Total Pageviews

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

IT WAS A BEERY GOOD YEAR


San Diego Craft Beer News Snippets plus a Year in Review by the Brewers Assn.
Favorite News Snippets from 2014:
From the staff of West Coaster Craft Beer Magazine and website
(www.westcoaster sd.com) and other sources:
           
ALESMITH’s Tony Gwynn tribute beer is reaching all time highs in popularity. The beer, San Diego Pale Ale .394, references Gwynn’s career-high batting average in 1994. After a few tasting sessions and meetings earlier this year, the Baseball Hall of Famer and his family decided they wanted Peter Zien and his crew to create a hop-forward beer with light body and color. AleSmith first released the beer to the public on June 6 at Padres Beerfest, ten days before Mr. Padre passed away.

A portion of the proceeds goes to the Tony and Alicia Gwynn Foundation, created in 1995 — the same year as AleSmith — to improve the lives of local children through social, academic, and economic programs.

Because of the beer’s popularity — 119 six-packs were sold quickly during San Diego Beer Week — AleSmith will continue ramping up its production. The beer has been on tap consistently at The Bar Key in North Pacific Beach, and according to TapHunter, it’s on at Brothers Provisions as well.

FAMILIAR FACE BACK TO BREWING
By Mike Shess, publisher, West Coaster Craft Beer Magazine:
Long time head brewer for Rock Bottom La Jolla and former President of the San Diego Brewers Guild Marty Mendiola is setting off to start Second Chance Beer Company. Opening in 2015, the brewery will be located in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego County and feature his English Brown, Irish Red and Robust Porter recipes.

Welcome back, Marty Mendiola
Under the auspices of Rock Bottom, Marty’s earned a hearty share of accolades from the two major brewing competitions: the annual Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and the bi-annual World Beer Cup (WBC). His Longboard Brown won Gold at the 2012 WBC and 2009 GABF, Silver at the 2010 WBC and Bronze at GABF 2013. Moonlight Porter earned Gold medals at GABF 2013 & 2011, and a Silver award in 2010. Two different Red recipes: Rudolph’s Red and Ragtop Red won as well, with a 2010 Gold World Beer Cup award and two GABF Bronze medals (2013/10), respectively.

Three World Beer Cup awards and seven Great American Beer Festival medals is a very respectable amount of hardware for a small brewpub brewer. Larger breweries tend to hold the recipes of their brewers as proprietary. Even if Marty’s beers aren’t the exact same as his Rock Bottom recipes, it’s a safe bet that the beer brewed at Second Chance will be world class.

As San Diego County nears 100+ breweries, Marty and his business partner, Curtis Hawes, are optimistic in regards to over-saturation and competition. “Marty has been brewing in San Diego since before brewing was cool,” says Hawes. “He has over 15 years’ professional experience here, he attended the UC Davis Master Brewers Program…If you look at places like Denver and Portland, you see there is always will be room for another great brewery…” Marty adds, “[the] Carmel Mountain / Rancho Bernardo area is far from saturated.” Keep an eye on Second Chance’s Facebook page for updates.

Track active and in-planning breweries on West Coaster’s Brewery Watch list.

HOT NEWS IN 2014--(L-R): 
Chuck Silva, Green Flash brewmaster, 
Alpine’s Pat McIlhenney and 
Green Flash co-owner Mike Hinkley 
toast the merger of these two icon 
San Diego County craft beer brands.
MERGER MEMO: Green Flash founders, Mike and Lisa Hinkley and Alpine Beer Company founders, Pat and Val McIlhenney announced that their breweries had agreed to share resources, knowledge and experience.  Both the McIlhenneys and the Hinkleys view the affiliation as mutually beneficial, and are committed to supporting each other for the success of both breweries. 

Each company will remain independently operated and maintain its distinct brand and culture.  Pat will remain Alpine’s President and Brewmaster to oversee all operations of Alpine Beer Company while also ensuring Alpine beers continue to meet his unwavering standard of quality, whether brewed at the Alpine or Green Flash facilities.  The most notable change will transpire over the next several years, as Alpine beer will become available to their legions of fans from across the country who have only experienced the greatness of Alpine beers while visiting California.

