Beer and Brewer Magazine

It seems to be all over the news this morning that The Australian Monarchists League is up in arms about this ad from Coopers:

ABC News is reporting that this bunch of intellectual giants have taken umbrage at this ad. The ABC reports that League national chairman Philip Benwell says the wording of the ad by South Australian beer company Coopers is an attack on the constitutional monarchy.

"This particular advertisement is designed to get people to support publicans, but it's also saying 'Forget the monarchy', and that's what we object to," he said.

"Why couldn't they say 'Forget the Republicans, support the publicans?' Why do they have to attack the monarchy?"

Now, I hold no particularly strong view about the issue of a republic. I tend to think that we're grown up enough to have our own head of state, but I wouldn't die in a ditch over it. But if this is the most important issue that the Australian Monarchists can come up with it does seem to show that the monarchy - and The Australian Monarchists - are irrelevant.

Coopers ads are some of the cleverest going - that view may be coloured by the fact that some of them appear in our magazine, but I hope not.

Perhaps in these ads need to be exported to the home of our monarchy. Pubs are closing at a record rate. 

It's got a long history in its own right and, thanks to Bondy and the America's Cup, an indelible place in Australian sporting history. Now, it's  great to see The Old Swan Brewery is going to be brewing once more.

Brewer Mark Reilly says the Old Brewery (previously Old Swan) of Perth is sparking up the boiler and will be pumping out 3 hand-crafted beers brewed onsite. They have broken the majority of our ties with the Lion Nathan and in about 5-6 weeks will be pulling all the LN draught beers from the bar to make way for a bavarian-style lager, american-style pale ale and a northern english-style brown ale.

I'll keep you posted.

Several months ago US Beer writer Jay Brooks suggested that there should be a holiday to honour the men and women who make beer. Jay suggested that July 18 - the Feast of St Arnou (the patron saint of brewers) as the perfect occasion for International Brewers Day. At Beer & Brewer we thought this was a great idea. There are a number of days and festivals that involve drinking beer - St Patricks Day and Oktoberfest spring to mind - but nothing that celebrates beer and the people who make it.

In keeping with our motto: Drink Less, Drink Better, this isn't a celebration of drinking as much as you possibly can before getting into a fight on the street with someone who you don't like the look of or vomiting in a cab - we'll leave that to the RTD crowd. Instead, International Brewers Day is a time for thoughtful reflection about great beer and is chance to savour it and share it. We also like the day's motto, "Have you hugged a brewer today?"

As this is International Brewers Day's first year we're starting small. Some of the small brewers in Brisbane where I am based are holding a party at the Grand Central Hotel. Something similar is being planned at The Malthouse in Wellington, New Zealand.We hope that next year it will grow and become a world wide movement to celebrate the artists who turn malt, water, hops and yeast into beer. Whatever you're doing this Friday, make sure you raise a glass of a special beer in honour of our brewers.

As the old Czech saying goes:
"Blessed is the mother who gives birth to a brewer." 

You know when something has made it in the United States when it is thoughtfully written about in then New York Times, one of the US's premier newspapers of record.

Using that as a test, beer has well and truly made it. Eric Asimov is the NYT's chief wine critic, but regularly writes about beer in the paper and on his blog . Unlike most wine writers who deign to write about beer, you never get the feeling he is condescending to do so and writes with enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment. I consider his writings are some of the most thoughtful about beer - and wine - around. And I wholly concur with his thoughts on beer gimmickry, but funny is still funny and those Real Men of Genius commercials are classics...but do they make the beer great?

We get computers whenever we phone a bank, an airline, insurance company. Do we really want a robot serving our beer? Then again, if they do it well and they're this cool, does it really matter?

By the way, ChannelFlip is pretty compulsive viewing if you list computers or games as interests - in addition to beer.

There has been a good response to the issue of changing the excise payable by small breweries that featured in the current edition of the magazine, though this disappointingly hasn't translated into overwhelming support for the online petition . Maybe this is because of ongoing scepticism about online petitions and whether they are effective. I can't answer that one, but strong shows of public feeling do have the ability to sway government policy...just look at the current outcry over the possibility that benefits for pensioners and carers may be cut. You don't have to become a militant but if you want to continue to enjoy what is currently a flourishing microbrewing industry make some noise about the issue.

You can start by emailing Treasurer Wayne Swan.

That rant over, here is what I wanted to share, a report on the issue by RMIT student Thomas Keen. Not bad for a student journalist, although I'm not sure what he was drinking in his piece to camera, but it looked like he may have shot a few takes before that one.