Brewers work together to save on shipping costs

We interrupt our normally hard-hitting journalism to bring you a story that will warm your heart and fill your glass. According to Denver Westword, four small Denver brewers all ordered from the same fermenter supplier to save on freight costs.

Freight costs can be pretty steep, depending on where you’re shipping from. We have had to pay over $1000 just to move a few pallets of kegs around. You add those little trips up, and it becomes a meaningful part of your business. Shipping won’t make or break us, but it does get its own line item in our accounting software. From Denver Westword:

In a show of solidarity (not to mention some penny-wise fiscal management) four small brewers are putting in an order for new brewing equipment and tanks in a move that will save them all a chunk of change and help them expand. Copper Kettle, Renegade, Strange Brewing and Caution are all buying from Premier Stainless Systems, a San Diego-based brewery system designer and manufacturer that supplies hundreds of beer makers around the country.

“Premier said there was no difference on shipping whether we bought four tanks or eight, so we decided to coordinate this together,” says Copper Kettle co-owner Jeremy Gobien. So, instead of paying $1,500 a piece, each brewery will only spend about $400.

Sure, they’re saving a few hundred bucks. But I think the bigger news here is the continued trend of small breweries working together, like Avery and Russian River’s Collaboration Not Litigation Ale. This is an industry like no other.

Drink up.

Image Credit: Facebook

Sunday Sales in Georgia will have to wait

According to a source at WSBTV, a bill that would allow Sunday liquor sales in Georgia is dead in the water… again. While Sunday Sales has been one of those bills that gets resurrected and then promptly killed every year (like a friendly, lovable zombie), 2011 brought new hope:

Previous efforts to allow Sunday alcohol sales in Georgia have stalled amid a veto threat from former Gov. Sonny Perdue. However, Gov. Nathan Deal has said he would not veto such a measure.

Support among voters has also been mixed, along geographic boundaries. 67% of Metro Atlanta residents are in favor of Sunday sales, while only 31% of South Georgians favor the bill. Georgia is only one of three states that currently doesn’t allow alcohol sales on Sunday from stores.

Georgia’s alcohol legislation has traditionally lagged behind most other states, and allowing Sunday Sales is often seen as a first step in progressing the state to a more alcohol-friendly culture. Perhaps in 2012.

Image source: KaisenVerdant

Beer becomes center of Apple iPhone leak disaster

A prototype of Apple’s next iPhone was left at a German beer garden by Apple employee Gray Powell. Unfortunately for Apple, Gizmodo found it. And now German airline Lufthansa is getting in on the action. In an open letter to Gray Powell, Lufthansa employee Nicola C. Lange writes:

I recently read in the news that you lost a very special phone at a German beer bar in California. We all know how frustrating it can be to lose personal belongings, especially when it is such a unique item.

At Lufthansa we also noted with great interest your passion for German beer and culture. We thought you could use a break soon — and therefore would like to offer you complimentary Business Class transportation to Munich, where you can literally pick up where you last left off. Upon arrival in Munich, feel free to check out our new Bavarian Beer Garden Business Lounge, and experience the best that Germany has to offer.

Let this be a lesson to you, Gray. Don’t bring top secret hardware with you when you’re out drinking. Or maybe, if you are going to bring top secret hardware with you, try a Belgian beer bar instead. This never would have happened at Brick Store.

Cases of expired beer stolen from landfill

According to an AP article:

Two Columbia [Missouri]  sanitation workers who apparently couldn’t stand by and let beer go down the drain allegedly took dozens of cases of expired brew from the city landfill. Police and city supervisors are trying to determine if the salvage was a crime ? theft of city property ? or just a policy violation.

The beer in question included about 700 cases of Budweiser and Michelob Ultra. The good stuff. I can’t imagine what expired Michelob Ultra tastes like. Any guesses?

Beer taxes!

Raise your hand if you want to pay more for beer! A tax in Washington State is being considered that would raise the taxes on beer substantially, to 45¢ per 6-pack. Currently the tax is 15¢ per 6-pack.

Fortunately for drinkers of good beer, the tax would only impact breweries brewing more than 15,000 barrels per year. This would not impact microbreweries (as defined by the Brewers Association).

The Mayor of Baltimore might soon propose a similar beverage tax that adds 4¢ to the prices of soda, bottled water, beer, and alcohol.

Budget deficits often require drastic measures. I only ask that we leave beer out of it.

Image source: cabbit

Monday Night quoted in the LA Times on beer label art

Yesterday the LA Times ran a story about craft beer label art. But not just any story about craft beer label art. A story in which Monday Night receives a little bit of quote love. What should you do with this information? You have a myriad of decent options:

• Read the article
• Share the article with friends
• Leave an insightful comment on the article
• Don’t throw up on yourself

Meanwhile, in little ol’ Georgia, big ol’ AB InBev makes a splash

The New York Times recently ran a story about AB InBev’s plans to reduce water usage in beer production… blah blah blah… from 5 liters of water per liter of beer to 3.5 liters of water per liter of beer… blah blah blah… by 2012… blah blah bl?

WHAT. AB InBev has been using the Cartersville brewery north of Atlanta to test some of these water-saving methods.

The Budweiser brewery in Cartersville, Ga., is less than 50 miles from Atlanta, a city exploding with growth. In late 2007, it was already one year into what unfolded as a historic nearly three-year drought that swept through the Southeast…

[T]he 8-million-barrel-a-year capacity brewery conducted a difficult top-to-bottom audit of every single plant process. Though water is obviously a key beer ingredient, a big portion of each bottle’s water footprint is devoted to cleaning, cooling and steam production, he said.

By reclaiming rinse water and reusing it for heating and cooling, the brewery reduced net water use in the power house to almost zero. Today, the brewery consumes only 3.1 liters of water per liter of beer, below the company’s 2012 goal.

So that’s pretty sweet. Good to see Georgia get some brewing props, even if AB InBev is at the root. Also, water reclamation is cool. True story.