To turn to a less controversial subject than autism (believe it or not, I was attacked by a few people for expressing my opinion about the mercury issue) let’s switch to politics. This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle has a very interesting article about republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, whose family owns one of the largest Anheuser-Bush distributor in the United States, Hensley & Co. It’s believed to be worth about $250 million, with annual revenue of at least $300 million. From the AP article:

As heiress to her father’s stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him start his political career — even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm’s-length distance between McCain and his wife’s assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.

The article claims that not only was the Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. Political Action Committee one of McCain’s earliest political donors, but James Hensley (Cindy McCain’s father) and his company “gave so much money that the Federal Election Commission ordered McCain to give some of it back.”

As a longtime executive with the beer wholesaler, Cindy McCain is thought to be a multi-millionaire many times over, though the McCains have thus far refused to say exactly how much she’s worth and have kept all of her finances separate from his. “In government records, McCain is permitted to describe his wife’s salary at Hensley as simply ‘more than $1,000′ and, when listing her major assets, say only that they are worth ‘more than $1 million.’”

I’m going to stay away from commenting too much and just point out something about beer distributors and the way they’re usually characterized. It turns out the Chronicle only printed roughly half the story, probably for space reasons, whereas the Baltimore Sun, has much more about the beer angle. To wit:

Cindy McCain is Hensley’s chairwoman and holds at least a 20 percent stake in it, according to Arizona corporate records. She works mostly on strategic planning and corporate vision, said Hensley spokesman Douglas Yonko. The company is family owned, but Hensley won’t say whether Cindy McCain is a majority shareholder.

Family owned, yes, but remember that the NBWA last year campaigned against changes to the estate tax, basing their argument on beer distributors being small, family owned businesses who were being treated unfairly and couldn’t pass their companies on to their sons and daughters. As this makes clear, the real truth is most beer distributors — even the ones that really are family-owned — aren’t that small. The industry is dominated by beer wholesalers that have become increasingly consolidated and very rich.

Of the top 25 beer distributors in the U.S., only three of them (all in the bottom five) are single location wholesalers. The vast majority are multi-location chains of distributors. Hensley may describe itself as the No. 3 A-B house, but they’re 5th (and 8th overall), according to a Beverage World report of the top twenty-five it published in September. The largest, Reyes Holdings, has revenue in excess of $800 million and more than three-fifth of them have annual sales above $200 million.

McCains’ Bud wholesaler is also one that is still on board with the “100% share of mind” program A-B instituted several years ago offering incentives to distributors who sold only A-B products. If McCain is elected, our First Lady will be a Bud Girl.

Here’s a fun project. Admittedly, it wouldn’t work very well in a lot of places, but it’s ideal for Montana. Journalist Bill Schneider has set out to visit and write about every brewery in Montana. His column begins today in the New West, which styles itself as the “Voice of the Rocky Mountains.” His first stop is Lewis & Clark Brewing in Helena and he also provides a good overview of his plan. The fact that there are only around seventeen breweries in the state helps, but it’s still a fun and worthwhile endeavor.

The Green Life, which is the official blog of the Sierra Club, did a long post on St. Patrick’s Day about the other real green beer, organic beer, along with a number of breweries whose sustainable practices they applauded. New Belgium was mentioned, of course, and so was Sierra Nevada, Great Lakes, Brooklyn and Orlio. There’s also a number of comments listing even more green breweries that people knew about. It’s interesting to note that people interested enough to read the Sierra Club’s daily blog were so aware of so many breweries whose operations were green.

I confess that when the e-mail came across my screen from Forbes inviting me to take a look at their choices for America’s Best Beer Bars that I was more than a little skeptical. Forbes has managed to mangle beer stories a number of times since I’ve been monitoring the mainstream media’s beer coverage, but this was from Forbes Traveler, a subdivision that, according to their e-mail, “focuses on the ultimate travel experience and [for which they] create features to keep [their] users up to date on the best vacations and newest travel trends around.”

