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Don’t get me wrong. I think Earth Day is a great idea. Except for the fact that it only happens one day a year. Why isn’t EVERY day Earth Day? Yes, there are some days when it’s really fun to abuse your body with a 16 oz. steak and onion rings, or a bottle of tequila. Similarly, there are days when it’s just too damn fun to rap out a gas guzzling, 1960s sport coupe convertible on a country road. Day in and day out perfection is something only monks are capable of. Hell, Tiger even proved that he was fallibly mortal by not winning the Masters.

But, why do we insist on these once a year ‘holidays’ to prove our loyalty to god, a cause, mother earth? Chreaster or Eastmas are the classic part time Christian holidays. Look at lent. I see people engage in behavior that is detrimental to themselves for 325 days, then they stop for 40, and then continue the self abuse for another 325 thereafter.

I think Earth Day is great for raising awareness (so what does a mythical figure disappearing from a cave raise awareness of again?), but the key is to not just change the behavior for one day, which these fabricated holidays have a tendency to induce. A lot of people will take public transportation to work today (a little more motivation with $3.50 gas?), or plant a tree, or recycle something they normally don’t and then tomorrow comes and it’s right back into the SUV and off to work (I really wonder how many SUV drivers actually pay attention to earth day anyway).

The biggest joke was this thing a couple of weeks ago where everyone was supposed to turn off non-essential lighting for one hour on a SATURDAY NIGHT!!! Not much going on in most businesses on a Saturday night, and besides, what are lights doing on that don’t need to be on ANYWAY??? I loved how all these big companies came out and said they were going to participate in that. What a feeble attempt to position themselves as green by changing behavior for 1/8760 of the year!!!

Well anyway. Nobody wants to just listen to somebody bitching, so below is my short list of permanent behaviors I’ve changed or am changing in the interest of Mother Earth. 365 behaviors.

1. I’m done with bottled water. Got by fine without it 20 years ago. And yeah, I’m replacing my Nalgene fleet with stainless or aluminum bottles. I read something last week that in some cases it takes 3 parts water to produce one bottle of water. Being in the beverage industry that seems completely plausible to me.
2. I’m kicking my teenage boys out of the shower. What could they possibly be doing in there for 20 minutes? At their age, IT doesn’t take more than 30 seconds.
3. I’m human. I do forget to bring a bag with me to the Supermarket sometimes. But, what I have been refusing to do for years is accept bags when I go to another store and buy just a couple of things. Why do I need a plastic bag for things I can carry comfortably with my own two hands?
4. I re-use the plastic bags in my kitchen trash and kitchen recycling bins. The trash man has yet to complain or stop picking up my trash.
5. Those who know me well know I’m not a slave to fashion, but I wear my clothes out. Even if I had more free time, I wouldn’t buy more clothes. Of course, the Christmas sweaters I wear once do end up at Goodwill.
6. I simply try to consume less. Do I REALLY need to purchase that? Ask yourself that question daily. Make it an ingrained behavior. You might be surprised at how your bank account grows.

A chef acquaintance of mine turned me on to an interesting book, “A History of the World in 6 Glasses,” by Tom Standage. It’s an easy read and gives a very superficial view of world history based on the advent and evolution of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and soda (Coca Cola). In addition to the etymology of some commonly used slang and phrases 6 Glasses offers a unique perspective of various cultures throughout history via the popular beverage that characterized that time in a certain part of the world. Origninally beverages such as beer and wine were discovered by accident, and over time they were prepared in part as a way of sterilizing water for human consumption. Wine and spirits were also concentrated alcohol beverages that also afforded two empires the opportunity to transport large quantities of alcohol more efficiently throughout their dominions, wine in the case of Rome and Rum for England. I often ponder what the 7th great beverage will be in the future. Any ideas?

It’s a little too early to say for sure, but so far it looks like craft beer drinkers are continuing to fuel the momentum our category has enjoyed for years now. At Flying Dog we were very concerned that the price increases we and the rest of the craft brewing industry had to pass on January 1 due to soaring malt and hop costs could stifle the growth of our brands and the entire craft beer category. Thus far, it looks like we may dodge a bullet. At FD we’ve started the year off with a bang and most of our distributors are saying that the sales of their other craft beers are equally robust. The more I think about it once you’ve been turned on to good beer, can you really go back? It’s such an exciting time to discover beer. My favorite (and probably most flavorful) beer available in my early 20s was Beck’s Dark. My how times have changed.