NATIONAL CRAFT BEER REVIEW-- As the New Wear arrives, let’s take a look back on how craft brewers fared in 2014.
            “It’s remarkable to see how beer has evolved in the past century. Year over year we’re seeing tremendous growth in the craft beer sector and 2014 proved that craft beer is moving into the mainstream,” said Bart Watson, chief economist, Brewers Association. “Consumers are making a conscious choice to buy and try the plethora of options produced by small and independent craft brewers.”

·         U.S. brewery count returns to historic levels. In November, the United States passed the mark of 3,200 brewers in the country and the number of brewery licenses reached the highest ever, topping 4,500 in the first sixth months of the year. Thirteen states (CA, CO, WA, OR, MI, NY, PA, TX, FL, WI, IL, NC, OH) now have more than 100 breweries each.

·         Breweries are opening at a rate of 1.5 per day. In addition, there are more than 2,000 breweries in planning.

·         Craft brewers were the growth point in the overall beer industry. Through June of 2014, craft brewers enjoyed 18 percent growth by volume. Numerous data channels are showing continuing double-digit growth for craft in the second half of the year.

·         India Pale Ales (IPAs) remained the most favored craft beer style. According to retail scan data, IPA is up 47 percent by volume and 49 percent by dollar sales, accounting for 21 percent volume share of craft and 23 percent dollar share of off-premise beer sales. Additionally, the style was the number one entered category at the Great American Beer Festival®.

·         Variety packs had a strong year with craft beer lovers. Retail data also indicates that variety packs are up 21 percent by volume and 24 percent by dollar sales, equating to nine percent volume share of craft and seven percent dollar share.

·         Craft beer appreciators are becoming as diverse as craft beer itself. Data indicates that 38 percent of households bought a craft beer in the last year versus 29 percent in 2010. Additionally, women consume almost 32 percent of craft beer volume, almost half of which comes from women ages 21-34. Hispanic populations are demonstrating increased craft engagement as well.

“More and more breweries will spur innovation, meaning there will be even more offerings on hand for beer geeks and beginners to enjoy,” Watson added. “Not to mention more opportunities to explore and support local breweries, which has a profound impact on the economy at the regional, state and national level.”

Note: Figures are a compilation of data provided by the Brewers Association, Symphony IRI and Nielsen. The Brewers Association will release a comprehensive annual analysis of craft brewer production in March of 2015. 

Beer lovers are invited to learn more about the dynamic world of craft beer at CraftBeer.com and about homebrewing via the BA's American Homebrewers Association. Follow us on Twitter.

The Brewers Association is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital/familial status. The BA complies with provisions of Executive Order 11246 and the rules, regulations, and relevant orders of the Secretary of Labor.



Tuesday, December 30, 2014

WARM PANCAKES FOR A COLD MORNING

Sour Cream Pancakes from PBS's Kitchen Explorers


COZY UP—Place the link below in your browser for a cozy feel good stroll through PBS’s Kitchen Explorers world of pancakes.
All shapes all sizes.  Delicious.



Monday, December 29, 2014

MEDIA MONDAY / WHY OUR CALENDAR IS OUR CALENDAR































Editor’s Note: This guest blog on the history of modern calendars is from WebExhibits.org, an interactive museum of science, humanities, and culture.  Launched in 1999, the site can be found at http://www.webexhibits.org/

Evolution of Our Calendar from Pope (1582) to Playboy (1954)
Pope Gregory XIII dedicated his papacy to implementing the recommendations of the Council of Trent. By the time he reformed the Julian calendar in 1582 (using the observations of Christopher Clavius and Johannes Kepler), it had drifted 10 days off course. To this day, most of the world uses his Gregorian calendar.

Before today’s Gregorian calendar was adopted, the older Julian calendar was used. It was admirably close to the actual length of the year, as it turns out, but the Julian calendar was not so perfect that it didn’t slowly shift off track over the following centuries.