In their latest feature, they set out to pick “The Best American Beer Bars,” no small feat. So there was a certain amount of schadenfreude that made me check out their list, expecting the worst. What I found was a pleasant surprise. I’ve been to seven of their ten choices, and was very familiar with all but one of the remaining three. And by personal knowledge or reputation, I’d say they put together an astonishingly good list, as these things go. And while there is plenty of personal bias that might cause any of us to wish they’d substitute this one or that one with a personal favorite, it’s hard to really quibble with any of these bars as being deserving. The one I would personally substitute is Monk’s Cafe (Philadelphia, PA), with which I’d replace the Brick Store Pub, but only because I’ve never heard of that one. It may very well be a fine place. It does appear as #16 on Rate Beer’s Best Beer Bars 2008 and #49 on Beer Advocate’s list of the Top 50 Beer Bars from 2005. And it came in at #2 on the Beer Mapping Project’s Highest Reviewed Locations, though it’s worth noting that #1 was Monk’s. There are also plenty of other great places that I’d wrestle with, too, like O’Briens or the Liar’s Club (both in San Diego), Lucky Baldwin (in Pasadena) or the Standard Tap (in Philly).

The Forbes’ choices are also accompanied by a nice story about the recent gains craft beer has been making in terms of both success and respect. The ten bars are listed below in the order they appear in the slideshow, which has photos of each bar along with what makes them special and useful contact information. I’m not clear if they’re meant to be in any particular order or not, but all in all a good list.

1. Blind Tiger Ale House (New York, NY)
2. Brickskeller (Washington, DC)
3. Publick House and Monk’s Cell (Brookline, near Boston, MA)
4. Brouwer’s Cafe (Seattle, WA)
5. Brick Store Pub (Decatur, GA)
6. Great Lost Bear (Portland, ME)
7. Falling Rock Tap House (Denver, CO)
8. Spuyten Duyvil (Brooklyn, NY)
9. Toronado (San Francisco, CA)
10. Hopleaf Bar (Chicago, IL)

With only one more day to go before “Beer & Chocolate Day,” here’s one more article on this delicious subject.

This one is by Greg Kitsock and appeared in the Washington Post today, entitled A Different Kind of Drinking Chocolate and explores a number of chocolatey beers, including one of my favorites, Rogue’s Chocolate Stout featuring Sebbie Buhler on the bottle. Here’s what Kitsock has to say about the Rogue Chocolate Stout, some of which I didn’t know: Rogue Chocolate Stout, from Rogue Ales in Newport, Ore., originally was brewed for export to Japan as Chocolate Bear Beer. Its label, featuring a teddy bear with a pink heart on its belly, was hardly designed for macho appeal. “In Japan, women give men chocolate for Valentine’s Day,” explains Sebbie Buhler, Rogue’s regional rep for the Northeast. When the brewery decided to introduce the beer to American drinkers in 2000, Rogue founder Jack Joyce renamed it and substituted Buhler’s portrait on the 22-ounce silk-screened bottle to honor her 10 years of service. As a base, Rogue uses its Shakespeare Stout (a fairly strong and aggressively hopped example of the style), infusing Dutch bittersweet chocolate into the finished beer. Drier than the Young’s, with a spicy, resiny finish, the stout is complex and intriguing, although the chocolate and the hops clash in the finish. Sebbie also had a bit to say about the beer that bears her likeness: Rogue Chocolate Stout is “a very versatile beer,” Buhler says. “It goes beautifully with big, stinky cheeses, and particularly blue cheese.” She also notes that it makes great beer cocktails, especially when mixed with Belgian fruit lambics. Try Lindemans Kriek or Lindemans Framboise (a raspberry ale). Those fruit beers are highly aromatic; to keep the stout from being overwhelmed, blend them at a ratio of at least two or three parts stout to one part lambic. Buhler also likes mixing Rogue Chocolate Stout with Rogue Chipotle Ale, a beer flavored with smoked jalapeno peppers. The half-and-half makes an excellent accompaniment to spicy Mexican fare such as chicken mole, she says. Sebbie lives in the same state where I grew up, Pennsylvania. Her brother Dave Buhler is also one of the co-owners of Elysian Brewing in Seattle, Washington. The pair have been in the beer business as long as I can remember. Happy Valentine’s Day, Sebbie.