Two of HST’s favorite events occurred within days of each other: The Super Bowl and big primary action on what is now known as Super Tuesday. I happen to share the exact same passions. The first Super Bowl I remember was number VI when the Cowboys schooled the Dolphins. All I remember were lots of balloons being released at the beginning of the game. The next season I started to pay attention and I do remember number 7 being a bit of a yawner until Garo Yipremian’s whiffed pass attempt was returned by Mike Bass for the Redskins’ only touchdown after a Dolphin’s field goal attempt went awry.

Those old men had to wait a little longer than usual to uncork the champagne, but they did, and I’m glad. For one, you guessed it, I’m definitely not a Patsies fan, but really, I just think that was one hell of a coach, one hell of a team and they did it in an era when football players were a little grittier and the Game wasn’t the spectacle that it has become. No starlet girlfriends in the stands, no has been rock stars at half time, and no 8 million pounds of guacamole (don’t get me wrong, I like Tom Petty, U2 and Mick Jagger, and guac does rule). AND the Fish did it with their BACK UP QB for most of the season.

If what happened in Colorado last night is anything like what happened around the rest of the country then there truly are a lot of Americans who are fed up with business as usual. My wife has been involved in mostly local, Democrat politics for many years. When she was a precinct captain it was usually herself and another cute, older couple who would show up for the caucus, even in presidential election years. To be sure, Colorado now has a meaningful caucus on Super Tuesday, but there were 91, count em, 91 participants in our precinct last night. Thousands more packed our local high school, the site for all precincts in the house district for our state legislature. It was truly amazing to watch and listen as spirited debate ensued and delegates were elected in unprecedented numbers to attend the next phase, county assemblies.

As I predicted, Barack rolled, and I also predicted Romney would trounce McCain in Colorado. You see, we tend to be quite independent and rebellious in our great state. But, we are also sensible. Despite our fair share of evangelical zealots, the Huckster went nowhere. I didn’t check the final numbers this a.m., but I bet Ron Paul did quite well in Colorado, too. Colorado was one of Ross Perot’s strongest states in 1992.

One thing now seems all but certain: For the first time in decades we will likely roll into the DNC without either (OK, any) candidate having enough delegates to lock it. Denver this August will go off in a big way.

As you may have heard, Flying Dog Brewery recently announced that we are embarking on the next step in our illustrious, 17 year history of crafting remarkable beer by concentrating all of our brewing and production to the brewery in Frederick, MD, where 70% of Flying Dog Beer is already being brewed. This move will take place in January and we are working to ensure that our entire production team will be able to make this move over to Maryland. Accounting, sales, marketing and other administrative functions will remain largely unaffected by this change and our HQ will remain in Denver.

We decided to make this proactive move as it has become increasingly important to be extremely nimble in today’s business environment. Only those who can quickly adapt in the hyper-Darwinian economy will survive and in today’s craft brewing landscape. We are facing unprecedented cost pressures due in large part to the tremendous hop and malt cost increases. Concentrating our brewing operations to one facility will help us become more efficient while maintaining our exceptionally high brewing standards. This is a smart, proactive move for our growing company and will allow us to most efficiently use our resources.

The Frederick facility is a state-of-the-art brewery that has already been producing great beer for Flying Dog and we look forward to ramping up production and growing our business even more than the +20% trends we are experiencing in 2007. The bottling line in Frederick has lower oxygen uptake at filling than the one in Denver, which translates to better flavor stability and longer shelf life. It also kicks out bottles at twice the pace of the line in Denver. The brewhouse in Maryland is also capable of brewing a wider range of recipes than the one in Denver. Finally, the brewery in MD plans on substantial capital expenditures and plant upgrades (close to a million bucks in 2008 alone) to continue to brew better beer in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.

Beer lovers be warned: The price of a pint is probably going to go up in the months ahead. The price of brewing barley has skyrocketed. Blame it on ethanol. And believe it or not, the situation with malted barley is very similar to what’s going on in the petro industry.

The price of the refined product malt/gasoline is going up not soley because barley/oil supply is THAT tight, but global malting/refining capacity hasn’t kept pace. Just like refining is a low return proposition, malting companies have been working on thin margins for years and malthouses around the world have shut down, decreasing malting capacity. So even if the ethanol farce is fully exposed and farmers start planting more barley again and less corn and soy, malt prices may well be high for some time.

If that wasn’t enough, the price of hops has skyrocketed, too, but that looks to be more of a one to two year spike.

By now many of us have heard about G-dubs’ homeowner relief plan.

