1.23 a year earlier. The brewer was expected to earn $1.40 a share, the average estimate of nine analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial. Net income was $48.3 million, or $1.29 a share. Barrel Sales Distributor sales to retailers, a key indicator of consumer demand, rose 4.8 percent. Barrel sales, or sales to wholesalers, rose 3.4 percent in the quarter to 6.39 billion. A beer barrel equals about 55 six-packs. Barrel sales lagged slightly because wholesalers built smaller inventories this year than last as demand outstripped supply, said spokeswoman Linda Droeger. The shares of Coors fell 1 7/8 to 62 13/16 in New York Stock Exchange trading. They've gained 28 percent in the past year. Adolph Coors profit higher, posts record sales
GOLDEN, Colo., July 20 (Reuters) - Adolph Coors Co., parent of the No. 3 U.S. brewer, said on Thursday its second-quarter earnings before special charges rose 15.6 percent to a record high, beating analysts' estimates, as the company got a strong start on summer beer sales. Adolph Coors also announced it would discontinue its sales and brewing operations in Spain by year-end and had taken a related charge against earnings of $15.5 million in the second quarter. Coors shares were up 1-1/4 to 65-15/16 at midday on the New York Stock Exchange, near their 52-week high of 66-1/2. ``Overall, we got a good start on this year's summer selling season ... Because of unprecedented demand for our products in the quarter, distributor inventories were drawn down below normal seasonal levels,'' said Leo Kiely, president and chief executive of Coors Brewing Co. The Golden, Colo.-based company earned $53.4 million in the second quarter, excluding the special charge related to closing its Spanish operations, up from $46.2 million a year earlier. Earnings per diluted share rose to $1.43 from $1.23 a year ago. On average, Wall Street analysts had expected earnings of $1.40 a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which compiles earnings estimates. Including the special charge, second-quarter net income per share was $1.29. Revenues in the second quarter rose 6.7 percent to a record $614.15 million. Coors said its Spanish operations had incurred substantial operating losses since the company purchased a brewery in Zaragoza in 1994. It said it expects to realise savings from the closure in three years. The second-quarter special charge related to the Spanish operations includes impairment of assets, severance for about 100 employees, and other closure expenses. As the operations are closed, additional expenses will be incurred in the second half of 2000, but the company said it expects these costs to be much smaller than the second-quarter charge. Coors, whose products include Coors Light, has been enjoying improved earnings, reflecting a trend toward consumption of premium, light beer. In 1999, 88 percent of Coors' volume was in the premium-and-above segments, the highest percentage of any major U.S. brewer. An increase in the number of men in the United States between the ages of 21 and 29 -- the group that drinks a little more than half of all beer consumed in this country -- also has helped sales. Kiely said Coors was making progress in replenishing inventories and plans to be back at normal levels by the end of the third quarter. Local firms, consumer boom seen fueling Mexico TV ads By Fiona Ortiz MEXICO CITY, July 20 (Reuters) - Colgate, Kotex, Chevrolet, Pepsi, Corona and Dos Equis --big-name brand advertisements are all over Mexican network television. But hometown advertisers are nowhere to be seen like quirky, fast-talking salesmen for cars and furniture that are local fixtures in many other countries. Mexico's two broadcasters, market leader Grupo Televisa, TLEVISACPO.MXthe biggest Spanish-language media group in the world, and TV Azteca TVAZTCACPO.MX say that will change as they woo city-level advertisers in an effort to pump up Mexico's relatively low TV advertising revenues. ``Here in Mexico City you turn on for example channel 4, a channel for what is arguably the biggest city in the world ... (and) you don't see local advertising,'' Xavier von Bertrab, chief of investor relations for Televisa, said at a recent presentation to analysts in Mexico City. Von Bertrab has since left his position in investor relations. ``There are many medium and small businesses that can afford advertising on TV. But really Televisa was scaring them away,'' with its former policy of asking companies to make deposits to reserve advertising air time early each year, he said. The two broadcasters reach some 20 million television households, where Mexican families are glued to the tube an average of seven hours a day. But television advertising revenues have long been low. Spending on television ads also has been lackluster because of less than vigorous competition in major Mexican mass consumer markets like soft drinks, beer, tortillas which are dominated by virtual duopolies. CONSUMER BOOM BOOSTS ADS Analysts, ad agencies and broadcasters are all confident the TV advertising market will grow as consumer spending booms in Mexico's thriving economy, ad prices rise, the marketplace becomes more competitive, new regional advertisers move in and new companies, such as dot-coms, buy air time. Consumer spending skyrocketed 9.2 percent in the year's first quarter, compared with the year-ago period. TV Azteca Chief Financial Officer Luis Echarte sees Mexico catching up with its peers in Latin America in the next four years, bringing ad spending up to close to 1 percent of GDP. Last year in Mexico, $1.5 billion was spent on television advertising. Analysts see growth between 13 percent and 20 percent this year, to $1.7 billion or $1.8 billion, partly because of huge spending by political parties leading up to the July 2 presidential election. Azteca has about 28 percent of that, analysts say. Nigerian bourse ends lower, volume declines LAGOS, July 20 (Reuters) - The Nigerian bourse ended lower on Thursday with the All Share index ending down 114.85 points or 1.7 percent at 6,824.26. Decliners outpaced advancers 23 to 13 and volume fell to 17.03 million shares from 18.95 million shares the previous session. Market turnover also declined to 133.97 million naira ($1.22 million) from 238.55 million naira ($2.17 million). Banking stocks led the pack of losers. First Bank of Nigeria and Afribank eased five percent each to finish at 13.90 naira and 7.04 naira, respectively. Guaranty Trust Bank fell 4.9 percent to end at 3.68 naira but Union Bank bucked the market trend, rising 1.5 percent to close at 18.10 naira. Food and beverage manufacturers Nestle Nigeria dropped 4.9 percent to 34.01 naira, Cadbury Nigeria fell 0.5 percent to 15.20 naira and soft drinks bottler Nigerian Bottling Company was five percent weaker at 13.01 naira. Oils remained weak with Mobil Oil Nigeria dropping 3.9 percent to 61.00 naira, Agip Oil five percent to 15.99 naira and Total Nigeria 0.2 percent to 56.10 naira. Nigerian Breweries, the bourse's largest company in terms of market capitalisation, managed a marginal 0.2 percent rise to 21.00 naira while rival Guinness Nigeria dipped 4.8 percent to end at 25.31 naira. ($-110 naira) France fears wave of labour dispute terror By Brian Love PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - France is no stranger to disruptive labour disputes but threats from protesting brewing and textile workers to blow up their factories have raised fears of a new wave of industrial terror tactics. Workers at the Adelshoffen brewery in the northeast spilled hundreds of litres of beer and threatened on Thursday to blow up ammonia canisters in 76 hours if management did not reconsider closure plans. The action followed a compromise redundancy deal at the Cellatex viscose plant near the Belgian border, where workers dumped thousands of litres of toxic acid in a stream and threatened to blow up tonnes of chemicals. ``The Cellatex conflict will go down in industrial relations history,'' the afternoon newspaper Le Monde said in an editorial comment before the brewers made their own threat. ``Let there be no doubt about it, the model will set the example.'' ``An explosive precedent,'' said Le Parisien. ``The coincidence is, let's admit it, striking and worrying,'' the newspaper said. ``If despair in the workplace is allowed to justify violence this could become common currency and industrial relations would be peppered with dramatic incidents of a kind which have so far been the big exception,'' it said. France is accustomed to industrial disputes that degenerate sporadically. Hardline truckers have often blockaded ferry ports or border crossings, farmers have ransacked lorries importing tomatoes and sheep at lower prices and fishermen once set fire to a local government building to protest over their conditions. But fears have now been kindled of a wave of ``labour terrorism'' that risks snowballing among workers left out in an era of renewed economic growth and optimism in France. ``It's the fashion now because nothing else works,'' said Thierry Durr, a staff delegate from the militant CGT union at the brewery, owned by Dutch company Heineken, where a manager was briefly taken hostage on Wednesday. The Cellatex spill catapulted what had previously been a low profile, local conflict onto national television screens, and turned the staff into celebrities overnight. While the Cellatex tactics drew fire from politicians, there was no outright condemnation from government ministers, whose main response was to make sure negotiations accelerated in the wake of a pollution scare. There was scant official reaction on Thursday to the Adelshoffen brewery dispute.
