Date: 07/01/2009 01:26 PM

BROCK VERGAKIS
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Bartenders in Utah threw open their doors Wednesday as the state ditched a 40-year-old requirement that customers fill out an application, pay a fee and become a member of a private club before setting foot in a bar.

“It’s 40 years of oppression come to an end,” said Dave Morris, owner of the bar Piper Down in Salt Lake City. “There’s this national perception that we don’t have bars here, so hopefully this gets out there that we’re open for business.”

The new rules are an effort to boost the state’s $7 billion-a-year tourism industry and make the state appear a little less quirky to outsiders. In Salt Lake City, Morris has organized two days of 16-bar pub crawls to celebrate the novelty of being allowed into a bar without having to pay first. One crawl is set for Wednesday, another for Friday.

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Date: 07/01/2009 07:55 AM

WHITECLAY, Neb. (AP) - Activists plan a blockade on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation north of Whiteclay, Neb., home to several outlets that sell beer to residents of the dry reservation.

Organizers say the blockade Wednesday will be on the South Dakota side of the South Dakota-Nebraska border. Activists will make contact with drivers entering the reservation from Whiteclay for a couple of hours.

Organizers say they have the backing of tribal police, who will conduct vehicle checks, and that other law enforcement officers will monitor things on the Nebraska side of the line.

It’s the third year of the blockade. It’s being set up by members of the Cante Tenza Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Date: 07/01/2009 08:12 AM

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Despite tough times in the retail industry, Iowa’s alcohol sales are setting records.

The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division generated $104 million in the last year, the first time the division has broken the $100-million mark. Division administrator Lynn Walding says Iowans in their 20s are turning more to liquor than beer, driving up the market for distilled spirits.

Walding says retailers hit by the 2008 floods were forced to entirely restock, adding to the sales numbers.

The sales numbers are up 18.4 percent from the previous 12 months. The total for that period was $88.3 million.

___

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Date: 07/01/2009 08:19 AM

VICTOR, N.Y. (AP) - Constellation Brands Inc. said Wednesday that its fiscal first-quarter profit slid 85 percent partly on increased restructuring charges, but the wine company’s adjusted results still beat Wall Street expectations.

The world’s biggest wine company by volume earned $6.5 million, or 3 cents per share, down from $44.6 million, or 20 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Excluding restructuring charges and other items, profit was 33 cents per share for the quarter ended May 31. That narrowly topped the 32 cents-per-share estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts’ estimates normally exclude one-time items.

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Date: 07/01/2009 08:31 AM

JANE WARDELL
AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) - Diageo PLC, the world’s biggest spirits maker, said Wednesday it is cutting 900 jobs as it shutters a 199 year-old distillery and packaging plant as part of a cost-cutting restructure of operations in Scotland.

Diageo, which makes brands including Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, said that the restructuring will trim costs by some 40 million pounds ($66 million) in 2012.

The company said that the job cuts, to be made over the next two years, will be partly offset by the creation of around 400 new jobs through the expansion of another Scottish packing plant and a new cooperage.

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Date: 07/01/2009 08:44 AM

BRUSSELS (AP) - Anheuser-Busch InBev said Wednesday it will sell four U.S. packaging plants to Ball Corp. for $577 million to help pay off debt.

AB InBev has recently been selling businesses to repay the massive debt burden it built up last year to pay for the $52 billion takeover that formed it.

It said the plants make soft drinks cans and lids and would allow its remaining packaging business to focus on beer cans.

Chief executive Carlos Brito said the sale was “another step in our deleveraging program, allowing us to rationalize capital while retaining those facilities that remain most relevant to our beer business.”

Ball has promised to offer employment to the 635 active employees of the plants in Fort Atkinson, Wis.; Columbus, Ohio; Rome, Ga., and Gainesville, Fla. The plants will continue to supply Anheuser-Busch with metal drink cans and lids.

AB InBev expects the deal to close at the end of the year or early in the first quarter of 2010.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Kellerweis, an unfiltered, unpasteurized, open-fermented hefeweizen, from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico Calif., is described on the bottle as beer in its raw state. What it is, is an enjoyable - but not outstanding - hefe with some pleasant minor notes of open-fermented “funk”.