But, hundreds of years later, monks were the only ones with any free time for scholarly pursuits – and they were discouraged from thinking about the matter of "secular time" for any reason beyond figuring out when to observe Easter. In the Middle Ages, the study of the measure of time was first viewed as prying too deeply into God’s own affairs – and later thought of as a lowly, mechanical study, unworthy of serious contemplation.

As a result, it wasn’t until 1582, by which time Caesar’s calendar had drifted a full 10 days off course, that Pope Gregory XIII (1502 - 1585) finally reformed the Julian calendar.

Ironically, by the time the Catholic church buckled under the weight of the scientific reasoning that pointed out the error, it had lost much of its power to implement the fix. Protestant tract writers responded to Gregory’s calendar by calling him the "Roman Antichrist" and claiming that its real purpose was to keep true Christians from worshiping on the correct days. The "new" calendar, as we know it today, was not adopted uniformly across Europe until well into the 18th century.

Here are a few more historical aspects of our calendar.

Has the year always started on 1 January?
In some ways, yes. When Julius Caesar introduced his calendar in 45 B.C.E., he made 1 January the start of the year, and it was always the date on which the Solar Number and the Golden Number were incremented.

However, the church didn’t like the wild parties that took place at the start of the new year, and in C.E. 567 the council of Tours declared that having the year start on 1 January was an ancient mistake that should be abolished.

Through the middle ages various New Year dates were used. If an ancient document refers to year X, it may mean any of 7 different periods in our present system:
1 Mar X to 28/29 Feb X+1
1 Jan X to 31 Dec X
1 Jan X-1 to 31 Dec X-1
25 Mar X-1 to 24 Mar X
25 Mar X to 24 Mar X+1
Saturday before Easter X to Friday before Easter X+1
25 Dec X-1 to 24 Dec X

Choosing the right interpretation of a year number is difficult, so much more as one country might use different systems for religious and civil needs.

The Byzantine Empire used a year starting on 1 Sep, but they didn’t count years since the birth of Christ, instead they counted years since the creation of the world which they dated to 1 September 5509 B.C.E.

Since about 1600 most countries have used 1 January as the first day of the year. Italy and England, however, did not make 1 January official until around 1750.

It is sometimes claimed that having the year start on 1 January was part of the Gregorian calendar reform. This is not true. This myth has probably started because in 1752 England moved the start of the year to 1 January and also changed to the Gregorian calendar. But in most other countries the two events were not related. Scotland, for example, changed to the Gregorian calendar together with England in 1752, but they moved the start of the year to 1 January in 1600.

What is the origin of the names of the months?
A lot of languages, including English, use month names based on Latin. Their meaning is listed below. However, some languages (Czech and Polish, for example) use quite different names.

Month, Latin name, Origin
January
Januarius          
Named after the god Janus.

February  
Februarius        
Februa: the purification festival.

March       
Martius              
Named after the god Mars.

April          
Aprilis                
Named either after the goddess                                                  
Aphrodite or the Latin word aperire, to open.

May           
Maius                 
Goddess Maia.

June          
Junius               
Goddess Juno.

July           
Julius                
Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E.
Prior to that time its name was                                                 
Quintilis from the word quintus,
fifth, because it was the 5th month in                                                                   the old Roman calendar.

August      
Augustus          
Emperor Augustus in 8 B.C.E. Prior                                                                       to that time the name was Sextilis                                                                         from the word sextus, sixth, because                                                  
it was the 6th month in the old                                                                                 Roman calendar.

September                           
From the word septem, seven,                                                                                 because it was the 7th month in the                                                                       old Roman calendar.

October                                 
From the word octo, eight, because it                                                                     was the 8th month in the old Roman                                                                     calendar.

November                           
From the word novem, nine, because                                                 
it was the 9th month in the old                                                 
Roman calendar.

December                             
From the word decem, ten, because it                                                                   was the 10th month in the old                                                  
Roman calendar.

Why does February have only 28 days?
January and February both date from about the time of Rome’s founding. They were added to a calendar that had been divided into ten month-like periods whose lengths varied from 20 to 35 or more days. A winter season was not included, so those period lengths are believed to have been intended to reflect growth stages of crops and cattle.

