Guinness: Brewed in America

April 11, 2023 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I travelled to Maryland. The reason for my trip was to attend a memorial service for my step-Father-in-Law, who had passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. My wife and drove to Maryland on a Thursday. As we were picking up my oldest daughter, who was flying in from Cincnnati, OH the next morning, we stayed at a hotel right next to BWI Airport.

In preparation for the trip, I googled breweries near to where we would be staying. I was pleased to discover that Thursday night’s hotel was only a couple of miles from the recently opened Guinness Brewery. Opened in 2018, it was the first Guinness brewery to operate in the United States since the last one closed in 1954. That brewery was near New York City and had been opened primarily to quench the thirst of soldiers returning from World War II. Guinness had figured American soldiers who had served in Europe would have a craving for the stout they’d tasted overseas. It appears that Guinness had overestimated consumer interest in their product and the brewery closed in 1954 due to lack of demand.

I had visited the Guinness Storehouse (immersive experience) in Dublin, Ireland in 2015, so I was keen to visit the Baltimore brewery. The brewery is not actually located in the city of Baltimore, but rather in nearby Halethorpe, about 10 miles southwest of downtown Baltimore.

Before visiting the brewery, I had dinner at a well-known chain restaurant next to our hotel. As it was the evening before St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to have a Guinness Stout. When my bottle of Guinness arrived, I noticed that it was brewed in Dublin. I had hoped that it would have been brewed at the nearby brewery, but as I was to later discover later the iconic brew is not produced at the Baltimore facility.

In an interview with NPR, Peter Simson (head brewer at Guinness’s Dublin brewery) stated “I think Guinness stout is such an iconic stout, it has such strong links back to Dublin and back to Ireland, that it would feel wrong to take it away from Ireland and to brew it over here”.

Some of the beer’s available at the Guinness Brewery in Baltimore

While not brewing Guinness Stout, the Baltimore brewery does brew an impressive range of other beers. These included a Blonde Ale, a Honey Ale, and several IPAs and Stouts. On my visit I opted for their Galaxy IPA (brewed with Australian Galaxy hops) and a brew from their Hop Exploration Series, a French IPA (brewed with French malt and hops).

Exploration and discovery are very much part of the brewery’s modus operandi. The brewery has a 10-barrel pilot system, which is used for smaller experimental batches. As noted on the brewery’s website, “We focus our attention on putting our spin on classic styles, introducing new ones, and utilizing both historic and new age ingredients and processes to create an exciting, ever-changing beer program”. A 100-hectoliter brewing system allows the brewery to produce larger batches of selected beers for off-site distribution. This is the second pilot initiative started by Guinness. In 2015, they opened the Guiness Open Gate Brewery, in close proximity to their main brewery in Dublin, where you can sample “experimental beers you won’t find anywhere else”. In producing experimental beers that you can only taste on-site, Guinness is functioning in similar fashion to a craft brewery.

Guinness is no longer a stand-alone company. In 1997, it merged with Grand Metropolitan, a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in the United Kingdom, to form a new company called Diageo. Diageo spent $90 million to convert the historic Calvert distillery (1933-2015) into the present-day Baltimore brewery.

Diageo spent $90 million to convert a distillery into the Guinness Brewery

As you enter the grounds of the brewery, there is a sign that says “Welcome to the only Guinness brewery in the USA”. While true, that sign will soon need to be removed. In the summer of this year, Gunness will open its second brewery, which will be housed in a former Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal building in Chicago, Il. From available media reports, it appears that the Chicago facility will not be as large as that in Baltimore. It will have a small pilot brewery, which will produce small batch and experimental brews. It will also have a taproom, restaurant, and outdoor patio space.

The Baltimore brewery is a multi-level facility. From what I could tell, brewing is done on the ground level, with the taproom and gift shop on the second floor. The taproom is spacious and the staff attentive. The gift shop has all the usual items you might expect – t-shirts, ball caps, refrigerator magnets, etc. The brewery also offers a number of tours and experiences, including a barrel-aged tasting experience and a guided tour of their pilot brewery.

Entrance to the Guinness Brewery in Baltimore

Inside the Guinness taproom in Baltimore

Just as I was about to post this blog entry, a friend texted me a link to a news story that Guinness was going to close part of its Baltimore production facility. Seventy-nine workers will be laid off. On the positive note, the taproom, restaurant, and the pilot brewery will stay open, thus retaining approximately 100 jobs. A spokesman for the company said, “After careful consideration and analysis of our supply footprint, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close our manufacturing facility” in Baltimore. Furthermore, “in order to ensure long term sustainable growth for Diageo, we are optimizing our existing operations across North America to meet evolving consumer preferences.” The two most interesting phrases from that statement are “supply footprint” and “evolving consumer preferences”. The flagship beer of the Baltimore brewery is Baltimore Blonde. Baltimore Blonde has been brewed in Baltimore since the opening of the Guinness facility. The brew has been around since 2014, however. Back then it was called Guinness Blonde and was brewed in Latrobe, PA. It may not be doing as well in the marketplace as Guinness had hoped. The owner of a Baltimore liquor store noted that Baltimore Blonde is not a top seller. On the popular beer rating site Untappd, it has a rating of 3.56, which is below 3.71, the average Untappd rating found by one study. So perhaps the brewery was not selling enough of its flagship beer to justify a dedicated brewing facility. Although Baltimore Blonde will no longer be brewing Baltimore Blonde, local economic development agents are keen to make sure that its producton remains in Baltimore. Continued production of the Lager will likely be sub-contracted to another brewery, with Baltimore’s Heavy Seas brewery being mentioned as a possibility. While the downscaling of production at Guinness’s Baltimore brewery may leave a bad taste in the mouth of local economic development officials, keeping production local might soothe some of their disappointment.

Guinness: Brewed in America

Alcohol Trends, Millennials, Spirits

Millennials Driving Sales of Distilled Spirits to Surpass Beer for First Time

March 20, 2023 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

Last month, The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States issued its annual economic briefing. The briefing contained a wealth of data on the status of the country’s distilled spirits industry. One of the most interesting data points was the fact that, for the first time, the market share enjoyed by distilled spirits (42.1%) exceeded that of beer (41.9%). Ascending to the peak of the alcohol sales mountain has been a long slog for producers of distilled spirits. In 2000, distilled spirits share of the market was 28.7%. Beer’s lead, at 55.7%, must have seemed unsurmountable. So what happened? Why have sales of spirits surpass sales of beer?

