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November already …and clearly the craft beer biz isn’t slowing down any time soon. But no worries, Rumor Mill is always on the case, keeping you plugged in into all the beer news and lifestyle that matters. Plus we’ve an all-important update on what we’ve been drinking lately and you don’t want to miss that.
Bombastic Bedfellows (Ellon, Scotland / Cleveland, OH) – In one sense, BrewDog’s founders Martin Dickie and James Watt are similar to Donald Trump. All three of them are no strangers to bombast and they all know how to effectively use their larger than life personalities to message whatever their selling. And maybe that explains BrewDog’s semi-obsession with Trump – or maybe it’s that the US president is just an unavoidable political and pop-cultural target.
BrewDog’s James Watt first took on Trump by humorously awarding him two shares of their latest ‘equity for punks offering in 2015. Don’t know if Watt sensed an historical presidential upset at that time, but clearly he saw ‘the Donald’ as someone worthy of satire. And BrewDog’s “Make Beer Not Wall’s faux effort to build a popup craft beer bar across the US/Mexican border was clearly a swipe at the president’s policy.
And BrewDog’s latest ‘Make Earth Great Again’ beer (which of course references a famous political slogan) was launched in protest of America’ withdrawal from the Paris Accord and to remind leaders (read: Trump) to prioritize Climate Change issues.
Words To Drink By (Princeton, NJ) – “Not everything that can be counted counts…and not everything that counts can be counted.” Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Pious Beer (Rayland, OH) – Like BrewDog, Hightower Brewing, a small Ohio brewery just 10 mile north of Wheeling, West Virginia, understands the power in brewing a celebrity-associated beer. And we guess you could call the now retired Pope Benedict XVI (who’s 90 and still residing in the Vatican) a celebrity…right?
Brewed by Hightower and commissioned by the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion, and Society for their conference in Steubenville, Ohio last month, Beer-nedict XVI: Pint-ifex Maximus was a 5.4% ABV Bavarian-style wheat beer, brewed to honor the pope and his German roots.
Hightower’s Greg Whiting told American Craft Beer that he kept his Hefeweizen as traditional as possible…After all. Almost 50 clergy flew in from Germany to attend last month’s conference (and beer launch) and he was pretty sure they’d appreciate a decent wheat ale.
What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Rochester, NY) – Last night we hit up a winter seasonal that Elysian Brewing sent our way. Brewed with Munich and Crystal al malts and bittered with Magnum hops, Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale is a 7.6% ABV cold-weather pale ale with an earthy hop character that’s tethered to a solid malt backbone.