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beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/21/00 12:00 AM |
http://news.excite.com/photo/img/ap/france/brewery/strike/20000720/str101Photo: An Adelshoffen brewery worker on strike wearing a death mask sprays beer Thursday, July 20, 2000, on the street in front of the occupied brewery in Schiltigheim, eastern France. Heineken who owns the brewery wants to close the plant in Alsace leaving 131 unemployed. Photo by Christian Lutz (AP) http://www.herald.com:80/content/tue/business/florida/digdocs/063304.htm
Move from cows to beer drove company's success July 17, 2000, Miami Herald Bill Carey and Jeff Peterson's shift from milk cows to beer proved to be a profitable one. Ten years ago they were shipping U.S. dairy cattle overseas. But because of tariff restrictions, they decided to buy cattle in Poland, which was emerging from the collapse of the Iron Curtain. Then they attended a trade show in France, wandered over to the beverage tent and started chatting with the Foster's beer guy. One thing led to another -- soon they had Poland's first import license for Foster's Lager. ``We had traveled the whole country buying cattle, and we could never find a cold beer anywhere,'' said Peterson, vice chairman and secretary of Central European Distribution Corp. The Sarasota company now is the leading importer of beer, wine and spirits in Poland, and its largest distributor of domestic vodka. Among the imported spirits, Absolut vodka is the bestseller. Among the beers, Corona and Miller are running head-and-head. Peterson figures that's in part because they were in the market early with twist-off caps. Other brands include Johnnie Walker Scotch, Dekuyper Liqueurs and Bud. Two years ago Central European began trading on the Nasdaq at $6.50. It closed Friday at $4.75. And now they're branching out into beverage retail in Poland, too. Two shops selling imported brands of spirits are open with 12 to 15 on the drawing board and possibly a few acquisitions. They're not really in the cattle business anymore, so Peterson can only joke about originally being in steak and ale. http://news.excite.com/news/bw/000717/noble-china
Noble China to Contest China Court Ruling July 17, TORONTO (BUSINESS WIRE) - Noble China Inc. (TSE:NMO.) announced today that the Zhaoqing Noble Brewery, in which it has a 60% interest, has been served with a notice issued by the Guangdong Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court which instructs the Brewery to retain RMB 28.9 million (approximately Can. $5.1 million) from any dividend payments to the owner of the 60% interest in the Brewery until that amount is paid in settlement of a judgment obtained from the same court by Li Chiu Cheun, a brother of Lei Kat Cheong, Noble's former Chairman, against Goldjinsheng Holdings Limited, ("Goldjinsheng"), an inactive indirect subsidiary of Noble China. Prior to March 18, 1999, Goldjinsheng was the owner of the 60% interest in the Zhaoqing Noble Brewery. The current owner of the 60% interest, Linchpin Holdings Limited ("Linchpin"), was not a party to the legal proceedings involving Goldjinsheng. The notice from the Shenzhen Court was issued on an ex parte basis without prior notice to Goldjinsheng or Linchpin. The action brought by Li Chiu Cheun relates to funds he purportedly advanced on behalf of Goldjinsheng to the Brewery to pay for transactions entered into under agreements made by the former chairman. Noble China and its PRC counsel are strongly of the view that the Shenzhen Court has no power to restrict the payment of dividends to Linchpin and are taking steps immediately to have the notice rescinded. http://insidedenver.com/business/0721coor5.shtml
It's 'Taps' for Coors in Spain Golden-based firm plans to close money-losing brewery in Zaragoza; 100 could be laid off By Dina Berta, Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Adolph Coors Co. on Thursday said it will take a second-quarter charge to cover the cost of closing down its money-losing brewery in Zaragoza, Spain. The Golden-based parent to Coors Brewing Co. still reported a record second quarter, despite taking a $15.5 million charge related to costs to begin closing down the Spanish facility. The plant will be closed by year's end and 100 people will be laid off. Coors reported net sales of $614.1 million for the quarter that ended June 25, a 6.7 percent hike over the same period last year. Second quarter basic and diluted earnings per share were $1.46 and $1.43, respectively, up from $1.26 and $1.23 in the same quarter in '99. Sales volume reached nearly 6.4 million barrels, a 3.4 percent increase from the previous year's roughly 6.2 million barrels. Chairman Peter Coors said closing the plant in Spain was consistent with the company's strategy to focus on resources that offer better growth potential and a better return. Coors bought the Spanish brewery in 1994, but continued to suffer operating losses in a competitive market. "It was a challenging situation that probably wasn't going to get better, and who knew that Coor's light wouldn't take the country by a storm?" said investment analyst Skip Carpenter with Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in New York. Nationally, the demand for Coors — and Coors Light in particular — has been very high. http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/jul00/355526.html
Man says beer drinking to blame for actions Police shot him after car chase Thursday, July 20, 2000,Dean Narciso, Dispatch Police Reporter A man shot in the arm by Columbus police said yesterday that he was guilty only of drinking too much beer, not felonious assault -- even if he almost ran down two officers Tuesday night. After 24 cans of beer in three hours, Nureini M. Noor said, he might not have been aware of his actions. "Even if I did that, they're not supposed to shoot me. They're supposed to catch me,'' Noor said yesterday at the Franklin County jail. Noor, a 27-year-old Somalian immigrant, is charged with reckless operation of his car, hit-and-run driving and two counts of felonious assault of a police officer. Noor said that at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, he met with friends at an apartment on Canonby Place in Franklinton. For the next three hours, he said, he drank as much as a case of beer and then got into his 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier to go home. Officers Glenn Keeton and John Jones had been called to an apartment at 790 Canonby Place on a domestic-violence report unrelated to Noor or his friends. While standing in the apartment parking lot, they heard a loud crash and saw a Cavalier pull away from a car it had struck. The officers tried to stop the car, but the motorist drove a short distance north to the grounds of the former Sullivant Gardens housing complex. Officers caught up to the vehicle, but instead of stopping, the driver gunned his engine and drove toward the patrol car, police said. The Cavalier drove through an 8- foot-tall fence and grazed Jones' leg. Both officers fired at the driver. Police eventually stopped Noor on I-70 near Front and High streets. Noor said he does not remember the chase, only the pain in his arm. "He was not supposed to shoot me, because I know I didn't do anything,'' Noor said. "The police don't shoot you for no reason.'' Noor, who is 5 feet 2 and 130 pounds, said he was extremely drunk and that he would never intentionally harm another person. Jones was treated at Mount Carmel West hospital for a minor leg injury. Noor was treated at Grant Medical Center for his bullet wound. Noor has been looking for work since moving in with his sister a month ago on the Northeast Side. The Division of Police internal affairs bureau will investigate the shooting and then forward its report to the county prosecutor's office for review, said police spokesman Sgt. Earl Smith. The division's firearms board will review the case to determine whether division policy was followed. Keeton, who has spent three years with the division, has one previous recorded use of his weapon. On Dec. 22, 1998, he shot and killed a pit bull that attacked him. The shooting later was ruled justified, police records show. Jones, a six-year officer, has no reported uses of his weapon, according to the records. http://www.accessatlanta.com:80/partners/ajc/epaper/editions/wednesday/new s_9357940880de812d007c.html
Q&A ON THE NEWS Colin Bessonette - Staff, Wednesday, July 19, 2000 Q: The label on a bottle of J&B scotch says "By Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen." What is this all about? And which Queen of which nation? --- Gerald Fecteau, Marietta A: You're thinking Queen Elizabeth II might enjoy the occasional wee drop? Could be, but not necessarily. That statement is a "Royal Warrant." The queen's Web site --- www.royal.gov.uk --- says warrants are a "mark of recognition that tradesmen are regular suppliers of goods and services to the Royal households." They are granted to people or companies that have regularly supplied goods or services for a minimum of three consecutive years to the queen, the duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, or the prince of Wales. Warrant holders represent a large cross section of British trade and industry (and a few foreign names as well), ranging from dry cleaners to fishmongers, agricultural machinery to computer software. There are about 800 Royal Warrant holders and about 1,100 Royal Warrants (some holders have more than one warrant). About J&B: If online, look at this site --- www.royal.gov.uk/faq/warrants/qlist.html --- and under the J list you'll find Justerini & Brooks Limited, Wine Merchants, London. Q: Several times I have tried to buy nonalcohol beer on Sundays, always without success. Why is that? Are the stores universally misinterpreting the law, or am I missing something? Incidentally, one can buy cooking wine on Sunday, no problem. --- Fred Hollinger, Atlanta A: The slightly misnamed product is considered a malt beverage because it has a small amount of alcohol and uses the same basic brewing process as other beers, said Daryl Robinson of the Georgia Department of Law. While cooking sherry may contain some alcohol, it's not considered "wine" under Section 3-1-2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. The term "wine" does not include cooking wine mixed with salt or other ingredients so as to render it unfit for human consumption as a beverage, Robinson said. http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/ape18.shtml Bigfoot: A space alien, or just another beer-guzzling ape? Tuesday, July 18, 2000, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS YAKIMA -- Sasquatch might be from outer space. At least that's the theory being put forth by Erik Beckjord of the San Francisco-based Sasquatch Research Project. He contends the proof can be found in a metal cylinder, roughly the same size and shape as a 16-ounce can of beer, on Bigfoot's right arm in the famous Patterson film. "An ape doesn't have a cylinder on its arm, unless it's an experimental creature," Beckjord said. But that's hardly enough evidence for people who believe Bigfoot is the Yakima Valley's biggest home-grown hoax. "That's a new one to me," said Zillah lawyer Barry Woodard, representing a man who last year claimed to have worn a monkey suit in the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film. The grainy 16 mm footage of what some believe is a female Sasquatch running out of a stream bed in the Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California was taken by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin during a horseback search for Bigfoot. Patterson died in 1972. Gimlin refuses to be interviewed. Last year, longtime Bigfoot tracker Cliff Crook of Bothell dismissed the film as a hoax, saying four computer-enhanced frames showed what appeared to be a bell-shaped fastener at the creature's waist. Several months later, a 58-year-old Yakima man, who has not been publicly identified, came forward through Woodard claiming to have been the hoaxer who wore the fur. The man still wants to sell his story, Woodard said. It's been a Sasquatch summer in the Northwest this year. Two researchers are looking into reports of the possible presence of Bigfoot on the Hoh Indian Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula along the Pacific Coast. A psychologist recently claimed to have seen and smelled Sasquatch while hiking at the Oregon Caves National Monument. http://news.excite.com/news/r/000721/07/odd-taxi-dc
Court Rules Rude Cab Driver Went Too FarUpdated July 21, 2000 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Supreme Court set a precedent Friday when it ordered a taxi driver to pay a fine for "discourteous behavior" toward two passengers. The two women passengers took legal action against driver Shlomo Namer after he refused to operate the tariff meter as stipulated and told them: "By law, a taxi driver can kick people who stink out of his taxi." Namer, who claimed the court had no authority to deem his behavior impolite, lost in two legal rounds before the case came before Israel's highest court. Thursday, it fined him 1,500 shekels ($365) for his lack of decorum. "No such case has reached the Supreme Court. It's quite a precedent," a court spokeswoman said. Scores of taxi drivers in Israel are suspected of trying to settle fares without a meter to escape a stiff value-added tax. Rudeness is considered by some to be an enlightened form of art. |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/21/00 12:00 AM |
Carlsberg Confirms Grenade Attack at Malaysia Brewery, NST Says Kuala Lumpur, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd., Malaysia's largest brewer, confirmed that two grenades exploded at its production plant early this month, still, there were no casualties and production wasn't disrupted, the New Straits Times reported, citing the company's managing director, Jorgen Bornhoft. The incident happened a day after 15 men, claimed by the government to be linked to a Muslim religious cult, staged an arms robbery in Gerik, near the Thai border. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad this week said that a member of the cult used a grenade launcher to attack Carlsberg's brewery and a temple, the report said. Carlsberg has a two-thirds share of the local beer market and 10 percent of the stout market. Colombia Regulator Approves Brewer Bavaria's Purchase of Leona La Republica Bogota, July 21(Bloomberg) -- Colombia's industry and trade regulator gave the go-ahead to brewer Bavaria's purchase of rival Leona, a move that left Bavaria with more than 90 percent of the market, the daily La Republica reported. In addition, the regulator said the merger between the two brewers wouldn't affect competition or stop foreign companies from entering the market, the newspaper said. The regulator also said Leona is free to sell or rent the rest of its business, or a 55 percent stake in the company, to another competitor other than Bavaria, the country's No. 1 brewer, the newspaper reported. Bavaria, part of the Grupo Santo Domingo conglomerate, in May purchased 45 percent of the Leona brewery, its only serious contender in the country's $1 billion beer market. Schroeder visits German village on remote Japanese isle
By Gernot Heller MIYAKO ISLAND, Japan, July 21 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder got a rapturous welcome on Friday when he took time off from a summit of world leaders to visit a German-style village built on one of Japan's most isolated islands. Hundreds of children lined the streets waving the German flag as Schroeder, clearly amused and delighted with the incongruous spectacle, strolled among copies of medieval houses and a castle modelled after a famous fortress along the Rhine. The sweltering subtropical heat and a troupe of local dancers left no doubt that Miyako Island lies in the East China Sea at the far south of the Japanese archipelago, so close to Taiwan that Tokyo seems incredibly far away. But the link to Germany, which dates back to 1873 when shipwrecked German sailors were rescued here, proved too intriguing for Schroeder to resist making the short trip before the summit of the Group of Eight got under way on the island of Okinawa later on Friday. ``This is a sign of the hospitality and appreciation you have shown Germany, even if some may think it a bit strange to find a German village in the tropics,'' he said in a short address. Shoichi Kawata, mayor of Ueno where the ``German cultural village'' is located, unveiled a commemorative marker stone for the occasion and told Schroeder: ``Every day that we waited for you seemed to us like 1,000 years.'' Among the sights were an exhibit on life in Germany showing beer kegs, steins of beer and plates of sauerkraut and sausages. A woman meant to be a typical farmer's wife wore a traditional ``dirndl'' dress but Dutch wooden shoes. The Beer Keg restaurant serves hearty German fare while the Kinderhaus has fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and two pieces of the Berlin Wall. The Ratshaus serves cold beer and the Sechshaus sells condoms. Pride of place goes to a full-size replica of the Marksburg, the only fully preserved Rhineside castle, which the Japanese measured by laser beam to get the dimensions just right. ``They would have preferred to buy the real thing,'' one German official muttered as the delegation neared the replica. Peru's Backus 2nd-Qtr Net Falls on Debt, Plant Costs
Lima, July 21(Bloomberg) -- UCP Backus & Johnston SA, Peru's biggest brewer, said second-quarter earnings plunged 28 percent as the cost of restructuring its Callao plant and debt servicing offset higher beer sales. Unconsolidated net income fell to 11.8 million soles ($3.4 million), or 0.00816-sol diluted earnings per investment share, from 16.3 million soles, or 0.01164-sol a share, in April-June 1999, the company said. ``Profits fell because of debt servicing and restructuring of the Callao brewery,'' said Claudia Morante, a beverages analyst at Interfip Bolsa SAB brokerage. Structural changes at the plant appear linked to Backus's acquisition of rival Cia. Cervecera del Sur SA, she added. The result brought Backus's first-half earnings to 34 million soles, still up 3.1 percent from a year ago. Consolidated earnings data is due out by July 31. Backus's investment share dropped 1 percent to 0.97 soles. Backus, a virtual monopoly in Peru's beer market after it bought Cervesur last March, said rising beer sales prompted a 15 percent increase in its quarterly operating profit to 38.9 million soles from a year ago. Analysts, though, said the sales merely recovered from last year's plunge and warned consumer demand in the economy remains weak, threatening to undermine Backus' earnings in the second half. ``If consumption isn't reactivated, the company won't do any better in the rest of the year,'' Morante said. Revenue Up Slightly Revenue rose a scant 0.7 percent to 199 million soles in the quarter, yet the company also reported a non-recurring expense of 5.7 million soles and 16.1 million soles in financial expenses, up 13 percent from a year earlier. Backus, which bought Cervesur for $155 million, last month announced it plans to sell up to $200 million in bonds to raise funds for investment and refinancing debts. Analysts said its quarter results don't yet reflect the cost savings and other benefits most expect from its acquisition of Cervesur. ``Backus' monopoly position hasn't yet compensated for the negative effects of a depressed market and the servicing of the loan it took out to acquire Cervesur,'' said Manuel Salazar, a analyst at Santander Central Hispano Investment in Lima. The company used a $125 million loan from a syndicate of banks led by Citibank's local branch to buy 97.88 percent of Cervesur's common stock and 45 percent of its non-voting investment shares. While it took on more debt, Backus stands to benefit from the acquisition by cutting costs and reducing its advertising budget, according to industry analysts. Even so, analysts project a tough year for Backus. ``The rest of 2000 will be difficult. Consumption's been punished and consumers have turned to substitutes,'' said Jessica Mizushima, an analyst at Banco de Credito. ``The only hope for growth is through synergies from Cervesur.'' She forecast net income would fall to $28.5 million this year from $50.5 million in 1999. Tsingtao Says Foster's, Miller Not in Expansion Plans Shanghai, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tsingtao Brewery Co., China's second-largest brewer, said Foster's Brewing Group Ltd. and Philip Morris Cos.' Miller beer unit don't figure in its expansion plans, though talks with other foreign brewers are continuing. Tsingtao shares in Hong Kong rose to a four-month high today, for a 25 percent gain this week, on expectations that foreign brewery acquisitions will help Tsingtao toward its goal of a doubled share of the world's second-largest beer market. Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News, citing an HSBC Securities research report, said today Tsingtao is pursuing alliances with the Australian and U.S. brewers. ``We met these two companies only once, and it's irresponsible to say we could form alliances with them,'' said Tsingtao spokesman Zhang Ruixiang, adding that serious talks with other foreign brewers continue.