Kellerweis pours a very cloudy, “dirty” yellow with a massive, pillowy white head. Its aroma is of clove and ripe banana with some aroma notes of farmhouse ale-ish funk.

The ale’s initial flavor is an ever-so-slight sweetish wheat flavor malt flavor coupled with some definite, but not overpowering, hefeweisen spiciness.

Kellerweis’ mouthfeel is full and velvety.

Some moderate banana flavors appear at mid-tongue and into the finish. However, the main flavor is spicy wheat malt.

Hop flavors in this brew - as is traditional with hefeweizens - are very subdued.

Those flavors dominate into the finish, being joined by a very slight bit of a pleasant funkiness more often seen in farmhouse style ales.

Massive amounts of yeast were left in the bottle despite “swirling” the last bit of beer in the bottle (as recommended) to pour the yeast into the glass.

Kellerweis is medium bodied and medium flavored. It is listed as 4.8% alcohol by volume.

The beer was purchased at the South Sioux City, Nebr.,  HyVee Wine and Spirits.

-Tim Hynds

Ok, true confession time.

I’m not a real big fan of pale ales. It’s not that there aren’t some good ones out there….It’s just that most of them are, well, ordinary.

Not so with ODell Brewing Co’s. St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale. This seasonal from Ft. Collins, Colo. skillfully crafts a nice - but no where near India pale ale level - amount of hop goodness with a graceful amount of sweet malt.

Think of this beer as a mini-IPA that combines the flavors of an IPA with the drinkability of a pale ale.

St. Lupulin pours a clear, light-ish golden yellow with a short off-white head. The ale’s aroma is of orange citrus with some grapefruit notes. Behind the citrus are notes of sweetish caramel malt.

The brew’s initial flavor is of mild sweet malt. At mid-tongue, the beer takes a moderately hoppy turn, with citrus and floral hop flavors coming to the fore. These hop flavors are very smooth and assert themselves only enough to overtake the malt notes in the flavor profile.

St. Lupulin’s finish is of medium length, ending with a final salute of citrus and floral hop flavors before finally ending with a slight bit of hop astringency.

If you like hoppy beer, but find full-blown IPAs (like ODell’s outstanding IPA) a bit too heavy in the summer, I’d give St. Lupulin a shot. It’s a recommended summer quencher fit for a hophead.

St. Lupulin is listed at 6.5% alcohol by volume and was purchased at the South Sioux City, Nebr., HyVee Wine and Spirits.

-Tim Hynds

Special thanks to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division for preparing this information for me.

Sales volume January through May 2009

1 - Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale, 23,472 bottles
2 - Sierra Nevada Big Foot, 11,640 bottles
3 - Spaten Optimator 4×6, 3,984, bottles
4 - Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale, 3,912 bottles
5 - Boulevard The Sixth Glass, 2,574 bottles
6 - Goose Island Pere Jacques, 2,376 bottles
7 - Flying Dog Snake Dog, 2,088 bottles
8 - Goose Island Matilda, 2,036 bottles
9 - Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock, 1,968 bottles
10 - Boulevard Double-Wide India Pale Ale, 1,899 bottles

TOTAL = 55,949 bottles

Sales volume May 2009

1- Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale, 4,992 bottles

2 - Sierra Nevada Big Foot, 1,320 bottles
3 - Spaten Optimator 4×6, 840 bottles
4 - Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale, 720 bottles
5 - Boulevard The Sixth Glass, 483 bottles
6 - Flying Dog Snake Dog, 480 bottles
7 -  Goose Island Pere Jacques, 432 bottles
8 - Goose Island Matilda, 404 bottles
9 - Boulevard Double-Wide India Pale Ale, 391 bottles
10 - Piraat IPA Triple, 384 bottles

TOTAL = 10,446 bottles

New at the South Sioux City, Nebr., HyVee Wine and Spirits is ODell Brewing Co.’s St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis Hefeweizen.

As always, Sioux Brew encourages you to support all local retailers who are making an effort to stock quality beers.

-Tim Hynds