cost of beer?

here is some data on costs for all US commercial brewers in 1990.

value of beer produced: $47 bn
cost of malt: $616 mn
cost of grains: $280 mn
cost of hops: $40 mn
cost of cans: $2.8 bn
cost of bottles: $1.1 bn
cost of other packaging materials: $900 mn
brewery payroll: $2.378 bn
brewery maintenence: $1.12 bn
energy costs: $220 mn
wholesale payroll: $2.674 bn
advertising: $1.161 bn
federal taxes: $1.71 bn
state taxres: $1.72 bn

Source: Handbook of Brewing. 1995. Hardwick ed.

combined ingredient costs are less than almost every other line item!

new advances in brewing

Japanese scientists produce a tomato beer

Beer in a Plastic Bottle...

What will they think of next?

appalachia

bottled beer. this picture was taken a week ago. it turns out that they have all gone bad, because there is a bacterial infection from the siphon hose i used to fill the bottles.

It's no Colombia...

That Latvians know a thing or two about beer. If you're ever in that part of the world, sit down for a pint. It'll make the already gorgeous women even better....

Pivoing in Colombia!

I spent the last week of October in Colombia as an elections observer for the regional elections. It was quite hectic, but I still managed to make some time to have a pivo or two between dodging bullets and shooting coke. Just kidding, that's a lie, obviously I had more than one or two pivos!

Seriously though, I didn't actually have that many pivos because during election time, they have this thing called the ley seco or dry law. That means that no booze can legally be sold between 6pm Thursday on the week of the elections and 6am Monday (the election took place on Sunday).
The operative word here is "legally" because I still saw some drunks roaming the streets.

Most of my pivo intake happened on the last night. After training, travel, observing the elections, writing reports and debriefing it was time to unwind. My friend Fer (pictured above) and I somehow ended up being the only girls in a crowd of 10-15 of our male friends. It wasn't too bad, we always had someone to dance with and got one or two free drinks!

While I can't remember, in detail, the taste of the two types of Colombia pivo I tried in order to produce a complex analysis, I can remember this: it was dobre! Definitely recommended.