The shift from beer to spirits did not occur overnight. It was slow and gradual, which suggests that the 20-plus year time-span over which these changes occurred represents a generational shift in tastes and preferences. So which generation was responsible for these shifts? Credited with being responsible for the craft beer revolution, millennials have also had a starring role in the growing popularity of spirits.

The first two decades of the twenty-first century can be characterized as the age of the millennial. A millennial is someone born between the years 1981 and 1996.

In 2002, the first members of the millennial generation were reaching the age of 21, that magic milestone where they could legally purchase alcohol. Recently, those first millennials entered their 40s, while the youngest members of the cohort reached their mid-20s. Today, there are an estimated 79 million millennials.

Thankfully, there has been a plethora of market research that provides insights into the values and tastes of millennials. When it comes to food and drink, millennials appreciate convenience, variety, freshness, and healthy. They also value quality over quantity. So how do these preferences influence their alcohol purchasing decisions?

As with craft beer, spirits offer consumers variety; When combined either with other spirits and/or with other ingredients such as bitters and fruit juices, the consumer has a dizzying array of choices. Take Ready-to-Drink cocktails (RTDs) for example. In 2021, Drizly, North America’s largest online alcohol retailer, offered its customers over 450 brands of RTDs, a 170% increase over 2019.

While the more creative among us may take satisfaction from mixing our own cocktails at home, the impressive growth of Ready-to-Drink cocktails (RTDs) offers the ultimate in convenience. No mixing of ingredients necessary – just pop open the can and they are ready to drink. Millennials appear to have embraced them. In 2022, sales of RTDs grew 35.8%. Between 2017 and 2022, spirits enjoyed their fastest growth in decades. RTDs were a primary driver of this growth.

However, it is more than convenience and variety that is attracting millennial drinkers. Once saddled with a reputation for being overly sweet and made with cheap ingredients, the makers of RTDs have upped their game in recent years, using high quality spirits and other ingredients that are often organic and gluten-free. In other words, they have underwent a process known as premiumization. Moreover, millennials, more than any other demographic cohort, are purchasing these higher quality RTDs. According to Drizly, 62% of RTD purchasers are millennials.

While beer is traditionally a male drink, RTDs have a broader appeal. Sixty percent of Drizly’s RTD customers are female. Appealing to both males and females undoubtedly gives RTDs an advantage over beer.

In addition to RTDs, millennials are also driving sales of tequila/mescal and American whiskey, the second and third fastest growth segments in 2022 respectively. Premiumization is also apparent in both segments, as consumers trade-up to higher price products, some of which are made by the 2,000+ craft distillers in the United States.

How can millennials afford to trade up to higher-price spirits? Quite simply, they are making a classic quality vs. quantity trade-off. They are consuming less alcohol, but that they are consuming is of higher quality. The same trade-offs are made by millennials choosing pricier craft over cheaper mass produced beer.

While spirits have slowly eaten away at beer’s market share, it should be noted that the craft beer segment is still performing well. In 2021, while overall beer sales grew by just 1%, sales of craft beer increased by 7.9%. For many millennials, it is not a question of spirits or beer. Many consume both; those consuming RTDs and premium spirits are also drinking craft beer.

Breweries, International

Beer in the “City of Peace”

December 2, 2022 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

In October, I spent 4 days in Osnabrück, Germany. I was there attending the annual conference of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. I flew into Frankfurt – there is a direct flight from Detroit – and then took the train to Osnabrück. It was a 3.5-hour train journey from Frankfurt Airport to Osnabrück.

Osnabrück, with a population of just over 168,000 is in Lower Saxony. Historically, it is famous for being one of the cities (the other being Münster) where the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated, thus ending the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). As a result of its part in these negotiations, the city adopted the title Friedensstadt (“City of Peace”). The city was heavily bombed during the Second World War, requiring large parts of it to be rebuilt. Today, Osnabrück is a welcoming and vibrant city, and a great place to spend a couple of days.

Inside Osnabrück City Hall where the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated

I arrived in Osnabrück in the afternoon before the start of the conference and thought that this would be an ideal time to visit the city’s only brewery – Hausbrauerei Rampendahl. The brewery was one of the few buildings in Osnabrück to avoid damage during the Second World War.

Like most German breweries, the beers at Rampendahl are brewed in accordance with the German Purity Law (the Reinheitsgebot) of 1516. This means that all of Rampendahl beers contain only four ingredients – water, barley, hops, and yeast. On the evening that I visited, three different beers were available – a Dunkel Lager, a Weizen (Wheat), and a Helles Lager. Needless to say, I tried all three. Having only three of the brewery’s beers to choose from was something of a different experience from the vast choice that is available at most American craft breweries that I visit. I am not sure if such a limited range of beer styles is common in German breweries, or if this was simply an exception. Perhaps one of my readers with knowledge of German breweries can answer this question for me. As I write this entry, on its website the brewery lists four beers that it has available – Rampendahl Special, Rampendahl Hell, Rampendahl Wheat, and Rampendahl Maibock.

The brewery’s website has a short history of the brewery. The translation from German to English is such that it is difficult to clearly identify brewery’s back story. It appears that it may have once been a townhouse. The date of the building’s construction is not listed, but at least part of the building dates to 1177. Assuming this to be correct, the date at which it became a brewery is not provided. The brewery got its name from a group of disgruntled citizens, who called themselves the Rampendahl Society. Rampendahl was the owner a local restaurant where the Society met to discuss their grievances over beer and wine. In 1430, the Society led an uprising against Osnabruck’s elite (wealthy merchants). The nature of their grievances is not specified, but the uprising failed, and its leaders executed.

