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| April 11, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - A Czech family brewery has opened a spa in its cellar, offering baths, beer massages and beer cosmetics.
The converted cellars at the Chodovar Family brewery in Chodova Plana include seven huge baths inspired by Victorian design where guests can swim in beer while sipping a pint at a bath side bar.
"Beer can treat a range of conditions, particularly skin conditions," said owner Jiri Plevka, "and the health center should appeal to men who are put off by 'posh' traditional spas."
A weekend package costs about $150, with a range of treatments - such as beer wraps at about $22 - additional.
The brewery's web site describes the baths:
"The major bath ingredient is dark Bathing Beer . . .
"The client is immersed into the baths which is enriched by a batch of active beer yeast and a mixture of dehydrated crushed herbs. The agreeable temperature of the water causes mild and gradual rise of the heart activity and activation of blood circulation in all the vascular system. The bath warms the cuticle and releases skin pores through which, due to moderate sweating, unhealthy substances are scoured away from the sub cutis.
"The mix of crushed herbs functions as purifying peeling. The beer yeast provides the skin with a wide range of vitamins B, proteins and saccharides and contributes to overall softening and regeneration of the cuticle. Carbonized bubbles contained in the mineral water IL-SANO remain on the skin, calm down the warmed up body surface and enable effective relaxation in mild sparkling baths.
"To increase the outcome of the bath and enhance the relaxation experience, the guests are recommended a glass of unique non-pasteurized Rock Lager including active yeast culture which positively work on all the digestive system. The length of the stay in the bath is 20 minutes." |
| April 10, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has overcome its rural roots and downscale image to attract affluent shoppers.
In its boldest effort yet to target upscale shoppers, the nation's largest retailer is opening a new store this week in Plano, Texas with an expanded selection that includes not only high-end electronics and fine jewelry, but also craft beer and hundreds of types of wine ranging up to $500 a bottle.
Wal-Mart says it won't duplicate this format anywhere else. But if plasma TVs, microbrewery beer and fancy balsamic vinegar sell in Plano, those items could be added to stores in other affluent communities.
Retail experts say nearly half of American families shop at Wal-Mart at least once a week. They say the retail giant has nearly tapped out its middle-class base and must attract consumers who otherwise shop at higher-end stores. |
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PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
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| April 06, 2006 - PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!
The Brewers Association has successfully helped introduce a U.S. House of Representatives resolution recognizing the week of May 15-21, 2006 as American Craft Beer Week to promote the contribution of America's craft brewers. We need to get more than 50 Representatives from the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress to sign on as co-sponsors of the HR 753. And we need to do this in the next two weeks, which is no small task!
Please help spread the word among your network of friends, homebrew clubs, beer enthusiasts, beer publications and communications, blogs, e-newsletters, email lists, beer drinkers, colleagues, etc.
See www.beertown.org/homebrewing/acbw_initiative.html or the front page of www.beertown.org for more information on how you can get involved.
Thanks for your efforts - We really need you on this one.
Here's to beer!
Gary Glass
Director
American Homebrewers Association
888-U-CAN-BREW
(303) 447-0816 x 121
gary@brewersassociation.org
www.beertown.org |
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SEA DOG BREWING COMPANY: NEW APRICOT WHEAT BEER AVAILABLE IN MAY
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| March 31, 2006 - PORTLAND, MAINE - In May, Sea Dog Brewing Company will release its new Sea Dog Apricot Wheat Beer, a crisp and quenching wheat ale with the subtle essence of fresh apricots.
This beer adds to Sea Dog's successful fruit beer portfolio which includes the award winning Sea Dog Bluepaw Wild Blueberry Wheat Ale and Raspberry Wheat Ale.
"In 2005, sales of Sea Dog Bluepaw grew a phenomenal 69 percent. Sales of Sea Dog Raspberry are also trending up," said Bruce Forsley, director of sales and marketing for Sea Dog brands. "Fruit flavored beer and spirits are popular nationally and consumers are looking for innovative, refreshing flavors."
Sea Dog Apricot Wheat Beer has 4.6% alcohol by volume and is available year round in 12-packs, 6-packs, and on draft. The package is a crisp, eye catching red with fresh apricots surrounding the Sea Dog logo.
For distribution information contact Bruce Forsley - bforsley@shipyard.com, 207-761-0807 x7104.
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Dogfish Head Golden Shower
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| March 27, 2006 - In the middle of the nineteenth century, in a land that is now the Czech Republic, the Pilsner beer style was born. The soft local water, the bottom-fermenting Bavarian Yeast, the local hops and the lightly toasted barley made it beloved the world over.