Tsingtao announced on June 29 that it wants to expand production and double its market share to 10 percent by buying two or three foreign breweries in China. The company confirmed yesterday that it is negotiating to buy Beijing Asia Shuanghesheng Five Star Brewery Co., an 85-year- old brewer controlled by Asia Strategic Investment Management Co., a U.S. investment firm based in Beijing. Tsingtao is also in talks with Carlsberg A/S on the possible purchase of the Danish brewer's 75 percent stake in an unprofitable Shanghai brewery. Foreign brewers who thought they would storm the Chinese market when its doors were opened to outsiders in the 1980s have stumbled on competition from cheaper local brands. Only one in 10 packaged beers sold in China bears a foreign label. Tsingtao won't be brewing under any foreign labels as a result of acquisitions or alliances, Zhang said. Tsingtao, whose namesake brand is China's best known beer label, produced 700,000 tons of beer in the first half of 2000, up 35 percent from a year earlier, Zhang said. China's total beer production is estimated to reach 21.4 million tons this year, a gain of 5 percent. Tsingtao gained 12.2 percent, or 20 cents, to HK$1.84, it highest close since March 10. Although the shares have risen eight of the last 10 trading sessions, they are down 16 percent this year, compared with a 26 percent gain in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. Sapporo Breweries Declines After It Cuts Forecast Tokyo, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Sapporo Breweries Ltd. shares fell 8 percent after Japan's third-largest brewer cut its earnings outlook 78 percent on slumping sales of Black Label beer and Brau law-malt brew. Sapporo shares fell 36 yen to 379. A total of 2.02 million shares changed hands, more than triple the daily average over the past six months. Sapporo was the forth-biggest decliner on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sapporo on Wednesday cut its forecast for parent current profit, or pretax profit from operations, to 1.2 billion yen (11 million) for the half-year ended June 30, from its February forecast of 5.5 billion yen. The company cut its sales forecast by 10 percent to 215 billion yen. Investors ``sold the shares on disappointment over the revision, said Tsutomu Matsuno, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, who rates the stock ``average.'' ``We'll take a very cautious stance on the stock.'' Strong sales of the company's Tanrei low-malt brew may help the company's earnings recover, Matsuno said. Sapporo raised its net income forecast, saying one-time charges for reorganization of production were smaller than expected. It sees 2.4 billion yen in net income, up from its 1 billion yen forecast. France's Soufflet, Russia's Baltica to Build $400 Mln Malt Plant
St. Petersburg, Russia, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- AO Baltica Breweries, Russia's No. 1 brewer by sales, said it will build a $400 million malt plant with the privately held French malt maker, Soufflet Groupe, in the city of Tula, south of Moscow. Both companies opened a $50 million malt production plant in St. Petersburg in May. The barley for malt production in St. Petersburg is imported, but in Tula, the barley will be grown locally to cut costs. Baltica owns a brewery in Tula. Baltica wants to benefit from soaring demand for Russian beer prompted by a change in consumer taste away from vodka. Since 1995, per-capita beer consumption increased from 18.9 liters to 25 liters according to Business Analytica, a Russian market research company. Baltica, which produced 600 million liters of beer in 1999, plans to increase output to 1.1 billion liters by end of 2000. ``The malt plant will be located at our brewery in Tula but mostly owned by Soufflet, though we'll have a 20 or 30 percent stake,'' said Baltica spokeswoman Ludmila Fomicheva. ``The local government will provide tax breaks and is proving very helpful.'' The plant is scheduled to open mid-2002, with construction will begin by the end of this year. Baltica, which currently has 19.7 percent of the Russian beer market, will invest $114 million in production, storage and distribution facilities through 2002. The company plans to increase beer exports from one percent of total production in 1999 to 10 percent by the end of 2001, said Fomicheva. Exported beer is mostly sold in western Europe and Israel. Baltica is 70 percent-owned by Baltic Beverages Holdings, a 50- 50 joint venture between Scandinavian brewers Pripps Ringnes AB and Hartwall Oyj. Forgotten French Turn Desperate .c The Associated Press By CLAR NI CHONGHAILE GIVET, France (AP) - Remo Pesa pressed a button and, with a clackety-clack, the machines in France's last factory producing viscose - a silk-like synthetic used in making clothes - once again whirred into action. The display was more poignant than practical. The 153 workers at the Cellatex factory in Givet in northeastern France occupied the premises after the factory went into liquidation July 5 and threatened to take the toxic chemicals in the plant and blow it up. Their desperate struggle has become a symbol for those people left behind by France's much-vaunted economic boom. ``We have been completely forgotten by the boom,'' said Pesa, who worked at the factory for 18 years, "We need jobs that pay well, and it is not our fault that our employers might be losing money. They owe us employment." On Thursday, government negotiators and union representatives reached an agreement, with workers raising their hands in a show of support for financial measures to help them overcome losing their jobs. But some workers weren't satisfied. ``When you lose your job, it's not a victory,'' said Ferhat Asloun, 39, who has worked at Cellatex for 20 years. The grounds of the 97-year-old factory contain flammable and toxic materials, including nearly 12,000 gallons of carbon disulfide. Angry employees stacked cardboard boxes around the tank containing the flammable chemical, the easier to set fire to it. In an apparent copycat move on Wednesday, 96 workers at a brewery in Alsace in eastern France went on strike, threatening to blow up their plant to protest plans by the Heineken group to close it. In an angry display Thursday, they dumped several 13-gallon barrels of beer onto the street. The workers in Givet made headlines throughout France this week when they spilled some highly corrosive sulfuric acid into nearby streams. With their threat to blow up the factory, they became an uncomfortable reminder that glowing official economic statistics do not tell the whole story. Beyond the tale of 153 people losing their jobs, the plight of the Cellatex workers has become the story of those who do not recognize themselves in tales of Internet revolutions and economic expansion. Givet is in the Ardennes, a rolling region of green hills overlooking the winding Meuse River on the border between France and Belgium. The unemployment rate in Givet is 22 percent, compared to a national rate of 9.8 percent. The textile industry has long been a staple here, but in the ``new economy'' where company histories are more often measured in months instead of years, factories like Cellatex are dinosaurs. ``We are fighting first and foremost to save this factory. Today the workers are very angry. They are fighting for their dignity as humans,'' Pesa said. ``Here in the Ardennes, we have been totally forgotten by France,'' said Danielle Riebel, who has run a cafe beside the factory for 23 years. ``They think we are idiots. Factories are closing all the time. We are entitled to have jobs.'' Unlike older workers, many of whom still think the plant can be saved, younger ones seemed pessimistic. ``The young people know this was to be expected. For us, it's over. The factory is too old,'' said 25-year-old Stephanie Pecheux, who has worked at the factory for four years. ``Some people have hope, but we young ones are not crazy.'' No polkas or lederhosen at accordion fest
By Mark Egan WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - To Faithe Deffner there is nothing quite like the accordion. And she has a theory about the quirky, bellowed instrument: Its popularity skipped a generation, but now it is back with a vengeance. To some Americans the accordion sparks visions of moustachioed men in lederhosen dancing jovially and swilling Bavarian beer between polkas. But, as you might expect from a woman who boasts the title American Accordion Association (AAA) president, Deffner has a different take on the instrument. When she speaks of it, her description could just as easily be applied to a lover. ``It's an instrument you hold in your arms, you hold it close to you, you feel the vibrations,'' she said in an interview at her group's annual convention here. Deffner admits the instrument has been often maligned but blames that on the generation who came of age in the late 1950s and 1960s -- young people who, she said, turned against anything their parents took a shine to, even the accordion. ``Some people are limited in their thinking of what the accordion is capable of. They think of the accordion and the word 'polka' pops up. They don't know it for the classical, the pop scene, that it is popular in rock 'n' roll,'' she said, citing Sheryl Crow, the Rolling Stones and even Pearl Jam. NO ACCORDION JOKES PLEASE As AAA president, Deffner is charged with boosting public awareness and appreciation of the accordion. So she is not impressed by jokes like: ``What's the definition of a gentleman? Someone who can play the accordion but chooses not to.'' ``I don't think jokes of that sort have any cultural significance,'' the lady from Mineola, New York, said with a grimace. ``I'm sure you could substitute a hundred words for the word accordion and it might be even funnier. I don't think you find young people today joking about the accordion like that.'' As Deffner spoke in the lobby of a Washington hotel, signs that a new generation has begun to discover the instrument were indeed evident. A slew of children, some as young as five, sat around preparing to enter the elementary solo competition, playing a cacophony of different tunes. Moments later the competition began as children dressed in their Sunday best sat with proud parents and played for a man who scribbled grades with the seriousness of a Svengali. ``He makes me nervous,'' one girl whispered to her mother as she awaited her turn. Another young contestant approached the hot seat with his student-sized accordion slung from his upper chest almost to his knees. Once seated, his legs dangling above the floor, he came unstuck in his rendition of ``The Cowboy Song'' after just a few bars. The audience cheered anyway. FROM CHINA TO AUSTRIA The accordion's history can be traced back as far as 1100 BC to a Chinese instrument called the sheng, a mouthpiece attached to a gourd equipped with bamboo shoots of varying lengths. But it was not until 1829 that Cyril Demian of Vienna invented the modern-day accordion. Accordions have as many as 6,000 parts, including wood that has been aged for three years, prime suede or kidskin, specially developed celluloid and reeds. While student instruments cost from $200 to $300, a good one goes for $1,500 to $15,000. Helmi Strahl Harrington of Duluth, Minnesota, has devoted her life to the accordion. Her mother came to America from Germany after the Second World War and supported her family teaching and repairing accordions. Harrington followed suit and now her own daughter is following in her footsteps. Harrington has spent her life collecting 1,000 rare accordions -- a collection she houses in her Duluth museum, which she describes as, ``second to none in the world.'' With a doctorate in musicology and after many years as a concert pianist, Harrington is effusive in her praise for the accordion, calling it, ``an exceedingly expressive instrument.'' Citing its expressiveness, breathing capacity and subtlety, she added, ``There is nothing that gives a greater pleasure.'' Indeed, for her, the bellowed instrument is almost an extension of her lungs and emotions. ``Everything that you can feel to deliver inside comes through the instrument. Having sex after playing it...is unimaginable.'' While she comes from a family immersed in the accordion, most players start out with more humble feelings toward the instrument. Joshua Zorzi, a 9-year old from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, has won competitions and, having played for two years, claims to play better than his dad. So why did he get started in the first place? ``I dunno,'' he said. ``I was supposed to play piano but now I play accordion.'' |
beer bits |