As I noted above, I was in Osnabrück to attend a conference. As part of the conference, we had dinner in a venue called Lagerhalle. The literal translation of “Lagerhalle” is “Warehouse”. Lager, of course is one of the two main types of beer (the other being Ale). The word Lager is a German word, which means “to store“. Lager can take between 4 and 8 weeks to produce, during which time it has to be stored (a stage in the brewing process called lagering) at the appropriate temperature. The Lagerhalle, where we had dinner is a community cultural venue and event space which puts on a wide variety of programing, including cinema, theatre, cabaret, lectures etc. Housed in a former hardware warehouse. the use of Lagerhalle as a community center dates from the mid-1970s and was a response to the youth center movement that swept Germany at that time.

Finally, during one of my walks through the streets of Osnabrück, I came across Bierstraße (Beer Street). Given Germany’s love of beer (its citizens consume over 90 gallons per capita per year) it should not be surprising to see a street in a small German city thus named.

Community, Events, Experiential Drinking, Health

Experiential Drinking: Building a Terrarium

November 21, 2022 The Beer Professor 2 Comments

Back in September, I went with my wife and daughter to HEAVY Beer Company, one of the newer breweries here in Toledo, OH. I was going to drink beer, but that was not the primary reason why my wife and daughter were heading to the brewery. They were going to build a terrarium – yes, a terrarium. In case you are not familiar with a terrarium, definitions range from “a jar of dirt and some weeds” to “a sealed or unsealed container that contains elements of a terrestrial ecosystem“. More about the construction of my wife and daughter’s terrariums later, but first a little background on these living ecosystems.

Regardless of how it is defined, the word “terrarium” has its origins from the Latin word for earth, terra. The first terrarium was created by a British botanist by the name of Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in the 1820s. It was something of an accidental creation on the part of Ward. Investigating how different gases effected plants, Ward discovered that plants sealed in glass containers did pretty well. His first terrarium was a simple affair – a fern sealed in a jar. Ward’s discovery significantly increased the survival rate (from 5% to 95%) for plants being shipped long distances. As proof of concept, Ward had a carpenter build two large terrariums which he filled with ferns. In July 1833 the terrariums were loaded on a ship bound for Sydney, Australia where they arrived six months later “alive and thriving“. In 1842, Ward published a small book in which he documented the results of his work which focused on the benefits of putting plants in glass cases.

Terrariums (or Wardian Cases as they were originally known) were popular in Victorian Britain. Their popularity soon spread to the United States. In the late 19th century “terrariums were all the rage“. Their popularity declined during the early 20th century, but “experienced a resurgence in the 1970s” and remain popular today. The appeal of terrariums is multi-faceted; they are low maintenance, do not take up a lot of space, and can be good for your mental health.

Whatever the motivation for owning one, a group of approximately twenty gathered at HEAVY Beer Company for a “Plants and Pints” workshop, where they would make their own terrarium. Helping these folks achieve their lifelong dream of terrarium ownership were Greer and Matt, owners of The Green Crow, which they describe as “Toledo’s First and Only Mobile House Plant Store“. During the course of an hour or so, Greer and Matt led the group through the process of making a terrarium. Of course, participants enjoyed a number of the brewery’s excellent beers while doing so.

Making a terrarium at HEAVY Beer Co. in Toledo, OH

All of those making a terrarium at HEAVY Brewing Co. were engaged in a practice called “experiential drinking” – that is drinking a beer while engaged in some other type of activity. Examples of experiential drinking abound. At Prison City Brewing in Auburn, NY a group of fifteen folks met one evening recently for a painting lesson from artist Christy Lemp. While Lemp’s usual medium is watercolors, on this occasion she used the brewery’s imperial stout. While being instructed in the art of painting with beer, many of the participants sipped on one of Prison City’s own brews. At Black Cloister Brewery in Toledo, OH, on the first Monday of every month, a group of women (and the occasional man) met for a knitting and crocheting session. While doing so, many of these fiber artists enjoyed one the brewery’s many beers. Sadly, the Black Cloister closed its doors in September 2019. Beer yoga (drinking beer while doing yoga) is another example of experiential drinking. Beer Yoga has grown in popularity in recent years, Apparently, there is a style of yoga called Vinyasa, which is conducive to holding a beer while transitioning from one posture/pose to another. For those not into painting or yoga, other common examples of experiential drinking include playing cornhole, a board game, or pinball. Trivia Night is another common activity at craft breweries.

As noted by Beth Newhart in BeverageDaily.com, “drinkers are now more drawn to experience-based locations for their alcohol consumption than typical bars with no extra incentives”. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology examined the relationship link between how consumers spend their money and their happiness. One of the study’s key findings was that buying an experience resulted in more happiness than buying a material good. There are several reasons for this. First, people anticipate and remember experiences with more frequency than material goods. Second, (and this is a defining characteristic of experiential drinking), experiences are more likely to be shared with other people. The social aspect of experiences is good for human well-being. According to an article posted on the website of The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, “heaps of research suggest that social connections make people happier. Satisfying relationships not only make people happy, but they also associated with better health and even longer life.” In a previous blog entry, I cited the work of British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, whose research has demonstrated the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, especially when done so in a social setting such as a British pub. So next time you go to a craft brewery with your friends, whether or not you build a terrarium, not only will you enjoy yourself, but you may add a few extra days to your life.

International

North, South, East, and West

August 5, 2022 The Beer Professor 2 Comments

As a Professor of Geography at the University of Toledo one of the classes that I teach is called People, Places, and Society. Ostensibly it is an introduction to Human Geography course. During the first few weeks of the semester I spend quite a bit of time introducing the students to basic geographic concepts – things like absolute and relative location, spatial distribution, spatial interaction, spatial diffusion, distance-decay, etc. Of all the basic geographic concepts. absolute location is probably the most straightforward and easiest to understand.

Absolute location is the location that something occupies according to some agreed upon system. One of the most common methods that we use to measure the location of a place is by using lines of latitude and longitude. – think of these as “imaginary” lines drawn on the surface of the Earth.

Lines of latitude (also called parallels) run in an East-West direction. The Equator is 0 degrees latitude. All lines of latitude are numbered between 0 degrees and 90 degrees latitude and are designated as either North or South, depending upon how far they are north or south of the Prime Meridian. The North Pole is 90 degrees North, while the South Pole is 90 degrees South.