Me and Sebbie at the Falling Rock during GABF week 2006.

Yesterday’s Honolulu Advertiser had a nice profile of Maui Brewing (thanks Doug). It’s a nice overview of how Sacramento resident Garrett Marrero moved to Kahana, on Maui, after buying the old Fish and Game Brewing Co. & Rotisserie. They’ve also started hand-canning their beers, which are now featured on Hawaiian Airlines, which is a great package for an island like Hawaii.

Three of Maui’s beers in cans. The Porter won a gold medal at last year’s GABF. There’s a nice photo series of their first canning on their website.

Brewmaster Thomas Kerns owner Garrett Marrero. Tom was my judging roomie at last year’s Great American Beer Festival.

Business Week online yesterday had an interesting article entitled Micro Beers Brew Up Big Business, with this promising subtitle: The brewing industry is becoming more consolidated, but for aficionados in the U.S. there has never been a better time to drink—or make—beer.

Typically, Adam Smith’s ghost is invoked and misapplied to suggest that “markets do work over time” and that’s why “[t]hroughout the 20th century local and regional breweries in the U.S. closed by the thousands as improved transportation and the economies of scale led to increasing consolidation” and that today because of it “the [beer] business is dominated by a handful of industrial-scale giants.” Smith, for anybody who’s actually read what he wrote, would have been appalled by the consolidation of so many industries. Even in his day, he thought large corporations were dangerous and needed to be kept in check. Conservative humorist P.J. O’Rourke, of all people, has a book out right now called On the Wealth of Nations, that offers a witty overview of Smith’s famous work.

That annoyance aside, what follows is a quick overview of the last 35 years in beerdom and his choices for 10 absolutely top-notch winners. From the text, I assume he attended GABF last year as he confesses to not trying all 1,884 that were poured at the festival. So while others who’ve picked up this story are saying they’re the “Top 10 Best American Beers,” the author himself is not saying that. They’re just ten great beers that he did manage to try, though in a remarkable coincidence each of his ten is available in a bottle.

There are, of course, some world class beers on his list — Anchor Liberty definitely deserves to be there — and a few head-scratchers (not that I’m naming names) but this is the sort of list that no two people will ever agree on. There’s also a slideshow showing the bottles and labels to all ten beers.

1. Alaskan Pale
2. Anchor Liberty Ale
3. Anderson Valley Boont ESB (formerly Belk’s ESB)
4. Breckenridge 471 IPA
5. Full Sail Amber
6. Ommegang Abbey Ale
7. Ringwood Old Thumper Extra Special Ale (Shipyard)
8. Rogue Shakespeare Stout
9. Sprecher Black Bavarian Style Lager
10. Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady Ale

MSNBC had an article last week on the increased costs of hops and barley, and what that’s doing to Rising Beer Prices. There’s nothing particularly illuminating or novel about the piece, apart from the video, which was shot at both Los Gatos Brewing and the Tied House, both in the San Jose area.

We’ve had the Big Three — Bud, Miller and Coors — for so long now that it would probably take me a few years to stop using the term. In the UK, once upon a time it was the Big Six; and they included Allied Breweries, Bass Charrington, Courage Imperial, Scottish & Newcastle, Watneys, and Whitbread. Until yesterday, only S&N remained. With the announcement earlier today of Carlsberg and Heineken’s buyout of Scottish & Newcastle, the last vestige of a bygone era will soon disappear, as well. England’s esteemed Financial Times today has a somewhat sad commentary on this entitled Few Crying into Beers at Decline of Big Six Breweries. As they observe, the change in the beer market and the mergers that began around 1989 have now come to a final solution, and with no one left to mourn them.

Here’s a few statistics. Since the turn of the century, imported beer to the UK has increased by 50%. During that same time, the number of large breweries fell by two-thirds. Today, a mere six remain, with 34 more considered regional breweries. Since the 1980s, the number of breweries has actually tripled, but that’s because of the UK’s own microbrewery revolution, which today includes over 500 small breweries whose total production accounts for only 2% of the nation’s beer market. Before today’s buyout, Heineken enjoyed only 1% of the total British market, but after the deal is approved they will have something in the neighborhood of 30%, making them Great Britain’s biggest beer company.