J2jurado |
7/22/00 12:00 AM |
http://www.jsonline.com:80/bym/news/jul00/bizbrfs22072100a.aspLa Crosse, county taking steps on brewery loans From the Journal Sentinel July 21, 2000 La Crosse - The city council and La Crosse County are the latest creditors taking action against the company that took over the former G. Heileman Brewery in fall. The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Thursday to find City Brewing Co. in default on a $450,000 loan after the brewery missed two monthly interest payments totaling $6,366, said Bill Shepherd, the county's corporation counsel. La Crosse Mayor John Medinger said the council will take up a similar default resolution Monday regarding its $450,000 loan to the brewery. Last November, the New York-based investment firm Platinum Holdings bought the former G. Heileman Brewery, which was founded in 1858, for $10.5 million from The Stroh Brewery Co. Detroit-based Stroh closed the La Crosse brewery Aug. 8 after deciding to leave the beer business. http://www.beer.com/news/bee/bee/2000/07/19/964016998741.html
Toronto's festival of beer by ROBERT HUGHEY , beer.com 7/19/00 Beer. Sun. Food. Beer. Ah, summer at last. Great beer and live music and one fabulous venue, located in the heart of downtown Toronto at the historical Fort York, which dates from 1793, mark Toronto's Festival of Beer as one of the best outdoor beer festivals. Fort York is located on Garrison Road off Fleet Street, between Bathurst Street and Strachan Avenue. Target Friday, August 11 through Sunday, August 13, 2000 and catch three fun days of sampling beers from across Canada and around the world Toronto's Festival of Beer. Also don't miss the inaugural the Capital City Festival of Beer in Ottawa, kicking off on July 28. The Festival will be held on the scenic lawns of the Festival Plaza, located in downtown Ottawa. Toronto's Festival of Beer has something for everyone, everyone, that is, who's alive and looking for some great fun. Picture it. In color. Grand marquee tents shading fresh cool beer under a steady sun, beer babes offering enticing samples of fine beers, rock, blues and Celtic flavors of music, great gourmet food, oysters on the half-shell, food cooked with beer, beer talks and demonstrations. Now in its fifth year, Toronto's Festival of Beer has steadily built a following for its no-hassle, great party atmosphere, where beer drinkers can happily sample beer or listen to lectures about beer as easily as sitting in the sun and basking in the music. Music at Toronto's Festival of Beer is super-charged with bands such as Pagan Mary, Nightshift Blues Band, The Skydiggers, and the infamous beer band, The Silver Seven, 'five artists who shared a dream but couldn't remember it when they woke up!' There are new beers showcasing for the first time at the festival and usually a few new brands of beer are launched by regular festival attendees, so you can always be sure to find something new to tempt the taste buds. Even a few microbreweries have found their legs at Toronto's Festival of Beer. And what would a beer festival be if you didn't try old favorites? Ah, where to start? The Magnotta Brewery, Vaughan, Ontario, will be rolling out its new, and long awaited, India Pale Ale. The Black Oak Brewing Company will be showcasing a new lager alongside its stalwarts, Black Oak Pale Ale and Nut Brown Ale. The McAuslan Brewing Company of Montreal, Quebec, will be serving samples of two fine beers, St. Ambroise Pale Ale and St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout among its offerings. The Oland Specialty Beer Company, Toronto, will be tempting palates with imported Stella Artois along with, it is anticipated, Leffe Blond and Leffe Brun. The Niagara Falls Brewing Company should see samples of its tasty Scotch Ale on offer alongside its family of beers. The Amsterdam Brewing Company, Toronto, will put you in overdrive with its newest beer, Avalanche, a new smooth, high gravity offering. And, among many others appearing at Toronto's Festival of Beer, the Great Lakes Brewing Company, Toronto, looks to launch its first bottled product at its first festival outing. But don't stop there! Guinness and more await. Festival goers get to vote for the People's Choice award, so keep sampling and cast your vote at the end of the day. Please don't drink and drive. Fly, it's just a 1.5 hour flight from New York City to Toronto, or drive, though it's closer to nine hours behind the wheel from NYC to Toronto's Festival of Beer. Once in the city, the easiest route is to take the Bathurst Streetcar number 511, from the Bathurst Subway Station loop directly to the park gates. Toronto's Festival of Beer schedule Friday, August 11, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, August 12, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, August 13, from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Ottawa's Capital City Festival of Beer schedule Friday, July 28, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 29, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, July 30, from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. And don't forget, Toronto's largest, over a million people and counting last year, street dining experience, The Taste of the Danforth, is also happening on the same weekend. Located on the Danforth on the Bloor/Danforth Subway line, exit at the Chester Subway Station, and you'll land right in the mix of curb-side stands serving up mainly Greek food such as skewers of marinated and freshly cooked chicken, lamb and pork, alongside music and more beer. The Danforth is completely blocked off from Broadview Avenue to Jones Avenue. The area is notorious for its lack of parking, so the TTC really is the better way to get to another great event. Toronto rocks! So slap on the sunscreen and come on up for one heck of a weekend of food and beer. http://www.toledoblade.com:80/editorial/feat/0g18kirt.htm
Robert Kirtland: Wine doesn't flow freely between states July 18, 2000 -- One wine imported regularly by Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines, a BIG company, is a very good, reasonably priced beaujolais, a Brouilly, Chateau de la Chaize; in each of the past two or three years I have reported the arrival of the latest vintage. "I can't get it," a friend declared indignantly. "The wine store can't get it! Why not?" Most of us make do, most of the time, with what's on the retail shelf, or what the dealer can get for us if we want something special. But in either case, if the dealer can't get it that's because the area wholesaler either doesn't, or perhaps can't, get it. "Well," my friend insisted, "why can't I simply call the importer, that big company, and order some sent to me directly?" Most of us, I suspect, do not realize that when Prohibition was shelved as a lofty ideal that didn't work, the provisions of the 21st Amendment, which shelved it, inserted into the Constitution a single exception to the freedom of interstate commerce: "The transportation or importation into any State . . . of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. " Sniffing the prospect of revenue, most states promptly began a detailed regulation of beer, wine, and liquor made in another state. Ohio regulation - 168 pages of laws - is not the most burdensome in the country, but it's far from being the least burdensome. And these laws, so far as you and I are concerned, enforce a system of import (from abroad or other states) and sale called the "three tier system. " Tier 1, in this arrangement, is the winery or the importer of foreign wines. These suppliers pay a tax, of course, for the right to do business in Ohio, and they must sell their products to in-state wholesalers, who are Tier 2, who in turn contribute to the tax that you and I eventually pay, in addition to the state sales tax, when we buy a bottle. The wholesale distributors, in their turn, can sell the wine only to a state-licensed tax-paying retailer, Tier 3, which, with very few exceptions, is a wine ship or restaurant. Read this closely and you will see that there's no lawful way to get beaujolais directly from Seagram, to bring home a case of beer from Indiana, or to order on the Internet an outstanding cabernet from a boutique California winery. Even less known, generally, is that the state sets mandatory minimum prices, a percentage based on original cost, below which a wholesaler may not lawfully sell wine or beer to the retailer, or the retailer in turn to you and me, the retail customer. Barton & Guestier (B&G for short), for many years now another Seagram company, makes and markets an extensive variety of French wines, with painstaking attention to quality control and a return to once-fruitful wine regions along the Mediterranean coast, principally Languedoc-Rousillon, all the way east to the Rhone River. Vineyard land in these regions, unexploited for a century and a half, is relatively inexpensive, and large-scale production without a loss of quality is within reach of modern technology. Together with rationalization of worldwide distribution, this means good, everyday wines at bargain-basement prices. If you don't believe me, try a bottle of the '98 B&G syrah, a big, spicy red that is offered at a company-suggested retail price of $7. Check your grocer's wine shelves for equally inexpensive cabernet sauvignons, merlots, and chardonnays. http://www.sltrib.com:80/07202000/business/4927.htm
Dry Utah? Not Quite, Liquor Sales Show Thursday, July 20, 2000 BY L. ANNE NEWELL, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Liquor sales have jumped by almost $15 million during the past two years and are nearing $130 million a year in Utah, a state whose residents have a reputation for being nearly as dry as its deserts. Total retail sales in 1998 jumped by $8.2 million, and the figure rose another $6.3 million in 1999, hitting a total of $127.9 million, said Ken Wynn, director of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. That percentage is not nearly as large an increase as in some states, according to Adams Liquor Handbook, an alcohol-industry publication that tracks business, but it's nothing to cry into your beer about, either. Among the 18 states Adams lists as having state-run liquor industries, Utah had the 10th-largest volume increase at 1.6 percent. Tops from 1998 to 1999 was Oregon, with a 3.7 percent increase. Michigan was the only one of the 18 that reported a decrease in the volume of 1999 sales, losing one-tenth of 1 percent. That's not to say Utah is threatening to become the nation's booze capital. Much of the majority-Mormon population still follows church teaching and shuns alcohol. The state ranked 40th in the nation in 1999 in volume of liquor sold. Wynn attributed the surge in Utah to an increase in population and tourism, as well as more restaurants and private clubs holding liquor licenses and buying alcohol from the state. Only state-run stores can sell liquor, wine and beer with an alcohol content of more than 3.2 percent. Restaurants and private clubs can resell it to customers. "It's just the natural growth of the state and the economy," Wynn said. He also chalked some of it up to the allure of the 2002 Winter Olympics, to be held in Salt Lake. "People hear about [the Olympics] and they come to Utah to take a look and see what's here," he said. Jon Kemp, a research coordinator for the Utah Travel Council, said Utah has seen an increase in population and tourism during the past two years. Kemp said 17.4 million people visited Utah in 1997. By 1999, that number had climbed to 18.2 million. Judy Blatman, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade organization, said the increase in Utah seems to mirror a national trend that began about five years ago. She said her group doesn't know definitely why people are drinking more, but partially credits it to the return of the martini and other upscale drinks. Wynn said the increased liquor sales were expected and are a positive sign because the profit goes into the state general fund and supports a number of social-service programs. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk:80/dynamic/food/pubs/review.html?in_review_i d=301469&in_review_text_id=245420