Each place on the surface of the Earth can be precisely located according to how far (north or south) they are from the Equator. So for example, New York City, NY is 40 degrees north of the Equator, while Sydney, Australia is 33 degrees south of the Equator. Toledo, OH, where I live, is 41 degrees north of the Equator (just a tad further north than New York City).

Lines of longitude (also called meridians) run in a North-South direction and connect the North and South Pole. All meridians designated as either East or West are numbered between 0 degrees and 180 degrees, depending upon how far they are either east or west of the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is the internationally agreed upon starting point for numbering meridians. It runs through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in the United Kingdom and is labeled 0 degrees longitude. The meridian on the opposite side of the globe from Prime Meridian is 180 degrees longitude.

The Prime Meridian in Greenwich, United Kingdom

Each place on the surface of the Earth can be precisely located according to how far (east or west) they are from the Prime Meridian. The aforementioned New York City, NY is 74 degrees west of the Prime Meridian, while Sydney, Australia is 151 degrees east of the Prime Meridian. Toledo, OH, is 83 degrees west of the Prime Meridian.

So now we have all the information we need to identify the absolute location of these three cities:

New York City, NY – 40 degrees north, 74 degrees west
Sydney, Australia – 33 degrees south, 115 degrees east
Toledo, OH – 41 degrees north, 83 degrees west

The last time that I was teaching this material to my students, I started to wonder about the furthest north, south, east, and west that I had travelled to visit a brewery. So I pulled up a map on my computer screen, and here is what I came up with:

Nya Carnegiebryggeriet (New Carnegie Brewery), Stockholm, Sweden (59 degrees north)

At 59 degrees north, Nya Carnegiebryggeriet (New Carnegie Brewery) in Stockholm, Sweden is the most northerly brewery I have visited. My visit occurred in January 2016. I was in Stockholm attending a conference at the Royal Institute of Technology. Opened in 2014, the brewery is a joint venture between New York’s Brooklyn Brewery and Danish brewing giant Carlsberg. The brewery is housed in an old 1930s lightbulb factory in the Hammarby Sjöstad district of the city. Hammarby Sjöstad (translated as Hammarby Lake City) is an area of Stockholm that has gained fame as an exemplar of eco-friendly urban redevelopment. The brewery has contributed to the redevelopment of the neighborhood. The brewery’s name, Nya Carnegie, is a nod to Carnegie Porter, a classic Swedish beer. Carnegie Porter traces its origins to 1836 when Scottish businessman David Carnegie Jr. (1813-1890) purchased the Lorent sugar refinery and brewery in the Klippan neighborhood of Gothenburg.

Al old lightbulb factory is home to Nya Carnegiebryggeriet

Nya Carnegiebryggeriet has contributed to the redevelopment of the the Hammarby Sjöstad district of Stockholm

A ferry arrives and docks close to Nya Carnegiebryggeriet

Monteith’s Brewery, Greytown, New Zealand (41 degrees south, 175 degrees east)

At 41 degrees south and 175 degrees east, Montheith’s Brewery in Greymouth, New Zealand qualifies as both the most southerly and the most easterly brewery that I have visited. I traveled to Greymouth on December 2014. I had been in Christchurch, New Zealand attending the annual conference of the Australia-New Zealand Regional Science Association. I had a couple of days after the conference was finished, so decided to visit Greymouth. Christchurch and Greymouth are on opposite coasts of New Zealand’s South Island. With a population of ~8,300, it is the largest town on New Zealand’s west coast. Rather than drive or travel by bus, I decided to take the TranzAlpine train. Identified by Lonely Planet as one of the world’s most amazing train journeys I was keen to take it. I was not disappointed. The 139 mile (223 kilometer) journey, which takes four and a half hours one way took me through the fertile Canterbury Plains and the spectacular southern Alps.

Greymouth is the largest city of the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island

Some of the scenery enjoyed from the TranzAlpine Train

Established during the West Coast Gold Rush of the 1860s, Greymouth, transitioned into a major coal mining and forestry center. Most of the jobs in these two sectors have disappeared and for a number of decades the town has been struggling to revitalize its struggling economy .

After checking into my overnight accommodation I headed for Monteith’s Brewery. I would be one of the 35,000 visitors who visit the brewery annually. Founded in 1868, the brewery was originally family-owned, and is named after the founder Stewart Monteith . In 1970, the brewery became part of Dominion Breweries Group, who were acquited by Heineken in 2013.

It is a brewery with something of a tumultuous history. Two times in past, the owners of the brewery have announced the cessation of brewing operations in Greymouth. The first was in 2001, when closure of the brewery was announced. Such was the public outcry, the brewery was re-opened four days later. The second occasion was in November 2020, when, DB Breweries announced that it would cease brewing operations in Greymouth, citing the uncertainty created by COVID-19 as well as the high cost of transporting raw materials to and the finished product from the brewery. The brewery’s onsite restaurant would remain open. Despite the closure, beer drinkers could still buy Monteith’s beer as it is brewed at two other locations (Auckland and Timaru) in New Zealand. Not surprisingly, the local council were not happy when hearing DB’s plans for the brewery. Indeed Mayor Tania Gibson of asked DB to consider handing over the brewery to the people of Grey District. In January of 2021, DB and the local council reached an agreement whereby the brewery’s bottling plant would be given to the district.

Kona Brewing Company, Hawaii, USA (155 degrees west)

At 155 degrees west, Kona Brewing Company in Kailua Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island is the most westerly brewery I have visited. I visited Kona Brewing in February 2016, while in Hawaii attending the annual conference of the Western Regional Science Association. Kona Brewing Company was founded in 1994. When I visited the brewery in 2016, Kona Brewing Company was a member of the Craft Brew Alliance family of craft breweries. Craft Brew Alliance, established in 2008 with the merger of Redhook Ale Brewery and Widmer Brothers, acquired Kona Brewing Company from its original owners (Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa) in October 2010. In December 2010, AB InBev purchased a 32.2% share of Craft Brew Alliance . In 2020, AB InBev purchased the outstanding 67.8% share of Craft Brew Alliance. In order to not be in violation of Federal Anti-Trust laws, Kona Brewing had to be sold, with the brewery being purchased by PV Brewing Partners, a Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Kansas.

