| FLASH NEWS |
| Beer Box License Plates An DWI suspect in Minnesota is earning some admiration from police for an unusual artistic endeavor. It all started after a call of a vehicle swerving through downtown Chippewa Falls. Police said the suspect failed and sobriety test and his plates came back as not registered to the vehicle. That might be because they are not real plates. Police Chief Matt Kelm said the man hand-painted the license plates on the back of a beer box. Chief Kelm said the plates were so realistic officers were not even aware they were fake until speaking to the owner of the vehicle registered to the plates. Chief Kelm said he has never seen anything like this. |
| Goodbye 3.2% Beer? Minnesota is the last 3.2 beer state in the nation and there's an effort to allow gas stations and convenience stores to sell regular beer instead. If you don't know, 3.2 beer gets its name from its alcohol content by volume, which is lower than regular beer. For many consumers, it's a less attractive product.It's sold only at gas stations and convenience stores, which can't sell regular beer. In addition to that, the variety of product options for 3.2 beer, and the supply itself, is on the decline. On the opposing side, Bryan King, the owner of all five Apollo Liquor stores in Rochester, said "if the 3.2 beer law changes, it will hurt liquor stores." |
| April 2021 |
| QUICK HITS The founder of Boulevard Brewing Co. says he's sorry after numerous allegations of sexual harassment within the company were made public on social media. Three executives are out of the company—one has been fired and two have resigned---including its president, Jeff Krum. ---------------- Stone Brewing Company has just agreed to pay a more than $1.8 million in to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for alleged violations related to tax reporting and payments. Isn't that what got Al Capone in trouble? ----------------- A letter signed by the entire staff of the Platform Beer Co.’s taproom in Columbus, Ohio is circulating on social media, accusing the business of allowing unsafe working conditions during the coronavirus pandemic. A hand-written note says, “The entire Platform Columbus crew has quit. The taproom is closed until further notice. Thank you!” No comment from owners to BeerNexus inquiries. ------------------------- A consumer-friendly service currently banned in Utah — online beer and liquor ordering— could become legal, under a new bill. Under current state law, consumers cannot place a beer order online. Grocery store employees can bring everything else to a car for curbside pickup but if shoppers want beer, they have to go inside to buy it. Authorities claim that prevents excessive drinking. Huh? ------------------- Once again Boston Beer Co.'s shipment volume and net revenue both rose by over half in this past quarter compared with a year ago. Boston Beer's net income climbed from $13.8 million, or $1.12 a share the comparable quarter a year ago. |
Edited by Jim Attacap
| Sunken Ship Beer Robbery Local brewers in Mar del Plata, Argentina, spent months trying to make a unique brew by aging a dark ale 66 feet underwater. Then the barrels went missing, setting off a whodunit. It wasn’t exactly a sunken treasure. But that apparently didn’t stop a team of divers in Argentina from going to extraordinary lengths to pilfer 700 liters, or 185 gallons, of artisanal beer that had been left by three local breweries to age, attached to a sunken ship, on the ocean floor. The owners of the three breweries in Mar del Plata, which had teamed up with a diving school for a first-of-its-kind monthslong experiment in deep-water beermaking, were left mystified, and heartbroken, upon discovering their barrels were gone. Previous experiments had involved shallower depths, so they wanted to test beers made under greater pressure. They spent months securing permits to affix the barrels to the Kronomether, an abandoned Soviet-era ship 66 feet underwater that sank in 2014 and had become a favorite spot of recreational divers. “No one had ever done this before,” said Juan Pablo Vincent, 43, the master brewer at Baum brewery, who was involved in the effort. The brewers settled on a dark, strong ale with an alcohol level of between 11 and 12 percent. It took more than a year to obtain the necessary permits and then coronavirus quarantine measures slowed down the endeavor, so the team was only able to lower the seven barrels of beer into the ocean. .The plan was to blend the content in the barrels with another beer. If all went according to plan, the brewers expected to be left with 1,000 liters, or 264 gallons, of a custom-made brew that would fill some 2,000 bottles and sell under the name Kronomether. Mr. Vincent said the contents of the barrels would be useless in the hands of people who lack sophisticated beer-making skills, since the purpose of the brew was to mix it with another beer. “If they stole it for their own consumption, they’re going to have to throw it away,” said Mr. Vincent. “It was a lukewarm, gasless liquor that would be very difficult to drink.” Mr. Vincent said he suspects vandals broke the barrels loose.“I think they broke everything so the barrels would drift away,” said Mr. Brelles. “It was malice for malice’s sake.”Despite the disappointment, they are determined to try again. |