The Studio Lounge, Waterstone's, 203-206 Piccadilly W1, 020 7851 2433 by Edward Sullivan A hundred years ago, when I was a lad, buying books was a bothersome business. 'Wheesht...' the spinster behind the counter would hiss should anyone dare to breach the law of silence while browsing through the austere ranks of literary tomes. Not so much as the cracking of a freshly bound spine was deemed acceptable behaviour and such acts of repression probably spawned their own breed of rebellion with a new generation of shoplifters. But along came Waterstone's, challenging the old-fashioned establishment values by providing a relaxed atmosphere and employing staff who could actually read. And now they've gone one better by introducing a bar to the Piccadilly branch, so I dragged my mate Fiona along for a bit of an erudite session. Although the space itself won't win any design awards, it proves to be a perfect place to escape the throng of Piccadilly - and yes, you can smoke here - and admire the views down towards Parliament Square. The bar is where I made friends with Hannah, our charming waitress who talked knowledgeably about the exhibitions of art adorning the walls. 'Our latest exhibition is a series of illustrations [running until Sat 5 Aug] from the graduate show at Kingston University.' I bored Fiona with all the facts about the store I'd gleaned earlier from their press office. Do you know this is the biggest bookshop in Europe? They have 1.5 million books and carry 170,000 different titles. And they're able to source any book you like. 'I've got a bloomin' good test for them,' she said as she led me to one of the enquiry desks. 'Have you got any books by Edward Sullivan?' she asked the worm behind the desk. 'Hmm, the name doesn't ring a bell.' Click, click, click; tap, tap, tap. He was on the best-selling list last year, I piped in. 'Really? Then I'm surprised I haven't heard of him.' Yes, I think he came in at 121,635 on the list. She quite rightly chose to ignore this useless snippet of information: 'Ah, yes, I see it, but I might have trouble getting it for you. It appears to be out of print.' Which is a polite way of saying it went straight to pulp. Never mind, my mate Richard spotted a copy outside a second-hand bookshop in Chiswick the other day. It was in a 10p clearance basket which could be more appropriately labelled: 'Steal me if you can be bothered.' We returned to the bar for more refreshments. Champagnes and cocktails feature prominently on the drinks list but it was the bottled beers that drew my attention. Thirteen different brews are available in what has to be one of the best beer lists in London, including Singha, Budwar, Anchor Steam Ale, St Peter's Ale, Schneider Weiss and Hoegaarden (which is incorrectly spelt on the menu ‹ tsk, tsk!). This bar probably won't ever make it as a destination venue, but I like it so much I could write a book about it. Open Mon - St 11am - 11pm, Sun noon-5.30pm http://news.excite.com/news/r/000721/15/odd-lizard-dc
Burger King Wants to See Fried Lizard July 21, 2000, LONDON (Reuters) - Fast food chain Burger King said Friday it would be delighted to investigate claims a British child found a lizard in its French fries, just as soon as the reptile is produced. "Should the customer be able to give us the lizard or show us the lizard, we can undertake an investigation, and we would be very keen to do so," a Burger King spokeswoman said. BBC News reported Toby Sharpe, 2, from Halifax in northern England, was eating his chips in the back of his aunt's car when he found a deep fried lizard, screamed, and threw up. "It's put him off Burger King for life," the BBC quoted Sharpe's aunt, Adele Coulter, as saying. She has consulted with their solictors. The Burger King spokeswoman said a customer had reported the lizard find to its Halifax restaurant, but added, "We haven't seen the lizard." |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/22/00 12:00 AM |
French workers postpone threat to blow up beer factory STRASBOURG, France, July 22 (Reuters) - Workers who threatened to blow up a French brewery if it was closed said on Saturday they were suspending their threat pending results of negotiations due to start on Tuesday. The suspension of the threat was made public by union delegate Emmanuel Gruand who told reporters the 88 million francs ($12.5 million) he said owners Heineken were ready to pay to close the factory could better be used to make it profitable. Workers at the brewery which makes local Adelshoffen beer in this area of eastern France, earlier this week spilled hundreds of litres of beer before threatening to blow up ammonia canisters to destroy the factory if management did not reconsider closure plans.
Their action followed a compromise redundancy deal reached at the Cellatex viscose plant near the Belgian border after workers there dumped thousands of litres of toxic acid in a stream and threatened to blow up tonnes of chemicals.
The Cellatex and Adelshoffen factory conflicts have gone further than many past French industrial conflicts.
Modelo, brewer of Corona, posts pale Q2 profits By Veronica Sparrowe MEXICO CITY, July 21 (Reuters) - Mexico's leading brewer and the maker of Corona beer, Grupo Modelo <GMODELOC.MX>, on Friday posted pale second-quarter results, reflecting weak growth in the Mexican market and lower exports. But the lackluster report was basically in line with prior forecasts by industry analysts who had expected a particularly rainy April-June period to slow sales in Mexico. "We weren't expecting anything spectacular," said Yvonne Ochoa, a beverage industry analyst at Mexican brokerage BBV Probursa. Ochoa noted Modelo's exports grew more than 40 percent in 1999's second quarter, making it tough for the Mexico City-based brewer to post sterling growth numbers in April-June this year when the two three-month periods were compared. Modelo said its second quarter sales totaled 7.632 billion pesos ($814.51 million), up 4.2 percent over 1999's second quarter, and slightly below the average forecast of 7.708 billion pesos gleaned in a prior Reuters poll of five industry analysts. Its total beer shipments grew 0.9 percent in the second quarter, with 1.4 percent growth in the domestic market and a drop of 0.5 percent in exports. Modelo sells about 74 percent of its beer output in Mexico, with the rest exported, mainly to the United States, where Corona is the top-selling imported beer. RECORD VOLUME FOR A QUARTER Still Modelo was able to boast record quarterly sales volume in the April-June period, selling 10 million hectoliters, above analysts' estimates of 9.96 million hectoliters. A hectoliter, or 100 liters, is the standard unit of measure in the Mexican beer industry. The brewer posted operating profits of 2.162 billion pesos in the quarter, 8.8 percent over the year-ago period, and in line with analysts' estimates of 2.120 billion pesos. Analysts tend to use operating profit as the gauge of profitability for Mexican firms because exchange rate swings as well as unpredictable taxes and interest rates can distort the net profit line. ($1=9.37 pesos) Colombia Regulator Approves Brewer Bavaria's Purchase of Leona Bogota, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Colombia's industry and trade regulator gave the go-ahead to brewer Bavaria's purchase of rival Leona, a move that left Bavaria with more than 90 percent of the market, the daily La Republica reported. In addition, the regulator said the merger between the two brewers wouldn't affect competition or stop foreign companies from entering the market, the newspaper said. The regulator also said Leona is free to sell or rent the rest of its business, or a 55 percent stake in the company, to another competitor other than Bavaria, the country's No. 1 brewer, the newspaper reported.
Bavaria, part of the Grupo Santo Domingo conglomerate, in May purchased 45 percent of the Leona brewery, its only serious contender in the country's $1 billion beer market. (7/21, 1B; to see La Republica's Web site, type {LRPB <GO>} ) Peru's Backus 2nd-Qtr Net Drops 28% on Debt Service, Plant Cost Lima, July 21 (Bloomberg)-- UCP Backus & Johnston SA, Peru's biggest brewer, said second-quarter earnings plunged 28 percent as the cost of restructuring its Callao plant and debt servicing offset higher beer sales.
Unconsolidated net income fell to 11.8 million soles, or 0.00816-sol diluted earnings per investment share, from 16.3 million soles, or 0.01164-sol a share, in April-June 1999, the company said.
``Profits fell because of debt servicing and restructuring of the Callao brewery,'' said Claudia Morante, a beverages analyst at Interfip Bolsa SAB brokerage. Structural changes at the plant appear linked to Backus's acquisition of rival Cia. Cervecera del Sur SA, she added. The result brought Backus's first-half earnings to 34 million soles, still up 3.1 percent from a year ago. Consolidated earnings data is due out by July 31. Backus's investment share dropped 1 percent to 0.97 soles. Backus, a virtual monopoly in Peru's beer market after it bought Cervesur last March, said rising beer sales prompted a 15 percent increase in its quarterly operating profit to 38.9 million soles from a year ago. Analysts, though, said the sales merely recovered from last year's plunge and warned consumer demand in the economy remains weak, threatening to undermine Backus' earnings in the second half. http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0722/tea.html
Tea versus toxins Tea bags can cure sick building syndrome, say Japanese researchers. People who move into a new house can suffer nausea and sore throats due to the chemicals from fresh paint and glue. One of the chief culprits is formaldehyde. Now the Tokyo Metropolitan Consumer Center has found that tea bags scattered around the house soak up the formaldehyde, aided by tannin in the tea. They found that the concentration of formaldehyde in the air fell by between 60 and 90 per cent. Dry black or green tea is said to work best. http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0722/blind.html
HOW TWO OLD BOTTLES KEEP BLINDNESS AT BAY Here's one I made earlier . . . A low-tech fly trap made of two old plastic bottles and some animal dung is helping to control the world's second leading cause of blindness in Africa's Rift Valley. |
beer bits |
Jaime |
7/23/00 12:00 AM |
Interbrew ready to sell Tennent's - paper LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - Privately-owned Belgian brewer Interbrew is ready to sell Scotland's biggest alcohol brand Tennent's Lager in a bid to appease regulators after its UK buying spree, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The sale, which could reap upto 250 million pounds ($379.25 million) for Interbrew may be necessary to gain regulatory approval for its proposed merger with the UK beer businesses of Whitbread Plc and Bass Plc, the newspaper said. Interbrew scooped up Britain's second and third largest brewers within three weeks when it bought the Bass beers for 2.3 billion pounds in May and Whitbread's beers for 400 million pounds in April. The Bass and Whitbread deals would give Interbrew a third of Britain's beer market and catapult the company into second place in the world brewing stakes, behind U.S. Anheuser-Beuch. However, regulatory authorities were expected to be concerned with the fact Interbrew would hold a 40 percent share of the total Scottish beer market and 50 percent of its lager market. The Sunday Telegraph said the sale of Tennent's, a Bass brand, was likely in order to satisfy competition authorities. POSSIBLE BUYERS The paper named possible buyers as Heineken NV, South African Breweries and Carlsberg-Tetley, the UK arm of Carlsberg AS, all of which were unsuccessful bidders for Bass. Shepherd Neame Ltd. are potential purchasers, also. Bass describes Tennents on its Web site as a Scottish phenomenon with a retail value of about 300 million pounds and over 625,000 pints consumed daily. It said Tennent's Lager was Scotland's biggest alcohol brand in any category, including whisky. The European Competition Commission is the regulatory authority looking into Interbrew's proposed takeover of Bass and Whitbread beers, but the UK Office of Fair Trading was expected to decide later this week if it would take back control of the investigation. Interbrew is expected to seek a listing on the London stock exchange when it goes public later this year. Kirin Says `Speed' Sports Drink Not Tainted, Japan Times Says Tokyo, July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Kirin Beverage Corp., a soft- drink unit of Kirin Brewery Co., Japan's largest brewer, has found no contamination in its ``Kirin Speed'' sports drink, following reports last week that some bottles of the beverage had a strange taste, the Japan Times newspaper said, citing unnamed company officials. Kirin said the taste was the result of a chemical reaction in the drink's vitamin and mineral supplements during high-temperature sterilization. The company on July 15 started recalling 1.36 million cans and bottles of the drink after 10 people who drank it became ill, the report said.