As a brewery, Kona is probably best known for its Big Wave Golden Ale, Longboard Island Lager, and Firerock Pale Ale. You may have seen a number of Kona Brewing’s beers for sale at your local liquor or grocery store. If you live on the mainland, however, the Kona beer that you purchase was not brewed in Hawaii. Partly to save on the costs of transporting beer from Hawaii, Kona beer is brewed on the mainland United States. I recently enjoyed a bottle of Kona’s Longboard Lager and on the label it indicated that this particular bottle was brewed in one of three locations – Fort Collins, CO, Portland, OR, or Portsmouth, NH. The listing of mainland brewing locations is an outcome of a 2017 class action lawsuit brought against Kona’s then owners, Craft Brew Alliance, for deceiving customers on the mainland into thinking their beer was produced in Hawaii. In 2022, Kona opened a new 30,000-square-foot brewery that can produce 100,000 barrels of beer annually This is ten times the production capacity of the brewery that I visited.

Some of the beers on tap when I visited Kona Brewing in 2016

Further Reading

Walton, Sara, Shane Grice and Bevan Catley. 2003. The Monteith’s affair: Bitter to the loyal end. Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, Voulme 9, Issue 2, pages 69-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.2003.9.2.69

Community, Culture, Diversity, Food, International, Pubs

Britain’s Desi Pubs

July 8, 2022 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

Last month I participated in an online webinar on “Public House: The Culture and Society of the London Pub“. It was organized and hosted by the The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, an organization which brings together academics, architects, heritage experts, and others with an interest in the history of the built environment. The presentation on London pubs was made by Dr David Knight of the Royal College of Art in London. During his presentation, Dr Knight identified over a dozen different types of London pub. Some types, such as Coaching Inns, no longer exist, while others such as the Community Pub are alive and well. Of the different types of pub that Dr Knight mentioned during his presentation, one in particular peaked my curiosity – Desi Pubs. When I first saw the term I thought that perhaps “Desi” was short for “Destination” and that a Desi Pub was a type of pub that was a destination for visitors to a city – for example, The Temple Bar in Dublin, Ireland. As it turns out, I was wrong in my assumption. A Desi Pub is, in fact, a colloquial term for a pub which is owned or managed by a landlord of Indian origin. In a Desi Pub, along with traditional English Ale, you can enjoy a lunch comprising traditional Indian cuisine. This got me curious, so I thought I’d do some research into the origins and current status of Britain’s Desi pubs.

Desi Pubs have their origins in the 1960s, and were primarily a response to racism experienced by British Asians. Desi Pubs provided a “safe space” where British Asians could enjoy a couple of pints of beer, and some traditional (primarily Punjabi) cuisine, without fear of harassment. This harassment was experienced first hand by the American civil rights activist, Malcom X, who visited the Blue Gate pub in Smeth

The term “Desi” means “local“, “home”, or “from the country” and is geographically linked to the south Asian countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are over 4.3 million individuals of Asian ancestry living in the UK. This constitutes 7% of the U.K. population, making them the second largest ethnic/racial group after Whites. Most of Britain’s Asian residents have their family roots in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. British residents of Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi origin constitute 2.3%, 1.9%, and 0.7% of Britain’s population respectively. India’s Punjab region, Pakistan’s Mirpur District, and Bangladesh’s Sylhet region, in particular, were the main sources of Asian migrants to Britain in the post-1947 period. Britain, of course, developed strong ties with the Indian sub-continent as a result of both trading and its colonial exploits. Post World War II labor shortages in the United Kingdom provided an opportunity for Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis who sought a better life outside of their country of birth.

As a student at the University of Glasgow, Scotland between 1981 and 1985, I was well aware of the presence of the city’s Pakistani and Indian populations. Indian restaurants were (and still are) numerous and hugely popular and were often my restaurant of choice before heading our for an evening of drinking beer with friends. Newsagents and convenience stores, many owned by Pakistanis, were equally ubiquitous. Every Wednesday, I’d pop into the same one and purchase a copy of The Celtic View, the weekly newspaper of the soccer team I supported. It was only after doing this for a couple of months that I discovered that the owner of the store, Hassan, supported Celtic’s arch enemies, Rangers. After that discovery there was a lot of friendly banter back and forth between myself and Hassan every time I frequented his store. But I digress.

Curry is an enormously popular dish in the United Kingdom, so much so that so that it has been dubbed the “UK’s adopted national dish”. In 2001, the then British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, referred to Chicken Tikka Massala (chunks of chicken in a spiced curry sauce) as “a true British national dish“. There are an estimated 12,000 curry restaurants (often referred to as curry houses) in the United Kingdom, employing somewhere in the region of 100,000 people. Such is the importance of curry to British culture that in 2015, the British Parliament established a British Curry Catering Industry All-Party Parliamentary Group, whose purpose is to “provide a forum for parliamentarians to consider and discuss the role and contribution of the British curry catering industry”.

While many curry houses are branded as “Indian” restaurants, most are in fact owned by immigrants and/or their descendants from Bangladesh. Indeed, between 80% and 90% of British curry-house owners can trace their roots back to the Bangladeshi city of Sylhet. The Red Lion is one example of a Desi Pub. Located in Birmingham, England it has been in the hands of the Purewal family since 1997. The Red Lion website emphasize the quality of their food, noting that “the standard of food matches that of high end Indian restaurants”. The Red Lion also boasts that “our chefs are well experienced, coming from some of the top restaurants in India”.

While the clientele of Britain’s original Desi Pubs were primarily from Britain’s Asian community, today they function as integrated, multi-ethnic, spaces. One observer notes that Desi Pubs are “a celebration of multiculturalism . . . offering Indian food to white and brown customers alike”, while another suggests that they are an “East meets West story, where the classic English pub with its ale, darts and dominoes meets Punjabi food and Bhangra”. According to Bera Mahli, who runs the Red Cow and Grill in Smethwick (just outside Birmingham) with his brother Gamy, “the curries served up in old boozers are now bringing people together in a positive way – rather than be used as a negative marker to highlight racial differences.”

