Press Clips: Maine Brewers Want to Hang with Bill Murray; All About Beer Sold

Maine Brewers Launch Campaign to Bring Bill Murray to Portland

Bill Murray has reached that rare exalted status in the pop lexicon where he could fart on a puppy and people would still love it. As such, it’s no surprise that in Portland, Maine, brewers have launched a campaign to bring the Ghostbusters star/internet meme to the city to celebrate Portland Beer Week.

Spearheaded by Shahin Khojastehzad, a minority partner and manager of Novares Res Bier Café, area breweries are trying to entice the comedic actor by brewing up beers and giving them names evocative of classic Murray films.

From In’finiti Fermentation & Distillation, there’s Vigo’s Pink Ooze (Ghostbusters II); Oxbow Brewing will debut Jaguar Shark (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou); Marshall Wharf Brewing will release Rauchmore (Rushmore); Banded Horn Brewing will tap Lost in Fermentation (Lost in Translation). And there’s a whole litany of others.

“It’s a large scope over his portfolio, I guess,” Khojastehzad told WCSH6.

“Why Bill Murray?” the news outlet inquired.

“I think Portland’s beer scene is a little bit weird, a little bit awesome and creative and I think the same thing for Bill Murray,” answered Khojastehzad.

And yes, there’s a hashtag: #BillMurrayBeerWeekME

Brewers Guild Bills Colorado as The State of Craft Beer

No one questions the veracity of Colorado as a great craft beer state. Regardless, the state’s Brewers Guild is building a branding campaign to market itself as The State of Craft Beer.

The campaign, according to the Denver Post, is “meant to draw more attention to Colorado’s flourishing brewery scene.”

From the Post:

Steve Kurowski, marketing director for the Brewers Guild, said the plan is to build a “brand platform” using the newly unveiled logo on brochures, signage in pubs and liquor stores, glassware and other merchandise, festivals and eventually a website that will likely include blog posts from some of the state’s top brewers.

As for Colorado’s credentials? As reported by Brewbound in March, the state’s craft brewers contributed $826 million to the state’s economy in 2013, an increase of $122 million over the year prior. Additionally, at the time, the majority of the state’s brewers were projecting growth in excess of 20 percent for 2014.

Just don’t tell the residents of Whatever.

Ohio ABV Limit Could Scare Off Stone

Here’s what we know about Stone Brewing’s search for a secondary East Coast facility: The San Diego-area craft brewer has officially narrowed the field to three finalist cities, including Richmond, Va., Norfolk, Va., and Columbus, Ohio. At this point in the story, that’s about all that’s worth repeating.

A story out of Ohio, however, reads like something that could tip the odds in Virginia’s favor to land the country’s tenth largest craft brewery.

In Ohio, as reported by the state’s NPR affiliate, beer companies cannot legally brew, distribute, or sell beer with an ABV higher than 12 percent. That’s a problem considering Stone is known for releases that register a bit higher in ABV, like its recently released W00tstout 2.0, which clocks in at 13.5 percent.

“Some of the beers that they produce, not most of them, and not their biggest sellers, but some of the beers they produce they would not be able to produce in Ohio right now,” Cheryl Harrison, editor of Drink Up Columbus, told the website.

Since Stone announced it was looking to build a brewery east of the Mississippi River, a number of states have either enacted, or tried to push through, legislative changes to appeal to the brewery. Most notable among them was South Carolina’s so-called “Stone Bill,” which brought about a number of changes to how the state regulates licensing for small brewers.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

It’s been a tumultuous and disgusting past few weeks for the NFL, which is dealing with a number of its employees caught up in ugly cases of domestic abuse. As that pertains to beer, Brewbound reported yesterday that the league’s biggest beer sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, has issued a statement demanding the NFL do more to remedy the situation.

There is, however, a less heinous thing to talk about when it comes to America’s most beloved game and beer: How much it costs at stadiums. Citing data collected by Team Marketing Report, Business Insider has reported the average cost for a small draft beer at NFL stadiums is $7.53.

On the high end, the Oakland Raiders charge $10.75, surely a sign the franchise is taking advantage of the fact that it knows its fans will want to drink. Conversely, the St. Louis Rams, an organization every bit as depressing as the Raiders, charges a mere $4.50. Go figure. The team does play in Bud’s backyard, after all.

All About Beer Sold

All About Beer Magazine has been sold, company vice president Chris Rice confirmed to Brewbound.

Rice bought the publication from publisher Daniel Bradford, he said, though he could not disclose specific terms of the deal.

“Daniel has obviously had a long career helping, supporting and being a significant voice of the beer industry,” Rice told Brewbound. “I think we have a great future ahead of us continuing that work, telling the story of beer, and sort of chronicling the global beer story.