All About Beer Magazine

Loss of a Friend

Posted January 14, 2010 by daniel 1 Comment | Post a Comment

We lost a good one last Friday.  After 4 years of fighting colon cancer, Jeff Becker, President of the Beer Institute passed away.  We grieve for the loss of a good friend, a wonderful person and a passionate industry advocate.

Jeff was one of the more interesting members of our industry. Consider being an unflappable optimist while working in Washington DC? Neat trick, yet Jeff always believed things would work out for the best, and his track record suggested that belief was well founded. He labored for years protecting our right to enjoy beer with a minimum of aggravation and expense. Anheuser-Busch/Inbev recognized his contribution by having Duke, a Clydesdale, honor Jeff by standing guard during the service.

Industry people gathered at the office of the National Beer Wholesalers Association the day before the service during which many a toast was offered recognizing how much Jeff meant to all of us. People reflected on his challenges with sensitivity training, his particular version of off-color humor, and other character-defining attributes.

However, all shared a common sense of having enjoyed the company of a rare and great man. He could orchestrate an effective campaign to head off and tax hike while giving comfort as the vicissitudes of life caused personal disruptions. He schooled me in the strategies and tactics of being an association executive during my tenure at the Brewers’ Association of America. He provided inclusive leadership as the craftbrewers began taking seats at the big table.

The service, and reception following, had between 750 and 1,000 guests. The testaments from podium and pulpit alike filled out the life of an industry giant. Family and friends talked about a family man, a cook, a lifelong friend, and someone who gave life and love to all he met.

I’m not going to even discuss his legendary golf game.  Apparently he shot in the low 30s on nine holes the week before he died.  Amazing.  Then there’s the tequila, but that’s another story.

We’ll all miss him for a very long time.  Our heart goes out to his wife, son and daughter.

My 15 Minutes

Posted by daniel 0 Comments | Post a Comment

I think I might have just had my 15 minutes of fame. Folio Magazine, the trade publication for the magazine industry, asked if I would be on their cover and anchor a story on niche publications. Given their reputation for staid business shots, I was both surprised and flattered. When the photographer wanted to take the shot among brewing equipment, I was even more impressed. Folio was stepping out here! Not bad. Then the result hit our desks and I even more surprised. Nice shot. Nice article. Great attention to the small guys.

The publishing industry shares many attributes with the beer industry. The big guys are struggling and the little guys are charging ahead. For years I’ve showered Folio people with queries about covering small guys. For example a recent headline bemoaned the dramatic fall in ad pages and ad revenue last year. However, all the small publishers, particularly niche publishers, saw significant growth, maybe not 2008 numbers, but significant.

Furthermore, companies like ours succeed by focusing on the people. Our supporters aren’t statistics. They’re readers and advertisers. We can easily find out if we’re doing the best job we can. What this means for the staff is they have to be particularly agile and involved. Like the better craftbrewers, our people are deep into the beer community, working to fulfill our role. (Ironically, we haven’t put a list of the gang up on the website, which we will do soon. You should get to know them. They’re really great colleagues.)

Enjoy the Folio article. For those of you who know me personally you can only guess at how much of the interview hit the cutting room floor, but it was a shot for attention to the world of niche publishing.

Thanks for being along for the ride.

Daniel

Speaking of Holidays and Beer

Posted January 6, 2010 by daniel 1 Comment | Post a Comment

I’m not such a fan of the New Year’s Eve schtick. I’ve watched the ball descend in Times Square and the acorn in Moore Square in Raleigh. I’ve toasted that last tick of the year with various champagnes. All in all I’m not so impressed with the rituals.

As the end of the last day of 2009 approached, I realized I had once again managed to avoid any plans or commitments. I gleefully swung by my local bottle shop and snagged four 22 bombers of things I didn’t remember having tasted which were either into the double digits of alcohol content or dangerously close.

Snug as a bug in my toasty kitchen (hey, we’re in an historic cold snap here in bucolic North Carolina), I began to work my way through my recent acquisitions.

First opened was a 15th Anniversary beer, Auld Asheville Vintage Ale, from Highland Brewery. It poured copper with a brownish hue and smell of caramel and dried fruits. A little on the medium body side, it tasted robust with a slight alcohol burn and a Sterling hop spiciness.

Speaking of 15th anniversaries, next up was Great Divide’s 15th, a wood-aged Double IPA.  The beer showed an orangey, mahogany color and a sweet, boozy nose.  Even before the first sip I was getting the “big” message. Given that it is tagged a double IPA, and comes from one of my favorite hophead breweries, I was a bit taken aback by the restrained use of the hops.  Even though it weighs in at 10%, with such a rich nose, it didn’t have that hot taste and, actually, seemed comfortably restrained and balanced.

Random choice next set up Imperial Porter from Shipyard another favorite brewery from my sort of hometown of Portland, ME. I had conflicting expectations around the notion of imperializing a style best known for deft touch.  The color pushed the notion of porter a bit, more black than brown, more opaque than highlights.  A lot of chocolate in the nose and in the flavor, some coffee and dark fruits in the finish, with really seductive creamy texture.  I think I get the imperial bit — richer, but still in the family.

And finally a second beer from my almost hometown, Allagash Interlude 2008 was a serendipitous finish to this random flight.  While I had inadvertently been stepping up the scope with each beer, I saved the a complete departure for the last.  The Interlude poured bright copper with a fine tight head and a funky, musty nose. The flavor is all about fruit — apples and, maybe, pears — that sidle into something vinous; no doubt from the oak wine barrel aging.

Of course, having climbed this exciting ladder of 15s and Portlands in my kitchen, I thought to see what was up downtown on New Year’s Eve.  And then changed my mind.  Happy New Year, I mean, Beer.