When introduced, January was given 29 days and put at the beginning of the calendar year. February was given 23 days and put at the end. Then, for an undetermined period shortly after Rome’s founding, months were said to have begun when a new moon was first sighted. At some later time, month lengths were separated from lunations and again became fixed. At that time, February’s original length was extended by five days which gave it a total of 28

Why does the Playboy Playmate of the Year and Calendar appear in January?
Playmate of the Year
Kennedy Summers
The "duh" answer is because January is the first month and that's the best way to start any calendar.  But, in the magazine industry, January is one of the toughest months to sell advertising because the selling period is during the year end holidays.  Madison Avenue's attention is hard to get during the party season.  So, magazine's make sure they make their January issues special.  Playboy puts its popular Playmate of the Year feature in that month to ensure advertisers show up.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

SUNDAY REVIEW / “THE LAST LESSON” BY ALPHONSE DAUDET


"The Black Stain": In France, children were taught in school to not forget the lost provinces, which were colored in black on maps. Painting by Albert Bettannier, a native of Metz who fled to Paris after the French defeat  [1871] in the Franco-Prussian War.

FICTION FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Text Courtesy of www.world-english.org

“THE LAST LESSON”
By Alphonse Daudet

I started for school very late that morning and was in great dread of a scolding, especially because M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles, and I did not know the first word about them. For a moment I thought of running away and spending the day out of doors. It was so warm, so bright! The birds were chirping at the edge of the woods; and in the open field back of the sawmill the Prussian soldiers were drilling. It was all much more tempting than the rule for participles, but I had the strength to resist, and hurried off to school.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was a tortured soul, who became a school teacher then one of the leading French novelists of his time, who also produced short stories, plays and poetry.  He was the father of Leon Daudet and Leon Daudet.   He was an ardent monarchist and serial philanderer and like his sons anti-Jewish in his writing and political leanings.

When I passed the town hall there was a crowd in front of the bulletin-board. For the last two years all our bad news had come from there—the lost battles, the draft, the orders of the commanding officer—and I thought to myself, without stopping:

“What can be the matter now?”

Then, as I hurried by as fast as I could go, the blacksmith, Wachter, who was there, with his apprentice, reading the bulletin, called after me:

“Don’t go so fast, bub; you’ll get to your school in plenty of time!”

I thought he was making fun of me, and reached M. Hamel’s little garden all out of breath.

Usually, when school began, there was a great bustle, which could be heard out in the street, the opening and closing of desks, lessons repeated in unison, very loud, with our hands over our ears to understand better, and the teacher’s great ruler rapping on the table.

But now it was all so still!

I had counted on the commotion to get to my desk without being seen; but, of course, that day everything had to be as quiet as Sunday morning. Through the window I saw my classmates, already in their places, and M. Hamel walking up and down with his terrible iron ruler under his arm. I had to open the door and go in before everybody. You can imagine how I blushed and how frightened I was.

But nothing happened. M. Hamel saw me and said very kindly:
“Go to your place quickly, little Franz. We were beginning without you.”

I jumped over the bench and sat down at my desk. Not till then, when I had got a little over my fright, did I see that our teacher had on his beautiful green coat, his frilled shirt, and the little black silk cap, all embroidered, that he never wore except on inspection and prize days. Besides, the whole school seemed so strange and solemn.

But the thing that surprised me most was to see, on the back benches that were always empty, the village people sitting quietly like ourselves; old Hauser, with his three-cornered hat, the former mayor, the former postmaster, and several others besides. Everybody looked sad; and Hauser had brought an old primer, thumbed at the edges, and he held it open on his knees with his great spectacles lying across the pages.

While I was wondering about it all, M. Hamel mounted his chair, and, in the same grave and gentle tone which he had used to me, said:

“My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.”

The Black Stain: German occupation of A-L from 1871 to 1918
What a thunderclap these words were to me!

Oh, the wretches; that was what they had put up at the town-hall!
My last French lesson! Why, I hardly knew how to write! I should never learn any more! I must stop there, then! Oh, how sorry I was for not learning my lessons, for seeking birds’ eggs, or going sliding on the Saar! My books, that had seemed such a nuisance a while ago, so heavy to carry, my grammar, and my history of the saints, were old friends now that I couldn’t give up. And M. Hamel, too; the idea that he was going away, that I should never see him again, made me forget all about his ruler and how cranky he was.