Kirin on Monday said it suspended production lines of Speed at its Shonan factory in Kanagawa prefecture, where the possible cause of the strange taste may have originated, Kirin Beverage spokeswoman Makiyo Yamaguchi said. Muslim cult attacked beer plant, temple in Malaysia .c Kyodo News Service KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Kyodo) - The Malaysian Islamic cult that wants to set up an Islamic state through an armed revolt against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government was responsible for grenade attacks on a brewery and a Hindu temple earlier this month, the Sun newspaper reported Friday. Jorgen Bornhoft, managing director of Denmark-based Carlsberg Breweries' Malaysian subsidiary, confirmed that two grenades were launched at its plant July 3, a day after the Brotherhood of Al Maunah's Inner Power sect raided two army camps in northern Perak state and made off with hundreds of high-powered weapons, according to the English-language daily. The Carlsberg brewery is located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, more than 250 kilometers south of Grik, where army camps are located. ''No one was injured nor was there any severe damage to our property,'' Bornhoft said. The Sun also quoted a temple caretaker at the Sri Mahamariaman Devastanam Temple in Batu Caves as confirming that two grenades were launched at the compound July 9. No one was injured in the attack on the temple, one of the most revered Hindu temples in the country and also a popular tourist site near Kuala Lumpur. The temple attack occurred three days after 27 Al Maunah members surrendered to authorities from their jungle hideout near Grik, following a four-day standoff with thousands of police and army personnel. On July 2, about 15 Al Maunah members led by Mohamed Amin Razali, the sect leader, made their way to the armories in Grik and escaped to the jungle with a huge cache of weapons. Police believe that after the heist, the group split up and some members headed to the capital. Mahathir, who disclosed during a televised interview Wednesday that Al Maunah was responsible for the two attacks, said the sect had demanded that Mahathir and his government resign so an Islamic state could be established. About 60% of Malaysia's population is made up of Malay Muslims, while the remainder comprises ethnic Chinese and Indians, who practice their own religions. A guide to brewery tour of Wisconsin ( Minneapolis Star Tribune )
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special to the Star Tribune . Milk is the official state beverage in Wisconsin, the dairy state, but residents often joke it should be beer. With good reason. Once Wisconsin was home to 193 breweries, including five of the nation's largest: Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, Miller and G. Heileman. And up until 1980, Wisconsin consistently produced more beer - more than 20 million barrels annually - than any other state in the country. Today Wisconsin has slipped to fourth in beer production, and Miller Brewing is the only major brewery left. But with 60 other breweries busy filling up barrels, bottles and cans - more than any other state except California - Wisconsin is still a major player in the beer industry. Many of Wisconsin's breweries offer tours, which include suds sampling at the end. Tours typically involve a fair amount of stair- climbing, walking and temperature swings (the brewhouses are hot, the aging cellars are cold). If you want to see production in progress, make sure to call ahead; most places brew and bottle at specific times, and some never offer tours during production. Not sure where to start? Head for Milwaukee, touted as our nation' s beer capital. The city is home to several breweries, and you can even book a three-hour brewery tour cruise on the Brew City Queen (1-414-283-9999) in summer; the vessel stops at three microbreweries while plying the waters of the Milwaukee River. Here's a sampling of the breweries to be explored - and savored. . Miller Brewing None of Wisconsin's 60 other breweries comes close in size to Miller, the second-largest brewer in the nation. The company was started by Frederick Miller in 1855 and today produces about 45 million barrels of beer a year. Tours start with a 15-minute video in the visitor center/gift shop, then move to the self-packaging center, where you can view bottling, canning and pasteurization through large windows. After a quick zip through shipping, you'll head into the brewhouse, where the temperature climbs 30 to 40 degrees. This is the one spot on the tour where you' re afforded a close-up look at some of the equipment. The next stop is the unique Caves Museum, a small showcase of brewery memorabilia housed in hand-dug tunnels 62 feet underground, once used to store beer. The 90-minute tour ends with product-sampling either in the Bavarian-style Miller Inn, once lodging for single brewery workers, or in an outdoor beer garden. Adults receive three beer samples; kids get root beer. Everyone also receives a packet of peanuts and a postcard, which Miller will mail anywhere in the world. Free tours Monday through Saturday, year- round. 1-800-944-5483, http://www.millerbrewing.com. . Sprecher Brewing Just north of Miller lies Sprecher Brewing, one of the state' s oldest craft brewers, and the first brewery opened in Milwaukee since Prohibition. It was formed by Randal Sprecher, once a brewing supervisor for Pabst, in 1985. The brewery produces about 14,000 barrels of European-style beer annually, along with 29,000 barrels of gourmet sodas. The informal tours start in the brewhouse, where beer or soda is produced one batch at a time. During the guide's spiel, you'll get a chance to nibble on some pale roast malt. The tour moves through the aging cellar, production and packaging facilities, then ends at Sprecher's indoor beer tent, where adults can sample four of the eight beers on tap. The best part, though, is the unlimited sampling of Sprecher sodas: root beer, cream, cola and ginger ale. Rich and sweet from the large amounts of honey used, they're unbelievably delicious. Tours cost $2 and run Friday and Saturday, year-round, plus Monday throughThursday in summer. Reservations recommended. 1-414-964-2739 or http: //www.sprecherbrewery.com. . Lakefront Brewery Lakefront's brewery tour was voted best in Milwaukee by readers of Milwaukee Magazine, and it's easy to see why. Once inside you're promptly issued a Lakefront beer glass, then ushered into the warehouse-like bar, where you can sample as much beer as you' d like. When it's tour time, owner Jim Klisch is often the person who reminds you to top off your glass, then walks you through the brewery he started with his brother in 1987. In a cavernous building once used by the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co., Lakefront produces about 3,500 barrels of beer annually or, as Klisch said, about the same amount Budweiser spills in a day. A root beer flavored with Wisconsin maple syrup is also produced. The comical, slightly irreverent tour includes glimpses of the Larry, Curly and Moe fermentation tanks, painted with the Three Stooges' likenesses, plus photos of two married couples who met during a Lakefront tour. Afterward, you're welcomed back to the bar. Tours run Friday and Saturday and cost $5 or $2 (soda only), including the glass. Lakefront is a stop on the Brew City Queen cruise. 1-414-372-8800 or http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com. . Leinenkugel Tucked away in Wisconsin's northwoods in Chippewa Falls is the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery, founded in 1867 by Leinenkugel, son of a Bavarian brewmaster. Leinenkugel correctly figured the town's 2,500 loggers would love a cold brew, and today Leinie's is one of Wisconsin's largest breweries, producing 250,000 barrels annually. Tours start outside, where you're taken past the brewery's old malt house and barn, built in 1877 and 1880 respectively, and into the brewhouse, constructed in 1890. Make sure to climb the step next to the copper grant and peek inside at the steaming wort, which will eventually become beer. The fermentation room is next, followed by the bottling house; visit on a weekday, when you can get within a foot of the clattering line. The tour ends at the Leinie Lodge, a huge gift shop with a small bar at one end. Adults can sample two beers, while kids are offered Kool-Aid. The bar area is small and without seating, though, forcing you to browse through the gift shop, which carries an incredible array of Leinie's merchandise, including fishing vests, pet bowls, dice cups and the popular decorative oar. Free tours run all week during the summer months; reservations recommended. 1-888-LEINIES or http://www.leinie.com. . Stevens Point Brewery Appropriately located on Beer and Water Streets, the Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point, Wis., has been in operation since 1857. It was founded by Frank Wahle and George Ruder. The midsize brewery produces about 60,000 barrels a year, and recently came out with its own brand of root beer. Head for the brewery's small gift shop first, where you'll receive a beer-can bank as a souvenir before the tour starts. The tours are wonderfully intimate, and visitors can observe everything from brewing to bottling from just a foot or two away. Look for the brewery's original malt scale and malt bin, still in use today. If you're lucky, the tour guide will let you wind your way down one of the building's original spiral staircases, or you'll catch the twice-weekly kegging, where workers pound in the corks by hand. In the warehouse, old wooden beer storage vats are available for purchase; guides say people often purchase them to use as hot tubs. The tour concludes with a stop in the brewery's small Friendship Room, which contains a bar and lots of seating. Adults can sample two beers, while children get root beer; there's also plenty of hot popcorn. Make sure to look at the display cases with brewery memorabilia just outside the room when you're finished. Tours cost $2 and run Monday through Saturday; reservations suggested. 1-800-369-4911 or http://www.pointbeer.com. . Capital Brewery Capital Brewery, just outside of Madison, vies with Sprecher for the title of Wisconsin's oldest craft brewer. Created in 1984, Capital is currently undergoing a rapid expansion and expects to increase production by more than 100 percent this year to 17,000 barrels. Tours start in the beautifully remodeled hospitality room, which features a massive 1893 Brunswick mahogany-and-oak bar from Chicago' s old Lincoln Hotel. The bar's mirrored back was removed and replaced with a window so customers can view the brewery's 1955 German brewhouse copper kettles at work. You'll quickly go behind the scenes and peek inside those kettles, but outside of the copper kettles and fermentation tanks, there really isn't much more to see on the tour. (Bottling is contracted out.) That's OK, though, because your guide will bring you back to the hospitality room or spacious outdoor bier garten and lead you through a taste test of the brewery's six different tap brews, from lightest to darkest. (Homemade root beer and cream soda are available for kids and nondrinkers.) Tours cost $2.75 and run Friday throughSaturday; fee includes souvenir glass. 1-608-836-7100, http://www.capital-brewery.com. Melanie Radzicki McManus, A guide to brewery tour of Wisconsin. , Minneapolis Star Tribune, 07-09-2000, pp 01G. go to Refine Search go to Results Document You asked: beer or brewery LONDON'S FIRST BREWERS\THE CITY THAT GAVE BIRTH TO THE NATION'S LARGEST BREWER WAS A HOTBED OFCOMPETITION FOR BEERMAKERS IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY, SAYS LONDON AUTHOR GLENPHILLIPS IN HIS NEW BOOK ( The London Free Press )
------------------------------------------------------------------------ LONDON'S FIRST BREWERS\THE CITY THAT GAVE BIRTH TO THE NATION'S LARGEST BREWER WAS A HOTBED OFCOMPETITION FOR BEERMAKERS IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY, SAYS LONDON AUTHOR GLENPHILLIPS IN HIS NEW BOOK EDITION: Final SECTION: Business COLUMN: BOOK EXCERPT , 7/8/00 Excerpted from On Tap: The Odyssey of Beer and Brewing in Victorian London-Middlesex, by Glen C. Phillips, published by Cheshire Cat Press, $29.95 John Dimond's first brewery While many early settlers brewed beer for personal consumption, the historical record does not reveal with absolute certainty when, where or by whom Middlesex's first commercial brewery was established. In all likelihood, an early tavern-keeper, confronted with the absence of other supply alternatives, opened the first one. The earliest extant reference to a local brewery comes from the Gore Gazette of November 22, 1827. Commenting upon the building boom triggered in London by the village's designation as the new seat of the London District, the newspaper simply acknowledged that a brewery, among other sundry buildings, was in the course of construction. However, according to Goodspeed's History of the County of Middlesex, published in 1889, John Dimond conducted the first brewery in London on the north side of North Street (now, ironically, Carling Street). Dimond's enterprise probably stood near the site of the city's present courthouse and was likely the brewery to which the Gore Gazette referred. Without question producing the heavy English ales, porters and stouts of his day, Dimond only ran this brewery until sometime in 1828, when he sold out or rented to William and George Snell, immigrants from Devonshire, England. John Balkwill That same year, another Devonman, John Balkwill, built a small log brewery on the banks of the Thames River just a few blocks south of the village's core. Little did Balkwill realize that he had laid the foundations of what is now Canada's largest brewing company -- Labatt. In 1832, William and George Snell combined their beer business with Balkwill's at the latter's brewery. The connection between the Snells and Balkwill was more than just commercial -- the two families were related by marriage. Interestingly, and revealing how tightly the fabric of pioneer society could be woven, Balkwill was also connected to the Carlings through marriage. Sometime during