Unfortunately, the industrial breweries here in America have spent the better part of a century diluting and bastardizing this beer style to its hardly recognizable current state of existence. Over three quarters of the beer made and consumed in America is sold as Pilsner. But it doesn't have the alcohol content or the crisp, bracing, hop character of the old world standard. In fact, it doesn"t even have the same ingredients.
The big breweries have done such an amazing job of telling people what they want to drink through billions of dollars in marketing that theyve convinced the world to drink their beer too cold and too light. They brainwashed most of us into thinking the lighter a beer is the more refreshing and satisfying it will be. The way they make their beer light is by reducing the percentage of the higher-quality, more-expensive base grain - barley, which was the exclusive source of fermentable sugar in the original pilsners. By replacing a large fraction of barley with cheaper sugar sources like rice and corn these brewers could make beer a lot less expensively (which leaves more money left over for advertising). These cheaper ingredients make the beer so light that it couldn't possibly be offensive to anyone. How can something designed to be completely inoffensive to everyone be worth coveting by anyone? Today the average American is bombarded with over a million advertising appeals every year. The big breweries are as guilty of any company in any industry of brainwashing the consumer through the sheer oppressive magnitude and breadth of their marketing efforts. They are selling a brand name and an image with such zeal that they have forgotten about the product behind all of this horseshit and hyperbole - the beer itself.
Dogfish Head Golden Shower is the beer itself. A true Pilsner brewed with 100% Pilsner Barley, and impressively hopped using our self-developed continuing-hopping method. At 9% abv it's also nearly twice as strong as the American, wanna-be pilsners made by the big boys.
The advertising campaign for Golden Shower...
NO ADVERTISING.
As we launch this beer in April of 2006 we are committed to seeing it succeed. We've watched what half-billion dollar marketing campaigns and million-dollar-a-minute ads have done for the Pilsner beer style in this country thus far and we're not impressed. We might be wrong, but, if spending stupid amounts of advertising dollars has diluted the Pilsner to its current anemic state, then we think our best hope to reconstitute the style is to spend zero dollars advertising our Golden Shower Imperial Pilsner. We won't buy an ad, make a t-shirt, a neon, a hat, or a key-chain and certainly not a blimp that promotes this beer. We've made this press release, and we'll send out complimentary samples to the press and to beer festivals but that is all we will do to market and promote this beer. We are confident that we have found the magic secret to selling something that you want people to drink...
INSTEAD OF MAKING IT INOFFENSIVE MAKE IT TASTE GOOD!
Nobody should believe that Dogfish Head Golden Shower tastes good... until they try it. Why should they? Not many people are going to try it because, without a traditional marketing campaign, it's going to be hard to find for a long time. But a small group of people who trust their taste enough to decide what to drink for themselves (instead of listening to the advice of their televisions) are going to find a Golden Shower and try it and we're pretty sure they are going to like it. And we are hopeful that they will tell other good-beer enthusiasts about it and that they will try it and like it too. And then there will be hundreds (but probably never thousands or millions - because our brewery isn't that big) of Golden Showers opened and enjoyed every day in defiance of monstrous marketing campaigns and miniature fake pilsners and the world will be a better place for it.
We have every intention of not advertising for and not marketing this beer& ON A GLOBAL SCALE!!!!
Dogfish Head has shared our recipe for Golden Shower with the 500 year-old Herold Brewery in the Czech Republic - the birthplace of the Pilsner beer style. Using our very aggressive negotiating tactics we've worked out a sweet deal. They are not paying us one cent for our recipe, even though it's a really good recipe (but please don't take our word for it). The only thing we have asked for from the Herold Brewery is that they too commit to spending no money advertising or promoting their version of Golden Shower.
Can a brewery really survive with little or no advertising or marketing?
Yup. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has averaged over 50% revenue growth for the last three years and we are on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America. We've achieved all of this even though our beers are among the strongest in alcohol and most expensive in the world. We do this by paying more attention to the quality of our beer then we do about creating an image or buying mind and market-share. We spend about 2% of our annual revenue on marketing or advertising any of our beers or any aspect of our company and yet we continue to grow stronger every day. And we are not alone. In 2005 overall beer sales in America grew less than one percent. Wine sales and Liquor sales were up around 4%. But craft beer sales were up 9% this past year; making ours the fastest growing adult beverage segment in the country. There are over 1400 craft breweries in America that contributed to this growth. Hardly any of us have sizable advertising campaigns to speak of. But then again we don't make our beer with cheaper ingredients like corn and rice either. What we do have is a growing, grassroots army of beer enthusiasts by our sides who have chosen quality over hype and are helping us spread the word. We wouldn't waste our Golden Shower on the kind of beer drinker who decides what to drink based on which brewery spends the most on advertising and the least on ingredients, we brewed it for the rest of us.