Some Desi Pubs have become what are termed Third Places (community gathering places). The aforementioned Bera Mahli observes that, “the pub is more a community centre than anything else – for everyone. One of the big changes is seeing Asian families in the pubs. Back when I was younger, pubs in the Indian community were just for men only. These days as they are no longer places just to drink, we have Asian girls, aunties and grandmas”. The aforementioned Red Lion pub in Birmingham promotes itself as “an easy going and family friendly pub“

For several decades, the United Kingdom has seen a decrease in the number of pubs, as closures have outnumbered openings. A 2014 report showed that the United Kingdom had lost around 21,000 pubs since 1980, with most closures having occurred since 2006. Reasons for this decline include the smoking ban, increased taxation on alcohol, and a reduction in alcohol consumption. Many of Britain’s Desi Pubs are former pubs that had closed and have, in fact, been resurrected by their Asian owners. In addition to saving some old British pubs, the owners of the Desi Pubs may become one of the last bastions of authentic Indian cuisine. The authenticity of the great British curry is under attack.

Craft Beer, Craft Breweries, International, Names, Philanthropy

Hello. My Name Is Vladimir

June 17, 2022 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

In a previous blog entry I wrote about Pravda Brewery, a craft brewery in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Faced with an invasion by the Russian military the brewery transformed at least part of its production space into a Molotov Cocktail factory. It was the brewery’s contribution to local resistance efforts. The bottles that were used in the assembly of the Molotov Cocktails were those that, under normal circumstances, would be filled with a Dry-hopped Golden Ale (ABV 8.0%) called “Putin Huilo”, which translates as “Putin is a Dickhead“. The label has a picture of a naked Putin sitting on a throne.

The label from Putin Huilo beer from Pravda Brewery

Putin is not the only political figure to appear on the label of one of Pravda’s beers. The brewery also produces an American-style Stout called Obama Hope, a Belgian-style Wit called Frau Ribbentrop, and a Mexican Imperial Lager called Trump. The labels of these three beers have pictures of former U.S. President Barack Obama, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former U.S. President Donald Trump on them respectively. All the labels carry political messages.

The label on Obama Hope refers to President Obama as “a symbol of democracy and a guarantor of the global justice” As such. one of the President’s main tasks is to “safeguard peace and to prevent a new aggressor from starting World War III”. The message on the label goes on to reference Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Pravda was clearly hoping (the beer is named Obama Hope after all) that the American President would step in and assist Ukraine in its fight against the Russian aggressor. Referencing the aforementioned invasion, the label states, “Obama is still hesitating to provide real help to the Ukrainians in fighting it”. In what could perhaps be interpreted as some words of warning to President Obama, the label concludes its message with the statement that Obama “has all the chances to go down in history as the one who got it all wrong”

The label from Obama Hope beer from Pravda Brewery

The political message on the Frau Ribbentrop label is clear. The brewery is critical on Chancellor Merkel’s stance on the the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas Region, particularly her refusal to supply Ukraine with weapons to fight the Russian invaders and her insistence that the Ukrainian government hold direct talks with Donbas separatists, with a view to a negotiated settlement. Many Ukrainians were irked by Merkel’s position and inundated her Facebook page with comments, including some that suggested she was a modern-day von Ribbentrop. The name Ribbentrop is a reference to Joachim von Ribbentrop who was the German Foreign Minister between 1938 and 1945, and who played a key role in the negotiation, on behalf of Germany, of a number of key treaties. These included the “Pact of Steel” that was signed between Germany and Italy on May 22, 1939 and established a formal alliance between the two countries and linked them politically and militarily. Von Ribbentrop also negotiated the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact of August 23, 1939, which according to one source “cleared the way for Hitler’s attack on Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, thus beginning World War II”. As far as Pravda is concerned, both Merkel and von Ribbentrop were ut from the same cloth and were complicit in facilitating conflict in Europe.

The label from Frau Ribbentrop beer from Pravda Brewery

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States also has a Pravda beer named after him. The beer is, appropriately, a Mexican Imperial Lager with an ABV of 7.2%. The label refers to Mr. Trump as “President of the Divided States of America” (a characterization borrowed from Time Magazine when they named Mr. Trump as their Person of the Year in 2016). The label calls President Trump “the symbol for the final era of true politicians” (not quite sure what is meant by that), while also labeling him as both a “sexist” and an “ideal family man”. In the background, an individual holds “Free Melania: placard.

The label from Putin Trump beer from Pravda Brewery

Pravda is not the only brewery to have brewed a beer inspired by President Putin. In 2014, the irreverent Scottish brewery, BrewDog brewed a double IPA which it named, Hello, My Name Is Vladimir. 2014 was the year that the Russian city of Sochi hosted the Winter Olympic Games. In 2013, a new Russian law that banned the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations” to minors came into effect. The passage of this law was the catalyst for a number of gay rights protests across the world. Many of these protests occurred a few before the start of the Sochi Olympics. BrewDog chose to join the protests by brewing a beer. The label on the beer had four images of President Putin, all showing the Russian President wearing lipstick. The messaging on the label pokes further fun at President Putin, with statements such as “I am 100% hetero and will pass laws to prove it”. The bottom of the label contains the warning that the beer is “not for gays”. James Watt, co-owner of BrewDog, sent a case of the beer to President Putin at the Kremlin. No one is quite sure what President Putin thought of the beer.

The label from Hello. My Name is Vladimir beer from BrewDog

BrewDog sent President Putin a case of their Hello. My Name is Vladimir beer to President Putin

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine a number of American craft breweries produced beers that featured the Russian President. Rogue Ales & Spirits of Newport, OR brewed a Double IPA (ABV 8.4%) called F*#K PUTIN. The one-pint cans were adorned with the colors of the Ukrainian flag, with all the profits going to the Global Giving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. Intuition Ale Works of Jacksonville, FL brewed a Belgian-style Tripel (ABV 8%) which it named Hey Putin, Go F*ck Yourself!. Intuition’s beer was brewed as part of a larger global initiative called “Brew for Ukraine“. The money raised by breweries participating in the Brew for Ukraine project supports aid agencies assisting Ukraine refugees displaced by the war.

