"This is stupid"

Thanks to reader Rodney who saves us from the eduction going on in the De Struise Brouwers 6 Pack interview with a bit of news.

Carlsberg to sell the Louis Vuitton handbag of beers - "We can feel that there's an increasing market for this type of product, as some of our customers order extremely expensive wines without blinking an eye," Lau Richter, restaurant chief at the Noma restaurant, said today by phone. "Ten years ago, it was a rare event selling a 1,000 kroner bottle of wine at a Danish restaurant, now we do it every day."

The brewery claims the the high price is reflective of the amount of work that went into the beer - "We're trying to raise the bar for what a beer can be," Jens Eiken, the brew master at Jacobsen who developed the product, said today by phone. The beverage is "cheap" considering the amount of time the brewery spent developing it," he said.

As Rodney pointed out: "I can't imagine what they did to that beer that make them charge $260,000 for a barrel."

They left out the fact that you can't crush a bottle on your forehead - "It just makes sense. The can is a superior package to the bottle. Cans are lighter and take up less space, making them cheaper to transport and store. They’re more durable once filled. Cans are completely lightproof, meaning the beer won’t get “skunked,” acquiring the nasty odor that comes from hops compounds breaking down in sunlight."

As we noted in our visit to Ft. Wayne, Warbird started out canning their products, but public perception - the idea that craft beer doesn't belong in cans - caused them to make the switch to bottles. This article contends that people are coming around to cans. That may be the case; It's certainly working for Surly (the 11th ranked brewer in the RateBeer Best 2008).

Next up - Three Floyds Alpha Kroger - Ok, that might be a stretch. Brew Blog is reporting that Costco will soon be selling beer brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, a brewery/restaurant chain based in California.

Of course Costco isn't the first private label to rebadge a beer brewed by outside sources: Trader Joe's has been at it for quite some time.

I'm going to get Mormon Tabernacle trashed - The Salt Lake Tribune, home paper of my personal friend, reporter, and former Real Salt Lake GM Steve Pastorino (sorry, soccer geekout), is reporting that Utah's Wasatch Beers is now brewing an 8% ABV Double Bock Amber that goes by the name of "The Devastator".

"The beer breaks the mold in Utah, where only beers with 4 percent alcohol by volume can be sold in grocery stores or on draft at bars and microbreweries. "

The article states that the beer is almost flying off liquor store shelves - perhaps the $1.39 per bottle price has something to do with that.