Cheers!
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| March 27, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - Molson Coors is in talks to sell its Memphis brewery to Wisconsin-based City Brewery.
Coors announced plans to close the site as part of a series of cost cuts after the merger with Molson.
City Brewery was reportedly doing due diligence on the Memphis plant including a labor agreement with local unions, before completing the acquisition.
City Brewery produces under license a variety of energy drinks, including the Hansen-owned Monster, as well as Diageo's flagship RTD Smirnoff Ice.
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SABMiller, Foster's in Talks
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| March 23, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - SABMiller has begun talks to buy up rival Foster's portfolio of breweries in emerging markets of China, Vietnam, and India.
The story that SABMiller and fellow brewer Scottish & Newcastle might be interested in bidding for Foster's overseas breweries appeared in London's Sunday Telegraph on Sunday.
A SABMiller spokesperson said the company would not comment on market speculation.
Australia-based Foster's last week indicated hat it is looking to sell its overseas brewery assets, with the intent of outsourcing production while retaining ownership of its brands.
SABMiller already brews Foster's beer under license in the United States. The addition of capacity via a Foster's acquisition could therefore further improve the company's production scales in countries with substantial potential like China and India.
SABMiller CEO Graham Mackay has said that these countries offered the group long-term growth potential given their currently low beer consumption per capita.
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| March 22, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - An English consumer group has called for a freeze on beer taxes after finding the price of an average pint increased 4% in 2005.
The Campaign for Real Ale's annual price survey shows that the average price of real ale rose from 215p to 224p (almost $4 American), while the average price of lager climbed from 236p to 245p.
CAMRA Chief Executive Mike Benner said his organization has urged on Chancellor Gordon Brown to make a freeze or cut in excise duty on beer and cider in the 2006 budget.
"Even the smallest increase in tax will blast a hole through the pocket of the pub-visiting public," Benner said. "Last year the Chancellor increased beer duty by only a penny - however as our survey proves the cost passed on to consumers has been considerably higher."
The survey found the cheapest region for beer is the northwest, where a pint of real ale costs 197p. The most expensive regions were London and the southeast, where a pint of real ale costs 242p. |
| March 21, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser Select was the most successful new beer brand launched in 2005, according to a company that tracks vital sales information, but imported beers dominate the top of the list of most successful brands for 2005.
Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), which compiles data on sale of packaged products through large retail outlets, ranked Corona Extra as No. 1 on its list of Top Beer Brand Performers. To compile the list, IRI analyzed volume growth, share of segment trends, front line pricing, distribution gains, and incremental sales and growth in 2005 versus 2004 to determine the brands with the strongest performance.
Three beers from Grupo Modelo in Mexico made the top five - Corona Extra, No. 2 Modelo Especial and No. 4 Corona Light. New Castle Brown was third, and New Belgium's Fat Tire Ale the No. 5 ranked brand. It would surprise many specialty beer drinkers that Blue Moon from Coors was ranked eighth, with sales of about 200,000 barrels in 2005.
The top five beers on the New Beer Brands list were: Budweiser Select, Smirnoff Twisted V Watermelon, Smirnoff Twisted V Black Cherry, Mike's Hard Berry and Becks Premier Light.
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Boston Beer Eyes Possible Expansion
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| March 14, 2006 - (Probrewer.com) - Boston Beer Co., said it might further expand their Cincinnati brewery or possibly build another one elsewhere.
The company invested more than $11 million in the former Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery in 2005. The facility is expected to produce about two-thirds of the company's total volume this year.
Almost all of the rest of the company's beer is made under contract by other brewers.
Shipments in through March have increased by 14 percent to 366,000 barrels, according to its year-end financial report. Part of that increase was attributed to higher wholesale inventories that are expected to unwind in the coming months. For all of 2005, shipments rose 7 percent to 1.36 million barrels, following a 2.5 percent rise in 2004.
Boston Beer said in the report that it's evaluating its long-term production strategy and could decide to make all of its own beer. Until it bought the Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery 10 years ago, almost all of its beer had been made under contract since the company's founding in 1984.
Back then, there was idle brewing capacity in the industry from smaller regional breweries. In recent years, many of those regional breweries that had excess capacity have seen increased sales due to the popularity of the craft beer segment, and there's less capacity available for contract brewing.
If Boston Beer decides to make all of its own beer and build a new brewery, it would likely require an investment of $70 million to $90 million and yield improved operating and freight costs, it said. Company officials told analysts during a conference call this week that the evaluation of its production strategy was ongoing and that they hadn't developed full economic estimates yet.
CEO Martin Roper said freight costs, beer freshness, and quality control as some of the factors that they're looking at.
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