F*#C Putin, brewed by Rogue Brewing of Newport, OR

Hey Putin, Go F*ck Yourself!, brewed by Intuition Ale Works of Jacksonville, FL

In 2018, the small Finnish craft brewery, Rock Paper Scissors Brewing, produced a beer to coincide with a 2018 meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin in Helsinki, Finland. The beer was called “Let’s Settle This Like Adults”. The beer’s label, which had cartoon versions of Trump and Putin fist-bumping, included the tagline “Making Lager Great Again”. The brewery sent samples of the beer to both the US and Russian Embassies in Helsinki.

Let’s Settle This Like Adults was brewed to coincide with a 2018 meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin in Helsinki , Finland

Politics can be a divisive topic of conversation. Americans are warned not to raise political issues over the dinner table at family gatherings such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe we should try to take our cue from Rock Paper Scissors Brewing and start to behave like adults when it comes to engaging in political dialog with family and friends (and strangers).

Craft Beer, Craft Breweries, International, Philanthropy

Brew For Ukraine

April 29, 2022 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2020 captured the attention of the world. The pictures and videos emerging from Russian aggression are heartbreaking. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of just over 41 million people. In the first week of the conflict over a million Ukrainians ( mainly women, children, and the elderly) crossed international borders as the fled they horrors. By the end of April, 2022 that number had swelled to over 5.7 million. Most of these went to neighboring Poland. No one knows how many refugees this conflict will ultimately generate.

While looking on in horror, the international community has mobilized in efforts to provide assistance to both those who have fled Ukraine and those who remain. These include the U.S. Government, relief agencies such as the American Red Cross, and churches such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In communities across the United States, individuals and groups are also doing their part to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees. In Portland. OR, The Slavic Community Center of the Northwest held a fundraiser, while Jackson Henning, a 12 year old boy opened a Lemonade Stand in his hometown of Westmont, PA. In addition to these and other fundraising efforts, many craft breweries across the United States have also stepped up and are doing their part to support Ukrainian refugees.

Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, WI was the first American craft brewery to export their beer to Ukraine. Since 2016, Andy Jungwirth, Export Manager at Lakefront, has visited Ukraine on six occasions. During these visits he got to know the folks at Pravda Brewery pretty well. I wrote about Pravda Brewery in my last blog entry. Located in the city of Lviv, Pravda has shifted from brewing beer to producing Molotov Cocktails which are being used against the Russian invaders.

Such was the warmth of the relationship between Jungwirth and Pravda Brewery that Lakefront and Pravda collaborated on brewing a couple of beers, including an India Pale Lager, which they named Lviv-Milwaukee”. Given this close relationship between the two breweries, it is not surprising that news of the Russian invasion sparked a response from the American brewery. Walk into Lakefront today and purchase a 32 ounce crowler and you will find it wrapped in a specially designed blue label emblazoned with a caricature of Vladimir Putin with the words “Putin is a Dick” across his forehead. Funds raised from sale of these crowlers will be deposited with the National Bank of Ukraine, who will use them to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians impacted by the Russian invasion. Lakefront hopes to raise at least $10,000 from the sale of its crowlers.

Specially wrapped “Putin is a Dick” crowlers from Lakefront Brewery. Source: LakefrontBrewery.com.

As noted above, Pravda Brewery has been very hands-on in its efforts to fight back against the Russian military. In addition to producing Molotov Cocktails, the brewery has made available the recipes for five of their beers. The beer recipes have been released as part of the “Brew for Ukraine Crisis Relief Project“. Participating in the project involves brewing at least one of the five beers and making a voluntary contribution to Pravda’s relief fund. Donations to the fund will be directed to the appropriate non-profits operating in Ukraine. The five beers, for which recipes have been made available are Putin Huylo (Dry Hopped Strong Ale), Syla (Belgian Tripel), Red Eyes (American Red Ale), and Frau Ribbentrtop (Belgian Witbier), and From San to Don (Ukrainian Imperial Stout). The beers are being branded as comprising the Victory Series. To date, breweries in Australasia, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America are participating in the initiative and are brewing at least one of these beers.

Breweries from five continents are participating in the Brew For Ukraine initiative (Source: https://www.brewforukraine.beer/)

Breweries across the United States are participating in the Brew For Ukraine initiative (Source: https://www.brewforukraine.beer/)

Catawba Island Brewing Company in Port Clinton, OH is one of the American breweries participating in the Brew for Ukraine initiative (Source: https://www.facebook.com/CatawbaIslandBrewingCo)

One aspect of the craft brewing industry that has always impressed me is its collaborative nature, and the willingness of breweries to rally around and step up to support a worthy cause. The Brewing for Ukraine initiative is an excellent example of this. But it is not the first. Other examples abound. in 2018, over 1,400 breweries in the United States participated in the Camp Fire initiative. Organized by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., this effort raised millions of dollars to support those impacted by northern California wildfires. Participating breweries were invited to brew Resilience Butte County Proud IPA. In 2020, Other Half Brewing rallied brewers around the world to raise money for the hospitality industry that had been impacted by COVID-19. They did so by creating a recipe for a beer called All Together IPA. The recipe, as is common in such projects was open source and so was available to all breweries who wanted to participate.

Of course, the Brewing for Ukraine initiative will not change the course of the war in Ukraine. But it will provide vital relief to some Ukrainians who have been impacted the Russian invasion. As individuals, who watch in disgust and horror at the pictures/videos emerging from Ukraine, we can feel helpless. However, there are myriad opportunities to donate some money to help both those who have fled Ukraine and those who remain there. Next time you pop along to your local brewery, you might just find another way in which you can donate.

