You will recall that Canada Day happens at each year’s mid-point and that in the past we’ve mentioned the role beer lover Sir John A. Macdonald in creating the confederation of colonies which formed into the current constitutional construct. Well, this year his statues are coming down and the news of hundreds and hundreds of graves of Indigenous children at forced residential schools started during his era is now coming out that has the nation reeling and reflecting. This will be, accordingly, a briefer edition of the news notes.
First and as I have mentioned before, mini-multinational BrewDog is a story that keeps giving and giving. We saw how they promoted the prize of a solid gold beer can as winnings in a contest and how it only turned out to be just gold plate. Stupid and a massive self-inflicted injury. Again. But the story that caught my eye was actually from a few months ago when BrewDog bought a Scottish estate as part of a carbon set-off scheme:
If BrewDog has bought Kinrara, it could be an interesting purchase, bringing a different type of landowner into the market, one apparently wanting to offset their carbon emissions rather than shoot and kill wildlife. If they, or any other owner, intend to end muirburn and reduce deer numbers to allow woodland to regenerate, that would be a good thing. Equally, however, a “productive grouse moor with 10 year average of 476 brace”, the “challenging, high bird pheasant shoot” and salmon fishing on the river Dulnain might prove very attractive for the purposes of entertaining corporate clients. The problem is neither the public nor the Cairngorms National Park Authority would appear to have any idea of the new owners’ intentions
What appears a bit distasteful to me is (i) offsets are just a way to do one thing to offset another, (ii) the other thing remains carbon-related bad behaviour, (iii) the funds for the purchase appear to be from the crowd sourcing and not overall business revenue so there is no imposition to serve as a deterrence for more carbon-related bad behaviour and (iv) they have bought themselves an estate for future corporate playboy playground fun. What in all this is particularly eco-friendly? Punk as croquet.
Again, the Toronto Maple Leafs are watching the Stanley Cup finals from the sidelines or the golf course but at least if their goalie George Hainsworth from 1933-37 is watching from heaven he will have poured himself a beer as the great rival, the Montreal Canadiens play for glory. Oh, and he also played for Montreal… and won the cup with them… twice. So he’s probably quite happy. Except he’s dead.
“Juice Lord” is a stupid name for a beer but apparently two breweries think it’s important enough to go to court over.
Dr Christina Wade continued sharing her good work, this week discussing 155 cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia and the brewing related legal information they hold:
…here we see a law regarding perhaps cheating or fraud. There are quite a few different translations for this law code (108), with various phrasing that changes the meaning somewhat. Paraphrasing this particular translation another way, it perhaps means that if the alewife accepts money by the large stone, but not barley, for the price of ale; and the price of ale is less than the price of barley, she is cheating, and therefore shall be killed. This anxiety about cheating alewives is something often repeated throughout history.
Barry in Germany introduced me to the concept of a bierwagen. It appears to be a traveling beer bar / trailer that shows up when he prays fervently enough. Seems like a very good idea that I need in my neighbourhood.
Irish beer prices in the late 1980s and again what was available in 1972.
As the pandemic takes a break or has its back broken, depending on who you listen to, it appears the great new world order is regressing back into the old world order… at least in NYC:
Over the past year, the drinks were allowed under a new “off-premises privileges” rule, designed by the New York State Liquor Authority to help failing restaurants during a time of uncertainty for the food and beverage industry. With vaccinations topping 70 percent in New York and coronavirus cases on the decline, the governor rescinded the state of emergency on Wednesday, leaving many businesses that have not yet fully recovered economically with a surplus of supplies for the to-go drinks, as well as the drinks themselves. “They’re sitting on thousands and thousands of to-go cocktails that will be illegal to sell tomorrow,” wrote St. John Frizell, a restaurateur in Brooklyn, in an Instagram post.
That’s all for this week. For more, don’t forget to check out those weekly updates from Boak and Bailey mostly every Saturday, plus more with the weekly Beer Ladies Podcast, at the weekly OCBG Podcast on Tuesday and sometimes on a Friday posts at The Fizz as well. There is a monthly sort of round up at The Glass. There is more from the DaftAboutCraft podcast, too. And the Beervana podcast. And sign up for Katie’s weekly newsletter, The Gulp, too. And check out the Atlantic Canada Beer Blog‘s weekly roundup. Plus follow the venerable Full Pint podcast. And Fermentation Radio with Emma Inch. There’s the AfroBeerChick podcast as well! And also look at Brewsround and Cabin Fever. And Ben has his own podcast, Beer and Badword – when he isn’t in hiatus as at the mo, more like timeout for rudeness. And remember BeerEdge, too. Plus a newcomer located by B+B: The Moon Under Water.