When Life Gives You Lemons | Deep Ellum Brewing Co.

I highly recommend you go read the quick little story over at the blog for Deep Ellum Brewing Company. 

As a homebrewer, there is little to no fun in a shitty brewday.  I can't imagine the irritation of such on the commercial scale, regardless of how big the 'C' in commercial is for you.  With that said, it's nice to see ingenuity become victor when resignation to a disappointing loss could have occurred. 

Good luck to you, Deep Ellum Brewing Co., and I hope I get a chance to try some of that Festivus!

And, if you're free and within the drive, DEBC are having their Grand Opening & Inaugural Tour this Saturday, December 17, from 2pm to 6pm.
(fb event link)

Alaskan Brewing to Begin Distro in TEXAS! WOOOOO!!!!

I consider this some of the coolest beer distribution news I've heard in my neck of the woods in quite a while! 

From BrewBound:

[brewery spokesperson Ashley] Johnston confirmed that the brewery plans to expand into both Texas and New Mexico by the summer of 2012.

Alongside this info, Alaskan Brewing also announced that they will be adding in a Black IPA into their seasonal lineup, and it will be available until the Summer Ale starts appearing in April/May.

Sweetness, all the way around.

In other news, I have nothing else interesting to add...

Jester King Craft Brewery Sues TABC | JesterKingBrewery.com

So the folks over at Jester King just posted their press release copy to the blog.  I recommend giving it a good read.  Here's a snippet:

We have sued the TABC because we believe that its Code violates our rights under the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

The reasons given are very valid, in my opinion, and I've made no qualms about my irritation and impatience with the Texas politicians' inability to rectify antiquated laws regarding beer in any conversation on the topic. To put it simply, the rules and laws are stupid.  Example:

Under the bizarre, antiquated naming system mandated by the TABC Code, we have to call everything we brew over 4% alcohol by weight (ABW) “Ale” or “Malt Liquor” and everything we brew at or below 4% ABW “beer”. This results in nonsensical and somewhat comical situations where we have to call pale ale at or below 4% ABW “pale beer” and lager that is over 4% ABW “ale”.

 This is just foolish, to me.  It's like calling any automotive vehicle over, say, 200 inches in length is called a "Truck," and anything under is a "Sedan"...well, does that really make a station wagon a truck by vehicular terminology?  No.  Does that make an old, tiny pick-up a sedan?  No.  Stupid, I tell ya!

Also, the inequalities between the liquor, wine, and beer industries on standards of behavior (also outlined in the press release) are grossly unfair and unacceptable.  The simple fact that a winery can have a full-pay tasting room on-site, sell for off-site consumption, *and* sell through distributorship, yet breweries can't even tell people where they can find their product on shelves, much less sell any to them right then and there just gets my blood boiling.  I'll reiterate my opinion:  It's stupid!

And, please, don't let me get started...instead, go read the post.  Import rules are, in short, also stupid.


I am wholly interested to see where this goes, if the JK guys FULLY follow through on this, and if this actually causes any kind of change whatsoever in the system as it is now.  We can only hope.

If you are still here and haven't clicked the links above, here's your last chance!

***EDIT:  Link to the legal draft.



If you can't tell by either previous posts or my insufficient voracity of varied enhancers, I'm an engineer, not a writer.  My vocabulary is limited to that which I have capacity on a given day, directly proportional to quantitative intake of caffein and inversely related to my current state of irritation and indignance.  Read:  I just got back from a loooong week in Vegas, I'm tired, and I'm busy; therefore, no fancy words.