Community, Craft Breweries, International, Names

Putin Is A Dickhead

March 9, 2022 The Beer Professor 6 Comments

As I write this blog entry the world watches on in horror at the atrocities committed by the Russian military as their invasion of Ukraine continues unabated. The images flashing across our television screen (and the screens of our smart phones and other smart devices) are heart-wrenching. The man behind these atrocities, of course, is the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

All of us follow the events in Ukraine with varying degrees of intensity. For me, I read and see enough to keep up with general contours of the conflict. As The Beer Professor, a lot of my time on the internet is spent looking for interesting stories about the brewing industry. But in one of my recent searches I came across a story where my interest in the brewing industry intersected with events in Ukraine. The headline varied from news outlet to news outlet, but they generally read something like this: “Brewer Swaps Making Craft Beer for Molotov Cocktails”. The brewery in question is Pravda Brewery in western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

For the uninitiated, a Moltotov Cocktail is a handheld petrol bomb that is “emblematic of civil unrest and revolution“. Somewhat ironically, Molotov cocktails take their name from the Russian politician Vyacheslav Molotov, who served as the Soviet Union’s foreign minister during World War II. The name is Finnish in origin (Molotovin Koktaili) and first appeared in our lexicon during the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939. The actual device, however, pre-dates this event. The first use of Molotov Cocktails dates back to Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), where they were used by Franco’s Nationalists as a weapon to demobilize the Republican’s Soviet-supplied T-26 tanks.

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yuriy Zastavny, owner of Pravda Brewery decided to repurpose its production space to supply his fellow Ukrainians with Molotov Cocktails. Molotov Cocktails are very simple to manufacture. All that is needed is a glass bottle, gasoline, kerosene, or alcohol, and a piece of cloth (to function as a wick).

Molotov Cocktails produced by Pravda Brewery in Lviv, Ukraine

This short video tells the story of Pravda Brewery converting its production space to produce Molotov Cocktails

The labels on the bottles used for Pravda’s Molotov Cocktails have a picture of a naked Putin sitting on a throne. Also on the label are the words “Putin Huilo”, which translates as “Putin is a Dickhead“. When I first saw the label on the Molotov Cocktail, I thought that the label had been specially designed with its new function as an incendiary device in mind. I was wrong. Putin Huilo is a Dry-hopped Golden Ale (ABV 8.0%) that is part of the brewery’s regular portfolio of beers, and has been brewed for a number of years. The label provides some additional background about the beer and the surrounding political context. The label, for instance, mentions Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 (which coincidentally was the year that Pravda Brewery was established). The label also notes that “Putin Huilo” is a worldwide nickname for the President Putin and also an “international chant first performed during a common march by FC Metalist and FC Shakhtar in March 30, 2014”. That got me curious – so I did a bit of googling.

The label on Putin Huilo provides the political context for the beer’s name

FC Metalist Kharkiv and FC Shakhtar are Ukranian soccer teams. Of the two, I am most familiar with Shakhtar Donestsk. Shakhtar play in the top flight of Ukranian soccer and in recent recent years have been regular participants in the Champions League – Europe’s premier and most prestigious soccer competition. In contrast, Metalist Kharkiv play in the second tier of Ukrainian soccer. They have an interesting history in that that they ceased operations in 2016, as a result of financial insolvency (they owed their playing staff 32 million Euros in back pay). The club was re-established in 2020. According to Wikipedia, the first recorded public performance of the chant (and the song that grew from it) occurred in March 2014 in Kharkiv when Metalist fans chanted in a march through the city’s streets. The chant was partly in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Several Ukrainian rock bands have included the chant in some of their music. According to journalist Alex Luhn, writing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the chant quickly became “a nationwide cultural meme“. Rival soccer fans came together, put their rivalries to one side, and chanted the chant in street marches in various Ukraininan cities. In a soccer match between Belarus and Ukraine in October 2014, fans from both country’s joined together in the chant during the game. A number of fans were arrested. Eight Ukrainian fans were given a jail sentence by a court in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, while some Belarus fans were fined. The video of fans chanting has been removed from the YouTube platform.

The video of soccer fans from Ukraine and Belarus chanting “Putin is a Dickhead” is no longer available on the YouTube platform

As I read about Pravda Brewery and the decision to produce Molotov Cocktails, I could not help but smile and think to myself about how typical this action was. Craft breweries all over the world try to be good citizens and strive to make a positive difference to the vibrancy and quality of life in their respective communities. In doing so, many try to respond to the needs of their patrons and neighbors, whether that be donating some profits to a local charity or transforming part of their space into a temporary yoga studio for a local yoga group. In turning their brewery into a production space for Molotov Cocktails, Pravda Brewery are providing a community service and are responding to the needs of the local community. To Pravda I say Будьмо (Cheers).

Craft Breweries

2021 Year In Review

December 31, 2021 The Beer Professor Leave a comment

As per usual, I end the year with a pictorial review of the breweries and taprooms that I have visited during the previous twelve months. While the situation with respect to COVID-19 did improve during 2020, the virus did hang around, restricting my travel for significant parts of the year. While personal travel was a little easier this year, professional travel to academic conferences continued to be highly restricted. With respect to visiting breweries and taprooms, I did visit 22 in 2021, slightly less than the 26 that I visited in 2020. In a non-COVID 19 year I typically visit over 60 breweries/taprooms.

Before providing more statistics on my 2020 visits, let me explain the difference between a brewery and a taproom. The difference is quite simple. A brewery is an establishment where beer is produced, whereas a taproom is an establishment owned by a brewery that sells but does not produce beer on-site.

Of the 20 breweries that I visited, 10 were in my home state of Ohio and 10 were in other states. Outside of Ohio I visited breweries in Indiana (4 visited), Michigan (3), Colorado (2), and Texas (1). Most of the Ohio breweries that I visited were in the northwest Ohio region, the two exceptions being in Cincinnati. Both of the taprooms that I visited were in northwest Ohio. Of the 12 Ohio establishments that visited, six were ones that I visited for the first time. Of the 10 non-Ohio breweries that I visited, all but one were new visits – the exception being Hop & Sting Brewing Co. in Grapevine, TX. In the lists below, establishments that I had visited before are indicated in italics.

As per usual, I have posted one photograph from each of the breweries/taprooms that I visited during 2021. I hope you enjoy them. At the time of writing, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu , Director-General of the World Health Organization , is optimistic that COVID-19 will be “beaten in 2022“. I hope that his optimism is well-founded and that we can all look forward to a happy and healthy New Year.

Ohio Breweries (10)