Fire it up!
In case you missed it, hops are in short supply. No, not because of ethanol - that's a myth. So what's the real cause? One hell of a fire in a hop warehouse that destroyed some 2 - 3 percent of the WORLD'S hop supply. Craft beer aficionados will likely pay the ultimate price at the tap. Check out ABC's report for the lowdown.
Miller Mocks Jesus
It's bad enough that SABMiller of London, and Denver-based Molson Coors Brewing Co. have merged to fight the "juggernaut" (quotes because there's simply no accounting for taste in this country) that is Anheuser-Busch (check out all the details here), but Miller has decided it was in their best interest to sponsor The Folsom Street Fair, which is the finale to San Francisco's Leather Pride Week. Think of it in these terms: citizens of Sodom and Gamorrah would blush over this crap.
That's bad, but it gets a WHOLE LOT worse. The promotional poster (go here to see it, I won't stoop so low as to show it on my site) for this "festival" - and I use that term loosely (although not nearly as loose as the morals of the attendees) - is nothing short of mind boggling. In what amounts to a sexually twisted version of the painting The Last Supper (create by Leonardo Da Vinci) "are a set of men and women in various stages of leather dress/undress, including a man wearing a black dog mask. Sex toys, including a big red fist, are strewn across the table... Prominently on display in the left-hand corner of the ad — the Miller Lite sponsorship logo."
Wow. Just... WOW. As if I needed another reason to, dare I say, piss on mass produced swill. To read the whole article, written by Brent Bozell III, go here.
On that happy note... ya'll have a great beer drinkin' weekend. I know I will! Let me know if there's something out there you've tried recently that you think I'd like. I LOVE trying new brews!
Until then... Zivjeli!