the mid-1830s, George Snell severed his connection with Balkwill's brewery. William Snell continued his involvement with the business until sometime between 1838 and 1842, when he established his own brewery in Yarmouth Township. John Stephen The only other pre-1840 brewery reference is John Stephen's advertisement in the London Sun of January 26, 1832. In the ad, Stephen, who brewed somewhere in Westminster Township (possibly adjacent to the rising village of London), announced that he had "strong Beer" for sale and that he would reward area farmers with cash for their barley. Given the seasonal nature of Stephens' advertisement, we can conclude that he had fired his kettle as early as the harvest of 1831. St. Thomas connections The connections made in St. Thomas present a fascinating interweaving of personalities. In 1833, William Peacey and English brewmaster George W. Smith established a brewery on New Street in the village. Linked to this brewery, if not in a proprietary capacity, then as a relative of Peacey, was another Englishman, Samuel Eccles. As if to complete a triad of sorts, Smith married Eccles' sister, Mary, on December 2, 1833. One of the three official witnesses to this union was Henry Arkell whose family included a young son called Robert. To add yet another name to this mix, shortly after the Eccles- Smith wedding, Irishman John Kinder Labatt settled in Westminster Township near present-day Glanworth and not far from St. Thomas. Upon the untimely death of his new bride, George W. Smith left St. Thomas and eventually operated breweries in Pittsburgh, Penn., as early as 1835 and in Wheeling, Va., (now West Virginia) as early as 1847. As Smith sought his fortune in the United States, Samuel Eccles assumed control of Peacey's brewery after the latter's death in 1842. While running this brewery, Eccles and the farmer from Westminster, John Kinder Labatt, became acquainted with each other through their membership in the St. Thomas branch of the London District Agricultural Society and through their business dealings with each other (Labatt was a barley farmer, after all). In partnership, they bought the London Brewery in 1847. About a decade later, Labatt arranged a brewing apprenticeship for his son, John, under George W. Smith of Wheeling. As for Robert Arkell, he moved to London upon reaching his majority. At first, he involved himself with the hotel trade. Later, he moved into the malting industry and then into brewing at the village of Kensington, a London suburb. International flavour Through the first half of the 19th century, brewers in London- Middlesex (and the rest of the province, for that matter) found that their markets were becoming more and more internationalized and integrated. Internationalization stemmed from Upper Canada's position at the western end of Britain's North Atlantic trading empire. Although timber and wheat from the colonies and immigrants and manufactured wares from the British Isles dominated this cross-ocean economy, ales and porters from the "mother countries" occupied their fair share of space in the holds of merchant vessels bound for British North America. Of course, one might conclude that, because of their high bulk- to-value ratio and supposedly perishable nature, malt liquors were hardly suited to transport over such great distances. However, one must not ignore the fact that barreled liquids made ideal ballast for ships returning from the British Isles to the colonies. In addition, British beer at the time was actually far from fragile. The chemical nature of generously malted and hopped English porters and stouts rendered those beverages fairly resistant to bacterial spoilage. Moreover, all beer, including slightly less self-preserving ales, found ideal storage conditions in ships' holds which were naturally cooled by the frigid water of the North Atlantic. As early as the first decade of the 19th century, British beer had become a notable feature in the newspaper advertisements of Lower Canadian importers. By the 1830s, foreign beers had found their way into Middlesex. For instance, London merchants routinely stocked Hibbert's Porter and Leith Ale. Of course, such retailers sought to quench the thirst of customers who longed for a taste of 'ome. Early market integration Fairly early in the 19th century, Canadian brewers, following in the footsteps of their British counterparts, also recognized that their beers made friends near and afar. In hopes of boosting their incomes, they organized sales agencies in distant communities. By doing so, they initiated a sharp turn towards domestic market integration and essentially set the course for the rise of large regional and national breweries and the gradual decline of small local breweries. Shining examples of this process are found in the entrepreneurship of four brewers from outside Middlesex, who maintained agencies in the county's largest municipality, London, during the 1830s and 1840s. Three of them, Weir & Black, the Luke Brothers and Samuel Eccles, were based in St. Thomas and the other, Joseph & Henry Slagg, operated in Chatham. Hardly intimidated by Upper Canada's mud-paved roads, the Slaggs shipped their ale by wagon some sixty miles overland to their London agent, former brewer John Dimond. Outside brewers likely did not ignore the rest of Middlesex; however, limitations in the surviving historical record make it impossible to pinpoint exactly when and where they shipped their beer. The lure of London Although imported and domestic beers were transported across Upper Canada, we must not ignore the importance of the localized trade in beer. After all, most beer consumed during the first three-quarters of the 1800s was produced and quaffed locally. One should keep in mind that primary success in any consumer products industry in 19th- century Canada depended upon a healthy home market. Indeed, the robust nature of London's home market fated the place to become the county' s brewing hub. In London, brewers found a vibrant consumer dynamism. Above all, the town was blessed (or cursed if one happened to be a teetotaller) with demographics close to the hearts of ale and porter brewers in the British tradition. Census returns for 1851 reveal that ninety-eight percent of the town's residents were from or could trace their direct ancestry to the great beer-drinking nations of England, Scotland and Ireland. Moreover, the majority of Londoners belonged to those religious denominations not prone to temperance fervour at the time. Two other demographic factors further distinguished the place from the rest of Middlesex. One, London's rapid growth greatly benefitted local brewers. From 1840 to 1850, the town's population trebled from 1,716 to 5,124 residents. By 1855, the year of cityhood, the local populace had leapt to 10, 000. Two, London became a garrison town not long after the 1837 Rebellion. Home to eight regiments between 1838 and 1853, it was awash in a sea of thirsty British troops. The combination of bored soldiers, their pay packets and their desire for beersome pursuits greatly enhanced the local brewing economy. London's hotel, saloon trade London's mushrooming population, its status as a district and then a county seat, its role as a regional market town and its position as a thriving commercial centre fostered a vibrant local hotel -- saloon-keeping culture. Largely centred around the courthouse and market square, as well as dotting the town's main fairways, hotels and saloons appealed to resident and out-of-town beer drinkers alike. Not unexpectedly, the size of London's inn- and saloon-keeping landscape expanded with local population growth. In 1843, the town contained 23 licensed hotels and saloons. Eight years later, according to the Canada Directory, the number had jumped slightly to 26. Having nicely weathered the temporary withdrawal of the garrison in 1853, London's licensed victualling community stood at fifty hoteliers and 20 saloon owners in 1856. The number of liquor merchants in London also grew quite swiftly. In 1845, the town had about a half- dozen liquor dealers. Eleven years later, the newly incorporated city issued 22 shopkeepers' licenses. The 1840s and early 1850s Understandably, commercially ambitious Victorians sought predictable and financially secure environments in which to establish themselves. As a thriving wellspring of opportunity, mid-19th-century London fit this model quite nicely and attracted business interests like a magnet. The town's dynamic licensed liquor trade, pronounced military presence and rising population were strong drawing cards for the several brewers who arrived on the local scene during the 1840s. Significantly, two of these new arrivals, along with their descendants, were to give London its lasting fame as one of Canada's major brewing centres. Carling arrives In the spring of 1818, 21-year-old Thomas Carling, an ambitious son of Yorkshire, England, embarked upon a cross-Atlantic voyage that would change the course of Canadian brewing history. Despite one month at sea and several arduous weeks making his way inland from Quebec City, the stalwart immigrant quickly set himself to his chosen task on the Upper Canadian frontier. Settling on lot 14, concession 8, London Township (near Arva), he worked hard to clear a farm and soon reaped the rewards of his labour. In 1824, for reasons that remain unclear, he traded farms with John Smith. This move put the Carlings on lot 26, concession 6, London Township (near Hyde Park). As local folklore has it, the beer he brewed privately for family and friends commanded a popular following. Undoubtedly recognizing that his beer would also find favour with the British troops garrisoned in nearby London, Carling retired from farming in 1843 and built a wooden brewery on the northeast corner of Waterloo and Pall Mall streets (now Siskinds, the law firm). Possessing a sharp eye for business, Thomas Carling had strategically located his brewery within sight of the town's regimental barracks. It is interesting to note that 1840 has mistakenly become enshrined as Carling's establishment date. While this is hardly the fault of modern corporate marketers, it is a bit off the mark nonetheless. According to the census returns for 1842, Thomas Carling was still farming in London Township. Moreover, Carling's obituary, 19th-century business directories and the late Dr. Clarence T. Campbell, a local historian and Carling family friend, all give 1843 as the year when the Yorkshireman began brewing in London. It seems that the error stems from loose interpretations of Goodspeed' s History of the County of Middlesex which notes that the brewery was "established by Thos. Carling about the year 1840." The 1840 date first appeared in early twentieth-century Carling advertisements and has been taken at face value ever since. Although later described by his granddaughter as "a very primitive little brewery, with a white horse walking around and around in a circle, turning the mill that ground the malt," Thomas Carling's endeavour met with considerable fortune in the beer-thirsty town. To accommodate business growth, in August 1844, he acquired three lots adjacent to the original brewery lot. A few years later, Carling boasted a manufacturing capacity of 150 barrels per week -- a level which dwarfed that of his local competition. ILLUSTRATION: 7 photos\1. Carling vacated the brewery on Waterloo Street (now Siskinds law firm) andbuilt the one above near the river in 1875. Four years later, it wasdevastated by fire, and then rebuilt. The Labatt brewery near the Forks of theThames to the south, also rebuilt after a fire in 1874, was smaller than theCarling brewery, but nonetheless considered a marvel of technology.\2. Thomas Carling, one of London Township's pioneer settlers, brought hisbrewing talents to London in 1843.\3. John Carling, with his brother William, bought his father's brewery in1849, and showed a flair for marketing.\4. Samuel Eccles bought the London Brewery from John Balkwill and took JohnKinder Labatt into partnership.\5. John Kinder Labatt was a farmer when he got into the beer business withEccles. The partnership ended in 1855.\6. John Labatt took over the brewery in 1872 from his mother, who ran it afterJohn Kinder died in 1866. The London Free Press, 07-08-2000, pp D3.
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Modelo, brewer of Corona, posts pale Q2 profits By V. Sparrowe ($1=9.37 pesos) Bass Chairman, CEO Prosser May Split Roles, Telegraph Reports London, July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sir Ian Prosser, the chairman and chief executive of Bass Plc, may split his boardroom roles after the next annual general meeting, the Sunday Telegraph reported without citing sources. Bass Plc, owner of Holiday Inn and Inter-Continental hotels, wants to expand its hotel business and is expected to appoint a new group chief executive with experience in the industry. Prosser will become executive chairman, the newspaper reported. Bass agreed in June to sell its 223-year-old brewing business to Belgium's Interbrew NV for 2.3 billion pounds ($3.5 billion), following Interbrew's purchase of Whitbread Plc's beer operations. (The Sunday Telegraph, 7/23, p.1)
Bass may next buy chains or single hotels or enter joint ventures, said Tom Oliver, head of hotel operations. Mandarin Oriental International Ltd., a unit of Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., Accor SA and Hilton Corp. are possible targets, analysts say. ``We're not actually running around trying to do some mega- deal just to do some mega-deal,'' Oliver said. ``We are looking at things that run the full gamut.'' Bass agreed in June to sell its 223-year-old brewing business to Belgium's Interbrew NV for 2.3 billion pounds ($3.5 billion), following Interbrew's purchase of Whitbread Plc's beer operations. Both London-based companies are abandoning brewing to focus on the faster-growing hotel and leisure industries. The sale will generate about 2.1 billion pounds in net proceeds for Bass, which plans to initially pay off debt with the funds. Oliver wouldn't say what kind of acquisition budget the sale gives Bass, but analysts said the company will be able to spend as much as 5 billion pounds without issuing new stock.