Poor man! It was in honor of this last lesson that he had put on his fine Sunday clothes, and now I understood why the old men of the village were sitting there in the back of the room. It was because they were sorry, too, that they had not gone to school more. It was their way of thanking our master for his forty years of faithful service and of showing their respect for the country that was theirs no more.

While I was thinking of all this, I heard my name called. It was my turn to recite. What would I not have given to be able to say that dreadful rule for the participle all through, very loud and clear, and without one mistake? But I got mixed up on the first words and stood there, holding on to my desk, my heart beating, and not daring to look up. I heard M. Hamel say to me:

“I won’t scold you, little Franz; you must feel bad enough. See how it is! Every day we have said to ourselves: ‘Bah! I’ve plenty of time. I’ll learn it to-morrow.’ And now you see where we’ve come out. Ah, that’s the great trouble with Alsace; she puts off learning till to-morrow. Now those fellows out there will have the right to say to you: ‘How is it; you pretend to be Frenchmen, and yet you can neither speak nor write your own language?’ But you are not the worst, poor little Franz. We’ve all a great deal to reproach ourselves with.
“Your parents were not anxious enough to have you learn. They preferred to put you to work on a farm or at the mills, so as to have a little more money. And I? I’ve been to blame also. Have I not often sent you to water my flowers instead of learning your lessons? And when I wanted to go fishing, did I not just give you a holiday?”

Then, from one thing to another, M. Hamel went on to talk of the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world—the clearest, the most logical; that we must guard it among us and never forget it, because when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.

Then he opened a grammar and read us our lesson. I was amazed to see how well I understood it. All he said seemed so easy, so easy! I think, too, that I had never listened so carefully, and that he had never explained everything with so much patience. It seemed almost as if the poor man wanted to give us all he knew before going away, and to put it all into our heads at one stroke.

After the grammar, we had a lesson in writing. That day M. Hamel had new copies for us, written in a beautiful round hand: France, Alsace, France, Alsace.

They looked like little flags floating everywhere in the school-room, hung from the rod at the top of our desks. You ought to have seen how every one set to work, and how quiet it was! The only sound was the scratching of the pens over the paper. Once some beetles flew in; but nobody paid any attention to them, not even the littlest ones, who worked right on tracing their fish-hooks, as if that was French, too. On the roof the pigeons cooed very low, and I thought to myself:

“Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons?”

Whenever I looked up from my writing I saw M. Hamel sitting motionless in his chair and gazing first at one thing, then at another, as if he wanted to fix in his mind just how everything looked in that little school-room. Fancy! For forty years he had been there in the same place, with his garden outside the window and his class in front of him, just like that. Only the desks and benches had been worn smooth; the walnut-trees in the garden were taller, and the hopvine that he had planted himself twined about the windows to the roof. How it must have broken his heart to leave it all, poor man; to hear his sister moving about in the room above, packing their trunks! For they must leave the country next day.

But he had the courage to hear every lesson to the very last. After the writing, we had a lesson in history, and then the babies chanted their ba, be bi, bo, bu. Down there at the back of the room old Hauser had put on his spectacles and, holding his primer in both hands, spelled the letters with them. You could see that he, too, was crying; his voice trembled with emotion, and it was so funny to hear him that we all wanted to laugh and cry. Ah, how well I remember it, that last lesson!

All at once the church-clock struck twelve. Then the Angelus. At the same moment the trumpets of the Prussians, returning from drill, sounded under our windows. M. Hamel stood up, very pale, in his chair. I never saw him look so tall.

“My friends,” said he, “I—I—” But something choked him. He could not go on.
Then he turned to the blackboard, took a piece of chalk, and, bearing on with all his might, he wrote as large as he could:

“Vive La France!”

Then he stopped and leaned his head against the wall, and, without a word, he made a gesture to us with his hand:

“School is dismissed—you may go.”