Maybe none of this matters. After all, as the FT’s editorial makes clear, British pub-goers, publicans and pub operators, and even CAMRA’s real ale aficionados will all be dishearteningly unmoved by today’s news. I can’t help but think that’s a mistake. So much of our early microbreweries owe such a great debt to the heritage and history of English ales that it seems a shame to let this dismal milestone pass so cavalierly. Perhaps I’ve romanticized these old breweries too much, but I don’t feel the same loathing for their products or their business practices that I usually do for our Big Three. That may simply be the 1,000-mile expanse of ocean separating me from everyday contact, who knows? But even though the British beer industry is nowhere near deceased, this is just one more wound that will again forever alter its landscape. I, for one, in the words of the immortal Edgar Allen Poe, “am drinking ale today.”

There was another terrific article by Eric Asimov in the New York Times yesterday about extreme beers called A Taste for Brews That Go to Extremes. Although admitting not everybody likes the new extremism, Asimov certainly does and the article also includes several Bay Area beers, including ones from Lagunitas, Mad River and Moylan’s breweries. And there’s a great quote from Brendan Moylan, owner of both Marin Brewing and Moylan’s.

“We’re the same country that put men on the moon, and we’re taking the same approach to beer,” said Brendan Moylan, the founder of Moylan Brewing Company in Novato, Calif. “We passed the rest of the world by ages ago, and they’re just waking up to it.”

The Times also did a tasting of several extreme beers, and happily included two well-known brewers in the process: Garrett Oliver, from Brooklyn Brewing, and Phil Markowski, from Southampton Publick House. Despite their initial derisiveness over the very pursuit of extremeness, even they found beers they enjoyed. 90-Minute IPA from Dogfish Head was the group’s favorite, followed by the Double Simcoe I.P.A. from Weyerbacher and Maximus from Lagunitas. There’s also a Beers of the Times feature where you can listen to the tasters talking about their favorite beers.

I’m trying to catch up a little with interesting items sent in by Bulletin readers. Last week my cable modem went down and it took a few days for the cable company to come out and replace it, so I missed a few days. It continues to amaze me how dependent I am on internet access, far more than the telephone or cable television or even my car. Despite the fact that I was born when Eisenhower was President, it’s hard to remember what it was like before the internet was such a ubiquitous feature of our modern world. I feel naked without my laptop. Anyway, this comes from Doug in Hawaii (thanks Doug) and is the Wall Street Journal article about Larry Bell’s brewery and his distributor fight in Illinois. I saw the original Journal article when it came out, but I don’t have online access to the WSJ. Happily, it was reprinted on the free site Small Biz.

Beyond Bell’s specific travails, the larger issue of franchise laws is discussed. Franchise laws are one of those things that people in the industry are familiar with but which get very little public attention. They should, because by and large franchise laws are not good for small breweries. There, of course, exceptions — good distributors who care and do a god job with smaller breweries. But in my experience I’ve heard far more horror stories about distributor mistreatment of craft brewers than the other way around.

Distributors love franchise laws, of course, because for them, in many cases, they are a legal stranglehold and something of a disincentive for distributors to actually do a good job promoting a particular brand. In some states, Nevada for example, once a brewer signs up with a distributor, no matter how bad a job they do by law they cannot switch distributors without the distributor’s consent (something which is almost never given). My understanding is that franchise laws were originally enacted to protect distributor’s from spending years building a brand in a particular market only to have the brand go to a competitor. But in most states, distributors — which despite their rhetoric are large businesses — have deep pockets to lobby politicians and get favorable legislation to protect their business at the expense of smaller, weaker microbreweries. As the Wall Street Journal touches on, that balance of power is just beginning to shift slightly, but entrenched power tends to hang on far longer than anybody ever expects, so I’m not persuaded things will change for the better anytime soon.