Apparently, there is no end to the license for the American consumer to act with increasing financial irresponsibility, nor the shortsighted fiscal policies that politicians continue to advance to deal with the ensuing messes that result. I guess I can’t say I’m surprised. What is passed off as compassion for the average Joe is really just kneejerk policy to placate the whining from the mortgage, real estate, construction and financial industries.

Don’t get me wrong: I feel bad for the tens if not hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are facing foreclosure and all of the stress and hardship that’s associated with that, but at the end of the day, no one held a gun to their head at the closing table. Did mortgage brokers and lenders act unscupulously? Absolutely, but very few have acted illegally. Instead of acting with foresight, ‘W’ and congress turned a blind eye to the practices of the pushers who were getting America high on unrealistic appreciation rates for home values. Instead we are offered a short sighted solution that will do little to fix the mess that negligence begat.

W’s promise to help the little guy by providing relief on mortgage obligations is like giving an obese diabetic another ice cream cone and saying it’s OK! If interest rates were high and rising, the economy was in the crapper AND LOANS WERE GIVEN TO THE TRULY CREDITWORTHY then I could maybe see fiscal intervention as a reasonable means of providing relief. In this case we’re looking at something that will only reinforce bad behavior and financial irresponsibility.

Speculators and market makers will always try and press legal and ethical limits, but the implosion of the housing market is no different than the stock market bubble that popped in 2000. This proposed homeowner relief is no different than reimbursing amateur investors for losses they incurred on their heavily margined on-line brokerage accounts.

What the politicians should really be focused on is figuring out how to take care of the 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. The correlation is very strong between foreclosures and bankruptcies, and those who have had to pay a major medical expense out of pocket.

And by the way Mr. President, while you’re at it, how about a reduction in beer excise taxes that we brewers have to pay?

Technorati Tags: homeowners, homeowner relief plan, george bush, mortgage relief, housing market, eric warner, mortgage industry, homeowner relief

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at the American Homebrewers Association Conference here in Denver. Many of the attendees requested a copy of the presentation.

Technorati Tags: wheat beer, eric warner, homebrewers, homebrewing, craft beer, beer industry, beer news, beer info, german beer, flying dog

At the recent National Restaurant Association show in Chicago one of the hot topics was (surprise) the greening of the restaurant industry. The Executive Director of the ‘Green Restaurant Association’ gave an interesting presentation that included some of the basics of how his organization ‘certifies’ restaurants and how much they charge to do it. As is the case with any audience, there were skeptics in the crowd, including a representative of a newly formed ‘green committee’ of the NRA (restaurants, not guns). The two of them proceeded to almost have a throw down, with some audience members coming to the defense of the committee member and some siding with the GRA guy. In a nutshell the woman with the NRA was basically calling him a con artist and the GRA guy insinuated that any green certification coming from the NRA would be highly superficial, a marketing ploy to help member restaurants take advantage of a red hot trend spanning all industries without really making sure that those achieving ‘certification’ were really reducing waste, using organic ingredients, cleaning with green chemicals, using less fossil fuel based energy, etc., etc.

Greenwashing.

Craftwashing.

A nifty little term I created (I think) by borrowing from the term above that is loosely defined as the practice of organizations misleading the public on what they are doing for (or against) the environment while they portray themselves as environmental champions. So what is craftwashing and what does it have to do with the GRA vs. the NRA?

The trade association that represents craft brewers recently drew a line in the sand by defining what a craft brewer is and isn’t. The obvious targets were faux craft brands like Blue Moon and the what-flavor-shall-we-slap-against-the-side-of-the-barn-this-week releases from Anheuser-Busch. But, what many aren’t aware of is that some breweries that were pioneers in the craft brewing revolution were kicked out of the club because they are owned in part by larger breweries who don’t fit the definition of a craft brewery (to find out more go to www.beertown.org).

Just as the divisive discussion at the NRA presentation showed me that there will be multiple influences that will lead to a fuzzy definition of a ‘green restaurant’ is, it’s clear to me that the definition of a craft beer may be blurry in the eyes of the consumer, distributor and retailer for some time to come. Some beer drinkers don’t seem to care one lick when they find out that Blue Moon is made by Coors, others swear that they’ve had their last drop of it upon finding out that their new favorite beer is made by America’s third largest brewer.

So, the questions for you: Are there craftwashers out there? Do you care one way or the other? What’s your definition of a craft beer?

Until next time, Cheers, Eric

Technorati Tags: greenwashing, crafwashing, GRA, NRA, restaurant industry, craft brewers, craft brands, craft brewer, Eric Warner, craft beer