Stephen Beaumont's World of Beer

Special Spring Cleaning Issue

Click on any of the book covers below to get ordering information.

Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook

A Taste For Beer

Great Canadian Beer Guide

A World of Beer

Spring Cleaning; where we head up to the SBWoB attic to clean out some of the interesting but temporarily overlooked brewing industry news and notes from the past few months.

Spring Cleaning Notes:
-- Canada and the United States
-- Europe
-- Around the Globe
Kitchen Table Tasting

Spring Cleaning Notes: Canada and the United States

-- Unibroue, the Québec brewing company specializing in their own interpretations of Belgian ale styles, has joined what are now practically countless other North American craft brewers and listed themselves on the Montréal Stock Exchange. The makers of Maudite, Eau Benite, Quelque Chose, Blanche de Chambly and other well-regarded beers, Unibroue's skill in the brewhouse helped them not one bit on their first day of trading, May 28, as the stock dropped $0.40 to close at $5.60.

-- According to a Washington Post article of April 14, Anheuser-Busch has run into a bit of a problem with their upcoming sponsorship of the soccer/football World Cup, to be held in France in 1998. This is due to the fact that despite the French reputation as lovers of wine and cigarettes, French law prohibits the use of signs advertising alcohol or tobacco products during sporting events. This means no Bud billboards behind the nets during Cup play.

According to the report, A-B was deep in negotiations with the French government to try to reconcile this situation. Some possible solutions include the technological "blacking out" of the billboards for French television broadcasts only, the declaration of the stadia used for Cup play as "semi-denationalized zones where French law does not necessarily apply," or in A-B's best-case scenario, an amendment to the law itself.

-- In a thoroughly bizarre twist to the freshness dating debate that has raged throughout North America for the past year or longer, Molson has taken Labatt to court over allegations that the latter company has been putting dishonest production codes on certain brands of their beer. According to a Canada Newswire story dated May 20, Molson has alleged that Labatt has been using date codes on John Labatt Classic, Labatt Genuine Draft and Kootenay Black Lager that show a date as much as two months later than the day upon which the beer was actually produced.

For Labatt's part, a brewery representative has stated in a sworn Affidavit that the refrigeration under which Labatt stores the beer after production is so cold that it slows the ageing process and that the date on the carton actually reflects the release date of the beer from cold storage.

The case is to be heard in B.C. Supreme Court on June 30, 1997.

-- Not that Molson is completely free of legal wrangling themselves, mind you. In a piece published in The Globe and Mail of May 28, Molson Cos. confirmed that Miller Brewing of the U.S., 20% owner of Molson Breweries, "has indicated that it may have possible claims against Molson Breweries and/or its partners related to Miller becoming a partner in Molson Breweries and arising from Miller's understanding of arrangements with Coors."

What this means in plain English is that Miller is a little miffed at being excluded from, and in some ways victimized by, Molson's impending partnership with Coors and Fosters Brewing (40% owner of Molson Breweries) in a new company to be called Coors Canada. That arrangement arose as a part of a settlement between Molson Breweries and Coors over the licensing of the Coors and Coors Light brands to Molson for Canadian production. The proposed arrangement keeps Molson brewing the brands in Canada, but excludes Miller from the profits.

-- And on the beer taste front, I am told by Ben Myers of Stimson Lane, the owners of Yakima Brewing, that the quality control problems which have off and on dogged Yakima's Bert Grant ales over the years are being attended to by an cash infusion from the parent company. Only time will tell for sure, of course, but the samples tasted in this month's Kitchen Table Tasting were in fine shape, giving one hope for the future.

Then again, those samples were shipped directly from the brewery.

To link to more articles from this month's World of Beer go back to the top of the page.

Coming in July

For the next two issues, SBWoB will be taking it on the road with two months to be spent in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium and quite possibly the Netherlands, as well. Look for reports from all of these countries, as well as tasting notes on the different and diverse beers sampled along the way.

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