Unlike many people, I always have beer with my turkey dinner. Lately, it’s Anchor’s Christmas beer. I like a good spicy beer with the myriad flavors of turkey, cranberry, stuffing, mashed potatoes and so forth. Pike’s of Seattle used to also make an excellent spicy beer, Auld Lang Syne, which I also liked for Thanksgiving but they stopped making it quite some time ago. But there are almost as many pairings as there are people, and few can really be said to be wrong as long as they’re well-thought out and manage to contrast or compliment the meal.

A survey of the recent news regarding Thanksgiving reveals that a number of sources are finally recommending beer with the Thanksgiving meal. Ten years ago that would have been a veritable rarity but now that suggestion seems to be everywhere and it’s told with a seemingly welcome relief. Relief that people can stop trying to put a square peg in a round hole, trying in vain to force wine to work with a meal it has little business being involved in. The varied tastes in the average Thanksgiving meal yield so much more easily to beer — as in fact does most food, but that’s for another day — than wine that you just know something other than common sense has been driving the wine pairing suggestions for years. First, the Associated Press (AP) had a story that many outlets picked up under various titles, such as “Craft beers join Turkey Day table,” “Have a beer with Thanksgiving dinner,” and the vaguely insulting “Thanksgiving dinner — and beer?” But the article itself it surprisingly well-done. There’s also “A Thanksgiving Toast,” a nice editorial in the L.A. Times giving a historical perspective for drinking beer at the Thanksgiving meal. And the Boston Globe has a similar theme in “Ale, ale, the gang’s all here.” Then there’s this piece from Canada called “It’s not Thanksgiving without beer.” Likewise, Eric Hjerstedt Sharp, writing in the Ironwood, Michigan Daily Globe about Thanksgiving myths, has the following to add: —Not tee-totalers by any means, the major beverage aboard the Mayflower was beer, primarily because the alcohol kept the bacteria from spoiling the drinking water. However, they continued to brew and drink beer after they landed and settled. Scripps News has an article entitled “Choosing the best beer for a holiday dinner.” And while I could take issue with some of the author’s ignorance, she also has some good suggestions for the novice, too, so in the holiday spirit I’ll let it pass. Tim Cotter, writing for The Day in Connecticut, suggests two fine beers to try with your turkey, Ommegang Abbey Ale or Allagash Grand Cru, in his column entitled “Turkey Beers.” At Epicurious, there’s article called “Thanks for the Brews, Beers for Thanksgiving day,” by Marty Nachel, author of Beer for Dummies. And there’s also “The beer nut: Giving thanks for good beers” at the Daily News in rural Massachusetts. This year, the Brewers Association launched its own campaign called “The Year Beer Goes With the Bird” whose aim to show the advantages of pairing beer with your Thanksgiving meal this year. Some of their suggestions: Traditional Roast Turkey: The roasted and caramelized skin matches well with amber ale, a strong golden ale or an amber lager in the Vienna style. Smoked Turkey: If your local brewery offers a smoked beer, that can serve as a compliment to smoked turkey as well. Look for a porter, Scotch ale or amber ale in the smoked style. Cajun Turkey: Celebrated beer writer and New Mexico resident Stan Hieronymus suggests a malty IPA to go with his favorite Cajun turkey recipe. For a malty alternative that will stand up to the heat, try a dark bock or strong Scotch ale. The recipes on the left are also on the Brewers Association website and are courtesy of my good friend, beer cook Lucy Saunders. And here’s in an interesting piece of history in itself. It’s an article by Michael Jackson from the Washington Post from November of 1983 called Beer at the Thanksgiving table. And here’s a more recent one on the same subject by Michael’s friend, award-winning beer writer, Carol Smagalski, entitled “Elegant Beer for the Thanksgiving Table.” And then, of course, there’s my friend Lisa Morrison’s award-winning piece, “This Thanksgiving, Beer Is For The Bird” in which challenges her readers to “Try Serving Well-Crafted Local Beer At The Table, Pilgrim.”

And in case you thought this was a new idea, here’s an ad from 1946 extolling the virtues of beer with turkey by the National Brewing Co. of Baltimore, Maryland.