Deschutes Brewing Co. expands your artistic horizons

Last Sunday, we attended BevMo’s First Annual Winter Beer Festival (video coming tomorrow). At the event, Deschutes Brewing Co. was displaying the artwork that graced past Jubelale bottles. At the time, we thought “Oh, that’s cool” and moved on. There was beer to taste, after all. Little did we know we had just stumbled across a gosh darn traveling art show.

The Jubelale Art Tour is coming to a gallery near you (provided you live on the West Coast). For over 15 years, the brewery has commissioned artists to create labels for the winter beer. And there’s a poster featuring all 22. If only we’d known…

SABMiller’s profit drops almost one-third

In the first half of 2008, SABMiller made a profit of $1.42 billion. During that same time period just 12 months later, the company only reported a profit of $973 million. That’s a whole lot of millions, 31 percent to be exact.

Revenue dropped 21 percent to $8.85 billion — that is an awful lot of Miller Lite — while the volume of beer sold fell one percent.

Company officials partially blamed the losses on the strength of the American dollar.

“The weakness of our major operating currencies against the U.S. dollar has affected reported results, but we have continued to generate a strong underlying performance,” said CEO Graham Mackay.

Of course, the company’s stock jumped four percent and is up 48 percent on the year. Color us confused.

Anyone else think they need a new company logo? That current one is totally lame.

Tailgating keeps getting harder

Today’s USA Today features a long article about the National Football League’s attempts to crackdown on tailgating. In league commissioner Roger Goodell’s “Fan Code of Conduct” initiative, he suggested that in an effort to limit binge drinking, teams should only allow fans to show up three and a half hours before kickoff. This request has been met with trepidation from the teams — only the Tampa Buy Buccaneers have complied — and the fans, many of whom see it as a hypocritical stance from a league that makes so much money from beer advertisers.

Here at DRAFTMag.com, we would agree with Luke Maxson, a 60-year-old Jets fan for life who told USA Today, “They can’t have it both ways and maintain the loyalty of fans.”

Another question: If tailgating is limited, what is Bud Light going to do with all their approved merchandise?

Drink beer, win trip to Olympics

The Winter Olympics are almost upon us (with very little fanfare, no?), and Coors Light wants to send you to Whistler for six days during the event. All you have to do is drink the beer and look for the PIN number on your case. That doesn’t sound too hard now does it?

The good people at Coors have planned the six-day excursion to the minute, but don’t worry, there’s plenty of time for beer drinking. You can check it out here. Make sure to send us some pictures.

McGillin’s celebrates 150th anniversary like its 1860

McGillin’s Old Ale House celebrates its 150th anniversary as Philadelphia’s oldest and continuously operating tavern since 1860. In honor of its sesquicentennial, the old tavern launched its own secret recipe beer called McGillin’s 1860 IPA, limited to 200 cases.

The anniversary brew includes Centennial and Amarillo hops and since beer was unfiltered in the 1800s, the 1860 IPA is unfiltered in support of its 19th century title.

The IPA is available on tap and by the bottle at McGillin’s, by case at three local beer distributors including: Springfield Beer Distributor, Bella Vista Beer Distributor, and Fishtown Beverage. It is also available in six-packs at The Foodery.

The party doesn’t stop at the self-titled beer release. McGillin’s is hosting a year-long celebration with street festivals, parties, roll back pricing, beer tours, and contests that continue through 2010.

– Caitlin Torres