Bass's last major purchase was in 1998, when it bought the upscale Inter-Continental chain for $2.9 billion. The acquisition rounded out Bass's range of economy to five-star hotels, and Bass will now focus on expanding existing chains, Oliver said. Selective Search ``Inter-Continental enabled us to dramatically change the scope of the company,'' Oliver said. ``We don't need to do that again. What we do have is the opportunity to selectively look at things that would be significantly complementary.'' Bass is expanding Holiday Inn in the U.K., Spain and Italy and Holiday Inn Express in Germany and Spain while eyeing major cities in the U.S., India, the Middle East and Latin America for Inter-Continental growth. The company also wants to develop the Crowne Plaza chain, Oliver said. Smaller acquisitions similar to its February purchase of the remaining 50 percent of Bristol Hotel & Resorts Inc., or the Central Park South Inter-Continental in New York last year may be a better route to growth than major buys, Oliver said. Expansion in Asia-Pacific is also key to Bass, which as of June had 2,965 owned and franchised hotels in 90 countries, making it the No. 2 hotel operator after Cendant Corp. of the U.S. Bass bought 59 hotels in Australia, New Zealand, the Southern Pacific islands and Asia from Southern Pacific Hotel Corp. for $207.8 million this year and is looking for more. ``If really attractive situations come up to get some prime assets in prime markets, we would certainly look very hard at expanding our position in those key markets,'' Oliver said. ``We're also not anticipating at the moment coming through and doing some major deals.'' Talking to Everybody Oliver wouldn't comment on speculation that Bass is in talks to acquire rivals Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. or Wyndham International Inc. of the U.S. ``You would expect a company the size of Bass to talk to everybody about doing everything,'' from supply partnerships to the travel market to acquisitions, Oliver said. Buying any large competitor with a range of chains would leave Bass with too many hotels that don't fit its own formats, forcing the company to make significant disposals, analysts said. ``The number of possible mega-mergers is distinctly limited, and the problems of making any of the possible combinations work are monumental,'' said Daniel Larkin, a financial adviser to hotel and leisure companies at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Bass would like more partnerships with other hotel operators, such as its agreement with Dorint Hotels & Resorts to develop and jointly manage Inter-Continental and Dorint hotels in Germany, Oliver said. The Hotel Inter-Continental Berlin and the Dorint Schweizerhof Berlin are the first two sites to share accounting, administration, purchasing and other systems under the agreement. Cherry-Picking Rights The company may also team up with a rival to bid for a larger chain, injecting cash in exchange for the right to cherry pick prime sites, analysts said. Bass added 995 million pounds in cash and stock to Punch Group Ltd.'s bid for Allied Domecq Plc's pubs and got first choice of 550 sites from the 3,500 U.K. outlets. ``Any type of deal which avoids Bass paying a brand premium for brands it doesn't need when it already has a full portfolio will be welcomed,'' said Fraser Ramzan, an analyst at Lehman Brothers who has a ``neutral'' recommendation on the stock. The company isn't likely to make any acquisitions until the brewing sale is complete. Bass is still waiting for European Union regulators to approve the agreement with Interbrew. Hotels generated 25 percent of the company's revenue in fiscal 1999 and 39 percent of operating profit. During the first half of fiscal 2000, sales rose 14 percent to 598 million pounds, while operating profit rose 21 percent to 146 million pounds. Bass has seen a ``positive continuation'' of that trend, even in the U.S., where the Federal Reserve Bank has raised interest rates six times over the past year, Oliver said. Higher interest rates have helped slow new hotel building by competitors, easing worries about a glut of mid-market outlets, Oliver said. Budapest to Frisco Bass has said it will spend $400 million through 2003 to renovate 10 Inter-Continental hotels, including those in New York, Chicago, Vienna, Budapest and Madrid. Renovation of the Miami Inter-Continental is ``well underway'' and the San Francisco project should be completed in a ``few weeks'' Oliver said. Work has yet to begin on the Mayfair in London, the Paris Le Grande and the Carlton in Cannes. While room closures during the renovation will trim $8 million to $10 million during the next three years from Inter- Continental sales, Bass can charge higher rates once the refits are completed. ``While there is a downdraft in the short term, it's a significant updraft after it's all finished,'' Oliver said. Oliver, 59, joined Bass in 1997 and will continue to manage the unit until he retires in his ``early 60s,'' he said. Bass sold the founding family's name and its red triangle trademark, the first registered in Britain, as part of the brewing package. The company is in the process of selecting a new name to reflect its focus on hotels, pubs and restaurants and will replace the current moniker before 2002. NARANART PHUANGKANOK, Brand image seen as key to market share, NATION. , The Nation (Thailand), 07-03-2000.
THAI companies should focus on the unique characteristics of their brand image, which is fundamental to their success in the market, said Miles Young, Asia-Pacific chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. Brand image has become popular as a marketing technique. It is considered in the business world to be like a gene in the human body, acting as message transmitter. And each brand, says Young, contains its own "DNA". "Brand image is a code which applies at a variety of levels, not just the level of identity, of visual presentation, but more deeply, in terms of the whole attitude, stance and orientation of brands," said Young, speaking recently at the C21 World Marketing Conference titled "Breakthrough Marketing Wisdom to Global Leadership".
For Thailand, the "image gene" was apparently patriotic. For example, the country's national carrier and certain newspapers and beers all had titles with national connotations.
With regards to beer, in terms of brand loyalty, Singha was the dominant brand, with a long-term image gene encapsulated in the phrase "my country, my beer". Its brand image stretched far beyond advertisements, to encompass culture, arts, locales and people, all of which contributed to Singha being able to maintain the largest share of the local beer market. Taste has nothing, or little, to with sales anymore...it's dependent soley on the skills and craftsmanship of the brand marketing. In the airline market, Thai consumers preferred to fly with Thai Airways -- despite the fact other airlines offered superior benefits. In this case, the image gene won again. According to Young, brand image involves a multi-layered and fundamental bonding process which takes on three key roles -- definer, organiser and animator. As a definer, it acts by screening out all irrelevant material until one is only left with the essence of a product. As an organiser, the brand has become one of the drivers of globalisation, helping large distribution organisations create economies of scale. The core gene is constant but applies in varying degrees to different companies. Brand image is a great animator because it is regarded as the creator of personality and represents the force behind an idea. When Leo Beer was launched as a competitor of Chang and Singha, it was able to capture a number of consumers. Young said Ogilvy & Mather defined Leo's DNA as fun, entertaining and good for celebration, so the campaign devised the slogan, "With Leo, the party never ends." "The image gene met the public for the first time not through the traditional media, but in the form of a song, singing 'Chai Yo Leo'," said Young. They may have been as pleased with yellow water. "Chai Yo" is used by Thais when toasting at a party. Moreover, the advent of the Internet opened up a new aspect of marketing. For example Pond's skincare's website contained a diary asking 20 questions. A certain brand would be recommended depending on consumer response. This interaction, coupled with Internet access to a skin consultant, developed customer loyalty. However, marketers should be aware of possible factors that could undermine brand image, such as profit-milking, devaluation through excessive sales promotion and change and inconsistency over time. Scientists say alcohol is environment-friendly .c Kyodo News Service KATHMANDU, July 22 (Kyodo) - Industrial alcohol laced with gasoline or diesel oil reduces the harmful effect of car emissions by lowering levels of monoxides and hydrocarbons in it, Nepalese scientists claim. Scientists at the Institute of Engineering of the Tribhuvan University successfully carried out experiments using ''gasohol'' in Mazda and Suzuki cars recently, the Nepalese government-owned newspaper Gorkhapatra said Saturday. Gasohol (80% gasoline and 20% ethanol) cut vehicle emission of carbon monoxide by 94.60% and hydrocarbon by 33.20%, the newspaper said. The scientists have recommended increased use of the mixture in vehicles to combat the scourge of environment pollution in Nepalese cities. Ethanol is produced from molasses, which is widely used in Nepal for brewing liquor. La Tondena says Jan-June net income 794 mln pesos MANILA, July 23 (Reuters) - Philippine beverage firm La Tondena Distillers Inc registered a net income of 794 million pesos for the January-to-June period this year, an 83 percent jump from a year ago, the company said on Sunday.
La Tondena is a unit of food and beer conglomerate San Miguel Corp. A company statement said consolidated net sales of its various products -- which range from hard liquor to bottled water and fruit juices -- rose 39 percent to seven billion pesos during the period. ``Double digit increases were registered across all its businesses of hard liquor, bottled water and juice,'' the company said. Hemingway look-alike wins contest on fifth try By Ben Iannotta KEY WEST, Fla., July 23 (Reuters) - Carlie Coley's annual safari to Key West in khakis and white beard has ended triumphantly. The Alma, Georgia, plumbing supply store owner was named the Ernest Hemingway look-alike ``For the New Millennium'' on Saturday night in a raucous competition at the Key West bar where local lore says the legendary American author drank. Coley, who was rooted on by 30 members of his extended family, won the right to preside over the final day on Sunday of this tourist island's 20th annual Hemingway Days Festival, a four-day romp honouring Hemingway with arm wrestling, vomiting while laughing, a marlin fishing tournament, plenty of hard drinking and a short-story writing competition. After being voted the best look-alike by a panel of 12 past winners, an overwhelmed Coley leaned down from the stage at Sloppy Joe's Bar and give his wife, Bennie Nell, a long kiss. Then he was swept outside by a crowd of photographers, reporters, tourists and fellow ``Papa'' Hemingway look-alikes. ``My knees are still trembling. `` he said. ``It come my time to be picked. Put on a little more weight, don't know whether helped or not,'' he quipped. Ernest Hemingway lived on this island in the Florida Keys -- a 110-mile-long chain at the southern tip of Florida -- from 1929 to 1940, penning such classics as ``Death in the Afternoon'' and ``The Snows of Kilimanjaro.'' His novel ``To Have and Have Not'' is set here. Coley, 61, founded Coley's Electrical and Plumbing Supplies in Alma in 1967. ``I wrote a little bit,'' he said, ``but not anything anybody would want to read just yet. My present stories are 'A Farewell to Farms' and "The Old Man and the C-Span'.'' The Key West festival draws thousands to this island during the normally slow summer months. It is as much a tribute to the great author's passionate lifestyle of hunting, fishing, eating and drinking as to his writing. Coley beat 28 other look-alikes on a stage surrounded by images of Hemingway fishing, Hemingway on the cover of Life Magazine, Hemingway at his type writer. The losers walked away with twelve-packs of warm canned beer. Four-time entrant Jack Krause of St. Louis, Mo., said he would be back next year to try again. ``It's a lot of fun,'' he said. Krause presented each judge with a white T-shirts inscribed: ``If you don't know Ernest, you don't know Jack.'' Coley said he'll probably feel a little sad when he realises that his five-year hunt for the look-alike honour is over. Past winners are not allowed to compete again, but Coley will be a judge in next year's contest. One thing will not change, he said. ``My friends will still be here.'' |